Tai One On

Tai Maac over at Tai One On, which I encourage everyone to go visit (after you've read this of course), contacted me a while back about updating the look of his blog.  Tai hasn't been blogging long and was recently added to the Blog Pack, but his posts are solid and insightful and he has become a regular read for yours truly.  As regular as I can manage these days.  


Wordpress blogs tend to make me frustrated in many ways, while they tend towards better templates than Blogger and more functionality, the templates tend to be less modifiable than Blogger's.  This makes my job harder in many ways.  But never impossible of course.  I really like how simple and clean this design turned out and Tai seems very pleased with it, which is obviously all that really matters.  When you visit his site you'll also notice the large background image which I also provided.  Make sure you tell Tai what you think of his new design and tell him Rixx sent ya.


Making people happy out-of-game and making them cry in-game... it's what I live for.


PS: That musta been a heck of a "critical issue" they bumped into this morning huh?  For those of you waiting, this has happened before and only Eveoganda was able to tell you why!  We even followed that up with a follow up!  I hope that hasn't happened again.

Ride Into The Danger Zone

"Revvin' up your engine
Listen to her howlin' roar
Metal under tension
Beggin' you to touch and go
Highway to the Danger Zone
Ride into the Danger Zone"
- Kenny Loggins, Danger Zone


The last few days in-game have been crazy busy managing our recruiting efforts, which have been going gang-busters since last week.  Another week like this and we will have hit our goal and recruiting will be closed for awhile.  So if you're thinking about it, jump on over to DION-PUBLIC and talk to me about your future.


I enjoy recruiting for something that I believe in.  Talking to new guys, hearing about their path in-game and what they would like to accomplish, it's interesting to me.  One of the things that we talk about a lot is our minimum skill-point requirements for consideration into Dion.  While our Corp prides itself on a wide variety of pilots, in both skill-point levels and interests, setting a minimum level of proficiency is important.  The hard part for newer players to understand is "why" it's important.  It isn't because we don't want you, or you won't end up being a great player or Corp member.  It's simply because of Zero.  Null Space will eat you up and spit you out.  You won't make it and you'll get frustrated and leave.  And neither of us wants that.


That makes rational sense right?  But it varies with every player, not everyone's 12m skill-points are the same.  Some are intensely trained and focused and some are less so.  I've even seen a few 8m players that can t2 fit a Battlecruiser already!  Those people are focused.  The result is that our consideration of a minimum is flexible, but solely based on our determination of wether you can survive in zero space or not.  We're trying to look out for you in other words.


Which is all very interesting until I started thinking about myself yesterday.  I took the plunge into the Danger Zone when I probably had maybe 2m skill points, less than a month after I started playing the game I was flying thru zero space to Providence.  I'm not saying that was the best decision, or that it makes me better somehow than anyone else, it's just what happened.  I didn't know any better.  On the positive side I was very lucky in several ways.  For one thing, Providence wasn't really pure zero space in those days.  It was NRDS CVA controlled space and relatively calm and protected - for zero anyway.  Sure there were plenty of reds to kill me, but usually the Intel worked and we had time to hide or dock up or get into a POS.  For another thing, the Corp I was in was especially perfect for what I needed at the time.  We did a lot together, so ratting in my Moa (which would have been impossible alone) wasn't a huge problem with 4 or 5 of us ratting together.


There was a dark side to it however. I died a lot.  I suspect that the vast majority of my deaths occurred in my first six months of playing, I just checked and 25% of my deaths happened in my first 8 months of playing.  That was a very frustrating way to start the game.  In hi-sec or even in low I may have had better luck and not as much frustration, a more normal growing curve.  Instead I almost quit at many many points along the way.  I didn't though, and in the end I believe those experiences have made me a better player.  I learned a lot and I learned it fast.  I had to.


In the end I'm left with this - plunging into the Danger Zone is an individual decision.  If you are determined to do it before you are ready, you will.  You'll find a Corp willing to take you in and use you as a meat shield.  But that Corp won't be Dion.  When are you ready?  That varies player to player and we use our best judgement and experience to help you decide when the time is right.  Zero is a harsh place to grow up.  If Low-sec is the Ghetto, then Zero space is Bagdad.


So when did you take the plunge?  Or are you still waiting to take your ride into the Danger Zone?




For those that might be wondering, here are my own guidelines for "zero ready" players:


• Can you competently fly and fit a Battlecruiser class ship?
(Why? You'll need it to make isk, otherwise you'll run out of money fast)


That's about it, BC is the high water mark for zero.  There are other things of course, but if you've managed to reach that level it means you can 1) make isk to survive 2) fly in gangs and fleets and 3) you can fly smaller ships which hopefully also includes tackle.  The rest is skill training and time.  And having a good corp around you, nestled in an excellent professional Alliance. In cool space.  With a handsome and intelligent Eve Blogger to hang out with.

Blog Banter 21: Friggin' Low Sec

Welcome to the twenty-first installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month topic comes to us from @ZoneGhost who a few month ago asked "Is Low Sec the forgotten part of EVE Online?" Is it? I'd like us to explore this even further. Is Low Sec being treated differently by CCP Games than Null Sec (Zero-Zero) or Empire space is? Can one successfully make a living in these unsecured systems where neither Alliance nor Concord roam to enforce their laws? What's needed? Or is everything fine as it is?

