INTERVIEW SERIES: NEW FLEET COMMANDERS

Posted on 2019.09.04 by Administrator

Interview with: Ky Hanomaa
by Gergoran Moussou

Image result for EVE ONLINE FLEET CARACAL

Jumping into a fleet can be a daunting though highly entertaining endeavor for a new player. It can be an even more daunting prospect for new fleet commanders upon whose shoulders rest the success of the mission, the ships employed, and in some cases the capsuleers themselves. Eve University, a premier teaching corporation within the New Eden universe, provides opportunities to learn the aspects of fleet dynamics. Recently staff writer Gergoran Moussou was able to sit down in virtual space and talk to one of our first-time fleet commanders, Ky Hanomaa, about his experience.

GM: Your first fleet was a kitchen sink frigate Noobs on Patrol fleet, correct? Why did you pick that instead of a doctrine such as BLAP Merlins?

KH: I just enjoy picking my own stuff and not being restricted to doctrine when running with small numbers. On top of that, I don’t need to coordinate with Logi.

GM: Prior to that, you had a fair bit of experience with PVP. Did it feel any different jumping the gate to the first fight as FC than it did when as a scout or another role?

KH: Not really, the only thing that was different was actually ‘preparing’ the fleet and the expectations that might be tied to running an official fleet as opposed to an AdHoc fleet, which kind of did put a slight bit of pressure on me in the beginning. That stuff usually vanishes after the first engagement as kills are the ultimate icebreakers. Or just having something to shoot at, no matter how small it is.

GM: How did you feel about your performance as FC afterwards?

KH: The first fleet was a little starved for content and we did run into the issue of a few people engaging a non-flashy target on a gate without having a proper rundown on bouncing. The feedback I received after the fleet was positive however and I was able to reflect on all mistakes I made during the fleet.

GM: What kind of adjustment to your FC style did you make in response to the feedback?

KH: Actually include gate-gun mechanics and bouncing during the newbro-speech as well as being more open to take fights that might cost me a few ships, and most importantly, make sure I have at least one experienced scout.

GM: I think that might have actually been the fleet when I lost my Kestrel to gate guns even though I knew better. Do you remember what your newbro speech focused on?

KH: I actually struggle to remember, but I certainly said that I wasn’t going to take non-flashy targets on gates since we didn’t have the proper set-up to do so. Probably basic movement commands and broadcasts.

GM: I think I remember what happened with the gate guns now. Wasn’t it that there was a miscommunication and a flashy jumped at the same time as another ship with orange -5 standings?

KH: Yes, the scouts reported a ‘red’ Hecate and an ‘orange’ Republic Fleet Firetail. The Hecate was flashy, so I called to tackle it, but it got away. About three of our guys ended up aggressing the Firetail which turned out to have negative standings with the Uni.

GM: How did you plan your route, did it take long to plan it?

KH: Not really, as my time roaming solo around the area gave me a good idea of which systems regularly offer content during each respective TZ. I was also fortunate to have guys in the vanguard that I could detach to check out systems that weren’t directly on the route while our scouts went to +1.

GM: You’ve staged fleets out of both HSC and LSC. Which campus do you prefer to stage out of, and are there any other campuses out of which you would like to stage fleets?

KH: I liked the flexibility the LSC Market in Archavoinet offered, but with that gone now, I’ll stage from HSC because it turns out that it makes it easier for the newbros as well, of which I appear to get plenty. As for the future, I might consider staging from NSC once I get a good idea of how fleet engagements work in Null as opposed to Low. My NoP Fleets will still stage from HSC, though.

GM: Do you have any advice for people who are thinking about taking out their first fleets?

KH: Try to attend as many fleets as possible and fill each of the roles a bunch of times – especially scout. It will make it far easier to detect and understand any issues especially newbros could have in these positions. Which in turn helps approaching and solving said issues as swiftly as possible to resume the fleet. It will also give you knowledge about different ship types and understanding what is engageable and what is not.

GM: You might be the most experienced scout who I’ve flown with in the Uni. How much did that help you?

KH: I generally know how much time the scouts need, when to basically ‘give up’ a system and move on as well as evaluating which targets call for vanguard and when a minor spike in local (by the vanguard) is acceptable. I’m also able to give my scouts direct feedback and help them improve and become more efficient in their own scouting-game.

GM: What kind of ships do you like flying? What is your favorite ship to fly in general (solo or fleet, PVP or otherwise), and why?

KH: For PvP, especially solo, I like flying kitey ships. The Imperial Navy Slicer is probably my favorite, followed by the Retribution. I’ve also tried the Garmur, although I find missiles kind of weird and the Garmur a little too pricey. I also like to fly bombers, be it in small gangs or Blops fleets, as the cloak paired with the NullSec Blackout make for really interesting engagements. I generally dislike brawling, as sitting beside each other trying to simply out-dps and/or out-rep your opponent just feels less accomplishing in my opinion. This might be interesting in larger fleet engagements, but when I fly solo I like to try and outmaneuver my opponents and get as much as I can without being caught.

GM: What doctrines are you interested in trying to FC? And which ones have you enjoyed flying? You’ve mentioned Blops, but what else?

