In Bruges

20th October 2008 – 7.55 am

I took a short trip, travelling on a Eurostar train through the Channel Tunnel before being picked up by the tour operator in Lille and driven by coach on to Bruges. The journey was pleasant and uneventful with relatively little fuss crossing the borders. A quick wave of the passport in St Pancras to start with and then full speed across the French-Belgian border.

Bruges is wonderfully picturesque, nearly all the buildings and roads are ancient with remarkable brick and stonework. It is also quite small. Although there are some bus routes through the city the main form of public transport is hiring a bicycle, but even that wasn't necessary as strolling around town is quick and easy, with plenty of sights to enjoy on the way.

I saw the only Michelangelo sculpture outside of Italy, Madonna with Child, in Our Lady's Church. I had a tour through a local brewery, which was interesting but smelly. There was a demonstration of chocolate making from one of the three places in Bruges that still makes all their own chocolate in the shop, which was also smelly but in a much nicer way, and offered a small taste of their finished product on the way out. The chocolate maker was remarkably professional, as when he spilt a bit of molten chocolate on his finger he calmly wiped it off on a towel instead of shoving his whole hand in to his mouth, which would have been my temptation.

My fear of heights was tested when I ascended the Belfry in the town square, to get some excellent views of the city and surroundings. I was fine when in the belfry itself, surrounded by solid structures and on steady floors, but going up and down the narrow, steep spiral staircase had me close to panicking a few times, particularly when there were open stone windows half-way up. I got some good photographs, seeing as far out as Zeebrugge, and for some reason all the public museums were opened free of charge that day, the Belfry included, so at least I didn't pay for the privilege of inducing a mild state of panic. Taking advantage of the free admissions I also visited an apothecary museum and the diamond museum, although the latter turned out to be privately owned and wasn't free.

There was a day trip to Ypres. We visited the Tyne Cot Cemetery to commemorate the history of the region, as well as a small museum at Hill 62, which has some trenches amongst other features. Moving on to Ypres saw us pass through the Menin Gate in to the city. In Ypres it is stunning to see how beautifully rebuilt the city is after it was reduced entirely to rubble during the First World War. It was quite a stirring day.

Back in Bruges, you had better like slaagroom because it is served with many foods and drinks, including chocolate, coffee and waffles, often with additional slaagroom as an option. The language barrier existed but most people spoke excellent English, partly because of the tourist industry and partly because of the ties between the countries, and most menus had translations available. It was quite easy to work out that slaagroom is cream, but other foods weren't quite so easy to translate. For example, when trying to work out what speculoos was, or why I'd want extra speculoos on our ice cream, the menu wasn't too helpful. 'Speculoos' was translated as 'speculoos'. It was later that I discovered 'speculoos' is a brand name of some brown sugar biscuits, hence the translation trouble.

There is plenty to see and visit in Bruges, as well as lots to eat, and I had a splendid short break. I brought home some authentic Belgian chocolate, which I shall thoroughly enjoy. Kenickie took care of everything at home, including bringing home a dead mouse or two, and he was happy to see me return.

Capsuleer mobile skill tracking

19th October 2008 – 6.09 pm

In my overview of portable EVE Online skil tracking last week I mentioned how I wasn't able to get Capsuleer running, only trying EVE Tracker as a result. I will point out again that it was only because I had shut down my computer and didn't want to power it back on just to send a formatted e-mail to get the application working. Roc Wieler hoped that I would still give Capsuleer a try, which was a nice reminder from Mr Capsuleer himself to get the program running.

With my computer up and running I followed the instructions on the Capsuleer welcome page, informing me about having to construct the specially formatted e-mail. I am to send an e-mail with a link in it in the format of evechar://localhost?userid=<eve-api-user-id>&key=<eve-api-key>, replacing the userid and key fields with the appropriate strings from the EVE Online API details page so that I can read it on my iPod Touch. I then select the link on the device and it is handled by the Capsuleer application, loading my EVE Online character details as required.

The only trouble is that when trying to add a link to Mail in OS X, using the appropriate menu option as detailed on the Capsuleer welcome page, the evechar protocol isn't recognised and I am denied the option to insert a link that begins in such a way. Sending the line without it being formatted as a link prevents it from being selectable on the iPod Touch, so it needs to be recognised as a link before being sent. A quick search shows that the writer of the application has discovered this too and he has issued a workaround for Mail.app's inability to create an evechar link.

