Mining is boring

I have moved my operations from the station with the low quality level two Core Complexion, Inc. manufacturing agent one system across to take advantage of the high quality level two Core Complexion, Inc. manufacturing agent. Moving can be stressful and change can be difficult to deal with but this move unsurprisingly goes smoothly. I'm not sure even I can run in to a gate camp moving one system in high-sec space.

However, meeting new people is not my forte and I appear to have got off on the wrong foot with the new agent. Despite working like my previous agent in the manufacturing division this new agent must bear some sort of grudge towards me. Instead of a slew of courier missions with the occasional encounter and mining mission to keep me on my toes the new agent is sending me mining all the time. I can't say I am a fan of mining, in fact finding it fairly tedious mostly.

To make the mining missions more bearable I have even done some research. Surely, I thought, mining cannot be this dull and have so many people spend hours shooting rocks, I must be doing something wrong. Sadly, having read through a few mining guides it seems that I am doing everything pretty much as expected, just perhaps a little inefficiently because of a lack of skills or modules. I am currently on a dedicated training plan to learn how to scrap modules, so I am not about to spend a couple of days learning how to increase my yield by a few percent. I always like going shopping, though.

Even though gaining a few extra cubic metres of ore per mining laser cycle doesn't seem like much, I am willing to spend under a million ISK to buy three new lasers to offer a 17% increase in yield. Anything to speed up the process. It's just a shame that mining lasers have a cycle of one minute, because unless your yield increases significantly, or you encounter space rocks with only marginally more ore than a standard mining laser can pull in one cycle, the likelihood is that you will still have to wait for that extra minute-long cycle to complete to mine the last dozen units of ore from a rock. This may not matter much when mining for fun out in space, as you can switch to a different rock that your scanner shows is full of mineral goodness to maximise yield per cycle, but when a mission requires a certain amount of ore to be collected you can guarantee that you need to mine every available asteroid, rock and pebble in the pocket of deadspace.

Still, the missions are easy enough to complete and my wallet is happier with the higher quality agent. I think my standings are seeing bigger gains per mission too, but maybe that's more a result of the lack of courier missions so far, I'm not sure. And even if this new agent insists on continuing to send me on mining missions it won't be for long, as I already have found another agent for Core Complexion, Inc. sitting a few systems away, this one a low quality level three agent. I need an effective standing of 3.30 to work with this level three agent, which looks like it will only require completing half a dozen more missions to reach. Mind you, the level three agent is also in the manufacturing division and I wonder what mining missions he will send me on.

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Tags: agents, eve online, mining, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Sapphire's Guide to Jousting in the Argent Tournament

With World of Warcraft's 3.1 patch comes the Argent Tournament, a new set of daily quests to gain achievements, titles and pets. Being the recipient of an exclusive invitation to participate in the tournament, no doubt only restricted to everyone at or around 80th level on every server in every continent, I send Sapphire up to the north of Icecrown to see what all the fuss is about.

My first impressions are poor, as I am presented with daily quests that I need to complete to gain enough tokens, over several days, to enable me to advance to more daily quests. I can feel the heavy grind wearing me down already, but as long as the quests are fun and I can take them at my own pace then it should be okay. Sadly, jousting comes across as being quite tedious, and the majority of the daily quests involve picking up a lance for mounted combat.

I take the introductory quests, I even pay attention to the instructors, but what I learn against targets and dummies doesn't seem to match my flailing around against the NPCs in the Valiant's Arena. I try to get some distance so that I can use my shield breaker and follow up with a charge, just as I was instructed, but my steed doesn't turn quickly enough, the NPC knocking down my shield and piercing me with his lance instead. After several failed attempts at jousting I am ready to dismiss the tournament as a frustrating distraction.

But then I realise what I am doing wrong: I am trying to joust. That is, I imagine jousting to be two riders charging one another, each trying to knock the other of his horse using a lance and protecting himself with a shield. The introductory quests even make this seem to be the case, promoting the ideal view of how jousting will be. But this is an MMORPG and I am fighting NPCs, and just as combat in an MMORPG bares only the vaguest resemblance to real combat the same is true for MMORPG jousting.

With the realisation that I am facing MMORPG NPC jousting opponents I head back in to the arena and fight with a PvE mentality. And it works, repeatedly. It's a shame that jousting reduces to just another form of hitting the right combination of buttons, but knowing this information removes all of the frustrations. I soon have the achievement for besting one of every faction's knights and the grind no longer feels onerous but just another way to enjoy spending time in Northrend.

