Eve Online Year in Review

January:
The Battle of B-R5RB
This year in Eve Online started out with a boom, the Halloween War was in full swing. Everyone was still analyzing the Battle of HED-GP(Jan. 18) when only a week later it was quickly overshadowed by the bloodiest conflict to date in Eve Online the Battle of B-R5RB(Jan. 27). The battle was widely covered by the gaming press. All this press found Eve with a surge of new players curious to discover this strange game where players numbering in the thousands battle for hours with ships reported to cost thousands of real world dollars.



May:
2014 Fanfest
This years Eve Fanfest offered the usual hints of amazing new features and gorgeous game trailers. None of these announcements can compare to the shift in CCP's new development cycle that for the last six months has been dropping patch after patch in quick succession. Players hardly have time to absorb the patch notes of the latest patch release when the next releases devblogs are already cropping up.

Jester's Trek Ends
Also in May Riperd Teg author of the blog Jester's Trek stepped away from his blog. Blogging is an exhausting effort and Jester's Trek was the best of us. As he stepped back from blogging I am sure not but a few of us paused to take note of our own priorities. He was a machine serving on CSM8 and keeping regular updates on his blog about everything Eve. His incites and influence is still felt strongly today.

June:
Kronos Patch: First Patch in the Six Week Cycle
The Kronos patch was marked by what it didn't have more than what it did. CCP announced that the planned industry revamp would be put off until the Crius patch for more fine tuning. The push back was the first fruits of the new development cycle that would come to dominate the last half of the year.

July:
Industry Revamp
The Crius patch brought about the industry revamp changing up the mechanics and UI of the research and manufacturing system. The new streamed line UI improved visibility of the manufacturing process.


November:
Jump Mechanic Changes
The Phoebe patch saw the much talked about jump fatigue mechanic enter the game. The changes sparked a huge conversation within the community. I can't help but feel a strong sense of irony that CCP Greyscale doesn't even work for CCP anymore. I don't fly capitals so I didn't have much to say about the issue. It seemed a double edge sword for sure. I wonder why they didn't absorb more feed back and push the release back until the next patch.

"This is Eve"
Its hard to believe that a game trailer with only 1.5 million views created such a spike in new players. I have long thought that Eve Online has a very limited presence on youtube. People just don't know what this game is about. Several years ago myself I tried the game out because I stumbled onto some youtube videos about Eve it caught my interest and here I am today.

Input Broadcasting is Banned
CCP puts an end to Input Broadcasting. CCP has stated the following:

Input Broadcasting and Input Multiplexing refer to the multiplication of inputs, actions and events to multiple instances of the game. This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Activation and control of ships and modules
• Navigation and movement within the EVE universe
• Movement of assets and items within the EVE universe
• Interaction with other characters

Input Broadcasting and Input Multiplexing of actions with consequences in the EVE universe, are prohibited and will be policed in the same manner as Input Automation.

Input Broadcasting is a feature of ISBoxer if you use multiple accounts at the same time you will now have to manually go to each account and push your buttons. TMC posted an article bemoaning the fact that this is going to really shake up the economy. I disagree, if you have gone to the trouble of setting up 20 accounts I think your okay going through and pushing a couple more buttons sure it might get a little tedious. I just don't see the mass exodus the article is calling for. People adapt and  Eve Online players adapt even faster.

December:
Industry Teams Phase Out
The Industry Teams feature which was released in the Crius patch was announced to be phased out until further development can take place. A ground breaking move for CCP to take out a feature they thought wasn't working. As many perhaps unfinished or unused features have remained in the game for years.

New Space
A 100 new wormhole systems are introduced in the Rhea release. The first time new space has been added to the game since the Apocrypha expansion more than five years previous. As the six week patch cycle keeps rolling into the next year hopefully things will only keep changing for the better.

These are just a few of the things I thought of looking back through 2014. Enjoy your Christmas vacation and have a Happy New Year!

Elite: Dangerous to Play or Not to Play?

That is the question. I have been back and forth a hundreds times this month trying to decide if I should get Elite: Dangerous. The major reason I haven't bought it out right and stopped thinking about it is time. Everyone's time is precious these days and I don't think I can squeeze enough time out of my schedule to try this one out and really enjoy it that being said the holidays are always busy. So perhaps come January when things settle down a bit I might have a little extra time for this gorgeous looking game. For everyone else out there hope you have a chance to check this one out I will be reading your reviews and watching to see what you all think.

Check out this trailer with added honesty it made me chuckle.

Industry Teams Removal: The New Precedent?

Rhea has a host of changes that could be examined closer but this latest statement regarding the phase out of Industry Teams I find most interesting. I for one thought of industry teams as a needless complication from the beginning and adapted the wait and see approach. It seems CCP has waited long enough and have decided to take the steps to phase out the industry teams feature.

First a quick background is in order. Industry Teams was first mentioned in this devblog spring of 2014 as part of the Industry Revamp. It was supposed to be the extra icing on the cake to change up industry game play I'm guessing? Either way the changes to POSes and blueprint changes have had a much more significant change on the industry landscape coming out of the Crius patch which landed in July 2014.

Fast forward to today and according to CCP's numbers manufacturing teams use is in the single digits and it isn't even used for research jobs. The feature in its current iteration is clunky at best and in my opinion adds a slight amount of add value at a cost of tedious time consumption. CCP had this to say about their plans for the Industry Teams feature going forward:

Our rollout plan for this would be to disable the seeding of new teams by the end of 2014, and to disable the UI features in one of the first releases of 2015. That being said, we want your input and feedback on what is ultimately a fairly unprecedented course of action for us. While we feel we have done our due diligence additional context from you is always appreciated.

-CCP RubberBAND

"A fairly unprecedented course" is right. Time will tell if other unpopular features released now and into the future are rolled back like the industry teams. I am of the opinion that if its not hurting anyone leave it be. I mean it only took ten years for a major industry revamp and if we have to wait another ten years why not leave teams be. If you want to take the time and isk to invest in them so be it.

Anyway lots of other eye candy and new space coming out in Rhea check out the development video for a quick recap of everything.

This is Eve [Video]

Eve Online just posted this yummy trailer on the Eve Online youtube channel check it out.

10 Reasons Why You Might Play Too Much Eve Online

You might play too much Eve Online if...

1. You use your calculator app on your phone to run isk per/hour calculations whenever someone asks you to go do something.
 
2.Your family and friends knows exactly what your talking about anytime you mention Jita (Or PLEX for that matter).

3. You have an excel spreadsheet with at least 10 different tabs all dealing directly with Eve Online.

4. You sit and read about the game for two hours, update your skill que in-game for fifteen minutes and then shut-down your computer and that's the end of your playtime (Now you don't even need to log in, sweet now I can play on my phone).

