Author: Ethic

[EVE Online] The latest EVE devblog has some interesting information about the skillpoint totals of the currently active players. I will share this information below.

Here is the breakdown of skillpoints of active characters on Tranquility:

between 0 and 1 million skillpoints: 358353
between 1 and 2 million skillpoints: 14035
between 2 and 3 million skillpoints: 8149
between 3 and 4 million skillpoints: 5826
between 4 and 5 million skillpoints: 4696
between 5 and 10 million skillpoints: 14859 (avg 2972)
between 10 and 15 million skillpoints: 9875 (avg 1975)
between 15 and 20 million skillpoints: 7861 (avg 1572)
between 20 and 25 million skillpoints: 6194 (avg 1239)
between 25 and 30 million skillpoints: 4373 (avg 875)
between 30 and 35 million skillpoints: 2568 (avg 514)
between 35 and 40 million skillpoints: 1313 (avg 263)
between 40 and 45 million skillpoints: 257 (avg 51)
between 45 and 50 million skillpoints: 4 (avg 0.8)
between 50 and 55 million skillpoints: 7 (avg 1.4)
between 55 and 60 million skillpoints: 1 (avg 0.2)

They also mention that the average EVE player sticks around for 7 months. As reference, I’m just over 6 million skillpoints and I started playing in May 2005.

– Ethic

[EVE Online] Not that long ago I posted about CCP getting tough on people that trade in-game currency for real money.

I was happy to see them turning the screws, with them going so far as writing: “This issue is not up for discussion. Buying your way ahead in EVE is cheating, pure and simple.” Sounds great, right?

Well I have recently become aware that CCP sells Game Time Cards. Basically, these are codes that you can use to pay for your account, a pre-paid credit as you will. Here comes the fun part.

CCP specifically ALLOWS people to resell these cards for in-game ISK. They even allow it on their very own forums. So it’s against the rules to buy ISK with real money, but if you just buy one of these cards with real money you can in turn sell the card for ISK. Why is this OK? The end result of this allowed ISK purchasing scheme is the same. People are buying their way ahead.

Sounds lame to me.

– Ethic

[EVE Online] I’m going through one of those times in EVE where not being guided by the game leaves me lost. I’ve got some things I want to do out in 0.0 space but I don’t have the money to do it. Every thing that I do in 0.0 is not earning me any money. Therefore I am running out.

I just end up sitting in a station looking at my skills and chatting with corp members. Last night I logged in too late to join a group of people doing a patrol. I just sat there and listened to the action over the voice comm. I bought a skill and trained it to level 1 during this process. That took 40 minutes. Yawn.

Continue reading Lost

[EVE Online] The R&D agent I have been using for the last month or two was cranking out a massive 4 research points per day. The research points (RP) are like tickets to a lottery. If you win, you get a nice BPO which can often make you rich. I think I was up to around 200 points counting the few missions I ran for her.

I found another R&D agent closer to my latest mission area and he has a better rating towards me. I had to buy a new skill (4 million ISK!) to get him as my new R&D agent, but he is now giving me 36 RP per day. I had no idea how badly the other agent was screwing me over. Perhaps 36 per day isn’t that great either, but it certainly beats 4.

If I win the lottery through this guy, I may have to start up a savings and loan. I’d be loaded.

Regardless, with the next-gen R&D changes coming up in KALI, I don’t have any idea if this will even matter by then.

P.S. send ISK, I’m running out! Heh.

– Ethic

[EVE Online] We had a corp mining operation the other day in a 0.0 system. It involved over 10 people, most in medium barges. We were after ice this time. We had a few combat ships with us, basically designed to tank any NPC rats nearby. They could repair faster than any damage was done, and the rats were too stupid to switch targets. We also had a couple of haulers to move the ice back to the station.

The operation lasted about 6 hours while I was only there for the first 2 hours. I think we hauled home close to 500 ice chips. Each chip takes up 1000 cubic meters of cargo space, that’s one big ice chip.

I snapped a few shots for your entertainment purposes. You can view them here: photo one, photo two, photo three, photo four and photo five.

– Ethic

[EVE Online] My corporation had planned a convoy of ships from our main staging area in Empire space down to one of our 0.0 stations. Just under 10 people signed up, with a few of them flying scout and protection. I had my industrial-class hauler, a Badger 2. It can hold about 10,000 cubic meters of cargo and she was plum full. Some of the cargo quite expensive and most of it not even mine. It was to be a long trip, all of it through 0.0 space. One of our convoy members was an alt of a corp member who was not yet in the corporation.

Continue reading The Incident At Alpha Bravo

[EVE Online] I stopped by one of the agents I do odd jobs for last night to see if she had any work for me. She offered me a courier job that consisted of several parts. I was to deliver some cargo 5 systems away, where I would pick up some new cargo that needed to go another 5 systems away, but was in 0.4 space. 0.4 space is low security and you risk losing your ship/cargo/life just by entering. Add in the fact that we have an Empire war going on and a simple courier mission becomes a life or death situation.

I had 4 stations to visit in total, each with a drop-off and pick-up. One of the stations was low security, the rest were in Empire. My reward was to be 125,000 ISK and double that if I finished in 1 hour.

Continue reading A Courier Is You

[EVE Online] I haven’t posted much about EVE Online recently due to the fact that I have been trying to relocate all my ships and equipment closer to our 0.0 station. It makes for a dull post, but it is the reality sometimes in EVE. Making a 30 jump trip in a industrial hauler filled with a few hundred ship equipment items. Then turn around and fly back in a shuttle to climb into my cruiser-class ship and make the trip again. B-O-R-I-N-G.

After my second return trip, I wanted to run some missions as I had not done any in a few weeks. All I had on hand was my Rifter, so I thought I’d try to find an agent handing out courier missions because I didn’t want to bother with any combat.

Continue reading The Empire Strikes Back

[EVE Online] The president of Huzzah Federation has been busy negotiating with the parties involved in the latest war down south. Let me refresh your memories so far: Stain- Alliance (SA) had been in a war against Firmus Ixion (FIX). The Huzzah Federation (HF) was helping SA in this war. My corporation, Ars Caelestis, is a part of HF.

Eventually, FIX surrendered and was presented with terms that they accepted. Something happened at this point to cause FIX to void the surrender and the alliance Band of Brothers (BoB) supported them in the decision. SA attacked BoB.

Continue reading Non-Agression Pact