I checked my account status today and saw they currently have a special offer -- buy one month, get one free. So 2 months for about $15. Not sure how long that deal has been running nor how much longer it will be available, but I am tempted to resub for a couple of months to take advantage of the offer. $7.50 a month sounds pretty good.
If you would like to see me back in action, shoot me an email or comment on this post and let me know! I do miss the action sometimes.
Scott Bacon
Loyal supporter of Silent Infinity and NRDS null space
Showing posts with label News and Information. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News and Information. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Grid-Fu Just Got Ganked!
Supposedly, with the December 8th update (I haven't personally verified it yet), default grid size has changed from 250 km to a surprisingly large 8000 km. You can read all about it here: http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/grid-sizes-you/
One thing that update doesn't talk about is how gankers would often attempt to use Grid-Fu, the intentional manipulation of Eve space grids, to their advantage. This will be a lot harder to do now.
Some organizations within Eve may have considered Grid-Fu to be a valid intelligence tactic to combat their opponents, but overall, I view the grid change as a very positive change. Not only were the smaller grids often just plain annoying, they also break game immersion. This is one of those less common cases where a gank is a good thing. Grid-Fu just got ganked!
One thing that update doesn't talk about is how gankers would often attempt to use Grid-Fu, the intentional manipulation of Eve space grids, to their advantage. This will be a lot harder to do now.
Some organizations within Eve may have considered Grid-Fu to be a valid intelligence tactic to combat their opponents, but overall, I view the grid change as a very positive change. Not only were the smaller grids often just plain annoying, they also break game immersion. This is one of those less common cases where a gank is a good thing. Grid-Fu just got ganked!
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Providence Under Fire
For days Providence has been under attack by Goonswarm and their coalition forces. The Goonswarm plan was to take all Providence Ihubs within a day or two, and then optionally stay to take stations and territorial claim units. Providence defense forces have held up fairly well considering the opposition's superior numbers. After 4+ days of assault, sovereignty and stations are generally in good shape, and Goonswarm was unable or unwilling to complete their primary objective of taking all of the Ihubs. The majority of Goonswarm forces have for the time being retreated.
The intel and attack plan suggest that Goonswarm leadership was more interested in trolling, tear collecting, and causing economic loss to the region than in providing fun content for the Eve community. That is, unless that is what their members find to be fun, which I hope isn't the typical case. But this approach strengthens the apparent link between Goonswarm and high-sec ganking organizations like CODE.
Regardless, Providence forces were largely upstanding in character focusing on comradery and having fun, and most tried diligently to uphold NRDS policy even in the light of the ongoing attacks. I myself was in several fleets that allowed nuetrals to go about their way following verification that that were not on any region KOS lists. If you believe yourself to be a neutral and happened to be attacked by Providence defense forces, please do feel free to engage region diplomats on what happened. Accidents can happen and issues can only be addressed if the diplomats are aware of them.
Your friendly neighborhood null space continues to stand strong. While I would recommend increased caution for the time being until invasion forces fully retreat, Providence is generally a great place to dip your toes into null space. Just be sure if it's your first visit to check with diplomacy in advance to ensure you are not listed as KOS to the region, and to inquire about getting good standing if you expect to be staying for long. Also set the locals blue so you can more easily identify potential hostiles passing through. With that said, I personally welcome friendly visitors to the area. o/
The intel and attack plan suggest that Goonswarm leadership was more interested in trolling, tear collecting, and causing economic loss to the region than in providing fun content for the Eve community. That is, unless that is what their members find to be fun, which I hope isn't the typical case. But this approach strengthens the apparent link between Goonswarm and high-sec ganking organizations like CODE.
Regardless, Providence forces were largely upstanding in character focusing on comradery and having fun, and most tried diligently to uphold NRDS policy even in the light of the ongoing attacks. I myself was in several fleets that allowed nuetrals to go about their way following verification that that were not on any region KOS lists. If you believe yourself to be a neutral and happened to be attacked by Providence defense forces, please do feel free to engage region diplomats on what happened. Accidents can happen and issues can only be addressed if the diplomats are aware of them.
Your friendly neighborhood null space continues to stand strong. While I would recommend increased caution for the time being until invasion forces fully retreat, Providence is generally a great place to dip your toes into null space. Just be sure if it's your first visit to check with diplomacy in advance to ensure you are not listed as KOS to the region, and to inquire about getting good standing if you expect to be staying for long. Also set the locals blue so you can more easily identify potential hostiles passing through. With that said, I personally welcome friendly visitors to the area. o/
Thursday, July 9, 2015
What Is NRDS?