Why does low security space suck?  Because it is full of Pirates, Scammers and Scum!  Is this CCP's fault?  Did they put the bottom dwellers there?  Did the creation of such space spawn, from the primordial ooze as it were, the classless masses of dope fiends, serial killers and back-stabbing scum bags of Eve?


I don't think so friends.


So is low sec forgotten?  C'mon, every pilot in Eve thinks about low sec space every single time they go anywhere.  Should I avoid those systems or fly thru them?  Gosh, should I set my navigator to "shortest route" or "safest route" - people think about low sec every time they fly.  So get over yourself low sec. We think about you, we just don't think very highly of you because you suck ballz.


Has CCP treated low sec differently than other sectors of space?  Uh, no.  CCP has ineffectively treated all sectors of space equally poorly.  Have you pirate scum ever tried to take Sov?  Or dealt with 400 man lagfests?  Have you actually been in Jita lately?  Oh, I forgot, you can't go there.  Except to hurriedly fly thru in your pod.  LOL.  Serves you right ya bastages!  (It's a good post when you can reference a little Johnny Dangerously, and if you don't know what that is look it up ya slacker!)  So no, whiner, CCP isn't treating you any worse or better than they are treating the rest of us.  So get off your high horse, before one of your friends steals it, and join the rest of us in reality.


Can someone make a living in low sec?  As long as you are a pirate, scammer or scum bag sure.  The rest of Eve can't make a living in low sec because you live there.  Just like a Neutral can't make a living in my home space because I will shoot him dead if he tries.  And just like a -10 pilot can't make a living in Jita, cause Concord'll blow him up if he tries.  It's called rules and you've pretty much created your own rules in low sec, so you have no one to blame but yourselves.  CCP gave you a blank slate - more so than Empire or Zero got - and this is what you've created.  So welcome to it.  Now stop whining.


What's needed?  Less rules in my humble opinion.  Less gate guns, less gate rules in general, so I can bring a gang of real soldiers into low sec and kill pirates, scammers and scum bags.  That would be fun.  The small gang world is dying in Eve, we all see it, so I suggest making low sec the playing field for the rest of us.  Open it up and let's go hunting.  I try that now and everyone hides, even when I'm solo, so let's work on that while we're at it.  Maybe bring bribes into the game, if I pay the bribe office in station a certain fee, all the hiding pirates in system glow a pinkish glow on my map and I can warp to them and keeel them.  I like it, make it happen.


Anyone that knows me knows I'm kidding of course.  Having a bit of fun at low sec's expense.  But in so doing, a bit of truth comes out doesn't it?  Personally, and I've posted about this, commented on it, and written on forums about it, low sec needs some love.  But so does every other region of space, so does every other aspect of this game.  Why should low sec be treated special?  I'd be amongst the happiest of people if my pirate, scammer and scum friends got some special love from CCP, but I hope they'd feel the same if zero space got some love from CCP.  Because it's broke too.


I don't live in low sec.  Sometimes I do like to go hunting there, for some variety.  I have many friends that live there and I wish them well, unless they are in local.  I fully support the efforts of those trying to get CCP to improve their game play.  I am 100% behind you and if I can help in some way I will.  But that is true of anyone that wants to help improve our game.  It needs it.


Enjoy these other people's thoughts:


Blog Banter 21 – Fish Heads and Baby Ruths
Low Sec = Wild West
Arr, Yer be talkin' bout me lowsec
Low Sec: I Wanna Talk to You
Making Low Sec Matter - Project kick-Off
In the Ghetto

Free Wallpaper: Game Mechanics

The things I do for my readers!  Today you get a handsome new Eve Wallpaper to decorate your desktop!  I'm slowly going through the back-catalog and re-purposing some of my older work, removing the original graphics and putting them back up as art pieces.  You can see the original of the above piece by visiting this link.


I should do a new one of these soon, I'm still intrigued by the idea of Eve Spaceships in realistic environments.  The problem however is one of scale, once you get past the Frigate classes, the sheer scale of Eve ships becomes huge.  Even a Drake is bigger than the Empire State Building!  That makes relating them to human sized objects difficult if not impossible for larger ships.


But I never did like that word "impossible", pfft.  I'll figure something out.  Until then, enjoy your new desktop wallpaper.

Gooder Eve: NPC Corps

This is just a quick one that,in my humble opinion, would make Eve better.  Let us choose to show/hide the NPC Corps from our employment history.  Personally I have twice as many Corps showing in my history as I've actually been a part of because of the stupid gap in leaving/joining another Corp.  We already do this with Awards and Medals, why not allow us to clean up our History as well?  The complete history would still show up in our Limited API keys, so we wouldn't be pulling the wool over anyone's eyes, it would only allow us to hide the NPC Corps we all drop into when we quit a player run Corp.


To me this is a duh and should be taken care of immediately.  So get on this CCP, no excuses this time.  Go on.

