Jonny Pew: Why I choose to support the EVE Universe

Wow, give this video a watch. Whether you play Eve Online or Dust 514 or some other game Jonny Pew nails it right on the head as to why so many people play CCP games. The continuation of a game the legacy of game is what drives one as a player to be better and have a lasting affect on the outcome of his in-game actions as well as the community.

Keep it up Jonny Pew we love the videos.

PLEX: Intervention

Watching through the EVE Economy lecture at Fanfest I found it interesting that the invisible hand wasn't so invisible. So first lets take a look at what was happening and then piece together what CCP did to intervene on the PLEX market.

The Problem:
The PLEX market took a huge jump back in early fall last year. This not only concerned the player base but also CCP as you look closer at the graph you see volume started to drop. So as Dr. Eyjo, Eve's Chief Economist, was concerned and decided to take action. I would like to point out here CCP took action because volume dropped not because of the price increase. What if the volume stayed the same or rose and prices continued to rise would CCP take action then?

The Reason:
A change late in the summer to factional warfare created an increase in isk and LP. Not isk being created but isk you were able to earn.

The Fix:

EVE Central Bank may, or may not, take actions to intervene with the PLEX market if its stability is severely threatened.
- Important to note that it does not mean that there is a specific target for PLEX prices or money supply in the future

CCP by Dr. Eyjo request decided to take action. The facet from faction warfare was fixed but the markets still had problems.

The How:
CCP took 2000 PLEXs and injected it into the market. Where did these PLEXs come from? From permanently banned accounts. So in effect they didn't just create PLEXs out of thin air. Dr. Eyjo stated that CCP tries to keep a stock pile on hand just in case a situation like this occurs.

The Result:
The PLEX market stabilized and as the faction warfare fix went in to effect the price slowly dropped back down to previous levels from the summer before and volume rose back to previous levels.

Conclusion:
The market was not inflated. It was a problem with the game mechanics. Interesting turn of events if I do say so myself.

Operation: Obelisk

What do you do if you have 1.9 billion in isk laying around? You build a freighter of course. My goals for the year was to get flying in a freighter. Trading and hauling(ships especial) is hard in Eve Online without a freighter. I was board last Friday so I started running some numbers on the Obelisk.

May 17, 2013 Obelisk Pricing Points:

Market Price was 1.423 Billion

ME5 BPC Pack plus Minerals Est. 1.393 Billion
ME8 BPC and Part BPCs through contracts plus Minerals 1.373 Billion
Only catch I still need Capital Construction Skill 75,000,000 Million

So at the cheapest option plus skills 1.448 Billion. Why not, I have nothing else to do. I really wanted to get rolling with a freighter. Buying one just seemed like I was playing along with the market and I hate padding other peoples wallets.

I thought why not try and build it, I have my little Iteron 5 to haul all the minerals, I have the production skills and even though it will cost a little bit more dropping for the Capital Construction Skill its a one time sunk cost. Hey now I can build freighters all I want and if the skill change goes through during Odyssey I will be able to fly all 4 racial freighters within hours. Yeah I hope you skilled up for that one on your new indy character.

All said and done I shopped around for minerals instead of going for the market hub prices. It took a little bit longer to fly back and forth through low sec systems but I managed to drop the price another 23 million. As my first few BPCs were installed my current expense was sitting at 1.350 Billion. Now I would not only get my freighter but the Capital Construction Skill paid for itself. Not to bad if I do say so myself.

Cost Comparisons as of May 17, 2013:
My Costs: 1.425 Billion
Market Costs: 1.423 Billion

Much thanks to Eve-fail and the sweet guides and spreadsheets for capital ship construction over there.

Fanfest Cinematic Trailer 2013

At first I was disappointed by this trailer. I was hoping for some new cool things for Odyssey but no go. This trailer is an excellent way to explain this game to other people. I have showed the Origins trailer to several people who have never played the game and an ah ha moment came after watching the trailer. It simple connects this far flung universe back to earth. Well watch for yourself its Eve Online Origins Trailer.

New Odyssey Exploration features on Test Server

The new scanning features are on the test server so swing on over and try them out yourself. Jonny Pew has made a quick walk through with the new exploration features and showcases some of the new modules that are live on the Singularity test server right now.

Eve Online's Patch and Expansion History

If your new to Eve Online you might be wondering to yourself what has happened in all of these updates and expansions. Below is a list of links along with the date and major expansion name of all the patches that have been released for Eve Online. These links will take you straight to Eve Onlines website where you can also access the different builds from the drop down menu on the right of the screen here. Each page contains the most recent fix of a major patch at the top of the page.

The new expansion site over at eveonline.com really fleshes out what I was trying to do here. Also take a look at the new timeline site they put together it is a really flash slide show with all sorts of interesting goodies.

Patch Name / Version / Release Date

Retribution 1.1 February 19, 2013
2012
Retribution 1.0 December 4, 2012
Inferno 1.3 October 16, 2012
Inferno 1.2 August 8, 2012
Inferno 1.1 June 25, 2012
Inferno 1.0 May 22, 2012
Escalation to Inferno April 24, 2012
Crucible 1.6 March 28, 2012
Crucible 1.5 March 13, 2012
Crucible 1.2 February 16, 2012 also Crucible 1.2.1, Crucible 1.2.2
Crucible 1.1 January 24, 2012
 2011
Crucible 1.0  November 29, 2011Crucible 1.0.1  Crucible 1.0.2, Crucible 1.0.3, Crucible 1.0.4
Incarna 1.1 September 1, 2011 Incarna 1.1.1, Incarna 1.1.2, Incarna 1.1.3
Incarna 1.0 June 21, 2011 Incarna 1.0.1
Incursion 1.6 May 31, 2011 Incursion 1.6.1
Incursion 1.5 May 19, 2011
Incursion 1.4 April 6, 2011Incursion 1.4.1, Incursion 1.4.2
Incursion 1.3 March 8, 2011
Incursion 1.2 February 15, 2011
Incursion 1.1 January 18, 2011 Incursion 1.1.1,  Incursion 1.1.2
2010
Incursion 1.0 November 30, 2010 Incursion 1.0.1, Incursion 1.0.2
Tyrannis 1.2 November 2010
Tyrannis 1.1 September 30, 2010
Tyrannis 1.0 May 26, 2010 Tyrannis 1.0.1, Tyrannis 1.0.2, Tyrannis 1.0.3, Tyrannis 1.0.4,  Tyrannis 1.0.5
Dominion 1.1 January 21, 2010 Dominion 1.1.1
Dom 1.0 Date Dominion 1.0.3 Build 119404