NRDS is a philosophical categorization for the behavior of an organization within Eve. The common categories an organization's philosophical behavior can fall into include:
Members of such organization can be anywhere, but behavior is tightly controlled by CONCORD within the core high security systems, so it's only out in low security and null security space where this becomes significant.
Eve is the world. Your organization's sovereign space is your yard. Your main outpost or station is your home.
NPSI means anyone not in your fleet is a valid target to attack. Such groups are short term and unorganized, having no sovereign space. They are, by definition, just a fleet. If you are NPSI, you really can't be anything else, as being NPSI for even a day likely would violate the rules of any NBSI or NRDS organization. NPSI groups are nomadic savages that attack anything they come across. Like Reavers in Firefly.
Using the home metaphor, NPSI groups are herds of rabid dogs that occasionally run through your yard looking for anything they can kill.
NBSI means anyone who hasn't been set to good or better standing (set blue) is a valid target to attack. Unknown visitors are not welcome. While NBSI groups generally have their own sovereign space, their NBSI rules generally apply across the entire universe; it doesn't matter if an NBSI ship or fleet is out in someone else's space, if they come across someone not set blue, that someone is a valid target to attack. Arguably like the Borg in Star Trek, or lesser known, perhaps the Krenim Imperium from Star Trek Voyager.
NBSI groups are classic stereotypical backwoods hillbillys. They have a home and a yard, but if some stranger happens across their yard, they shoot first and ask questions later, if they ask questions at all.
NRDS means only those who have aggressed or have been set as terrible standing are valid targets to attack. Individuals, corporations, or alliances are set to terrible standing when they have proved themselves as aggressive and in violation of NRDS rules. Visitors or those previously unknown are safe around those who are NRDS, and may find NRDS pilots to be friendly, but sometimes stern if they have not obtained good standing. Somewhat like being around the Federation and the late generation Federation-allied Klingons in Star Trek. Run across a Federation ship, and they generally greet you with a smile. Run across a Klingon ship, and you may find your encounter less friendly. But you are still safe so long as you haven't been declared an enemy and you are following the rules.
Visitors to NRDS soverign space should consider themselves safe around NRDS pilots, but are strongly encouraged to obtain good standing so as not to potentially disrupt the activities of others in NRDS space (unfortunately, neutral visitors often turn out to be aggressive, so generally speaking, NRDS folks don't like seeing neutral parties in NRDS space. Work on getting your standing set blue if you plan on frequent or extended visits into NRDS space). Even if you consider yourself a neutral visitor, YOU SHOULD VERIFY YOUR NEUTRALITY BEFORE VISITING NRDS SPACE. You may be considered to be of terrible standing without your knowing it. For example, if your corporation or alliance have been set to terrible standing, all those members within are also considered to be of terrible standing. To verify your standing, use a publicly available KOS checker, if they have one, or join a diplomacy channel for the organization to ask, or ask around folks in the NRDS alliance and they should point you in the right direction.
Non-NRDS pilots and fleets frequently tresspass in NRDS space, so even if you have your standings in order, note that it is not always safe space. NRDS protectors are often standing by to render assistance should someone be unjustly attacked, but response time isn't instant, and fights often don't last long. Be wary of pilots with bad or unknown standing in the system.
NRDS groups are civilized patriots. They have a home and a yard, and if some stranger happens across their yard, the stranger may be greeted with a friendly smile or may be asked to leave until they are better known and verified non-aggressive.
Simple. If you don't consider yourself a rabid dog nor a backwoods hillbilly, you have no other choice; you have to be NRDS. If you don't aspire to be a Firefly Reaver or a Borg drone, you have to be NRDS. If you are not NRDS, then you are either a rabid dog, a Reaver, a backwoods hillbilly, or a Borg drone. Own up to it. Either accept that you are one of these things, or straighten out your shit and be NRDS.
CVA and it's allies are all NRDS. CVA and it's allies traditionally hold sovereign space in the Providence region, and operate in a number of nearby low security regions as well. Many groups operating primarily in high security space are probably also NRDS, but just haven't really thought about it. Come by Providence some time and say hello, but check your standings first, and be on the lookout for rabid dogs and trespassing hillbillies.
Fly Safe!
- NPSI: Not Purple, Shoot It
- NBSI: Not Blue, Shoot It
- NRDS: Not Red, Don't Shoot
Members of such organization can be anywhere, but behavior is tightly controlled by CONCORD within the core high security systems, so it's only out in low security and null security space where this becomes significant.