DION Interview: The Boss

I call him Boss.  It seems appropriate since Eve calls its player groups Corporations.  At this point I've been a part of Dissonance for over nine months in total and in that time LJB has been our CEO.  He isn't the type of CEO that sits in station filling out forms and signing papers, he is the rare kind of CEO that plays the game, joins in on our roams and takes care of business.  


Now that we've (mostly) gotten settled down in our new space, although the War still rages, I took a moment to sit down with Dion's CEO and ask a few questions.  It wasn't onboard station either, it was on the bridge of his Thanatos while we bashed another -A- POS into dust.

Q: So tell us a bit about the history of Dissonance.

Well Dion is one of the oldest corps in Eve and I had the privilege of having the mantle passed to myself over two years ago by the original CEO Nighteagle.  DION has always been a mixed corp with PVP and PVE and I have been happy to carry that on,  I think it says something about the corp when many of the founding members are still around.  In corp we have some damn good pvp’ers and members with over 100 million skill points. Dion has made sure and steady progress in achieving many of the goals it has set for itself over the last 2 years and we have some exciting goals for the future that myself and Eradicator44 (The deputy CEO) are focusing the corp on achieving, he is my right hand man and many of the achievements of the last two years have happened because of the joint work of the corp with me and Eradicator44 there with the whip... oops... I meant words of encouragement.

Q: Do you have a philosophy that you follow in leading Dion?  If so, what might it be?

My philosophy has always been to focus on the fun factor, and being available for corp members when they have a question ect, what I will never become is one of those CEO’s that hasn’t got time for newer members, I'm firmly grounded in the fact that this is a game, everything we do is to try and increase the enjoyment factor for everyone in the corp.

Q: Does DION have a focus? If so, what might it be?

The focus in DION has always been firmly that what we do is for the betterment of the corp and its members and that it has to have the “F” (Fun) factor involved within it.

Q: What drives you to the game? What do you enjoy about being the Corp CEO?

The driver for me is seeing guys having fun, the “blowing shit up” aspect plays a heavy part in the game for me. But coming a close second is seeing guys achieve a goal in game they have set themselves, what I get my biggest buzz out of is seeing guys work together for a corp goal…..EVE does not lend itself to solo play largely and DION certainly does not lol….

Q: What gives you the biggest headaches? What do you enjoy least about being Corp CEO?

Well if you had asked me this about a year and half ago I'd have said logistics, but we've developed a hell of a logistics team with some great players like Xiau Bing and Lord Drakken, to name but a few. The biggest headaches in EVE for me at the moment is AFG (Away from Game) corp members, now I realize that real life comes first but if you say your going to be there and your not and the corp screws up because of it, I will want to know why, no one is bigger than the corp as a whole and the nature of DION is we work together to achieve what ever goal it is we’ve set ourselves. I've have had to take the bull by the horns and let some corp members go recently that have been afk without letting us know..

Q: Dion certainly has been moving around a lot, what's up with that?

Well Rixx it’s a bit like this, when your searching for a home sometimes its not all its made out to be, but I would add this although we moved around a bit in the last year it has mostly been with alliances that are relatively close to each other, and for me the most important bit is that we've never been asked to leave or been kicked, and more often than not when we’ve left its been on very good terms…. but the alliance were currently in at the moment for me is one of the best if not the best and DION has fitted right in….

Q: Does Dion have long-term goals as a Corp?  Can you share any of those?

Well DION has a number of long term goals but im sure you will understand there’s only so much I can talk about here, basically our immediate goal is to beef our numbers up a little and focus on developing some of our newer player base that have joined DION in the last couple of months to get them where they want to be in game, as I mentioned we recently opened recruitment and whilst were not “exclusive” in what we look for in newer pilots that also does not mean we take anyone, quality has always been more important to me than quantity. Id rather have 40 on the books with 30 active players then 200 on the books and only 40 active players. What’s been interesting though is the amount of players that go off to do something else in Eve but always end up returning to DION, so that is one of goals, get some more selective good players than can last the course.

Q: Why is Dion recruiting right now?

DION has periodically opened its doors for recruitment, but we usually only keep it open for about a month at a time, as I've mentioned previously quality over quantity. I prefer that we have guys that we can rely upon and I know that I can relate to, for me it would be a bad day when I haven’t had time to chat to everyone in corp and ask how it's going… but now we have a very specific number in mind recruitment wise and were reaching it fast…..

Q: Any other thoughts you'd like to share with us?

The game has moved forward a lot in the last couple of years and personally I've learned a lot as well, but the best thing I say to potential new recruits when they ask for a tip about living in 0.0 and getting on in the game is this, be prepared to die, in fact be prepared to die a lot, when you get over that fear the game really opens up for you in relation to pvp.

Thanks Boss.  I hope you've enjoyed this interview, I plan on interviewing more members of Dissonance in the coming weeks.  And for those of you looking for a great Corp, in a great Alliance, doing the kinds of things that make this game fun - join DION-PUBLIC and talk to us about coming down to zero space and shooting things until they explode.

Astarte BPO FOR SALE

Rare opportunity to purchase an original T2 Command Ship BPO!  Check out the details HERE.


Go buy!  Go on, don't be shy.

