WoT: Hiatus

I have decided to take something of a hiatus from World of Tanks.

This is primarily because at the moment I am just too tired. My daughter is going through a phase of rather disrupted sleep, and for various reasons I pull the night-time duty. Naturally my daughter is now also waking up relatively early (though generally very happily). Given I sometimes have difficulty getting to sleep at the best of times, this has now meant a relatively sleep deprived couple of weeks, and it is definitely showing when I try to play the game. My ability to notice what is going on in the match, and my ability to make good decisions, are both compromised, which altogether means I am just not having as much fun as I usually would.

So, a break for a couple of weeks to try to refresh and then reset. I won’t say I won’t log in at all, just giving myself an extended freedom not to even if I am feeling “okay”.

This naturally means I will likely playing rather more EVE. What I am doing in EVE generally doesn’t require fast reflexes or quick decision-making. Might also explore some other games as well.

Gaming: Weekly Roundup 09/05/2014

This last week I have had a few days holiday, which combined with the bank holiday meant some really good time with the family. I just want to say that if anyone is based in the general area, Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm is a truly excellent place to visit. It is especially good with children of all ages, as they have masses of things to do and areas to play, in addition to looking at various animals from the commonplace to the exotic. We discovered the place last year, and this year we have season tickets.

In gaming terms I decided to take a break from World of Tanks this last week. I returned to the game yesterday, and had a fairly horrible performance. I am hoping better for tonight. I also indulged myself a little with a blast from the past – the not too distant past in this case, namely Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. A wonderfully casual game, probably my favourite of that entire series. I think the conceit of breaking the game up into a series of missions makes it particularly easy to just play for a set amount of time. Not the most complex game, or the most challenging, but diverting.

My other main game of the last week was EVE Online. Given we had some extended time together without our various works getting in the way both my wife and I managed to get some playtime in together. With Fanfest and its various announcements out of the way, not to mention the hopeful date for the Kronos update, I am very much in holding mode. Mostly this means running missions, partly for isk, partly for standings, and just reconnecting to friends. Also lots of thinking.

Alas, holiday time is over, which means back in the saddle for all sorts of things. I suspect more gaming ahead!

Gaming: Weekly Roundup 01/05/2014

Having concentrated on completing the requirements for the T2 LT on Sunday I had three mostly non-gaming days for one reason or another on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This did rather impact what I have done obviously, meaning this entire post is going to be rather light – as the blog has been. Only played two games – my offline gaming night being taken up with having a friend over to watch Downfall.

World of Tanks

On Saturday I completed the light tank requirements of the mission, and on Sunday I knocked off the remaining requirements. All in all it was a bit of a grind – or perhaps more accurately the entire process was a bit of a grind. Whilst I know that a Tier VIII is probably going to be available via missions soon-ish, I must admit I am likely not to chase it down this time. It feels like it will be simply more work than I wish to indulge in.

Now that the T2 LT missions are complete though I need to decide to re-focus my WoT activity. Part of this is plain – continue to play at Tier X to improve myself there, and to continue my grinds up the E-50M, T110E5, IS-7, and Conqueror Gun Carriage lines. Also I wish to move up the Japanese low-tiers, and start working my way through the Tier Vs. The priority at the end is going to be unlocking the Cromwell (almost done) and Hellcat (well under way). Finally I have some crew-training projects, and also some partially-played Tier VIs that I wish to work through as well. Which order I am going to do all this in remains undecided however.

EVE Online

Very little in total. I am trying to assimilate the mass of devblogs now posted on the industry changes. Everything is changing, which convinces me not to restart my activities now. I will do so after the expansion. Right now it is Fanfest so a fair bit of stuff is getting announced.

I am intending to concentrate on other isk-making activities for the time being. One area of industry not currently changing, apparently is PI, so I may investigate restarting some small activities there. However I am not sure what will be viable now with player POCOs in hi-sec.

