The Daily Twat

There is no image to go along with today's post, because there is no safe-for-work imagery to go along with this post's title. None at all. Not particularly suprising. I was hoping I'd just find a photo of a Brit with really bad teeth. I suppose I could have just googled Brit instead of twat and found a shit tonne of such images.

Anyhow ...

I post, daily, all of CCP Diagoras' statistical tweets. Tweet. Stat. Twat. The Daily Twat was going to be the name of the daily Diagoras round-up. I opted not too. For a few reasons. One. Not safe for work. Two. People might think I'm disrespecting Diagoras and calling him a daily twat. Three. It's disrespectful to women. Three was the most important reason for eventually settling on The Daily Stat. It's just not cool.

I've a few Women and Gaming feeds that I read. I like women. A lot. I'm interested in why they shy away from online gaming. Mostly, it's pretty obvious. Fuckwads getting all creepy on them. Rampant sexism. There's not a whole lot about online gaming communities that are particularly welcoming to the double-X pairings.

I like to think that I mostly treat the men and women I encounter in EVE Online equally. There are exceptions, such as Sindel Pellion, who I perhaps treat a tad differently. Like someone you might have a crush on. She seems like a pretty cool gal, a cutie and a sweetie. Her boyfriend Bagehi is also a pretty cool dude (I very much respect what he does for EVE News 24). I joke around with them both, and that's it. Any communication I've ever had with Sindel has been on Twitter and public. Creepy people living in fucked-up dream worlds would try to take their little crush to other levels. I'm sure she gets that, and I feel for her. I wonder how she deals with it. Puts up with it. If it sometimes just makes her want to run away from the game.

So what brought all this on? A recent blog post by Corelin, where he discusses sexism in EVE, using the term rape cage as impetus and example. After presenting his argument he makes the case for change, stating that he'll use alternative terminology. The bubble storm. That sounds sort of goofy to me. Blitz cage, might be a better replacement. Or maybe just call it the Nena -- ninety-nine luftballons, and such as all that.

It's a good article. I'm glad someone of his stature and standing in the community wrote it. It is a brave blogpost, especially considering how relentless and cruel a certain segment of the EVE Online community can be.

There's no easy solution to sexism (any sort of -ism, really) in online communities, especially one that celebrates its grimness as much as the EVE Online community does. People are going to be dickheads if there's no recourse to acting in such a manner. And especially if you can get some attention being a dickhead.

Hell, I'm a dickhead from time to time. Not against women. Or racial groups. Or sexual preferences. I'm a dickhead to EVE University. And yeah, I get attention from that. The attention is warranted, though, most of the time. So, case in point. For many people, if they can get away with being a dickhead occasionally, they're probably going to jump all over the chance. It's a bit of release from the daily grind.

Other people prefer to take it to extremes. To the edge and then way over it. Some groups in this game, they simply try to out-extreme the next guy. Test Alliance and Goonswarm are two good examples of groups in this game that take everything to the extreme for the sake of taking it to the extreme. It's part of the culture they come from over at Reddit and Something Awful. Get a bunch of them together in an online community, and they start performing a perpetual Aristocrats joke. Extremism as posturing.

When that sort of culture pervades most, if not all, online communities, it's going to be a tough battle to eradicate any of the three big -isms (sexism, racism, sexual orientationism.) Nigh on impossible.

The best you can do is not try to fight the behaviour, since they'll go to even further and newer extremes to offend. Tell a dickhead to stop being a dickhead, they'll often try harder to be a bigger dickhead. The best you can do is to behave how you'd want everyone else to behave. Maybe your behaviour will rub off on someone else. You can also join alliances that support and respect your beliefs on sexism, racism and sexual orientationism.

The Daily Stat with @CCP_Diagoras (Feb 28 2012)

PvP

• 5 most blown up ships in low sec this weekend (except pods): Drake (352), Hurricane (329), Rifter (275), Thrasher (225), Kestrel (166).
• 5 most blown up in PVP in null sec this weekend (except pods): Hurricane (675), Drake (631), Rifter (506), Sabre (263), Ibis (254).
• 5 most blown up in PVP in high sec this weekend (except pods): Rifter (443), Mackinaw (223), Thrasher (194), Hulk (178), Catalyst (156).
• Most blown up in PVP in WH space this weekend (excl pods): Interbus CO (79), Drake (68), Hurricane (32), GalShuttle (31), M. AC Battery (30).
• Ships with most final blows this weekend, high sec: Thrasher (391), Catalyst (355), Rifter (323), Tornado (276), Hurricane (220).
• Ships with most final blows this weekend, low sec: Hurricane (678), Drake (630), Legion (275), Tornado (251), Thrasher (234).
• Ships with most final blows this weekend, null sec: Hurricane (1282), Drake (1094), Tornado (979), Sabre (907), Tengu (658).
• Ships with most final blows this weekend, wormhole space: Tengu (194), Manticore (112), Proteus (102), Drake (94), Hurricane (83).
• Total ships destroyed in PVP this weekend: 27,032. High sec - 4810, Low sec - 6636, Null sec - 14051, Wormhole space - 1535.
• 5 biggest PVP systems this weekend: Akonoinen - 609, 9-KWXC - 446, Autaris - 351, Amamake - 334, EC-P8R - 299. Jita was #6 with 286!

PvE

• 13,333 losses to NPCs this weekend. Mostly frigates (due to tutorial). Excl. frigates, rookie ships and shuttles: 5,445.
• Top 5 PVE loss systems this weekend (exc. frigs/shuttles/etc): Arnon - 184, Osmon - 79, Jita - 58, Abudban - 55, Niarja - 54.
• Losses to NPCs this weekend by sec group (exc. frigs/shuttles/etc): High sec - 4255, Low sec - 305, Null sec - 667, Wormhole space - 218.
• Most lost ships to NPCs this weekend, exc frigates etc: Catalyst (763), Thrasher (592), Tornado (381), Drake (349), Coercer (218).

Industry

• Most built T3 ship in Jan: Tengu (surprise!) - 7,898. Most built T2 ship, Manticore - 6,441.
• Battlecruisers built in Jan, by tier: Tier 1: 9,432. Tier 2: 55,165. Tier 3: 24,623.
• Most built BCs in Jan: Drake (27,702), Hurricane (19,237), Tornado (12,171), Oracle (4,688).

Other

• none

The Daily Stat with @CCP_Diagoras (Feb 27 2012)

PvP

• More from yesterday: 158.3bn received in insurance, 67.5bn spent on insurance. 543m earned from player bounties (43 bounty payouts).
• 220m paid in contraband fines, 238m spent on agent location services (1,457 characters located).
• 5.15bn spent on war fees. 10.1bn on repair bills. 207m earned by player corps on repair bills.
• Top 5 PVP systems in null sec this weekend, by ships destroyed: 9-KWXC (446), EC-P8R (299), NG-M8K (265), D-W7F0 (250), X-7OMU (238).
• Blown up in null sec this weekend, top groups: Capsule (4132), Battlecruiser (2043), Frigate (1587), Stealth Bomber (670), Battleship (598).
• Top 5 killer groups in null sec this weekend: BC (4577), BS (1104), Cruiser (1039), Strat. Cruiser (997), Interdictor (987).
• Top weapon groups for final blows in null sec this weekend: Projectiles (6544), Missiles (2655), Hybrids (1627), Lasers (1597).
• Top weapon groups for final blows in low sec this weekend: Projectiles (2569), Missiles (1,273), Hybrids (991), Lasers (972).
• Top weapon groups for final blows in high sec this weekend: Projectiles (1956), Hybrids (1162), Missiles (651), Lasers (412).
• Top weapon groups for final blows in wormhole space this weekend: Missiles (531), Projectiles (363), Hybrids (279), Lasers (220).

PvE

• More totals for yesterday: 1.292tn bounties, 368.9bn Incursion payouts.
• Missions and such: 102.2bn mission reward, 96.9bn mission bonuses. 284,286 individual mission reward payouts.
• Oh, btw: 24,756,583 module activations yesterday :)

Industry

• Another Sunday passed; so yesterday in EVE: 11.73tn market transactions, 1,123,350 individual transactions.
• Gained from Contract collateral being paid back: 549.7bn. Spent on contract collateral: 562.7bn.
• 302.3bn paid out in contract rewards, 278.6bn refunded from contract rewards from incomplete contracts.
• 651.5bn spent on contract rewards. Lots of contracts being made!
• Contract Auction Bid Refund 36bn, Contract Auction Sold 22.7bn, Contract Deposit Refund 13.6bn, Contract Collateral Payout 5.7bn.
• Contract Price (item exchange contracts): 1,657bn spent yesterday by characters, 407bn spent by corps.
• Also spent: Contract Deposit (corp) 4.7bn; Contract Auction Bid (corp) 5.9bn; Contract Brokers Fee 10.4bn, Contract Sales Tax 11.2bn.
• Contract Deposit 16.9bn, Contract Auction Bid 58.6bn. There's an overview of the amount spent/received via contracts.
• Player trades included ISK traded totaling 118,310,597,419 ISK.
• 733,377,961 ISK spent installing manufacturing jobs - 326m of that going to player corporations.
• 21.65bn spent on planetary construction.
• 81.9bn spent on transaction taxes, 95.9bn on broker fees. Player owned stations earned their owners 6bn in broker fees.
• Last one up; 21,847 LP store wallet transactions costing a total of 218.33bn ISK.