KH: I honestly haven’t thought about it much, as the sole reason for me to FC was to provide PvP content for the newbros. Since I don’t enjoy larger engagements and prefer the Hit-and-Run-Style I would be semi-interested in trying out a kitey doctrine. I also plan on starting to hunt for Blops Fleets under Bomber’s Bar or Spectre Fleet to get the fundamental experiences needed to eventually FC said fleets in a few years. Both of these kind of doctrines are hard to run with the Uni, as they either require you to have enough SP or good manual piloting skills, so I’m not really sure as to whether there’s much sense running them.

Thank you Ky for being our first New Fleet Commander Interview! Keep doing what you are doing!

Make Magic 14 Work for you

Posted on 2019.08.23 by Administrator

By: Gergoran Moussou

Are you wondering what to do with those free skill points handed out recently by CCP or what to do with all those skill points you are racking up by killing NPCs? CCP recently referenced Eve University’s WIKI article on the “Magic 14” as a good place for these points. The Magic 14 is the foundation of any well-skilled character, though it will take a while to max them out, but since the free skill points can’t cover everything, it’s a good idea to have some pointers on how to prioritize those skills. While my specific examples discuss how skills would be prioritized on a character with Omega Clone status, the same core concepts apply to Alpha characters, that one should consider which skills provide benefit while flying one’s intended ships.

The first thing to consider is what you plan on doing with your character and what kind of ships you plan on flying for those activities. Regardless of activity, the optimal ships have basic requirements beyond the Magic 14. But the Magic 14 do form the foundational basis for piloting and surviving in New Eden.

For exploration, one of my primary ways to earn the ISK which I spend on ships to use in PVP, the main ship options beyond the basic T1 exploration frigates are T2 covert ops frigates and the Sisters of EVE line of ships, specifically the Astero and Stratios. To sit in the Sisters of EVE line, a character needs Amarr and Gallente skills for the relevant hull size, either frigate or cruiser (and cruiser requires Frigate III of the same empire anyway), so an exploration-focused character needs to mix the Magic 14 in with the basic prerequisites. Aside from better scanning probe strength at Covert Ops IV and V and faster scanning probe speed, the SOE ships either outperform or equal the T2 frigates in PVE exploration activities (while their difficulties in CPU make combat probing impractical). The biggest advantage is that they can engage in combat (many people can attest to the Astero being a capable J-Space hunter ship). While Covert Ops frigates do have weapon bonuses, I would never bother putting a rocket launcher on one of my Anathemas. It just doesn’t have enough durability for it to be worthwhile and an exploration fit already takes up two of the three high slots with the cloak and probe launcher. SOE ships solve both of these problems: Amarr hull skill and ample low slots provide good armor tank for durability and a substantial drone bay allows for combat engagements without spending high slots on weapons (with Gallente hull skill making these some of the most effective drone ships of their hull size). This combat bonus allows an explorer in a SOE ship to take on sites which a T1 or Covert Ops pilot would have to ignore, while also providing a chance at fighting back if unfriendly local players show up.

Because the SOE ships are armor-tanked, the priority skills from the Magic 14 for exploration are Mechanics and Hull Upgrades. Furthermore, their limited CPU means that CPU Management is the next one down. Because the only modules on a standard Astero fit which are likely to use a decent amount of capacitor are the propulsion and repair modules, an explorer does not need to prioritize the capacitor skills until later (with the Stratios’s additional high slots and bonus to energy turrets, which consume the most capacitor of any weapon type), but anyone who has ever run out of capacitor due to a long warp can attest to Warp Drive Operation being a useful skill. Furthermore, there are two other skills which an explorer absolutely needs: Cloaking IV allows equipping a module which is absolutely necessary when flying an exploration ship other than the T1 frigates, while Drones V allows the Astero to use its combat potential. Drones V is such a useful skill across so many ship types that it barely stops short of being as versatile and foundational as the Magic 14, but for ships which use drones as their primary weapon, it is absolutely essential (even for the Guristas line, while the limit of two makes it less important, enough support skills require Drones V that it is essential for those ships as well).

Similarly, combat pilots should consider what ships they plan on flying and how they plan on flying those ships in order to prioritize the Magic 14. Consider a doctrine ship like the E-Uni BLAP Caracal, the backbone of many high-sec mission fleets and ISK-positive QRF fleets defending against war targets. It is a buffer-tanked RLML Caracal, similar to many other corporations’ doctrines for the same ship. A skill plan specifically for this doctrine or a similar one does not generally need much training in capacitor skills because its modules aside from the propulsion module do not use much capacitor. However, if a doctrine uses the Caracal as a newbro ship for people who have not yet trained into the Cerberus, its Tech II counterpart, some Magic 14 skills which are fairly unimportant with the Caracal become essential. Alongside Capacitor Management and Energy Grid Upgrades, which are prerequisites for the Heavy Assault Cruisers skill, Hull Upgrades is essential for the Cerberus because of the Assault Damage Control modules, which drastically increase HACs’ durability if used properly.

One cautionary example about not prioritizing the Magic 14 enough is the mining alt that I recently deployed at E-Uni’s Amarr Mining Campus. In that character’s first mining operation, I had the skills to yield more ore than my main character, simultaneously flying an identical Procurer on the same moon belt, I had trained almost nothing but mining and industry skills on this character at that point and did not realize until I undocked the Procurer that I could not put its T1 shield tank modules online yet (a problem which I immediately adjusted my skillqueue to fix). This same problem repeated itself just over a week later when I undocked my first Industrial Command Ship, a Porpoise, and noticed that while I made sure to ask for Tech I shield tank from the AMC staff selling it to me this time, I forgot to train the Hull Upgrades skill at all, so I was unable to put my Reinforced Bulkheads II module online until the second or third time that I dropped off ore from that first moon extraction and it took a couple more days to make use of the Damage Control II in its other low slot.