 

Gaming: Weeekly Roundup 25/04/2014

Got afflicted by the common cold earlier in the week, though thankfully that seems to be passing. Had some very pleasant family diversions over Easter that impacted gaming somewhat, as indeed did the cold, but still managed to do a fair bit – just not all that I had hoped. The fact gaming whilst having a cold meant I was not always in the best frame of mind has meant at times some great frustrations.

World of Tanks

I will be very glad when I have completed the April missions. Almost there! I have just 10 qualifying victories to go with light tanks and SPGs, and about eight to go with mediums, heavies, and TDs. I am aiming to complete them this weekend. I would have said tomorrow, but this evening has mostly been taken up with problems associated with my Sky box. The light/SPG missions I must admit are beginning to get a bit wearing. Both lights and SPGs suffer from the reality they are rarely able to exert as much influence on the battlefield as the other three classes – SPGs because they are too random, and lights because they are too fragile. Part of this comes no doubt from my own general inexperience at both classes, but also because I think Tier IV scout tanks must be one of the least influential tanks in the game. It is not all doom and gloom, however. I have managed some very successful matches, and I have also started to play the ELC AMX. It is not properly upgraded yet – which does make it a bit tricky – and its crew is not yet even at 100%. Both those situations are temporary however, and I can see myself really enjoying this unique little vehicle as time goes by. I am also now most of the way to unlocking the Chaffee on the M5 Stuart. I will persevere with that grind even once the missions are complete, since I am now so relatively close. My M5A1 Stuart crew is also getting nicely into its 1st crew skill, ready for sometime transferring to a higher-tier light. Finally I am enjoying the Bishop, and really starting to appreciate the very high shell arc of British SPGs. I am very much looking forward to the FV304, another unique vehicle. I have also managed to get the Ace Tanker medal on the Crusader (replay), which was quite satisfying.

The concentration on the missions has meant I have played far fewer higher-tier games (I can see the impact of this in my stats). Once I have the mission done I am going to have to get more serious again with my bigger grinds. I am also going to have to nail into a Tier V and Tier VI respectively I wish to push up. So many options!

Crusader Kings II

I could write a very long post about my play session in Crusader Kings II. Much has happened, but in a way what I would mostly write about is something that mostly has not directly involved me. At the end of my previous session I was beginning to eye the four counties in the duchy of Ulster, all independent. In one of these – Tyrone –  I manufactured an easy claim to, and conquered it as it was the only one without allies. Then the earl of Tyrconnel died, and about eight claimants to the throne spread themselves around every other Irish court, mine included. I went to war to install the claimant in the court (under the mistaken impression he would become my vassal – I had misunderstood a game mechanic). This was the start of the Tyrconnel Wars, as I named them in my head.

You see, once I had smashed the Tyrconnel army and taken the holding, and installed my own man, another Irish count declared war against Tyrconnel with his favourite. Tyrconnel didn’t have an army to defend itself. A second Irish lord did so at the same time, and after one’s claimant was installed the other promptly fell to and ousted him installing yet another. This went on for, I think, five or so six goes, and in the process largely exhausted the armies of the various counties of Ulster. This allowed me fairly easy conquests of the other two Ulster counties, after which I proclaimed the duchy of Ulster (really the Petty Kingship), and then persuaded the latest Tyrconnel claimant to swear fealty to me. Along the way, however I had gotten into a war with the Earl of Desmond – the south-westernmost province of Ireland. He had a claimant to the county of Ulster, and had declared war whilst I was sieging the holdings. After I overthrew the previous holder, the war carried over to me. I marched down to that end of the island and subdued him, but since I had no claim could not take the territory.

After all this I declared the Kingdom of Ireland, which is more or less where I left the game. However, it was just fascinating watching – and taking part – of this very turbulent 10-15 year period of history. Along the way my King has acquired the epithet “The Just”. The great love of his life alas died young, so he remarried for a third time to a Princess from Denmark. The two appear to get along reasonably well. Meanwhile the heir is now a grown man, with children of his own, and looks like he will be a competent ruler when his turn comes.