I present Sapphire's Guide to Jousting in the Argent Tournament. The first part is the easier form of jousting that I used initially, getting me through the Valiant's stages smoothly before I got more comfortable and started to use advanced manoeuvres for more effective and quicker jousts.

Jousting the easy way:

• Raise your shields.

Before you even challenge an NPC opponent get your shields up to the maximum level, which is three buffs. Your shields should be green.

• As soon as the joust starts, thrust at and follow your opponent.

Your NPC opponent will ride in to the arena to begin the joust, perhaps expecting an honourable fight. Stab him in the kidneys with your lance as soon as he becomes hostile and move with him to stay within melee range.

• Keep using thrust as long as your opponent stands next to you.

Yes, this isn't jousting but MMORPG combat. Stand nose-to-nose and jab pointy weapons at each other.

• Your opponent will disengage. Wait until he has retreated sufficiently and use a shield breaker.
• After using shield breaker, move back to melee range and resume thrusts.

Occasionally, your opponent will move away to get enough distance to break your shields and charge, for more damage and some pretence of actual jousting. Use this to your advantage by knocking down his shields when his back is towards you and then moving close enough to stop him doing the same before he turns around.

• After your first thrust once back in melee with your opponent, refresh your shields.

You shouldn't be getting your shields knocked down, but even if you don't the shield buff only lasts a minute. The best time to refresh your shields is after your first thrust once back in melee, as the shield buff and thrust don't share a cool-down, but shields and shield breaker do and you don't want shield breaker to be on cool-down when your opponent disengages.

• Repeat until victorious.

They key is to knock your opponent's shields down when he moves away but prevent him from doing the same to you. As long as your shields are stronger than your opponent's you will hit him for more damage with each thrust than he hits you, and eventually you will win.

Whilst the above method is effective it is a little slow. I played around with my technique to come up with an alternative. Charging your opponent hits for more damage and breaks your opponent's shields, speeding up each joust, but opens you up to counter-attack so demands more skill.

Jousting for quicker victories:

• Raise your shields.
• As soon as the joust starts, charge your opponent.

Instead of a puny thrust, wait until your opponent has moved away enough to charge and introduce your lance to his spleen.

• On the follow-through, turn and use shield breaker.

A charge will boost your mount's speed for a short while both before and after you hit your opponent, unavoidably sending you away from him for a distance. Take advantage of the distance to turn and use shield breaker. This attack is optional as the next step is more crucial.

• Move back to re-engage your opponent quickly

The moments after the charge are when you are open for counter-attack. Move back in to melee range quickly so that you don't let yourself be open to a counter-charge or shield-breaker.

• Thrust.

With your opponent's shields nicely broken by the charge and, hopefully, a follow-up shield-breaker each thrust will be doing large amounts of damage.

• After your first thrust once back in melee with your opponent, refresh your shields.

Don't forget to keep your shields refreshed. You will probably need to boost them anyway after getting your shields broken because of the riskier manoeuvres.

• Your opponent will disengage. Wait until he has retreated sufficiently and charge.

To speed the fight up more, and to ensure you get the distance to charge, you can move away yourself when your opponent disengages. I suggest moving backwards or sideways—don't turn your back on your opponent—and charging as soon as possible, repeating the manoeuvre as above.

• Repeat until victorious.

With the use of charge your opponent's shields will be weaker for more of the time, as well as each charge, shield breaker or thrust hitting for more damage. Mounts have a slow turning circle and the automatic movement after charging can be a little disorientating, but with a bit of practice opponents can be bested in the Valiant's Arena and the Champion's Arena with ease. The Black Knight is also simple to defeat this way.

For the jousting in the Court of Bones, there are a few things to consider:

• The scouts can be charged when they are near the ground, killing them outright.
• The ground troop skeletons can be charged and killed quickly en masse.
• Whilst starting a fight against a lieutenant with red shields by charging does a lot of damage, the charge's follow-through can cause you to pull more than one mounted mob. It might be best to use shield breaker to pull and retreat initially.

Finally, one piece of advice that must not be forgotten:

• Refresh your mount after every joust.

You really don't want to start a new joust at less than full health.

With a bit of practice and the understanding that this is MMORPG NPC jousting, and so nothing like the real thing, you too can soon have a squire bearing your race's colours. Good luck!

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Tags: mmorpg, sapphire, world of warcraft

Choosing my 3.1 patch death knight talents

With World of Warcraft's 3.1 patch comes changed talents and talent trees, giving an opportunity for a free respec! I grasp this opportunity with both hands and keep Sapphire a protection warrior and Gnomesblight a frosty death tank. However, that's not to say I made no changes, and not only because the talents have been modified or their positions moved.