The method is to copy the link in to TextEdit and format it as a link in that application before copying it in to Mail. Sadly, this also does not work. I am not sure if it works in an older version of OS X or if it was simply not tested, but a string beginning with evechar is not recognised at all under Leopard. In trying to get the e-mail sent I also noticed that the Capsuleer welcome page has a slash after 'localhost' but the Capsuleer home page with the instruction omits this slash.

I am about to give up on getting Capsuleer working, as it is too much trouble for a simple application. I have one last idea, a final flash of inspiration. I copy the link to Safari's URL bar and hit return. As expected, the link fails, Safari not recognising the protocol. However, with the failure page showing and the link still in the URL bar I choose File > Mail Link to This Page from the menu and, as luck would have it, the text is sent to Mail formatted as a link. I send it over to my iPod Touch, select it, and Capsuleer is up and running. Huzzah!

Capsuleer looks quite good, too. The character page has a large countdown to the skill completion time, as well as the current estimate of the date and time when the skill will complete. There is also the name of the skill that is being trained along with the details of the skill, as well as the character's skill point total and wallet's ISK balance. It's all a capsuleer would need to keep up-to-date with skill training needs without having to enter New Eden. Capsuleer is currently still a bit fiddly to get running on OS X but it is worth the little hassle for what it offers.

Moving module icons on the HUD in EVE Online

18th October 2008 – 10.14 am

Back when I first took on The Blockade I noticed that some of my modules appeared in the HUD in different positions than expected after installing them in the fitting station interface. I was expecting them to increment on the HUD from left to right as they were fitted from the furthest left slot and moving anti-clockwise, but a few modules turned up in the HUD in seemingly arbitrary positions. This caused a little consternation when I turned on the wrong type of shield hardeners and started taking a beating, after which I planned to look in to the issue.

I did not find out why the modules appear in certain positions on the HUD, and am still confused as to their apparent order, but I have found out that it doesn't make too much difference. In a quiet moment, perhaps to give something to do instead of mining, it is possible to pick up the module icons in the HUD and drag them to a different activation slot of your choosing. Whilst moving the icons is a kludge, rather than having the system work as desired without additional user input, at least it is possible to synchronise the positions of the modules between the fitting display and the HUD.

The possibility of module positions causing confusion is considerably reduced. No more will an enemy battlecruiser feel the awesome wrath of my mining laser instead of a salvo of heavy missiles, and with luck I will not open fire on a wreck instead of attempting to salvage from it again.

Entering corporate life in EVE Online

17th October 2008 – 8.37 am

I am now a member of a corporation in EVE Online, one that isn't state owned even. After all the drama when looking for a corporation previously I log back in to find I hadn't previously exited from a couple of the recruitment channels, remaining in them by default. This time one of them is populated and a member of the corporation welcomes me. We get to talking about what the corporation gets involved with, what it expects from members and some general background information. There are opportunities for PvE mission running, industry, and plenty of PvP. The PvP is taken with the attitude that people are going to get blown up all over the place, but as long as everyone's having fun then that is all that matters.

It all sounds rather positive and friendly, as well as fairly relaxed, and seems like a good place to start corporate life in EVE Online. Realising that the worst that can happen is I leave to go back to a state owned corporation—penniless and destitute in the absolute worst case, I suppose—I apply to join and am accepted fairly soon after my impromptu interview.

I need to train some different skills and learn some new tactics so that I can be effective in PvP, and I've made a start with that. I'll be piloting different ships with new modules to play with, which will take some time to get used to and become effective with them. I also have to haul myself and whatever ships and equipment I think I'll need half-way across the galaxy, but that shouldn't be a problem and I may be best off making a relatively clean start anyway. I have a decent amount of ISK in my wallet to buy what I need in the new system.

Life in a corporation promises to be quite an adventure. Whether it can turn carebear me in to an effective PvP pilot is uncertain, but it is a challenge I am both nervous about and looking forward to facing. I hope that I will not tempting fate if I name my first corporate frigate Funshine Bear.

