A Scientist's Life in Eve

So things are almost complete for our changes.  Last night while continuing to unlock the many hundreds of blueprints, I took the next necessary step and resigned as CEO, handing it over to a holding alt of the previous (and future) CEO.  I was, of course, immediately reinstated as a Director so I could complete the wonderfully tedious task of unlocking the blueprints.  All of the remaining votes (around 700 of them left to do) become sanctionable actions later tonight or early tomorrow morning, so I’ll leave them all until tomorrow morning to give me poor left mouse finger a break before another click fest.  Once completed, I’ll then transfer all of the shares to the holding alt and then wait for the next stage of the moving process to begin.

I guess at this point it’s easy to become very melancholy about what’s happened over the past few weeks.  I’ve gone from Director to being thrust into the CEO role as the (then) current CEO had RL issues and was leaving Eve.  The (then) CEO returned and set-up our wormhole activities, and from that point I guess I should have thought things through and realised it wasn’t going to work.  I also could have saved about 10 days of training Corporation Management skills and used the time to move my Damnation skill plan further forward.

However, I didn’t, and the (then) CEO was as supportive as he could be with my leadership.  However, with numerous griefer war-decs which dragged on and resulted in the inevitable apathy amongst miners and mission runners, things continued on a downward spiral.

Was I a good CEO – I think I have to be honest and say no.  Could I have be a good CEO?  I’m really not sure at the moment – I think I need to learn some lessons from this and perhaps my consultative  “style” is not really right for being a CEO.  The (then and future) CEO is much more direct than me, and by that I mean he tends to make decisions much quicker than me, not that I’m claiming to dither in making decisions, but he tends to react when I might consider slightly further.  It seems that, at the moment, the roles need to be reversed, with me being the consultant and him the CEO, which is broadly where we’re about to arrive.

I still plan to push ahead with the Corporate rewards package, and the CEO has encouraged this.  I’ll do a proper proposal and prepare costings for him to consider, but for the moment a week’s holiday couldn’t have come at a better time as I take stock of what’s happened.

…and all of it will happen again.

It’s blueprint unlocking time.  Repetative Strain Injury springs to mind as I propose unlock vote, choose “yes” to my own vote, and then wait for it to be a sanctionable action so I can say “yes” again and then actually move the BPO.

On the face of it, the process is straight-forward.  However, when you’ve got over 1,000 BPO’s to unlock…. ouch.  I gave up about 1/3 of the way through last night with my eyes going funny and the muscles in my finger telling me that they’d rather not continue.

I can see why the interface is this way – for somebody to operate Corporate theft on a large scale would be very time consuming and annoying, but perhaps there should be some form of “short-cut” if you’re the CEO and own all of the shares (as I do).  Maybe then you should be allowed a “select all” option, or even a “vote yes on this type of vote” option.

I have the joy of unlocking, but fortunately won’t be locking them down again as that will be somebody else’s job

As far as things in the game you think need to be fixed, can I recommend that you visit and participate in the CSM Crowdsourcing exercise:
http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=4678&tid=1

I’ve voted already, and recommend that you do.  Whether you voted for any of the current CSM or not, or even if you didn’t actually vote, it’s still very worthwhile taking part so that the CSM can truly represent our views to CCP.

There’s even the option of voting against something this time, which could add a very interesting dynamic to things.

The process is very transparent insofar that you have to reply to the in-game thread with your vote, so you can (if you really wanted to) get a feel of what sort of things people are voting for.

As for me – I’ve inevitably voted for an adjustment to the neutral remote repping mechanic.

Just watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEpo4vRGOTc&feature=related

Well, I’ll find out later tonight whether the war-dec is to be extended for a second week or not, however I’m hopeful that it will end this week on the basis that we’ve essentially done nothing at all during the war apart from throw the obligatory four or five industrial ships at them as ritual sacrifices.