A final consideration in prioritizing skills within the Magic 14 is that T2 ships are often much harder to fit, especially since they tend not to be worth the added expense over a T1 hull without T2 modules, which take up more fitting space than T1. The first ship that I ever trained specifically for was the Vengeance, the close-range-focused Amarr assault frigate. I put together a decent fit and bought the modules for it. While I set up a skill plan such that I could use all T2 modules before I trained the T2 ship skill, but when I first tried flying the ship, I noticed that I had neither the CPU nor the power grid to run all four Rocket Launcher II’s, so I needed to train the relevant skills up from IV to V.

In short, most people have some idea of what ships they want their characters to fly. While the Magic 14 are unique in that they benefit all ships, they do not benefit all ships equally. Therefore, while all skill plans should eventually cover the Magic 14, some skills deserve higher priority than others depending on the intended ships. While most of this is with regard to the hard attributes of the ship such as what kind of tanking and weapons it uses, softer aspects such as that an exploration ship is probably going to make frequent long warps are also important considerations.

Eve North

Posted on 2019.08.14 by Administrator

Pictured: Dairek Alamari [E-Uni], John Silverfox [E-Uni], Zaenis Desef [G4NKS], Professor Academiac [E-Uni]

AFTER ACTION REPORT!

It was strange… and for many, unexplored space. It beckoned. It was out there, waiting. Unistas answered the call, gearing up and intentionally traveling for an encounter on a level previously unexperienced. These brave Unistas; some veterans, some new bros, boarded their various craft and landed on grid near the mighty CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario. They fought the blazing heat of the summer star in the frozen lands of the north known as Canada for the op properly named “Eve North”. The following Eve University players are known to have been spotted in local: Dairek Alamari, John Silverfox, Minerva W Metis, Professor Academiac, Mhzentul Lafarius, and Knicpaw.

So, what is it that these Unistas think makes Eve Online one of the most popular MMO games around? Is it the fact that they belong to a popular and long-standing entity inside the game that encourages Friendship and comradery? ( Yes, Eve University, this means you!) “A genuine moment of happiness when you’d spot an E-Uni logo; when you’d see a familiar name tag; or recognize a familiar voice from E-Uni comms. These were people that I spent countless hours of my life having fun with. Capsuleers with whom I’d shared laughs, intense fleet fights and strat ops, silly Internet spaceship arguments, and heated debates throughout the years. They are friends that I’ve never really got to truly know, and then suddenly got to finally meet with them in person! It was euphoric!” Quote by Professor Academiac

Yes, Eve Online players will happily hunt people down in all areas of space even taking down a newbro in a wormhole only to turn around and invite him to join Eve University then chase you down in real world space and try to drink you under the table. CCP hosted both an Axe throwing event and a pub crawl on Friday, a curious conjunction of activities. (Our intelligence operatives are a bit fuzzy on the details regarding the pub crawl but the general assessment is that around 200 Eve players went in and 200 came out having had a great deal of fun, though what transpired in pub-space is still a bit hazy.)

As Alamari so well stated, at the end of the day the game is about the people who play it. “Eve North was a surreal and incredible experience. Witnessing 500 players put aside their in game conflicts, and politics to come together sharing stories, interests, food and the occasional argument was nothing short of amazing. This event also gave me the privilege of actually meeting some great individuals who I spend time talking with everyday. These are memories I will have forever.”

What was Eve North? It was a gathering of real-world people, players and developers, to share some time together in formal and informal settings June 21-23, 2019 talking about the game that tens upon tens of thousands of people play every day. The event provided a series of workshops touching on many aspects of the game focusing on improvements to be made including hints at what we have seen develop in the weeks since of smarter NPC’s and bots being hammered. The evenings provided opportunities for UNI folks to share dinner and not a few drinks with not only alumni of Eve University but members of other alliances. And of course there was always the “after party”. Unistas headed to what was generously described as a “shady divehole” proving perfectly comfortable to wormhole divers such as Alamari as they enjoyed drinks and the music of the cover band playing homage to CCP Guard and Permaband. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the response of the uninitiated Uber driver to his passenger’s frank discussion of the virtue of bombs, missiles and torpedoes.

Have we mentioned yet, the great adventure of our brave Unistas in their valiant hunt for a Mining permit? They scouted high! They Scouted low and behind stray plants ( foreign objects unknown to these capsuleers), in their quest to find the Mining permit guy ( They were unaware of the guys name)! We are glad to announce they found him and even took a moment to pose for a picture, to mark this mission complete. Thank you Zaenis Desef. Your contribution to this experience will forever be marked by the Mining permits and a photo op!

Upon returning from this newly explored space in the universe what did these Unistas carry back to Eve space with them? “It was a weirdly great experience for a new player who knew little to nothing about Eve and the New Eden Universe…I love the social aspect of Eve.” Said Minerva W Metis . So do we Minerva, so do we. Fly Safe! Fly Dangerously! But Fly!

Special thanks to John Silverfox, Dairek Alamari, Professor Academiac, and Minerva W Metis for sharing their experience with us.