5. You have a Google Plus account that sports your in-game avatars face.

6. You take time off work the week of Fanfest to watch the event stream (Hey who doesn't?).

7. You check TMC and Eve News24 more than real news sites (You know like the weather and stuff).

8. You gain some sick pleasure because you are space rich.

9. You want an EVE bumper sticker, t-shirt or hat with the Eve logo but can never seem to find one (Is it to much to ask for a hat? maybe I just fail at online shopping).

And last but certainly not least...
10. You might play too much Eve Online if you have an entire blog dedicated to the subject (Just sayin).

Thank you very very much ladies and gentlemen. Hope you had some fun.

Now carry on with your serious spaceship business...

Quick Thoughts on Phoebe Patch

Proving to be one of the biggest changes in recent years Phoebe brings substantial changes to jump mechanics. Adding a jump fatigue mechanic that creates a compounding cooldown on your character after each jump. The patch is also packed with lots of other changes. I will link the patch notes here as well as the devblogs explaining the long list of features and changes.

I'm not going to comment and speculate on the jump changes I don't use or fly these ships at the moment. I will point you to the jump changes devblogs and specific forums if you want to read more into the jump changes for now I want to comment on a few of the other changes coming in Phoebe on Nov. 4.

Unlimited Skill Que
At close second for biggest change in phoebe release is the unlimited skill que. Currently you manually enter skills into your skill que once a skill train time goes beyond the current 24 hour que you have to wait until that skill finishes training to add a another or manually change the skills in the que. After release on Nov. 4 you will be able to que up any number of skills for constant training out as long as you want 30 days 60 days a year as long as you have an active account your character will train skills. I have an interesting theory post about a future of Eve Free 2 Play model that ties in with these changes coming soon and ties into the next topic on my list.

Trial Account Changes
While the unlimited skill que doesn't apply to the trial accounts which still have the 24 hour que a host of changes is coming to trial account restrictions. Most notably the removal of the isk transferring restriction. Eve devs will be diligently watching to see if isk transfer abuse occurs. Good change so you can help new bros get skills they may not have isk for etc. Which leads into the next change a complete revamp of skill restrictions on trial accounts. Much to my satisfaction industrial ship skills will now be allowed. As a new trial account I found it frustrating that I couldn't fly a hauler it ultimately lead me to buy the game because I wanted try out trading and hauling. All the trial account revamps are a welcome and long overdue shift.

Multi Sell and Other Small Things
Again welcome additions to the game and mind boggling why they wasn't put in sometime in the first ten years.

For all the changes check the latest patch notes as well as the devblogs and forums.

New Development Video out for Phoebe Patch

Check out the latest features in-development video out for the Phoebe patch.  Phoebe drops next week Nov. 4, 2014, you can find the patch notes here when CCP posts them.

Why now is a good time to get into Eve Online?

Well our friendly TMC commenter we couldn't agree more.

On the eve of the phoebe changes why is now a good time to get into Eve Online? It's not just the null sec shake up and it's not just the impressive list of other changes coming in this latest release on Nov. 4th. It is the entire cycle of patching that is bringing these rapid fire changes creating an inviting time to start playing Eve.

A ten year old MMO needs a lot of maintenance and the old six month expansion cycle just wasn't getting it done. Fine tuning comes every six weeks now creating content injections in the sandbox environment. In the sandbox tuning is vital to the continued health of the game. The quality of life improvements provides a healthy incentive to old and new players a like. Such as the addition of the unlimited skill que(this alone is a welcome addition).

So what ever your tastes whither your looking to get into some space piracy or become an industry tycoon it's a fair bet you can take, steal or build your own piece of the New Eden pie. After all, here at Eve Simplified we feel new players are the most important commodity in New Eden.

Looking into the future: Tech 3 Tactical Destroyers announced in the 2014 Eve Vegas Keynote.

Play now with the 21 day free trial for Eve Online.

Operation: Market Consolidation

At the start of July I had active market orders from Tash-Murkon, Kor-Azor, and Domain regions up into the The Citadel and then back down into Essence, Sinq Laison, and Verge Vender. Feeling a little over whelmed and seeing that my operations where suffering from my market creep; I decided to consolidate my market orders.

Earlier this year I had expanded into the Amarr market and moved my main operations into the Domain region with big plans to set up a POS(Player Owned Starbase) industry operation in the area. Shortly after I made the move the industry change devblogs came out and I was soon changing my plans. I scaled back my ambitious POS plans and ultimately dropped my ideas all together as the industry change speculation was driving blueprint markets into the ground. After treading water and waiting for the industry changes I continued selling products in the above mentioned markets.

Fast forward to September as market volumes slowed and real life pressures set in I decided it was time to consolidate what I was doing. I stopped stocking orders in all regions and withdrew my operating assets from Amarr space. So as it sits now I have sold off most of my stocks and am sitting on a huge pile of isk. It is now ready to be reinvested in my next internet spaceship ventures whatever those might be.

Eve Vegas 2014: Keynote [Full Video]

"We take quality of life seriously." - CCP Seagull

Lots of yummy stuff in the Eve Vegas Keynote. Plenty of coverage of Phoebe patch release and beyond. Also a link to the above video on youtube.

TMC has a good summary write up of the keynote as well.

Out Sourcing Marketing: Clarion Call 4 is Must See

Once again the player base delivers with a video that sells the video game better than the company does. Check out Rooks and King's latest installment of Clarion Call 4, if you haven't already, it is worth every second.

New Development Video out for Oceanus Patch

Oceanus Patch releases tomorrow, Sept. 30, 2014, make sure and stay up to date by checking out the latest patch notes here. Also I will post the new In-Development: Features of EVE Online's Oceanus Release below.

And below a cloaking montage video for a better look at the new cloak visuals. Enjoy.

Your Console Destiny

Destiny launch day what are you up to today? Do you care? I don't. Why? I don't even own a console and am not looking for one in the future. Is there a PC upgrade in my future I sure hope so. Bungie is looking at bringing  Destiny to PC, and in that moment I might just set aside what I am doing and take a long serious look at this game for now I am just watching from afar as I have done with so many other console only based games. I guess the adage we win some PC only titles they win some console only titles works well. If you don't know what Destiny even is or haven't seen much about the game take a look at this beta review which I think does a good job of capturing whats up with this game and what you might expect from it. I'll post the video below as well.

