Flying in an air show IN SPACE

Despite being new enough in the region that few agents are willing to give me any work, and the recent loss of the mining colony, my lowly level one agent strokes my ego by praising my piloting skills before inviting me to participate in a Minmatar-Gallente air show. As the show will take place in space I'm a little hazy where the 'air' comes in to the equation, but I'm quite enjoying being told how 'mad' my 'skills' are so I agree to take part. I'm quite eager to perform some barrel rolls.

My first task is to jump to a different system to pick up my entrance badge for the show. I suppose this weeds out all the poseurs who don't know their pod from their elbow. My agent is awfully happy that I passed this first stage, happy enough to reward me with a Gallente shuttle in which I can perform my acrobatics at the show. I would have much more gratefully received the new ship if I hadn't bought a Caldari shuttle about half-an-hour earlier, but it's the thought that counts and at least I can now thrash the nuts off the Gallente shuttle to give a proper display.

The air show begins, crowds waiting for spectacle and entertainment! To give a good show for all the stands I need to fly to a series of beacons as quickly as I can. This should be easy enough, so to make it more of a challenge I decide to fly it ten minutes before the daily galactic shutdown. I warp to the air show arena in deadspace and start scanning for the first beacon, but the only beacon I can see is the one marking the deadspace region. I calmly start punching every button in my pod, as I imagine a crescendo of boos and hisses rising from an audience watching the thrills of a shuttle floating in space, until I get the overview showing every object in space.

Ah, the beacons are not 'beacons' but 'large collidable structures', the very objects that clutter up my overview in just about every other mission and so are routinely removed from my settings. It would have been nice to know in advance. Now that I see the first beacon I set my shuttle to maximum velocity and fly my pants off racing from beacon to beacon.

My next task is to rescue a pilot who gave a spectacular performance of crashing his ship in to an asteroid and then blow up some drones to give the audience a fireworks display of explosions, before the finale of a high-speed fly-past. 'If you can use and fit a micro-warp drive please feel free to do so. You'll go crazy fast!' my agent tells me. Why, yes, I can use MWDs, let me jump in to my frigate for some 2,000 m/s action.

Of course, I know I'm heading in to a pocket of deadspace and that warp drives, micro or otherwise, don't work in deadspace, hence the name. But my agent wouldn't specifically say that I should use an MWD if I have one if it won't work when I get there, would he? Yes, yes he would. I drop out of warp and start my supposedly spectacular high-speed fly-past by crawling past the stands at sub-shuttle speeds, my ship's computer repeatedly complaining that I cannot use the MWD because of interference.

Stupid agent. Little wonder he languishes at level one.

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Tags: deadspace, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Freezing on two wheels

I really shouldn't have ridden my motorbike to work this morning. I saw a sprinkling of snow outside when I opened the curtains, unseasonably early, but the road and pavement looked clear. When I got outside the road seemed to be grippy, testing it with my boots, even if there was some icy snow on my bike cover. I told myself to take it easy and that once I get to the main roads everything should be fine.

It didn't seem fine once I got to the main roads, looking a little hazardous. If I could have found a safe place to turn around I would have done so, but there was nowhere to do this safely for a few miles so I cautiously continued. The motorway will be fine, I told myself, with all the traffic and its warm tyres making the road safe, and that seemed to be the case. The motorway seemed clear and grippy and I happily continued my journey.

Unfortunately, there had been an accident further up the motorway and traffic slowed down to a crawl. I'm not sure why the message boards were informing me earlier of the M40 being closed over two junctions when it could have mentioned something about two lanes being closed on the road I was on, but it wouldn't have changed anything. With traffic moving slowly I started filtering between the cars, working my way through the traffic.

I stopped filtering when my bike became really light on the back wheel. A small dab of the back brake confirmed that I was on some black ice! I stuck down both feet and felt them glide across a smooth surface as I edged carefully in to a lane, my feet luckily finding some grip along a track followed by car tyres. I can't remember the last time I was that worried, about anything.

I passed the accident, which involved two cars and I wouldn't be surprised if it had been caused by the ice, and tip-toed my way up the rest of my motorway journey, keeping on a straight line and a car track. I was able to get to work safely, if with a sense of dread and rather more rapid breathing than is normal. I didn't dare riding around to the staff car park, rightly imagining it to be an untended blanket of ice and snow, parking in the visitor's car park instead for today.