Bringing home the scientist

16th October 2008 – 8.43 am

My agent is happy with the Green Arisite ore I was able to acquire, particularly as it meant a different faction was denied the ore resource as a result. Now he wants me to find a particular scientist, saying something about him being an AI specialist. I probably should be paying more attention but the prospect of using my Drake battlecruiser as a taxi has my mind drifting, wondering whether if I painted my ship black could I get away with not training in cloaking devices. 'Yes sir, collect the scientist. I'll be right back.'

I warp to the mission coordinates in deadspace, ready to ring on the wireless doorbell (I came across this wireless doorbell review and wanted to try it out for myself) of some ageing don like I have volunteered to drive him to the supermarket, and instead find myself drifting towards a drone bunker. Before I can work out if it is unpopulated and merely a quirky residence the bunker comes alive with drones swarming out of its many hatches. I ready my launchers and start locking on to targets, aiming to destroy the bunker first before too many drones can launch. A single salvo of heavy missiles rips in to the structure like a finger through cheap toilet paper, leaving about as big a mess.

With only the drones to deal with I launch my own drones, but this proves to be a mistake. Normally, the drones add to my firepower and can take care of frigates quickly enough allowing me to concentrate on bigger threats. However, pitting drones against drones is not terribly wise, as there seems to be a bitter rivalry between the 'citizen' drones and the rogue drones. Quite soon after I launch the drones a buzz of electronic communications begins, no doubt lots of name calling and accusations of being inferior to a Z80, causing both sides happily to obliterate each other instead of concentrating on me, which is good enough to keep my shields healthy but I'm going to need to get some more drones when I get back to base.

Finally, all the drones are destroyed, on both sides, and I spy a small acceleration gate that I can use to warp deeper in to the deadspace complex. Activating the gate sends me warping to another drone outpost, this one with a laboratory. Not only that, there are also stasis towers and energy neutraliser sentries. To stop myself from being dragged to a halt in a web I lock-on to the stasis towers whilst I ask the ship's computer what the energy neutraliser sentries do. 'They are defensive structures thaaat draaaaaiinnn...'

'Drain what, computer? And gave you permission to power down during a mission? Hmm, I appear to have a completely empty capacitor.' No capacitor power means I have little ability to engage the enemy or defend myself effectively, particularly with no active shield hardeners running. A quick retargeting along with shutting off all non-essential systems, like the drone bay's disco lighting, destroys the energy neutralisers in a big ball of flame, my ship's capacitor now replenishing as normal. All the while I have been focussed on the towers the bunkers have been launching drones, which are now swarming around my ship. I am beginning to get the impression the scientist doesn't want to come with me.

Even without my own drones the hostile drones are soon reduced to mineral compounds drifting in space and I only need to get the scientist on to my ship and back to base. To get the scientist to agree to meet with my agent I employ my most persuasive argument, a volley of Scourge heavy missiles that blow up his laboratory. I probably should have piloted closer to the laboratory before I blew it up, but the scientist's limp body is soon transferred to my ship and hopefully before the oxygen depletion of floating in space takes its toll. If my agent asks, I found him like that. After all, the mission's codename is New Frontiers: Mad Scientist, I'm only fulfilling my agent's expectations.

Another successful mission!

Portable EVE Online skill tracking

15th October 2008 – 8.12 am

I recently downloaded EVE Tracker to my iPod Touch to be able to keep track of my character's skill training in EVE Online on the portable device. I'm not entirely sure of the application's utility, because if I'm not near a computer when the training completes there is little point in being told. I hope that there is an alarm function so that if I am near a computer but not paying attention to my skill training my iPod will beep at me to let me know to log in and cue the next skill to be trained. Without a speaker on the iPod this may be difficult, but at least it gives an option that doesn't require the EVEMon utility, which is unavailable on the Mac platform. This is mostly academic, as I didn't have much luck when trying to input the long API key needed to gain access to the limited character information and thus couldn't get my skill training plan to load anyway.

There is another option available for tracking EVE Online skill training on an iPod Touch as after a short wait the Capsuleer application has finally been released. Capsuleer promises the same kind of features as EVE Tracker but without the need to input the API manually. I downloaded the application and fired it up. Unfortunately, that's about as far as I got. The welcome page indicates that the user needs to send a formatted e-mail to the iPod Touch in order to get the API key transferred, but I had already powered-down my computer for the evening and was only interested in seeing if the application worked. Without access to the API key Capsuleer couldn't show me anything.