How the Destiny Beta Made Me a Believer:

New Player Video Guides

After several weeks of work I have finally finished a passable new player video guide. These are a day zero guides the first video in the series is considering you have never even heard of Eve so they hold a tight niche. The first video also covers character creation. After that we make a quick stop at the interface just to get people oriented as they get started. The next four videos cover the first four Aura starting tutorials missions in complete. I am hoping of expanding them to the career agent tutorials sometime in the future. So without further adieu I give you my new player video guides:

Intro and Character Creation(15:09)      
The Interface(5:38)       

Covering the Basics(11:50)

Combat Basics(12:01)
The Academy(7:46)
Moving Onwards(9:07)

Be sure to share these with your friends and new pilots as they get started in New Eden. Here is a link to the playlist which moves through each video in succesion.

Eve Online: New Player Walk Through

In Elite: Smuggling is Dangerous

I know TMC already posted about this but I thought it was worth passing on here. I, up to this point, haven't read or really looked into Elite: Dangerous at all. I watched a quick clip of the docking sequence and my smug Star Citizen attitude of yeah when this sees the light of day I'll check it out kicked in. I pushed it under my proverbial internet radar and didn't think twice about it.

That was then this is now, after watching through the video of this kid smuggling goods into a station in Elite Dangerous all my euphoric feelings of Freelancer goodness started to bubble up again and I did some lite reading on the subject(funny how gamers do a better job of marketing company's game better then they do). When Elite: Dangerous comes out I am definitely going to be taking a very serious look at this game. So the point of this whole post is check out the video and see what you think. Let me know if your looking into this game or if its just another side fancy that you're not going to spend your time or money with.

Viewing of the video may take place below this sentence.

Also if I have some how peaked your interest for this little gem take a look at some of the other trailers for this game on their website.

Catch you later.

Shout Out to Evebloggers.com

I have never really spent very much time marketing this blog. I have let it grow organically over time letting the Google search bots find what people like and getting a lot of my traffic through search engines. Word of mouth being the next big role in gaining viewership. The blog has slowly grown since its humble beginnings and though I still keep it pretty low key I decided to start being a little more proactive in getting the word out.

With that being said I would like to thank Fuzzysteve for running and up keeping evebloggers.com. I finally submitted my blog feed over there and thought I would give a shout out to anyone that might be interested in reading other Eve blogs to head over there and take a look around. I have always kept a link to evebloggers.com in my links section at the top of the page under news. Also I would like to welcome any new readers happening upon the site from evebloggers, welcome and know I am currently in an Eve slump so don't be surprised as I splash this feed with various other games that are peaking my interest at the moment. Also don't be surprised at the amount of video content I post and pass off as blog posts my little youtube channel project is quite all consuming at the moment and I am having a lot of fun with it.

Until next, we'll catch you later.

Space Engineers: In Review

Do you like to mine asteroids? Do you like to shot stuff? Do you like to build space ships? If you answered yes to any of these questions Space Engineers might be for you. Now you might be saying to yourself but wait isn't that a crappy voxel based mess of a game still in early access on steam trying to take my money? I heard the same thing last year when I first heard about the game. Reviews were poor and the game was still very much in development. Fast forward ten months.

During the Steam Summer Sale I saw it on the list, watched a few videos, and decided at the current sell price it was worth the risk. Even in the past several months significant updates to the game have been made. With the addition of a survival mode I was all in. I am a Minecraft junky and this game seemed the perfect cross over from Eve Online to a voxel based game. The survival mode play is very fun and engaging while at the same time you realize that you need tons of minerals to build things.

The stand out of the game is the realistic physics engine. Similar to what Star Citizen is trying to do in ship to ship dogfighting. Once you get used to the controls you will find yourself hurtling through space mining, building and fighting in a 3D environment. The graphics are stunning and the voxel based interaction is very smooth and doesn't distract from the immersion of the game.

While the game is still in early access on steam the game lacks nothing that Minecraft didn't in its pre 1.0 versions. A fun game and a must play if you enjoy aspects of Eve mining or industry. You can get Space Engineers for $19.99 on Steam as of the writing of this post.

You've got to hand it to CCP

You got to hand it to CCP. This new release schedule is really shaping up. Even if you don't like the industry changes or have anything to do with wormhole space you can't help but be impressed at the rate they are rolling out patches. Again it will be interesting to see if they can keep up the cycle and see how they market these patches.

Again even if your particular favorite piece of the Eve pie hasn't been looked at chances are good that every six weeks it might get a kick in the old nerf pants or buffed to be bananas. Either way CCP has got my attention I hope they keep it up, I hope new players get in-game and start finding corners of new Eden to call their own.

Let me know what you think of the new release cycle and if your still playing this game or if it's still playing you?

Alliance Tournament Live Stream

Alliance Tournament Live Stream. Check the alliance tournament forum topic for discussion, schedules and rules and such. Enjoy your weekend.

Watch live video from CCP on www.twitch.tv

Eve Online: Basic PI (Planetary Interaction) Video Guide

When I first started this blog the first guide I wrote was a PI guide so it's only fitting that my first video guide is on PI. Weighing in at 38 minutes long, it covers all the basic steps from skills to picking up your finished products at the customs office.

Check it out let me know what you think. If I get a good response I will make more of these longer in depth guides or shorter, again let me know. After putting in the time I have a real appreciation for anyone who makes YouTube videos and a bigger appreciation for people that put together good guides.

You can find the guide here, you can check out my YouTube channel Tactic Talisman here, and if you like what you see leave a comment or subscribe. So without further adieu I give you:

Eve Online: Basic PI (Planetary Interaction) Guide

If you are more into text guides check out the ones I have linked below.
Investment Guide: Basic Planetary Interaction
Investment Guide: Intermediate Planetary Interaction

Industry Changes Buff or Nerf?

I have been trying to place the Crius industry changes in my mind if they helped or hurt?

A lot of it depends on how you play the game. What angle you look at industry. Do you build capital ships? Are you a small operation? Are you just getting started? Have you been playing for years? Or just use industry on the side to fund other habits? As a result I think some of these areas have been changed for the better and some haven't.

My particular area of concern, not surprisingly, is in the new player department. Two types of industry players have been affected. Casual industry users, those whose main play time is spent doing some other activity, now have a quick and efficient way to build their own equipment or make some isk. Their interaction with the game world will increase and life will be great. The other player that is affected is the up and coming industrial tycoon. Players who spend most of their time focusing on industry. Players, who like myself and imagine many of you, wanted to build a sand castle instead of kicking them down.

The new industry player faces an even greater challenge than many of us did but why you ask? This new system makes researching BPOs(Blueprint Originals) quick and efficient doesn't it? Yes it does very much so. In fact too well, the BPO market was a testament to the required amount of time and money you had to have in order to gain a footing in producing items and making a profit. Simplification of the numbers and metrics was needed yes but the time requirement and system of researching was sound. Now producing efficient blueprints isn't time intensive or costly but wait why is this a bad thing? It seems great doesn't it we all have perfect blueprints now?

