For those of you who were wondering WTF happened with us, or those of you who have been missing us on the radiowaves.. well.. rejoice! :-p

We’ll be broadcasting live from Split Infinity Radio, at 8pm GMT this Wednesday, 7th Dec 2011. Tune-in at www.siradio.fm!

We haven’t done this for a while and we both wanted to catch up with ya and we welcome any excuse to get more drinking done.. We’ll be talking about various topics, EVE ofc being one of them, although it won’t be a pure Planet Risk Show so it won’t be recorded for a podcast - make sure you tune in live!

Lumi & qp

However, I did mention that this is going to be our final post (at least for the time being). Both me and Quivering Palm have decided to take a long-long break from EVE and focus on this Massively Multiplayer Offline game called Real Life™. Not much to be said other than that it has been a helluva ride.

I’m extending huge gratitude to all the people who have followed us throughout these years, who spent their gaming time with us, who laughed at our jokes and tolerated our 3 hour long nonsense and drunken stupor. It’s time for us to pull the curtain and go for that lengthy intermission. I do say ‘intermission’ because you never know.. we could be back some day. When will that be though… putting it in Duke Nukem Forever terms.. “When we will”…

You can still catch me on Split Infinity Radio ever Monday and Wednesday for the WTF Show as well as on the EU East/Nordic server of League of Legends under the nick “aMUSiC” (yeah I know blasphemy… but it’s free ehehehe).

So long… and thanks for all the fedos =)

Greetings my fellow corp men, women, & blog readers!!!

It has been awhile since my last installment, and the protests of the mythical, “golden ammo,” have finally been silenced. The new topic on everyone’s mind… Will the DRF control the world?

It is an interesting question. The general consensus is… Yes, if they want it. Maybe they could, but really what would it accomplish? They could brag of turning the null sec map “red.” Would that be a real victory, or would that “victory” be short lived? Would it only be a matter of time before one of the major power blocks within the DRF would get bored and turn it sights upon its “allies?” Why else do the pilots of the DRF log on, if not to wage war? It isn’t to mine or rat, they got their bots to do that.

Let’s face it… null sec is a place of war. Those that live there enjoy the conflict, and the challenge. Some like smaller gang pvp, others enjoy large fleet engagements. It is obvious that the DRF coalition has members that like it all. The DRF did a good job in targeting the NC as its primary enemy. It was a difficult target, and worthy opponent. The NC’s defenses were believed to be insurmountable by many. Yet the DRF took it as a direct challenge to be conquered. Their victory has garnered them the respect that any “super power” derives from military superiority.

They have not just displaced the NC, from the most valuable space in EvE, they have emerged as EvE’s first true “Super Power.” Their overwhelming numbers of super capitals makes it viable for their forces to wage a multiple front war in a number of regions.

Rightly so or not, they are even seen as the masters of the mighty Pandemic Legion. Many believe, the DRF may not directly control PL, but it has become quite obvious, to some, that PL knows not to bite the hand that feeds it. Many view them as a “good dog.” Knowing to bite that hand would result in swift and deliberate punishment. I for one would hope this not to be true… After being out meta-gamed in the alliance tournament, I’d love to see Pandemic Legion re-establish its wild card mercenary image.

Which brings up another question… Does Pandemic Legion still have the ability, and/or desire to influence the landscape of null-sec?

Either way… The Russians are on a roll. Where they’ll stop know one knows!

Fly Safe… Stay Profitable…

Next Report: Where do I go from here?

Greetings my fellow corp men, women, & blog readers!!!

It is funny that people seem to forget that TIME = MONEY. In a subscription based game it is in the interest for the company providing the game (in this case CCP) to make it take as long as possible before you reach your goal in game.

Therefore the real life equation would be:

GAME TIME (GT) = CCP MONEY aka Revenue(R)

So CCP’s revenue equation would look a little something like this:

12 x GT x Subscriptions (S) = Revenue per Year (R/Y)

As we all know that CCP can only make the subscription fee per month per account. The only way to increase revenue would be to increase the subscription costs or get more people to play. Call me crazy… but I think CCP has a pretty good idea of what size of the current MMO market is willing to play EvE.