Eve is the world. Your organization's sovereign space is your yard. Your main outpost or station is your home.
NPSI: Nomadic Savages
NPSI means anyone not in your fleet is a valid target to attack. Such groups are short term and unorganized, having no sovereign space. They are, by definition, just a fleet. If you are NPSI, you really can't be anything else, as being NPSI for even a day likely would violate the rules of any NBSI or NRDS organization. NPSI groups are nomadic savages that attack anything they come across. Like Reavers in Firefly.
Using the home metaphor, NPSI groups are herds of rabid dogs that occasionally run through your yard looking for anything they can kill.
NBSI: Closed And Aggressive
NBSI means anyone who hasn't been set to good or better standing (set blue) is a valid target to attack. Unknown visitors are not welcome. While NBSI groups generally have their own sovereign space, their NBSI rules generally apply across the entire universe; it doesn't matter if an NBSI ship or fleet is out in someone else's space, if they come across someone not set blue, that someone is a valid target to attack. Arguably like the Borg in Star Trek, or lesser known, perhaps the Krenim Imperium from Star Trek Voyager.
NBSI groups are classic stereotypical backwoods hillbillys. They have a home and a yard, but if some stranger happens across their yard, they shoot first and ask questions later, if they ask questions at all.
NRDS: Open And Civil
NRDS means only those who have aggressed or have been set as terrible standing are valid targets to attack. Individuals, corporations, or alliances are set to terrible standing when they have proved themselves as aggressive and in violation of NRDS rules. Visitors or those previously unknown are safe around those who are NRDS, and may find NRDS pilots to be friendly, but sometimes stern if they have not obtained good standing. Somewhat like being around the Federation and the late generation Federation-allied Klingons in Star Trek. Run across a Federation ship, and they generally greet you with a smile. Run across a Klingon ship, and you may find your encounter less friendly. But you are still safe so long as you haven't been declared an enemy and you are following the rules.
Visitors to NRDS soverign space should consider themselves safe around NRDS pilots, but are strongly encouraged to obtain good standing so as not to potentially disrupt the activities of others in NRDS space (unfortunately, neutral visitors often turn out to be aggressive, so generally speaking, NRDS folks don't like seeing neutral parties in NRDS space. Work on getting your standing set blue if you plan on frequent or extended visits into NRDS space). Even if you consider yourself a neutral visitor, YOU SHOULD VERIFY YOUR NEUTRALITY BEFORE VISITING NRDS SPACE. You may be considered to be of terrible standing without your knowing it. For example, if your corporation or alliance have been set to terrible standing, all those members within are also considered to be of terrible standing. To verify your standing, use a publicly available KOS checker, if they have one, or join a diplomacy channel for the organization to ask, or ask around folks in the NRDS alliance and they should point you in the right direction.
Non-NRDS pilots and fleets frequently tresspass in NRDS space, so even if you have your standings in order, note that it is not always safe space. NRDS protectors are often standing by to render assistance should someone be unjustly attacked, but response time isn't instant, and fights often don't last long. Be wary of pilots with bad or unknown standing in the system.
NRDS groups are civilized patriots. They have a home and a yard, and if some stranger happens across their yard, the stranger may be greeted with a friendly smile or may be asked to leave until they are better known and verified non-aggressive.
Why Be NRDS?
Simple. If you don't consider yourself a rabid dog nor a backwoods hillbilly, you have no other choice; you have to be NRDS. If you don't aspire to be a Firefly Reaver or a Borg drone, you have to be NRDS. If you are not NRDS, then you are either a rabid dog, a Reaver, a backwoods hillbilly, or a Borg drone. Own up to it. Either accept that you are one of these things, or straighten out your shit and be NRDS.
Who And Where Is NRDS?
CVA and it's allies are all NRDS. CVA and it's allies traditionally hold sovereign space in the Providence region, and operate in a number of nearby low security regions as well. Many groups operating primarily in high security space are probably also NRDS, but just haven't really thought about it. Come by Providence some time and say hello, but check your standings first, and be on the lookout for rabid dogs and trespassing hillbillies.
Fly Safe!
Friday, June 5, 2015
Greyscale Neocon Menu Icons -- Quicker To Identify?
In a prior update, CCP changed the neocon menu items from colored to greyscale colorless. Many of us were left wondering whether this was truely an attempt to improve the game, or if it was just change for the sake of change.