However, when I downloaded Capsuleer I also saw that EVE Tracker had an update available and remembered that the previous notes for the application promised the ability to get the API key without needing the user to enter it manually. The iPod synchronisation I performed before turning off my computer also updated my copy of EVE Tracker to the latest version, and with Capsuleer unable to give me any information I may as well see what EVE Tracker can do now.

I load EVE Tracker and there is a new selection available to get the API key automatically. The EVE API key page is loaded in a browser window and after I enter my username and password my limited API key is displayed on the page. EVE Tracker then grabs the data and inserts it in to the required fields for the application. After one false start, where the data isn't saved for some reason, my pilot data is loaded in to the application and I am able monitor my skill training progress and wallet's ISK balance.

I have access to my pilot data wherever I have access to a wireless internet connection. Of course, I cannot update or change my skill training, so it is still of limited use, and being able to monitor my skill training at any time seems a bit obsessive. At least I can now see that my twelve-day skill training hasn't accidentally finished earlier than expected.

New Frontiers: Raw Materials

14th October 2008 – 8.12 am

My agent asks me to mine some Green Arisite, a variant of the Gneiss mineral, for a new research project. There a catch in that the ore can only generally be found in low-sec systems. I ponder this for a minute, as going in to a low-sec system only to mine seems like vacuuming in a mine field, an invitation to high-threat boredom. Even so, I have been after more excitement and adventure and heading out to retrieve some ore under fire will certainly be a different experience.

Being a mission, my agent has gone to the trouble of finding a high-sec deadspace pocket that has the required Green Arisite located within it, which saves me the trouble of getting blown up by entering the 'wrong' system, but the ore is quite rare and contested so I should expect trouble anyway. This presents me with a dilemma of how to mine the ore without dying. I have my Osprey mining cruiser, the White Cat, but it is equipped with a single light missile launcher to take care of pesky lone rats, not swarms of cruisers and frigates, and my Drake doesn't have a turret hardpoint required for a mining laser.

However, the Drake does have a drone bay and I have access to the market. A quick spending spree later and I pick up a handful of mining drones, sacrificing a bit of drone firepower so that I can safely mine whilst secure in a battlecruiser. Feeling suitably prepared for my mission I engage the warp drive and watch the stars blur past me on the way to deadspace.

Arriving in the deadspace pocket I find a bunch of hostile craft loitering around some asteroids, including two of the biggest red crosses I have yet witnessed on my overview. Yikes! Fortunately, these two huge ships turn out to be mining vessels and, apart from a couple of potshots, warp out quite early in the battle, no doubt protecting the valuable ore they have mined. Unfortunately, they send a distress signal immediately before leaving, bring reinforcements to the asteroid field.

The hostile ships are not a terrible threat to my saftey, though. My shields stay strong enough to hold off their missile damage and my heavy missiles steadily decrease their numbers. The only trouble is that the ore in the field—and there is plenty of Ombre and Gneiss floating around here—is valuable enough to continue sending waves of ships to protect it. I'm not sure if there will be a long enough break in the fighting to retrieve the ore with a dedicated vessel, one that would also be vulnerable without a protective convoy, so I send out my mining drones when I get close to the lone Green Arisite asteroid.

My plan seems to be working: the drones start mining the ore, my shields hold up, and I keep destroying ships. It falls apart when the drones return with full loads, at which point my foes decide that the ore is better drifting in space than in my hold and some well-placed shots see my drones disintegrate before being able to return to the drone bay. I am going to have to reconsider my plan, with an immediate goal of blowing up every ship I can see.

After a short while of missile launching mayhem there seems to be a break in the arriving reinforcements. Space becomes quiet, almost too quiet, and I linger briefly to make sure I have defeated all the hostile ships before warping back to the station. Rather than get more mining drones I formulate plan B, which is to get some mining lasers on to the Marquis of Granby and send my salvaging Cormorant out to get the ore. This saves me the time of having to fetch White Cat from several jumps away, which could be crucial if more enemies are likely to appear.

Sure enough, my ship's computer begins an aggression countdown timer, calculating the likelihood of further aggressors turning up, and I have limited time to retrieve the ore. Plan B is not helped by apparently having no mining lasers in my station's inventory, perhaps to discourage me from thinking mining would be a good idea, so I have to visit a different system quickly to buy and equip a couple of lasers, temporarily removing a salvaging module to do so. Once the mining lasers are equipped I head back out to the deadspace pocket and see all that lovely ore floating around amongst lots of equally lovely salvagable wrecks. And here's me in my salvaging ship! I'll grab all the salvage first, then mine later.