NOW for the in game equation:

GT = PLAYER IN GAME MONEY (ISK)

As well all know our in game revenue equation looks like this:

GT = ISK/Hour

That being said… I am pretty sure that CCP has a pretty good grasp on the average amount of ISK that a player could generate using any in game mechanics. (Even those players that “Bot” 24/7) As a result they can do the math to determine just how long it would take a player to earn the ISK to purchase any item in the game.

SO… as I look at the direction CCP has chosen to pursue my conclusion is this:

CCP has done the math. They have a realistic idea of the amount subscriptions they will have during a given year. As CCP is a company that exists with the idea of making a PROFIT, they would like to increase the revenue that their game can generate. They know that the player base would NEVER accept in an increase in the monthly subscription price.

This means that they cannot change the 12 x GT x S = R/Y equation to make more profit as the game was in recent past! So CCP has chosen to look at another revenue model… They have moved to ad Incarna & DUST 514 into the mix in attempt to gain more subscriptions (S), but as this alone doesn’t seem profitable enough they have decided to include Micro Transactions (MT)!

So they are looking to add MT to the equation: 12 x GT x S + MT = R/Y

One thing we all know… we may be all equal in game, but outside of the game in a capitalistic society some are more equal than others. In other words… Some folks make a lot more money than others. Because of this well known fact, CCP has decided to target those deeper pockets in an effort to increase its revenue.

Because of this, a good portion of the population has begun to scream “UNFAIR!” They scream this because they have devoted or have the ability to devote more GT over others, and have an advantage. Why do they have an advantage, because we know that GT = ISK, and ISK = power in EvE.

There is a strong argument that someone that plays more should have an advantage over someone that does not. However in the eyes of a company that wants to make more money, they can’t sell more game time to someone that doesn’t have more TIME to spend. They can sell ISK or items for the money that they do have. Get it? You don’t have the time but money to spare, then CCP will take it!

NOW for also those that still cry “NO FAIR!” let me ask you a few questions:

Have you used a PLEX to either get ISK or to apply to your account for more GT? If the answer is “yes,” then stop bitching you hypocrite. You are benefiting from the exact thing you are bitching about! That is right! You are getting to play for free because you don’t have a G@d D@mn job or real life! (That last statement was done somewhat tongue in cheek. I have spent more than my fair share glued to a computer playing MMOs.)

Have you purchased another character with skill points for your personal use? If the answer is “yes,” then stop bitching you F&ck!#g hypocrite!

HOWEVER… Even though I understand what CCP is attempting to do, doesn’t mean I’m not worried. I do not think that deep pockets in the real world should mean a person should be allowed to have items beyond the reach of other players that can devote more time to the game. I too believe that those in game should retain the advantage. As such no “noble” item should be sold below the “fair play time” market price. By “fair play time” market price… I mean placing an ISK/HOUR value on every item.

To all CSM members going over to Iceland next week, as well to any angry vet that thinks their game is at stake, I suggest you spend some time to watch this presentation, from a GM of a gaming company that was faced with the same question CCP is faced today. “Should we enable game-changing items in our game via MT?”. After watching this video, all the doubts in my mind about what the future holds for EVE were gone.

In my humble opinion, being working for a multinational money-driven corporation in real life for many years, I always believed that, although CCP does pretend to listen to their customers, at the end of the day, as a company that values their P&L, would have no option but to enable EVE players to buy game-changing items through their NEX store.

CCP’s published devblogs, the leaked Fearless magazine and Hilmar’s leaked email all lead to the same conclusion. The emergency summon of the CSM next weekend is just a PR stunt to either throw dust in our eyes or to come out clean and present us with their vision of adding game-affecting items through the NEX store.

So, for me it’s clear. Sooner or later, CCP will add game-affecting items through their NEX store. Bitch as much as you want about it. They will do it sooner or later.

What sort of items would they be adding? That I don’t know. Here are my guesses:

- Customization Items, that don’t affect gameplay but are used primarily within station environments

• Clothes, Monocles and other stuff that will satisfy the “peacock” player amongst us (what true pirate wouldn’t want to have a parrot on their shoulder?”
• Racing stripes on ships, custom paint jobs
• Dancing poles and other stuff that you can put up in your CQ’s

- Game Booster Items, that will help a player “catchup” or grow faster than others

• Skill Points booster – buying this would double the SP/hour you’d be training for a period of time, say 24hrs or a full week
• ISK booster – buying this would double the ISK you make from bounties, killing rats etc for a period of time
• Skill Point reset – buy this and you can re-allocate all your skill points the way you like.

