Sense and Sensibility

This is not a Jane Austen Book but feels it could be just as long

The past ten days have been quite piss poor if I'm honest. Both in EVE and in the real world, the only place where things have been going good is actually my day job and when you don't want to leave and go home that at the end of your shift you know something is either:

1. a. going well
   
   or
   
2. b. seriously wrong 

I've been inpatient and rude with two friends who I was playing World of Warships...

Aside: I lost my temper in WoWS last night and "went pink" doing team damage; I was sick of dying so quickly because teamwork was not in the team vocabulary; when I lose my temper I know there's a problem with the game I'm playing but i digress.

... and EVE Online with. I knew it but I was too bullheaded to admit what a bastard I was and fix it. I've basically been wallowing in my own machinations and that isn't a good place for me to be in.

But tonight that's been fixed and all it took was a constant squeaking from the newest member of the family...

6 week old Hybrid Rainbow/Mustard Lorikeet baby

I've been off my feet for most of the past ten days, I injured my foot and have had serious issues walking. This guy was born just before Christmas and had a sibling but unfortunately in the changeable weather we've had this past week the sibling didn't survive.

Right now I'm hand feeding him (or her) and after they eat they make quite a loud squeaking noise as they digest their food. It can get very annoying if you have to listen to it for any length of time.... and tonight he's been sat less than a metre away from me the whole time he's been squeaking.

Epiphany

It's amazing what a constant annoying noise can do to clear you mind. I've mentioned the PI work I'm starting to manufacture Wetware Mainframes. I've had four characters working for nearly a week collecting raw materials, I've had great feedback and comments (it's my most commented post. Ever!) yet I've ignored all the feedback, the suggestions and the best practices.

In the last 30 minutes I've destroyed every single Command Centre on each planet on every character I was using. Gone, deleted including all materials extracted.

Why? Simple, I was doing it wrong.

From this I realized I needed to change a few things and get out of this rut. I loved PI when it came out, people asked me for advice and help. Am I that much of an expert that I don't need help to do mine? Fark No.

I know nothing, I need to remember that. What I was trying to do was great in principle but it would not work long term, Bex told me that. Althanear told me that and so did other commentators but I ignored them to my mistake.

Making Repairs

I'll be making repairs with my friends over the next day or two. Need to work out what to say and try to repair things the right way rather than an empty apology.

As for the PI well I'm going to go with a different tack and use the suggestions I've got. I'm lucky I have six characters to use with high PI skills so why not try to do things efficiently and try to maximize my return on investment (which is standing at a rather depressing negative four hundred million ISK at the moment).

Better Planning 

Five of the Six characters will make Refined components from each of their planets such as:

• Water-Cooled CPU
• Coolant
• Consumer Electronics
• Nanites
• Livestock
• Construction Blocks
• Test Cultures
• Synthetic Oil
• Fertilizer

I'll then use the final character to combine these into the Specialized commodities that will then be used to make the Wetware Mainframes.

On paper (or Excel) it looks more complicated than what I was trying to do but it is not, it's actually simpler as I don't have to move (large amounts of) raw materials between planets only Refined components (which are considerably smaller).

Watch, Learn, React, Be Proactive

With six characters to use I'm going to have to make changes to production slowly, bottlenecks identified then new production lines bought in to fix those. 

Unfortunately PI hasn't had any worthwhile changes for several releases but what we have is functional.

I'd certainly like to have better control over the flow of materials, I hate that you can't setup links from one storage to another (to act as buffers) like you can with Reactions. I'd love to have templates for planets, being able to select "Coolant Setup" from a predetermined list and see the required factories, links and extractors appear for dropping on a raw material patch would be something I'd very much like.

But this is a space game not planet based :)

In Conclusion

I've rabbited on too much but I now have a clearer view of my way forward with EVE Online and my PI as well as fixing some RL issues that have been ignored for too long.

Getting back to Planets

For more than a year now I've been running a small albeit efficient production of Guidance  Systems in a multi-character PI setup. I say efficient but it's when I remember to update production on planets and move materials between other planets.

 

So not very efficient at all.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's been profitable and when I have it running full blast it makes a lot of Guidance Systems very efficiently. It's just PI is incredibly boring and a click-fest that I really hate to do.