Fiddler's Edge

Mord Fiddle writes a great Eve blog called Fiddler's Edge that you should check out!  He asked me to design a new banner for the site awhile back and recently I finally got around to working with him on it.  That's it above, but go over to the site and see it in action.  Then add his site to your daily routine, he doesn't post enough but hopefully if enough of us go over there and keep bugging him about it, he'll pick up the pace!  Just kidding, but seriously his posts are thoughtful and I enjoy them - so you will also.

POS Named After Me

Our new Corp Deathstar POS just went up today (sorry can't tell you where) and look what they named it!!  Click on the image to make it bigger.  How cool is that!?!  Thanks guys, a little advertising deep in zero space never hurt anyone.

And people wonder why they should join DION?  

Click to embiggen!

Revenge. And other factors.

I'm not a roleplayer.  I don't even take the game that seriously, despite the blog and everything else which might lead you to believe differently.  I like to "play" Eve and have fun.  We've talked about this before, so I won't bore you with it again.  


On the other hand.  I do take my game play seriously, I do want to be the best player I can be.  I'd like to be good at what I am doing in-game and constantly strive to improve.


I like to laugh, skip and frolic.  Ok, not really, I just said that cause this was getting silly.  Back on track I promise.  Take all that into account and the thing is... I hold grudges.  Big time.


There are pilots, corps and even entire Alliances that I would enjoy seeing explode a million times under my guns.  Pilots that stole from a Corp I was in at the time, pilots that did me wrong, Corps that went out of their way to hurt me or the Corp I was in at the time, and Alliances that pwned Alliances that I was in at the time.  I say all that with a smile on my face.  It isn't personal at all, but it sure do make the game more fun to play.


It's good to have bad guys.  Even if they aren't really bad guys.  But within the context of the game, they are red to me.  And being red to me makes you the enemy.  The enemy that I want to see blow up, go away, or be destroyed.  More than anything else I want that.  I will do whatever it takes to make that happen.  And I won't stop.  To me, that is the core element that keeps bringing me back to this crazy mixed up universe.  I am a soldier and that's what I do.


So yes, our current campaign against the forces of AAA is pure revenge for me.  AAA has been the enemy since I started playing Eve and first came down to zero, most of that time they were a well respected enemy, the kind of reds you love to hate.  They respected 1v1s, they played the game well and they loved a good fight.  We had something unique there for a long time, staring at each other across the F9E/SV5 divide.  I knew it was special at the time and since it has been destroyed nothing like it has emerged.  And while we provoked our own destruction and we certainly deserved everything they did to us, that doesn't change the fact that I want them to pay for it.


Again, with a smile on my face.


As a player I don't really care one way or the other.  But Rixx does.  As an Alliance -A- doesn't care what Rixx thinks, and they shouldn't.  Heck, none of their pilots should care either.  It isn't about that.  It's personal to one loan pilot that can't really do much about any of it.  A pawn in the chess game of sov warfare.  A lone ship adding his dmg to the swarms of ships flying to and fro.  Yep, that's the reality of it.  What I think and how I feel as Rixx doesn't add up to much at all.


Except to me.

Insane Cane

{ The following is sung to the tune of the "Brady Bunch Theme", please sing aloud in your home or office, no one will care.  Honestly they might think you're pretty cool and ask you out to lunch or let you skip mowing the grass this week.  Who knows what might happen.}


Here's the story of a lovely cane
Who was jumping over 34 jumps away.
All of them had camps of sabres, like in provi,
The furthest one was dragged.


Here's this story, of a pilot we call RJ,
Who was busy with assets of his own,
They were two ships, living in a hanger,
Yet they were all alone.


Till the one day when RJ flew to save this cane
And they knew it was much more than a hunch,
That this ship would somehow survive zero.
That's the way they all became the Crazy Bunch.
The Crazy Bunch,


That's the way they all became the Crazy Bunch.
The Crazy Bunch.


And yes, imagine me singing thru that about 12 times making sure it all (sorta) works and you have a clear mental picture of my morning.  Yesterday was sort of a day off from the WAR, most people were probably busy making isk and moving assets.  I thought about two ships that I had stranded way out in Tenerriferis (or however you spell it, sue me I'm lazy this morning!  Hey I wrote a song!) a fully fit Megathron and a fully fit Hurricane.  It sure would be nice to have them back.  But 68 jumps (34 each way, I can do maths.) right smack dab thru hostile enemy territory?  Lol, that's madness baby.


I did actually consider making two trips and flying a Battleship solo through zero... for about two seconds.  I may be daring and adventurous, but I like to not be stupid.  So instead I decided to only be mildly stupid, break down the Mega and try to save the fits and mods, put it up on the market and fly the Cane back solo.  A few Corp mates actually volunteered to help scout the way, but honestly I didn't feel like being responsible for them getting killed on a suicide mission.  Plus, something like this is best done alone.  Not for heroic reasons, but because you might need to log off at random times.


I figured I had a 1 in 10 chance of success.  Depending on luck and other factors, I probably wouldn't make it.  This wasn't space I had been thru before either, so no bookmarks or knowledge of what would be waiting for me.  So I needed to even the odds as much as possible.  How?  I'd take a shuttle on the down trip and make mid-warp safe spots in every system I went thru, fast and tight.  In every system I would not warp directly to the out gate, but first to a planet (hopefully one close to the out gate so I could scan ahead) but anywhere at an angle to the outgoing.  If you don't use this technique you deserve to die.  It saved my life three times going down and avoiding drag bubbles.