Also, a big thanks to the Alumni of Eve University who stopped by to say Hi and share stories with the current Unistas during Eve North!

Mental health and EVE Online

Posted on 2019.07.07 by Administrator

For many people games are an escape from reality, and it can be difficult for players to admit, even to themselves, that they are struggling ‘in real life’.

Mental Health Awareness Week

For Mental Health Awareness week in May, one of our members, Shauny Tsero, wrote a fantastic series of forum threads on various matters related to mental health:

Mental Health Awareness Week – A broad introduction, covering various conditions

Looking after your mental health – Providing some tips and possible coping mechanisms

Overcoming fears and anxiety – Summarising some tips from the Mental Health Foundation

Introducing mindfulness – Explaining mindfulness and giving some tips on how to practice it

Suicidal feelings – Some information from Mind on identifying and dealing with suicidal feelings

Where to find support

There is help out there if you or someone else needs some support. Just a few of the support options are:

Broadcast 4 Reps is a well known and respected organisation supporting EVE players experiencing mental health issues. You can contact them through their public Discord server.
Best of Us is a community project for veterans across the world and provides a support network. You can contact them through their public Discord server.
EVE University has support available for members. Our Student Advocates are not mental health professionals, but they can assist members experiencing difficulties in the corporation as a result of mental health conditions and try and make their game time more enjoyable, particularly if they are having difficulty interacting with other members.
If you are aware of another player making suicidal threats which you think may be serious make an urgent report to CCP so they can contact the relevant local authorities. Support tickets filed under Game Play Support > Stuck” are high priority and will be reviewed urgently by a GM.

If you are in need of support please do reach out to someone. B4R maintains a list of international hotlines.

Nine Day Camping Trip in a Small Shattered Wormhole

Posted on 2019.06.09 by Administrator

The following is taken from a forum post by one of our members, Sone Eto, who went on a a weird adventure and was kind enough to share it with us in a forum post:

Friends and Enemies,

Gather around once again while a tell another tale of mystery, intrigue, danger, riches, and incompetence…

Small Shattered Camping Trip

Long ago, the elder gods provided us wormholes..and they were good. These wonderfully unpredictable pockets of space were never meant to be settled..and yet capsuleers built homes there. Among these brave pioneers were Eve University’s own Wormhole Campus. Led by Azmo with his large innuendo, Conky Furnaceman, and once-legendary logistics pornographer Urban Oxide, this group shook their fists at the gods and screamed into the heavens “SCRAM ON IMICUS WWW!” Through months of procrastination and the ability to fill out a simple form, I proved my mettle to this elite group and joined the WHC.

Since joining, I learned of Small Ship Shattered Wormholes (C13). These are relatively rare wormhole systems that offer significant bonuses to armor, small weapons, and signature radius while also providing more cosmic signatures to scan down and exploit. The unique feature of these systems is that they only make connections that allow small ships (frigates and destroyers). Additionally, like all shattered wormholes, you cannot anchor structures there. That means that you can’t really live in one beyond a daytrip………right?

I decided to defy the gods as our forefathers did by taking a camping trip for around a week into one of these C13 holes. I don’t have any alts which meant that I got one ship. My goal was maximum flexibility in order to partake in as many activities as possible while inside. For me, this meant the Confessor:

The Fit
[Confessor, Little Camper] Small Armor Repairer II Adaptive Nano Plating II Heat Sink II Heat Sink II Small Armor Repairer II Cap Recharger II 1MN Afterburner II Warp Scrambler II Dual Light Beam Laser II Prototype Cloaking Device I Dual Light Beam Laser II Expanded Probe Launcher I Dual Light Beam Laser II Dual Light Beam Laser II Small Nanobot Accelerator I Small Capacitor Control Circuit II Small Nanobot Accelerator I Imperial Navy Standard S x16 Gleam S x16 Aurora S x16 Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x8 Sisters Core Scanner Probe x8 Nanite Repair Paste x47 Imperial Navy Multifrequency S x16 Relic Analyzer II x1 Salvager I x3 Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II x1 Stasis Webifier II x1 Cap Recharger II x1 Core Probe Launcher I x1 Medium Inefficient Hull Repair Unit x1 Scan Rangefinding Array I x1 Data Analyzer I x1

Although I have no idea what I’m doing, this ship is perfectly suited to the Wolf-Rayet effects of a C13 and, being a T3 destroyer, it is very flexible thanks to its multiple operating modes (defense, sharpshooter, propulsion). The fit above depicts it’s pvp hunter mode for catching those pesky explorers and kicking them out of my swamp. In addition to this pvp fit, I also packed another cap recharger and energized nano plating for a cap stable sleeper site farming option. I brought along a rangefinder, relic analyzer, and data analyzer for running exploration sites along with some salvagers.

For utility while in the hole, I packed a mobile depot for changing fits, a mobile tractor unit for farming, nanite paste, and a hull repair unit. I brought along a secure container to hold my loot in case I overflowed the cargo hold as well.

Preparation (29MAY)
I saw that a small shattered hole (J000304) was scanned down in the WHC mapper so I filled my confessor’s cargo hold with the largest secure container I could find and dropped it at a safe inside. The idea was that I could deposit loot there but otherwise stay away from it; these containers are relatively safe because they cannot be combat probed. However, by combining dscan skills and autism, it is possible to manually scan down these containers. I decided to take the risk anyway. After dropping the container, I flew back to the WHC and filled up the confessor with the fits, utility items, and lots of laser crystals.

