Oops... They Accidently

I saw this on Reddit last night and it made me smile and then this was linked to me this morning by a friend: 

Oh dear. 

I don't think there is a null sec player who hasn't been laughing at this and CCP over the past 24 hours. More have been hinting that perhaps the mechanics to do with sov, that people have complained about for years, are in need of a review and revamp.

Either way its a laugh at the expense of CCP today.

Pre-Phoebe Junk

Today has been my first day back at work after nearly 3 weeks of holiday time. It's been a great holiday and as with any holiday there is never enough time to do what you want or what you'd like to do. 

Towards the end of last week I had to deal with temperatures in the mid to high 30's (that's over 100F for those in countries who don't do Celsius as of yet) so the return to air conditioned offices is something of a blessing even if it does mean I now have to return to my day job.

Defensive Posturing

I had a serious think yesterday about my towers in null sec and come to the realisation that the defences they have are inadequate. A couple of small or medium guns with some hardeners and EWAR modules isn't enough to provide a deterrent.

So I'm in Jita buying up modules and ammunition for all my towers, I've gotten some good advice from my CEO about what to focus on getting and lessons I've gotten from posts by Trinket's Friend should mean I have a solid defensive setup before Phoebe goes live tomorrow.

If an attacker comes in anything smaller than a capital ship then we should be able to give them a bloody nose, at the very least. If they bring capitals then they'll have a support fleet or numbers that no POS could survive but the smaller entity we should be able to defend against.

I'm going be hard pressed to get it all into null sec and setup by tonight but hopefully I'll be able to set them in time for Phoebe.

Codename "Tug"

Revealed by CCP Fozzie in the EVE Vegas 2014 keynote was a new ship that is currently codenamed "Tug". A freighter sized vessel designed to "ship that is specifically designed to move around other ships" it comes fitted with a very large Ship Maintenance Hanger that will allow it to carry "multiple fitted battleships".

The obvious name for this vessel would be Orca but as that's taken we'll have to see what unpronounceable name it gets but something whale like is where I'd be putting my betting ISK.

Thar She Blows!

Considering fitted Battleships are 450,000m3 in size this means a SMA at least equivalent to a Super carrier (2,000,000m3).

Details are sparse to non-existent but the ship is certainly going to be very useful in high sec for moving ships around. I see dozens of these moving form Incursion to Incursion and they are going to be a massive target for gankers.

Regardless I'll certainly be investing in one.

Sabre Rattling

It's been interesting reading about the all the alliances moving to new homes, returning to old homes or just moving about in order to be in a better position come Phoebe. Of interest to me today was that PL have moved to Curse and are well positioned to attack either the reemergent Russians or HERO with the possibility of ProviBlock as well.

I welcome our new neighbours but they are a major power bloc in themselves so I'm a little concerned by move and how it could impact my home and what I do. Certianly I'll be paying more attention in the Intel channels but also to external news sites for a few weeks to monitor the situation.

With luck they'll ignore us little guys and rattle their sabres towards the Russians and/or HERO.

The 1st Sev3rance Alliance Tournament

On Sunday 12th January 2014 the first Sev3rance Alliance Tournament took place in the Y9-MDG system of Northern Providence. With some good prizes, the aim was a bit of fun for all members of the alliance to participate in.

 

Open to all members (out of alliance alts not permitted) of the Sev3rance alliance who could fit up a T1 sub-capital ship.

Rewards

Prizes were provided for the top four with some random/door prizes given out during the tournament.

 

1. Choice of dreadnaught
2. Nightmare + Dramiel
3. Nighthawk, Rohk, pirate faction frigate and a True Sansha Webifier
4. Lachesis, pirate faction frigate and 100m ISK

Result

KVA CEO Royaldo (a.k.a The Drunken Swede) took out the winners spot with a powerful display (causing his opponent to overheat too long and burn out his guns) to beat fellow corp member DAM1987. Taristie and Melodic Garemoko finished in 3rd and 4th respectively.

 

A little disappointing was the participation, with 14 alliance members in this first tournament but there was nearly double this number listening and watching from the sidelines so the future bodes well and we hope another will be run in the near future.

It was a great tournament, there was a lot of fun had by all who participated or watched and no doubt there will be a larger player pool next time as well as increased competitors.