It is disappointing in one sense, but understandable also.  As an Alliance comprised mainly of mission runners and miners, the occasional hi-sec war (in my opinion anyway) provides a welcome distraction from the daily grind.  You get to shoot stuff, get frustrated as yet another neutral remote rep alt undocks, shake your head in disgust as you see another pointless industrial ship loss on the killboard, and feel the adrenaline rush of the noobie PvP pilot as your fleet blows up a war-target or two.  However, do this for two weeks ok.  Three weeks, well actually “I need to make some ISK, my plex is due next week”.  Four weeks, then you start with “I need to drop Corp for a little bit as otherwise I won’t be able to plex”.

Unfortunately with around 30 of the last 35 days spent in war decs, we’re in the last category and, coupled with a busy RL myself restricting my online time, participation has dropped to virtually zero as far as hunting war targets is concerned.  The only thing another week of war dec will do is cost the other side ISK at this stage sadly.

But where from here?  Plans are afoot.  Lots of things are being considered and things put in place for how we will emerge on the other side.  Sadly, I’m not completely sure the Alliance will actually emerge, certainly not in its current form, but then this is Eve, the great sandbox, and sandcastles are very easy to knock down and rebuild.

As to me and my plans for the year?  Well, I ended up dropping the financial targets as I was simply investing all of my energies into the Corp.  We have some significant projects underway and it makes more sense for me to focus on those.  Also, as I was appointed CEO due to the actual CEO needing to take a break due to RL issues, I also wanted to ensure that the Corp was in a stronger position financially for when he returned.

I haven’t yet made a Carrier, but I’ve made all the parts for one during our fledgling Capital Ship building programme.  I don’t actually have the capital construction skill high enough to build a carrier yet, but that’s a really short diversion and when I’m ready the skill will be popped in the queue and an Archon will follow out of the cooker shortly afterwards.

I’m now competently flying a Damnation, and am very happy with it.  I still need to finish Cybernetics V and Armor Warfare Specialist V (which are not exactly small training times), before I can plug in the Slave Omega and Armor Warfare Mindlink.  However, having T2 Heavy Missiles is quite nice and I’m tempted to delay the training queue by around 2 weeks to get HAM’s to T2 also.  This would let me fit out a Sacrilige and a HAM Legion which I quite like the look of.

Meantime my logi alt is 2 weeks from completing the set by finishing Amarr Cruiser V, and my PI alt is now Jump Freighter capable, so things are moving along nicely.

One war-dec ended, short delay and a new one is received.  Ho hum.  Out of Corp freighter alt at the ready, POS fueled, war targets added to watch list, war-time reminder Corp mail sent.  Ready for action.

Being realistic, this will hurt our activity for those members who are hard-core miners and do not opt to get involved in anything PvP related.  For some it is will be an outlet for their increasing lust for blowing up internet spaceships.  For most, however, it will be an inconveience and frustration at worst, and an opportunity to learn more about the “dark side” of Eve (well dark side as far as an industrialist might be concerned anyway!).

As usual the war-dec appears to me to be largely frivolous, with the usual “we’re doing it because you (delete as approrpiate) griefed somebody / mined somebody elses’ asteroid belt / had a disagreeable profile picture / flew past me in Jita” added in for good measure.

Generally, as usual, all we can do at this stage is form up, trawl through their combat history to learn about ships, fittings, target types and known associates, and then see what they bring and how they choose to work the war-dec.  Timezone will quickly become obvious, and base of operations should also be easy to discern pretty quickly.

I’m hoping we’ll get some good fights and I’m also hoping that we’ll avoid the stupid losses of mining barges and industrials that “just needed to get something from Jita and it looked clear etc.”

Only time will tell

CREW CONTROL
Ship crews have long been on the wish-list for players and developers
alike, yet it has taken CCP years just to release the numbers. We look
at how ideas for ship crews have been put forward, ask what the issues
have been that have stopped crews being a feature of EVE’s combat
mechanic and ponder how, if ever, New Eden’s silent NPC majority might
have a say as to how battles are played out in the future.