Whilst King of Ireland there are still four provinces I do not control. Connaught I think will most likely voluntarily swear fealty, but it appears that Munster will not. The wars of Irish unification are not over yet, and I am going to try to get them all done with during King Sean’s reign. That would be fitting, and a fitting journey for a man who came to power by killing his cruel and capricious father, but is now known throughout the world as a kind and just ruler, and as a scholar, the man who tamed his irascible people and brought them into the twelve century!

Or something like that 🙂

Kerbal Space Program

KSP is one of those really neat games where you can “play” it without actually logging in. By that I mean I spent plenty of moments this week thining about the re-design of my interplanetary rocket. I am trying to decide whether to go for another un-manned mission, or whether to send Jebidiah out again to possibly get stranded on an alien world. I am also toying with several different rocket designs. At some point I will move from the theoretical and into the construction, but probably not this week.

EVE Online

EVE was very much on the backburner this week, and was the game that suffered most from the limitations on my time. I did get some Distribution missions done on the sly. Not earning great isk of course, but doing well enough in the standings gain for a particular corporation I will likely do again at points. I also started what will likely be a slow laborious process of locating and selling off scattered assets. Largely these are bits and pieces of mission loot lurking around.

Once again though EVE is going to take a backseat this weekend, a decision made easier by Burn Jita (though in all honesty I would not expect to be particularly troubled by BJ3 on the whole, unless some Goons get very lost). It is depressing though. I checked Dotlan today about 1400. Burn Jita 3 appears not to have stared early, but right on downtime. From roughly 20-30 ship kills/hour and 20 pod kills/hour, give a take a few, for the days prior, between DT and 1300 there were about 250 ship kills 60 pod kills. Between 1300 and 1400 about 570 ship kills 150 pod kills, and this is where it so far looks to be stabilising, and perhaps now dropping as the EU timezone signs off (I am writing this at midnight). Sometimes I look at my fellow hi-sec dwellers and shake my head.

Otherwise I am engaged in that other EVE activity – trying to work out how the hell the devs are going to try and break the game in the forthcoming expansion. I would say improve it – and they might well! I mean, it has been known to happen – but six years of watching CCP allows me to exhibit a certain distrust of CCPs follow-through. 🙂

EVE: The more things change…

The latest EVE Devblog, Building Better Worlds, continues to reverberate. There is no doubt great changes are coming to EVE, and I am not sure it even possible to overstate how game-shaking these changes have the potential to be (depending on lot on the specifics, which CCP has so far failed to provide). Another announcement this week shows the second side of EVE Online, with the dates for the third iteration of Burn Jita. To which I must rather admit to shrugging my shoulders. Goons (et al) are off to do it again.

I should explain this. When I first subbed in EVE there was a thing going on called Jihadswarm. It was a Goon-organised suicide ganking campaign against Hulks. Indeed it was the forerunner of what later became Hulkageddon, and it was itself preceded by other hi-sec gank campaigns from groups like MoO back in the early days of EVE. Of course, it was a much smaller operation back then – the game was smaller for one thing, and so were the Goons.

We are now six years later – and Goons are still organising suicide ganking campaigns in hi-sec. Some things never change.

Another of the things that never change is also the way so many players do not pay attention to what is going on in the game. Lots of folk will get caught out, and lose their ships, cargoes, pods, and iskies in Burn Jita. It happened in Jihadswarm, it happened in all the Hulkageddons, and it will happen now once again in Burn Jita 3.

 

EVE Online: Voted

The CSM 9 vote is slowly coming to a close. I finally made my vote this evening. My vote list was dominated by non-block candidates – we shall see how it looks when all said is done. However, with 14 votes beyond the first five or so I was mostly filling in names with only cursory expectation. My top votes (in no particular order) went to Steve Ronuken, Ali Aras, Sugar Kyle and Mike Azariah.

In elections I generally hold to the rule that if you don’t vote, you lose your moral right to complain. EVE Online is not precisely a democracy, but nevertheless I think the same principle holds true.

Given that CCP appear to be making revolutionary changes to industry, one of the most basic and fundamental parts of EVE. Indeed I am tempted to say that industry is the most fundamental part of the game.