Coming back in the Cane I could use those spots and the same techniques to my advantage.  I also planned to do the trip back in three stages, burn like Hell and then log off in a safe spot for about an hour.  Why?  Think about your own Alliance for a minute, a red is reported in Intel.  It takes a few minutes for a response to form, where is he, what's he flying, etc.  A few guys go and try to cut him off.  This is what I was trying to avoid.  So I'd burn until I was spotted, jump thru the next gate, warp off to a safe and log.  Wait it out.


I only had to do that twice instead of three times.  I did get chased by a solo Sabre, who wouldn't engage me because he knew I'd kill him pretty easily.  But despite some close calls, the plan worked.  I made it all the way back safely with a cargo hold full to the brim with expensive mods and ammo.


Another successful day at the office I'd say.  Later in the day I helped blow up another -A- POS and put four more into reinforce just to make me feel even better.


And btw, Join DION!

Real World Eve Terms

What if Eve didn't exist?  But somehow, through the magic of our imaginations (or at least mine), the terms we associate with Eve survived and had been integrated into our everyday lives?  What would they mean?  This is the lame-o supposition behind today's post.  I hope this turns out as good as it is in my head right now.  Let's see.


Station Spinning:  The act of pacing back and forth within a confined space, delaying actions that may cause you physical or mental stress.  Any action that attempts to do nothing, as opposed to doing something.  As in, "Honey, the kids won't go outside and play, all they're doing is station spinning in the living room!"  or, "Dave, stop station spinning and get out there and and talk to that angry mob!"


CTA: Any organized and scheduled mandatory event designed to counter station spinning.  "At 7 p.m. Dave you'll have to go outside and talk to that angry mob or else you're fired!"  or, "Boys, it's almost 2 p.m. and that means it's time to go outside and play.  Or Binky gets it!"


TeamSpeak:  A self-generated slang language typically shared by members of a sports team or other organized athletic groups.  TeamSpeak is localized and often unique to the individual teams and cannot be easily understood by the general population.  Often other rival teams will employ a "spy" whose job it is to learn the local TeamSpeak and pass along sensitive information regarding plays and player conditions to his own local sports team.


Yellow Boxed:  Any condition of anticipated aggression or attraction by one person towards another.  "Dude, that chick at the end of the bar is totally yellow boxing you."  or, "You best stop yellow boxing me man or we is gonna 1v1!"


Sansha Nation:  A small Asian country, formerly part of the Soviet Union, best known for two reasons.  First, it is the boulder capital of the world.  The sheer amount and size diversity of boulders is staggering.  Secondly, the Sansha Warrior tribe is well known for standing around in the boulder fields only to attack anyone wandering into them.  There are few surviving members of this tribe remaining, but an enduring myth states that they will be re-born during the time of the "Re-Spawn" which occurs periodically.


DT: Similar to a Siesta, a DT is different however in that it is usually only one hour long and occurs not in the heat of the afternoon but at the worst possible time of the day for resting.  DTs are often extended past the one hour time limit due to technical problems, which have something to do with food delivery servers or waiters, the exact reasons are always murky.


Grid:  Commonly this is the area immediately around an individual person, the exact measurement of the grid varies by individual, but is typically four times the width of out-stretched arms.  For some unexplained reason, whenever you jump into the air, it can take time for your "Grid to Load", which is yet another slang term used by certain youth that defies easy definition.


Inty:  Any person acting on their own, weaving through a crowd to engage another individual.  "Man Sheila is all the way on the other side of the dance floor, I'm goin' Inty."  


Undock:  The act of leaving a designated parking space, such as a garage.  "Timmy! How many times have I told you not to leave your bike in the undock!  I ran over it again."


Pointed:  The act of forcing someone to stand next to you and listen to you speak when clearly they'd rather be somewhere else.  "God my Boss wouldn't shut up this morning, but he had me pointed for over fifteen minutes."


Phoon:  A large, interesting looking person - usually male - that is completely harmless in most situations but tends to stand immediately outside doors and try to talk to you or sell you something when you pass through them.  "That Ralph is such a Phoon!  He grabbed me on the other side of the bathroom door and wouldn't shut up about his Mother's cookie recipe!"


Optimal Range:  The exact distance from another person at which you are most comfortable and effective talking to them intelligently.  This term is most commonly used in male to female relations and refers to the minimum distance from a female at which the male brain functions at full capacity.  Once the male gets within Optimal Range, other factors such as smell, breast size and cuteness can seriously impact his ability to function as an adult.


Falloff:  (See above)  This is the distance from optimal range in which the male can not only see the female, but realize she might be someone he'd like to engage in conversation.  The typical male that is outside of falloff range tends to play more video games, watch sports and hang out with his buddies.  Interestingly it has been found that general hygiene quality decreases the closer to fall off the individual gets.


More to come.  Or do you have any you'd like to add?