No it isn't a great thing at all and it is just starting to affect the markets. Products are going to have a mountain of supply. Over production has always been a problem in the game and always will be. You can produce things much faster than people can destroy them. The kicker is CCP just lowered the time on jobs, removed slot times and lowered minerals required to build items the greatest effect you can see is on T1 products.

Think of a simple supply and demand curve. As the supply becomes greater and greater the demand becomes lower and lower. Prices slowly drop lower and lower. In Eve's case prices become fixed eventually around mineral costs or other required materials. The profit is lost though as market equilibrium sets in very quickly with the change to build times. More supply equals less demand.

The even greater problem is the demand curve. Demand in our example would be defined as that of player activity in game. Demand increases if there are more players consuming goods. And right now there just isn't a lot of new players coming in or current players excited about the game to sustain this new industry model. If we had increased player activity(I mean large player increases year in year out) I am confident the new industry model would be an amazing success. As it stands you have a tough mountain to climb to gain entry into profitable manufacturing.

We were all so focused on the cost changes when we all realized that the time changes were the real nerf. The discussion is only getting started time will tell if markets even out or not.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Firefly Online What the huh?!

Expect a lot of non Eve relevant posts over the next month. Things are slow its still summer lots of other fun things to do and see. So on that note check out this video for Firefly Online. If you play a lot of Eve Online I am assuming you know what Firefly is and also Serenity(and as an aside the creator of Firefly was Joss Whedon you know the guy behind the Avengers.)

It does seem like they need to hire a competent web marketing guy and maybe a web master to design a site for them. Either way out of curiosity I might take a look into this game if it ever gets off the ground. I will post the video below.

Operation: Market Adjustment

If you have been following along with my posts over the past month or so you will know that I have been taking a break from Eve Online. Well not any more I am back and kicking. I was secretly hoping the markets would settle down and adjust. My hopes have partially come true and a lot of items have shifted into their new price points. Now what?

I found a lot of the items I used to make are not as lucrative as they had once been. Namely a lot of T1 modules I used to mass produce. These modules had very long build times so supply was limited to some extent. Before I was building 50 units a week with well researched BPOs now my numbers indicate 50 units only takes a matter of days. Couple this with the fact that their is no wait times on manufacturing slots. Equals a flood of these T1 items especially in market hubs. While I didn't expect the time changes to be this significant, I do hope CCP is keeping an eye on these changes(knock on wood). **Note this is build pricing changes aside.

I did half expect my T1 ventures to be unprofitable post patch and had already started retooling towards Tech 2 items and ships and that does seem to be an area with better prospects. Once more unto the spreadsheets. That is right I just made a play on a Shakespeare quote.

Crius by the Numbers(Quick Video)

If anyone is interested in seeing some of the new industry numbers scaling in action check out this video by Reload. He presents some interesting case scenarios when comparing jita build costs to other systems also a comparison of when teams are good and when teams may not be needed. Check it out here, or below.

Early Planning Stages of My Youtube Channel

After blogging now for more than a year and a half I have taken an interest in setting up a youtube channel. After going back and forth on several different ideas I have finally settled on a name and a platform. I will announce the name in a second but first I wanted to explain the process I have gone through to set up a new youtube channel. Originally I was going to do a very specific Eve Simplified themed youtube channel. The channel would be absolutely Eve themed with tutorials and other walk-throughs. After thinking about it for a time I realized there was a lot of other games I played and didn't necessarily want the channel just to focus on an Eve theme. So I am announcing today the early planning stages of my new youtube channel Tactic Talisman.

Currently on the channel I have only a few Minecraft Let's Play videos present. I have been playing around with recording, editing, and posting videos to better my skills. So when the time comes I will be able to create well crafted Eve tutorials having first done a lot of practice. Stay tuned here at Eve Simplified and you might find some interesting Eve video tutorials coming your way. For the time being check out Tactic Talisman if your interested in Minecraft Let's Play videos.

My Let's Play series is based on playing a hardcore survival map with the ultimate goal of killing the Ender Dragon. The map seed is a giant desert and finding food the first couple of days was not easy. I will post the first episode in the series below.

How to Prepare for the New Industry Patch Launch

You might be asking yourself how do I prepare for all these wide sweeping industry changes? How do I best position my assets for such a large change? Now I can't speak for you so let me tell you what I have done. I had prepared everything I had located a new system I was going to operate out of. I had moved all of my BPOs and other gear out that direction as well. I had purchased a few other investments and had everything in place.

Then the industry changes were pushed back to July 22. I don't think I have quite mentally recovered from that initial push back. Why might you ask? Because of how I am currently preparing for patch day. The answer is I'm not. I put up all my manufactured goods on to the market, any other trades goods I was holding on to I set up market orders for as well, and then let my subscription fall off.

Why deal with patch day this way? The first reason that probable has more to do with it than my new feature woes is the slow markets during the summer. A lot of people take breaks from Eve and are on vacation during the summer so the game just tends to be unexciting during that lull. The second reason is after preparing for that patch and having it pushed back I realized real quick that nothing was concrete until the thing was live. So among other reason I decided to just sit back and watch the patch math from a distance. In a few weeks after the dust has settled I will get back in and try it out. I have a few other fun ventures I am pursuing in my spare time and Eve hasn't been fitting into those yet but hopefully some time soon.

New Development Video out for Crius Patch

CCP released a development video for the Crius patch. Its worth a watch nothing new was shown and no funny role playing like in some of the past videos.

Unsubscribbed

I am super causal when it comes to playing Eve. I play once every day or two with a healthy dose on the weekends if I can. I also take month long breaks every three or four months letting my subscription drop just because I can, I have this weird thing about controlling my life and not letting games control it but that's not what I want to talk about here. And its not like I don't have enough isk for PLEX or money for a subscription I just let it drop off. Taking a break you could call it.

What happens to your account after the subscription is up? You might think that is a silly question, I don't think its a silly question at all, in fact I think its an important question to understand.

Skill training stops, ok fair enough.
Any industry job whether manufacturing slot or research slot continues until finished ok...
All market orders stay active until their posted time ends which you can set to three months.

Why can you have active industry slots and active market orders(I get that you can't update them but three months is a long time) when you are not even paying to play the game? You would think a for profit company like CCP wouldn't allow you to do this sort of thing. Especially puzzling with the heavy market oriented aspect of Eve game play. Well don't have a few unsubscribed manufacturing alt accounts? If you can't beat them join them.