I hope the ice clears up by the time I go home. This morning was the most treacherous journey I can remember taking on the bike, several times knowing that I was riding over ice. I need to pay more attention to warning signs and take the car instead, and at least know I am more aware of what constitutes a warning. Frost isn't too bad, just cold, but today's weather posed a significant risk.

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Tags: ice, motorbike, motorway, snow

Removing the drone threat

My Minmatar agent is actually happy to see my Caldari self! His low quality rating at level one has meant that just about everyone abandons him quite soon after meeting and I think he's just pleased to have the company. He may also be pleased to get a damned drone infestation sorted out in the system, which may well have been lingering for quite a while with no suitable capsuleers hanging around. I'm glad to take on the mission. Even though the Caldari Navy have seen what I can do no one in this region has any idea who I am and I feel lucky just to get work. Now is the time to prove my worth.

I get towed out of the station and set my warp drive active, heading out to the deadspace region where the drones are making a nuisance of themselves. There are three packs loitering with malicious intent, like youths outside a Quafe's, so I get to work cleaning up. My light missiles make short work of the puny drones, which isn't surprising for a capsuleer with a couple of months experience, and I start moving towards the acceleration gate to warp to the next deadspace pocket to hunt for any further drones.

As the engines of Funshine Bear, my frigate, start flaring to push me towards the gate another wave of drones appears within a couple of dozen of kilometres. I'd better take care of them before moving on, but I am wondering where they came from. I didn't detect any ships warping in to the pocket so they must have been docked somewhere. The only structure in the deadspace pocket is a base close by, a mining colony, so I lock-on to it and loose some missiles towards it. The flimsy structure explodes magnificently, with quite possibly the second biggest explosion I've ever seen.

This must surely put a stop to the drones' interference in the system, allowing the, um, hmm. I'm not sure with what operation the drones were interfering, I simply assumed that drones are bad to have hanging around pestering people. Let me call up the mission log as I warp, assisted by the acceleration gate. Ah, protect the mining operation from a drone infestation. Maybe I should gloss over my extra work in the report I give to my agent when I return. As I drop out of warp I continue to practice my line, 'it was like that when I found it'.

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Tags: deadspace, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Codeweavers destroys the American Economy

A few months back Codeweavers announced their Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge, stating some positive but audacious goals to be met before Bush left office. If any one of the goals was met then Codeweavers would hand out free licences to their Crossover software. One of the goals was for the cost of petrol to drop a dollar from the price when writing the challenge. With the recent collapse of the US economy petrol prices did just that.

Jeremy White, CEO of Codeweavers, writes in a statement:

[W]hile ostensibly President Bush was to get the credit/blame for meeting our goals, the bottom line is that I cannot help but feel personally responsible for the greatest financial collapse since the 1930s.

How was I to know that President Bush would take my challenge so seriously? And, give the man credit, I didn't think there was any way he could pull it off. But engineering a total market meltdown - wow - that was pure genius. I clearly underestimated the man.

What an arsehole. He should have known better than to challenge Bush like that.

Ah well, the whole US economy is down the toilet, but at least White is delivering on his promise of giving away Crossover licences. For one day only, all Crossover software is being offered for free. That's right, head over to the Codeweavers site on Tuesday 28th October and get a free copy of Crossover Mac, Crossover Games, or Crossover Linux. Existing customers can extend their support for a year for free too.

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Tags: codeweavers, crossover games, crossover mac

Roaming low-sec space

My time comes to enter low-sec space in New Eden, EVE Online's galaxy, as part of a small corporation fleet. The director of the corporation makes it clear that we are not pirates picking on the weak and defenceless, but there's nothing wrong in looking for a fight. Low-sec space is dangerous because there is no security response from CONCORD should missiles start flying and lasers pulsing, and people know this. Jumping between systems is dangerous in itself, because there is no way of knowing for sure what is on the other end of the stargate without someone being there to tell you, and to get in to the system you need to jump through a stargate.

One tell-tale sign of trouble is the presence of ships on your side of the stargate. Well, big ships are definite trouble, perhaps a gate camp in itself. But smaller ships, or even a lone shuttle, could just as well be a scout, someone who can inform the gate camp on the other side of the stargate who and what is jumping in to their system.

If there is no one around the only way to tell is by jumping yourself. One member of the fleet, suitably equipped, makes the jump through the gate and investigates what is on the other side. I'm not entirely sure what happens if there is a squadron of ships waiting, whether he warps away or tries to jump back to us, but the rest of us don't follow until we get acknowledgement that the gate on the other side is clear. Indeed, most of the time we are distant from the stargate in a safe spot, waiting for the signal before we even warp to the stargate.

