A convenience Drake

I've been back in k-space for a while now, after the trouble of the insider theft from our w-space hangar. Although high-sec is safer and there is plenty to keep me occupied there isn't the same sense of camaraderie as being in a small fleet destroying Sleeper sites. The greater challenges of w-space are balanced by the need for a fleet, whereas if no one else is around in high-sec I can still progress with various activities. Being able to enter and exit our w-space systems freely becomes quite useful, therefore.

The main trouble with transitioning between w-space and k-space is that the wormholes, by their nature, connect to random systems. Being spat out of w-space thirty jumps from anywhere personally meaningful in the galaxy leads to a time-consuming journey, made slower when piloting a combat ship. The same is true when at a mission base and wanting to warp to the newly opened wormhole many jumps away.

Whilst the concentration of Lai Dai agents in Lonetrek is quite handy for increasing standings without needing to move base once a week, the systems seem to be in the middle of nowhere as far as wormhole access is concerned. This isn't helped with a chain of systems in one direction heading to null-sec and getting out of Lonetrek in the other direction requiring some astronomically long warps between stargates.

When of late I get the urge to return for some Sleeper carnage my autopilot needs to guide me through more than two dozen systems before I can join the action. And because I know that if I get in to w-space I may end up sitting at the tower hoping for pilots to wake up I generally end up running missions for Lai Dai instead of enduring the journey to the wormhole, waiting instead for another one to spawn in a closer, more convenient system.

If only the Drake weren't so slow between stargates, I could easily make the trips on auto-pilot whilst AFK drumming in Guitar Hero. The Crane would zip between systems but, as I have proved by read-across, would be useless in a Sleeper fight. But there is a solution, one that is provided to me by a wonderful corporation colleague. After losing my previous Drake, Lightness of Being, to Sleepers, I am given a gift of a researched Drake BPC. In case of further losses I can churn out several more Drakes in defiance. What I can also do is build a second battlecruiser and drop it off in a more convenient location.

The plan is to have a Drake at my mission base and one at the corporation headquarters. I can zip across space in my Crane to whichever of the pair of locations happens to be more convenient for the current entrance to our w-space system, piloting the Drake for only the last few hops, cutting travel time down significantly. I can then return to my Crane when I exit and continue k-space operations as normal. Genius! I'm going to make it so.

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Tags: crane, drake, eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, w-space

Restarting the return to Azeroth

The instance entrance to the Stormwind Stockades is a portal to a mirror universe. With a bit of time at the end of the Deadmines run last week, Melmoth and I try to complete what we started by slaughtering the remaining Defias Brotherhood criminals, those that were caught and are currently rioting in gaol. Coldly and methodically entering each cell and killing anything that moves, we work our way down the main wing. Reaching the end we toss a coin and head right. Dextren Ward didn't know what hit him.

Working back the way we came proves more of a problem, as the gestation period of an average Defias Inmate, reproduced from shed skin cells of dead members of the species, appears to be twenty minutes. We choose the option of running back from the spirit healer in Elwynn Forest rather than fighting our way out of the Stockades, as time is occasionally more precious than a 10% loss of armour durability.

The Stockades are still in a mess when we return, a week later. Again, we clear the main wing but this time turn left, using the mighty power of logic to find our final quest quarry in the gaol, Bazil Thredd. We are therefore a little deflated to find Dextren Ward waiting for us at the end of the wing. Scratching our heads, wondering whether we both misremembered a simple left-or-right decision from only a week ago, it is only when we see all the Defias prisoners wearing sashes and Dextren Ward sporting an evil-looking goatee beard that we realise we've passed in to the mirror universe. We'd better head back the other way.

Bazil Thredd falls to our attacks, but only after one of his minions calls for help from another, and that new one also calls for help, then Thredd runs to another room to beg for aid like a coward, making the fight rather more epic than expected. It is a turning point for us as a pair. We realise that:

• I can't resist tanking, even as a cloth-wearing mage,
• it's impossible to play the hunter class as anything but a freaking noob,
• we tragically forgot to read the text of the Draenei starter zone quests.

Along with the potential of a new player coming to join us exploring Azeroth, our path is obvious: we must reroll our characters. Choosing a new pair of classes is relatively easy. The plate-wearing paladin appeals to me because I have never played one before and Zubon's recent positive experience of the Paladin is reassuring. The biggest hurdle is in finding an available name.