Anyway, now I have voted, I probably should take the next step and make my views known a little more often. After all, those that do not speak can never be heard…

EVE: Character Overview

Getting back into EVE proceeds full pace. Admittedly this weekend I am not in the game very much – the Anniversary missions in World of Tanks have rather tempted me, but one of the great things about EVE is that certain things can be setup to run when one is out of game – market orders, research, and most basic of all, skill training. However, since I am going to be writing more about EVE in the future, it seems like a good place to take stock of my characters in EVE.

Back when I used to play more regularly I had three accounts. Currently I have re-activated two. I do not intend to re-active the third account long-term, but I do intend to move the primary character off that account onto my other accounts – but that may take a few months whilst I arrange things. Anyway, here is my character list.

Account #1

Primary Main – My first EVE character. He currently has 102.5 million skill points, plus about 800k un-assigned. I always figured I would leave un-used until I found a skill I really needed to train right that instant. I started him off as a miner – then moved into industry and some trading, with mission running on the side. In time he also developed skills in exploration and PI. There are plenty of games in his resume of course – in particular he can still only mostly fly ships of his native race. However, once I have completed my current Catch-up/Summer Expansion skill plan I want to diversify.

stnylan – Jita Alt. This character sits, if not in Jita, then in a system in The Forge. Good enough for Jita Alt purposes. Otherwise he is the only character whom I care to name. Actually, I took the name to prevent anyone else nabbing stnylan.

Account #2

Secondary Main – This character was created purely to support my primary character. At first that meant being a hauler to support mining ops. Then it was to be an Orca, and in due course a freighter pilot. Then another character that could do research, and also a source of extra build slots. The another PI character. Along the way I also turned him into my primary invention character, to the extent he now has all the regular Invention skills at 5. He currently has something like 72 million skill points, and is not currently training.

First Alt – Originally designed as a research alt to stay at my then-corp’s POS whilst I jaunted around elsewhere. That remains his primary purpose, though in time I also turned him into a PI alt and a salvage alt. He currently has almost 9 million skill points, and is training up a few skills in preparation for being moved onto account #1 to make space on this account for the character from my third account.

Second Alt – Originally another research alt, albeit one with very limited pretensions. He was used for copying blueprints for corp sales to help support my then corp. He subsequently became another PI alt. I have never quite gotten around to finish his research training, but I will probably do so when First Alt’s training schedule is complete. Currently he has just under 4 million skill points.

Account #3

Alternate Main – This character was actually created before Secondary Main iirc. From the outset this was going to be my pvp character, and I created him with the intention of getting in a FW corp (which was then a very new thing). I did so … and discovered two things. To put into context, this was only just after a year since my breakdown, I was still on medication, only recently been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, and only just getting back to work. Joining a very active FW corp was, looking back, setting me up to fail on the social front. Similarly I also discovered that ship pvp had a tendency to provoke my panic attacks. The second of these things delayed me starting to play World of Tanks by at least six months, and the first was a major consideration before I joined the QSF community. I should say I did have fun in my FW corp whilst I was able to stay there, but eventually I left. Since then he has kicked around the cluster a bit. I have never gotten back into pvp, though I came close a couple of times. He has been steadily training – I believe he has 80-90 million skill points, but I am not currently in a position to check.

Also on this account were two further low-skill alts, which I used to keep an eye on other market hubs.

At some point in the next few months I will re-active this account. By then I would have moved First Alt onto Account #1, and whilst I will take advantage of the extra training time by about day 20 I will move Alternate Main onto Account #2. I would expect him to do most training on that account, as Secondary Main and Second Alt are mostly well set for their supporting roles as is.

So that is a very brief overview of my characters, what they can do, and what I intend to do with them over the next few months. As always, every plan is subject to revision, especially if CCP throws in a curveball or two.

Gaming: Weekly update 11/04/14

So the blog has been very quiet this last week. There has not been very much reason for this, other than generally being busy at home, and busy at work. Oh, and I have totally gotten out of the habit of writing which doesn’t help anything.