I mean seriously if you look at it from a market stand point of isk optimization I could subscribe every other month giving me 6 less PLEX a year I need to use on an alt account while at the same time using those 60 slots(3 characters times 10 manufacturing and 10 research) que out for a month. This only gets better as the slot que times will soon be removed.

Operation: PI Halt

A month or so back I decided to stop all of my PI(Planetary Interaction) production I was doing. It had just become a chore. I had a simple 5 planet system set up on two characters so 10 planets total with all the extractors set to 3 day cycle times. I don't have that much time to play so when it came to it spending 20 to 30 minutes resetting planets was just getting tedious.

Further more I was forgoing a lot of manufacturing production which has been far more lucrative than the 150 million I was getting out of PI production every month(in high sec). In short I had out grown my small PI production. While in the beginning days of my subscription it served as a great supplemental income source for things like blueprints and expensive skill books without cutting into my other market ventures. The current set up I had for PI needed to either be moved out to a wormhole operation or retooled to a more factory style system in hopes for better margins. Already operating on a time constraint I just decided to scrap it all together and opted to focus my time on manufacturing which I now had the proper capital to fund in large quinatites.

So the bottom line is if you don't enjoy doing something in a game that you are playing during your free time you should probable stop what your doing and find something better to do.

New Player Choices

A three post series exploring the new player experience in Eve Online.
1. The Most Important Commodity in New Eden
2. Making Your Own Goals
3. New Player Choices < You are here.

Your choices are many in Eve. It may seem a daunting task, because of the sandbox nature of Eve, to both choose where you want to go and what you want to do. The thing you will quickly find is that you need some kind of income source as a new player. This is where your choices start to become limited.

As a new player you only have so many skills under your belt and while you can fly off into the wild and have some fun sooner or later your going to need to do something to make isk. Which leads us to two choices most players turn to in their first couple weeks of play:

Mining
Missions

While both mining and missioning are great, and they have very limited barriers to entry, both are quite boring. What else is there a new player might ask? This 82 page pdf attempts to cover all of them or maybe you run through the personality analyzer. During the career agent tutorials you are presented with a couple other options:

Manufacturing
Exploration

These options are not explained in any great detail, but at least they are mentioned. You still have a lot of other options out there. So a few of the more lucrative and new player friendly game mechanics out there are not included in the tutorials:

Planetary Interaction
Ratting
Salvaging
Faction Warfare
Etc...

It quickly becomes the new players responsibility to learn more about the game. This kind of hand off is why the new player learning curve looks like it does. You the new player have to make your own goals and choices. This is why CCP's little Fanfest graphic looks like it does. Half the people quite, half the people run some missions because they were trained to do so by the in-game tutorial. The last 10% want to learn they go looking, reading and studying the game mechanics and stick.

You have to make your own goals in Eve. That is how the game is played a space sim and a sandbox(no one tells you were to go or what to do in minecraft, kids seem to figure that out). Eve isn't going to change, making your own goals is Eve. So how do we(new players, old players, and CCP) help people transition players into the game?

Show them what choices they have in a clear and simple way. I think at the end of the career agent tutorials it quickly states in a quick pop up to go check out the sister of eve epic arc. No mention of where the hell that is or how to get there. A menu similar to ISIS(Interbus Ship Identification System) should pop up and say learn more about xyz game mechanic, want to keep doing missions head to the soe arc here, faction warfare head here. Want to join a corp have a link to open up corp recruitment. Keep this window in the sidebar until they take it off because there is nothing like loosing things in the menu the first week in Eve. If they click on a game mechanic have it run through a quick tutorial of how to get started in that direction and leave it at that. Now the current help icon is similar in function but for the most part it sends you to the EVElopedia articles which are typically very dated. Show new players their choices of different game mechanics available to them in a clear and simple way.

Just my two cents worth.

Thanks Jester

Sorry I should have posted this a month ago. Better late than never.

Thank you Ripard Teg of jestertrek.blogspot.com for all of your contributions to Eve Online. Also thank you for the great influence you have been to the blogging community surrounding Eve Online. We have been influenced by your great work and wish you the best in all your future endeavors.

Recently he announced that he would be stepping away from his blog Jester Trek to spend more time having fun in-game and I am sure a we'll deserved break from blogging. He has just finished up his term on CSM8 and this past month of May posted over 57 blog posts. To put that into perspective I post maybe that many times in six months.

His writings have encouraged I am sure more than one Eve Online themed blog over the years, including this one, and his musings will sorely be missed.

Making Your Own Goals

A three post series exploring the new player experience in Eve Online.
1. The Most Important Commodity in New Eden
2. Making Your Own Goals < You are here. 
3. New Player Choices

After almost two years of playing Eve I think I have finally figured out what it is I like doing the most, blogging and reading about the game. I like to trade and do industry but that's not what keeps me coming back.

I was reading in the new player forums, a few days back, when someone committed to a new players plea why won't any one do XYZ with me, you have to look at Eve as a simulator the poster replied. I find this statement to be very profound. Eve is a simulation game where you have elements of creation and destruction based in real time with real players. Yes there are some NPCs floating around but their functions are limited to a few basic game play elements.

What this poster needed to understand, as a new player, is to play in the simulation you are required to create your own goals based around this cycle of creation and destruction. If you want to play with others, as this new player did, you better convince them that your goals are more important or just as important as others goals(which in this situation they weren't, the poster wanted to go gank some players for blowing up his T1 frigate).

The truly unique aspects of the Eve simulation are its single shared server, nearly complete player run economy and lack of other MMOs theme park style progression. With a single shared environment butterfly effects, like those mentioned in this promotional trailer, become reality day in and day out. When people make mistakes or forget to pay bills big things happen and they impact everyone.

The point being it is your goals as a player that are important that drive the simulation that shape the sandbox nature of Eve. So as you begin playing Eve set some goals and learn how to use the mechanics of the simulation find creative and out of the box ways to achieve them.

This is a follow up post to:
The Most Important Commodity in New Eden

The Most Important Commodity in New Eden

A three post series exploring the new player experience in Eve Online.
1. The Most Important Commodity in New Eden < You are here.
2. Making Your Own Goals
3. New Player Choices

What is the most important commodity in all of New Eden? More important than moon goo, a better investment than PLEX and the main reason I started this blog? Players and pilots in New Eden buying and blowing things up.

I started this blog in hope of enticing my brother to play Eve (he never got past the 14 day trial). Creating simple, quick guides in such a large expansive game has always been my goal. Tying back to markets helping people make investment decisions, helping stimulate the economic engine which drives the core of Eve. As more and more people play Eve that constant cycle of destruction and creation gives everyone more of what they want. Traders gain liquidity, pvp players find more targets and everyone has more content interactions.