- Premium items, that will give you a competitive edge against other players

• T3 items that have better fitting and add more damage, optimal range or are for some reason better than anything in the game today
• T3 ships or T2,5 ships that give better bonuses or are somehow better than what we have today
• T3 implants and boosters that give you better bonuses etc..

Feel free to add to the comments below your ideas as well!

Now, if CCP does it well, this is going to be fun for all.

If they add Customization items, they need to ensure it doesn’t break the immersion element of New Eden. If they enable custom paintjobs they need to ensure that we won’t see pink hello kitty ships or Thoraxes that do look like giant cocks (that won’t be difficult to pull off).

If they add Game booster items, they need to price them correctly and give a nice variety that will help newer players boost their training plans, but also allow veterans to re-map their skills or offer some other form of “booster” for vets.

If they add Premium items, they need to make sure that these items are dropped and that are being produced by in-game materials. New weapons systems? yeah! New ships? hell yeah! New ammo? sure!

My only worry is the implementation and integration with the already existing in-game-market of EVE. Note to CCP: Please don’t make a secondary Aurum-driven market for those items. What you have already is magnificent, don’t make a secondary market that you’ll need to have Aurum to pay for any of the above items.

I already hate the idea that I have to convert ISK to Aurum for the existing (poor choice) of items available to NEX store. Why not just use my ISK? Why do I have to get plex first and then convert it to Aurum? That is complicated without need – well we are talking about CCP here so… anyways…

At least for non-clothes and stuff, give players the BPCs for any in-game items, not the finished goods, and finaly allow us to see pod-killmails with the implants your clones carry. This way, every bitter vet that is now against this idea will have the chance to high-sec gank your T3-fitted hulk in highsec, pod your expensive +10 learning pod and loot your expensive T3 gun or Golden ammo.

EVE is a game of more than just SPs and ISK – adding Golden Ammo is something good for the game in the long term.

At the end of the day, EVE is a game where how good your ship is, or how many SPs you have play a secondary role. I still recall my loss of my T2 interceptor against a rifter pilot that knew what he was doing. I am still losing T2 Recon Cruisers when I make the wrong calls, and we still win with our BC gang against Faction-fitted nano Vagas and Dramiels and Cynabals.

Do it right CCP and we’ll love you about it. Do it wrong and you’ll get a lot of people sad. Given your history, you will probably launch it half-baked, full of bugs and won’t ever bother to fix it. This is a dangerous path, failing to do this right will probably have quite a negative impact on your P&L for next year…

my 2 thoughts,

qp

I’d like to give a quick shoutout to Nashh and wish him happy 3-0 and also give a heads up to all of you who would like to have some PVP fun.

Nashh, the (in)famous Celebrity Deathmatch organizer and blogger, is organizing an in-game party with a PVP brawl to celebrate his 30th birthday.

I’ll try to be there as well – the more the merrier

See here for details: http://nashhkadavreveblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/big-three-o.html

qp

It feels like ages ago that I had the inspiration and a story to tell worthy of a blog post. You see, after the wormhole days, life in 0.0 was mostly about being behind blue Alliances that had more firepower than you, keeping you safe, and it was mostly a slow learning curve on stuff that you need to know about surviving in 0.0, small roaming gangs and not too many things happening on a day-by-day basis.

Sure, if you make a mistake in 0.0, typically you pay buy losing your ship, like I did two days ago when I lost my carrier. Very good executed hot-drop, melted my Thanny in about 30sec and left me wondering whether I could have survived if I was next to a station instead of a POS, but either way I don’t want to talk to you about how SuperCaps are overpowered and all… I want to talk to you about Wins and Learnings.

The moment I jumped to that cyno, I was feeling safe – that was the real reason behind my loss. What do I mean by that? Let me explain:

Split Infinity alliance has committed to help out –A- coalition in the push to control Tenerifis about a month or so ago. We were becoming complacent in our own little system and the possibility of getting into good fights and sov warfare was quite the driver for most of us – at least folks like myself who haven’t done sov warfare before.