I think it's fair to say I'm not awfully good at naming my characters. Tiger, Sapphire and Knifey hardly taxed my thought processes, and my latest D&D character has the Scooby Doo-inspired name of Velma. I have a new trick, particularly handy after my attempts at novel names end up with awful unforseen abbreviations, in that I browse baby names on various internet sites. I found Bijou's name from looking up French names, and this time I am inclined to look for a Russian name. And it's all too easy compared to the frustrations of staring at my keyboard, hoping to come up with a pleasing string of letters.

One name jumps out at me, and not only is it cute and available but it also apparently means 'pure', just right for my class. Kiska the draenei paladin is born, although as my first awarded achievement is getting a haircut maybe I should have spent more time in character creation than fretting over the name. Adventure awaits in Azeroth!

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Tags: azeroth, bijou, kiska, melmoth, mmorpg, stockades, world of warcraft

Emiliana Torrini at Royal Festival Hall

There is not much I can add to my previous reviews of Emiliana Torrini gigs. Her voice is still wondrous and the songs beautiful, capturing times and emotions with vivid imagery reflected in the lyrics and music that alternates between optimism and confusion. But this time we find out why Torrini takes every opportunity to share her funny stories between songs, telling us it is because the guitars are constantly having to retune, a fault she points towards her co-writer insisting on different tunings for every song.

Emiliana Torrini's personal asides and reflections are just another gem of her performance, never shying away from saying what is on her mind or pretending the audience doesn't exist. Not only does Torrini share her recent incident of being labelled a 'toilet pervert' after taking a noisy mobile 'phone photograph of a fake-wood cubicle door, but she freely admits that the thought of playing this London gig, in Royal Festival Hall, has been worrying her for a while. In her own words, the gig 'has been making me shitting myself', but she is thankful that the audience has made her feel welcome and appreciated, which is echoed at other times when Torrini says that she wants to make a twenty-minute mix of Jungle Drum just so that she can stand on stage and sing for longer.

Many favourites from current album Armani and Me are played, including the titular track. Gun sounds better each time it is played in a big room with excellent acoustics, the finger snaps and growling guitar suited to a live, amplified performance. I melt to hear the beautiful Beggar's Prayer, again extended being played live, layers of vocals drifting hauntingly around the venue. And Birds has become a firm favourite of mine after hearing it played live at each gig, the middle section of the song adding a powerful authority to the coda.

But whilst all the songs heard before are as vivid and exciting as ever, it is the addition of tracks from Emiliana Torrini's mostly ignored first album that add a new dimension to the gig. We are first introduced to To Be Free, followed by the youthful Unemployed in Summertime, before ruminations on Tuna Fish complete the Love in the Time of Science retrospective. The old songs fit nicely with the rest of the set, and the updated arrangements will certainly provide a new perspective for a fresh listen to the first album.

For an encore Torrini has an acoustic guitar helped over her head, and she encourages everyone to sing along to her Lenny Kravitz/Beatles segue, before finishing the set with a rambunctious rendition of Heard it All Before. It has been another wonderful and uplifting evening of entertainment from the Icelandic angel.

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Tags: emiliana torrini, gig, royal festival hall

Stumbling over Manticores

In-between inventing and building the Crane I install some more starship invention jobs. To reduce the datacore attrition I plan to invent Manticore stealth bombers from Kestrel BPCs, which requires only two of each datacore per job instead of the eight of each the Badgers consume. I'm happily surprised to find a much improved rate of success for the Kestrel inventions, with five Manticore BPCs dropped in my hangar out of ten attempts. I can almost smell the profit.

Whilst it may seem like I've calmed the capricious chasm of datacore consumption it is not quite the case, because despite being able to invent Manticores I don't actually have the skills to manufacture them. The invention pixies are merely teasing me. Retooling my production line and training the workforce to build Manticores will cost me a chunk of ISK and cut in to my precious training time towards the Damnation, and I'm already having to resist shiny short-term skill training goals threatening to distract me from piloting my crow-ship.

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Tags: eve online, invention, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, tech ii

Alive and kicking

My leg stops working, which is a little unsettling. It's not like I can no longer do the Hustle, which would be a disaster, but I find I have a lot of trouble with the kick pedal when drumming in Guitar Hero, specifically trying to hit double-beats. Single kick pedal beats still seem fine, even when they are on a half-beat, but when double-beats appear in the score my leg starts to cramp up and I find it gets tired really quickly. I don't think it is a problem of my leg simply getting tired and needing a rest, as I first suspect, because coming fresh to a new practice period reveals the same issue when trying to kick double-beats.