BACK THROUGH THE WORMHOLE
We go back to the dark days of bank bail-outs to see how impending
financial armageddon urged CCP to take a fearless attitude to EVE
expansions. The result was fan-favourite Apocrypha, the expansion that
opened EVE to wormholes, the persistent mystery and threat of the
Sleepers, and the future promise of Tech-III ships.

BEYOND THE BEYOND
Continuing the wormhole theme this issue, Lex Starwalker brings us a
guide to living in w-space, we have the second instalment of Pottsey’s
exhaustive compendium of Sleeper theories and in our regular Tesflight
round-up, Kirith Kodachi gathers together some of New Eden’s most
successful wormholers, who reveal the ships and fittings they wouldn’t
leave home without.

THE WRITE STUFF
With a third EVE novel being readied for the autumn, we tackle
author Tony Gonzales to talk about his career as an EVE fan and a CCP
Developer. We ask how The Empyrean Age came about and how Templar One
will hopefully lead us into a universe where EVE capsuleer and DUST
mercenary must share the spoils of war.

PLUS
* All you need to know about the Guristas
* In Crowd with CCP Sreegs and CCP Explorer
* Profiles of Red vs Blue, Phoenix Propulsion Labs and Masuat’aa Matari
* The rise and fall of Dusk and Dawn
* How to get your mates playing and loving EVE
* CSM6 – the first weeks in office
* The 0.0 Report…and all the latest news and events

With the conclusion of the last of our hi-sec wars, the question of how to handle the activity drop-off raises its head once again.

Don’t get me wrong, participation hasn’t been too bad, with regular fleets formed across the entire Alliance to hassle the war-targets, and with good levels of success.  Inevitably in an Alliance such as ours there are a variety of new players who just don’t understand war decs and get caught.  There are also a number of not-so-new players who just think they’re invulnerable for some reason, and quickly find out that they are most certainly not. 

If you look at the actual face-to-face fleet engagements, then we actually won the war in kills and by a significant margin in ISK.  However, during the last three days or so, the number of people logging on has dropped significantly as it always sems to when you get to the point of realisation that the war is going to end at the next renewal point and the war targets aren’t really visiting us much so we’d have to go 10-15 jumps to find them etc. etc.  I’m not agreeing with this in any way, shape, or form – however the reality is undeniable.

So where next?  Mining needs to restart for sure.  Industry never even slowed or stopped – in fact I’m still being accused of running freighters to the trade hub too quickly.  Missions/Incursions?  Yes.  Incursions for sure.  We’ve been fortunate to have one of the Corp Directors develop his skills as an FC during the war, including a very good battleship kill with some baiting.  He now is keen to keep the small gang action going, and Incursions seem to be the perfect training arena for PvP insofar as getting people to understand fleet composition, following orders, working with logistics in fleet, focus fire etc.   Also, ironically, they’ll have to travel 10-15 jumps most of the time to get to an incursion, so hopefully that will also condition fleet members a bit to not get stressed about the fact that war targets aren’t simply arriving in our home system for us to shoot and that (shock horror) we might actually have to chase after them given our superior fleet size and composition.

I’m hoping that the Incursion fleets, apart from helping the Alliance members work together and make ISK, will also increase interest in the idea of a roam into null sec a couple of times a month.  I’m not too keen on low-sec roams mainly due to the gate guns and sec status hit issues which newer members will probably find tricky and also may not have sufficient sec status to cover the hits when they blow stuff up.

For now, I’ll have to see what Corp activity levels are over the next couple of days.  I’ve pretty much finalised my Corp rewards package.  The medals are all ready and I’ve got a very clear idea on actual rewards, it’s just a case now of tweaking a bit here and there and then writing the evemail.

So, it’s been reported in the blog world that there will be the remaining Captain’s Quarters arriving sometime in August, and also that we should have a trickle of new (lower priced) items appearing in the NeX store on a regular basis.

