F13 Corp Marks 6 Month Anniversary

[Viin]

In dazzling display of showmanship, Ca'adwin Shiin (aka Gimpyone) performed a solo "Honorary Brutor Fighting Dance" at the gala event this evening to celebrate the 6 month anniversary of F13. The gala event was held at the new headquarters office for F13, found in the heartland of the -V- alliance.

With new digs and new territory to explore, defend, and abuse, F13 is "heading for the big leagues", says Irek Dabry, CEO. "Our 6 month anniversary is a monumental occasion", says Irek, who is new to deep space operations despite having been an active pilot for over a year, "We are part of a strong alliance, our members are growing stronger, our bottom line is going up, and we are learning the ropes at a fast pace. Despite some losses early in the game, I believe we are well on our way toward self sufficiency and growth." says Irek.

"That's right," says Ca'adwin Shiin, one of F13's Directors. "As we work together and within our alliance, we are creating synergy between our members and with other corporations. It's a win-win for everyone!". Ca'adwin continued on, mentioning a "paradigm shift" but details were not given.

Also present were (in)famous names such as Stone "Krakrok" Burner, Yaeru "Yoru", Chrome "Raging Turtle" Coyote and many others.

After many guest appearance and not a few too many drinks, the members of F13 retired for the night knowing that even better things are to come. It's the corporations that take an active role in their members lives that we see live for years - hopefully this will be one of them.

[Yoru]

Further, there's no substance to the rumors of misconduct pertaining to my officership in the corporation and my sudden purchase (and subsequent massive returns) on Exotic Dancer futures shortly before the anniversary celebration.

 

[Comstar]

Question from a reporter: Is it true that 300 million was lost on the original allience F13 joined? And what are the future plans of F13's directors now that F13 is setup in -V- Space?

[Vedi]

Question from a reporter: Is it true that 300 million was lost on the original allience F13 joined?

Rumor has it this was lost in officer Yaeru's first attempt at trading, when a slight misunderstanding on the preferences of the membership resulted in massive stockpiling of Livestock futures.

[edlavallee]

I hacked into the training computer, and here is what I found:


Animal Husbandry / Rank 5 / SP: 40000 of 226275
·  Currently training to: level 4
·  Time left: 1 days, 15 hours, 35 minutes, 59 seconds
·  SP done: 132388 of 186275
Herding / Rank 2 / SP: 90510 of 512000
Science / Rank 1 / SP: 1415 of 8000
·  3 Science skills trained, for a total of 224,313 skillPoints.


You know who you are....

[dwindlehop]

http://kills.veritas-immortalis.org/stats.php?statistics=overall

The corp record is 15 to 17 (we're losing) but the momentum is on our side!

[WayAbvPar]

http://kills.veritas-immortalis.org/stats.php?statistics=overall

The corp record is 15 to 17 (we're losing) but the momentum is on our side!

So, are we the only corp that reports all our losses, or do we just suck?

[Viin]

So, are we the only corp that reports all our losses, or do we just suck?

Both?

[Merusk]

Being the xenophobic isolationist miner carebears we are, I suspect it's that we don't blob or get in fleet engagements (gatecamps!) enough, but make lovely targets as we wander around one or two at a time.

[Yoru]

Question from a reporter: Is it true that 300 million was lost on the original allience F13 joined? And what are the future plans of F13's directors now that F13 is setup in -V- Space?

Yes, we lost 300m on joining The OSS since the area they were 'holding' collapsed 2 weeks later and they left us out in the cold to die.

Our future plans involve making fat sacks of cash for the corp.

[WayAbvPar]

We need a good dupe 'sploit  :-D

[Krakrok]

Yes, we lost 300m on joining The OSS since the area they were 'holding' collapsed 2 weeks later and they left us out in the cold to die.

That's not what I heard. My inside sources said Ca'adwin Shiin never sent the money to OSS. Somehow he discovered the secret stargate to the Jove Empire and he took all the money to finance a planet full of Exotic Dancers up there. We need someone to sneak into his hanger and bribe his Janitors to find out what system it's in and the code to disable the planetary cloaking device.

[gimpyone]

I have been instructed by attorney to not comment.
That said, I hope you get podded.

[Xerapis]

Ya know, I downloaded the trial and tried it out and was mildly interested but it felt just a little off.

I couldn't figure out what it was at first.

Then I just reinstalled Freelancer instead :P

[Vedi]

Then I just reinstalled Freelancer instead :P

Freelancer has no Livestock. And also, no other people. Hell may be other people, but at least there is a crowd to bitch to.

[Xerapis]

Hell is also slower and has no god mode.

I must admit, I loved the skill training and options.

But that was the longest and most boring tutorial EVER!  By the time I finished the tutorial I wasn't sure if I wanted to play the game after all. 

I guess one of the depressing things was when the tutorial taught me how to check the range of my gun, set my automatic orbit, and use that to initiate combat.  Yeah, real thrilling there.  Click ship on list.  Click the orbit thingy.  Activate weapon.  Wait for the other ship to explode.  Which I may or may not see because the camera is icky. ~yawn~

For me, space combat needs to be all fast and furious with lots of torpedoes and laser blasts and rail guns and shit.

Also, I like simple interfaces.  Make of that what you will.

Is there a happy crafting system buried in there somewhere?  Cause that could make me stick around through the slowness.

[edlavallee]

Is there a happy crafting system buried in there somewhere?  Cause that could make me stick around through the slowness.

I don't know about the crafting system, but I do know of a great library I could send you to...

[Merusk]

Eve is a slow, deliberate and complex game outside of PvP combat, that's just the way it just is.  This carries through to the crafting.  Train your skill, get your mats & Blueprint, stick it in the oven.  When the timer's done, you have a ship/ component/ ammo.

[Xerapis]

Skill?  Mats?  Blueprint?

Is there some basic guide to starting Eve crafting?

Cause that's what I'd need to start caring.

[Xilren's Twin]

Eve is a slow, deliberate and complex game outside of PvP combat, that's just the way it just is.  This carries through to the crafting.  Train your skill, get your mats & Blueprint, stick it in the oven.  When the timer's done, you have a ship/ component/ ammo.

To put it another way,  Eve seems to have very high barriers to entry.  Generally speaking, mmogs that have such generally dont grab much of the mass market on release, but if the game is decent enough slowly builds a stable base of subs over time. 

It's that whole "a new player should be having fun in 10 minutes of less" concept, b/c as some of our red names around here have reported, there a large amount of people who log into a game for like 30 minutes and then NEVER COME BACK.  That's supposedly an good indicator that your early game sucks which is critical for retaining paying subscribers.

Unless you are aiming for niche anyway.  If you are and communicate well upfront, the only people joining will generally know what they are getting into so the early game can be less forgiving...

Compare the early games of Eve, UO, DDO and SB to WoW, CoH and EQ2.

While there's nothing wrong with the niche approach, if your aiming for a large sub base you'd damn well better get your barriers to entry low to have any shot at acheiving it.  That's hurdle two.

Xilren
PS Hurdle one is techincal compentance

[Vedi]

Is there a happy crafting system buried in there somewhere?  Cause that could make me stick around through the slowness.

The economy and crafting of Eve has been touted everywhere as great, but personally I find the crafting much less interesting than SWG crafting.

In Eve, there are blueprints for each item.  Blueprints for some kinds of items can be bought from NPCs, while others are artificially limited and only given out through an odd kind of lottery.

If you research the blueprint, the item can be made for somewhat fewer resources, or somewhat faster. However, the item produced is always the same. There is no differentiation in quality, only in the cost to produce it. In other words, it is a perfect competition situation for the items where blueprints are readily available. It's another story for the items that have limited blueprints, but since getting one of these depends mostly on chance, there is no strategy you can pursue to get in on that market.

One interesting thing is that all items are made up of the same set of a dozen or so basic resources, and you can reprocess all item down into these component parts and make new stuff from it. That part is very good. What I miss is that there really is no room for the crafter to customize the item produced. In SWG, items produced had stats depending on materials and skills, and the creator could often also customize appearance (well.. color) to some degree, and trade off different properties (e.g. encumbrance vs. protection on armor). None of these possibilities exist in Eve.

[Xerapis]

I can tolerate a lack of customization.  Sadly, I'm getting used to that in games these days.

I'm just wondering if it's gonna take days of research (mine, not my characters) to get into, and if I can actually make some cool stuff to brag about/give to suitably appreciative people.

Also, can we actually make those implant thingies?  Cause that would be cool.  I've always wanted to be able to craft cybernetic items. 

Yes, I'm weird THAT way.

[Roac]

You can't craft implants.  However, if you are looking for crafting to be useful, you can do that almost right away; there is always a need for consumables like missiles and ammo.  Blue Print Originals are generally cheap for them, so you can play with doing mineral research, copying prints, and manufacturing them with a cheap budget.  Whether you want to mine or buy the minerals required to make them, it's not much either way.  Bear in mind there's not much profit margin on this of course, but it is certainly useful. 

Once you build your wallet, you can decide what direction you want to go - whether you stick to pure manufacture/research, or whether you want to mine as well.  As your wallet grows, you can start fishing for bigger BPOs like ships.  Even small ships, like firgates, are useful (and these are moderately cheap as well), as even experienced pilots will buy throwaway frigs.  If you wanted, you could even get to where you are building all the components needed for a fully outfitted tackler frig and sell it as a package in 0.0 space.

[Xerapis]

Awwww....not crafting implants makes me sad.

The rest sounds reasonably interesting.  I would definitely mine my own minerals.  I don't believe in buying mats for my tradeskills.  It's just sick and wrong.

I don't expect to be profitable, really.  I just like the power of creation. 

Of course, in my perfect game, I would set my character to research and such on offline time and I would log-in to find that I had discovered my own new blueprint/recipe, complete with options/suggestions for what materials/techniques to use to tweak it in different ways.

But I dream.

[Roac]

Can't craft implants only because, far as I can tell, BPOs/BPCs for them don't exist, either on the NPC market or as agent rewards.  Similarly, there is no crafting mechanism for skill books.  Ships, ammo, and ship mods however, are all available for use.  Good thing about that is that if you are consistant with production, every combat pilot will want to be your best friend. 

You may also want to look into the trade skills.  Research in Eve is almost entirely abstracted; you pick your blueprint to research, pay a minor fee, and let it go.  Research is otherwise automated.  The economy however, is very complex, and there are some good skills to support it.  Basically, you can train up a half dozen skills which will let you place buy/sell orders anywhere in the region.  That is, a standing offer to buy an item at x price, or to sell whatever you have for x price.  You can then setup courier missions to transport goods from A to B.  So you can place a buy order for some mineral you don't mine, let people sell it to you, then post a courier mission with x reward to get someone to deliver it to you.  Not sure how many people want to enter 0.0 space on couriers, but you could try advertising to corp members to see if there are any takers who want to run freight.  Or you can do the reverse to ship stuff you make to other stations for sale there.

As I see it, the "game" part of research/crafting is weak, but the social aspect can be very rewarding.  The game aspect of the market and mining (finding good spots, avoiding PKs/rats, etc) can be interesting.

[Xerapis]

Interesting.

So, is there a specific race/bloodline best suited for the pursuit of mining/crafting?

Also, which skills do I need to focus on developing for this?  I was looking around and stuff, but I don't see a guide-type-thingy for being a crazy crafter dude.

[WayAbvPar]

Interesting.

So, is there a specific race/bloodline best suited for the pursuit of mining/crafting?

Also, which skills do I need to focus on developing for this?  I was looking around and stuff, but I don't see a guide-type-thingy for being a crazy crafter dude.

Any race/bloodline can do it- you will want ot focus on high INT and MEM, since most of the Science and Industry skills use one or both. Also, here is a guide  that might give you a better idea of how things work.

[Yoru]

It's another story for the items that have limited blueprints, but since getting one of these depends mostly on chance, there is no strategy you can pursue to get in on that market.

Of course there's a strategy for getting those items. It's the unsavory, difficult and time-consuming task known as Corp Theft.

The basic process goes like this.

1. Locate target corp with rare BPO.
2. Create clean alt.
3. Train clean alt up to be useful to that corp.
4. Infiltrate.
5. Move up in rank until you have direct BPO access.
6. THEFT!
7. Move BPO back to main account.
8. Delete alt.
9. ?
10. PROFIT!

[Vedi]

Of course there's a strategy for getting those items. It's the unsavory, difficult and time-consuming task known as Corp Theft.

The basic process goes like this.

Ah. Point 5 is basically "cybering officers", right? Isn't the masters of this even called "Guiding Hand Social Club" ?

On a completlely different note... Viin! You are looking great tonight!

[Yoru]

Of course there's a strategy for getting those items. It's the unsavory, difficult and time-consuming task known as Corp Theft.

The basic process goes like this.

Ah. Point 5 is basically "cybering officers", right? Isn't the masters of this even called "Guiding Hand Social Club" ?

That's the quick way. The slower way is to be trustworthy and reliable for months on end. And yes, Eve's theft masters are considered to be GHSC.

[MahrinSkel]

Kali is supposed to include a system for ship customization that will basically be tweaks of ship systems, which in theory will let you upgrade standard vessels to the equivalent of Faction ships, with boosted resists, higher speed, an extra slot or two, and/or a little more CPU/Power Grid.  And it will take considerable SP in the relevant science skills, as well as some new skills, and stuff that will only come from the new Exploration system (which will make Archaeology and Hacking worthwhile).

--Dave

[Xerapis]

Is it too disturbing that hearing of a new exploration system which involves archeology and hacking makes me horny?

Cause to me that sounds like the perfect geek combo, and I'm a whore for exploration coolness as it is.

[Roac]

And it will take considerable SP..

/off topic

You know, that right there is Eve's version of a housing system.

[Sparky]

There's also moon mining and reaction chains for more involved crafting.  Even crap moons in lowsec can make silly amounts of isk if you setup complex reaction chains from what I understand.  Lots of hauling involved and I've never really investigated it further though.  http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=179069 is a good primer on all that shit.

However the vanilla crafting mechanics are pretty much just plug in and wait.  The trick is spotting and exploiting gaps in the market(which are numerous - even in the trade hubs) and building up an efficient trade empire.  Don't believe anyone who tells you there's no money to be made in the T1 market.   

[Yegolev]

So, is there a specific race/bloodline best suited for the pursuit of mining/crafting?

It is true that anyone can do anything in EVE, it is just a question of how fast.  So when it comes to being an industrialist (we don't call them crafters, see), you want the highest INT and MEM since that is what the bulk of industrial skills (and the stat-boosting skills) rely on.  For that, you'll want to be an Intaki, which is a variant of Gallente.  In the end, though, it doesn't matter tremendously since each faction has a smarty subrace.  One other bonus to being Gallente is a bias toward drones which will save your ass when flying ships without weaponry... which you will be doing a lot as a pure industrialist.

I would like to mention that when you mine ore, it must be refined into minerals and there are skills which enable better efficiency at refining.  My industrial pilot is a miner/refiner specialist and doesn't really have any skills pertaining to manufacturing.  He doesn't have any trade skills to speak of, either, and has only a servicable ability to fly a hauler or mining boat.  That's the price in time, giving up these industrial support skills in favor of being able to fly a mining barge (aka wet paper bag full of candy) and refine the ores at a high efficiency.  One thing about EVE that I find very interesting is that you need a corp for industrial pursuits as well as combat; this applies on all levels, from group mining (with combat escort) to specializing in mining, refining, manufacture, blueprint research, and trade operations.

There is an option in the context menu (right-click is King in EVE) to Set as Interest, I think, which will have your camera follow that object.  However, I find that, like real-world pilots, when you are able to fly by your instruments alone you will be able to operate more efficiently.  Saving multiple Overview settings will help you keep your sanity.

Is it too disturbing that hearing of a new exploration system which involves archeology and hacking makes me horny?

Welcome to the club.  I have a tiny, cheap hot-rod frigate all ready to get all up in that exploration shit.  But I am sure, when it arrives, it will actually involve lots of skills and specialized survey equipment and a cruiser (battleship?!) rigged up like the damn USS Enterprise.  Still, I'm on board for that.