Moving to 0.0? Some advice

Although 0.0 can be very lucrative in terms of isk, it is not for everyone. At some point in your 0.0 life, you may be called upon to defend the alliances territory, and if you’re not that into pvp, it can be very daunting. But by following these tips, 0.0 can be extremely fun

1) Find a corp/alliance that fits around YOU

This can be said for joining any corporation in Eve. There are corps that expect you to play 23/7. But we all need some time out to eat, shower, sleep. And, shock horror, some players even have a life outside Eve!!! Be sure to ask, when joining a 0.0 corp (or any corp for that matter), what they expect of you. Most 0.0 corps have an interview process, and they expect you to ask questions. If you can only play for 2 hours a day and the corp expects you to play 4, then it’s really not worth joining. The best thing to do is thank the interviewer(s) for their time and keep looking. Eventually, you will find a corp that realises real life must sometimes take precedence, and you can’t possibly attend every alliance and corp operation.

2) Voice comms are a MUST

Most, if not all, 0.0 alliances have some sort of voice communications. The two most common ones are Teamspeak and Ventrillo, although I think Ventrillo is slowly becoming the more dominant of the two. Why voice comms are a must is simple. On fleet operations, it is much easier for scouts to report hostile and neutral contacts, and for fleet commanders to give orders over a microphone rather than type them. It is also easier for hostile contacts to be reported approaching alliance territory rather than typed. This way, any miners in space can get to a station and dock, rather than in space when the hostiles arrive.

3) Keep an eye on local

By watching local, you can be certain that there are no hostile or neutral contacts entering the system. While neutrals may not always attack, you can be sure any pilot hostile to the alliance will find and attack you. Not so bad if you’re with a bunch of alliance buddies, but not so good if you’re solo. It’s always good to have a number of safe spots in alliance territory. Just make sure those spots are not within scanning range of planets or gates.

4) Always be aligned to something

Should a hostile gang jump into system, it’s going to take time for your ship to align and warp. If you already aligned to something, your ship’s warp engine will charge and you will warp within about 5 seconds, depending on the ship. The alliance will always have a POS or outpost somewhere in their territory, and I never mined or ratted in a system where there were no friendly POS’s or outposts, merely for the fact it would have been suicide to do so. I don’t know how many times my ship was saved from being the victim of a hostile gang because their were friendly POS’s or stations in the system I was mining or ratting in.

5) If on fleet ops, follow the fleet commanders orders

The last thing an FC needs while engaged in battle is some idiot asking “Why?” The FC’s job is just that: commanding the fleet. He or she has a good reason for telling the fleet NOT to jump in to a system, or to attack a particular target. It’s to ensure that the fleet survives, or that it takes as many ships down as possible before the fleet is totally decimated.

So there you have it. My tips for not only finding a 0.0 corp, but for surviving in 0.0. Please feel free to contact me with your own tips for surviving 0.0

Until next time

Lord Yu

No Local for W-Space

In the next expansion of Eve Online, Apocrypha, they are introducing a concept that has the community divided: unless you actually talk in local, your name won’t appear when you’re in “wormhole” space (this meaning any system that you must use a wormhole to get to). This, as far as I’m concerned, is the best thing that could have ever happened in Eve, and I’m hoping it will extend to 0.0 and Empire (any system with a security rating of 0.1 and above)

1) PvP will be so much more fun

Think about it. At this time, all a PvP’er, solo or otherwise, has to do to fnd targets is to look in local. This is especially true if you’re at war. Without names appearing in local, any corporation that declares war against another corporation will actually have to go looking for targets by using probes and by knowing where their targets actually hang out. For the solo pvp’ers, it means actually roaming belts looking for targets, rather than just seeing how many people are in the system. This means, of course, that low sec empire space becomes a little bit more dangerous for those living there. They will have to keep more of an eye on their overview for marauding players rather than local.