But we have a problem:

I am not the only one that has been thinking about this problem.
Jester Treks Seven Percent Solution
Greedy Goblin's The graph that didn't shrink
Eve News 24: Hona's Corner: New Player Experience

All of these articles and posts outline the problem: getting new players and keeping them. All of these articles outline potential solutions to these problems. My aim here is to point out not a solution but whose problem is this and who is going to solve it?

Making your own goals...

New players need to understand several important things about Eve the first is that Eve is a simulation(or sandbox) similar to minecraft. In minecraft you have no goals you start in a sandbox environment and are given the opportunity to create tools to create your dreams and goals. The main difference being Eve's single shared server(hence the subscription fee), spreadsheet focused mechanics and epic space scape. I will talk more about goals in the next post in this series.  The important thing to remember is goals in Eve can be grouped into two categories making isk and enjoying the game. Sometimes these are one in the same, sometimes you do one to accomplish the other. You as the player define them no one else will.

The tools to accomplish those goals...

A player is given a wide variety of tools, or game mechanics, to accomplish these goals. Just like in minecraft where you have the ability to create tools to create things. In Eve you have all sorts of different game mechanics to interact in an ever changing space scape(a sandbox). I will explore the unique opportunities in Eve to create tools in the last post in this series but take a look at this PDF to get an idea of the amount of things you can do in Eve. It isn't a comprehensive list either it does provide a categorized list of possibilities to accomplish one of the two goals stated above. Players come up with new ideas everyday, you could call that the nature of the sandbox.

The failure of the new player experience whose fault is it anyway?

You need to understand the tools needed to accomplish your goals in Eve. Enter the nasty learning curve pic here. A lot of the understanding comes from reading and watching videos of how people use in game mechanics. The in-game starting tutorial and career agent tutorials do not touch on even a tenth of what is out there. So the question that begs to be asked is: whose responsibility is it to train new players and create content for them? The new players themselves to read and learn then go play? The current players who create guides, videos, and player training corporations? Or CCP, the game developer, whose game this is that they run for-profit? 

A populated New Eden is a good New Eden.

First Look Video of the Industry UI Changes

Check out this video covering a first look at the industry UI changes on the test server.

Or just link straight to the video on youtube here.

Two Years of Playing Eve and Counting

I have been playing Eve Online for two years now. I started out hauling minerals from out lying systems to trade hubs, from there I saved up enough to buy a Retriever back when they were only 10 million isk a piece(Ventures weren't even in the game yet). I mined for a couple months and saved up a couple hundred million isk. After that I started investing in some small trades and manufacturing. I slowly built up my manufacturing operation until I had about 2 billion isk when I built my own freighter. Also during this time I started into pi which has been a modest high sec income of 100 to 150 million isk a month. Since that point I have kept manufacturing and trading, where I have kept about half my earnings in each endeavor. During that time I have typically doubled my income every six months. If that gives you any indication as to how much I really play(Not a whole lot).

After a few months of playing Eve Online, I had to take a break for awhile as school was starting other real life things distracted me but I kept reading. I kept learning. I was really intrigued by the blogging community. I had some experience working with blogs so I thought to myself what can I do, what do I have to add to the community. My first thought was a new player perspective. So I ran with it. I have been writing commentary and guides for new players ever since.

So if anyone out there is thinking to yourself right now, what do I possible have to add to the community? What could I come up with? Just start where your at and roll with it, learn for yourself what you need to do and take it on. Whether you have been playing for a week and think you can tackle a large manufacturing operation or you want to live on the edge and try a hand at pvp go for it. You have all the potential you have all the possibility. Who cares if you lose stuff along the way? Your new you don't have that much to lose anyway.

I have been blogging for a year and a half now and feel my contributions here as my greatest accomplishment in Eve. I hope everyone has found a good read now and again and maybe a guide or two.

Operation: Summer Fun

I thought I would give you a little update as to what I have been doing in-game and on the blog here. In-game I have been messing around in low sec doing some ratting and just having fun. Everyone should enjoy summer by getting out and shooting something in New Eden. I have been doing a lot of trading and general positioning as we wait for more specific information on the industry changes. I may be taking a break this summer as vacations and nice weather roll in. Even with the patch hitting July 22nd I already have a lot of fun planned that doesn't involve New Eden.

A couple weeks ago I went back through my Links tab at the top of the page and add a bunch of useful information. With links covering topics such as news, markets, killboards, online tools etc. I think it will provide a great way for you to link to and discover loads of information and I will be able to continue to add and update it easily.

I have several lengthy posts(well lengthy for my typical posts) in the wings covering some of my thoughts on new players and the new player experience. Those should drop sometime next week I'm thinking. This weekend will be the two year mark of my stumbling into Eve Online and I have a little nostalgic post rolling out then.

PLEX: Intervention 2

During fanfest this year Dr. Eyjo, CCP's in-house economist, confirmed another plex intervention during his Eve economic presentation . Several notable differences can be drown between the first plex intervention and the second. Dr. Eyjo was very forthcoming the first time as to the problem, the reason, the fix, the how and the result. He was far more vague this time around giving away almost nothing other than confirming there was a problem and we fixed it. What do we know?

The Problem:
We all saw the problem, plex prices took a huge spike much bigger than the last time around. Dr. Eyjo decide to take action because volume dropped not because of the price increase, very important to note this distinction.

The Reason:
Dr. Eyjo does mention plex has increased in usage over time.  He says sells have increased over the lifetime of plex. Other than that he doesn't really pin the reason on this intervention on any one aspect of the game, be it ship skins or an other feature, other than the volume of trade dropped below his liking so he decided to intervene. A little bit different explanation than last time.

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's request decided to take action.
 
The How:
Dr. Eyjo said, he will not tell you how or why or how much. "We didn't affect the trade, we did do a little bit of ingame trickry that helped the price." What do we know? CCP had a little plex give away in the middle of April to the tune of 700 plex (Source:TMC Story, Evenews24 Story). I think he seeded the market with plex as well as the give away.


The Result:
The plex market stabilized and he didn't say much more about it.

Conclusion:
Dr. Eyjo repeats over and over that in-game markets are not inflated. Plex interventions have only taken place when the volume begins to drop and not when the price goes up any particular amount. Both ideas I agree with, if you look at his graphs about facets and sinks you begin to understand that the game has controls on the amount of in-game currency and can only scale up as more people play the game. Maybe that's why he started his presentation this year covering inflation.

Operation: POS Full Stop

About two weeks before the industry devblogs dropped I was poised to set up my own small pos operation. I had purchased or built all my equipment that I would need fuel, starbase modules, etc. I had moved all my equipment to the system I was planning on setting up in. The only thing I had left to do was buy a corp with standings before I set it all up in space.