Once in a system it is scanned for other ships. The local channel offers a headcount but gives no information as to where the capsuleer is or what he is flying. If he can be traced he is scouted, and if he's a viable target we warp in to engage. That's the theory. Most of the time is spent getting several systems deep in to low-sec safely, before trying to track down a suitable target. It is not assured and if no target is available we need to move to the next system, again taking the necessary precautions.

The first excitement of the evening comes when some ships are detected in the system. Deciding to take a chance we warp in as a fleet to see what awaits, hopefully catching some pilots sufficiently unawares to gain a good early advantage. As we drop out of warp we are met by a well-organised mining operation. It is well-organised because there are several battleships as well as some smaller ships protecting the mining barges and we consider ourselves lucky to warp out as quickly as we had warped in. Everyone makes it out cleanly.

Our next dose of danger comes when lingering at zero-point from a stargate waiting for the signal to jump through. As we wait, we are told that several large ships have dropped out of warp at the gate on the other side and are jumping through. We need to warp to a safe location rapidly! Quickly selecting a celestial object, on my overview newly set-up for PvP operations, I punch the warp drive and get clear. After a few seconds all wings report that they made it cleanly away from the gate, with one saying that he saw the big guns arrive in the system. It looks to be another roaming gang and they warp away from the gate, not wanting to draw attention to themselves, leaving it clear for us to return to and jump through safely.

For the time spent in low-sec there are only those two moments of dangerous excitement, with no combat engagements. Re-entering high-sec space is something of a relief, allowing me to jump freely from system to system until I am happily back in a station. I had a great time for my first operation and I learnt about flying in a fleet, safe spots, and how a small operation is run in the corporation. I am looking forward to the next one.

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Tags: eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp

Preparing to roam low-sec

Still being wet behind the ears in EVE Online's galaxy of New Eden I am far from capable of spearheading an attack in low-sec, but that doesn't mean I cannot be useful in a fleet. Whilst I understand that ratting, particularly in high-sec, needs little more than tanking and damage capabilities there are more tactical roles available in PvP. The best way I can put my abilities to use is in irritating player-targets, and for that I am perfectly suited to the task. Doing no damage I present a lower immediate threat than the rest of my fleet, so hopefully won't be targeted directly, instead employing electronic warfare to disrupt my opponent's systems. Essentially, I debuff the target.

Whilst the Inquisitor is perhaps the most suitable Amarr frigate for me to pilot for mission running, with a good number of high fitting slots for weapons, some research shows that it is not really the best choice for roaming low-sec space with my corporation. For that, I bought myself a Crucifier, another Amarr frigate, which I named Friend Bear. It has a greater number of medium and low fitting slots than the Inquisitor, where the medium slots allow more modules that can disrupt the target to be fitted and having overdrive modules in the low slots boosts my ship's speed considerably.

Being fast sounds like a good way to survive. The base speed of the Crucifier is listed as 245 m/s. To see what effect my navigation skill training and overdrive units will have I take the ship out for a spin, finding I can push the engines to reach speeds over 400 m/s. Then I engage the 1 MN micro warp drive and soon find myself shooting along at over 2 km/s! That seems pretty handy, although I'm aware that others could easily be travelling faster than me or slowing me down in a web, or both. But it was still nifty to swing the ship around a minute later and find myself far enough away from the station I just exited that I could use use my main warp drive to get back again.

Hooking up with another coporation member gives me the opportunity to test the effectiveness of my disruptive capabilities. I lock on to his ship and power my modules, whilst he runs system diagnostic checks. He is satisfied, almost impressed, by the annoyance factor I inflict upon his systems. It seems that I am ready to begin roaming low-sec space as part of a fleet, at least from an equipment perspective. I know I still have a lot to learn about operations and combat. As I will pick up that knowledge through experience it must be time to join a corporation fleet and head in to low-sec.

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Tags: crucifier, eve online, inquisitor, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp

Back to level one mission running

Finding a new agent to work with in a completely new region is not as straightforward as I would like. I know how to find agents, that isn't a problem, it's more that the agents are presented in the organisational charts in order of agent quality, an order that I don't think can be changed. Whilst this certainly is a help when trying to find a new agent of higher quality in the same division—a feature I took full advantage of when working for the Caldari Navy—when trying to find someone to work with in a new area it would be far more useful to be able to see at a glance how many jumps away an agent's offices are located.