World of Tanks

My tanking this last week has been totally dominated by the April missions to get the T2 LT. This has meant I have played a lot of Tier IV light tanks. Indeed out of the 89 games I have played this last week 41 have been split between the T-80, the M5 Stuart, the M5A1 Stuart, and the Covenanter. This has had some benefits. The first has been lots of practice in scout tanking – to admittedly variable success. It does been I am slowly grinding out the Chaffee, as well as getting the crews of the T-80 and both Stuarts further trained (38 games between just those three). Both the T-80 and the M5A1 are about to 100%, and the M5 is in the mid-90s. I have also managed to get the Ace Tanker on the T-80. Indeed, having got it once I soon got it again in another match. Personally though I think the first of those matches was the most impressive, with probably some of my best ammo selection ever in game (tip – when facing Tier V heavies in a T-80, use premium ammo).

In other tanks I have played a few games on the GW Panther, but I am finding this mostly an exercise in frustration at the moment, though not one without high spots. In comparison I have absolutely stunk in playing the Alecto. I cannot get that tank right, almost no matter what I try. I finished eliting the M4A3E8 Sherman, and otherwise continue my grinds. I have been concentrating on the T29 this week, which continues very nicely. I have also gotten in some games in the IS-4, including this game which probably counts as my best Tier X game so far – despite a couple of absolute terrible shots at the end. Although hardly the best stats, what I liked about it was what I achieved. Lakeville Encounter, north start. Pretty much the entire team charged off into the town, as did I initially. Pretty soon though I reversed course and guarded the valley. First one, and then enemy T-62As came by, joined by a WT-E100, but I managed to hold them off long enough for support to arrive and stop their flanking move. Helped, I must admit, by the WT player who apparently couldn’t aim properly.

My concentration on the missions is so far working – I am very much on schedule. I am also intending to try and get some benefit this weekend from the Anniversary missions.

Kerbal Space Program

I mucked around with building a new rocket for an interplanetary probe mission. It was not successful – not enough oomph to get into orbit. I am going to redesign the launch vehicle because my interplanetary design I do want to test. Basically I need bigger rockets – fortunately I was still using the FT-series rockets so I have plenty of potential to upgrade.

To keep things ticking along however I sent another mission to Minmus using my now proven design, which was another success. I am considering amending that design to try and grab one of these Near Kerbin Objects that have been added in the Asteroid Redirect mission update.

Crusader Kings II

My second king was called the Cruel, possibly quite aptly. He certainly became fairly loathed. He did manage though to expand Tara’s reach in Ireland, by forming the Duchy of Leinster as well. Eventually he had something like three murder plots against him, and the one that succeeded was led by his own son and heir.

Which meant I got a Kinslayer as my ruler – a new experience. In many respects the son is a very capable ruler, in particular with absolutely stellar Stewardship. On the downside when he inherited he was heirless, or rather his heirs were his nephews who were of another dynasty. His ever loving sister, deciding her sons are better than brothers, has a plot for his death. So far he is still alive. Fortunately he and his wife managed to tolerate each other long enough to beget an heir a few years into his reign as well (it appeared that they generally disliked each other). That was actually the start of things looking up – the Pope absolved him of his Kinslaying (apparently removing Daddy wasn’t all bad), a further county was added to realm, and a new town has been founded in Dublin province. Oh, and his wife died of an illness, which mostly allowed him to marry the daughter of the Holy Roman Empire. Just before I stopped playing another child was apparently on the way.

Unfortunately I did miss a dynastic possibility of expanded in Desmond province, but I have managed to get a cadet branch of my dynasty to inherit the Duchy of Orkney.

The Kingdom of England so far has had a very interesting history. I started with William the Conqueror in charge. Eventually he fell to one of Harold II’s sons, one Godwine, who had been sheltering at my court. He in turn was later ousted by his brother, one Magnus, who also had been sheltering in my court. He in turn was challenged – but defeated – an attempt by another brother to seize the throne. I get the feeling that England’s dynastic complications might run on for quite a bit.

