Corps, Wars and Indecision.

Consistency is definitely overrated. As is reliability and the ability to pursue a goal.

Good thing I don't have any of those qualities.
On the one hand, I was having fun with Silentium Mortalitas (I even memorized the name after a day or two!) and they were a good bunch of guys to chill with in Vent. On the other hand, I felt completely out of my league. Wardecs flew all over the place, people poured out of stations in battleships, tech2 boats of all varieties and anything I could field wasn't even on the list of best>worst ships on op mails.

It wasn't quite for me. I wanted to have a roam around my usual stomping grounds, pick a few fights, but be able to chill out at other times if I wanted to. With constant wars on, there were occasions I felt like I couldn't even undock without fleeting up. On the couple of occasions I snuck off to Essence to run a couple of isk-making missions, I felt like I was letting the corp down by not hunting WTs.

So it was, with a little regret, that I quit the corp. This was made easier by the fact I didn't have any roles by this point, so I could just duck out more or less unnoticed. It seemed a shame, as we got in some pretty good fights and the guys were all sound (and not the various names and curse-words i've heard them called in local), but there's no point paying for an experience you're not enjoying.

The long journey home.

So where to go from here? Well, there's an update on that, which I'll leave for the next post. For the next day or two, I fleeted up with 'M', the industrialist to grind her Fed Navy standings up a bunch while I ran missions, so as to help drive down brokers' fees and taxes at some key stations.

Since then, I've had some fun fights, lost some cheap ships, killed some slightly more expensive ships and generally got back to the parts I like about this game. More about the kills (including an engagement I'm particularly proud of) and news on my new corp soon!

Wanting It All 2: The Alt

Well, that happened faster than I expected...

Not long after joining my new corp, I started to get a bit engagement-happy with the ol' PvP and realised that losing Hurricanes is actually kind of expensive. Sure, I had the ships insured, but I like buying the Meta 2 guns and other shinies to eke that extra bit of damage out of them. Thing is, I'm not actually *that* good at PvP yet...

I realised that if Kahdath is going to be able to fly (and lose) nice ships and concentrate on that side of the game, then it would be helpful to have a reliable source of income from somebody who isn't involved in at least one war 23/7.

Enter 'M', the cute, red-headed Amarr industrialist:

Some RL friends of mine have a corp full of industry alts that M could hop right into and after a little persuasion and convincing them I had a sound business plan, I even got my hands on a 500,000,000 ISK loan to get started with skill books, BPOs and materials to get the ball rolling.

The plan? Rigs. Gloriously tiny components I can move around in a shuttle or fast frigate, healthy profit margin for T1 items and something that people will always need, because they never drop as loot and have to be bought fresh for each new ship.

It would have been a very tough option without an initial boost of capital (thanks again, Adam!), as I've spent hundreds of millions already on components ready to begin runs. All I need to wait for now is Production Efficiency skills to max out and for my ME research to complete, which have been conveniently timed to finish within a few hours of each other.

So congratulations, CCP! Your staggeringly wide selection of professions and sources of income has gained you yet another alt account from an existing player.

At least now, Kahdath can resist the urge to one day train for a Hulk, as M will be able to fulfill that role once she has mastered manufacturing and T2 invention. After that? Hulks, Freighters, Jump Freighters, even? All those wonderfully useful boats that would carve months out of the training plans of trigger happy PvP characters.

For the moment, Kahdath is going to get blown up in rifters and figure out how to PvP in cruisers, but expect him to be losing Hurricanes (and bigger!) in glorious explosions soon, especially if you live in Sinq ;)

Starting EVE and Wanting it All

I am Kahdath, New Pilot in New Eden. This blog will contain all kinds of musings from myself designed for both newbies who may wish to see another's perspective of this vast new universe and for more experienced players to see the world from a rookie's eyes.

Whilst I am new to this game, I have a number of RealLife(TM) friends who are very experienced pilots and who have been tutoring me non-stop for around a month now. As a result, I am learning things quickly, but given the skillpoint system in the game, my progress can only come so fast.

That's the main topic of this first post - what to train with all those precious skillpoints? In the month since I started, I've suffered from the 'Wanting It All' bug. Here's the slightly inefficient path I've taken to my character progression so far:

1. Create a Gallente Jin-Mei, based mainly on the fact that I love how the male Jin-Mei look and that I'm also a casual fan of Eastern themes and philosophies.
2. Train up for basic operation of frigates and destroyers and run the newbie epic mission arc (which was great fun, by the way). This arc gave the Tristan a special place in my heart, as the frigate that took me through the vast majority of it. I love watching that little 'Fat Man' hurtling through space in a warp...
   
3. Decide to take a look at this whole 'mining' thing as a reliable source of moderate income, spend best part of a week training up for a Retriever. I *love* how the ORE ships look and even though I don't use the Retriever much now, I'm glad I have one, 'cause they're just a handsome hull to call your own.
4. Spend a week or so running mining ops with McKenna's All-Weather Haulage, either hauling in an Iteron III, or mining in my Retriever. My friend brings along a big sexy Orca and we're joined by a few hulks for some solid moneymaking (at least by my standards).
   
5. Decide on Logistics specialisation as a mid-longterm plan. My friends strongly recommended the Scimitar as one of the best ships in this role. I subsequently ditch Gallente for the time being and start training up Minmatar goodness. I soon grow very fond of the Rifter and eagerly await being able to pilot a Hurricane.
6. Decide that I should build up a good base of skills and start to concentrate on some of the 'core', 'defence' and 'gunnery' certificates, slipping in occasional learning skills and ship skills.
7. Try out some friendly high-sec PVP and realise that IT IS AWESOME. Immediately leave my friendly carebear industrial corp and join up with Silentium Mortalitas. Continue with the same basic skillplan, but throw in some fleet-friendly skills like RR and so on.

So I've gone from clueless noob, to carebear miner to high/low sec pirate and general troublemaker in the space of one month. Not to mention that I still want to be able to fly the oh-so-useful freighters and get more involved in the marketeering side of things. Nightmare.

I love it.

I don't regret this lack of focus for a minute, I've already tried things in EVE that some people have never tried - some people seem terrified of losing even a single ship. Like some people have said, if I lose a ship, I'll consider it a 'tuiton fee' and do my damndest not to make the same mistake again.

For now, I'm going to concentrate on important T2 tanking and gunnery skills for ships up to and including my shiny new 'cane and do what I can to help out my new Corp, who are a pleasure to fly with, despite our apparent reputation for being nasty pirate-types.

I'll leave you with a beautiful screenshot I took during the epic mission arc - my Tristan realising the enormity of the Rogue Drone Hive I've been sent to scout. As 'Small Fish, Big Pond' metaphors go, I think it's quite fitting...