Tron; the Legacy

Released in 1982, Tron is still one of the most impressive technical films ever made and I doubt very much that the current Legacy film was any more of a challenge to produce in this age of digital image manipulation. For this reason I have huge respect for the team that produced the original film way back before this digital age.



Tron has not aged well to our expectations of special effects, but I firmly believe that its depiction of a videogame world is much more successful than Legacy. Having seen the new Tron film today, in 3D (the latest gimmick to warrant a 50% increase in ticket cost) I was blown away by the crisp clean and flawless visuals but, and this is a personal choice, I prefer the Tron that flickers, bulges and clips throughout, it's those flaws that made the film completely dreamlike and otherworldly, just the way it should.

Don't forget the original Tron, it was a milestone in movie making and has never since been matched in ambition or significance to its medium.

>END OF LINE_

Related Links
Tron (1982)

Related Soundtrack

A Brave New World

There once was a legendary game called Halo. Originally conceived to be a Real Time Strategy, during preliminary testing; Bungie quickly realised that its product moved better as a First Person Shooter, and thus a mammoth franchise was born. A bold move, therefore it must've been a very hard call as the FPS genre was bloated with capable and experienced developers.



Unlike Bungie whom, at the time were new to the market with nothing to lose and everything to prove; CCP has to protect an established and sensitive game-world. They could be brave and admit all available options. For my money at least, their latest ambition; Dust514 may be more suitable as an RTS. Currently the team is developing this multi-format game for the console FPS player, but their target consumer is much more rigid about purchases, tending not to stray from the lure of the familiar's sequels or from the pretty persuasions of publishers and their hyperbole fan-boy articles in the media. I remember a game called: Too Human(check out that price! lol), being granted the media spotlight and hyped all the way to the shelves, despite being utterly shite. And the bargain bins burgeoned with mis-informed sales.

The RTS genre is also full of capable developers but the market share is smaller than that of the FPS, and less fought. Only a handful of really notable RTS's have made it onto the consoles and for this reason, Dust514 could become hard to ignore, existing as the most unique and refreshing virtual creation available, creating its own sub-genre and an audience with player's interest in the rich and detailed culture of New Eden. Many of the skills developed while playing an RTS can be equally useful in EvE Online and there are more elements of EvE Online that mimic an RTS, rather than an FPS. I fear that as an FPS; Dust514 could become a victim of ignorance, lost in the sound and fury the over-weight publishers create as they vie for every crumb of the genre's huge pie.

EvE Online is no stranger to the RTS genre. There are many passionate bedroom coders that have attempted to develop an EvE Online mod for Homeworld2 and Nexus; The Jupiter Incident. Perhaps due to a rapidly evolving game-world, a lack of consistent resources and possible copyright arguments; all of these mods are yet to deliver. This is a pity as an RTS version of fleet battles could train the brain for the real thing and become a tool for understanding the fundamentals of mass warfare tactics, so long as the RTS translates the mechanics of EvE Online faithfully...



Dust514 may be amazing! better than anything giants such as Bungie, EA, or Ubisoft can muster, or maybe it will sink whilst humiliating CCP and EvE Online against a backdrop of Blizzards insulting success and the media's ability to sensationalise and promote failure. I dearly hope that whatever happens, those for whom the EvE universe never appealed may enjoy our worlds as much as we enjoy our empire over them.

Related Links
Halo; Combat Evolved (PC)
Dust514 Video Archive

Why I Lurve PvP...

This is exactly the reaction I imagine my victims have when I 'judge' them and is the reason I hunt. PvP has the most amazing rush for both the winner and loser...



It's narcissistic to put oneself in this position of possible peril, especially if we adore the feeling and repeat the same actions that lead to the unpleasant eventuality. When your tank is failing and there's no way out, cherish the way it makes you feel and learn from the experience. If you do the same again without winning; then, you neeed help!

Related Link
Tackling Adversity

Related Soundtrack

To Kill a Mockingbitch

Thick and fast come the latest kills. This is surprising as I have been pre-occupied by the creation and administration of my own Corporation. G-H has been set-up to finally deploy my wormhole POS, an idea born from excursions into w-space, but which requires a vast investment of both time and resources. These kills seem to be finding me and that I cannot complain of.

I had a local pilot smack talk me without provocation. She angrily claimed that she knew of me and placed a bounty on my head as we conversed. Unfortunately for her I scanned down this insubordinate fool and warped into a supposed safe-spot on the outskirts of the system.