Otherwise the first Crusade against Jerusalem has just been called. I am basically going to ignore it at the moment. I think I am next intending to expand into Ulster.

EVE Online

I am still very much enjoying my return to EVE Online. A large part of my EVE activities this last week has been researching CSM candidates, plus yet more changed game mechanics and refreshing myself on other mechanics. I think this is going to last a while.

My activities though are starting to have more direction. For example, last night I started some courier missions on one of my characters that wants to be able to use a particular research agent. It will be a bit of a grind that, but courier missions have the advantage of being things I can walk away from (by pressing the dock button) very easily if Melian wakes up.

I really hope to write a couple of EVE posts in the next week.

Gaming: Weekly Update 4/4/2014

Managed quite a bit of gaming over the last week, despite various health troubles. Getting some sense of how playing both World of Tanks and EVE is going to work.

World of Tanks

There is a chance this month to get the Tier II premium T2 LT tank for completing a series of missions. I am going to try to do this, and it appears to be achievable. It does require playing rather more SPGs and light tanks than I have been doing recently, but this is not perhaps a bad thing. It has meant some frustrating, and some enjoyable games so far on my GW Panther. Also some more practice with scouting.

Otherwise I have now had my first game on the Panther II. That was a disappointing loss. I have also managed a few more games on the IS-4. I am still getting used to the higher level of competition there. I really am going to try to play at least one game in it a day, however, as I figure playing Tier X is just a good way to improve overall. I am also have good success in training up a crew on the VK3601H for the VK4502 Ausf. A. My ordinary grinds though have already been somewhat disrupted by trying to fulfil the missions for the T2 LT, and this is likely to continue throughout the month.

World of Warplanes

Played some with my friend on Monday. On the whole not the most successful evening. Mostly I am just credit-grinding for the last piece of equipment for the Bristol 146 – and in the process also researching the Spitfire Mk I.

Kerbal Space Program

Well, the Asteroid Redirect Mission update has been launched. Certainly something to consider doing in the future. However, one of the great things about this update is that it is now possible to speed up time whilst in the Space Centre, and also in the Tracking Centre. A very great quality of life improvement.

I got Keldos back to Kerbin safely from the top of Minmus. Actually I happened to land him safely on the southern ice-cap, which was quite fun. I also made a simple design change to my current rocket series (by adding a probe control module on top of an empty command module) and rescued Jebidiah from where he had been stranded on the Mün. I put the launcher down just 2.6km away, which meant a relatively easy ride using the jetpack. This was, however, the second attempt. The first attempt … well, I forgot to extend solar panels so the batteries powering the probe module went dead. The inert probe is now leaving Kerbin orbit to spend a long time floating in an orbit somewhere between Kerbin and Eve.

I am undecided whether to next attempt to get an asteroid, or whether to do an interplanetary probe. I am leaning towards the latter. Or maybe even do something like purposefully strand Jebidiah on the surface of Laythe or something.

EVE Online

Still very much in re-orientation mode. I have spent some time mining, some more time missioning, but mostly just travelling around picking up bits and pieces. I wish to get back into T1 industrial activity, but I am unsure of where I want to setup my market. For certainty not one of the big market hubs, but somewhere a little quieter.

Another aspect of this is going to have to be re-organising my production spreadsheet. The “Spreadsheets in Space” meme does have a certain truth to it. Having cast around some of the other resources, I still think my old spreadsheet generally fits my purposes best, but it does require updating. In particular ship BPOs have a set of extra mineral requirements. While this may seem like “work”, it is in fact going to be a good way to get a better handle on what things are and are not profitable right now. Also of course there are some more modules in the game, and a handful of new destroyers and a new frigate. I have picked up some BPOs for those, and I will need to see if there are any others I require.

I also am going to go around and try and pick up some of the random stuff I have lurking around so many places. There is quite a bit of isk tied up in some stations that I might as well realise.

Crusader Kings II

With both Sons of Abraham and Rajas of India acquired and installed, it was time to start up a game. I have started up a game in 1066, William the Conqueror start, as the ruler of Dublin. A nice place to try and get a handle on this marvellously complex game. So far I have inherited Leinster from my father, claimed and conquered a third, and have just laid claim to a fourth. Along the way I am now on my second ruler.