Sapphire remains the tank for me and allows me to fulfil that rôle whenever required, so although Gnomesblight has the capability to tank I find I prefer to keep the death knight as a DPS character, partly to offer a change of rôle but particularly because of my regular adventures in Wintergrasp. Focussing on the DPS aspects of the talent trees, preferring to remain frost with a bit of blood, I can neglect some of the talents that boost armour or damage mitigation in favour of boosting damage output.

Gone are improved frost presence and frigid dreadplate, for example, although I have kept lichborne for its use in PvP and unbreakable armour for its strength bonus. I didn't realise for a while that howling blast had been moved to the top of the frost tree but stuck with it, as it proves to be quite useful in any situation dealing with multiple foes, particularly when combined with pestilence and deathchill. Rime also helps to make howling blast more effective by refreshing its cool-down and making it cost no runes when the talent procs.

It was handy before to have annihilation not cause obliterate to consume the diseases on the target, but now that diseases last for another three seconds I have more opportunity to cast obliterate, either to squeeze out some excess runic power first, or because a miss in my rotation causes an extra GCD. Rather than the extended DoT slowing down my DPS it looks like I can use it to my advantage, using more abilities that deal extra damage to diseased targets.

To help me cast more obliterate spells I initially added death rune mastery to my spec, which causes any runes spent casting obliterate to be converted to death runes, where death runes can function as any type of rune. Combined with blood of the north, which converts the runes used when casting blood strike in to death runes, I quickly found myself with a full deck of six death runes to use. With obliterate being my most powerful strike and my previous build using the blood-converted death runes as an extra obliterate at the end of a regular casting rotation it seems to make sense that having more death runes means having more opportunity to cast obliterate, thus increasing my DPS.

In reality, it doesn't look like the extra death runes are helping. I am either refreshing the diseases using frost and unholy runes, turning blood runes in to death runes with blood strikes or pestilence, or casting an obliterate that will either also use frost and unholy runes or the death runes created from blood runes. As the death runes created from death rune mastery and obliterate would ideally be used to power another obliterate I don't think I am gaining anything of value. There is some added flexibility in the rotation, but that flexibility would only be seen when mistakes are made and I cast the wrong spell. Death rune mastery is removed, replaced by virulence to improve my spell hit rating.

My rotation still ensures my two diseases are on the target, blood strike converting blood runes to death runes. This gives a standard rotation as: icy touch, plague strike, blood strike, blood strike, obliterate, icy touch, plague strike, obliterate, obliterate. Frost strike is used to spend runic power in the gaps when runes aren't available or to add an extra tick to a DoT. For the latter consideration, combat away from a target dummy should reduce any gaps of inactivity as the butchery talent should provide plenty of additional runic power to play with. I also need to be more aware of howling blast being refreshed by rime to take advantage of the multiple-target damage spell.

A few preliminary bouts with the target dummy produces an impressive 2,200 DPS from my crafting- and PvP-equipped death knight, which is a 400 DPS increase over what I saw in a previous run through Utgarde Pinnacle, which I was quite happy with. I am eager to try out the new spec in an instance to get some better performance data, but it is looking good at this initial stage.

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Tags: death knight, gnomesblight, mmorpg, talents, theorycraft, world of warcraft

Capacitor stability in Apocrypha 1.1

My new level two manufacturing agent for Core Complexion, Inc. decides to put me through a trial-by-fire, sending me on a three-part encounter mission. I suppose she hasn't noticed my Drake battlecruiser parked outside and thinks instead that I am a fresh recruit. But that's okay, I can chew through level two encounter missions in the Drake with no problems. My heavy missiles mock any pitiful excuses for cruisers found in level two missions and my light drones chomp on frigates as if they were a delicious blue cheese balanced on top of a crusty slice of baguette.

I could try to pretend that a danger of taking on level two missions in a battlecruiser is in being over-confident and getting blown up whilst not paying enough attention, but with my fittings and skills the level of distraction needed to get the Drake destroyed would require wandering philosophers to knock on my door and engage me on a discussion in free will and responsibility for a few hours.

My Drake is quite safe in the level two encounters and the rewards are better than for courier missions. Indeed, once I get to level three missions with Core Complexion, Inc. I will look for an agent in security or command so that I will be more likely to receive encounter missions. My training in scrap metal processing should have completed by then allowing me to refine minerals from the looted modules, and the quality of salvage will increase too.

Never the less, I have brought a complement of shield hardeners with me so that I can feign a level of danger by making sure I equip the right hardener for the expected type of rat damage. Going up against Serpentis I open my fitting window to ensure I have kinetic and thermal hardeners fitted when I notice a new feature present since the recent patch. Along with all the general information available the status of the capacitor now shows the excess recharge rate.