 

Making Money

 

I pause my PI production and I see this morning that Wetware Mainframes are at 2.2m each :S

Those were the words I received from Bex late last week that piqued my interest. Wetware Mainframes have  risen recently in price, most likely due to speculation around Citadels I thought but it could easily be due to increased POCO destruction, from an average of 1.1m ISK to 2.2m ISK.

 

A nice profit if you can make them.

 

So I reviewed my available characters and planets to see if I could manufacture this P4 item.

 

I realized I could and it would cost a whole briefcase full of ISK and need a lot of clicks in my future...

 

Planning

 

Wetware Mainframes are P4 production, meaning that you have to make P2 (Refined) items from P1 (Raw Materials) and P3 (Specialized) items to manufacture the P4 (Advanced). It's not a simple tree nor is it possible to do with one or two characters.

 

I use the wonderful EVE PI Diagrams 1.4 to see what I need to produce and to understand what planets I need to be setup. Other tools are available, many of which work in-game, but to me this PDF one with its simple flow setup is exactly what I need.

 

I spoke with Bex about his setup and decided to go a different way to him. I have available to me two systems with a variety of planet types (Barren, Temperate, Lava, Ice, Gas and Storm) from which I'll extract the raw materials then use a single character to produce each level of manufacturing I need.

 

I have six characters allowing a total of 30 planets with two having Command Centre Upgrades V and the rest all have IV.

 

My plan, which Bex commented on that it would be "labour intensive" is to use five characters (~24 planets) to extract all the raw materials which I will then hand off to the final character who will setup two or more planets to produce the P2, P3 and finally the P4 items.

 

I don't mind the labour at the moment, I can always redevelop planets at a later date to increase savings or to change how Raw Materials are gathered or processed into P2 items.

 

This isn't something that will be setup and left alone to run, I see it as an entity that will require monitoring and when I can develop it to make it more efficient or cheaper (in time) to run then I will make those changes.

 

Future Posts

 

I'll cover in the future my progress with this. I've already got three characters setup and producing Raw Materials as I type. The others will be setup over the next few days as they JC into system and are given a small amount of ISK as a float.

He'll be back

Bex has lost his mojo (I could make a joke about marbles but why point out the obvious) and yesterday I was present in teamspeak as he was moving out of his wormhole.

 

It was a solom and quiet process.

 

He'll be back, there just is little to keep him active in EVE. I know what he means, all players go through this at one point or other (multiple times mostly). One less blog to read now :(

 

And don't think about asking him for his stuff, I already did and he said I could have it all.

 

He'll be back though, three months, six months or even a year from now. He'll be back....

 

EVE is a harsh Mistress, but she always wins.

Arc De Triomphe

Tumbleweeds

It was quiet yesterday. So I took the opportunity to move some assets around.

Soooooooo many systems were visited.

I saw many beautiful sights and even turned up the graphics settings so I could see the glory of New Eden as it should have been.

Assets were moved, only to be replaced by new ones as buy orders were filled. It's a never ending cycle.

Convoy

Terrible music alert....

but I had to put that there, saying Convoy always brings up that song in my mind.

Towards the end I was fortunate enough to have three jump freighters passing through the same systems so I took the opportunity to take some screenshots:

EVE Online sure is a pretty game.

Most Wanted Status

Hundreds of kill mails are posted daily to zKillboard and most are ignored and mean little other than to the pilots involved.

 

Capital/Super/Titan kills always generate comments, usually negative by the vocal egotistical idiots, but there are a few kill mails that are interesting for various reasons and today I present one that is interesting.

 

The pilot in question, Big Lynx, hasn't killed something expensive (it was a shuttle worth roughly 4m ISK). He hasn't done something new or come up with an amazing new tactic, no this pilot has done the worst possible thing he could do.

 

He has advertised himself as having an extremely rare and expensive ship:

 

 

Special

 

The Guardian-Vexor is a relic of the original EVE Online. It's not a great ship, it's basically a Vexor with an additional missile turret slot but it does have one impressive trait that no other ship (outside of Carriers) have any longer.