I had been busy all month and had this one Saturday to set everything up. So I hesitated thinking I wouldn't find time for everything, I finally decided to wait until I had more time to set up my operations. Two weeks later the industry devblogs started coming out and I put all my plans on hold. Until I can get a handle on all the changes I thought it was best to wait out exactly what would change, you know how much the markets can drop when these things are announced. So I watched and waited to better position my new investments.

I am still planning on going ahead with a pos operation but it's function has changed from that of a research set up, I was originally going to run, to an all around set up with both research and manufacturing elements. Also my planned system location has changed and probably will change again as we see more specifics with the team elements being introduced.

Just when I had adjusted my plans and was again preparing for the launch of Kronos on June 3 when, as you all know, the industry changes were pushed back to the July 22 release date. Now I am eager and waiting for the industry changes, as I am sure most of you are as well, so hang in there hopefully soon we can get on the test server and start playing with some of these new changes.

Freighter Pilots Fret

As a game develops and gets older there is those little quality of life things that are added. Better menus, removal of needless clicking, and of course faster travel around the game.  We have seen it with the addition of more jump clones and less time to use those jump clones. The other thing that usually develops over time is the removal of barriers to entry into certain types of game play. For example the devs hope that the industry changes will simplify the process and make it easier for more people to build stuff, as one recent example.

So I don't understand why the devs slowed freighters down in Rubicon, they were painfully slow already. I didn't understand why people weren't more upset then. But they are upset now. And why not? A freighter is going to have less cargo space, less ehp, and still be slow. You can get one or the other back with different rigs but then comes the added barrier to entry card.

If you want more people to become players in your mmo making the game more time consuming instead of less doesn't make sense. Making people pay, half again what the ship cost, to bring that ship up to speed for how it use to fly for all those years doesn't make sense.

So the solution is, as I have heard commented before, just use a shipping service or courier contracts. Which is what we will have to do even when the eventual shipping prices goes up. I still feel for you new industrialists out there I thought I had a hard time working up the ladder. You guys will have a mountain to climb once the industry changes hit in July.

Updated Re-balance for Freighters May 21, 2014

Keeping Up With Kronos and now Crius

If your like me you are all really busy and don't have a lot of time to keep up on all the changes coming up with the Kronos release. I wanted to create a summary of changes and touch on the impact this would have on the market. Several other people have already put together some really good articles that cover pretty much everything I wanted to touch on so I am going to point you their way.

The first thing is a summary of the changes you can find a good list over at K162space. With so many changes it can be hard to keep up with everything, it is nice to see a complete list for referencing and review.

The second is an article over at evenews24.com called Predicted Winners and Losers from the Kronos Changes. Danny Centauri did a great job covering a lot of the market speculation surrounding Kronos. Go over give it a read, take some notes, and keep running those calculations. Also check out his blog posts Unofficial Kronos Patch Notes and now Unofficial Crius Patch Notes

I have been going over the devblogs again this week doing some calculations. I had somethings I was going to cover but with the industry changes being pushed back until July 22, likely things will change.

Update: Also a new devblog is out explaining exactly what is going to be in Kronos.

Economic Insight into 11th Year Celebration

A couple of quick thoughts on Eve's 11 Celebration achievement counters which if reached unlocks more gecko drones.The thing I find most telling about the numbers chosen for the counters is that they give us a snap shot of the economic impact of a given play style over a week's duration. So with that in mind lets look at the significance or impact these play styles have from week to week.

Volume of Ore Mined 25.7 billion m3, ore is refined before its hauled to far which would break this number down pretty fast. On top of that any manufacturing or compression that takes place will quickly negate the large m3 cargo space of all this ore.

NPC Bounties Claimed 7.44 trillion, this is a huge isk facet and to think sinks will be about equal to this amount. The engine that is the Eve economy is massive.

Science and Industry Jobs 802 thousand, considering the amount of slot ques in stations this is a fairly quantifiable number.

ISK Destroyed 5.34 trillion not a totally unknown or unexpected number considering the wide spread reporting of killboards. Its pretty amazing that this happens week in week out. A really cool look inside the Eve economy.

The second thing that hit me was the type of categories they choose. Which break down to 4 activities mining, missions or ratting, industry and pvp. Wouldn't it be interesting to have other achievements to work towards for, I don't know, exploration sites run or courier contract cargo amounts something like that.

Happy Mining, Hunting, Researching, and Pvping for Eve's Birthday!

What do I think of the Industry Changes?

Some of my dramatic notes about the changes will now follow:

We are on the eve of the greatest changes to industry ever. No pun intended.

CCP could have been quoted as saying: "All your spreadsheet are belong to us."

CCP has hit the rest button on all of our spreadsheets. This might as well be day one save for the amount of investment ready isk players have.

Its been a couple days since I wrote down my knee jerk reactions to the different industry changes. I am having a hard time swallowing the complete overhaul. I think if they would have spread out these devblogs over the past four months instead of the last two weeks the reaction of the industrial player base may have been sated some what. Instead we got a complete overhaul of the 3 levels of the industry system plus some extra all in a two week span.

Level 1 Refining: Reprocess all the things

Level 2 Blueprints: Researching, the Future

Level 3 Manufacturing: The Price of Change and Building Better Worlds and Industry UI

Extra Random Sauce: Team Up(Not actually teams just npc, isk sink, bonus things.)

I get it though, I get that refining needs some tweaks. I understand that blueprints needed some work. I realize the slot system and pricing fix were inevitable to better scale with the growth of the game. The teams thing just goes a little far into the realm of needless complication. Either way it just got a whole lot harder for a newbro looking to start into the manufacturing game. It will be tough to compete against well established manufacturing operations.

I do like the new UI though, the layout and design looks really nice.

Fanfest 2014 Stream

Check out fanfest.eveonline.com for all the details. Schedule with times is below stream.