As updates (other than emergency fixes) tend to happen on Tuesday’s, I’m hoping for a sort of bi-weekly event throughout summer where we’ll find new items available for us to consider.

Really though, this is all a moot point and truly for vanity only until we actually get to walk in stations.  I almost certainly (read definitely) will purchase some clothing for my main character.  Being a girl and CEO of a Corporation for some reason I just feel that I need to.  This is probably due in some large part to the fact I’ve spent lots of time roleplaying to some extent in various games over the years.

My guess is that the first actual walking in stations properly thing will either be a sort of events room where you can play a couple of mini-games against other players for ISK, or (more likely and preferred) a Corp / Alliance meeting room where you can hang out with your immediate Eve “family” as it were and use Eve voice to chat.  At least that’s my guess.

I am really looking forward to seeing the other Captain’s Quarters though, and in that sense August will be looked forward to with anticipation.

This would all sensibly lead up to an autumn expansion with the first “meeting” points for Incarna, and a suitably stocked NeX store to help entice new players into the game.

Let’s just wait and see what happens.  Meantime, the universe still continues and my to-do list is getting ever longer!

Things are progressing fairly well at the moment.  We’re down to only one war dec now, which has been expanded into a second week for some reason.  However, they’re fairly small (single figure sized Corp) an we can easily put out fleets to squash them, so I guess they’re hoping that their relative inactivity during the first week will result in us getting careless and handing them some easy kills during the second week.  It could also be that they want to try and close the gap on the ISK lost.

Participation has, inevitably, dropped during the war dec.  Being an industrial Corp we obviously have quite a few miners and mission runners, many of whom choose to do other things during a war.  This is a shame as war is a part of Eve online, and this particular war dec, where the enemy is using all the usual tricks of neutral spys, neutral remote repping etc, is a really good opportunity to learn about hi-sec wars and how to respond and behave.

However, production continues and we have another carrier order on the books so will get that underway.  At the moment, while we’re relying on purchasing BPC’s for some of the short run Capital Ship Components, we tend to take around 3-4 days to get the parts all ready and then the carrier obviously needs to be baked somewhere for just over a week.

As we increase our capital ship production programme and purchase the missing BPO’s then our lead time might improve by a day or so, but ultimately it’s about the logistics of getting the materials in place and then shipping the completed parts to the manufacturing site.  This is obviously complicated during a war as although we can (and do) use out of Corp alts to freighter things around, this doesn’t help with needing to provide the escort to get the freighter into the manufacturing system.  Still, this can usually be addressed by a bit of careful scouting, flying at the right time of day, and a dual web quick ship to help the freighter instawarp once into the manufacturing system.

I’ve also started investigating some other revenue streams, as ideally I’d like to produce sufficient additional profits to plex some/all of the Directors on a monthly basis without impacting our other operations.  I think I’ve found a way to do this, but am still working on the precise mechanics and costings.  Initial costings indicate that I should be able to provide between 5 and 6 plex a month, although I may well be able to offset some of these costs to increase that.

I guess this raises some obvious issues as to whether this is the sort of thing one would expect as the Director of a Corp.  Eve, for me, is not just all about the ISK.  OK, if somebody wants to give me several billion (or tens of billion) ISK as a donation, then that would be great!  Please contact me and we can set up something soon(TM).  Eve is about entertainment, and as we all know this sandbox offers many different ways from ninja salvaging through to the sov ownership mechanics through to simple mining and missioning.  However, ISK still features – new skills, new ships, plex etc.   So the question is… as a Director would you expect to be plexed, or receive some sort of profit share etc?

There are so many forum posts, blogs, articles and so on about what’s been happening in Eve over the past couple of weeks.

However, while reading casually through them, I found the below post, and would recommend you read it as it’s (in my opinion at least) a nicely thought through analysis.

Linky