 

It can deploy more than 5 drones at the same time.

 

Originally the Drone Interfacing skill allowed the use of +1 additional drone per level but in response to latency/lag issues this was changed to the current +20% drone damage per level trained. However the Guardian-Vexor was one ship that had the +1 deployable drone as a trait and not reliant on the skill and has, luckily, retained this over the years.

 

As a result the DPS the ship can do is very, very good and the extra deployable drone has meant that the value of this ship (and it's rarity) has meant it now commands a very high price to own.

 

Painting A Target Of Yourself

 

Originally there were 50 of these ships. In December 2012 it was estimated that only 20 still exist in-game with 5 being held by a single player (Entity).

 

So showing you have one by appearing on killmails is a sure fire way of asking for the attention of every mercenary or ganker in New Eden.

 

Congratulations Big Lynx, you're now on the watch list of hundreds more people :)

I Knew I Forgot Something

Periodically I change the force-field password on my Towers and I did this just the other day I notified the people I knew used my towers to idle in when in space.

Except I missed one person and a couple of days later I received an evemail from my CEO with a link to a kill mail.

Ah Fudge

It was only a couple of hundred million ISK and I had totally forgotten this person friend was using it as a staging post as he ratted up his security status.

I could blame my memory, lack of notification from the pilot that he still used this tower but that's not right. I fucked up and changed the password without checking with everyone whom I knew had used the tower.

Restitution

I'm sure we'll laugh about this in a week or two but right now I'm embarrassed about this screw up on my part.

I haven't spoken to the person, I think time-zones are very much against us at the moment, but I have already purchased a new ship and fittings and it should be in his hands in the next 24 hours.

Know Your Scams: Deadspace/Faction Loot

Setup

The scammer advertises in Local:

Deadspace/DED/Faction loot for sale always piques interest from people. Green and Blue modules can be very expensive and very useful fit to ships. This is certainly goign to interest a lot of people.

Looking at the contract there certainly are a lot of Faction, Storyline and Deadspace modules listed and it could be interesting but lets check the price of the contract versus what they are asking for.

What Happens Now

First thing of interest is the price You Will Pay. It is 560 million ISK not 5.3 billion as the advertisement said. Let's use evepraisal.com to see how much the items are worth in Buy/Sell methods:

Ah, now it becomes clear.

The Sell value of the items is possibly 5.07 billion ISK and that is what the advert in local was saying. It's possible that it's right but the buy value is only 10.32 million ISK and, as any trader knows, the smaller the difference between Sell and Buy the more people who want it.

You could buy the contract and try to sell the items for 5 billion but you'd be waiting A LONG time, if it all sold at all. 

The scammer has just bought this stuff for around 10 million ISK and offering, what appears to be worth 5 billion, for 500 million he hopes to snare a mark who is not going to look closely at the offering.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Rule #1 in Jita is: anything in Local is a scam to take your ISK.

Is this a scam, it could be argued it isn't but its attempting to prey upon the unwaring so to me it is definitely a scam.

Block the advertiser and think no more of it.

Ernest Shackleton would be proud

I've previously covered my use of the T2 Prospect mining frigate to run Level 4 gas mining missions in null sec. It's an excellent ship, fit as I have it its difficult to probe down and admirably does the job its designed to in the minimum amount of time.

In the December 2015 release, Frostline, a new T2 variant mining frigate called the Endurance was released.

Endurance

The Endurance is the latest variant of the Venture mining frigate from ORE. It has the same basic hull as the Venture and Prospect but a great blue-ish grey three tone colouring. Fitting wise the ship is designed to use the new Mining Lasers that were also released in Frostline and are designed to allow "ninja mining in WH or contested Null Sec space".

It's a great looking ship and I've taken a few images with a maximum resolution client so you can bask in the beauty.

A beauty of a ship I think you'll agree.

I've used every mining vessel in the game, including an Armageddon battleship when I was but a noobie, and they all have different uses but living in Null Sec I've found that the Hulk and Mackinaw are kings for mineral and ice mining in fleets but the slow align time and GTFO location that my ice belts are appearing in are making me look at the Endurance.