A New Home (29MAY)
The first thing that I tried was running some of the sleeper sites; I don’t normally fly confessors so I wanted to get a feel for it. Against a Perimeter Camp and Perimeter Checkpoint, it did great! Around this time, I noticed a Heron on dscan with scanner probes out. I warped to a safe, deployed the mobile depot, refit to pvp/gank/combatscan, and pulled the depot back into my cargo hold. A quick scan found him and I got a kill: https://zkillboard.com/kill/76989986/ along with his pod https://zkillboard.com/kill/76990012/ . He was double warp core stabbed but the sheer dps of a confessor in a C13 made this a non-issue.

Dude Where’s Your Container? (30MAY)
The next day, I notice that my secure container is no longer on dscan…hmmm. It turns out that if you want these things to stick around, you have to anchor them. I didn’t realize that you even could anchor them in shattered wormholes. Well, the connection to WHC had closed so I was stuck now; looks like I’ll be living completely out of the ship’s cargo hold. I scanned down all the signatures and started checking connections to see who my new neighbors were. I found a C5 that led to ANOTHER small ship shattered wormhole (J000186). Since I was completely free with no attachments, I moved into this hole and did a relic site (120m isk).

What? Another C13? (01JUN – 02JUN)
After doing two more relic sites the next day, I continued scanning and checking connection. To my surprise, I found yet another small shattered wormhole (J000652). This one was connected directly to my new home; I moved in once I had exhausted the content of my home. There, I ran 4 more relic sites and found a C1 connection…

Danger! (02JUN)
By this point I had around 400m in my cargo hold so I was hoping for a highsec connection to get rid of the loot. The C1 did not disappoint; I warped to the highsec hole that I had scanned down just in time to watch an explorer jump through it into highsec. I followed to see how close to a tradehub or WHC connection it was. The system’s proximity to useful places wasn’t spectacular and I had a change of heart…this was meant to be a camping trip not a sightseeing tour. I jumped my 400m of cargo back into the hole to head back home to the small shattered….BUBBLED…A Sabre decloaked, bubbled, and started engaging (with me polarized). I was no longer in a nice Wolf-Rayet effect system which meant that the confessor isn’t nearly as strong (I also am not familiar with it’s matchups/meta at all). I decide to engage back; it did not go well. I started to die and made a decision to attempt an escape. I aligned to the sun, switched to propulsion mode, overheated my afterburner, and prayed. The Sabre chased and bubbled again, I keep burning for the sun. I screamed at the ship to go faster so loud that my neighbors called the cops; once Concord arrived, I told them this is J-space and that they had no authority here. I made it out out the bubble and into warp. I limped home and assessed the damage: down to 33% hull and lots of modules heat damaged. I used the hull repairer that I brought and some nanite to get myself fixed.

Gas Sites Experiment (03JUN – 04JUN)
My home had tons of gas sites and I was curious if I could force more signatures to spawn somehow. I activated 18 of them by warping and then checked again the next day. Almost all of the sites had disappeared but that also included non-gas sites. Although I specifically activated these to see if I could force them to despawn (and maybe be replaced), I remain skeptical that my actions caused these sites to disappear. I ran a better sleeper site during this time: a Forgotten Frontier Stronghold (40m isk).

Killing Deployables (05JUN – 06JUN)
The next day, I found a nullsec connection and hopped into it to look around. I found 5 rattlesnakes on dscan then something interrupted me in real life; I cloaked up in the nullsec on the hole and dealt with it. Upon return, I was greeted by an Ares on dscan with scanning probes out looking for the only signature in system: my wormhole connection and me. I jumped back in and got out of there as quick as I could. After running another relic site and FFS sleeper site, I was looking for something to do. I had noticed a mobile depot in my home for a couple of days by now so I asked the diplos if we were allowed to kill them. After getting the clarification that even anchored mobile depots are fair game, I shot it into reinforcement and had to wait 2 days to finish it off. While waiting, I popped back into the nullsec, combat probed a Mobile Tractor Unit left by one of the ratters and killed it: https://zkillboard.com/kill/77150922/

Homecoming (07JUN)
Today, I found a nullsec connection that was 6 jumps from the Nullsec Campus. I considered asking for a scout to get there and then find a way back to WHC but decided to dive back into my shattered hole and continue the camping trip. Then…I found another C1 that led to a highsec that was 2 jumps from a WHC connection. I decided to take the hint and come back home to the WHC thus ending the trip.

Summary
Isk Earned: 464m (https://evepraisal.com/a/mjei4)
Isk Destroyed: 10m

Lessons Learned
I recommend that folks give this kind of trip a shot. I wasn’t able to be as active as usual due some real life events but it was a great time. Trips like this will teach you to prepare, be radically self-sufficient, and put you in situations that you weren’t expecting. Some lessons learned:
– You can anchor secure containers and mobile depots in shattered wormholes, do it.
– Always take a hull repair module on a trip like this
– Bring a large variety of fitting options even if its making your cargo hold bulge, relic sites ended up being my primary income source rather than the sleeper sites that I expected
– Make tons of safe spots and rotate them often. I found myself decloaked a lot changing fits and warping around; having good safes was very helpful
– Use a wormhole mapper! Being able to see what signatures are new between logoffs is great
– I found 3 small shattered wormholes in a week only scanning the chain mostly 1 level deep. This makes me wonder if small shattered have a higher-than-normal probability of being connected. Is it possible to nomad from small shattered to small shattered in a confessor to get even more content?
– Go have an adventure!

