a group of adventurers on an epic quest
It is well established by now that I am as new to New Eden as you can be. Eight days in, and I have a nice hangar of ships, and around 100,000,000 ISK in the bank. Who then, in their right mind, would spend 75,000,000 of that hard-earned loot on a Noctis hull plus fittings? Well, I would of course.
No risk, no ISK!
The past few days in Empire Space have been very entertaining. A few days ago I rigged a Core Probe Launcher onto my Rupture and went off to see what mysteries are hidden in the vast reaches of Known Space (k-space).
Continue reading ‘[Eve] Exploration, Cloaking and the Wonders of W-Space’
Remember how I told you Eve was unforgiving of mistakes? I recently skilled into the Stabber, got it fit up to the tune of a total ISK ship value of around 4,000,000…
I got warp scrammed by an npc during the second mission in that ship and got podded by his buddies…
Easy come, easy go.
~Cyndre
I have received a lot of great advice since joining Eve, and almost all of it can be boiled down to one core concept… you MUST plan ahead.
So… I installed Eve Online last week for the first time in the game’s eight year life span… I can’t pinpoint why it has taken me so long, perhaps there was a perception that the game didn’t suit my tastes, since I like DIKU high fantasy settings, and since I left UO, have played all class/archetype, level progression games.
Well it suits me just fine.
SynCaine, of Hardcore Casual, was kind enough to offer me a 21-day free trial, with nearly no limitations and membership in his Eve Corp, so that is about as risk-free as you can get with a new game. After just over 24 hours, I bought a three-month subscription, and by day three I have subbed a second account to duel-box with my main. My undivided loyalty to GW2 has been replaced with a foreboding sence of indecision about whether I should even pre-purchase the game, or wait and see how this Eve addiction holds up.
What attracts me most about Eve, is the complexity of the game systems. Complexity for the sake of complexity can be a bad thing, but in Eve it just seems so organic and interconnected. The industry, harvesting and player economy is so involved and so active it immediately causes me to question why all game economies aren’t designed the same way. The immensity of the server (50,000 players concurrent last night) and the dynamics of the political and social meta-game is just staggering… If CCP can do it, why isn’t every AAA game server capacity designed in the same fashion?
I am very glad I gave this aging, niche game a try, and my only regret is that I waited so long. I can’t wait to explore more of the universe and start to peel back the layers of this onion… I keep hearing and reading about Eve events that each make me realize that this game goes so much deeper than I can comprehend, and I am looking forward to having my mind blown over and over!
~Cyndre
Greetings Rat Slayers, I have returned… Not that I’ve been anywhere exciting or exotic, quite the contrary, I have been wandering about in a bewildered MMO malaise for the past few years and suffering from a general apathy regarding the titles that have been produced.
That’s not to say that I haven’t kept abreast of the goings on in the industry, and I have continued to test and trial games, and I’ve even gotten excited a few times about features and innovation, that later turned sour and left a bitter taste when the ‘innovation’ failed to deliver or amounted to old mechanics re-skinned to appear revolutionary.
Thankfully, 2011 brought about the F2P revolution and gave me something to pass the time until I could get excited about something again. From a retail release perspective, Guild Wars 2 has done that for me, finally. More importantly, I see trends in the trenches, that suggest we are starting to see developers breaking out of the misguided meta that ‘a better WoW’ is the future of the industry.
I see more indie developers taking risks and pushing new paradigms and that is exciting. I can’t wait to share my experiences in several exciting projects currently in early stages of development, as well as whatever else comes along. Kill Ten Rats has always been an epic quest, and I am glad to be back with all of you brave adventurers as we carve out our destinies and push this MMO universe in new and exciting directions.
~Cyndre
Three truths have become false this week:
1) I hold a very principled stance firmly against the Micro Transaction based MMO business model. It is the root of all MMO evil et. cetera…
2) I have played DDO, and it sucks. It was crappy in Beta and it never improved. Poor implementation of some decent concepts, coupled with extensive poor choices for the balance of the design, resulted in an overall dry and uninspired game with little good to write about and quite a bit bad. DDO is doomed to fail, and will never recover. Period. De Facto and all that…
3) I have become so disillusioned with MMOs in general, and the diku model in particular, that I am doomed to watch reruns of Two and a Half Men and Mash for the rest of my life. Until I die. Old and bored…
Tuesday, one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, Dave Arneson, sucumbed to his ultimate battle with cancer. Mr. Arneson is unquestionably a legend, having in his short 61 years, influenced and touched the lives of millions of faithful fans. His brain child, D&D is one of the most popular and successful fantasy franchises in history, and the MMO industry draws more from his work than any other source.
Lets celebrate his life and his contributions to our culture by leaving comments related to D&D. Share a great story or adventure, share how the game influenced you, or just leave a simple Thank You below.
~Cyndre
Two years ago today, I started blogging about MMOs at my old blog, Existential Worlds, though I haven’t written there since joining the KTR staff, June 9th, 2007. It really hasn’t seemed like a long time, but it has been rewarding. I have met so many amazing people, many of whom I now call guild-mates in Casualties of War.
Thanks again to Ethic for welcoming me to his little soapbox in cyberspace, and thanks to all the readers and bloggers who make this hobby so engaging.
~Cyndre
As the Warhammer Online Open Beta winds to a close, it is easy to look back over the relatively short development cycle with all its ups and downs, and form an evaluation of Mythic’s performance from start to finish. My opinion? Excellent, although your milage may vary.
One thing is certain… Mythic moved the game to Open Beta, and unlike the vast majority of their peers, they remained committed to continuing the testing, polish and development of the game. While many game studios often will say ‘forgive us it’s only Beta’ and yet the bugs persist and go unfixed, Mythic tweaked, patched and improved nearly every single day.
I had a tremendous amount of fun, and I just wanted to thank all of the hard workers at Mythic who have given us long hours, commitment and who have poured their blood, sweat and tears into this project, so that we may have a world to lose ourselves for a while, and share wondrous adventures with our friends.
When the dust settles, raise a pint, take a long nap, and be proud of your accomplishments!
~Cyndre