Other

• How much isk has been spent on titan skillbooks? May '10 to end of Jan 2012: 1,752 skillbooks, 8.67tn ISK.
• Player donations (right click, give money) yesterday totaled 10,988,107,618,888 ISK.
• 133,909,306 ISK paid in docking fees on player owned outposts/stations yesterday. 1,773 docking fees paid.
• 14,000 ISK spent changing corp logos yesterday. 22.54m spent transferring clone locations (of which 7.44m went to player corporations).
• 129.5m ISK spent on installing jump clones.
• 386,152,144 ISK spent releasing impounded corp offices - 37.5m of that went to player corps. 380m spent registering new corporations.
• 380m spent on handing out medals; 440.25m spent on placing corporation recruitment adverts.
• 822m spent on alliance maintenance fees, 27.9bn spent on sov bills. 4bn spent registering new alliances.
• PI Import tax: 5.48bn spent; 1.23bn of that paid to player corps. Export tax: 29.8bn spent, 8.47bn paid to player corps.
• Office rental fees yesterday: 19.25bn spent, 2.4bn earned by player corps.
• 31.4bn on clones.

The Daily Stat with @CCP_Diagoras (Feb 26 2012)

PvP

• Kills by Dramiels, by month, Nov 2011: 9,900, Dec 5,424, Jan 2012 5,238. Balancing in action.

PvE

• none

Industry

• Sunday 19th Feb; 886bn spent on minerals, 619bn on battleships, 374bn sleeper components, 359bn composite materials, 339bn ice products.
• Some others from last Sun: 259bn spent on learning implants, 235bn spent on strategic cruisers, 226bn battlecruisers.

Other

• Jumps by sec group, Sun Feb 19th: 2,826,110 High sec, 255,801 Low sec, 596,189 Null sec.
• 365,776 - the number of times a skill started training on Sunday Feb 19th.
• Skillpoints lost last Sunday? 96,810,948 by 468 different characters. 486 SP loss events.
• 255,000 skills finished training last Sunday. 172,086 of them had been queued up. 87,421 skills Injected and 381m free SP used.

The Daily Stat with @CCP_Diagoras (Feb 25 2012)

PvP

• Empire faction frigates! Kills by Caldari Navy Hookbill, 2008: 494, 2009: 692, 2010: 4055, 2011: 10,941.
• Kills by Federation Navy Comet frigates, 2008: 363, 2009: 1206, 2010: 8819, 2011: 8168.
• Kills by Imperial Navy Slicers, 2008: 435, 2009: 1804, 2010: 12223, 2011: 20075.
• Kills by Republic Fleet Firetails, 2008: 677, 2009: 932, 2010: 4631, 2011: 7092.

PvE

• Mission deadspaces were entered 257,216 times yesterday - and 156,728 mission deadspaces were completed.
• 387,882,944 LP handed out yesterday.
• The mission which handed out the most LP yesterday was Angel Extravaganza, rewarding pilots with a total of 12.25m LP.
• Mission #2 for LP yesterday - Gone Berserk (11m), #3 Damsel in Distress (10.46m).

Industry

• Top 3 systems for control towers in space: Bosboger (96), Oimmo (90), Poinen (88).
• Top 5 stations for market transactions, Sun Feb 19th: Jita 4-4: 324k, Amarr 8: 94k, Dodixie 9-20: 66k, Rens 6-8: 60k, Hek 8-12: 24k.
• 4,385,967,549 ISK charged by customs officials as fines in Jan 2012, 54,635,519,814 in 2011.

Other

• Jumps into wormholes yesterday, by sec groups: High sec 10.2k, Low sec 3.8k, Null sec 3.1k. Jumps from wormhole to wormhole: 48.2k.
• Venal has the highest average character SP (excluding chars with less than 5m sp), with an average of 57.4m sp.
• Average SP by sec group, exc. chars with less than 5m sp: High 32.9m, low 45m, null 45.8m, wormhole 36.6m.

***

For those wondering, I designed the Daily Stat banner based on this:

The Week in Poetry

Forums
So I was banned from the EVE Online forums this week. Until March 08 2012. Obstensibly for personal attacks. The posts have been removed, but they still live on at Chribba's EVE Search.

It started when a special snowflake wrote a short, strange paragraph on the right of players not to engage in PvP if they do not wish to do so:

I'll give you one example to consider. My corp harbours someone with a weak heart condition. He has already suffered a near fatal heart attack after being ambushed in high sec during a war dec. It took me a long time to convince him to re-subscribe. Do not deny him his right to play this game as peacefully as he chooses or else go to the CSM and have CCP change their product advertisement and include a health warning.

I found that to be all-too-self-serving, to state that we should think twice before PvPing because some unnamed gentleman with a heart problem, was out there, somewhere, in EVE Online.

My response is what got me the ban:

If SUDDENLY PVP can nearly kill your friend, then:

A) EVE Online is not the game for him.

B) Changing the game for one person is unfair to several thousand others.

C) It was irresponsible of you to convince him to resubscribe. If he dies while playing EVE, it could well be your fault. He could have been playing Star Trek Online instead, still alive, and happy.

Perhaps it was the mention of death that confused the CCP forum moderator. I certainly do not wish death on the gentleman with the weak heart. Was simply illustrating the absurdity of the special snowflake's story.

Snowflake responded, more preposterously than before:

It would be my fault if I did not come on this forum and state the position. Now it's your fault if you agress without thought to the potential consequences. CCP could very well recommend that he does not play if they choose to do that. But that would not cover the hundreds of other people quietly developing high cholesterol (pizza) and damaged liver (booze) that are playing the game.

I did not convince anyone to do anything.

I never got a chance to reply. Snowflake reported my post and CCP handed down the ban. Too bad. That level of absurdity requires repeated public rebukes. So, now, anytime anyone PvPs in highsec, especially of the ganking variety, they could now be responsible for the death of some dude with a weak heart. Since the fellow is nameless, he could very well be anyone. Thus, all PvP should cease. Think of the poor 300lb sloths who play this game. Their health is at stake, and it's now our fault, because special snowflake has passed the blame on to all of us with one forum post. Her logic is staggering.

She said she didn't convince him to return to EVE, even though that's exactly what she said in her first bit of nonsense on the entire subject.

It might all be a blessing in disguise. I was spending too much time on the forums. A forced break will be good. That entire meta-game, especially on the forums, can be over-consuming. In the words of Michael Corleone . . . .

Silentbrick
EVE University's illustrious admiral, their head of PvP, went on a recent rant at his blog about me. It's no secret that I have very little respect for him, but I haven't written about him on my blog in a very long time, maybe months. So, I wonder what set him off at this point in time? Perhaps the ripple effect of those past rants of mine having their desired effect? Somebody said something about his lack of leadership? Maybe a growing movement in the University to get him ousted? He probably blames me for taking the shine off his reputation as a bad-ass and a military genius.

Silentbrick fed his ego through being the University's admiral. It is certainly an impressive title to newbies, even if you barely do anything to warrant it's application. Perhaps some of that cachet has been vanishing recently?

Most of the EVE University vets know he's a bit of a joke. But he's easy to ignore, because he's rarely ever online. As such he doesn't get in anyone's way when it comes to running University PvP. When he does decide that he should make his presence known, it's usually for one big op that ends up failing miserably. Recently the loss of a University capital fleet, full of failfit (or so I've been told) dreadnoughts. And in the past, having Russians online your SBU right under your very own nose. He stages one of these ops, then disappears again for another month or two. As much as most of the PvP vets in the University think he's mostly a joke, he's not involved enough often enough to bother trying to get him replaced with someone competent.

So, I linked his rant. Fair's fair, I suppose. And I know he wants people to read it.

If there's one thing I've known talking with megalomaniacs, it's never let them think you don't respect them and never let them think they aren't in control of the conversation. The discussion goes a lot smoother (and quicker) if you let them butter themselves up.

If anyone knows what provoked this outburst from The Admiral, I'd love to know.

War Declaration
My recent tweet about the pony fad, wondering when the ridiculous thing is finally going to die, brought upon some ire from folks who don't know when the horse (or pony) is long dead.

I was inundated with lots of tweets from alts, mostly folks from PonyWaffe, who seem to be regretting their tired corporation name. Folks trading on a prosaic meme and hoping to shine on some of that GoonWaffe cachet.