The excess recharge rate value is put to use with an indicator displaying whether the capacitor is stable—at a certain level, as the recharge rate is presumably non-linear—or if it will drain completely, and, if so, how long the capacitor will be able to power the on-board modules. This is a nifty new feature that I believe has been available as a minor part of the EVE Fitting Tool but is now directly a part of the fitting screen interface and lets capsuleers determine whether a certain load on the ship's capacitor can be sustained indefinitely.

It should be possible to calculate the stability of the capacitor manually. Each module that uses the capacitor lists details of its activation cost and duration on its data sheet, which could be summed for all modules to provide an overall rate of drain on the capacitor. This rate can be compared to the capacitor capacity and recharge rate to determine its stability. That is my assumption, at least, as it no doubt can get a little complicated with myriad activation costs and durations of different lengths. I have preferred to fit the modules needed and balance the drain on my ships' capacitors by switching modules on and off to maintain adequate charge on the rare occasions when that becomes necessary.

But there is an advantage to knowing that you have a set-up with a stable capacitor, being able to switch on all required systems without having to worry about sacrificing offensive, defensive or support systems to conserve the capacitor's charge. I note that the capacitor on my Drake will discharge fully in a prolonged combat, which is a little troubling, but it appears that the fitting screen assumes every module fitted and on-line will be running permanently. In my case, the new tractor beam is a luxury that will be used sparingly, if at all, and I am likely only to be encountering a single damage type in level two missions so only one pair of matched shield hardeners will be required at a time.

It is a simple matter to take some modules off-line, or even remove the fitting from the ship, and the capacitor tool recalculates the excess recharge rate and shows new figures for me. With all launchers firing and two matched hardeners protecting the shield I have a stable capacitor, which is splendid. No more guessing or worrying about running out of charge, I know or can find out which set-ups are stable and which need to be watched, with heavy-drain problem modules easily found by taking systems off-line briefly in the safety of a station. The tool even shows pictorially the charge level of the capacitor at its stable level, or a percentage value when hovering the mouse over the display, so if I have to use a temporarily powered module I can gauge when I pass the point of capacity stability.

Whilst the new capacitor tool in the fitting window is hardly critical when taking my Drake on level two mission encounters it is a nifty addition to the interface. It will prove useful for determining suitable ship set-ups without having to resort to a calculator or separate application, and any change that makes my computer do more calculations and myself fewer is a good change. It also reminds me that I need to improve my core competency skills.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Learning to trade

In producing modules and ammunition to sell to capsuleers in New Eden I have to pay some attention to my costs and the market. As I buy minerals from the market and the manufacturing plant costs ISK to run there is an overall cost per unit to be considered in order to make a profit, and that's without considering the initial costs of buying and researching the BPO. Because there is no point in manufacturing modules to sell them for a loss I cannot simply undercut everyone in the market or I will eventually bankrupt myself despite selling all my product.

Unfortunately, sometimes there are modules that are too readily available as rat loot, which end up on the market being sold below the cost of manufacture and make it difficult to earn any kind of profit on the item. It is possible to list the item with a suitable profit margin and wait for the cheap items to sell first, which also happens to be a useful strategy to keep prices on other items reasonable instead of desperately undercutting the competition just to sell your own units first. As long as the cheaper units sell quickly and are not then replaced you will still see the expected profit on your own units.

I have managed to manufacture one of the modules that sells apparently below cost, which is disappointing. I have a hundred of them sitting on the market, hoping someone would buy them so that I would at least not lose any ISK from the run, even if the profits were negligible. But some entrepreneur makes a bold move, buying up all the stupidly cheap listings of this module in the region and relisting them at a cost about twenty times what they were. It's a valid strategy, if risky. Only a twentieth of what has been bought needs to sell to make back the investment and anything after that is profit, but this assumes both that the initial modules aren't resupplied quickly and no one comes along to undercut the vastly inflated prices.

The new, outrageous prices work for me. I modify my sell orders quickly to increase my prices by an order of magnitude, sufficiently below the higher costs to look attractive yet now only requiring me to sell a tenth of my production run to recoup my costs. It takes a few days and although the sales only trickle I make back my ISK from the production run. The market price remains high but as each unit is under a hundred thousand ISK it is pocket change to capsuleers and I can expect a few more sales at least. I doubt I'll be making another production run of these modules but at least I found out that they are not generally profitable items whilst still recovering my costs.