The problem of my leg freezing on the kick pedal is particularly frustrating because it even happens during songs I have previously mastered, or come close to mastering. I know that Steely Dan's Do It Again caused me problems when I first started playing it on the hard difficulty setting, but that was because of the required limb independence and never a problem with the double-beats on the kick. And it is not a speed problem, because the increased tempo of the kick double-beats at the end of The Cult's Love Removal Machine have not been challenging to keep up with for a long while.

Having my leg cramp up on songs that I know I can play is vexing. I have been making quite a lot of progress, pushing myself to more complex songs in the hard difficulty mode, and rising to the challenge. To find myself struggling to hit beats that I previously found simple is demoralising, particularly when it effectively cuts short practice sessions because my leg aches too much to continue. Luckily, after some introspection and analysis I think I fnid the problem.

It seems that I have stopped anticipating the kick beats as much as I used to. This lack of anticipation makes me react to approaching notes in less time, causing my leg to tense in an effort to hit the notes without proper preparation. Trying to hit a double-beat on the kick is much more difficult with only a moment's notice. Recognising my problem I return to Do It Again and pay more attention to when the kick beats need to be played, correctly anticipating them early enough to let my foot rise and kick down in time with the beat. I quickly find that I am hitting all the kick beats, even the double-beats, with no leg cramping.

I don't know how I managed to reach the position where I lost basic knowledge of how to hit kick beats, but I am really glad that I am able to recognise what went wrong and, just as importantly, correct it. Maybe the more difficult songs in the playlist forced me to concentrate too much on fast fills with my hands, letting my leg slip too far from conscious control. Whatever it was, my leg is back to normal, kicking its way through Guitar Hero: World Tour's Ozzfest, with no cramps or fatigue. I am so much more relaxed and in control when anticipating the beats properly. I'll be a rocking legend one day.

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Tags: console, drumming, guitar hero, xbox 360

Crane for sale, only 28 AU on the clock

Perhaps a day too late, I invent a Crane. My partner in invention gets an early success with a Bustard BPC coming out of the laboratory, although the cost in datacores is quite high considering the number of failed attempts that come out at the same time. Undeterred, I do what any good scientist does and try to repeat my colleague's results, committing another slew of jobs to the invention laboratory, hoping that a new bombardment of datacores will beat the odds.

My first batch of invention jobs focusses on improving the Badger's hull, my obsession with inventing a Crane quite apparent. I also install a couple of Badger Mk II BPCs so that I won't be completely disappointed when no Crane BPCs are delivered, as I can then blame it on the Bustards. Luck is on my side, though, and I get a success! One Crane BPC is delivered to my hangar. I'm so proud. All I need to do now is manufacture it.

Checking the BPC gives me a complete list of parts, which includes a Badger as a starting point. But, oh my goodness, the exotic materials required to modify the Badger's systems are quite expensive. I was hoping that the difficulty in inventing a Crane would be offset by the profit, but the margin seems to be quite slim, particularly when taking the cost of lost datacores in to account.

There is little point in creating a Tech II BPC without doing anything with it, so I spend the tens of millions of ISK required to get the component materials and send my own Crane, Tigress II, to pick them all up from various systems. Installing the manufacturing job is straightforward, only leaving me time to wait for its completion, although building a Crane doesn't take quite as long as inventing one.

It is a glorious day indeed to witness in my hangar a Crane Tech II transport ship I designed and built myself. I almost cannot bring myself to put the Crane for sale on the market. So long did I wait to invent one, and so quickly did I manage to destroy my own Crane, that it seems disrespecteful to the graceful spaceship to try to seek base profit from my efforts. I should be selling to a collector, at least. But my suffering wallet has other ideas and quickly persuades me to name the ship 'FOR SALE' and fly it to a suitable-looking market.

I offer the Crane for a competitive price, one that will make me significant profit over its material cost. It is doubtful whether the profit also covers the cost of the datacores, but to ask for any more will risk leaving the Crane unsold. Never the less, my first success at inventing Tech II starships comes to fruition. I will only get more experienced with time, and hopefully richer.