If you too want to go on weird, crazy adventures and tell your corp mates about them so they go “cool”, then Apply to Join EVE University today.

This post is pulled from a forum post by Sone Eto. See the original post here

Part three: Reflecting on more than two years of EVE University

Posted on 2019.06.01 by Administrator

This is the final installment of Porsche Amarr’s experiences over his two years in EVE University. We would recommend reading up on Part One and Part Two.

PART THREE: Going forward

My main is training up to be a Carrier pilot (just working through Fighters V). My three Omega alts are training into Rorquals (maybe two months to go). I’m not really sure what will come next after that. A move to nullsec (NSC?) might be a logical move to breakout the capitals and try to make some money (watching dscan more than ever before). Wormhole life is very enjoyable though and there are some really good people in WHC.
Bombers Bar fleets have left me quite humble. I have already decided that if I lost a few rorquals to BB fleets, I would actually be happy to be giving other people the content and the thrills that I have had. With the increasing PLEX prices though, I am questioning whether to have three Rorquals sitting in space mining to pay for themselves or not but will cross that bridge once they are trained.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense to return to mining or to get into ratting but I want to see what these are like as incomes sources. Sisi has been useful for the journey for a lot of fitting and fighting practice and Rorqual mining is not that inspiring on Sisi. No idea if it all makes sense, but if I blow billions trying to make billions I can absorb it. That said, I do very much like the feeling of staying ahead in the ISK stakes.

Progression in Eve Uni through titles is quite helpful. I still have the elusive Graduate title to apply for and I am happy that my killboard has been decently populated these days and that I have spent time in many different areas of Eve. On the service component, time as a Personnel Officer should be relevant and I know there are others who give huge amounts of their time in management and support roles across the campuses. It has been surprisingly tricky to land other staffing roles as they seem quite popular but any are still worth applying for if you are interested and can give the time. I try to skim the wiki from time to time and make minor improvements where stats or game mechanics have changed. The wiki is well maintained though.
On reflection, it is interesting that in a normal uni, one can pay fees (aka taxes on PI, profit margins on PI/gas/loot buyback, taxes on ratting, structure fees), study hard and graduate without needing to join a faculty or even the student rep association/council. Eve Uni is a game through and relies on people to give to the uni so that it can operate but let’s see how that plays out.

Lessons

Mining – Can be a good way to make initial ISK – watch dscan, only fly what you can afford to lose, align wherever possible, fleet up and watch each other’s backs…
Exploration – Can be a more lucrative and interactive way of making ISK than mining – be prepared to lose ships in wormholes but exploration quickly tends to pay for itself and more.
Station trading – Skills and standings are essential to make any sort of profit margin when station trading. Plan carefully before shelling out too much ISK.
Risk=reward – Nullsec or wormhole life will pay better returns on the same activities but for increased risk of loss. Similarly, higher-scale of station trading can make/lose more.
In fleets – Comms is essential, regardless of whether you are young or old, what languages you speak or your gender. Even listening then typing anything in fleet chat. Nearly all fleets have audible comms through Mumble, Discord, TS3, etc and they are really important to effective fleet coordination.
Be new when new – Don’t ever have an issue with being new. There are a small number of elitist jerks out there but most fleets, esp in Eve Uni, are excellent and appreciate the importance of training/briefing people. It is not possible to have perfectly-skilled fleets every time, we all start somewhere.
Play the game – Actually playing the game is really important. That may be station trading, mining, PvP, corp roles or various other things but it is important to decide what you enjoy in the game at any given point and find ways to be doing it. Worrying about ISK can be soul-destroying so if you can find ways to make enough ISK to fund your playstyle, the game will be much more enjoyable.
Time has some real value in this game – time taken to fly to systems to recover low level PI can actually provide less ISK than other activities. However, as mentioned, if this is your way of playing the game (for example, flying to collect PI allowed me some peace from station trading) then enjoy. PLEX can seem like a disturbing but fast way to make ISK. It may irk some as it likely means that we would pay more for Eve than other games or pay to play but time is a reality and for working people it is easy to lose sight that we can spend tens and hundreds of hours on activities to make ISK that we can genuinely make in one hour at work. Something to seriously consider. I’m not sure I would give back my thousands of hours of game time trading, mining and PIing in place of PLEXing because I strangely enjoyed the long-term scenario playing out but some may crave more real-life efficiency.
Researching BPOs – Needs to be part of a plan or it will never make money (do what I say, not what I do… no, I really need to sort this out for the amount of training and game time that I have put into this).
Research agents – Not sure that datacores are worth the skillpoints, even over the very long-term after the ISK generation becomes almost free.
Manufacturing – Margins seem to be very, very tight in manufacturing. There are many items that sell below their production cost. It is very important to be selective before getting into manufacturing. Some BPCs can be quite lucrative but may have to be found or earned first.
Learning – Never stop learning and researching in Eve. You don’t have to embrace spreadsheets. There are lots of tools out there to help. Pyfa, Eve Mon, Fuzzworks, Eve Marketer and many more. The Eve community, although we can’t have game mods, are very creative and provide lots of sites and apps to help improve different parts of the Eve experience.
Eve Uni – Between the services, the wiki, the forums and the classes/fleets, Eve Uni is a phenomenal experience for new players. In a game, a break from reality, a place to chill, it really is wonderful. AMC and WHC have been excellent and are highly recommended for their respective playstyles. If you have read this far, thank you. I hope you get as much joy from Eve Uni and the game as I have so far.