Then, after weeks of sov structure grinds, without any opposition by White Noise we kept gaining space and expanding. At the same time we grew even more complacent. So when we decided to take it to the next step and help with the push in Detorid, we thought it would be not very much different than the Tenerifis grind.

So, when I jumped my carrier 2 nights ago into 3-L at our staging POS, after we had RFed the Station and iHUB in system already with no opposition, I was feeling safe. Then, a Falcon de-cloaked, pointed my ship, and light a cyno. Then the SuperCaps came in and although I lost my good old Thanny, I felt good after a few minutes.

Why? Because, we didn’t come to 0.0 to be glorified carebears, plexing and ratting ABC rocks. We came for the fights, the experience and the fun. This was it and we needed to get our shit together to get things done. We have come to a much more dangerous place than Tenerifis finally and this where it begins…

It took a bit more for this message to sink in with the rest of the alliance though…

With my Thanny replaced and a healthy 35+ man presence from Split Infinity, along with equal numbers from Imperial Order and a few SOB and EON allies, we logged on right after DT on the 4th of June to take the Station in 3-L and the iHUB. We had a nice bashing op going, nothing fancy, and although couple of neuts were in system at the the time we had no issues and shortly after, the Station was ours and we had the iHub dying shortly after.

Got some nice pics off that op:

Next in line was to get the TCU online, and to do that we had to kill off one of the SBUs (since WTB had already SBUed the system we didn’t bother replacing them sooner). We decided to let I0 move on to the next target system and keep sov bashing while SI would bash the SBUs, online the TCU and then go help them out.

What happened next, was that a fleet of about 15 folks with Drakes and Scimitars from DarkSide. came into system. As I learned later on, DarkSide. are quite infamous of their small gang PVP. Back then, we had no idea who they were and our FC called the support fleet to go meet them at the in-gate. We had superior intel and manpower, but we didn’t have good sync with I0 (we never called them to help, we were quite proud and felt we could handle anything) and about that moment everything started to fall apart. Out of our 100 man fleet, only SI subcaps went to that gate, and within few minutes we started losing one ship after the other…

Now remember what I told about being complacent earlier? Our Sub-Caps were ships that were mostly fitted for “safe” sov bashing, like we were used to do for more than a month, back in Tenerifis Sov grind. That meant little to no tank, max DPS and without logi they stood no chance. Once we realized that our ships were getting pwnd, our only option was to get our caps to go with them and provide reps.

If I recall correctly at that stage, we managed to get our fleet back safe, after losing some sub-caps to the DarkSide 15man gang. The fight was completely one-sided as we couldn’t get any ships pointed. GF to DarkSide there for awesome flying. Once we regrouped, DarkSide left system, intel was pretty bad on our side and we decided to go for the SBU again.

Yeah, we should have done this much sooner, killed the SBUs and put online our own. That mistake aside, we recovered the losses, our folks jumped into new ships and we engaged the SBUs. Few moments after, DarkSide returns, bubbles our cap fleet that is on the grid and a cyno pops up.

Yup, “It’s Hot-Drop o’ clock” as Cpt JR said…

Now, 3 great learnings from a situation like this are:

1. Caps take fucking long to lock up anything and by the time they are able to apply reps, ships were about to pop. Effectively, with DarkSide. really knowing what they were doing, they were switching targets and popping our sub-caps faster than we could apply any reps on them.

2. Sub-caps without dedicated ships to point the enemy fleet down will result in massive losses. We had very few tackle with us. That resulted in us not being able to kill anything but a freaking sabre from the enemy fleet. Most of the ships we called primary melted fast, up to the point where they would get off grid and warp back at a distance.

3. If you commit capitals in today’s 0.0 game, a hotdrop of Supers is bound to happen, so make sure you have the counter-hotdrop ready in advance, before you commit your own capitals.

So we learned quite a few things, the hard way and along with some other minor mistakes and a few bad calls that were made. At the end of this engagement, we had lost the field, with heavy losses, but the Station was ours. We have achieved our goal… or did we?

Yeah we still had to take down the SBU… By the time we had a bomber fleet with fighter support on the field hitting that SBU, things escalated.