And then a PonyWaffe alt decided to wardec me. Funny stuff. I am now at war with my abandoned love children. Although judging from the corp membership, it's just an abandoned love child. He or she is welcome to come down to Stain to teach me an equine lesson.

Apparently I'm in rage mode about all of this. Even though this is the first I've mentioned it. I actually find it kind of funny, that folks would go to the trouble of creating alt Twitter accounts to link me some pony photos, or create an alt simply to wardec me for a week. Unlike the Uni, I don't need to hide from war declarations. I can operate under them just fine, without seven pages of rules.

The Daily Stat with @CCP_Diagoras (Feb 24 2012)

CCP Diagoras tweets a lot of statistics. But we're busy people. We don't always catch them all.

So every day, I'll compile all of the statistical tweets from CCP Diagoras. And post them in one location, without all those bothersome conversation tweets mucking up the list.

(I'll try my hardest to get a list out daily, as long as there are stats to tweet from Diagoras.)

Heck, I'll even categorize the tweets into four categories: PvP, PvE, Industry, and Other.

PvP

• RvB 1st Generation; kill totals, 2008 Jan: 1131, Feb: 1,573, March: 750, April: 134, May: 50.
• RvB 1st Gen (2008), kills total: 3,652. Top chars: Arkaiser 267, Timmyu 139, Kiqui 139, Raivi 134, Karin Vormar 98.
• One final blow with a Hybrid weapon on a Firetail. One in 2010 too. 8 in 2009 and 13 in 2008 though! :)

PvE

• Top 5 regions for NPC kills yesterday: Lonetrek (489k), The Citadel (426k), The Forge (380k), Sinq Laison (227k), Domain (207k).
• Top 5 regions for NPC kills yesterday, null sec: Deklein (121k), Insmother (91k), Esoteria (89k), Fountain (79k), Feythabolis (74k).
• Top 5 systems for NPC kills yesterday: Kaunokka (32k), Ruvas (32k), Korsiki (30k), Uosusuokko (22k), Isikemi (21k).
• Null sec systems with most NPC kills yesterday: G-ME2K (9.6k), RF-CN3 (7.3k), NI-J0B (7.2k), OY0-2T (6.8k), E2-RDQ (6.5k).

Industry

• Top 5 regions for mining yesterday, units of ore: Domain (1.1bn), Tash-Murkon (932m), Lonetrek (910m), The Citadel (886m), The Forge (881m).
• Top 5 nullsec regions for mining yesterday: Providence (22.3m), Insmother (21.1m), Eth. Reach (18.5m), Kal. Expanse (17.3m), Malpais (16.8m)

Other

• Nullsec region with most av. sp (exc. chars with <5m) - Venal, 57.4m. WH space - 36.6m
• Five most docked in stations yesterday: Jita 4-4: 27.5k, Amarr 8: 13.1k, Dodixie 9-20: 9.7k, Couster 2-1: 9.1k, Rens 6-8: 8.5k.

Inferno: The War Starts At Midnight

I'll get the ball rolling with a quote from one of my all-time favourite films: "The war starts at midnight." You can interpret that how you wish, with regards to wars and CCP's long-awaited announcement that they're finally fixing empire warfare.

So. Yeah. It's fucking official. CCP is going to be iterating on Empire. War, war and more war. The war declaration mechanics. Faction warfare. Perhaps bounties too.

The war declaration mechanics are what I'm most interested in. Even if I am in null at the moment and will probably be here for quite awhile longer. It's important to me that conflict does not escape highsec. Bellwether mechanic, and all.

Keeping the signal-to-noise ratio high these last six months was probably what convinced CCP to tackle this sooner rather than later (they could have still iterated on null and little things, if they'd wanted.)

There was the one big threadnaught that we all kept going and going. There were endless wardec proposals on the Features forum. The backlash against EVE University. Blogs posts. Tweets. The conversation was frequent and aggressive. Folks didn't want to see carebears playing EVE yet not playing EVE. Bring back the conflict.

Now, there's no guarantee that we're going to like this new war declaration system. There are some things to be worried about. The latest devblog makes a short statement about CONCORD sanctioned warfare:

The next few months will be spent reinvigorating Concord-sanctioned warfare, giving tools and a framework to groups who wish to take advantage of these conflicts both directly and indirectly.

There's a consensual warfare ring to that statement, isn't there? A new framework for those that wish to engage in conflict. (Another way of potentially saying what I think that devblog comment might be saying.) The positive we can take from this development? That the CSM left Iceland, in December, reasonably happy with where CCP was going with the new war declaration system (although they weren't at all happy with the initial presentation, some conversations moved it in a direction the CSM was happier with.)

After back and forth discussion the CSM ended up being positive about this change although some concerns of the finer details that have to be hammered out. This is definitely something that requires community input and a devblog will be released detailing the changes once they have become clear.

We'll have to wait to see what CCP is up to. Exciting times are upon us. Crucible. Inferno. All this development is really a good thing. I can't see CCP fucking up wardecs. I still have too many good feelings about Crucible. Nothing bad is going to happen? Right?

What happens to highsec? Does CCP give it back to the EVE player, or let it sit comfortably with the carebear?

The Daily Stat with @CCP_Diagoras (Feb 23 2012)

CCP Diagoras tweets a lot of statistics. But we're busy people. We don't always catch them all.

So every day, I'll compile all of the statistical tweets from CCP Diagoras. And post them in one location, without all those bothersome conversation tweets mucking up the list.

(I'll try my hardest to get a list out daily, as long as there are stats to tweet from Diagoras.)

Heck, I'll even categorize the tweets into four categories: PvP, PvE, Industry, and Other.

PvP

• 7.1k active chars in FW.
• 28,786 fleets created yesterday, 53,043 fleet broadcasts sent.
• The big 6OYQ-Z fight... Time for stats! The following few are filtered to PVP only, Feb 20th & 21st, in 60YQ-Z solar system.
• 910 ship losses total; final blows by weapon group: 360 lasers, 140 missile, 129 projectile, 96 hybrid. 50 to bombs.
• Top five ship types for final blows: Abaddon 266, Drake 126, Avatar 86, Nyx 80, Erebus 64.
• 5 chars with most final blows: Starial 50, Huntet Lifeform 18, speedek 15, F Stenz 15, Lenid Kalkin 13.
• Most destroyed ship types: Drake 330, Capsule 324, Scimitar 36, Tornado 32, Rifter 23.
• Losses, top 5 alliances: Goons 215, Fatal Ascension 158, TEST 124, Tactical Narcotics Team 67, Get Off My Lawn 38.
• Kills, top 5 alliances: Raiden. 465, Pandemic Legion 73, Initiative Mercenaries 63, Northern Coalition. 58, Ev0ke 57.
• Losses by SP bracket: 0-10m 99, 10-30m 228, 30-50m 250, 50-100m 295, 100m+ 33.
• Kills by SP bracket: 0-10m 11, 10-30m 61, 30-50m 114, 50-100m 521, 100m+ 203.
• 565 different ship losers; 385 different characters scoring final blows.
• Top 3 killing weapons: Mega Pulse Laser II 217, Heavy Missiles 115, Dual Modal Giga Pulse Laser I 84.
• 8,783 ships lost by RvB in Feb so far. 170 of those in PvE. Of the PVP ones....
• RvB PVP losses, Feb 2012 so far: Frigate 2548, Cruiser 2461, Destroyer 1375.
• RvB in Feb so far, kills by SP bracket: 0-10m 576, 10-30m 3071, 30-50m 1830, 50-100m 2361, 100m+ 775.
• RvB in Feb so far, losses by SP bracket: 0-10m 2316, 10-30m 3421, 30-50m 1430, 50-100m 1215, 100m+ 231.
• Of the 8613 PVP losses by RvB in Feb 2012 so far, 7,680 were to other RvB members.
• Top 3 killers of RvB members, not in RvB: Fairlight Corp 129, Rebirth. 72, Tr0pa de elite. 29.
• 8,100 kills by RvB total in Feb so far. EVE PVP kills total for Feb: 238,533. So, 3.4% of the EVE wide total.
• Top 5 null sec systems for PVP losses in Feb so far: C-J6MT - 3565, EC-P8R - 2920, BWF-ZZ - 2490, M-OEE8 - 2086, VFK-IV - 1973.
• Top 5 low sec systems for PVP losses in Feb so far: Amamake - 3023, Rancer - 1898, Tama - 1826, Aunenen - 1725, Hagilur - 868.
• Top 5 high sec systems for PVP losses in Feb so far: Akonoinen - 3770, Jita - 2445, Hageken - 2279, Autaris - 1652, Amarr - 1168.
• Top 5 wormhole space systems for PVP losses in Feb so far, ships only: J172551 - 91, J103406 - 79, J103242 - 73, J133906 - 66, J121628 - 66
• Top 5 null sec regions for PVP losses in Feb so far: Syndicate - 11670, Venal - 8166, Geminate - 7941, Insmother - 7205, Curse - 6875.