If you want to follow in Porsche’s steps, apply to EVE University today.

This post is pulled from a forum post by Porsche Amarr. See the original post here (forum section accessible to EVE University members and alumni only)

Part two: Reflecting on more than two years of EVE University

Posted on 2019.05.29 by Administrator

This post is a continuation of Porsche Amarr’s experiences over his two years in EVE University. You can read the start of his journey in Part One.

PART TWO: Wormhole Campus

Still researching and trying to learn more, I looked into differences between lowsec, nullsec and wormhole space. Essentially as a long-term carebear, I had dabbled in a few uni nullsec fleets but really only had experience with exploring into wormholes, so I decided to check out the Wormhole Campus.
I felt like I had decent operations going in highsec but I kept reading about so much good stuff in wormholes. PI was better, researching/manufacturing was better, explo loot was better and it was not clear what each day would bring.

NNiTH
My first foray, which seemed like a prerequisite at the time, was to attend a Noobs Night in the Hole. A few new, scary experiences on that visit stayed with me and inspired me to apply and be accepted into the campus where I have remained to this day. I’m not sure that I’ve ever actually left AMC but I spend a lot less time than I used to when I would mine and mine and mine. I would like to share those experiences but they are usually part of each NNitH and the surprise is an important element of the fun and learning of the night.
As I moved into WHC, I started to see the importance of training up ship, weapons and other relevant engineering and nav skills. I had already trained up most drone skills but was going to need more versatility.

PI
I deconstructed my original five planets and shifted the setup to WHC. A reasonable amount of background research revealed the planets and the command centres needed. Eve Galaxy packs appeared for half price and they including Multiple Character Training. Before long, I realised that one MCT could be used to train up both spare character slots to be decent PI alts (14-15 days each).
After quite a few spreadsheet tabs, the inevitable dreaded scale up occurred. I had four Omega accounts so soon enough there were twelve PI toons (60 planets) setup in WHC. My spreadsheet work had optimised the number of P0, P1, P2, P3 and P4 setups so that I could produce P4 materials periodically. My sanity was already an ongoing issue (not really but kinda in game terms) so I set the PI to a 4-day cycle and later a 7-day cycle. When I pay attention, the setup makes me around 1bil per week but only sporadically as I travel a reasonable amount for work. There is time involved in collecting from and resetting 60 planets but since the changes to Planetary Production there are definitely less clicks each time.
A lot of my PI toons are not at home in the hole but as part of my alt corp and, at least, blue to unistas they can each log off reasonably safely in space.
Setting up and implementing the PI reminded me of the importance of constant dscanning in the hole as I lost an Epithal to carelessness. Hardly any ISK but just a plan to organise to get another Epithal into the hole. My research was right though, PI in J-space was far more productive than a similar setup in highsec.

Scanning/Explo
Scanning is a huge part of wormhole life. It doesn’t take long to learn about statics and WH effects and the WHC mapper is an important and valuable part of that education. Similarly, decent scanning skills, ships and equipment are essential.
I continued to train up my scanning and covops skills. A Cov Ops Cloaking Device is essential kit and being able to scan in a CovOps Frigate is a great improvement (though Astero is still very good, fast and tanky). WHC and the uni wiki has a lot of advice here too (as with just about every topic in the game).
I spent a number of months, particularly when travelling, to log in and check PI and try to get out and do some exploration. It was rare that I could join a fleet and would log in at all hours to different WHC members. It was not overly social but I enjoyed wormhole life and the thrill of hacking/archaeology which was certainly more lucrative than highsec had been.

Mining
Notably, my mining operations dropped considerably when moving into WHC. I had just trained one into an Orca with excellent drone mining skills and then trained another but I have hardly done any mining in the hole. Periodically an ore site will spawn but it has been overshadowed a bit by gas huffing. I also fell off station trading because of the regular travel to Jita.

Huffing
In the early stages of trying out gas huffing, I skilled my main into the Prospect so that I could fit a covops cloak and feel a bit safer. I then found some token and ordinary gas sites and huffed some gas. It didn’t seem that lucrative until I started looking a bit more at the types. I learnt a reasonable amount about the rats and the spawns and to look for both Instrumentals and Vitals for the highest value gases. At the same time, I skilled my four toons into Prospects with tech II gas harvesters and would spend more time scanning for Level III gas sites in higher class wormholes.

Manufacturing
I moved all my BPOs and BPCs into WHC. (Wonderful) WHC members operate certain industrial structures and I contribute directly towards the operation of those sites. Another benefit of moving from highsec into J-space is the improve yields and speeds of reprocessing and manufacturing. Although, admittedly, I am still researching many, many BPOs and inventing lots of T2 and T3 BPCs without a clear plan on how to turn them into money. At least the fully researched BPOs seem to hold their value so it is more of an investment (just need to take perpetual care if ever moving any of the BPOs in space).