Keeping track of the market and staying on top of prices is quite interesting. This is not like Elite, where there are generally fixed prices in certain areas and it is simply a matter of investing time to haul cheap items to expensive markets. Although there is still opportunity for buying low from NPCs and selling high the market is created and driven, and occasionally manipulated, by capsuleers. It is not just in the vacuum of space where capsuleers stalk quietly and strike hard, looking behind the scenes can offer just as rich an experience.

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Tags: eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Patch 3.1 changes to the battle for Wintergrasp

The recent patch to World of Warcraft brought about some changes to the Battle for Lake Wintergrasp, the regular zone-wide PvP engagement with which my death knight has been heavily involved.

One change is for server restarts and maintenance no longer to affect the outcome negatively. From the patch notes, 'the time between battles will be saved should a realm shut down. If Wintergrasp is active when a realm shuts down, the battle will restart from the beginning when the realm is once again live.' This kind of change only really matters when people actually read the patch notes, because when a server restart was announced on the server I play on everyone waiting to enter Wintergrasp almost started panicking. I tried to reassure everyone that the recent patch meant that if the restart occurred during the assault it would not result in automatic retention of Wintergrasp fortress by the Horde but it fell on deaf ears, as the call went up to win the battle with all due haste. It didn't even seem to matter that the restart had only been announced, the countdown timer itself nowhere to be seen. Indeed, we assault the fortress successfully and everyone is leaving the group before the fifteen minute countdown starts, by which time everyone must have forgotten about the reset in the heat of battle, as groups start to form to run the Vault of Archavon.

An interesting change to the battle for Wintergrasp is that the southern siege workshops can now be captured. There are two benefits to this, both for the defenders. First, the number of vehicles able to be fielded by each faction is determined by how many workshops under that faction's control, so by assaulting the southern workshops the defenders can deny the greater vehicular forces otherwise available to the attackers and gain more for themselves. Second, the journey to destroy the three southern towers is quite slow, in a vehicle that has enough power to destroy a tower efficiently, when vehicles could only exit the workshops in the fortress or the hotly-contested ones in the east and west of Wintergrasp. Now that the two southern workshops can be controlled by the defenders the journey to the towers may be made significantly shorter, providing quicker support from the graveyards and replacement vehicles. At least having the map show the workshops under the control of the defenders will indicate to the attackers the potential threat of the destruction of the towers. I forsee many more battles being shortened when the southern towers fall more easily, perhaps resulting in more battles being defended successfully.

Another change is to the daily quest No Mercy for the Merciless. The quest previously required twenty HKs for completion, which never seemed to be too many in most contested battles, although as the number of HKs needed has now dropped to ten it was apparently a strain for some players. I imagine it was more the way the HKs were previously counted that was the problem, not the number, because I could accumulate over thirty HKs half-way through a battle and still not have completed the quest. Whether you needed to damage a target or not I'm not sure, but it seemed to me, and I could be wrong, that the HKs needed to be against unique characters, with multiple kills on one character not counting. I think a suitable solution would have been to use the same code that counts HKs for the quest, as that would seem to be in the spirit of the quest.

Even so, dropping the number of HKs required for No Mercy for the Merciless is not the cause of concern, but rather counting NPC kills towards the quest. I understand that NPC kills have always counted towards a character's rank in Wintergrasp, but this is a necessary means to prevent the opposition from failing to turn up and making the fortress impenetrable, where instead NPC kills eventually allow vehicles to be piloted and the fortress walls demolished. But to allow the NPCs to count towards the PvP quest seems against the spirit of the zone and the battle. There is already a PvE daily quest in Wintergrasp, where players can collect drops from mobs for extra Stone Keeper's Shards and honour points, with the PvP twist that any PC corpse looted will garner five quest items to dramatically speed up the quest. Now it is perfectly possible to run around the zone outside of the battle and pick a fight with PvE mobs to complete the previously PvP No Mercy for the Merciless quest. I would have thought it preferable to encourage further participation in the battle for Wintergrasp than allow more actions to be accomplished outside of any PvP encounters.

Even with the changes, No Mercy for the Merciless will probably not change the enthusiasm displayed for entering Wintergrasp to engage in zone-wide PvP battles with siege engines. The reward of access to the Vault of Archavon instance by winning the battle outweighs the benefits of Stone Keeper's Shards and honour gained by completing the daily quests. That one of the quests is now easier to complete will perhaps prevent a little tension in some players. With the quest givers also no longer despawning for a couple of minutes at the start of the battle also being a positive change patch 3.1 looks to keep the battle for Wintergrasp an invigorating and extended PvP encounter.