Industry

• Weekly market trade value totals for Autaris and Hageken, since September. More charts!
• Jan 2012; Jaguar: 2,639 built, 7,199 sold, 1,596 destroyed. Wolf: 2,545 built, 6,579 sold, 1,276 sold.
• 2,410 PI colonies established yesterday.

Other

• Most populated null sec regions today, active chars with >5m sp: Deklein 5035, Fountain 3495, Insmother 3032, Venal 3016, Providence 2957
• CONCORD earnings in CSPA charges? Yesterday: 80,323,229 ISK, 7,926 charges.
• Most populated null sec regions, active chars with under 5m sp: Syndicate 1713, Curse 1491, Stain 1351, Deklein 1282, Providence 1176.
• Least populated null sec regions by active chars with >5m SP: Impass 465, Outer Ring 391, Paragon Soul 341, Tenal 332, Omist 213.

What Would Real Space Combat Look Like?

Slashdot has asked its readers "What would real space combat look like?"

Two friends and I were up until the wee hours of the morning over the weekend debating what real space combat would look like. I've spent some time looking it up online, and there doesn't seem to be any general consensus. So, I thought I'd ask a community of peers what they think. Given our current technology and potential near-future technology, what would a future space battlefield look like? Would capital ships rule the day? Would there be equivalents of cruisers, fighters and bombers, or would it be a mix of them all?

Some of the more interesting comments:

My prediction: slow and boring.

"I always thought the idea of having humans on board a "space battle cruiser" were really weak on imagination. It's very likely space battles would take place with autonomous robots, controlled from a distance, so as not to sacrifice human lives. This, in general, is probably the future of military combat. A million little nano bots would also be much more effective in waging a battle than 1 or 2 giant ships with laser beams (also weak on imagination)."

"When talking space distances controlling them remotely quickly becomes impractical due to the time it takes for commands to be sent."

"I imagine AI will continue to advance quickly."

"Continue to advance quickly? When did AI start to advance quickly?"

"There are two great perils to ship-based weapons that I could foresee, regardless of ship size: heat dissipation and conservation of momentum. Any energy-based weapons would need to dump a tremendous amount of thermal energy off rather short-order, so your ships might have to drag some sort of radiator array behind them, leaving a sweet juicy target. If you committed to projectile weapons, you would need to have some sort of recoil dampening mechanism/thrust compensator every time you fired the weapon."

"Well you could have fairly negligable recoil if said missiles are launched at extremely low velocity, launching their burners after being released from the ship."

"Combat ships, if they exist, would probably be spherical. If there is anything resembling a cannon, there will probably be a single one and aiming will involve rotating the craft (or some sort of gimbal) around the center of the craft, for faster positioning."

"First, actions would take place over distances of 1000's of kilometres. Maneuvering would be slow and expensive in fuel use - as would any change in course or speed. In that respect it would be like a naval action from the days of sail. However the weapons would be directed energy, rather than projectile and the vessels themselves would be almost impossible to detect - partly because of the distances and partly because of the stealthy designs they would employ. Visual detection methods would be almost obsolete, the only exception being to look out for occultations."

"So all the ships would operate at a temperature of 3 Kelvin?"

"So long as they radiate their IR away from the area of operations they could not be detected. There's no Tyndall effect in space."

With current level of technologies; "launch contents of bilge at high velocity" becomes a pretty whiz bang weapon. Death by shit pellets. 'elluva way to go.

If I've learned anything from anime, it's that space battles will consist of giant armadas of robots piloted by people who all get slaughtered until a random girl in a giant robot suit with infinite capabilities eventually achieves the self esteem she needs to take the fight straight to the bad guys and wipe them out, escaping at the last possible second.

I'm going to start from a few first principles here. First - and I don't think this one is seriously open to dispute - (A) space is an exceptionally harsh, unforgiving environment. Failure in any one of these systems: the hull, the carbon dioxide collectors, the heating unit - will render a space vehicle uninhabitable. A failure in either the engines or navigation system will likely lead to a ballistic course to nowhere.

Now, (B) if the history of human space exploration is any indicator, we really don't know how to build fault-tolerant space systems at all. Almost any malfunction tends to produce a catastrophic outcome. Putting principles A and B together, any battle damage of any sort is likely to render the vehicle unsurvivable and kill all the crew.

Now, consider the expense of launching anything of size. Remember, the ISS is the most expensive structure ever built by man. So the idea of putting large, fragile, massively expensive craft (where they can be shot down by space-capable ballistic or nuclear missiles, or damaged with a ground-based lasers) is a total non-starter.

If you want to know what a real war in space looks like with our current level of technology, it's going to involve small, expendable space-based satellites hiding from ground-based things radar and weapons.

And lastly, *any* space combat is going to dramatically increase the amount of space debris in orbit of earth (as China's test a couple years ago did, or the accidental irridium satellite collission did). Just a few incidents could turn dramatically render Earth's near space too dangerous for manned craft for a long time to come.

I think they have it right in Mass Effect. It's going to be really really awful and boring. Gunners are going to be mathematicians, and you can turn into some sort of butcher simply by missing.

Gunnery Chief: [as the character enters the Citadel] This, recruits, is a 20-kilo ferris slug, feel the weight. Every five seconds, the main gun of an everest class dreadnought accelerates one to 1.3% of light-speed. It impacts with the force of a 38-kiloton bomb. That is three times the yield of the city-buster dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth. That means- Sir Issac Newton is the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space. Now! Serviceman Burnside! What is Newton's first law?

Serviceman Burnside: Sir! An object in motion stays in motion, sir!

Gunnery Chief: No credit for partial answers, maggot!

Serviceman Burnside: Sir! Unless acted on by an outside force, sir!

Gunnery Chief: Damn straight! I dare to assume you ignorant jackasses know that space is empty. Once you fire this hunk of metal, it keeps going til it hits something. That can be a ship. Or the planet behind that ship. It might go off into deep space and hit somebody else in ten thousand years. If you pull the trigger on this, you are ruining someones day, somewhere and sometime. That is why you check your targets. That is why you wait for the computer to give you a damn firing solution. That is why, Serviceman Chung, we do not "eyeball it". This is a weapon of mass destruction. You are not a cowboy shooting from the hip!

Serviceman Chung: Sir, yes sir!

Remove ships out of the equation entirely. I don't quite see what they could contribute. They're slow and inefficient, and impossible to give orders in time over large distances.

Relativistic kill vehicles are far more menacing weapons than any ship. It's a reinvention of one of mankind's earliest weapons: The humble rock, thrown at the enemy. But this rock is accelerated very near the speed of light, making it nearly impossible to detect, and completely impossible to stop (if you blow one up, it just increases the destruction). Even a fairly modest RKV can carry the destructive force of a hundreds of atomic bombs and absolutely obliterate it's target.

CSM7 - Revaan versus Jagerblitzen

Episode 36 from Voices in the Void features their first CSM7 interview and debate. They call it a 1v1.

I'd like to think I got the ball rolling there. Making the suggestion to Arydanika to have Marc Scaurus interview Kelduum Revaan. I then mentioned to Bel Amar that a Hans vs. Kelduum debate would be fun (while being dead wrong on the issue of Kelduum participating.) Whether Marc saw that tweet or not I don't know. So he gets the credit for coming up with the 1v1 format and pitting two popular empire candidates against each other.

So, the format was set. The date set. The participants ready to go. I was excited for it all to happen.

I've yet to listen to the interview. I've decided to write up this preamble first, set the stage, and offer some disclosure for those not familiar with my New Eden political leanings. I'm no fan of Kelduum Revaan. I'm no fan of EVE University. I'm a fan of the EVE University concept, no fan of what it has become. I won't get into what I think it's become. There are many posts on this blog dealing with that topic if you care to find them.

Time to start listening to the interview. I'll be doing this in a play-by-play format, and using timestamps as headings.

1:06:30
The opening introduction. Marc can't pronounce Revaan, but he can pronounce Jagerblitzen. Kelduum is introduced, more or less, as the PvE candidate (I'd expect Kelduum to correct that in the next couple minutes, since he wants to be the everyone candidate.) Hans is introduced as the faction warfare/lowsec candidate, though wanting to be the empire candidate.

1:08:00
Both candidates are asked how the risk/reward balance can work in lowsec, given that it's almost as dangerous as nullsec.

Kelduum responds that he'd like to see lowsec rewards on par with nullsec rewards. He states that lowsec is not as dangerous as many people let on [true!]. He also would like to see mechanics that encourage people to work together in groups. No examples of what that might entail.