Fitting

My needs are reasonably basic:

• tank enough to survive the initial barrage of any belt rats 
• a fast align time; to allow me to escape at the first sign of trouble.
• one (or more if possible) mining lasers; to allow me to collect what minerals/ice I'm after
• low cost; so I can keep several on hand for when I do need a replacement and it won't hurt the wallet when I do

I'd like to say I came up with the following fit but I didn't, I appropriated it from ZGG friend Bex removing the probe launcher as I did not need that as I'll be in systems where I'll have dedicated scanner support.

[Endurance, Meth Addict]

Ice Harvester Upgrade II

Ice Harvester Upgrade II

Ice Harvester Upgrade II

Medium Shield Extender II

1MN Afterburner II

Survey Scanner II

Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Ice Mining Laser II

Improved Cloaking Device II

[Empty High slot]

Small Processor Overclocking Unit I

Small Core Defense Field Extender I

All up the hull and fittings cost just over 30m ISK and combined with a dedicated mining fleet booster the cycle time per laser is between 30 seconds (with Expedition Frigates V) and 40 seconds.

PROFIT?

The ice will then be used to produce fuel for towers and sold, at discount, to friends and allies for their own use.

So far I've only had two at any one time running, this is the fault of my training queue and this is being rectified as you read this. By the end of the second week of 2016 I shall have four pilots mining ice for me.

This is a great ship, it's meeting a set of requirements I had and means that the slower and bulkier Mackinaw and Hulks I'd normally use aren't being put in unnecessary danger. Sure I'd like the frigates to have more than 1 turret hard point but what I have works and using Fleet mechanics I can squad warp in, mine until rats or a visitor appears then squad warp out leaving my tactical support to deal with rats or unwelcome visitors.

For 30m ISK I cannot recommend this ship and fit for ice mining in all regions of space be they high sec, low sec, null sec or even wormhole space (remember the probe launcher if you go there).

The Type Of Player No MMO Needs

Warning

The following contains spoilers regarding Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If you haven't seen this movie yet and do not wish a major plot point be spoilt, please stop reading and close this window/tab.

You have been warned.

Remember, I have said spoilers are below. Leave now or continue at your own risk.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is Released

Being in Australia I had the option of seeing it slightly before my northern hemisphere friends but I chose not to because I wanted to go with my wife. Being a "Star Wars Nerd" I didn't mind finding out the plot or spoilers before I saw the movie. For one at least people couldn't ruin it for me but also nothing would stop me enjoying the movies.

Still seeing the following notification when I logged on release day was unexpected:

I didn't get angry but I was disappointed that someone in EVE would do this. Other communities such as Imgur and Reddit were discouraging this and, in someways, actively policing to prevent this happening BUT EVE Online is a game so it's slightly different (not to mention my timezone works against me 99% of the time).

I later found out who it was and it wasn't really a surprise, this person has issues with other members of my Alliance and well, shots fired. Still the fact they'd do this said much about their character and the type of person they are to me.

It's fair to say I had respect for the person before this but it's all gone now. Not that they care, they'll laugh it off and say they don't care. So be it, but if you ever needed help in-game or out and I was able to help.... well let's just say that won't be happening now.

Not that they care, like I said.

A Proportional Response

I wasn't angry by this but it did strike a nerve. I wasn't going to speak to the person behind it, they (in true EVE fashion) would lap up the so called "tears" and not care. So I used the game mechanics available to me and I petitioned it.

I don't know whether my petition struck a nerve with CCP but they were aware of this prior to my petition and my ten paragraphs hopefully swayed them and stirred them into action. It wasn't the best I've ever written nor was it the worst but as I said, there was nothing in the EULA or their Rules that appeared to be broken but it was ethically and morally a shit thing to have done.

Outcome

I've been told that something was done, certainly the Corporation setup was quickly disbanded:

The name "removed". CCP's response was 'as expected' and said nothing of detail but something happened.

I was told a few other things but I can't share them here as my word was given I would not repeat them. But still, CCP did quickly respond and clear this up. Kudos to them for understanding the situation and taking quick and effective action.