I'm still getting used to a handful of local systems, although quite quickly finding some useful routes, without having to wonder if any particular agent is actually based in the same region as me. I could get information about his office and locate the system on the star map but having to go backwards and forwards through information screens for each possible agent is too much of a chore. Eventually I manage to find an agent who is both local and not wallowing in a massively negative quality rating. I manage this by using the highly technical approach of jumping from system to system along the path I am using between corporation activities and the trading hub, then from station to station until I find an appropriate agent. I can work out a better choice of agent once I am more familiar with the region and have gained a better standing, opening up greater choice of agents to me.

Level one mission running is pretty easy, particularly when helped along by a couple of extra months of appropriate skill training. Funshine Bear, my Inquisitor, is quite capable of blasting through the tiny rats I encounter on missions, although moving from shield tanks to an armour tank will take some time to get used to. At least I am up and running in the new region, improving my standings with local factions and becoming familiar with the different technology so that I can be an asset to my corporation.

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

Going down

The new World of Warcraft achievement of Going Down, awarded when a character falls 65 yards without dying, is a rather dubious honour. It seems to exist for two basic reasons. One is to cause a huge pile of skeletons to appear at the bottom of the Aldor Rise, the other for excellent comics to be drawn. I know this, so why do I still try to attain the achievement?

I can see the reasoning behind such an achievement. If you've managed to get in to a position where you've accidentally fallen or escaped by jumping from a great height but survived to tell the tale the achievement is a neat medal of sorts. It is not an achievement in the sense of learning another language would be, but it is still a remarkable occurrence that deserves to be recorded. The problem comes from presenting the achievement in advance as something that can be earned.

Something that can be earned quickly becomes something that is to be earned when there is knowledge of an assured reward. If Going Down were not to be stated so precisely, leaving some mystery as to whether one needed to survive or how far the fall needed to be, maybe fewer people would aim to accomplish the 'achievement'. It would be like people getting a medal for being stabbed in the chest. If you tell people the depth and length the wound needed to be in order to be rewarded with the medal there would no doubt be people willing to risk serious injury for some recognition. If the details are kept secret there are likely to be far fewer faked stabbings. It could be that the wound needs to be sustained during a bank robbery, for example. By telling people exactly what needs to be achieved they can attempt it, even if it means doing something stupid.

Without firm details of how Going Down is rewarded people will not know if you need to be in combat before the fall, or flagged for PvP, or had to have jumped off the ledge instead of simply falling. But by stating precisely all that needs to be done you get hordes of people suddenly throwing themselves off high ledges, long after it was fashionable to leap from great heights.

That's not to say that stating what needs to be accomplished for an achievement is wrong. Indeed, knowing which critters you have yet to /love, zones you need to visit, or dungeon bosses you need to defeat to be rewarded with an achievement lends itself to a positive goal, a constructive effort to encourage exploration of many facets of the game. But for achievements that are passive side-effects of having done something normally undesirable it is perhaps best to leave the details unmentioned, for it will only lead to players performing negative actions to the detriment of the game.

What I have learnt from the achievement system is that if one WoW player throws himself off a cliff they all will do it.

Of course, without stating what needs to be accomplished there will still be someone who runs in to a room full of hatching whelp eggs to see if that triggers some kind of achievement, but Leeroy Jenkins happened long before an achievement system was in place and thankfully there is no suppressing that kind of spirit.

For information, Sapphire managed to get the Going Down achievement by jumping askew off the top of the Scryer's lift, surviving the fall with only 158 health left from over 6000. It was about my fifth attempt at achieving the goal, having left my own skeletal remains beneath Aldor rise previously.

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Tags: achievements, sapphire, world of warcraft

Failing to accept a mission

I have been a bit preoccupied of late to concern myself with running too many missions in EVE Online, what with preparing to relocate a few regions distant after joining a corporation as well as being in a different country for a while. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a series of linked missions that my agent had, codenamed New Frontiers. As each individual's mission is completed new information surfaces for the agent that prompts a subsequent mission.

You normally get a week to agree to the terms before the mission proposal is automatically rejected, and this standard period only begins once an agent has been contacted for a mission. With linked missions the agent is assumed to have been contacted as soon as you notify him of the current mission's success, because the impending nature of the circumstances requires a swifter response. Having a week to agree to undertake a mission often seems like long enough, too long indeed, but when you cannot choose when that week starts it can become quite the deadline.