Hans is far more concrete in his answer. Agreeing with Kelduum that lowsec is not dangerous if pilots take certain basic precautions. He doesn't agree that increasing ISK reward will entice people into lowsec, although it would be a small factor. He sees rewards as going beyond just ISK. Good fights, for example, are an excellent reward. Since lowsec is seen as an area of New Eden where much conflict occurs, Hans sees PvP as one of the most rewarding aspects of lowsec. Small gang warfare, for instance, is already popular in lowsec, but he feels that it can thrive even further. CCP's iterations on lowsec should focus on how to make PvP and small gang warfare even more vibrant and active and interesting for players. That, he feels, will encourage more people to try lowsec. The risk of losing ships is outweighed by losing them, if the fights are fun as hell and easy to find.

1:12:24
Arydanika asks about decreasing highsec rewards. Such as nerfing incursions in highsec to make lowsec incursions more valuable and enticing, placing items in lowsec that cannot be acquired in highsec (such as certain ores), or decreasing the value of level four missions in highsec and while increasing their value in lowsec. The two candidates were asked how they feel about these types of proposals.

Kelduum feels that because lowsec has the reputation of being so damned dangerous, moving level four missions to lowsec would have no impact on people moving to lowsec. Highsec players would simply do level three missions. The issue is educating people on how to operate in lowsec safely, that it isn't a big scary place.

By the time Hans got to answer, the discussion had already morphed into one dealing with mission AI, and that the original intent of level four missions was that they were to be done in groups. Hans carries on with the point that if that was CCP's original plan, they failed hard. The fact is that the traditional mission AI doesn't do anyone any favours. It teaches nothing practical to the player, because the AI is so predictable. CCP needs to give the traditional mission AI a serious boost in intellect so that players doing those missions are given some practical skills and encouraging group beahviour.

Kelduum finishes by making an interesting comment about player generated missions. No details, though, which is a shame. It sounded like a potentially interesting idea. I guess we'll never know.

1:18:45
Arydanika asks the candidates feelings on incursion payouts in highsec. She feels the payouts are crazy ridiculously high.

Hans says he's not an economist, so he's not comfortable making an claims about the inflationary (or not) aspects of the highsec payouts. He'll defer to the experts in that area. What he does feel is that there's no reason for anybody to do incursions outside of highsec. The payouts might be a little lower in highsec, but the risk of losing expensive ships is close to zero. Lack of risk in highsec outweighs the reward of increased incursion payouts in low and nullsec. He feels work must be done to encourage people to run incursions outside of highsec. He makes an interesting point that the safety that highsec engenders actually encourages classist attitudes (carebears vs. gankers vs. pirates, etc.), and how that's an undesirable attribute to have in EVE Online, and it actually encourages players that should be back in low and nullsec to pick on highsec players simply because they are bored and restless.

Kelduum believes there's a lot of myth surrounding the ISK per hour returns in highsec incursions. The myth of 120M ISK per hour is not reality. Most of the people he talks with make closer to 60M ISK per hour. The simple solution is to leave highsec incursion income as it is, and to buff the incomes from lowsec and nullsec.

1:22:50
Bowdy asks what makes each candidate passionate about EVE.

Hans loves EVE because the game itself doesn't set the goals for the player (unlike other MMOs which just plop down the next sequence of rinse-repeat raiding content with every major patch or expansion.) It is the player that sets their own goals. That's what sets EVE apart in the MMO genre. EVE is truly open-ended. The reasons why we all play are all vastly different, and he loves that fact. The players create the content, unlike other MMOs where you're simply on a treadmill of new content that isn't all that much different than the content that came before. Being able to do whatever you want in EVE, being able to play your own way, those are principles that we have to protect.

Bowdy then catches Hans, quite smartly, in a quote he made last week, about the sort of PvP he doesn't respect, larger corps picking on smaller defenseless corporations. Hans ably defends himself and adds further context to that viewpoint: he points to the deep politics and the deep mechanics in EVE Online as being great features of the game. That an experienced player can kick sand in the eyes of newb, he doesn't see as the great selling point of the game. He'll defend the ability of people to be able to kick sand in newb eyes if that's what they enjoy in EVE, he just doesn't respect it. CCP should make more of an effort to create really fun game play out in low and nullsec. If they do that, the "griefing" everyone complains about will be less of an issue, because the folks seen to be causing the "problems" in highsec will be back in low and nullsec, doing the fun stuff, rather than trying to amuse themselves in highsec -- because they're bored, because there's no enjoyment in the low and nullsec gameplay -- by kicking sand in the eyes of newbs.

Hans also promises not to commit suicide during his term in the CSM.

For Kelduum, what fires his passion for the game is the community. Not just the community in the University, but the entire EVE community [not including me, probably]. He also likes that anything at anytime can happen in EVE. That anything that does happen effects everyone on different levels, because the game is a single server. EVE is special because it is ridiculously harsh and he wants EVE to continue being ridiculously harsh.

1:34:30
Marc then asks Kelduum about war declarations and Kelduum's wish to eliminate griefing wardecs.

Kelduum starts by explaining some EVE University history with respect to war declarations, how he created the decshield back when The Privateers were stating they were going to keep the University at war forever. How, as the University grew, that they were faced with an increasing number of wardecs, culminating in 30 or so per year from 2010 onwards. He explains that one of the biggest problems for the University is when corps declare war on the University, come out to fight for a couple days, then disappear, not to relog for the rest of the week. Bowdy asks how that's a problem? Kelduum doesn't really explain. Later Marc asks much the same thing, if someone isn't logging on, how is that affecting University functions? Kelduum again avoids answering directly.

Kelduum is then grilled specifically on his war declaration proposal. Basically, his wish is that if someone doesn't want to show up to fight, then there is a method for the defender to end a war quickly. He also wants to see mercenaries get involved in wars. There is skepticism among the hosts and from Hans whether his complex proposal involving structures and bubbles of nullsec is the path to take.

Hans, on wars. He wants to see more cooperation among corporations. Private defense treaties available, so that if one corp is wardecced, then everyone that signed the treaty comes along as a defender as well. He wants to see more relationship building among the players. He would like to see more involvement with mercenary corps. He feels the fixes aren't complex, and that players themselves can solve most of the issues if they are given the tools to do so. His major issue with wars in highsec is that it creates an environment for conflict that is completely at odds with the rest of EVE, that you can cherry-pick who you want to fight with no repercussions. Treaties and mercenary contracts would go a long way to solving the cherry-picking problem, since you'll never quite know who you're picking a fight with.

1:52:42
Marc then asks each candidate why players should vote for them rather than other candidates who may share similar values and constituents.

Hans feels that most other candidates are running on platforms based what they want to see happen with the game. Hans feels that he's connected with the community and that his platform is more about what the community wants to see happen. And he'll continue to remain very connected to the empire community through his CSM term. He'll listen and bring what he hears to CCP.

Kelduum stated that he doesn't really care what anybody has to say. He has his seat all locked up, 1500 University members strong (plus their alts.) He's not at all worried about competition or what his so-called competition is saying or doing.

Oops. Dreaming again.

What Kelduum actually said is that he feels he's pretty grounded in the community, since there is a large network of ex-Unistas (20000, apparently) out in every corner of New Eden. He's not running on any particular set of issues. There are lots of things that need to be fixed in EVE, and that he'll listen to what CCP proposes as they propose it and give them his honest feedback. His role as a director and CEO of EVE University for the last five years should serve him well, it shows he has the experience in a leadership role to serve on the CSM.

One disturbing comment that Kelduum makes. After being CEO of EVE University for a couple years, it seemed to him the next logical step was the CSM. Is that his only reason for running? That the next logical step of progression for his New Eden resume was to see CSM following on from CEO?

1:58:52
And that wraps it all up. Lots of hugs to go around.

***

So who won? I think they both held up well to the questioning. I think Hans fared better overall and proved himself the better orator and had better detail to every question asked of him. Kelduum often spent time just framing the question in his head (lots of umming and awing) before getting to an answer, and those tended to lack detail or forethought.

Whereas I think Hans definitely came out ahead in this 1v1, Kelduum didn't stink up the joint by any means. He didn't do or say anything that would turn off any of his current supporters, though I doubt the interview won him many (if any) new supporters outside of University circles. Kelduum is highly likely to get himself a seat on the CSM (bottom seven) through the University vote alone.

Hans' showing was very impressive. He shows a great deal of knowledge about empire space and the issues that affect empire. He's certainly very deserving of a CSM seat, and he's getting his name and message out there. I think he's close to a CSM seat, not quite sure he's over that hedgerow just yet. His upcoming EN24 interview should push him over the top (it will give him an even larger audience), if he has as strong a showing in that upcoming interview as he did in this interview.

Kelduum should be thankful that he has the EVE University juggernaut firmly behind him. Without it, he would stand absolutely no chance of winning a CSM7 seat. His ideas are not strong, he often doesn't have a clear direction on some of the issues, and his ability to express what concrete ideas he does have is weak, at best.

Anyhow, good work Arydanika, Marc Scaurus and Bowdy. I look forward to next week's 1v1, even if I won't be play-by-playing it. You folks are doing a stellar job with the podcast (though Bowdy needs a new mic, it sounds like he's talking from deep inside a cement pipe.)