2 Years Old Today!!

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me!  Today Rixx Javix marks his 2nd Birthday since becoming a Capsuleer!  I wonder if Anniversary wouldn't be more appropriate?  I'm undecided to be honest.  Rixx the character is obviously much older than two (Even though some would argue that his player is mentally two, the fact remains he is physically much older than that.) but I did start playing Rixx exactly two years ago today.  So whatever that is, it seems worthy of a mention.


So Happy Anniversary/Birthday/Graduation day to Rixx Javix!


So how is Rixx doing two years after becoming an immortal pilot?  Right now I'm torn to be honest, for one thing I'm not comfortable with these types of retrospective questions, they always make me feel caught and trapped.  I mean how do you answer something like that subjectively, should you even try?  Maybe I should try.  Let's see where that gets us.


Rixx just passed 31m skill points, right now he is training up to Amarr Cruiser V and associated laser shooting skills.  This is happening about six months earlier than planned because the Alliance asked us to train to fly a Zealot.  Which brings up something about the way I've evolved my playing of Rixx over the past two years.  My play "attitude" (which is what I call it) is that of a Soldier, but not a jarhead soldier, more of a French Foreign Legion type.  He'll do the soldier type, the loyalty, following orders bit as long as it serves his own self-interests.  If the Alliance wants him to train to fly a Zealot and that falls within the confines of those interests (Which boil down to shooting other ships mostly.) then he'll do it.  That's been the play "attitude" I've been happy with.  It has led down some wrong paths in those two years, but it has also seen Rixx participate in some huge sandbox events and turning points in Eve, so it hasn't been all bad.


As of today Rixx is 579-183 on BattleClinic.  I've said it before but killboard stats don't mean much to me, although at the same time I would prefer they be good.  My job is killing the enemy after all.  A long time ago I realized two important things about my own killboard stats.  One, I don't play nearly enough to really rack up the numbers and there is nothing that is going to change about that.  And two, I am far to aggressive and risk-taking to make them look better than they are.  I know other pilots who excel at one or both of those things and their kb stats are far better than mine will ever be.  So be it.  My own criteria is 75% or better kills vs. losses, and right now I stand at 75.98% which is ok but not great.  We are at war at the moment and wars always bring my stats down.  No biggie.


All that being said, I still feel trapped a bit by the look back.  I've talked a lot in this blog about the past and history is important, but I'd rather look ahead.  I feel that Rixx is improving, he is flying better and better ships with better skills behind them, not just in-game but out of game as well.  As a player I am getting better every day, but there are plenty of places I can get better.  Yesterday I had a cyno drop right on top of me, which should not have happened.


Always more room for improvement.


I wonder what the next two years will bring?  I hope they bring more stability than the last two.  I hope they bring more opportunity for having fun in-game, of flying with my Corp mates in small to medium sized gangs, less war and battles over sov, more cool ships to fly and more nasty reds to shoot.


Mostly though, I hope this crazy game stays fun to play.

Eve Blasphemy

If you haven't taken time to check out Eve Blasphemy yet, now is a good time to head on over there and say howdy to MissX934.  The blog hasn't been around long but it is already a stop for me.  But like any of us blogger type people, he could always use more traffic and words of encouragement.  Plus he is sporting some spiffy new RJ designed banners!


You can visit the link or click on the image above to see a bigger version.  I recommend visiting, since I did a run of these in different shades of color which he has on rotation.  I wanted to come up with something that played to the whole "blasphemy" idea, without being so obvious as to make it... well obvious.  The idea here was to create an environment that felt like a church, but with Dramiels replacing the wall torches, a touch that I am particularly proud of.  Kind of an "Eve Church" feeling but with "God hates us all" spray-painted across the bottom.  Ouch.


Thanks MissX934 for the opportunity to do the work for you, much appreciated.

Taken Down A Peg or Two

My Dad could always be counted on for great sayings, home-spun pearls of wisdom and just generally being the smartest man alive.  One of his favorites, spun whenever I would do something stupid, was always telling me he could "take me down a peg or two".  The inference being that he was still the Boss.  Which was never something I had any doubts about.  The "peg" refers to the old school-house coat lockers, the older kids would hang their coats on the higher pegs and the younger kids would hang their coats on lower and lower pegs, since they couldn't reach the higher ones.


That paragraph is so rife with Eve references, it's going to be hard to pick just one.


This weekend I got taken down a peg or two by Eve.  And I don't mean that in a negative way, I want to be clear on this up-front.  But once again Eve just wanted Rixx to be clear about who is still the Boss.  Which, again, was never something I had any doubts about.  But Eve apparently feels that sometimes I need to be reminded.  To be taken down a peg or two.


It is no secret now that Co2 is in Impass, after a successful campaign in Teneriferis, we've made our way down to Impass to run the reds out and set up shop.  This continues the long streak of moves lately, in the last two months we've moved the Corp from Insmother, to the Spire, to Empire, to Providence (side move to Teneriferis) and now to Impass.  (Honestly I don't know how our logistics pilots do it, they deserve so much more credit than they get.)  But needless to say, we all have stuff scattered all over the universe.  It has made participating in fleets and contributing difficult.  It's hard to bring a Battleship to a fleet when you don't have one in the station, there aren't any on the market and your nearest BS is 34j away thru red infested space.  But you make do with what you have.