After I brought home the mad scientist I was alerted by my agent about his personality perhaps being a rogue intelligence in a drone in the system, or something like that. I had been meaning to get more details from my agent and seek out the deadly drone, but other events ended up taking priority. Now my agent sends me a message letting me know that the symbiont has escaped from the system. Not just that, but it is because of my lethargic response or improper priorities that allowed the symbiont to escape. It is on my head and who knows what havoc it is wreaking?

I knew I had the mission to accept, the symbiont to track down and destroy, just as I knew that I would perhaps not be available. I could have contacted my agent and told him so, but I was still hoping that I could find the time to complete the New Frontiers mission. The interesting aspect is how personal it feels to fail to accomplish a mission. It feels like I have let down my agent. It also feels like I have missed an opportunity, to explore more of the galaxy and to help make a difference.

I know that circumstances will probably arise in the future that mean I could get a similar experience on a different mission, but for some reason that doesn't seem to be the point. The availability and urgency of EVE Online missions makes New Eden seem a more dynamic world, one where my actions matter and have repercussions.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Floating in space

The autopilot's warning that I was entering a low-sec system should have been... well, a warning. I have loaded the cargo hold of my Drake up with useful systems that I don't want to buy again when I reach my new corporation's base of operations and am slowly jumping my way across New Eden. I thought I had my autopilot set up to avoid low-sec systems, taking a circuitous but more secure route, so I dismiss the warning. The autopilot is probably just being over-protective. Besides, I need to get to my destination and if the autopilot tells me this is the way to go I don't have much choice. What's the worst that can happen?

The worst that can happen is being warp-scrambled immediately upon entering a system a couple of jumps later before being relentlessly attacked, getting my Drake destroyed and then being podded, leaving my frozen corpse floating in space. I tell a lie, the worst that could happen would be all of that whilst not having an up-to-date clone or ship insurance. Luckily, I have kept my clone up-to-date and, despite forgetting to check my insurance policy before leaving dock, my Drake is insured. My clone wakes up—I wake up—in a medical facility back where I started.

Being blown up and thoroughly killed is a little irritating but in this case it is not a disaster. It is certainly embarrassing to be killed by a gate camp in my most expensive ship loaded to the brim with equipment, all because I forgot to double-check the autopilot settings before leaving on a long and potentially dangerous journey. I was pretty much asking to be targeted. But it's not the end of the world. Indeed, I am travelling half-way across the galaxy essentially to make a new start, so what better way to accomplish this more effectively than to have my most precious possession taken away from me.

It is time to begin my new life. I make arrangements for a new clone to be prepared, buy some simple implants to help me think extra smartly, and get a new ship. I buy myself an Amarr Inquisitor frigate and christen it Funshine Bear, before fitting it with some rudimentary modules. It is difficult to remember from a few months ago how to fit a frigate, although I think I still need to learn what modules are available in the extensive market. Changing to an Amarr ship also changes fitting choices, because of the differences in technology. Well, if you can call Amarr ships technological. Being Caldari I feel dirty piloting the Inquisitor, but I suppose it is good camouflage.

I am not going to take much with me on my journey this time, just a couple of extra modules that I can buy hopefully cheaply in Jita that will be helpful to change my configuration between mission running and PvP. Before I leave dock I make two last arrangements: I buy insurance for my new ship and check that my autopilot is now set to avoid low-sec systems. With both tasks performed I hit vacuum for the first time in a non-Caldari vessel and point myself to the first stargate.

The journey is a blur, entering interesting systems only to pass through them immediately, stopping for nothing. The technology of the stargates changes the further out I go, until I arrive at my designated system. I pick a space station at random and arrange to dock, and the different layout and technology makes me feel a long distance from home. I now need to find a suitable agent to start running some missions to pass the time between roaming in a corporation fleet, and the two in my current station refuse to talk to me despite their low quality rating. My Caldari contacts and reputation mean nothing out here, I almost need to start again.

Investigating the list of agents reveals another confusion, in that I recognise none of the systems listed and have no idea where they are, either relative to my location or on the map itself. I feel thoroughly lost and will need time to become familiar with my new surroundings. But it is getting late and I have had quite the evening. I wandered out of secure space and got myself blown up and killed, then changed everything and started a new life on the other side of the galaxy. Finding my first Minmatar agent to work with can wait until another day. I still have my first PvP encounter to work up to.

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Tags: amarr, autopilot, caldari, clone, drake, eve online, inquisitor, jita, minmatar, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, podded, pvp