The (Maybe) Last Wardec Proposal

The aim of this proposal is the create a simple wardec system that makes moot all of the previous exploits. It further puts some power into the hands of the defender.

Simple systems are far easier to create and manage than complex systems. They are far less vulnerable to bugs and exploits. Complex systems are less malleable, more resistant to future change. Simple systems are easier to adjust and change, iterate upon, if necessary.

This simple proposal is a response to the following complex proposal, which involves such things as nullsec bubbles and structure bashing. Such a proposal would take CCP a year to implement, and a further year to work out the inevitable bugs and exploits.

I've made other war declaration suggestions, each less complex than the previous suggestion. I believe this to be my final iteration on the subject. (But who knows? Maybe it can get simpler.)

Declaring
Corporations in an alliance, declare war as an alliance (the executor corporation has to declare in this situation.) Corporations in an alliance have war declared upon their alliance.

Any number of wars can be declared upon a single corporation/alliance by different corporations/alliances.

Costs
I think most people agree that the current costs to initiate a war are far too inexpensive. There is some middle ground where a group will have to weigh cost versus reward before declaring war on another group of players. My suggestion would be that the cost to declare on a corporation be in the 100M to 250M ISK range. That the cost to declare on an alliance be in the 250M to 500M ISK range. This cost would be the base cost.

Costs are fixed. They would not escalate based on any factor (e.g., number of wardecs already declared on the defender, the number of times the war has been extended.) Costs escalate based on the number of wars the attacker has created. This is the escalation cost. Since the escalation cost is based upon the attackers wars in progress, decshields become moot. I suggest an escalation cost of around 50M ISK. This is then multiplied by the number of wars where the corporation/alliance is currently flagged as an attacker. So, for example, if the attacker has five wars that they have created and wants to start a sixth war, the cost for the sixth war declaration would be base cost + (escalation cost x 5).

The 24 Hour Warm-Up
During the 24 hour run-up to the start of conflict, both the attacker and the defender may perform normal membership activities. Players may join the corporation(s) of the attacker and defender. Players may leave the corporation(s) of the attacker and defender.

Friends and Mercenaries
Additionally, during the 24 hour warm-up, the defender may invite other corporations and alliances to join the war on the defending side of the equation. The attacker does not have this option.

The cost to invite a corporation to a war will be in the 50M to 100M ISK range. The cost to invite an alliance to a war is in the 100M to 200M ISK range. I suggest these costs be half of the base cost to initiate a war with a corporation or alliance.

Friends and mercenaries must be invited to each war declaration separately. The cost is per corporation/alliance per war declaration.

The cost is non-refundable. The cost only sends a corporation or alliance an invitation to join the war. That corporation/alliance can choose to accept the invitation or decline the invitation. Accepting adds the corporation/alliance to the war declaration as a defender.

Any number of other corporations/alliances may be invited by the defender, but each invite is a separate non-refundable cost. The non-refundable aspect ensures that scamming/lying/subterfuge/trust remain an integral part of the game.

The invited parties have until the end of the 24 hour warm-up period to accept the invitation. If they do not respond before hostilities begin, the invitation will be automatically declined.

This system puts some power and control into the hands of the defending corporation/alliance.

For industrial corporations, it is now in their best interests to develop symbiotic relationships with more combat-oriented corporations. This mechanic gives the industrial corporation/alliance some method of adequate defense.

This system encourages increased interaction between players, especially with regard to diplomacy and relationship building.

War Begins
As per usual war mechanics, the attacker and defenders may attack each other at will within empire space without repercussions from CONCORD. This is known as the hostile phase of war.

Membership
Once hostilities have begun, members of the the attacking and defending (see comments below for rationale/discussion on this edit) corporation(s) may leave those corporation(s) if they wish (normal rules concerning dropping roles still apply.)

Members of the defending corporation(s) may only leave their corporation(s) if they are currently in a 24 hour warm-up period (even if other war hostilities are currently active.) (See comments below for rationale/discussion on this edit.)

The defending corporation(s) may still accept new members.

The attacking corporation(s) may not accept new members during the course of the war declaration.

Attacking and defending corporations may continue to recruit members during hostilities. There will be a delay (suggestion: two hours) in joining a corporation that is at war, once this delay has been completed the membership is activated. This eliminates recruitment gaming (e.g. one person points an adversary, while in station ten people suddenly join the corporation, undock, and become part of the fight.) This delay only takes effect if the corporation is currently in the hostile phase of any war.

Corporations may not join an alliance if that alliance is flagged as the attacker in any war. Corporations may join alliances that are only flagged as the defender in any war.

Members of the attacking and defending corporations may still leave their corporations, though they continue to remain war flagged to all wars currently in their hostile phase.

Corporations may leave alliances during war, though the corporation will continue to remain flagged to all wars currently in their hostile phase.

Surrender
Only the attacking corporation/alliance may sue for peace. If the defender accepts the proposed surrender, the war ends immediately. If the defender wishes to sue for peace, they simply contact the attacker, if the attacker agrees, then the attacker will initiate the suing for peace mechanic.

Extending the War
A war lasts seven full days (eight if you include the initial 24 hour warm-up period.) There is no mechanic to extend the war from within the war itself.

If an attacker wants to continue a war, then, once the current war ends, the attacker simply redeclares on the defending corporation/alliance. When redeclaring, another 24 hour warm-up period will take effect.

Conclusion
I am curious to hear possible exploits and problems with this proposal. Obviously there are certain restrictions imposed upon the attacker that are not imposed upon the defender. The attacker commits themselves to the war, the defender has some power to shape the war to their advantage.

Truisms of the War Declaration

If a 2-man corporation brings your 1500-man alliance to its knees, the failing is not with the game, it is with your alliance. The 2-man corporation has not griefed you. You've griefed yourself.

***

If your alliance loses 500 members due to the war declaration actions of a small corporation, with a significant number of those outright quitting the game, it's not because the game failed them, it's because your alliance failed them. Give your members a reason to play, not a reason to dock up. Don't bore your members, engage your members.

***

If your wartime rules do not account for an enemy that refuses to show, then your rules have become the enemy. Wars need not be fought on a battlefield. If your weakness is in your own policies, expect your enemies to exploit them.

***

If you're not a fighter, you'd best be finding friends who are. Natural selection will always first remove the easy prey. Seeking out easy prey is not a sign of weakness, it is a survival given.

In Memoriam

My alt is Scottish Play. He lives in Stain. One of those two things, most of you already know. A few of you may have figured out both.

My dog of 15 years 4 months passed away July 2011. I named my alt in memoriam of my furry pal. Macbeth. My alt is not a huge secret. Poetic's API key would quickly give it away. Or search for Viator losses in Stain near the dates of my Viator loss blog entries.

Anyhow, the alt, Scottish Play, will be PvPing soon enough, and I'd have to come clean eventually if I want to brag on my few kills. And my many deaths.

I've just been thinking about him a lot lately. I was there when he was put to sleep. That whole process still affects me. In two weeks he would have been sixteen. For a German Shepard, he lived an exceptionally long life. He lived a pretty good life, actually.

There are more Macbeth photos behind the jump.

Everything I Know About Jump Freighters I Learned From a 6 Year Old Girl

The alt is now training jump freighters. I like to be self-sufficient. Expensive self-sufficiency, though. These things cost around 6B ISK. Unless I can make a couple billion ISK in the next two months, I'll have to resort to buying some GTCs.

I'm excited about the prospect of flying one of these. Six billion ISK. Just the thought of having that much ISK at risk (more really, because it will have cargo) sends shivers up my spine. Good shivers. The kind of shivers you should get in EVE. Risk versus reward and all that.

So everything I've learned about jump freighters so far, I've learned watching the following video:

What did I learn? Well, you need an alt at the destination, or some character who can light a cynosural field thing. When it's lit, the jump freighter pilot can jump to the lit cyno. Both characters need to be fleeted together (obviously.)

It is best to jump your freighter from the undock of a station. The destination should be as close to a station as possible. For quick docking in the event of trouble.

Other things I know. Jump freighters have a maximum range of five light years. I still have no idea how to measure distance between star systems though. I wonder if there is some site that will take two systems as input parameters and spit out the distance?

Obviously, when jumping this thing into Stain, it would be beneficial to find a highsec system (with a station) within range of whatever system in Stain I'd like to jump it too. I'm guessing that's going to be impossible. Stain is quite a distance from empire space. My guess is that I should be able to find a lowsec system that is five light years from the Stain station I wish to jump to. At the moment, I'm assuming two jumps to get into Stain (though I would not be surprised if it ended up being three), highsec to lowsec, lowsec to nullsec.

I'm going to have to spend a few jumps practising all this in highsec. My first trip in a cargo-ladened 6B ISK freighter is not going to be into Stain. In two or three months, you can expect a post about either my first successful jump into Stain, or the destruction of my brand-new 6B ISK jump freighter. The latter would make for better reading, but has the nasty side-effect of making me sad.