And I didn't do all that badly.  I lost a Nighthawk (ouch) and a Hurricane.  But I also exploded 2 Munnins and a Flycatcher, I also killed a Scorpion and a Armageddon but didn't get on the killmails for some reason.  The worst part was getting podded. The last time I was podded was on June 22nd, almost three months ago!  I'd have been happy to go another three months, I'd gotten a tad over confident about surviving and had almost 200m in implants in my head.  Double ouch.


And then this morning something happened which hasn't happened for a long, long time.  I open my email to discover a personal email from one of the Alliance leaders pointing out that my Hurricane fit (while fine for some things) was a bad fit for the fleet we were in.  Two things.  First of all I know that, but it was the only BC I had at that moment and I did manage to kill three ships with it.  That doesn't excuse flying the wrong ship in fleet though, I do know better than that.  But secondly, I fly for an Alliance that actually looks at the death mails and writes emails to the pilots!?  Wow.  I have to say, despite the kick in the ass, I respect that.


So I consider myself properly taken down a peg, but not two.  I still have a long way to go on my journey to be the best pilot I can be.  I really need to stop doing crazy things just for fun, and apparently I need to be in a Zealot as fast as humanly possible.  (Which is a story for another time.)


Right now I have more stuff to get moved and some new skill books to study.

1v1: #25

Number 25!  Are you kidding me?  Sheesh and here I thought I woulda run outta idears a long time ago.  Heck, at this rate I might make it to 50 or something.  Maybe someday... maybe someday they might even start to be funny?  Nah, don't reach for the stars Rixx 'ol buddy.  You reach to high and the fall is a lot further.  Let's keep our dreams real man.  You are so right voice in my head, you are so right.  Wait a minute!  Aren't you the same voice in my head that told me to marry my ex-wife!?!  Hey no, that was one of the other voices.  Oh, ok then.

Click to make the image grow


Have you seen the other 24 1v1 strips?  Doing so is so easy even a noob can
do it, simply click on the 1v1 label below this post and voila
all the comics will appear automagically on one page.
And they say I don't care!

Oh, I also posted a collection of some of the rejects from my sketchbook for the spaceship design contest, if you're interested.

Obsidian Mining Coalition

I can't say enough just how much I enjoy the commission work that I get to do, meeting so many of my fellow Eve players, hearing about their experiences and learning about how they play the game.  From individuals, corporations, bloggers, Alliances and everything else you can imagine.  It is truly one of the greatest things about having started this blog.


And no, there isn't a butt coming.  In fact, I did originally worry that the whole thing might became a serious pain in the ass.  And the last thing I need is another one of those.  But honestly it has been anything but (ha! I rock!).  Everyone has been awesome, understanding and in many cases extremely patient.  So thanks again.  I'm working hard on your project next I promise!


Per Bastet wrote me a while back to design a logo and some support materials for his Alliance - Obsidian Mining Coalition.  Per is the Hed Diplo for Bastet's Organization of Mining (B.O.O.M), you can learn stuff about them by clicking on this link.


They are recruiting btw, both the Corp and the Alliance.  "We are looking for miners and mission runners. We have a good R&D department as well. No trial accounts. And hanger access requires limited api key or signing up on our forums. Alliance recruiting we are looking for active corps willing to help out and join ops.", said Per in a recent email.  If you are looking for that sort of thing, they seem like honest upstanding people to me, so they get the official Eveoganda stamp of approval.  

Sometimes people come with ideas and sometimes they don't, either way works for me.  In this case Per wanted a volcano with a pick-axe and a sword crossed in front of it.  That was it, but it was enough to start down the path.  I always strive to give people what they want, while also giving them much more than they ask for.  I think this project turned out pretty awesome and I hope they are happy with it.


I still have a few more things to finish up and then on to the next one on the list.  Keep 'em coming.

Our side is...winning?!?

For those of you that know a bit about my history, it is easy to see that Rixx hasn't always picked the best side to be on when the smelly poo hits the rotating air moving device.  LFA?  Gone.  Paxton?  uh... gone.  In fact more often than not the Alliances and even some of the Corps I've belonged to in the past have gone poof.  If I was a normal run-of-the-mill Eve player, I might start taking some of this personally.


Luckily I am the cool, laid-back efficient killing machine blog writing humor-filled amazingly friendly neighborhood kinda guy that I am... or something like that.  I think I may have finally kicked the Curse and joined the right Alliance for once.  And when I say "I" I mean we of course.  I didn't join a new Alliance, we did.  So finally the universes coolest Corp is in an Alliance worthy of us.  And likewise.  Vice versa, y'know.


So much happening and most of it I shouldn't be talking about.  Suffice to say we are kicking butt and taking names.  And soon, very soon, we'll have our own space to call home.  It isn't what you think, but enough said about that until the time is right.


The sad bit of the story is next, so those of you with feminine tendencies may want to drag that tissue box a little closer.  I'll give you a double space buffer.