No, wait! I'll bookmark the location of a wreck, mine the ore, then head back to complete the mission before returning for the salvage, as this way I won't be in any danger from further attacks once the deadspace pocket is dissipated. It sounds like a good plan, with only two drawbacks. First, I warp in to deadspace within salvaging distance of most of the wrecks and I cannot bring myself to fly past it all, so instead I start reclaiming what scraps I can. Second, clearing the deadspace pocket would also remove the Gneiss and Ombre asteroids, and I have no idea when I'll see ore like Gneiss again. So I salvage as I edge ever closer to the Green Arisite asteroid. Of course, I find a mining laser amongst the wreckage, I should have guessed.

All the while I'm salvaging and mining the aggression countdown timer counts down doomfully, yet in a comforting fashion, for it would be a little unsettling should it count up instead. I manage to extract all the Green Arisite ore my agent needed me to collect. It takes a couple of trips to do so, because of the mass of the ore and all the salvage I had picked up filling the hold of the Marquis of Granby. The aggression countdown has hit zero and luckily no more ships have warped in. There is still a lot of valuable ore here. If no one else is coming to claim it, maybe I have time to get the White Cat here for some more efficient mining.

I pop back to my home system, taking the quicker Marquis of Granby over my Drake, my speedy shuttle What's That Ticking? being elsewhere. A brief two billion jumps to Jita later to expand my cargo hold and I head back to the ore-rich deadspace pocket. I lock on to a Gneiss asteroid or two and set my mining lasers to work, firing up my Bridge program on the ship's computer to play a few rubbers to pass the time.

It's not long before I remember why I don't mine that often, despite being able to distract myself. Even with plenty of Gneiss left in the asteroids, and loads of untouched Ombre, which I have some stocks of still, I decide to head back to base to complete the mission finally. Never the less, I have a reasonable haul of ore to show for my time, I now have to get it back to the station. I'm not going to get my Badger for this, instead I'll merely make a few trips back and forth between my current base and the deadspace pocket with my Osprey.

On the final trip to collect ore, emptying my container in space, a lone rat warps in to pick a fight. That's good timing! My reheat gets me to the container in plenty of time before the rat can get in to range to lock on to me and my ship aligns and achieves warp safely. I have managed to retrieve enough Green Arisite ore for my agent, some Gneiss for myself, and a whole lot of salvage and bounty rewards in the process. Another successful mission! Now I am curious as to what my agent plans to do with the ore.

Weekend warcrafting

13th October 2008 – 7.58 am

Continuing her questing in Hellfire Peninsula in the Outlands Sapphire finds out just how starving some Hellboars are when even the merest sniff of meat sends a dozen of them hurtling in her direction at once. It is a little irritating, because it means a path has to be cleared between the pigs and her quest objective, adding some extra time to a task that really ought not to take that long, but once the pigs' motivation is realised it is easier to work with.

Knifey was called in to action, ready to do anything for a woman with a tail, and sent to Winterspring to hunt bears for their meat so that both his and Sapphire's cooking skills could be raised to a level that let them cook in the Outlands. Cooking without fishing is a little awkward, but then fishing itself is a whole new level of tedium and being able to avoid it seems to me to be the better option. Knifey was sent to Winterspring because he can plough through mobs rather more quickly and he can also take advantage of any thorium veins that surface.

Cooking with bear flanks only gets me so far, though, and I have to visit Silithus to get a new recipe from the innkeeper before hunting sandworms for their meat. Both Sapphire and Knifey have to do this individually, because the recipe is retrieved from a quest. Apart from marvelling at just how few sandworms appear to be made of meat, this means that Sapphire has to ride from Gadgetzan, through Un'Goro Crater and onwards to Silithus. She takes advantage of this trip to scare a couple of goblins in those two locations with a mechanical yeti, which is quite amusing. As for Knifey, he apparently has made the trip before, much to my surprise, as well as having completed a couple of quests for the Cenarion Circle, reaching a friendly reputation with them. Maybe my cat has been logging on for some rogue DPS action when I haven't been around, as I cannot remember going anywhere near Silithus with Knifey.

