Day 611: Shake Your Money Maker

Another few weeks without a post. Have I abandoned EVE? Succumbed to my first bout of bittervet syndrome early? Nope. I've been "playing" EVE in a different way, despite warning myself about it back in December. Ok. There was a death in the family which made me want to break things in a way that screamed "stay away from social arenas with limited accountability". I could have been one of those internet users. I missed some in game events but frankly my attitude would have sucked. You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,. Know when to walk away.

The problem for my EVE habit was that my sudden lack of desire for company was in sync with sudden ISK monetary worries brought on by various events:

1. I saw a Providence for sale at less than a billion ISK. I bought it for my alt. It's a backup revenue stream for when T2 manufacture finally stamps me with the sign "RSI victim". T2 manufacture causes arthritis of the hand and wrist, mouse burnout, monkeys flying out of your butt. All that kind of middle class armageddon shit. My alt accounts first CSM9 vote will go to Fuzzysteve.

Editor: He bought it because it looks like a Rebel Troop Transport

2. Finally granted with the chance to play for the first time in weeks I jumped into a hasty op with Brave where we got pasted all over the grid. I couldn't even see the called targets in the overview. As ever with EVE I  learned things. Unfortunately my frustration with the encounter caused me to behave randomly and lose my pod. I'd forgotten to clone jump and 100 million in implants went boom. Kind of worth it since I got to travel to my death through a Titan bridge for the first time but a shock none the less.

3. I can't recall what number 3 was but it was important. Really.

All this caused me to go into alt mode. Not only did I look at and fix how I was doing industry but a work related run in with Python (the language, much as I'd like a job where I ran into giant snakes all the time) started me writing my own tools to keep up and organise the entire thing. I already have basic reports using the API for order/build monitoring and the next things to copy written. Considering these were the two programs I wrote after the obligatory "hello world" program reveals why I'm fast becoming a fan of Python despite the hilarious issues of syntactically valid whitespace and Pythons desire to use different keywords for standard functionality than everyone else.

Currently I'm finishing off this alt-a-thon episode of backup revenue streams. I have the hauler ready to go. I'm working on a missioner stream too but this involves the deadly standings grind. If I told you how many level two distro missions I ran today you would cry so many tears that you'd be knee deep in EVE players drinking their fill.

Oh. I remember number 3 now.

PLEX BASED ALT TRAINING

This is the monkey on my back. If it wasn't possible I wouldn't have to do it. The alt supplying cash and having multiple possible avenues to do this has led to an obsession with PLEX training the alts into the various roles. I have a rule that, while I have two subscribed accounts, I never buy PLEX to convert into ISK. This requires me to generate a lot of ISK to buy the PLEX to train the alts. Since alt training was successful CCP have decided you can not only apply this to multiple alts but you can add as much time to an alt as you like. I need another paid up six months training to be happy and finished. I can then PLEX my second account easily. Ha.

So yes. I am playing, have been playing, EVE Farmville again. There are upsides:

1. I'm nearly done. A month more. I swear. Honest. Then all cash goes towards exploding things.

2. Fuck implants. I was using CA implants for fitting and weapon training. I'm flying with cheap or no implants on my main from now on. The thought of going into null and getting the implant heavy pod out stops me flying. Yes. You'll gain SP 10% faster than me. I'll wait.

3. Knowing I'd need something to code on I managed to revive an old PC to be a Linux based coding workhorse by buying an ancient, cheap graphics card on eBay. This spiralled and turned into an entire project that resulted in a desk with three monitors, two PCs and a laptop running on it. Nerdvana. (amusingly I'd forgotten I'd already installed Linux on it before it broke and when it came back to life I found it's hostname was set to "zombie").

4. Code. I'm amused by how entertained I can be by writing my shitty learning code and yet my third python program ever was 34 lines long and downloaded my assets, checked the blueprint copies and spat out a prioritised list of things to copy. I might have to go read Microserfs again.

5. Reviving the space potato (now looking extra shiny cool - thanks CCP!) I imagine the NPC opponents being surprised by the poor choice of weapon for a level three mission but not as surprised as when they were when they attacked it and I dropped a RLML Caracal on their asses. As Will Smith didn't sing : Boom Cycle Boom 

So the ultimate problem? Guilt. I should be out flying with Brave and laughing. I should be helping the new droves of newbros though their first days in low sec ( my other first CMS9 vote is going to Sugar Kyle ). I should be using winter downtime months to fly spaceships in fight mode. Is a crowded Brave the right place for me? A Brave that more and more looks to null sec? When I get back there I think it is. Brave will never abandon low sec. Cagali. Back me up here.

Anyway. Onwards and upwards and spacewards. As per. Astra.

EVE Track(s) of the day

Seeing Things - The Black Crowes

 The Gambler - Kenny Rodgers