Know Your Scams: Trade In Station

Setup

The scammer advertises in Local:

Checking the on the market you'll see the price the item is, usually, a couple of hundred million ISK more than what is being offered. In this case the Kronos is 1.27b ISK and the scammer is offering it for a flat 1 billion ISK

What Happens Now

The scammer states a trade in system because this is one way they can con a person by providing as little detail as possible, they can drag/drop a Kronos into the window and wait for the mark to enter the money then quickly swap it out for a Megathron (same hull, vastly cheaper ship at 177m).

By avoiding the use of the contract system the scammer can control the flow and easily show, with one hand, what is on offer then quickly substitute it with something else before accepting. Once complete there is no public trasnaction that shows the con, only the mark having less ISK and the scammer a larger wallet.

Confirming the Scam

There was a small, miniscule, possibility that this was a legitimate offer so I eve mailed the scammer and asked if they'd accept via contract and they said yes:

Except no contract was ever created and all of a sudden they "made a sale" and decreased the number available in their advertisement.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Rule #1 in Jita is: anything in Local is a scam to take your ISK.

If anyone offers you something but says they want to trade in station then this should instantly have alarms ringing in your head. Never, ever, do a trade within a station. Always insist on a contract where the details can be clearly set out showing what you will get in return for your money.

Block the scammer and move on.

What Ever Will I Do Now?

The last couple of days I've been idling in Jita primarily because I'm watching for new scams but also because, occasionally, I can read some interesting conversations or have a laugh.

I've also been posting a link to my Know Your Scams index page when I see an obvious scam appear in local. A couple of people commented with sarcasm or the following image:

This image simply awesome and I've now added to to my Know Your Scams Index page because it's funny.

War!

Someone in the Alliance Archtype. obviously was annoyed with my posting or was looking for corporations to declare war on so at 0015 hours EVE Time today i received a war declaration:

and I then spent the next 15 minutes laughing my head off at the stupidity of this declaration and again at the game mechanics. 

Back around 2011/2012 the war mechanic was to be feared and could be a cause of problems but I've grown wiser. It seems a group of 19 people (according to EVE Who) with a killboard full of cheap and skill-less kills, in only high sec locations or trade hubs, is wasting their time on me.

My Response

It's a wasted war declaration, only two of the characters in my corporation are active and the one I use most has not left a station (except via Jump Clones) since the 30th May 2013.

I shall continue with my daily activities, I shall continue to make money buying and selling whilst using 3rd party services to move assets.

Know Your Scams: Rare Ship for Sale

Setup 

The following appears in Local:

Two billion for a rare ship, let's have a look at that:

Certainly looks different, the Chinese/Japanese/Korean text indicates it may not be normal for this server so might be worth investing in. 

Let's check the contract:

2b ISK for this ship, seems like a bargain as other "rare" ships go sale for at least a hundred billion.

What Happens Now

The ship looks fabulous the foreign characters certainly give it the impression of rare and something not normal on the Tranquility server. Perhaps this is from the Chinese server and it'll be worth investing in.

The use of the images show a story, a story the scammer hopes will encourage a rich player to buy on a whim.

How Can You Protect Yourself

Rule #1 in Jita is: anything in Local is a scam to take your ISK.

If you look closer at the Ship Info it appears to be a normal T2 ship listed, I had a suspicion it was just a localized window for the Ishtar so I looked up the Ishtar and confirmed that the text and bonuses were the same.

Looking at the contract the ship in the contract is a T1 Vexor as opposed to whatever its name in the Show Info window is as well as there is no T2 marker over the ship image, that's a huge clue that this is a scam. 

Block the character and move on.

3rd Party Utilities for EVE Online Links

I saw this question at Reddit and it's something I've never really assembled in one place but I've added to the right side navigation window a new link to the EVE Online Guides for useful 3rd Party Utilities.

If I've missed any or you have one you'd like me to list then please contact ZGG Business Associate in-game.

Communication

I've just finished my reading of the Minutes from Day 2 of the CSM Summit. My blood isn't boiling with frustration but there is certainly an increase in temperature. Once more it was the, apparently, liberal use of "under NDA" that really pissed me off.