Find all the patches notes for Eve Online here.

Investment Guide: Intermediate Planetary Interaction

Basic Planetary Interaction
Intermediate Planetary Interaction <You are here.
Youtube Basic PI Guide


The Planetary Interaction system in Eve Online is pretty interesting. I originally got interested in playing Eve Online when I stumbled upon a PI video on youtube. PI has gone through several changes over the years and this How To Guide will help you design your own efficient PI system using the most current system.

Before we get to building your PI system lets look at a few different designs and the goals of those designs:

• PI P3 production or a factory design. This design requires building a system where multiple inputs from various planets comes together to make a P3 product that sells at or above the sum of its parts and customs offices fees. You use a variety of on planet factories and storage facilitates to run this kind of production design. I don't personally use this method. An excellent guide can be found over at Warp to Zero follow his guide Planetary Interaction Challenge to setup a production chain for P3 products.

• Mass P2 one planet system(x5) A mass P2 design is my favorite it requires no transferring of products from one planet to another you simple hit the button go and come pick up the products.

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Skills:
Remote Sensing 3
Science 4
Planetology 3
Command Center Upgrades 3
Interplanetary Consolidation 4

Total time: 6 days, 16 hours, 54 minutes, 1 second; Cost: 2,250,000
Optional:
Command Center Upgrades 4 adds around another 3 days 12 hours training time.

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Pick a product:
Before we look for a planet pick a product you want to produce. To do this you need to first know what products there are the Planetary Commodities page over at Uniwiki has an excellent table that shows you what each planet can make and which products you can build on one planet. I usually pick a P2 product that can be produced on one planet such as Biocells. Now check this amazing google spreadsheet (Jita) Planetary Production for Eve Online by Wyke Mossari this is going to give you a snapshot of what Jita PI prices are and what might be worth making.

Cycle Times: I usually run a 3 day cycle time which means you need 432,000 raw materials from both extractors(on 3 day cycle time) to produce the required 40 P1 products an hour to produce your P2 product this is why I usually train up Command Center Upgrades IV to gain more extractors on low resource high sec planets.

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Picking a planet:
Choose your planets carefully. Some planets have very large diameters which takes away your powergrid which draws back your ability to deploy more extractors. So look around at planet diameters until your confident the planet you want to build on will be functional. Check the planets in-game info sheet or eveeye.com you can search by system and view all the planet sizes in a simple hud display.
Choose planets close to where you usually play the game so its easy to jump on an industrial and run out and grab your finished products to take to market. With these skills this will give you five planets to build on.

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Structures on planet:
I use a simple design where all the products are extracted from the current planet then refined on planet to produce P2 products.

Structures on planet in build order:

Command Center	81,000
Command Center Upgrade 1	580,000
Command Center Upgrade 2	930,000
Command Center Upgrade 3	1,200,000
Extractor (First raw material)	45,000
Extractor (Second raw material)	45,000
Launch Pad	900,000
Basic Industrial Facility (First T1 product)	75,000
Basic Industrial Facility (Second T1 product)	75,000
Advanced Industrial Facility (Final T2 product)	250,000
Total:	4,181,000 isk

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Total Cost: 6,431,000 isk before taxes and industrial ship costs if any.
Skills: 2,250,000
Structures: 4,181,000
Total Cost: 6,431,000 isk
Plus Tax on all items transferred off planet. Don't forget to factor this in when choosing what items you want to produce. With the Rubicon expansion this will change as you can train a skill that will lower the NPC Custom Fee's to 5%(at level 5) plus player tax all Custom's Office in the game are now run by Player Owned Corporations.
 

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Other Resources:
UniWiki Planetary Interaction
UniWiki Planetary Commodities - most valuable resource table out there for PI.
EVElopdeia Planetary Interaction
Factory Planet Info
Current PI Product Prices Spreadsheet
Eveplanets.com
30 Day Planetary Interaction Challenge - great guide on maximizing your output with higher PI skills you could reach 134 million isk a month with PI.
Basic PI Video Guide

Six Months Later and Ten Years have Passed

April marks my sixth month of having an Eve Online subscription. It has been a blast learning all about the game. I have to tear myself away from the web every night as I try and absorb ten years of an ever evolving Eve. As Eve Online reaches its 10 year anniversary I can't help but get nostalgic about all the time I spent playing WoW. Why for so long, I ask myself, did I play that game when all the time I could have been playing Eve? Well no taking it back now. I enjoyed my time there.

There is no time like the present and I am soaking up Eve as fast as a I can. Most of all the most exciting thing, for me anyways, is blogging. I should have started blogging about video games a long time ago but there is no time like the present. So here we are moving forward with all the fun games we enjoy playing and I get to post a little something about it now and then and maybe somebody listens and maybe somebody gets to learn a thing or two.

In the end its all worth it no matter what road we travel...

So as my little brother always says "Its not what you play its who you play with that makes the game."