Watch live video from twitchernest on www.twitch.tv

GMT/PST Thursday May 1st

• 11:00/04:00 Welcome to Fanfest 2014 with EVE TV
• 12:00/05:00 Game Design Panel
• 13:00/06:00 Economy: Into the Second Decade
• 14:00/07:00 Ship and Module Balancing
• 15:00/08:00 Concept Art Live Session
• 16:00/09:00 CSM Panel
• 17:00/10:00 Fanfest Welcome & EVE Valkyrie Keynote
• 18:00/11:00 Fanfest Welcome & EVE Valkyrie Keynote
• 19:00/12:00 EVE & DUST 514: Community Panel
• 20:00/13:00 Gridlock Talks Performance
• 21:00/14:00 End of Fanfest Day 1

GMT/PST Friday May 2nd

• 11:00/04:00 From Evidence to Bans
• 12:00/05:00 New Player Experience Vision
• 13:00/06:00 DUST 514 Keynote
• 14:00/07:00 Probing the Future of the EVE engine
• 15:00/08:00 DUST 514: Progression
• 16:00/09:00 The Art of EVE Valkyrie
• 17:00/10:00 EVE Keynote
• 18:00/11:00 EVE Keynote
• 19:00/12:00 Alliance Panel
• 20:00/13:00 EVE of Destruction
• 21:00/14:00 End of Fanfest Day 2

GMT/PST Saturday May 3rd

• 11:00/04:00 Coaching Them Up in New Eden
• 12:00/05:00 Making EVE Valkyrie a Full Game
• 13:00/06:00 More Sand in the Box for DUST 514
• 14:00/07:00 Industry Panel
• 15:00/08:00 Make EVE Real - Going Interstellar
• 16:00/09:00 Art Panel
• 17:00/10:00 CCP PRESENTS!
• 18:00/11:00 CCP PRESENTS!
• 19:00/12:00 Deploying Pluggable Space Things
• 20:00/13:00 EVE TV Reviews Fanfest 2014
• 21:00/14:00 Party at the Top of the World
• 00:00/17:00 End of Fanfest Day 3

Fanfest 2014 Pre-Stream

Check out the Fanfest 2014 Pre-Stream if you missed it.

Burn Jita Advisory

If you haven't heard I thought I would throw up a quick bulletin on Burn Jita. The announcement over at TMC goes as follows, Downtime Apr 25 to downtime Apr 28.

Dealing with Burn Jita, you should be able to have lots of fun this weekend. Whether you deal with it like I do and just don't log in or go scavenging wrecks its really up to you. Just don't fly your freighter around Jita and neighboring systems. Don't forget to get in an empty pod if you go looking for fun.

Basic Eve rules apply don't fly what you can't afford to lose. Hmm maybe I will fit up a few ships to go have some fun myself.

If you you are new to Eve Online in the past year let me explain a little bit. Burn Jita is an event held by the CFC(for the past 3 years now). They bring in a bunch of players and gank freighters and other juice targets. So if your doing business in and around Jita through those posted dates you have a much higher chance of being blown up.

Cool Eve Video will now follow.

Building Better Worlds by Destorying NPC Slots

If you haven't read through the industry changes, in this devblog, slated for the 2014 summer expansion release, you should go do so now. Where to begin? Here...

Allow Starbases to be anchored anywhere in high-security space and without standing requirements

At first glance I was like hey that's cool, kind of screwing over people that make corps with standings, but sounds good. Then I thought about it for a minute.

Remove the ability for players to use stations to safely store their blueprints without putting them at risk in Starbase structures. Players will still be able to start their jobs remotely (via the use of Supply Chain Management and Scientific Networking skills), but will now have to move their blueprints directly into the starbase structures that require it, like other materials.

What?! Wait... this will effect BPO and BPC producers if the slot changes compensate enough for research to be done in stations you won't need a POS(Thats a big if we'll wait for the numbers to make a call on that one.) Still though if running research in NPC stations is viable. Do you need a POS in high sec for research?

...most of the Starbases in high-security space use Mobile Laboratories to compensate for the lack of Material Efficiency Research slots in Empire space.

If all those research POS aren't needed what does this do to the ice market?(Not to worry though everyone can now throw POSes up.) Now we haven't seen the numbers yet so the only conclusion I can come up with is that using NPC stations for research and industry will mean fees are what comparable to running a POS?

Expect costs ranging from 0% to 14% of the base item being produced for the most extreme case.

The above quote references the new slot fee for NPC stations. Running ten jobs at 5% that would sure add up quick. I guess you might want a POS after all for manufacturing. So are we just trading POS researching for POS manufacturing?

Only the numbers will tell how the fees will scale.

CSM 8 In the Flesh 2013 Winter Summit Video

Its that time of year again. CSM voting is in full swing. Interestingly enough CCP put together a video from the CSM 8 Winter Summit. Check out it for whats it worth. Kind of interesting to see some of these Eve personalities in real life.

March Update and The Broken PC

Hey what's up everybody? I thought I would post a quick update here on the blog. Real life strikes again as this past month I started a new job. So what little time I have to give this blog and play Eve has shrunk to nothing. For now I am just taking things one at a time. I still have loads of ideas and guides I want to post here but for now they will have to wait a little while. I want to thank everybody who reads Eve Simplified and I hope those starting their Eve careers have benefited a little bit from the things you have read here. So with that in mind this is not the end of this blog just a time out as it were. When I find a spare moment now and again maybe I will post some stuff.

That being said I wanted to cover a couple things but haven't had the time to go over. First my power supply in my PC gave out a week or so ago. Meaning even if I had the time to play Eve that hasn't even been an option. Life happens I guess.

PLEX prices, where to start, people need to calm down. I would point you to my post about PLEX interventions and say don't worry about PLEX prices their regulated but that won't do this topic justice. This desrves a post all its own but I will give you this assurance Dr. Eyjo is monitoring the situation closely and with the new ship skins feature, the price jump may be as simple as a new feature cutting out its share of the market.

The reprocessing changes. Again this deserves its own post and I think we will see the launch iteration of this change be slightly different than what the dev post numbers are indicating but only time will tell. Either way this will have a big effect on the way we go about acquiring minerals and running large manufacturing operations. The minerals markets just got a whole lot more interesting.

Hope to see you all back in New Eden very soon...

Eve Online Documentary from MachinimaRealm

I ran across this video series a few months ago when they were first released. MachinimaRealm youtube channel had a 3 part video series on Eve looking at various aspects of the game but most importantly about the players that impact it. I found it an interesting perspective of how people outside of Eve describe it looking in. Take a look I will link the series parts below as well.

Part 1: EVE: Starships, Sabotage & Mayhem - INFONAUT (Part 1)
Part 2: EVE: Vile Rat & The Future of Gaming - INFONAUT (Part 2)
Part 3: EVE: Benghazi, Espionage & MMOs - The Mittani Interview (Part 3) 

Red Frog Freight Shipping Price Increases

Alright it finally happened Red Frog Freight has increased their prices as of Mar. 1st. I hate paying more for things. From the looks of things its 700k isk per jump now, a 40% increase.If there is one thing I can't stand about video games it is travel time. I want to play the game not wait in a warp tunnel for something to happen. Ah well I'm to lazy to ship stuff myself life goes on.

Back in November last year I knew this warp speed change would increase prices. It takes forever to get around in a freighter now a days.

Check out Push Industries, their rates are still lower for the time being, though I am sure it is only a matter of time before they up their prices too.