The one thing I really wanted to know more about is how CCP think they are progressing with EVE online within the Roadmap session and instead we get a (admittedly cute) picture of a bloody kitten. If there has been one thing I've read more than anything else is that there is no visible accountability for what is happening in EVE Online.

Finger Pointing

CCP Fozzie and CCP Falcon are the two most common names I see in posts on Reddit and they cop a huge amount of finger pointing and abuse. Nearly all unwarranted.

Fozziesov is a derogatory term used to name the sov changes introduced in Aegis. I've not seen a SINGLE positive use of this term, all has been negative and a lot of people have demanded Fozzie be sacked for this not because he's done a bad job, he hasn't, but because of who he was before he joined CCP.

Stupid. Just bloody stupid.

Accountability

This brings me nicely to something I've been thinking of for quite a while. It was proudly announced in July 2014 that CCP Seagull had been "promoted" to Executive Producer and was now responsible for "the full overall direction" of EVE Online.

This image seems to be apt for the communication we've had

Communication is critical to success, we players have said that. The CSM have said that and CCP have said that. But where is communication from the Executive Producer CCP Seagull?

  

As far as I can tell she hasn't posted to the public forums since May 2014, nothing since and I could not find any posts on Reddit since her AMA in 2014. Well either that or she's extremely good at delegation and it's CCP Falcon and CCP Fozzie who are communicating in her place and taking the brunt of player feedback/frustration instead of her.

The CSM Summit Minutes show that CCP Seagull has been interacting with the CSM and has been quoted in the minutes but where is the communication, that CCP are known for, with their extended community and players from the Executive Producer?

The Leader, the current Visionary behind EVE Online is nowhere to be seen or heard from. To me, and I hope you, there is something seriously wrong with that.

All Quiet On The Northern Front

With so much anger about Aegis Sov why have we not heard from Executive Producer CCP Seagull about the what changes, why they are needed, and how they fit into the future. A year ago Player-built-stargates were a thing, nothing has been said since then.

The Jove are dead and we have had an excellent story (including the Drifter introduction and death of the Amarr Empress) but we are no closer to knowing what else is to come or how we (as players) fit into it.

I'd certainly be a lot happier and confident to remain a player should I know more about where things are currently and where we're going on our journey. CCP Seagull, what do you think?

Surprise!

It's now January 1st 2016 and this was posted on the 5th October 2015. Three months ago nearly and since then nothing else, not in a dev blog nor even the forums. In fact I still can't see any posts since May 2014 from CCP Seagull on the forums.

I've sat on this article for a little too long, #reasons#, but as I was writing it CCP Seagull did post a Dev Blog where she outlined (briefly) the state of EVE and the roadmap for Fall 2015 and Spring 2016.

You can watch the video and it does appear a lot of good things are covered and are coming.

The Future

Summer 2015 has not been an overwhelming success for CCP in my eyes. It has been stagnant and the draw to the game has been missing. Bitter-vets are starting to grow in numbers and new players either aren't being retained or are finding it hard to get a start.

We've had some great new ships released, more skins (yawn) and lots of minor features and tier-icide. But communication is one thing that we're not getting. We know what the plan is for late 2015/early 2016 but what about (for instance):

• late 2016/early 2017
• is walking in stations "still a thing"
• how are we progressing on captial re-balance (this has been partially answered)
• what is the future for the rorqual
• where are we in terms of "player built stargates"

These are all things that an EP should be able to address. I'm not saying CCP Seagull should do a regular dev blog on how the game is progressing.... Wait yes. that's exactly what I'm saying and want.

We need communication but we also need communication from the right people, we usually get it from the (excellent CCP Falcon/CCP Fozzie and a few others with "silly team names") but its the EP who ultimatiely is responsible for the vision, the direction and making it happen.

We need to hear more from CCP Seagull on HOW things are progressing, what she things of the game and more importantly get visibility for a person who, until October 2015, had disappeared from public view.

Know Your Scams: Gravimetric Sensor Cluster

Setup

The scammer advertises in local:

Oh wow, look at this a module that will protect you from "nasty gankers" who prowl New Eden looking for targets. If you have this in your cargohold, and you can use it more than once, and when the ganker tries to fire on you this will cause you to warp to a gravimetric site that only you can access.