Research/Inventions
I recently happened on quite a lucrative manufacturing method tied to events that has made regular use of my four Omega toons – once again, I felt like I was in control/winning Eve. It is an interesting exercise because whenever they are not gathering, it is reasonably stressful. Disconnects and any fleet activities cut into profit margins. Even taking the four toons to go and devour instrumental and vital gas sites feels inefficient. In a strange way, it has helped me start to shift away from pure ISK-making activities because it is causing me to feel bad about going to play the game. Although, as I’ll mention shortly, it is shifting me to different methods of ISK-making rather than away completely.

Fleets and roles
When I as not travelling, WHC would provide opportunities for all sorts of mini-fleets and doctrines. I would still pop out of the hole periodically to join a highsec or nullsec fleet but there would often be daytrippers or small gangs coming through nearby wormholes. WHC doctrines provided simple guidance and would reinforce to me the importance of having clear fleet roles and capabilities so that the FC could make clear decisions. For some reason, this didn’t dawn on me from earlier fleets. I wanted to make minor changes to suggested fitting, either to cater for my worse ping or to do more damage but I started to pay more attention to broader fleet composition and what fleets could do and what they would have to disengage from or avoid completely.
As a result, I have many, many different ships and doctrine fittings in WHC on different toons. The recent ability to add more than one toon to Eve Uni has been a godsend. Similarly, adding a second alt to WHC has been immensely helpful. I still need to share bookmarks between two of the toons (the non-unistas) but it is fairly easy when we all have permission to dock in the same stations.

Standings – COSMOS agents and Epic Arcs
At one point this year, I looked at the standings on my main and decided to try to get them all positive with the main factions so I embarked on the faction standing repair plan which included COSMOS agent missions, various L4 missions and various trips around New Eden. I managed to get my standings up decently, at which point I noticed that my Caldari faction standings were still above 5 but giving me far less benefits for station trading. Since then and all that effort, my Gallente standings are back down below -1 and my base broker fees are back down again. It was an interesting journey and a disturbing once-off to use up the COSMOS agents on one toon.
Epic Arcs are the other activity/time-filler. With four toons, I have skilled into a pulse laser Confessor on each to complete the SoE Epic Arc and three of the toons can fly a Crow to complete the Angel and Guristas arcs without much trouble. The SoE arc helps with my Gallente standings but only every three months (or when I can make the time for it).

Public fleets
The biggest change for me in Eve, more recently, is to have started joining public (not purple shoot it) fleets regularly. PvP had never really been my thing but I started to join Bombers Bar fleets in a Stealth Bomber and found the Armada fleets really enjoyable. Rolling wormholes and dropping on unsuspecting capitals in a huge fleet of bombers, gatecamping or going on bomber roams has been an eye-opener and there are some excellent FCs.
There are a surprising number of groups that run public fleets and I created a wiki page to start linking unistas to those fleets. They don’t necessarily take away from the uni at all as the FCs tend to come from different, small corps and aren’t recruiting, they are simply having fun in the game with a lot of like-minded players who then return to the normal Eve lives at the end of each fleet. Spectre Fleet is another prominent set of fleets and very enjoyable. After only a few BB and SF fleets, I started to look at my zkillboard and wonder if I could build it up. I had no idea initially but after a few fleets, I set out to try to reach 500bil in kills.
Aside from rollers, ECM has become my latest preferred fleet role. Admittedly, I have lost a few Falcons recently but the value from jamming in fleet battles, particularly when bombers and polarised bombers are prone to being alphaed off the field, cannot be understated. Recons (and various support roles) are appreciated and I enjoy losing a few hundred million here or there periodically because it reminds that my ISK making activities are finally being applied towards something that I enjoy immensely.

Titan kills
It was really last night’s public fleet that drove me to write this piece. I joined another Bomber’s Bar fleet and consigned my potential sleep before work to 5 or 6 hours max. It was meant to be a Stuka fleet (so much to learn in this game) but the FC changed it to an Armada at the last minute. For those who regularly read Reddit or have other Eve newsfeeds, it is well-known that Goonswarm Federation is currently engaged in a move north and thus their home areas, that often have capitals out, were ‘relatively’ unprotected.
In short, through a series of careful and calculated moves by an experienced BB FC, we collaborated with other fleets (some generally enemies), to drop into Delve on a Titan (Ragnarok). The fight was epic and surprisingly quick as we destroyed the Titan. This was a massive achievement and last night’s fleet had just begun. Everyone was jubilant. There is always a bit of friendly rivalry between the generally excellent BB FCs and I couldn’t resist but to post in fleet asking whether it would be a record to kill a second titan in a single BB fleet. I didn’t get an answer because the FC was busy on other sets of comms. Sure enough, we dropped on a second titan (Erebus) with other fleets. The fight took a bit longer and it didn’t take long for the adjacent Keepstar to remove some of our ships from the field but the sheer numbers, skills and roles managed to take the Erebus down and add a second titan to our fleet tally.
I had been steadily watching my killboard grow towards my 500bil goal. It was about 490bil yesterday after an earlier SF fleet earlier but after the two titans, my kb was suddenly sitting at just over 650bil. I had been thinking that last 10bil was going to be elusive but it just evaporated. Now I have my sight set on the 1tril mark.

Part Three is the final part of this series, and will cover Porsche’s plans for moving forward and the lessons he has learned from his time in EVE University so far. Look out for it soon.