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Tags: mmorpg, pvp, wintergrasp, world of warcraft

Moving up in quality

My aim to gain standings with Core Complexion, Inc. for access to their level four R&D agents is coming along slowly but surely. It is serendipitous that I based my industrial operations in a system, and station, for Core Complexion to give me ready access to some early agents. Even if the agents are in the manufacturing division and offer mostly courier missions the change in pace is welcome. The courier missions are simple and, working with a level two agent, quick to complete, allowing me to gain standing with the corporation quite quickly. Being able to fly courier missions almost as a background task is handy as well, although I still need to pay enough attention to note the pick-up location is my current station and not to leave my package sitting in the hangar as I jump across the constellation.

I even have a short-term goal with my standing gains for Core Complexion, Inc. My current agent is a level two agent with a quality rating of -17, which is quite low but a pleasant relief from having to run level one missions again. There is a level two agent with a quality rating of 14 just one system away, so not far removed from my manufacturing operations and still within my trading zone. My aim is to raise my standings enough to work for this agent, as it would improve my profits when running missions, although I am not sure if standings gains are affected by agent quality. It is perhaps not much of a goal, but it is good to have something specific to work towards.

My standings are crawling higher with each courier mission run. I get the occasional encounter, with my Drake battlecruiser scaring the level two mission rats in to self-destructing half the time, and even suffer through a few mining missions. I can monitor my current standings through the specific pane on my character sheet, seeing how favourable Core Complexion, Inc. is towards me. I also know what I am aiming for to be able to work with the other agent. Calling up the information for the corporation and working down the list of agents I can find the specific agent that appeals to me and bring up his details. Under the information for the agent is a note about how high my standings have to be in order for the agent to deal with me. For this agent, I need to gain a corporation standing of 2.8 before he'll start giving me missions. With my standing at 2.1 I have a few more missions to run first.

It is after I complete a standard courier run, delivering a birthday cake, or something terribly important like that, that EVE Mail starts buzzing at me. As my journal icon lights up at the same time it is clear that a storyline agent is trying to get my attention. And it's working, because storyline missions not only offer improved rewards for their level but also significant standing gains. Checking with the preliminary details loaded in to my journal I see that not only is this a storyline mission but a mission in four parts. I am curious enough about how much standing I will gain from such a chain of missions that I dedicate some time towards completing it straight away.

The missions are fairly straightforward, three encounters with a single courier mission mixed in, and are not arduous to complete. My Drake and its drones make light work of the encounters and I even find that I have the powergrid and CPU to fit a tractor beam in the remaining high slot of the sluggish battlecruiser to make picking up dropped cargo a swifter affair. I make a note of my current standings with the corporation before formally completing the final part of the mission and I find that I gain a splendid 0.7 boost to my standings for the successful completion!

That boost to my standings is just enough to give me access to the higher-quality manufacturing agent one system away. I will move my ships across and start getting missions from the new agent, for better rewards and hopefully quicker standing gains. A quick check with the list of agents for Core Complexion, Inc. shows that I probably only need to run a few more missions before low-quality level three agents become available. My only challenge will be to find one sufficiently local. Being able to work with level three agents will also give me a boost in my research capabilities, one I will be sure to make use of. I continue to make good progress towards Tech II invention.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

More than a spreadsheet in space

EVE Online is often described as a spreadsheet in space, which is quite fitting given that it rarely hides numbers from players, often presenting them to ten decimal places or more, and features a calculator built-in to the user interface, but it is disappointing to read people dismissing the game because of this description. Not only is there far more to EVE Online than crunching numbers it is unfair to label the game as a maths simulator without considering comparisons.

Whilst there is certainly ample opportunity to get involved with numerous calculations in EVE Online, to consider its position unique in the world of MMORPGs is short-sighted. Complex calculations are at the heart of all MMORPGs, the only difference being how transparent they are to the player and how much they can be influenced. EVE Online hides as little as possible from the player, giving significant data for almost every system and function available, whereas other games like World of Warcraft obscure some of the data behind a veneer of simplicity. However, presenting a simplistic interface to a complex system has its drawbacks.

In World of Warcraft players have to direct their characters to target dummies and put them through physical workouts to determine the DPS they can generate. Despite the availability of plenty of figures given on the character sheet and abilities there is no simple method of calculating the effectiveness of the set-up. Because of this, it can be seen as a benefit, not a drawback, to be able to calculate theoretically the tracking speed of your guns, the stability of your capacitor, or the effective strength of your ECM systems in EVE Online, instead of having to hit vacuum and determine the results through practical tests.