Clicking on the contract, which is typically an auction, you will see this:

What Happens Now

The mark will see the contract and may, if they're concerned about gankers, bid upon the item and continue to until they win. 

How Can I Protect Myself

Firstly, remember Rule #1, anything posted in local in a trade hub is going to be a scam and you should not accept any contract without seriously checking on the contents and issuer.

You can confirm whether or not this magic item does what the issuer says if you look at the details for the item:

You can see, after a little patient checking that it makes no mention of the "wonders" that the contract issuer says it does about being able to escape gankers. It's not even a ship module, its used in the production of Caldari Ships.

Know Your Scams: High SP Character for Sale

Setup

The scammer advertises in Local:

Linked contract shows the following (implant and cost may vary depending on the SP the 'character' has):

What Happens Now

The scammer is hoping the mark does not know you can't trade characters via contracts and is trying a very poor scam.

The implant is worth between 9m and 20m ISK and they're advertising it as a character with 200m skillpoints so have a price of 200m ISK.

How Do You Protect Myself

Firstly, remember Rule #1, anything posted in local in a trade hub is going to be a scam and you should not accept any contract without seriously checking on the contents and issuer.

In this case it should be clear to all but the most remote hermit that:

• characters cannot be traded in-game via contracts.
• an implant is shown not the name of a character
• the value of the contract that the issuer wants is the same as the SP they say the character has

This is a very poor scam but one that can catch new players out. As always check, double check and then triple check the contract details and its clear no character is being sold and its a cheap implant.

Block the issuer.

Know Your Scams: Plex Wraps

Setup

The scammer advertises in Local:

This is a variation on the Plex Box or Lucky Dip box scam that have been seen before.

In this instance the scammer includes a link to an image that perportedly shows what is in each box:

What Happens Now

They want people to buy the contract so pricing at 60m is a boon when they are advertising that there are TWO PLEX in every box.

The scam will repeat with new boxes appearing when unsuspecting marks buy them.

How Can I Protect Myself

Firstly, remember Rule #1, anything posted in local in a trade hub is going to be a scam and you should not accept any contract without seriously checking on the contents and issuer.

With this scam the added image contains all the evidence that this is indeed a scam. Let's look closer:

The Local window is used to show the user is active and this isn't an old contract setup but its the hanger view that quickly gives this away.

The fact Item Hanger is selected and you can see both the wraps and the PLEX shows that the plex are NOT in the wraps. If the were the image would have shown each Wrap being selected in order to show the content.

The Wraps clearly contain junk and no PLEX whatsoever.

Block the issuer and think no more of it.

EVE Online Wiki Obsolete?

I was doing some research for a upcoming post and needed to find out the specifications of the Endurance mining frigate. Usually I just do a search for "[ship] eve" and in the first page of results will be a link to the EVE Online Wiki for the ship in question.

Except it didn't happen for the Endurance, so I went to the EVE Online Wiki and navigated to the Advanced Frigates page:

Urm.. there is something missing there. Where is the sections for Expedition and Logistics Frigates?

So I checked further, the new Destroyers aren't in the Wiki either and it appears that ALL the changes made to the game in the Frostline release (dated 8th December 2015) have not made their way into the Wiki at all.

Tardy or Forgotten

It appears the EVE Online Wiki, the font of knowledge that new players are encouraged to learn and navigate (despite the terrible interface and abysmal performance) is out of date. 

I can understand the Christmas break has reduced resources but in any Development Plan for a release I'd certainly have an update of the Wiki as a medium to high priority item. After all its the defacto source of information on the game.

Bugs I can understand but not updating documentation before a release is downright tardy. I know the point is people can contribute to the wiki but this is base game information that people should add to not have to add.

Hopefully the Wiki will be in for an update in the New Year and who knows if they don't I may just have to go and start adding stuff thats missing to make a point.

384 Minutes

Action

I was involved in a WH operation in mid-November and was flying a Nestor for the first time. I had a RR/Cap buddy and all went well, the buddy was decent and we managed to avoid taking too much fire whilst keeping our friends alive with RR.

The fight was enjoyable but after it was over I really wanted to get out and back to high sec after downtime. 