What happened was that a 30man Wrecked gang with Hellcats came into system. Hellcat fleets are Abaddons with high DPS, supported by Guardians. They had also a Damnation, Loki and Proteus as well as a couple of BCs with them, all in all, a very decent setup. They started bashing our TCU, trash-talking in local and along with other shenanigans, thought they had the upper hand. Well I mean they had all the rights to brag, we pretty much gave them a bunch of free kills earlier, not to mention the hotdrop 2 days ago…

With our sub-caps decimated earlier, we didn’t have the ships ready to do any damage to them, but we had the morale to see this to the end and put up a good fight. However, we needed to ensure that our Caps won’t be risked again without proper support. That meant picking up the Bat-phone and call in the big boys!

PK of Aggressive Tendancies fame, was quick and eager to respond. AAA’s rally time was amazing and they grouped a fleet ready in just a few minutes, to not only take on the 30man gang we had in system, but also to counter-hot drop them once they brought in their Super-Caps.

Only thing we had to do, was to bait them to hot-drop us. Simple, right?

Not really… We did our best, but time went buy and they didn’t take the bait. I had a Cyno fitted on my thanny and AAA was ready to laid them all to waste, once any Supers appeared, but it was almost an hour before we decided to just cyno in the sub-caps and at least kill their sub-cap fleet.

We decided to bait them into position by attacking the SBU with our caps, and so they did. Once everyone was within 20km of my ship, I popped the cyno, waiting for a massive gang of pure pwnage to bridge-in and give these guys some payback for our losses earlier.

What I got instead, was this:

Yup, the Titan instead of bridging-in the fleet, jumped at the cyno. EPIC LOLs.

Took a few moments to regroup and ensure the second Titan was ready with a bridge this time and by then, the enemy fleet warped off grid.

Sometimes luck plays quite the games… I had a cloaky scout in system, with cyno fitted, sitting off a random planet. Guess where the enemy fleet landed. Yep, right next to me! Then of all possible things, the wierdest thing happened! The enemy Phobos in their fleet, decided to put up their bubble!!!

Yeah they were all at planet, at 0, with their own HIC keeping their fleet in a nice bubble. I was only a few clicks away and ready to light the second cyno right on top of them… I was sure that this time we would surely get them… Then local spiked… as second Titan bridged the Sub-caps to the first cyno (where the first Titan had landed) – before my second cyno near the enemy fleet was up…

EPIC LOLs again!

I was a nervous wreck at that time, shaking by adrenaline that was pumping for hrs and really didn’t follow what happened next, while AAA hunted and killed some of the enemy fleet. All I know is, that they fled the scene as fast as they could, and soon after, AAA was back to help us kill the two SBUs and rep up the TCU, before they were gone back home.

Thumbs up to AAA for showing up – even with the mistakes on their end, it was amazing to see how lightning fast they were able to muster such numbers and be able to support us. Too bad we didn’t get to lure the enemy Supers in – that would have been really sweet, but perhaps we’ll get more opportunities for that in the near future…

Wrecked and DarkSide. put up a good fight and got lots of kills with minimal losses. GF to them. Split Infinity on the other hand, got their first real 0.0 warfare experience, learned a lot of things, gained a Station system and realized that no-matter how big you are, this is a game that is so rich and complex, that anything is possible.

EPIC Wins, EPIC Fails and EPIC Lolz, we are here to stay and to have loads of fun!

Oh, and the name of the station is “Hot-Drop o’clock” in memory of yesterday’s events!

Welcome to our sandbox!

qp

Tasha Aramata – 2011.05.20

SIRadio would like to help spread the word that Rixx Javix author of the EVEOGANDA Blog has announce the next installment of the Death Race!

Registration is only 5 million isk and has over 4 BILLION in prizes available. You can find the Official Death Race 2 site here.

Dare to be bold pilot… Dare to be bold…

Thanks for tuning in…

~Tasha

We did..  twice in Planet Risk.. and finally up close and personal. These gentlemen dear readers, are the guys whose butt we kicked on the Valentine Day Massacre… and who kicked our butts on the Steak and Blowjob Massacre. Guillotine  Therapy corp, from the Rooks and Kings.

As much as we hated them back in the days for ruining our almost year long op in W-space, up close and personal they’re one of the coolest guys around, with a formidable approach to the game. Gotta say that I loved their input and standpoints in the Wormhole roundtable. Too bad the roundtable itself was chaotic and totally out of sync.

Expect a video interview with Guillotine Theraphy uploaded Soon™