It may be that the complication of a third-party program is needed to perform the necessary calculations for EVE Online spaceship fittings, but that a utility is available again can be considered a benefit. Dedicated World of Warcraft players also rely on separate, third-party software to determine theoretical limits to damage output, running many iterations of attacks to calculate optimal combat ability combinations, or 'rotations'. But the number of people who actually work through the maths is likely to be small compared to those who only glean the results, or even don't bother with the maths in the first place, whatever the game.

Essentially, having to perform calculations only affects the player as much as the player wants them to. I have been quite content to fly around the galaxy in blissful ignorance of any optimal set-up as long as my shields hold up and the rats are exploding. If my shields seem weak I fit a booster or another extender to the ship. If the rats aren't exploding quickly enough I fit a module or look for skills to train in to increase my damage. And if my ship's CPU doesn't have enough available cycles I add a coprocessor, just as if my powergrid isn't sufficient for the load I add more juice. There is no maths here, just trial-and-error, learning from experience.

It is all a bit of a balancing game and I probably could save some mismatches by calculating power and CPU usage against module needs, but the point is that I don't have to. The numbers were abstract for a long time and, to be honest, still are to some extent. For example, I have in the past calculated the flight time of my missiles to determine their maximum range, but I am really content simply to fire at the rats to see if my missiles reach and make a mental note of the potential range than call up data sheets and crunch some numbers. After all, missiles are cheap.

I have probably spent more time with calculations and experiments in World of Warcraft than I have in EVE Online. When levelling up my death knight I spent time finding out what stats were best to modify and the optimal use of abilities, which was made more awkward by the opacity of the numbers and having to find out relations between the various stats and abilities. I am far from alone in delving in to the mechanics of a class, as a quick scan of articles written by progression raiders in World of Warcraft will show just how much maths is used when determining optimal equipment, which stat is most useful to squeeze out that extra 1% DPS.

All of this is not to declare that there is no maths in EVE Online, quite the contrary. There are large numbers of articles and guides for EVE Online with plenty of maths in them, but the ready availability of the numbers for any game mechanic makes it much easier to get involved. I wouldn't be surprised that if the numbers were more transparent in World of Warcraft more players would be willing to spend time optimising their characters through theoretical means. It is all because understanding the mechanics is a necessity if you want to experience the high-end content of an MMORPG, whether it is to battle it out in null-sec, or even in low-sec, in EVE Online or raiding the end-game instances in World of Warcraft. Either way, you had better be prepared to consider optimal configurations. The amount of mathematical knowledge required for EVE Online is no different than other games, given a fair comparison of playing styles.

Jumping in to a pod in EVE Online to run a PvE mission is as simple as fitting some offensive and defensive modules and getting a feel for what works, just as levelling up in World of Warcraft is as simple as throwing looted greens on to your character and seeing what works. It is only when you want to get serious that you need to start considering the maths behind the scenes. That EVE Online doesn't make players work to uncover relations between displayed and actual figures but instead makes it trivial to find the specific numbers and equations should be applauded, not denigrated. Calling EVE Online 'The Spreadsheet in Space' is not a disparaging term, but an affectionate one.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg

My first datacores

I have some datacores! I only have a handful, and only of one type, so I am not about to start inventing, but it is progress. I started the research process not too long ago, racking up twenty five research points a day from a low quality level two agent. With each datacore costing fifty research points I knew it would take a while to accumulate a sensible amount, but it is better to start sooner than later, particularly as there is no drawback to dealing with a single R&D agent.

The rate of accumulation of research points is not calculated once a day, at which time twenty five points are added to a total, but typically for EVE Online the points are accumulated continually at the stated overall rate. I find this out when checking to see whether I could afford my first datacore and noting that I have earned a number of research points down to two decimal places, not a multiple of twenty five. Whilst a daily accumulation would be useful for my current agent, with a datacore's worth of points gained ever other day, if other agents don't earn research points in handy divisions or multiples of fifty the steady increase will be beneficial.

I will need to work with other R&D agents too, if only because invention looks to require at least two types of datacore per job. Whilst it is possible to work with a single R&D agent at any time, to work with more than one at once requires the research project management skill. It could be possible to gain all needed datacores by starting research with one agent, grabbing some datacores and then abandoning that agent to work with another, but it would need a lot of managing. Working simultaneously with multiple agents will be much more efficient. The only problem is that the required skill book costs forty million ISK, which isn't quite petty cash for me yet.

I have thought about selling the early datacores I get to fund the purchase of the expensive skill book, which would then let me accumulate datacores at double the rate, at least. But unless I can sell the datacores for a hundred million ISK each I think the problem will remain psychological in basis, not wanting to fork out forty million ISK for something I can't pilot through space or cause doomsday explosions with. My industrial operations are still turning good profits, though, so hopefully soon I will bite the bullet and buy the research project management book.