It pains me to say it, but I haven't been able to contribute much to this new winning effort.  Sadly, due to those darn real world issues, your favorite Eveoganda author (who also happens to be the only Eveoganda author, but it's all in how you look at things) hasn't been able to play much lately.  This situation isn't likely to change much during the next week or so.  I'm doing what I can, as always, but right now that isn't as much as I'd like.


Don't that just figure?


In the meantime, now is the perfect time to come and join the winning side.  Join DION-PUBLIC in-game and come talk to us about moving down to zero and being where the good stuff is happening.  Seriously, you won't regret it.  And as a cool prize I'll even talk to you live in channel when I'm on.  And I won't be all ego about it either, seriously I'm just this guy y'know?




And yes, I did lose a Vagabond the very first day I undocked in one.  You don't respect me as much as you used to, do you?

The Pod Captain Debate (Redux)

{ Seismic Stan has posted an interesting post about crews and pods, so I thought I'd re-post this article I wrote back in March on the subject for those that may have missed it. }

Who are we inside our ships?  There seem to be two distinct schools of thought regarding the Capsuleer inside his star ship.  The first states that the pilot is suspended inside his pod within the ship, floating in a sea of liquid, hooked up to the machines that run his craft.  The second, probably best popularized in the video series Clear Skies, is the standard Star Trek view of people wandering around like they do in an Aircraft Carrier today. 

I'd like to propose a third view.  One that encompasses both of those views, allowing for a more romantic ideal than the first, but fitting more within game mechanics than the second.  I call my proposed view, "The Vader View" of Eve Captains.

We all remember the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Vader is pulled from within his dark isolation chamber to deal with his flunky crew.  It has become a very iconic moment in cinema history.  My proposal is very similar to this moment, with some variations of course, but I think it is important to have this in mind.

But let's step back a moment and consider one ship in the Eve universe.  The Dominix.  I picked it because it's a pretty typical ship and I had to pick something.  The area of the ship indicated as the Bridge is FIVE STORIES tall, if we go by the rows of lights on the model, which I do.  The ship is listed as having 1,812 crew members!  That is a lot of people running a Battleship.  ( The USS Nimitz has a crew of over 5,000 if you include the air wing, for comparison. )  The Dominix is typical of ships in Eve, as it is very, very big.  I would imagine that it is also extremely complex.

Now, according to most established Eve cannon, upon destruction of this massive ship - everyone dies.  Except the Captain.  Who somehow manages to escape in his trusty pod.  This is the major reason, I believe, for the first view of the Captain swimming in his pod juices.  I don't like it.  It stinks of lazy writing in my opinion.  The whole crew dies?!  C'mon.  How can I be expected to raise a good crew for my Null Space missions if everyone dies when my ship goes ka-blooie?  A crew dumb enough to fall for that one would be too stupid to fly the ship.  The universe may be very big, but no matter how big it is, there is a finite number of people qualified to be my crew.

The second view doesn't work either.  If we were all running around the Bridge then sometimes the Captain would die.  And since we ALWAYS escape in our pod, that can't be true.  Why would the Captain sometimes die?  Think of the scene in Starship Troopers were the Heinlien is exploding above the Bug Planet and the crew is desperately trying to get to their escape pods.  Some of them don't make it, including the Captain.  Things don't always go as planned and sometimes those darn blast doors fall on the wrong person.  

What I am proposing is simply an imagination game anyway, since none of this really matters.  But it is kinda important, since many of us like to write and read Eve fiction.  So let me explain and you can decide for yourself what you think.

I imagine the Captain (us) sitting on the Bridge of that Dominix surrounded by his trusty Command staff, people he has probably flown with many, many times.  Each of them, including the Captain, is mind-linked into the ship.  Awesome special-effect virtual charts and data float everyone around them.  The Bridge is massive, sprawling and a cyber-tech punk's wet dream.  Now imagine the "Vader View" from above, except much cooler and more hi-tech and massive.  The bottom half forms the Captain's Command Console, the top half forms the ceiling above him.  Probably where all the mind-link apparatus resides, the computer and other tech stuff as well.  The rest of the Command Staff has similar set-ups.  The remainder of the crew, who need the freedom to walk around, have to rely on Common Pods that seat more than one.

Now, something bad has happened.  Klaxons are sounding through-out the ship.  Those nasty Nostromo lights are screaming everywhere, the ship has hit critical structure.  It can't be saved.  As fast as a Blast Door in the Death Star the top and bottom halves slam together and the pods begin to fill with life-saving juices.  The crew rush to their designated Common Pods, sadly not all of them will make it, but enough to ensure word gets back to Empire that serving on a crew isn't a death sentence.  The ship explodes and every single pod micro-jumps in place milli-seconds before the explosion, ensuring that they are not harmed by the explosion.  (That's my theory anyway.)

All we see, all we care about since this story is about us, is our pod escape.  But in reality, hundreds of pods are in space around us, warping off to safe haven.  To meet up and do it all over again.  If their pods aren't warp scrambled and kilt.  Hate when that happens.

Like I said, this is just a mental game.  How this all happens isn't important to game play and it really isn't all that important to anything else either.  But I find it fascinating and worthy of some thought.  If only to give the fiction writers something to think about.

So what are your thoughts?  I'd be anxious to hear what my fellow Capsuleers think.