This is very much a training game, as I am not sure yet who I want to try on to first try and play through to the end.

 

EVE: The unpardonable offence

So, I have returned to EVE when there are two pieces of drama going on. The first of these is a change on how refining and reprocessing works that is due to occur in the summer expansion. I will probably write about that in due course, but in the main it is one of those semi-regular events in EVE when a forthcoming game mechanic change causes a bunch of folk to proclaim the imminent death of the game. Actually, the second kerfuffle also involves people proclaiming the end of the game. Such is EVE.

So, Ripard Teg made a post called “The Bonus Round” about a particular incident of scamming/harassment. Or rather, a particular incident that began as scam, and evolved into a very lengthy exercise in humiliation, which was then made public. I have not listened to the recording, but from all accounts things got fairly brutal. In due course a threadnaught occurred, there were quite a few subsequent blog posts, and generally lots of people talking, debating, arguing, and shouting to and at each other.

Ripard drew attention to, what even he admitted was an outlier of EVE behaviour, because he was concerned that the more public behaviour like this becomes the more likely it is to do damage to EVE Online, a game he cares for very deeply. Almost immediately, a load of people started clamouring in the other direction because they see pretty much any restriction on player behaviour as being inimical to the ethos of EVE.

Personally, I am on Ripard’s side in this particular issue, for a particular reason: seen it all before.

EVE thrives on its darker side. One of the great things about EVE is that it allows you to play the villain – in game. Those two last words are vital, and this is where I personally think that Erotica1 (the villain of this piece) went wrong. By taking things out of game (perhaps to try and avoid ToS or EULA issues) Erotica1 ceased to be a villain in a computer game, and became a villain in real life. There is precedent for this – The Mittani made the same mistake once as well on the stage of Fanfest.

There is also in EVE a continual tension between its darker side, one that is inherent to its sandbox nature. Being the sandbox that it is allows people to play the villain – it also allows people not to play the villain. It allows people to follow career paths that primary engage and ship pvp, and it allows people to follow career paths that primarily involve shooting nps and/or mining rocks/ice (plus lots of other possible variations). CCP as a company constantly tweaks the sandbox to try and keep that sandbox as a place where all sides can prosper. Put it another way, CCP tries to create an environment where the wolves have plenty of sheep to prey upon.

The wolves though have a tendency to go overboard now and then, and when they do there is sometimes a reaction. In reaction to the original Jihadswarms there were a number of changes which made suicide ganking a more costly affair. In reaction to some of the later Hulkageddons CCP actually made miners have the ability to fit decent tanks. The last change I particularly liked actually – previously one’s options to tank were rather limited, especially in anything but a Hulk. Now you have a genuine choice to go with tank or yield. To be sure, enough gankers can always bring a target down, but now the miner is not as powerless as they were.

In essence, this is where we are again. So long as Erotica1’s actions happened generally in a small circuit, CCP were happen to ignore them (if they even knew of them). Ripard however broke things open – but Ripard cannot be blamed for this. After all, no one forced Erotica1 to leave public evidence of his activities for all and sundry to see. Once things expanded outside the relatively small circle of hi-sec wolves that Erotica1 belonged to CCP was forced to take notice, and one thing CCP is very aware of is the weight of public opinion. So a restatement of the harassment rules, the apparent banning of Erotica1, and the clear determination that taking things to a TS server in an attempt to get around the EULA will not work.

Is this the end of scamming in EVE? Of course not. I personally think that the long-term effect of this is going to take quite some time to discern, but it is another iteration where out of game behaviour has an in-game impact, and that there is a line of bad behaviour that will have consequences. Better to keep things in-game, where the rules are clearer (almost anything goes). I am fairly sure events such as described in Ripard’s post will still continue to some extent, under the cover as it were. After all, from a certain point of Erotica1’s real offence was not what he did, it was getting caught and forcing CCP to take a stand.