So I log and then login again after DT and exit via the connection we have to a WH that has a high sec static except the wormhole closes as I pass through, and I didn't notice. I warp off to the high sec I know exists only to find it has disappeared. Ah, urm... bugger.

Perhaps I need to log again and wait 15 minutes as sometimes the HS WH's don't spawn unless the HS has been loaded. 

I login again, the WH is dead. It's a goner too.

Hmm.

Options

Well I had ignored the standing rule of WH's to always have a depot and a probe launcher with core probes in the cargo hold (I later found I did have these.... back in Jita where I bought the ship). So I can't get out, do I suicide?

I can't do that, it's a 1.7b ship and another 300m in implants. If I have to I'll have to do it, the ISK means little I just don't want to do it in a ship I've flown once. So I decide to logout but post in Local before I do in case someone is here. 

Nope. All quiet just the Sleepers and me.

So I log off.

Wavey Timey Wimey

Over the next two weeks I login daily and sit, cloaked, watching d-scan and saying hello in local.

For two weeks nothing, nadda, zip, bugger all. I see ships pass by but no-one answers me back.

Salvation?

It's been two weeks and two days (384 minutes) since I was stuck, by my own stupidity, in this WH. I really was getting close to suicide but I saw an interceptor on d-scan and quickly said hello.

And I got a reply!

The pilot was understanding in my predicament and offered to give me an out via the HS in system, he was using it himself. I really didn't care at this point if it was going to be a trap or he was really helping so I joined his fleet and warped to him.

To land on the K162 WH to high sec.

So, Altair Taff, I thank you for saving my ass from suicide in an unknown WH system and I've rewarded your good samaratian act with 250m ISK as a thank you.

So 384 minutes after he was stuck my WH character was able to return to inhabited space and finally get to use the toilet :)

Citadels - First View

Both Trinket's Friend and Bex have posted in their, respective, blogs about the coming of Citadels and how large they will be based on the following image:

I've been involved in the manufacture of two stations so far in EVE Online:

• one, was periphery, when I was in Providence and I provided some materials for that but did not participate in he actual setup or assembly.
• the second was as a favour to a friend in a (renting) null sec alliance who needed a lot of PI and minerals but did not want it to be known they were buying them (I also helped move about 11m m3 from high sec to null sec via my JF's)

I'm not sure which station I helped with for the second one, alas my friend left the game just after the jump changes, and I never found out what the station was.

Show Me The Money

Both TF and Bex talk about the cost, after all if you want one you've got to have the bank roll for it because if it's anything like a station or other structure it will need minerals, PI products and perhaps a few other things to make.

The image above shows the purported size of a medium citadel compared to an Avatar titan. very impressive in terms of size but we still don't know how CCP are going to deal with the logistical needs or costs to assemble one.

TF has, logically, inferred that a POCO could be considered a "medium sized" structure and setting up one of these costs around 100m ISK. A POCO needs four PI types and a gantry to assemble and these come out at around that cost.

Now it's ridiculous to imagine that this would be the cost of a citadel, it's too little for this structure, a more reasonable cost base would be in the low billions. Personally I think between 1.5 and 3 billion is what it may cost. I see either a large amount of minerals or perhaps a new "framework" object (like the POCO gantry) that you create, move into place then fill with extra materials (in the same way you construct stations) then after a period of time your station is complete.

Between 1.5 and 3 billion ISK for a medium structure seems reasonable to me.

Time-wise, it will take at least a couple of weeks to make one. Unless you're a major null sec alliance who hordes and has large stockpiles of materials, in which case you'll be able to assemble as soon as you can move it.

Speculation

Details on citadels are still vapour, we don't know anything about:

• handling loot/destroyed structures
• how defence weapons will be controlled/configured to work
• system indexes and influence of any structure on them
• vulnerability windows/protection
• whether structures will function/be deployable in wormhole space and, if so, how that will exert influence on WH system
• ship docking/mooring
• taxes/fees/(any) fuel use requirements

and a host of other questions I and others will have. We are starting to see information forthcoming but so far its just from the art department. Hopefully a devblog or further "leaks" will come soon and allow players to start understanding this major new game mechanic.