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Tags: badger, bustard, crane, eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Two run wild in the Deadmines

Melmoth's hunter and my mage are tasked with entering a dangerous hideout of the Defias Brotherhood and to stop its leader, the dreaded Van Cleef, by whatever means. It must be an inordinately difficult challenge if no one has managed to defeat Van Cleef yet, several years in to his reign of villainy in Westfall, particularly as the most seasoned adventurers choose to remain in the relative safety of Northrend, under the gaze of the Lich King, and don't dare to enter the ominously named Deadmines. I reckon the two of us, both now 24th level, are up to the challenge, though. Onwards!

Early thoughts of being stereotypical newbies at our respective classes bear no scrutiny at all, particularly not when I summon my white kitten instead of sitting down to drink, twice; or when Melmoth's pet bear, acting as the tank, rushes off to attack untargeted mobs; and breaking the polymorph spell on a mob by damaging the penguin is a simple coordination issue and nothing to worry about. Melmoth throws himself fully in to the method of a newbie, going so far as to pretend for half the instance that he doesn't realise hunters get a frost trap. Even when he finally 'remembers', getting a polymorph penguin frozen in the trap is clearly not a mistake, we are just taking a 'belt and braces' approach to crowd control. All we need now is a rogue to sap the frozen polymorphed mob to make really sure he's not going to cause trouble.

We quickly get in to a groove pulling and slaughtering mobs, particularly the goblins. Not only do I get quite good at running and blinking away from over-eager pulls but my masterful experience of the instance is also put to good use in determining tactics, like pointing out which mobs are linked and which ones summon adds to fight for them. My experience is then modified when the mobs aren't linked, and different mobs than I remember summon adds. My errors are obviously made on purpose, though, to prevent the instance run from declining in to a stroll in the park, as we instead hurtle down false memory lane. Besides, the simulated mayhem only serves to bring back glorious memories of earlier, and more fatal, visits to the Deadmines by spiritual ancestors of our characters.

It could be argued that my biggest piece of erroneous information is declaring the climactic Van Cleef fight as being slightly nerfed, and that his second group of adds no longer turns up half-way through the fight. Apparently, the two ninjas didn't get the memo and turn up anyway. I hope payroll correct this mistake. Luckily, Melmoth drops Van Cleef before the ninjas flip out and leave our ghosts standing at the spirit healer in Westfall. It's an invigorating run back through the Deadmines, which gives HR plenty of time to get security to escort the ninjas off the premises, leaving us a clear path at the end of which we get to decapitate Van Cleef's corpse.

We run out of the Deadmines giggling with girlish glee towards Sentinel Hill, where our efforts at crushing the Defias Brotherhood are rewarded with a hefty cheer from the Westfall militia. I also am offered a rather marvellous staff, which I happily accept. But our work is not complete. Before dashing out of the Deadmines we grabbed an ominous message off Van Cleef's stiffening body, one that hints at problems in the Stormwind Stockades. It's a good thing we found that message too, because having the head warden panicking loudly outside the Stockades about riots and prisoners taking over the gaol wasn't attracting enough attention. I think we have the target for our next adventure!

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Tags: azeroth, bijou, melmoth, mmorpg, world of warcraft

Green cloud of impending doom

It is possible to love your Crane too much. I am thoroughly enamoured with my personal blockade runner, speeding courier packets half-way across regions, delivering manufactured modules to varied markets quickly and easily, and although I smash through low-sec with some trepidation at least I don't avoid it. But it isn't fit for every purpose.

My agent sends me off on a reconnaisance mission, which seems curiously similar to previous ones. Warp in to one area and get shot, warp in to another and get shot by insular NPC miners, then warp in to a green cloud of impending doom. The last stage of the three-part mission requires reaching the acceleration gate and warping out before the green toxic cloud eats away your shields, armour and hull, but presents no danger from hostile ships. I have just the ship to scoot across sixty kilometres or so of space, my Crane!

It seems like a good idea. The Crane is more agile and certainly faster than my PvE Drake and can probably cover the required distance in significantly less time. Rather than ponderously crawling over to the acceleration gate, passing the time by reading about other capsuleers' exploits, I could zoom over there, marvelling at the eddies left in my wake, in space! The Crane is also not too fragile, with some shields and armour, which can be bolstered with modules if necessary. A reheat module should get me to the gate even quicker, and a shield booster would help assuage any concerns of surviving.

Hmm, I have a micro-warp drive (MWD) fitted, and the interference from deadspace will prevent its use, but I don't have a suitable reheat sitting in my mission loot box. The Crane is nippy enough, I'm sure I'll be fine, particularly with the shield booster fitted. Time to undock and warp to the green cloud of impending doom.