Credit

A big thank you to Grand Visor of KVA who organised and ran the tournament, he provided a number of prizes too.

 

Soulblythe took the refereeing duties and rebuffed all attempts at bribery.

 

And all those in Sev3rance who did participate.

Why I Did Not Participate

Aside from being out of Providence at the time my character in Sev3rance has no gunnery or missile skills so I would be nigh useless in a fight. I could tank people to a stalemate but that isn't enjoyable and against the ethos of a fair fight in my opinion.

 

Perhaps next tournament I will be able to do something as I do have some gunnery training in the near future. Who knows...

Alliance Marketplace continued

NOTE: I've previously covered the idea, albeit briefly, for an Alliance Marketplace here.

 

I was idling in game last night on a secondary industry toon who happens to live in a null sec alliance. Alliance chat is sometimes interesting, mostly just people saying "hi" or asking, for me, uninteresting questions, occasionally they'll be something funny. Blink Off is the default for this channel, but last night I witnessed a conversation that once more got me thinking about an Alliance Marketplace.

 

However, like the real universe, there must be black/grey/special markets operating outside of the established marketplace. Yet at this time we cannot see them and there are markets like this that operate via mailing lists and contracts what I think we really need is an Alliance Only market that any alliance can operate and buy/sell to only their members.

 

Current Market

 

As it stands we have the market, it is public and as a result open to all. You can, subject to skills trained, buy/sell anywhere up to the distance of your current region. Anything you see on the market can be bought and you can sell anything that the market supports. You cannot prevent anyone buying or selling and taxes taken go into a sink.

 

Access to the marketplace is based on the region you are in and you can use a selector to limit what you see by region, system or station. You cannot see outside of the region you are in and there are additional filters that allow you to hide orders in the different classified space (high sec/low sec/null sec).

 

This makes sense in High Sec space, after all there must be an agency that maintains the beacons that transfer the data and makes sure they are all up to date. But head into Low Sec or Null Sec space and the further you go the more unbelievable it is. Of course localised markets make sense but the way they are now, just uniform and public isn't right and doesn't encourage null sec growth to what it could be.

 

Alliance Market

 

I see an Alliance Market operating exactly the same in terms of functionality and UI as the current market. Items in the normal market would appear in an alliance market, the buying/selling actions are the same the only things that would differ would be the following:

• Visibility

The Alliance Market would be visible and usable only by members of an Alliance. Like the current market it has limitations on visibility/buying/selling of items based on skills the only difference would be that people outside of the alliance would not know it exists. Item's listed only for alliance sale would never appear to an outsider.

 

The functionality within the UI for this would be 99% of current market, the only new functionality would be the filtering of results based on whether they are alliance only or not and any UI highlighting (exactly like the 'highlight own orders' that exists)

• Taxation

This is the only really new functionality and would allow the alliance to tax transactions much like the current market does only this would be 'in-addition' to any taxes normally paid. It should be up to the alliance how much is paid but a good starting amount would be 0.5% with an maximum limit of 5% per transaction.

 

Conclusion

 

The introduction of an Alliance Marketplace could have a significant impact on null sec alliances and their ability to maintain income but more importantly establish themselves not just in low sec but also null sec. New private trade hubs could be create and maintained without the concern of providing materiel to enemies who can buy and sell anywhere within their skill range.

 

I believe the Alliance Marketplace could be a significant step towards revitalising an area of EVE that is both clunky and oversaturated with players.

The Alliance Marketplace

Reading Alliance chat tonight and seeing one of the more experienced members, once again, saying

 

"yeah...as I said, CCP should finally implement an alliance marketplace"

 

I can't help but, again, nod my head in agreement, we really do need something alliance specific for the marketplace. Being able to sell items to your alliance without the need for contracts would really be useful and is the next logical step to setting up private regional markets based.

 

No longer would everyone be able to see and buy items at one price but it would allow players to set prices based on public purchase and another for the alliance. 

 

The Marketplace - all for one and one for all

 

Integration into the existing marketplace UI would be the best way to go, there should always be only one marketplace. Just change the appearance and how data is displayed to differentiate between different sales types as a result no new UI will be needed.

 

Order scope could be shown using a new variation of the "Show own orders" option that the market currently has to show Alliance only scoped items in a different colour. This would allow people to quickly and easily see Public and Alliance orders, decide which is better and buy that item.