Surprised to see my ship on grid she attempted to flee, which was strange considering the aforementioned bounty. Her subsequent demise filled me with smug satisfaction. I had never personally insulted the bitch and her personal attack was not warranted, even if she felt akin to a victim of my past deeds, any grievance must be aired from the plaintiff in the court of combat and not from the victims mother! Indeed my bounty has increased, twice in two minutes and will be collected by my servant in due course. Only the pain of death to endure, but Miss NEXUS has become a pro at popping POD's without injuring my naked frail body inside – too much.

I must remind myself that pain is a part of this existence, but every now and then something sweet comes along and makes me grin, broadly.

Happy (bounty) hunting…

Related Soundtrack

Personal Execution

A day to remember was the successful entrapment and destruction of a carefully chosen target responsible for my own demise a few weeks prior. As mentioned in an earlier report, a pirate outfit managed to destroy my favourite vessel; a command ship by the name of PageraMANTOn. Although this 'accident' was entirely of my own making I still wanted to feel hot blood spatter my face despite running low on slaves. This ship was lovingly assembled from the appropriated wares of several victims and WOOT! loots. Painfully her demise was experienced, but upon cloning I vowed to exact my revenge upon those responsible, or vent my fury in some fashion.

Logon traps are not my repertoire as they require the assistance of many pilots and I usually work solo or in tandem with B13. Using my newest ally; Blake, as bait, the target; a Cerburus was aggressed, trapped and subsequently eliminated from the void with earnest violence, as well as the poor pirates POD. The corpse; a dainty female with no skin, is now a hat stand in my office.

I now feel satisfied that my revenge was exacted, particularly as the kill itself was flawless and the ship in question dropped a plethora of tech II loot as well as CN missiles. I was completely satisfied yet baffled by this drop – who in creation puts such a fantastic modules on such a crap ship? I had thought it must be a counter trap, but nothing came of it, even after waiting the standard 15 minutes for the aggression timer to expire.

I don’t consider the matter closed as the pilots in question were not brought to justice in this twisted court, but the plan worked like a dream. The loss sustained by my enemies corporation at least totals the loss on my part, so with this in mind I would recommend a logon trap for even the smaller kills, if they are important enough to warrant the collaboration of several pilots to execute.

Happy trapping…

Related Soundtrack

Virus!

For the protection of your POD and the continuation of your space faring careers I wanted to point y’all toward a free virus protection suite that I can personally recommend, particularly as it is effective, easy to use and free.

Avast! is state-of-the-art virus protection for your POD. Avast! can perform a thorough virus check before your OS runs which helps to eliminate and prevent stubborn programs that may have embedded themselves.

Free to download, free to use and free from unwanted spam mails (if chosen) so that you may get on with your life without the constant interruptions from the program. There is a purchasable version with more features, but for my own personal uses I have no reservations about recommending the effectiveness of this free virus software.

Related Links
Avast! (website)

PvP Pop

A suitable audio score is a useful yet understated tool that livens up tired senses for the task at hand. I have a soundtrack; music to murder by..., to to get me in the mood, but lately this song by the Minmatar Separatist group; Sigue Sigue Sputnik(Persistent, perpetual traveller), is monopolising my minds audio craving. The accompanying video shows the rebellion against the Empire and how, although outmatched in almost every way, the Minmatar were able to inflict heavy casualties upon the innocent Amarr populace using crude but no less effective weaponry.



Related Links
Music to Murder by...
Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile (mp3 download)

Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf was a clear favourite past-time from my youth. Originally released in 1988, it was an instant cult show with an 11 year lifespan, solidifying the casts careers and instigating a split following of those idiots that 'didn't get it' to the other idiots who completely adored the show and it's brand of crazy comedy and proposterous plots.

Created by Doug Naylor and Rob Grant; Red Dwarf had some of the best characters ever to grace a CRT. My favourite has to be the 'Cat,' an evolved feline humanoid intent on womanising and subject to impractical bouts of vanity. Genius. I can never tire of catching up with this iconic sci-fi-com and, in-part the best past-time was working out which popular sci-fi was being parodied by the show.

Originally Red Dwarf was very nearly not made, but thanks to the persistence of the creators, the BBC finally allowed the lunacy to become reality. But I am sad that such a classic show came to an end but all good things must come to an end so we may cherish them.