Of course, it is only when I am in the green cloud that I realise the Crane's speed unmodified by an MWD is actually not massively faster than the Drake, although it certainly is faster. I also notice that the shield booster I think I have fitted is, in fact, a shield amplifier, and that I have underestimated the base strength of the shields. Still, no matter, I am already in the cloud and can warp out if the damage taken gets too close to the armour for comfort, the agility of the ship good enough to guarantee a quick escape.

It's looking promising that I'll get to the acceleration gate in time, although my shields are taking a beating from the toxic vapours. I have confidence in Tigress, as I named my Crane, but keep a keen eye on my status as I progress. The shields are getting worryingly close to dipping in to the armour, but I've made it. I activate the acceleration gate and Tigress enters warp. I knew she'd make it!

Oh hello, EVE Mail is flashing at me. It's probably a letter congratulating me for being so fabulous. Um, no, it's from the insurance compa... why am I still in a green cloud? I should have warped to the mission end by now. And I'm fairly sure I shouldn't be in my pod. What the bloody hell just happened?! I was in warp, I still had some shields remaining, and yet there is the... wreck of Tigress, my Crane, sitting one hundred and fifty four kilometres from the acceleration gate. I don't understand.

In somewhat of a daze, I limp my pod back to the station, grab my Drake, despondently drag it through the green cloud—remembering to bookmark my poor, poor Crane's position—and complete the mission. I don't see whatever hit Tigress show up in my log as I warp out of the cloud this time, leaving the Crane's destruction a terrible mystery. It is a miserable task to return in a Cormorant to see what survived in the hold and what can be salvaged from my first Tech II ship, my pride and joy blockade runner.

'Don't fly what you can't afford to lose' is the oft-quoted first rule of EVE Online. It's not the ISK cost I can't afford. I quickly buy a replacement Crane to hide the real cost, that of my embarrassment in losing a ship I adore in such a stupid and irresponsible way. Throwing the Crane in to a mission for no reason other than wanting to pilot it more was an act of folly and only goes to show that I can't be trusted with nice things.

But I need to recognise my impetuous nature. I name the new Crane Tigress II, and I'll treat this one like a blockade running transport ship, not a magical ship of survival. Losing Tigress is a harsh lesson for me to learn, but I must learn it for I am almost guaranteed to have other, and more expensive, ships destroyed in the future. But if I am careful they will be lost for just causes, not from improvidence.

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Tags: crane, deadspace, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Cruising deadspace

'I've got rats to kill!' It's worth shouting about encounter missions when working for agents that are far more inclined to want packages delivered. Unlike courier missions, where it is unnecessary to drag others in to the tedium of jumping several systems across and back again, encounter missions are quicker and more fun when shared. I swap my Crane for the Drake and head out to deadspace, where I will start the exploding whilst my friend makes her way to join me.

An acceleration gate sits between me and the enemy. It is not an uncommon sight, but this one is cunningly configured not to let any ship bigger than a cruiser activate it. My Drake battlecruiser's systems repeatedly get an error message when trying to use the gate, leaving me floating helplessly when there are rats to blow up. I could go back to my agent and pretend I completed the mission, but after so many courier jobs my corporation friend and I have the bloodlust. A quick browse of the market finds a couple of cheap Caracal cruisers to snap up, and we head to station dock to scramble them.

The only problem with needing to fly a cruiser for this mission is the span of time since I've put my pod in a Caracal. I'm not quite sure how to fit a standard cruiser. The problem is not so much about what to fit—as they are Caldari ships we'll need shield capabilities and missiles—but rather the size and quantities to match the CPU and powergrid of the cruiser. We both raid loot bins and ransack our Drakes to find suitable modules to fit, resorting to buying from the market for missing pieces.

I end up with five assault launchers firing light missiles, two large shield extenders, one medium shield booster, two mission-specific shield amplifiers, and two ballistic control systems, with a couple of light scouts in the drone bay. The fitting gives me a pretty good shield tank with some quick-firing launchers to rip through frigates and worry cruisers. My friend is happy to stick with the heavy launchers from her Drake, which works well in tandem with my set-up.

Suitably equipped, our Caracals head out to the acceleration gate in deadspace, activating it to be thrust in to the heart of the action. It's a little disappointing to find only a couple of frigates and a cruiser waiting to be destroyed, even if there turn out to be three waves of them. It took about an order of magnitude longer to buy and fit the Caracals than it does to convert the rats to wrecks.