I intend for Poetic to be the cyno lighter. So I have to figure out what skills she needs to pick up. From what I've gathered loosely over the months, the skill set for a cyno lighter is not high, so shouldn't be much of a problem. Just keep a Poetic clone down in Stain with some cyno lighting ships (I've heard this can be done in cheap frigates.) I don't know how accurate all this water-cooler information is. But I'll get around to checking out EVElopedia soon.

Heck, once I get the hang of it, maybe I'll see about joining Black Frog.

EVE Blog-a-Day #020 - What's Your EVE Persona?

What is EVE Blog-a-Day?

Similar to the EVE Blog Banter, which occurs once per month, EVE Blog-a-Day will pose a short simple question for EVE's bloggers. It's meant to give bloggers a jump start into posting. You want to post something, but you're stuck for a subject? EVE Blog-a-Day can help. Feel free to use it every time a new question is posed, or only when a new question piques your interest.

Even though it is called EVE Blog-a-Day, questions won't come daily. Probably in daily spurts here and there. It might disappear for awhile, but it will return when inspiration strikes.

Question #020

The new EVE Online website has a personality analyzer. Take a few moments to answer the few questions. Tell us, what is your persona?

My Response

I'm the Explorer. With potential interests in the Trader and the Salvager. The Explorer is a solo occupation, with economic and scientific goals. I cannot argue with this. I really get a kick out of travelling the dangerous areas of New Eden, checking out the territory, evading hostiles as best I can. It's why I circumnavigated New Eden through all the outer nullsec regions. It's why my alt character is in Stain, doing what he could just as easily do in empire lowsec.

Participants

I also call on folks to send me their questions to ask the community. I'll post them, crediting you for the question, as well as a link back to your blog (give me your blog address too.)

When posting a link to your blog entry on Twitter, use the #eveblogaday hash tag, as well as the usual #tweetfleet hash tag.

If you partake in a particular question, please post a link to your blog entry in the comments. I'll compile them all, and every 25 questions, I'll post a big recap.

EVE Blog-a-Day #019 - Who You Voting For?

What is EVE Blog-a-Day?

Similar to the EVE Blog Banter, which occurs once per month, EVE Blog-a-Day will pose a short simple question for EVE's bloggers. It's meant to give bloggers a jump start into posting. You want to post something, but you're stuck for a subject? EVE Blog-a-Day can help. Feel free to use it every time a new question is posed, or only when a new question piques your interest.

Even though it is called EVE Blog-a-Day, questions won't come daily. Probably in daily spurts here and there. It might disappear for awhile, but it will return when inspiration strikes.

Question #019

Do you know who you will be voting for in the upcoming CSM7 elections? If not, who are you following closely?

My Response

I've not yet made up my mind. If Darius III runs, I'm going to throw my two votes towards him. I would like him on the council to keep The Mittani honest. Plus, I see him as a Mittani-like character, but without all the peacock feathers and strutting about. If Darius III does not run (and it's looking like he may not), then I'm considering Riverini (looks like he'll announce this weekend) or Hans Jagerblitzen. Hans, because high-sec needs a representative, and you-know-who-from-a-certain-large-highsec-corporation is definitely not that guy.

Participants

I also call on folks to send me their questions to ask the community. I'll post them, crediting you for the question, as well as a link back to your blog (give me your blog address too.)

When posting a link to your blog entry on Twitter, use the #eveblogaday hash tag, as well as the usual #tweetfleet hash tag.

If you partake in a particular question, please post a link to your blog entry in the comments. I'll compile them all, and every 25 questions, I'll post a big recap.

Life in Stain - Moving Day

The moving will happen this weekend.

The reason is that I want the alt to remain in Stain, and become more self-sufficient, if not completely self-sufficient. For now, that means missions.

I also want to be closer to the Stain trade hub. But not too close. Currently I'm about 25 jumps away, and that makes it inconvenient for both selling and buying, especially since I have to pass through 37S-KO to get there, and that system has proven to be a bit of a pain in the ass. It's the only system, along the Period Basis - Catch pipe, that is nearly always gate/bubble camped. I've been a victim there twice.

What I want is access to missions, level ones through threes, as well as access to courier missions, to mix it up while I'm working my way towards the level three missions. I have a good location for it, near the travel pipe, as well as having a number of systems just off the trade route. And it's a quick trip to LGK- for marketeering. And the selection of PI planets is just as good. Yep, gonna continue with the PI for sure.

I'll also be getting Black Frog to transport some more Viators, Dramiels and Catalysts down to the new location. The Dramiels should be perfect for blitzing level ones and twos. I'm thinking about using the Catalysts to kill station bubbling Sabres. They annoy the hell out of me and deserve to die (I'll of course post the results, good and bad, likely mostly bad to begin with, on that endeavour.)

Gonna be a busy weekend. Lots of stuff to haul in the Viator. Probably six trips worth of stuff. Not gonna be fun, but it has to be done.

CSM7 - I Represent EVE University

I don't represent EVE University. Obviously. Kelduum, as part of his CSM7 platform, has stated he represents everybody. I called bullshit on that earlier.

I'd like to point out a few of his public comments concerning his platform which give way to the lie that he represents anybody other than EVE University. He wants to see changes implemented that benefit his organization (hard to fault him for that, I'm sure The Mittani wants to benefit Goonswarm).

We'll start off with some of his comments made on the EVE Online forums, specifically where I ask him a few questions.

Q: Would you push for a special designation (e.g. training corporation) for EVE University, to exempt them from a war declaration system?

A: Believe it or not, if CCP offered me some kind of 'special designation' tomorrow, I would very likely say no.

The answer seems fine on the surface. It is curious he didn't outright say "No," but qualified his answer with a "very likely". I wonder what offer might be made that would change a "very likely no" into a "yes."

Specifically on war declaration mechanics:

Q: What methods would you suggest to CCP for defenders to end wardecs?

A: A moderately expensive structure, which projects a 'bubble of nullsec' around it (and can't be anchored too near anything like gates/belts etc), can optionally be fuelled to increase its EHP, and must be online to keep the war running, but at less cost.

However being in nullsec anyone (for example, mercenaries or even someone who doesn't like the aggressors) could get involved and help kill/repair/defend it, increasing options for interaction between players.

Here's where we start getting into the suggestions that benefit nobody in highsec except for EVE University. He suggests a structure that can be destroyed. Destroy the structure, before the normal week-long ending to a war, the war ends early. Exactly who does this benefit except a corporation that can quickly field a fleet of 50-200 ships to smash the structure in record time? It certainly wouldn't benefit small corporations and alliances. But a corporation well-known for its blob warfare, they could end wars within hours of them beginning. This is a suggestion meant to benefit any corporation or alliance that can bring massive numbers to bear quickly (and there is only one such corporation in highsec.) No thought is given at all to small and medium alliances. Certainly not a component of a platform for someone claiming to represent everyone.

Now let's grab something he wrote over on the EVE University forums, a head-ups on his CSM agenda to his prime constituency.

The wardec systems clearly need a rewrite, both eliminate the existing loopholes in them as well as encourage PvP against groups who can/will fight.

The important aspect of this comment is the part where he wants to "encourage PvP against groups who can/will fight." Basically, he wants to encourage a war declaration system that will not include corporations and alliances not interested in non-consensual PvP. In other words, he's looking for a war declaration system that encourages consensual PvP. EVE University is the biggest detractor of the current war declaration system (before CCP started allowing exploits to be used), and has never enjoyed going to war unless it was a) mutual, and b) arranged. It should be little surprise that Kelduum aims to champion a system that will keep EVE University free of conflict that is not of its choosing.

This final bit, from his official announcement for candidacy is a lol.

I believe the CSM needs an experienced yet neutral voice to help ensure balance and prevent control of the council from moving to push the agendas of any one player group to the detriment of the rest of the player base.

CSM7 - Herding Cats: The Empire Vote

For those candidates not in large voting blocs (read: nullsec alliances), they're going to have to spend a lot of time getting their face out in the public; stumping speeches on the more popular discussion forums (the EVE Online forums mainly.) You certainly can't rely on any voting bloc that has less than 2500 members to get you in the CSM7 door. Not every member of your bloc is going to vote for you, especially in highsec where interests (and future interests) are so diverse.

CSM6 is an important point of reference when trying to determine how many votes you're going to need to get onto CSM7. There were nearly 50000 votes cast for the CSM6 elections. To get onto CSM6 as an alternate required 920 votes. The bottom of CSM6's top seven had 2200 votes.

(CSM7 is a tad different than CSM6. Still fourteen members, but the alternate designation is now gone. As well, only the top seven candidates get invited to Iceland for the summits.)