Those within CCP stated numerous times that it was quicker and easier to identify the greyscale icons than the prior colored icons. The explanations were very touchy feely and the general message was that you have to try it out to realize they are better.
These greyscale icons have now been with us for awhile, and I'm still not convinced they are better. They certainly don't look better. They look worse. Or at least, they are less appealing. Photography, television, and motion pictures all went from black and white to color, and most considered this an improvement. Any time black and white is championed today in any of those medias, it is only for what I will call "artsy fartsy" reasons.
So I did a little research to try to find studies that addressed the topic of symbol recognition performance for greyscale versus colored symbols. There are studies out there. Examples include "The role of colour in implicit and explicit memory performance." by Vernon and Lloyd-Jones, and also "The Influence of Colour on Memory Performance: A Review" by Mariam Adawiah Dzulkifli and Muhammad Faiz Mustafar, both available through the web sites for the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The general findings from these studies seem to suggest -- and I quote this from the latter source -- "participants took faster time to recognise objects in the coloured than non-coloured condition.".
These studies would seem to refute the reasoning provided by those who have commented on it within CCP. This leaves a couple of possibilities (not mutually exclusive mind you).
Those within CCP stated numerous times that it was quicker and easier to identify the greyscale icons than the prior colored icons. The explanations were very touchy feely and the general message was that you have to try it out to realize they are better.
These greyscale icons have now been with us for awhile, and I'm still not convinced they are better. They certainly don't look better. They look worse. Or at least, they are less appealing. Photography, television, and motion pictures all went from black and white to color, and most considered this an improvement. Any time black and white is championed today in any of those medias, it is only for what I will call "artsy fartsy" reasons.
So I did a little research to try to find studies that addressed the topic of symbol recognition performance for greyscale versus colored symbols. There are studies out there. Examples include "The role of colour in implicit and explicit memory performance." by Vernon and Lloyd-Jones, and also "The Influence of Colour on Memory Performance: A Review" by Mariam Adawiah Dzulkifli and Muhammad Faiz Mustafar, both available through the web sites for the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The general findings from these studies seem to suggest -- and I quote this from the latter source -- "participants took faster time to recognise objects in the coloured than non-coloured condition.".
These studies would seem to refute the reasoning provided by those who have commented on it within CCP. This leaves a couple of possibilities (not mutually exclusive mind you).
- That they really believe the greyscale icons are quicker to recognize based merely on their own gut feelings, in which case, perhaps they shouldn't trust those gut feelings and instead look for more authoritative and well tested hypotheses on such matters.
- That the reasoning wasn't just for icon recognition performance, in which case, they should just own up to having done it to satisfy their own style of artsy fartsy.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Ore Reprocessing Changes -- Mosaic
With the Mosaic update, null sec ores are having their minerals changed. Below are tables showing old versus new. As with my previous ore reprocessing table, the units are in Minerals Per 100 m3.
Beware that some minerals are being reduced or eliminated from some ores. In particular, CCP seems to be forcing players to sink even more skill points into mining and train for Bistot and Arkonor in order to effectively mine Zydrine and Megacyte, whereas previously players could get by mining other ores like Gneiss and Spodumain for those minerals.
Note: The Chg values will appear off by a value of 1 on some rows; this is because the numbers are actually fractional but are being rounded to the nearest whole number (with the exception of Mercoxit which was rounded to 1 decimal place). The data is shown in two tables instead of one largely just to improve layout on the page.
High-Sec Minerals Per 100 m3
Null-Sec Minerals Per 100 m3
Beware that some minerals are being reduced or eliminated from some ores. In particular, CCP seems to be forcing players to sink even more skill points into mining and train for Bistot and Arkonor in order to effectively mine Zydrine and Megacyte, whereas previously players could get by mining other ores like Gneiss and Spodumain for those minerals.
Note: The Chg values will appear off by a value of 1 on some rows; this is because the numbers are actually fractional but are being rounded to the nearest whole number (with the exception of Mercoxit which was rounded to 1 decimal place). The data is shown in two tables instead of one largely just to improve layout on the page.
High-Sec Minerals Per 100 m3
| Tritanium | Pyerite | Mexallon | Isogen | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old | New | Chg | Old | New | Chg | Old | New | Chg | Old | New | Chg | |
| Veldspar | 4,150 | 4,150 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Scordite | 2,307 | 2,307 | 1,153 | 1,153 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Pyroxeres | 1,170 | 1,170 | 83 | 83 | 167 | 167 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Plagioclase | 306 | 306 | 609 | 609 | 306 | 306 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Omber | 142 | 142 | 57 | 57 | 0 | 0 | 142 | 142 | ||||
| Kernite | 112 | 112 | 0 | 0 | 223 | 223 | 112 | 112 | ||||
| Jaspet | 36 | 0 | -36 | 61 | 0 | -61 | 72 | 175 | 103 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hemorphite | 60 | 733 | 673 | 24 | 0 | -24 | 6 | 0 | -6 | 20 | 33 | 14 |
| Hedbergite | 0 | 0 | 27 | 333 | 306 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 67 | 1 | ||
| Gneiss | 256 | 0 | -256 | 0 | 440 | 440 | 256 | 480 | 224 | 48 | 60 | 12 |
| Dark Ochre | 1,101 | 1,250 | 150 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 200 | 200 | ||
| Crokite | 1,312 | 1,313 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Spodumain | 2,451 | 3,500 | 1,049 | 311 | 753 | 442 | 0 | 131 | 131 | 0 | 28 | 28 |
| Bistot | 0 | 0 | 1,036 | 750 | -286 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Arkonor | 432 | 1,375 | 943 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 156 | 76 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Mercoxit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Null-Sec Minerals Per 100 m3
| Nocxium | Zydrine | Megacyte | Morphite | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old | New | Chg | Old | New | Chg | Old | New | Chg | Old | New | Chg | |
| Veldspar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Scordite | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Pyroxeres | 17 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Plagioclase | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Omber | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Kernite | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Jaspet | 36 | 38 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Hemorphite | 39 | 40 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Hedbergite | 33 | 33 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Gneiss | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | -12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Dark Ochre | 22 | 15 | -7 | 11 | 0 | -11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Crokite | 17 | 48 | 30 | 23 | 8 | -15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Spodumain | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | -5 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Bistot | 0 | 0 | 15 | 28 | 13 | 7 | 6 | -1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Arkonor | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | -7 | 14 | 20 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Mercoxit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.3 | 7.5 | 0.2 | |||
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Scope Works, The Scope Project, and CAS
I continue to keep my eyes open for interesting organizations that look to nurture fun without the griefing and tear collecting BS that has been all too visible in Eve this last year. It is part of what my version of Ganker Bumping is all about -- enjoying Eve while countering and/or avoiding the negativity provoked by some of the more dubious Eve ganksters.
I'd thus like to take a moment to mention a few organizations that have popped up into my field of vision recently. Information on these organizations is not the easiest to find, and I actually had to hunt around the Internet and on various forums to collect some of the details, and I'm still missing a lot. For whatever reason, most Eve organizations/corporations seem to lack a central public home on the web like you would find for most guilds in other MMOs, requiring much more effort to find and assess them.
The Scope Project
The other day, a curious character named Vapor Ventrillian mentioned The Scope Project in the Anti-ganking channel. Vapor leads The Scope Project and has an interesting flair to him. Some seem to find him offputting while others enjoy his whimsical nature. The Scope Project has no corporation; instead, it is an organization of people with a common interest and a shared set of chat channels whose members may be in non-player corporations, one man corporations, or other player corporations. In Vapor's words, "its about having the freedom while benefitting from a collective. So you can succeed where normally you could not against a strong collective. it is finding the balance between the two..." (1) . I have also heard him talk in game that it is about bringing together people from all walks in Eve to go have fun while avoiding unsavory politics. As far as what they have up and running, I found this (2) :
All told, I find this organization intriguing but I do have some concerns about it. In particular, it appears as though they are not opposed to destroying other corporations by awoxing from within. While I am willing to let spying slide, I have a personal opposition to awoxing that defaces a corporation or steals it's assets. I know some people believe this is acceptable in the world of Eve, but I do not agree, and I would not want to be associated with an organization that engages in such activity. It is far too close to just hacking people's accounts to steal their assets. It is unclear exactly how far The Scope Project takes this activity.
Scope Works
This is a rather interesting organization led by a seemingly angry character named Anslo. If you look through his forum posts on the Eve forums, you will find a link to https://proveldtariat.wordpress.com/. But stop there, as that site does not appear to be what Scope Works currently is, and it hasn't had a blog post in a very long time. But it appears to be where the Scope Works got it's start, from what I can tell. The Proveldtariat seemed oriented primarily towards miners and casual gamers who wanted to organize against bumpers and gankers and was another organization that did not have an in-game alliance or corporation. But they appear to have evolved over the last couple of years.
What are they now? A fairly recent recruiting post by Anskek (probably an alias of Anslo) on eve-inpiracy.com had this to say (3) :
That seems pretty far removed from The Proveldtariat. And they now have a corporation, Scope Works, and an alliance, Psychotic Tendencies.. The killboards show mostly low sec and some null sec activity. The alliance has what could only be described as a spam-ish description and web site. But the corporation seems okay from what I can tell, and if they have stayed true to their origins, it could be a great organization.
CAS
Finally, a quick mention of CAS. I've seen people mention it, but I still have no idea what it is. I just know it's sometimes mentioned as related when talking about Scope Works and/or The Scope Project.
It might be this (4) : Center for Advanced Studies' nullsec NPSI fleet
Or it might be this (5) : CAS Corporation, some kind of new player organization.
Could those be the same thing? Hell if I know. All I know is, they need better advertising, as I can't figure out who or what they are even when I'm trying to.
I'd thus like to take a moment to mention a few organizations that have popped up into my field of vision recently. Information on these organizations is not the easiest to find, and I actually had to hunt around the Internet and on various forums to collect some of the details, and I'm still missing a lot. For whatever reason, most Eve organizations/corporations seem to lack a central public home on the web like you would find for most guilds in other MMOs, requiring much more effort to find and assess them.
The Scope Project
The other day, a curious character named Vapor Ventrillian mentioned The Scope Project in the Anti-ganking channel. Vapor leads The Scope Project and has an interesting flair to him. Some seem to find him offputting while others enjoy his whimsical nature. The Scope Project has no corporation; instead, it is an organization of people with a common interest and a shared set of chat channels whose members may be in non-player corporations, one man corporations, or other player corporations. In Vapor's words, "its about having the freedom while benefitting from a collective. So you can succeed where normally you could not against a strong collective. it is finding the balance between the two..." (1) . I have also heard him talk in game that it is about bringing together people from all walks in Eve to go have fun while avoiding unsavory politics. As far as what they have up and running, I found this (2) :
we have lowsec roams in place NPSI
we have mining ops in place-highsec atm
we recruit explorers to gain us intell on pilot movements as the see it
we recruited awoxers to disrupt corps that attempt to undermine the project
we have more spias then anyone else because hell...its the Scope
All told, I find this organization intriguing but I do have some concerns about it. In particular, it appears as though they are not opposed to destroying other corporations by awoxing from within. While I am willing to let spying slide, I have a personal opposition to awoxing that defaces a corporation or steals it's assets. I know some people believe this is acceptable in the world of Eve, but I do not agree, and I would not want to be associated with an organization that engages in such activity. It is far too close to just hacking people's accounts to steal their assets. It is unclear exactly how far The Scope Project takes this activity.
Scope Works
This is a rather interesting organization led by a seemingly angry character named Anslo. If you look through his forum posts on the Eve forums, you will find a link to https://proveldtariat.wordpress.com/. But stop there, as that site does not appear to be what Scope Works currently is, and it hasn't had a blog post in a very long time. But it appears to be where the Scope Works got it's start, from what I can tell. The Proveldtariat seemed oriented primarily towards miners and casual gamers who wanted to organize against bumpers and gankers and was another organization that did not have an in-game alliance or corporation. But they appear to have evolved over the last couple of years.
What are they now? A fairly recent recruiting post by Anskek (probably an alias of Anslo) on eve-inpiracy.com had this to say (3) :
WHAT WE DO:
-Medium+ gang sized pvp
-PvE fleets for SHEKELS
-Capital/BLOPS
-SRP
-Professional Haberdashery lessons
-Shenanigan Ops
WHAT WE NEED
-5 mil SP minimum
-Members who love GOOOOOOOOOOOOLD
-Proactive Nerds (be an expert in something in Eve, Teach Nerds, Lead Nerds, talk with Corp, don't just be solo all the time)
-Willingness to Learn (If you welp a thing and learn from it, good. If you welp a thing and don't learn, stop being bad)
-Thick skin
That seems pretty far removed from The Proveldtariat. And they now have a corporation, Scope Works, and an alliance, Psychotic Tendencies.. The killboards show mostly low sec and some null sec activity. The alliance has what could only be described as a spam-ish description and web site. But the corporation seems okay from what I can tell, and if they have stayed true to their origins, it could be a great organization.
CAS
Finally, a quick mention of CAS. I've seen people mention it, but I still have no idea what it is. I just know it's sometimes mentioned as related when talking about Scope Works and/or The Scope Project.