I imagine that the many months of support skill training makes the mission far simpler than it would have been when I was new to level two missions. The extra missile, drone, and shield skills, coupled with enhanced CPU and powergrid capabilities, all combine to make a much more powerful cruiser. It makes me wonder why the acceleration gate is locked down to allow only smaller ships through, when it is almost a trivial mission to complete for anyone who has the skills and ISK to pilot bigger ships. Forcing a veteran pilot in to a more appropriate class of ship for the level doesn't increase the challenge, only the time commitment.

At least I get a chance to exercise my mind a little in trying to squeeze as much out of a cruiser as possible. It seems like good practice to find suitable fittings for different ships, to remain aware of the many different modules and fittings available, perhaps thinking of novel combinations or simply remembering basic set-ups. If nothing else, it was a fun jaunt to go shopping and take a new ship out for a spin.

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Tags: caracal, deadspace, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Dealing with a pirate intrusion

I'm warping to rendezvous with my corporation friend, sitting on an acceleration gate that leads in to a level four encounter mission for Lai Dai. 'There may be four battleships in there', she informs me, as I impetuously activate the gate before she can steal all the aggro from the rats for herself. We both run Drakes and it's fun to see just how much damage our passive shield tanks can withstand. As my warp engines begin to shut off and bring me to sub-warp speeds it looks like our intelligence is a little weak, multiple groups of battleships huddled at various points glaring red at me on my overview, along with plenty of cruisers and some frigates for good measure.

I have yet to run a level four mission alone in my Drake, Non-sentient Ship, mostly because the progression through levels one to three effectively required a new class of ship to be piloted to have a good chance of success, so I assume that I really ought not to send a battlecruiser in to a situation meant for a battleship. Warping in to this rat battleship-infested deadspace is a little worrying in respect of my lack of experience. But we pick off the groups one-by-one, a couple of times intentionally aggroing a second group for efficiency's sake, our shields never in any trouble. By the end, I am thinking that I could easily handle level four missions with only my Drake.

There is a Caldari agent who offers level four missions near to my current Lai Dai mission base. Flush with victory, I move Non-sentient Ship over, along with salvaging Cormorant Marquis of Granby, and request a mission. The agent is keen to deal with a Pirate Intrusion, and I am happy to oblige. Warping in to deadspace reveals a large handful of groups of battleships, cruisers and frigates, much like before, leading me to think this will be most straightforward. However, my shield tank isn't quite as impressive as on my friend's Drake, and there is only one of me. A couple of times I even manage to light up the whole deadspace area with blinking red, necessitating my warping out to recover.

Running Pirate Intrusion reminds me of The Blockade, which I got as my first level three mission. The Blockade presented a large number of ships larger than anything I had faced before, taking me many attempts warping in and out and a couple of hours to complete. I prefer Pirate Intrusion, though, as all the rats are present to begin with, whereas The Blockade has 'triggers' that spawn new waves of rats. All ships are always attacking in The Blockade, therefore, whereas the unconnected groups of rats in Pirate Intrusion can be attacked separately, if careful, making it more manageable and less dangerous, particularly if the triggers are not known.

I finally manage to destroy all the ships in the deadspace area, although it takes me a long while. I steer my Drake away from the bulk of the groups to make it clearer which rats are actively attacking and which aren't looking at their scanner or viewscreen to see the violent space battle happening, happily kicking back and enjoying a Quafe instead. It is only at the end that I wonder exactly why I am out here in the first place. I don't need to gain standing with the Caldari Navy, nor am I here directly for the ISK rewards. Maybe it is because of the quality and quantity of salvage, but it hardly seems worth pushing to my limits when I can get comparable loot more easily and quickly in level three missions.

I come to the conclusion that I just wanted to see if I could manage a level four mission, which I just about can. The ISK, loot and salvage are neat benefits, as are the extra loyalty points. Mind you, I have just spent a bunch of loyalty points on upgraded implants, to help speed along my skill training towards flying a Damnation, so perhaps I was hoping to get a few more and buy another implant. I'll go with that explanation, to give more meaning to my being here, and buy another upgraded implant.

Whatever the reason, I manage to complete my first solo level four mission, which gives me confidence to try more when necessary, or opportunity arises. Knowing that I can handle level four missions should also make the last leg of gaining standings for corporations swifter. It is probably better not to rely on an omni-tank for such missions, though, and take time to fit the proper resistances for the hostile forces to be encountered.

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Tags: deadspace, drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic