Day 70 : Nearly There

The final day before the great Bank Holiday Blowout of Laziness and EVE. Yes. I am that much of a sloth.

Instead of looking forward to this my mind gets derailed and starts thinking about a couple of things from back in the week.

I’m at work, altering some templates on a gallery website to display some new data. The templates are simple but the data is tricky since I have to strip out the text and images from about nine thousand PDFs, format it and get it into a database. There's a lot of sitting around monitoring the thing. I’ve split it and run it across 9 processes so it’ll finish faster but I’ve still got too much coding brain space left. When I first started EVE I found the web API’s early on. It was a godsend, I thought that I could get a coding project done at home. I’d been looking for one for ages, this cropped up, a game and yet a one I could write my own tools for. I promptly didn’t do anything about it. I got sucked into the game and subscribed to other peoples tools like EVEMon. Then, the other day, I was reading a blog and came across something that awoke the desire to do it again.

http://drkindustry.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/copy-and-pasting-space-is-all-about-spreadsheets-these-days/

http://industry.darkshadowindustries.com/pricecheck

They are handy tools. I’m going to be having a think about this and seeing if I can’t automate my spreadsheets in a similar way, maybe write an Android app equivalent to EVEMon. Currently I have too much to do in game (and an entire new blog to read). Hopefully when the download of the static data starts arriving in YAML format it’ll present a challenge too tempting not to have a crack at.

The other thing I am thinking about is getting a second account. From what I hear many EVE players have more than one account. Group ops are possible at slow times, alts can be specialised and one used for combat. My main character could remain the industrialist adventurer he is now, and the second could be trained up initially to fly frigate combat and maybe join Red vs Blue. Red vs Blue, or RvB is a pair of corporations set up simply to organise constant PVP fights. They are at constant war with each other but there are rules governing things like podding and use of ECM. Not only would it be fun, I like the challenge of PVP in EVE, but it would be good practice. Character skills are one thing but I have found that combat skills are a real world thing that needs training. It’s hard to get this training out on the main since the loss involved at the start would be crippling. If I was in a no podding situation in cheap frigates that I could build and supply from my main character then I’d have no real barrier to entry. I could just go up for a few fights a day and learn a little each time.

The downside of the two accounts notion is that I don't yet want to dilute this Noob experience I’m going through. I'm refusing offers of money and items to preserve it. It's a one time thing and I want to go through it on using my own skills (I count theft of an unanchored POS as my own “luck” skills, ahem). EVE is a difficult game in many ways and if I can get through it using my own resources then I’ll be a better player. It is a social game so I do listen to the tips people pass on and investigate most of them later but donations of cash and items, while greatly appreciated, I can’t accept. Once I declare the noob experience complete then everyone can send me as much cash as they want. Hows that?

The other barrier to two accounts is the obvious, the insertion of real world cash. I can start a new account with 51 days time by running out an invite to myself and then subscribing with ten pounds to get the PLEX reward and using it on that account. I’m very lucky though, that amount of cash isn’t that much for me. Ten pounds a month is easy. In Pint Economics thats less than three units of the lowest denomination, well, in London anyway. Pint Economics is how I justify spending money on games. I am going to go out and go to the pub and spend money on Pints. That's a given. Until the doc' tells me my liver is going to explode. Until that point the cost of any game can be judged by how many pints I’m not consuming because I'm playing it. Missing an hour in the pub with a couple of people equals one slightly healthier Space Noob and a month in EVE. Since I am rarely in the pub for just one round, a single night in the pub swapped with EVE will easily cover another account. Yes, I am slightly delusional, possibly borderline alcoholic, your point is?

I dismiss the cost issue of an extra account by experimentation. I avoid coming back to EVE and go down the pub instead. At some point later I am sat in Trafalgar Square talking with an old mate and drinking a bottle of beer that already has tequila in it. It tastes like pop. It costs 40% of a month in EVE a go and will make my head hurt tomorrow. This and the other "fuel for discussion" my friend and I have costs me more than two months game time. Yeah. The cash isn't a barrier, if I decide to get a second account I have to deal with the other issue.