There's far more interest in the CSM than at anytime in EVE's history. To get (what was once called) an alternate's seat on CSM7 is going to require well more than 920 votes. To get into the Circle of Seven will require more than 2200 votes. How many more votes though? That's an unknown, but some conservative guesses can be made.

I feel a 25% increase in election interest is conservative. That means ~62500 votes will be cast for CSM7. There will likely be a 25% increase in candidates, mostly from empire space (all of whom will be on the ballot, because Goons and Test will give them all their 100 likes, simply because it will flood the field with candidates and split like hell empire space voting.) To get into the Circle of Seven likely won't require more votes than last year, perhaps 10% more (so ~2500 votes to get into the CSM's top seven), whereas to get into the final alternate seat will require that extra 25% (due to the sheer number of candidates, and having to compete with already well-known incumbents with a base already backing them); so, ~1250 votes to get in the CSM door at all.

What does Kelduum have for numbers? We can look back to the CSM Crowdsourcing vote, where Kelduum rallied his Unistas to vote in a particular way. He made that process as simple as it could get for the University members, and of 2000 members at the time 590 participated in the crowdsourcing. Apathy won't be as high for this vote as it was for the last, plus Kelduum is certainly going to impress upon unistas, ex- and not ex-, to get out the vote as often as he can. The University currently has 1500 members. I believe he has 900-1200 votes in the bag (unistas, ex-unistas, plus available alt accounts thereof.)

That still leaves him 250-400 votes short of a CSM seat. These are votes he'll have to compete for out in the wild. His chances of getting into the Circle of Seven are slim at best, but getting in the door itself is a definite possibility. (If he does get in the door, the outlook for CSM8 and Circle of Seven are much rosier.) With Ripard Teg finally declaring that he will not run, Kelduum should have breathed a sigh of relief. Kelduum's chances of capturing any votes outside of his University base would have been next to nil with Ripard in the race.

Kelduum's main problem at the moment is exposure. Outside of University circles he keeps a very low profile. Not many outside of the Uni-machine have any idea who he is. Nearly everyone playing EVE Online knows about EVE University, far far fewer of those players have any idea who its CEO is. He does at least have the advantage of using the University brand to his advantage in this regard, in getting empire folks to listen to what it is he has to say.

Unfortunately, even within the University, Kelduum is not the great communicator. When he does muster up the effort to do so, he does reasonably well at conveying a message. It's just that he doesn't do it all that often. He's a better manager than politician. It might even be fair to say that he feels uncomfortable in the communication role; he generally leaves that to his directors. Again, he's a good manager.

He knows he has to make the effort. He realizes that his Uni-base alone will most likely be unable to carry him into a CSM seat; he will need the vote from folks unaffiliated with the University. He's already begun the process of getting his message out.

It will continue to interest me as his campaign progresses. I'm certainly less bearish, more bullish on his prospects as a good CSM representative (of which I will get to in a post in a few days.)

CSM7 - THINK OF TEH RAISINS!!1! AND 0.0 SECKS!

Mintrolio, of the excellent posting, has officially thrown his hat into the CSM7 ring.

We were all hoping it would happen. And it has.

I am particularly glad that he is taking an interest in war declaration mechanics. He draws a particularly interesting analogy to his real life, that of raising goats, and to some trouble he got into with a neighbour and a local magistrate. Basically, far too many rules hindered his ability to come to a fair and equitable outcome to his squabble. He'd like to see fewer rules in EVE Online so that players can work out their differences free of the heavy hand of magistrates and the like.

Even though Mintrolio is from 0.0 space, believing it is the best secs of all, he does understand that not everyone shares his views on secs. He understands there are many different types of secs in EVE Online. There are many issues that are very important, but secs is most important to Mintrolio.

Unlike most of the 0.0 candidates, Mintrolio has a broader outlook on the game as a whole. He looks to represent all secs, even the secs he's not familiar with. Even low secs. He'll bend over to help out with low secs. If that is what it will take. He'll take it.

If Darius III does not run, I'm throwing my two votes Mintrolio's way. If he can improve secs in EVE, who are we not to vote for him?

The Bellwether Mechanic - Predicting CCP's Future Direction

CCP has made a number of changes to the conflict mechanics in highsec during the last six months. The removal of insurance payouts on ships destroyed by CONCORD. The illegal, now legal when it comes to avoiding war declarations. New aggression notifications to protect the unwary. Even CCP's CEO, Hilmar Veigar, suggesting that CONCORD might need to be buffed.

This has lead some to wonder what direction CCP is now heading. Are they trying to soften the game to attract players who would otherwise shy away from a PvP game? Are they trying to soften EVE Online's harsh and hard reputation?

The jury is still deliberating.

I have written quite a bit about EVE Online's war declaration mechanics, especially since they rescinded any oversight they once did on exploits. There are no more war declaration exploits. If you're committed to avoiding PvP in highsec, your job is now a lot easier. War declarations are easily avoidable. The only thing you still have to watch out for are suicide attacks.

Why am I so invested in what CCP does with the war declaration system? I see it as the bellwether of CCP's future direction. EVE Online is the mine; the war declaration system is the canary. What CCP does with the war declaration system is an excellent indicator of the road CCP wishes to take with EVE Online in future development. Do they wish to shed their old HTFU image, attract a broader base of players, or do they wish to remain a niche, but highly unique game.

In my opinion, what CCP does with the war declaration system will effect the entire game going forward, if not directly in a particular area, then certainly obliquely. What CCP does with the war declaration system could signal a change in design and development philosophy. Every player should care about the war declaration system. What CCP does with it will have a ripple effect that will sweep across the game.

I can certainly hear the usual rants from nullsec players. "I live in nullsec. I could give a fuck about the war declaration system. That shit is for highsec. It won't effect us out here."

My answer is similar to what it was several months ago. The safer, easier, less stress-free that highsec becomes, the harder it is going to be to keep people in nullsec for extended lengths of time. These people will always return to nullsec at some point, to get their game on, but the ratio of time spent in nullsec versus highsec will start to slant heavily in the highsec direction. People will naturally gravitate to ISK earning acitivities that are low-maintenance and stress-free. As long as the rewards are within 10-15% of the higher risk areas, the lower risk areas will be more attractive. Even the most hardened PvP veterans are going to prop up their PvP activities in the safer areas.

It's human nature. ISK earning is work. We don't naturally challenge ourselves in work. PvP is a hobby, that's where people generally challenge themselves, in their pasttimes.

Make highsec safer, it will have an effect on every region of the game. This has an eventual snowball effect. The more people living and earning in highsec, the more voices to complain, of which CCP will take notice. More changes to make things safer may come down the pipe. In the end, what you have are PvP regions and non-PvP regions. At that point (well before that point actually), EVE is dead, it no longer resembles what it once was.

I'm not suggesting that EVE is heading down that path. Not quite yet. There are hints they want to make highsec a safer area to be. I feel that's a dangerous precedent to set. So it will be important to watch the bellwether mechanic, watch exactly what CCP does with it. It will determine what their design and development philosophy going forward will be.

So, what do we have to look forward too?

Three bits of information from CCP/CSM regarding the war declaration system have surfaced since January. The first from the CSM minutes (pg. 22):

It must also be stated for the record that the CSM voiced concerns that CCP would be fiddling with one of the fundamental things of EVE, i.e. sometimes shit happens to you (like war is declared on you) and you just have to deal with it and any changes to the current system could potentially have negative effect over all.

 The second by CCP Soundwave from the Beers with Bolton vlog (paraphrased):

Soundwave states that they wish to rewrite some of the underlying conflict systems, because they are old and are not accomplishing what they want them too. Starting with the empire wardec system.

CSM Trebor eventually expanded a bit upon all this, based upon his December trip to Ísland, adding:

[There'll be] a significant redesign and rewrite of Crimewatch, the code that handles all the agression timers, Concord and Police response, and so on.

One thing I do hope that comes out of this rewrite is more emphasis on making it easier for people who want to fight to find fights, while at the same time making it harder for people to abuse war-decs to grief players who simply have no interest in PvP. I made this point at the summit, and quite frankly, I thought that some of the mechanics suggested at the summit would be invitations to organized extortion.

The CSM based comments (first and third) have me the most worried. It seems like CCP was going to implement a system that the CSM considered very bad for the game. Some back and forth between the two curtailed that somewhat. Trebor's comment is somewhat worrisome: for people that have no interest in PvP, he believes it should be harder to engage them in conflict. What this means is that anyone who doesn't want to be bothered while earning their ISK (nullsec, carebear, whoever) will be able to take advantage of this system to create a safer environment for themselves. This is certainly not positive news, and simply sets the snowball rolling slowly down the hill.

When CCP gets around to publishing their devblog on Crimewatch and the changes they wish to make to the war declaration system, we'll all have a better idea of the direction CCP wants to head. So, until that time, I'm not going to be entirely gloom and doom about the prospects. Certainly they are a tad worrisome, but until some more concrete info comes down the trough, no sense guessing what's going to happen.