It might be this (4) : Center for Advanced Studies' nullsec NPSI fleet
Or it might be this (5) : CAS Corporation, some kind of new player organization.
Could those be the same thing? Hell if I know. All I know is, they need better advertising, as I can't figure out who or what they are even when I'm trying to.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Eve Anti-ganking Channel Hacked
I'll comment more on this later, but for now just a quick word of warning. The Anti-ganking and Gank-intel channels in Eve were taken over by CODE. this evening. It appears as this was done using the account of Gorila Vengaza. There is some debate over whether Gorila went evil or if his account was hacked, but either way, I recommend immediately revoking any authority you may have granted to Gorila Vengaza until the situation is sorted out. When the channel gets fixed or replaced, I will make a post about it here on my blog for anyone that needs to know.
- Scott Bacon
- Scott Bacon
Thursday, December 11, 2014
'Tis The Season
Holiday activities are not allowing me much time to put into Eve lately. Just a few missions here and there. On a positive note, CODE activity seems to have died down as well.
I'm not sure what to think of the newest release yet. I know I don't like the removal of color from the icons. I definitely do like the change in ship/pixel rendering. I don't think it was necessary to remove clones; they really just needed an optional warning prompt whenever leaving a station without a sufficiently upgraded clone. But I can understand where they are going with it. The rest of the changes I don't yet have any thoughts on.
At any rate, I am still around and looking forward to playing more again when the holiday rush dies down. To those of you who I have worked with in the past and mentioned this to -- remember you can page me out of game if you want me to log in for any reason. You may find it especially handy during the holidays when I might go a week or more without checking in.
Until next time, fly safe!
I'm not sure what to think of the newest release yet. I know I don't like the removal of color from the icons. I definitely do like the change in ship/pixel rendering. I don't think it was necessary to remove clones; they really just needed an optional warning prompt whenever leaving a station without a sufficiently upgraded clone. But I can understand where they are going with it. The rest of the changes I don't yet have any thoughts on.
At any rate, I am still around and looking forward to playing more again when the holiday rush dies down. To those of you who I have worked with in the past and mentioned this to -- remember you can page me out of game if you want me to log in for any reason. You may find it especially handy during the holidays when I might go a week or more without checking in.
Until next time, fly safe!
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
High Sec Militia
Anti-gank forces continues to advance, evolve, and organize. While I have been an advocate of friendly folks joining up in anti-gank militias, I haven't actually tried to organize one myself. However, there are people out there now doing exactly that. If you are interested in joining an anti-gank militia, or just are interested in reading more about anti-gank efforts, I recommend checking out the following blog:
High Sec Militia Blog
I've been impressed with their efforts. I had no hand in the creation or administration of their blog or their militia. I am, however, a recruit in their militia and look forward to meeting any new brave souls who join up to protect the good folks in high security space.
High Sec Militia Blog
I've been impressed with their efforts. I had no hand in the creation or administration of their blog or their militia. I am, however, a recruit in their militia and look forward to meeting any new brave souls who join up to protect the good folks in high security space.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
CODE. Forfeits Tournament Match
In a move that was both disappointing and amusing, the CODE. alliance forfeited their first Alliance Tournament XII match against Red vs Blue today. There are reports that CODE. didn't have enough members, and other reports that they bailed after Red vs Blue banned the Catalyst and Talos, but the only official report is that CODE. forfeited and RvB was declared winner by default.
For now, CODE. is shown as moving to the elimination brackets. Whether they remain there, or are disqualified; whether they fight the next round, or whether they forfeit again; the final outcome for CODE. in the tournament remains to be seen.
For now, CODE. is shown as moving to the elimination brackets. Whether they remain there, or are disqualified; whether they fight the next round, or whether they forfeit again; the final outcome for CODE. in the tournament remains to be seen.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Drone Avionics Bug Explained
As many are already aware, with the updates on 7/24, a bug was introduced with the Drone Avionics skill. Overnight, many people suddenly lost one or more levels of Drone Avionics. The single biggest consequence was that many players could no longer equip Drone Link Augmenters that they had the skills for the day before.
After much research, I think I fully understand what happened reasonably well, and thought I would make a quick post about it.
Here is what was apparently supposed to happen:
The affect of just picking one or the other results in the skill behaving or appearing as the one that is picked. Examples include seeing different Drone Avionics skill level in the skills list, in the skill info retrieved via the API in tools like EveMon, and in whether or not Drone Link Augmenters can be onlined.