With cooking and first aid raised to the old skill level cap of 300 on both characters it is time to get some Outlandish training, so I send Sapphire back to Shattrath using her hearthstone. I have yet to get her the flight point for the Temple of Telhamar and rather than heading to Honour Hold and riding from there I decide instead to take a scenic route through Zangarmarsh, sneaking up on the Temple from the other side. Not quite being 61st level I wonder if this is such a good idea, travelling through a higher-level zone, but I quickly notice that all of the mobs are around my level and conning yellow.

I grab the flight point at Telredor and ride onwards to Hellfire Peninsula, with the ride to the temple being rather more perilous than casual meandering through Zangarmarsh. After picking up the first aid manual I turn my back on the red dusty landscape of Hellfire Peninsula and return instead to the moist lands of Zangarmarsh, to continue questing in a new zone. There are plenty of quests to keep me busy and more will open up with the imminent new level, although there could be downsides. Missing out on half of the peninsula will cost me a whole chunk of XP that could make future questing more challenging, particularly as I started in Hellfire Peninsula as early as possible when reaching 58th level, and I will be missing out on a lot of possible reputation gains from quests. However, there are far more quests than are needed in the Outlands, so I don't think I'll run out soon, and the reputations from Outlands factions will probably be far less useful in a month's time when the Wrath of the Lich King expansion is released.

Sapphire's jewelcrafting skills improve up to the 300 mark and I have solid plans to get her enchanting equally as advanced soon. Knifey ran around mining thorium for Sapphire's jewelcrafting and getting to 300 wasn't too onerous, but as there is no easy way to gather enchanting materials it is still a pain of a profession. To end the weekend of progression Sapphire reaches 61st level after a handful of quests in Zangarmarsh and Knifey reaches 63rd level in a less glamorous manner killing bears in Winterspring, the fallen corpse of the bear and his small stature almost entirely obscuring the personal fireworks that herald a change of level.

Goodbye, Mr Hand

12th October 2008 – 4.16 pm

I have reached the fourth series of Mission: Impossible now, and Leonard Nimoy has taken over the role of the man of many faces and sleight of hand. Martin Landau, as Rollin Hand, left the programme, going off to star in Space: 1999.

I was hoping that when Jim Phelps came to pick the agents for the first mission of the series he would pick up Rollin Hand's photo and, instead of casually discarding it as he does all the other non-entities, set fire to the photo, perhaps then stamping out the smouldering ashes of Hand's face with a particularly big boot.

Alas, it didn't happen. I suppose they didn't have the right to use his likeness.

Still not in an EVE Online corporation

12th October 2008 – 10.40 am

I'm having a difficult time trying to find a place for myself in New Eden. I had applied to one corporation but the time zone difference has meant that I have yet to be on-line at the same time as the recruiting officer, and I really don't feel like staying up past midnight too many days on the off-chance of meeting him. As such, I was steeling myself to join EVE University instead, on the recommendation of Winged Nazgul, to the point of closing down my Catching Squirrels corporation. Just as I was about to apply I noticed that the current tax rate showed as 100% on the in-game recruitment panel, which seems a tad steep to say the least, and I wavered.

Having got myself so close to applying to another corporation I maintained my momentum. I looked at the corporations with offices in the station I was currently docked in and found one or two that looked promising. They looked less promising when they require Ventrilo voice chat, as I am far from comfortable with talking to strangers on voice chat. Indeed, I occasionally come over all shy on voice chat with friends. It looks like Ventrilo still doesn't work fully on a Mac anyway.

Still trying to be positive about the process I heeded the comment of Kirith Kodachi and headed to the forum to browse the recruitment section. Again I followed some links and considered joining a few of the corporations, to the point of joining a couple of in-game channels. One of them got me laughed at for asking about recruitment—admittedly from someone who looked to be outside of the corporation itself—and another was completely quiet.

My impetus to apply to a corporation in its web-based forum was thoroughly diminished by this point. I am left wondering what next to do in New Eden, as I am sure there is much more to experience in EVE Online that can only be achieved realistically from the mass co-operation a corporation provides. I still have possibilities but I am a little deflated from my present experience. No doubt I will be corporation hunting again soon, either revisiting my current options or looking for another option, but for now I am back in a state-owned company.