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.