The affects being duplicated is a little more subtle. One example of this is drone control range. For those affected, they will find that their current drone control range has actually increased! The system adds the range modification of both duplicate skills. In my case, I had a 40km control range. After the change, my control range was suddenly 45km. The extra 5km comes from the GM Skill Gift Level 1 I received in Drone Avionics, which is being added to my previous Drone Avionics bonus.
I haven't seen much information out of CCP about getting this fixed, but I did come across one post in my searches which suggested the likely date for a fix will be 7/31. A long wait for any drone ship captains.
After much research, I think I fully understand what happened reasonably well, and thought I would make a quick post about it.
Here is what was apparently supposed to happen:
In the Kronos release the required skill for Drone Link Augmenters was changed from Combat Drone Operation to Drone Avionics. This was done without ensuring that players who fulfilled the skill requirements of those modules would still do so after the change. In this patch we are bumping up the level of Drone Avionics for all players to the same level that they had Combat Drone Operation when we deployed Kronos. Players who have trained Drone Avionics in the meantime will be given unallocated skillpoints instead up to the amount that their skill would have been adjusted.Unfortunately, this wasn't well conceived or tested, and what actually happened to many players is that they had a higher level of Drone Avionics, previously had a lower level of Combat Drone Operation, and got a skill gift of Drone Avionics at the lower prior Combat Drone Operation skill level. This actually indicates two separate major errors on the part of CCP:
- The existing level of Drone Avionics was apparently not checked to ensure it was less than the prior level of Combat Drone Operation prior to applying a skill gift.
- The skill gift mistakenly added a second copy of Drone Avionics to affected players instead of updating or deleting the prior existing copy. Their system design really shouldn't allow this, but apparently it does.
The affect of just picking one or the other results in the skill behaving or appearing as the one that is picked. Examples include seeing different Drone Avionics skill level in the skills list, in the skill info retrieved via the API in tools like EveMon, and in whether or not Drone Link Augmenters can be onlined.
The affects being duplicated is a little more subtle. One example of this is drone control range. For those affected, they will find that their current drone control range has actually increased! The system adds the range modification of both duplicate skills. In my case, I had a 40km control range. After the change, my control range was suddenly 45km. The extra 5km comes from the GM Skill Gift Level 1 I received in Drone Avionics, which is being added to my previous Drone Avionics bonus.
I haven't seen much information out of CCP about getting this fixed, but I did come across one post in my searches which suggested the likely date for a fix will be 7/31. A long wait for any drone ship captains.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Going Anti-Gank PvP on July 15, 2014
Sometimes people lament about not enough capsuleers joining in on efforts to thwart gankers. I've been wanting to get in on the action and help, but the problem is I have several semi-expensive implants to boost training speed that I don't want to risk losing in PvP. From the beginning, I have said that once I get a core set of skills complete, I would join in on the action.
But then there is the thought of something always being "around the next corner", or "next week", and being in an endless loop of delays. I don't want to fall into that trap, so I'm setting a date. On July 15, 2014, I am officially joining the ranks of the anti-gank militia. It is my hope, in time, to assist in improving the anti-gank strength and coordination across all of high security space. And perhaps, just maybe, someday becoming a champion in it's ranks.
I do not plan to be exclusively an anti-gank soldier. I plan to continue my missions and industrial operations as my core activities, but I will commit to making a strong effort to assist the anti-gank community on a regular basis whenever gank activity flares. I have already starting preparing some ships for the cause.
Fly safe, my fellow industrialists, and look for me in the skies. Be reminded that our cause is just, our will is strong, and that when gankers are near, you will see this law pig out in space dishing out a piece of the Bacon!
But then there is the thought of something always being "around the next corner", or "next week", and being in an endless loop of delays. I don't want to fall into that trap, so I'm setting a date. On July 15, 2014, I am officially joining the ranks of the anti-gank militia. It is my hope, in time, to assist in improving the anti-gank strength and coordination across all of high security space. And perhaps, just maybe, someday becoming a champion in it's ranks.
I do not plan to be exclusively an anti-gank soldier. I plan to continue my missions and industrial operations as my core activities, but I will commit to making a strong effort to assist the anti-gank community on a regular basis whenever gank activity flares. I have already starting preparing some ships for the cause.
Fly safe, my fellow industrialists, and look for me in the skies. Be reminded that our cause is just, our will is strong, and that when gankers are near, you will see this law pig out in space dishing out a piece of the Bacon!
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