Even though I probably won't sell the cores I want some tangible proof that I am making progress, which is why I pay my agent a visit and buy the datacores off him. He had contacted me before with some garbled message about there being problems with the research and that I should visit him, but I was prepared for his attention-seeking tomfoolery. The R&D section of Karox's EVE Online Guides helpfully point out that you can ignore such pleas and research will continue normally, so there is no need to rush half-way across the region just to spice up your agent's dull day of research with tales of hunting deadly pirates in null-sec or, in my case, making another batch of missiles.

As I am visiting my R&D agent anyway I see what the fuss is about. He apparently needs some documents that are in another station, in the same system, orbiting a moon of the same planet. Research agents may be smart in some ways but it seems they haven't heard of shuttles. That's not such a bad situation, though, as for a minute of effort docking a couple of times I am rewarded with an additional twenty five research points. It's not quite enough to get an extra datacore but it is a useful boost. Just after I undock from the station I get another mail, from the same agent I just left, informing me he's encountered another problem. Silly man.

It may be worth dedicating some time keeping my research agent happy, though, not only to get more research points and thus datacores but also for the standings gains and working towards storyline missions for the corporation. But at least I leave the station with some electronic engineering datacores in my hold, some tangible proof that I am making progress towards Tech II invention.

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Tags: eve online, industry, invention, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

The beginning of the end

Just as my death knight reaches 80th level I feel compelled to push my warrior to the current level cap in World of Warcraft. Being over half-way through 79th level it shouldn't take too long to complete the levelling adventure, even if it has been five months since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion was released. I head out to the Storm Peaks to continue my questing with the Sons of Hodir, where I ride tediously slow hunting bears, hurl boulders at giants and leap across dragon mounts to fight what seems like a mile above the ground.

My questing brings me close to reaching the final level, but it is the offer of a trip to the Culling of Stratholme, the daily instance quest, that will surely complete the effort. Going back to before Stratholme was burnt is an amazing experience but, unfortunately, just as reaching 80th level on my death knight was anticlimactic—as I was fighting multiple mobs at the time and honestly didn't notice gaining the level, and no one from my guild was on-line to notice—so it was too with my warrior. I hit 80th level in the instance and no one in the group, apart from the accompanying guild member, pays it any attention. Moreover, shortly afterwards the hunter in the party is quite rude to me, to the point where he is making the game more of a chore than an amusement, so I quit the group and log out. But at least I made it to 80th level.

Now that both my characters are 80th level I am left with a curious question of what to do next. There doesn't seem much point in doing quests for the sake of doing quests, as I won't be gaining XP from them. I am in a small guild that runs maybe one instance a week, and relying on PuGs for 80th level group content seems rather masochistic given recent experiences. There is always the battle for Lake Wintergrasp, but that happens once every three hours or so, and the PvP battlegrounds occur only sporadically. This leaves me with grinding for reputation and working on achievements. Playing for reputation and achievements doesn't sound particularly appealing, until I realise that is effectively what I have been doing for the past handful of levels anyway.

The actual levelling process has been an effect of playing the game, not my motivation. I have had short-term goals, though. There have been annoying restrictions on content throughout my Northrend adventuring, which I have pushed passed. I reached 74th level so that I could enter Dalaran, 76th level to 'unlock' Sholazar Basin and Zul'Drak—too late to be useful—77th to enable the use of flying mounts in Northrend, 78th so that I could pick up the daily quests for Wintergrasp, and 80th finally to use the best crafted gear and PvP rewards available. But I only wanted to reach these levels because they were artificial restrictions on the game content, I was happy to enjoy the regions and quests on their own otherwise.

I also took time to get some achievements, most recently Ambassador of the Alliance for Sapphire, as well as visiting instances missed on my way to Outlands and Northrend, both for Sapphire and Gnomesblight. These excursions offered little, if anything, in the way of XP and tangible rewards but they held personal interest to me. And there are other achievements that I was interested in getting, like exploring every region of every continent, but purposely delayed them whilst I wasn't 80th level, because there seemed to be more meaningful objectives to complete whilst it was possible to gain XP. Now that I am 80th level I should be able to revisit these achievements, like World Explorer, Loremaster, and Well Read, knowing that I am working towards a set goal and am not distracting myself from anything more relevant.

Effectively, nothing has changed about the way I play the game, the only difference is that I am no longer gaining XP or have any new levels to reach. It's still funny how reaching an arbitrary limit that I wasn't particularly aiming for has had such a halting effect on me, though.

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Tags: gnomesblight, mmorpg, sapphire, world of warcraft