More Than Just Mining

You all know my friend Lissy who’s all over New Eden, running Incursions, right? Well, the one thing that stopping Sansha’s Nation gives you is CONCORD Loyalty Points. Okay, technically you also get ISK but let’s ignore that for the moment. And what is it you can do with CONCORD Loyalty Points? You could spend them in CONCORD’s own Loyalty Store, e.g. for implants but — and this is the nifty thing — you can also convert them to Loyalty Points for other stores! This amazing ability comes at a prize, though: for the empire-based faction stores you have a conversion rate of 80%, i.e. you have to spend 125 CONCORD LP to get 100 faction LP (the conversion tool does the hard work for you, don’t worry), for other stores you only have a rate of 40%, and for some stores you cannot convert them at all. 😭

Now, Lissy doesn’t really have any idea what to spend those Loyalty Points on (though I guess at some point she will take a deep dive into the implant pool) so for now she decided to let me reap their benefits by getting ammo from me and converting it to faction ammo which I then take back and put on the market. This in combination with my ammunition production business should give me a steady trickle of income so I don’t have to worry about basic necessities and it’s also a nice break from mining all day, you know, taking care of the books, dealing with taxes and brokers, all that white-collar stuff. Lovely! 💖

Never a Dull Moment

…when running incursions with EVE Rookies! Last night we had – for the first time – enough people to run two fleets at the same time! We’re definitely going to remember that one even if for a sadder reason… but let me start at the beginning.

So, during dockup, around 18:00 EVE we found that we had way too many people for a single fleet, and as Lord of Reclamation has been running fleets in different timezones (mostly US and late AU) for a week or two now, we decided to split the pilots into two fleets. Kshal took the shield fleet, Lord got the armor fleet (I joined them), we settled in neighbouring systems, and we ran for a little more than one and a half hours.

When our fleet was beginning to thin out because of people leaving we decided to head back to the dockup system where Kshal was still running and we had the crazy idea to contest them! (A contest is what happens when two fleets jump into the same site because the payout only happens to the fleet that did the most damage.)

We quickly located them, jumped into their site and to our great dismay Kshal decided to stand down because her fleet was also already weakened by pilots leaving way too early. They fleet-warped away but because there were still scrambling rats in the site, one Basilisk couldn’t actually get into warp and before we could lock it up and rep it, it died. 😢

That put quite the dampener on the evening which until that point had been lots of fun. However, only a ship was lost, no big damage was done and we now know that even when contested you should never try to warp away as long as there are still TOADS (Tama, Outuni, Auga, Deltole, Schmael) on site.

Tonight Lord also wanted to run for a bit but around dockup time there were so many holdups (mostly by new players who weren’t sure whether their fits were appropriate or whether they could fly ours) that in the planned 90 minutes of running we only finished two sites because we started so late. It also didn’t help that my ISP acted up and disconnected me twice…

In order to streamline getting new players into the fleets, Lord has now worked up a number of fits that new people will have to be able to fly in order to fly with us. Check the EVE Rookies Website regularly for updates on that!

Later I jumped back to where my Stabber was which I have recently dusted off and picked up where I last left it. I put a better fit on it (decent guns, add shield hardeners) and marveled at how much better it performed than I remembered it. I even managed to finish “The Blockade” in Level 3 with lots of time left for the bonus, and I only had to warp away and refit with better guns (artillery this time, baby! Finally!) once – a new personal best, that’s for sure. 😀 So, even if the evening of incursion running didn’t turn out the way I expected it still was a great evening!

News from the Other Side

So, Ajaqa told me about her blog and asked me to write the occasional article for it as well. And I’m happy to oblige, not the least because she built me this awesome Vargur that I can’t even fly yet because I suddenly started training to fly Logi for the EVE Rookies Incursions fleet! Well, that’s me in a nutshell.

I am still running Incursions with them multiple times a week but additionally I am currently “commuting” every day because there’s free skill points in Caldari, you know, because of the Caldari Union Day but the Incursion is situated half-way around New Eden in Minmatar space. However, I do want those free skill points so that I can finally fly that Basilisk that I already have waiting for me. And the daily trip around New Eden ain’t that bad, either… got a small ship for the way, taking out pirates left and right, loot all the shit, life is what you make it, right?

Oh, yeah, yesterday a funny thing happened during the Incursion. One of the pilot actually had a killright on them so FC activated it so we could get rid of the killright, and I got the killshot! Now, my corp is named “Non-Aggressive Player Foundation” but that only ever means that I will never initiate non-consensual combat with another capsuleer, and this event was clearly very consensual.

Anyway, I have to kill more pirates now. Have a nice day and see you later! o/

Not Flying a Vargur

Haha, my friend is a real doozy! Now I built her that incredibly awesome Vargur but instead she got it in her head to take on a support role in her Incursion fleet so she is now concentrating on flying Logistics Cruisers such as the Basilisk! I really hope that Vargur will either a) see some action anytime soon or b) go up in price so much that I can make a quick buck on it. 😀

Anyway, while she is off to all over the place to beat Sansha’s Nation to a pulp, I am supporting her by getting some Lyavite every now and then. (Because when doing those Vanguard sites there is one site that requires Lyavite to get a chain reaction and blow something up or whatever, what do I know, I don’t do that shit.) I am also still mining all the usual high-sec ores in order to produce ammo which my friend can use to exchange for faction ammo using their massive collection of CONCORD Loyalty Points. They have to be good for something, right?

Building a Vargur

So, yes, apparently flying with EVE Rookies is a great way to destroy NPCs and make some ISK on the way; and apparently it is so much so that I have currently been tasked with building a Vargur, just for that. (It might see other uses, probably.) I already have the Tempest I need as a base for that, and I have started working on the advanced components required for the build.

“But, Ajaqa’s friend, isn’t it cheaper to buy than to build?” I hear you ask. And, well, if ISK is the only way for you to have fun in New Eden then you probably shouldn’t try to build stuff you can readily buy. But I can imagine that for her it has more value to have a ship built on request. I know it is just a ship and all Vargurs are exactly the same but she will know that this little baby here is the one I have built especially for her. (That is actually one change I would like to see in EVE: see who built the items you are using.)

Anyway, just wanted to give you a quick update. See you out there, and fly safe!

Incursion Fun

Another type of activity you can do in highsec are Incursions. A friend of mine has been running incursions with EVE Rookies for a number of weeks now and it has been an amazing experience for her. With the right crew running incursions is almost completely without risk (as much as anything can be without risk in New Eden) and even for the rag-tag group they have (it’s geared towards less experienced pilots so lots of Praxises in that fleet) the turnout is pretty great. I hear she will upgrade to a Vindicator or even a Vargur sometime soon. So excited for her!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog, fellow space-dweller! I will be using this space to tell a bit about my life in highsec (and surrounding areas) and other things that are of interest to me.

I do also develop small applications to help my life in New Eden. One thing I have written is the Asteroid Belt Calculator which shows you how large an asteroid belt is. I still have a number of features planned for it so make sure to check back every once in a while!

Plan for today: moon mining! There is a moon in highsec in the Metropolis area that has just popped, and there’s millions of m3 of tasty moon ore waiting for me!