2) War more like real life

At the moment, declaring war against anothe corp involved virtually no intel gathering at all (except for 0.0 warfare, where you might need to scan for an enemy’s POS or outpost). With the removal of what I will call “instant local” (your name appears as soon as you enter the system), empire corps will actually have to go and do a bit intel gathering ie where targets might live, their mission hubs, mining spots, how many ships they might be able to field at any one time. This is exactly how war is in real life. Opposing sides have a rough estimate of the forces the enemy can deploy, but where they are and how many of them there are, they don’t know until scouts and spies report back. Just because a corporation has 200 members doesn’t mean they can have 200 pilots that are able to fly ships that can fight. During my time living in 0.0, there were alliances that may have had some rudimentary combat skills (enough to kill belt rats), but as far as PvP went, they very rarely got involved in wars.

3) The buzzard might actually be able to be used for something other than exploration

I fly a buzzard, among other ships. At the moment, I don’t use it. Mainly because I really don’t have the skills to use it properly, but when I do, it really won’t be useful for anything other than probing down exploration sites. Why, I hear you ask. Ok, I lied. The buzzard can also be used for scouting, as it can warp cloaked. But apart from exploration, the buzzard can also be used to probing down ships. So, if someone is in a safe spot, and not cloaked, the buzzard can use scan probes to track down ships. A good scout and probe pilot can track down a ship very easily. So easily in fact unless the target ship was cloaked, it would be very difficult for a ship to hide in a safe spot.

So there you have it. 3 reasons why local should be put into “delayed mode”. Which is rather a strange name, because unless you speak, your name doesn’t show up.

Until next time

Lord Yu

Back in the game

Apparently my friend and his significant other have had a huge argument regarding Eve. I’ve heard both sides of the story, but to save future arguments, my friend has decided to hand back the accounts.

To clarify the situation, my friend works. So he can’t really play during the week as Eve takes a significant amount of time to do anything. Mining, missioning, even making 10,000 units of ammo can take 6 hours (less depending on your skills and station equipment). So during the week he spends time with his family. On weekends, when he has time (after his kid’s sporting activities,  any other commitments that he and his family might have ie shopping, social engagements) he plays (or played) Eve.

So I asked what caused the argument.

And it was something so simple.

A level 4 mission. And, as far as I’m concerned, the task he was aked to do could have waited. It takes maybe 20 mins to half an hour to complete a simple level 4, a 3 room mission might take half an hour to 45  minutes and something like Guristas Extravaganza a few hours. This is, of course, doing missions solo.

But I digress

So. my friend had just started a level 4 mission and was asked to take some rubbish to the bin. It wasn’t food scraps or anything, just general household rubbish. He said he would do it in about 20 minutes when he finished the mission. His significant other went ballistic and started ranting and raving about he spends more time on Eve than with his own family. Which was total bull, and when I found out about this argument, I told his significant other exactly that. This is sort of how the conversation went:

Me: What do you mean, he spends all his free time playing eve

Friend: That’s crap and you know it. Where did we go last weekend?

Her: The beach

Friend: And how long were we there for?

Her: A few hours I guess

Friend: We were  there from about 10am to till 1, when we went to the take away and got some lunch.

Her: That’s garbage.

Friend: Do you want me to go and ask the kids?

Silence for a second

Her: OK, you don’t spend ALL your free time playing that silly game.

Me: How long does he spend playing

Her: 4, maybe 5 hours, on weekends

Me: (laugh) you’re whinging cos he plays Eve maybe 10 hours a week, if that? You want to know how long some people play Eve?

Her: How long?

Me:  15 hours a day. They would play 16, but they take the server offline so the developers can screw around testing stuff and blowing the shit out of each other for fun for an hour.

Her: You’re kidding

Me: Nope. I used to play that long until (my girlfriend’s name deleted) got the shits and threatened to leave. I’d rather have a relationship with a real person than with some computer game.

After that she got all apologetic and promised not to get angry if he was spending some time on Eve, even if it did mean the rubbish had to wait to get taken to the bin. But to save future arguments, he said I could have the accounts back, complete with remaining game time. I offered him some money, but both him and his significant other said not to worry about it.

Funny thing is, I recently found out that for his birthday, she got him a year’s subscription to Eve. And he’s having more fun learning about the game from the start rather than from established characters.

The even funnier thing? She wants to start a character as well!!!

All I can say is: heaven help them

Until next time

Lord Yu