Related Links
Red Dwarf (official site)
Red Dwarf Episodes Collection

Related Soundtrack

Immersion

New Eden lacks consistent immersion. The level at which one is layered under the veneer of a virtual galaxy endured. An example of this is docking. In almost any film where spacecraft are required to dock or undock, the event itself is celebrated, an opportunity to portray size, scale and weight to help make the ships themselves appear larger in your minds eye. In EvE Online the suspension of 'dis-belief' is shattered every-time a ship docks, undocks, swaps vessels, jumps through stargates, ejects a canister, fires missiles or does anything which does not respond in a fashion that’s consistent with the inferred or expected.

To be fair, these things are superfluous to the mechanics of New Eden, but in the interests of maintaining a healthy dollop of immersion, these omissions should be addressed. Perhaps a cut-scene animation could be created to run during the docking manoeuvre using the current gorgeous real-time graphics engine to show a ship being towed into the intended station, a POD being transferred via mechanical arms or tubes from one ship to the next, a missile or drone leaving its launch bay and, in the case of drones similarly returning to dock with the host.

At present, docking/undocking we have a progress bar which, I’m sure you’ll agree does absolutely nothing to maintain the assumption that we are in a hugely powerful vessel of steel and that this vessel is in one of the most hostile environments known, space. If CCP’s strategy is to attract an increasingly diverse spectrum of players to New Eden by appealing to those paying pundits who find shiny things interesting, then the trimmings may become much more important to the sort of clientele they are aiming for.

Obliterating the lag monster is of up most importance to our sanity and should be given due attention, but reading patch notes where "A spelling mistake has been corrected," there is obviously some manpower overflowing at CCP...devote it to something interesting please.

Related Soundtrack

The Trap

A wonderfully covert method of engaging in guerrilla warfare is to use a logon trap within the target system. This involves deploying gank pilots within said system, preferably when the enemy is diverted or vacant. The fleet then logs off and awaits instructions to logon and emergency warp to the last known location. Whilst this is happening the targets are held via a bait ship, something not obvious to avoid suspicion, fielding a formidable omni-tank.

As the target ship is held the fleet can emerge from the confused darkness of emergency warp and proceed to the target for obliteration. The nasty trick with this method is that the local beacon will not divulge intel to the enemy about fleet presence until it’s (hopefully) too late. I have never yet used this method of trapping a target, favoured by greater warlords, but the mechanics themselves are consistent.

At this time a logon trap is set against my enemy, it’s a matter of revenge you see. Everything is set; capable pilots waiting in the targets’ system, all that is needed is the target itself for my own personal flavour of revenge – it will be served cold.

Happy hunting…

Related Soundtrack

WOOT!!!

In New Eden Macro-Miners are prime pests to pillage. The damage to the economy will never truly be known but thankfully they are also very dumb. Easily identifiable as such when, exploring wrecks about a hulk I noticed a True Sansha wreck, among others with loot within. Scanning the wreck for the assailant; it was the Hulk chewing on several asteroids, oblivious to my intentions. Upon opening the wreck I found a Tech II Social Adaptation Implant worth in excess of 100 million ISK. Stealing this loot did not provoke aggravation from the owner of the wreck confirming without doubt that this Hulk was an auto-pilot.

Macro-miners are a menace, but every now and then they can reward one with profit through ignorance. It’s a shame no aggro was initiated, but if it was then a macro the pilot wasn’t. I was disappointed that a macro kill was missed, but I was thankful for the loot which has in part funded the replacement of my Command Ship lost a few days prior.

Thanks for the drop you macro-morons…

Related Soundtrack

Life begins at 400

My mentor and oldest friend EiD enjoyed his 400th birthday today, although enjoyment was not observed on this special day. It is a trait of any ageing character to become depressed, especially as the centuries continue to increase.

Over the years EiD has been there through all turmoils and successes and has served as constant source of advice and companionship whenever needed. He is the I-A corporation and I wish him another 400 years within New Eden. Space is a much darker place should I imagine it without his brainy beacon.

To celebrate his life I prepared him a rifter so he may join me on a hunt for combat, a nod to his earlier days as a pirate and before that; a naval recruit. I'm sure that the hunt should re-awaken those tired senses and make him feel young(er).

Related Links
Rifter - Pirate Fitting

Related Soundtrack

Retail Therapy

Our corporate hanger, where all operations into wormholes stem from, has several ships all of differing designs for differing roles. Singularity serves as a sounding board for these designs and, at present I’m attempting to condense the roles of some of these ships into as few as possible. This increases the costs, but also reduces operation times considerably and in some cases is less of a risk with less exposure.

Scratching my head for the last few weeks it has been decided that the only way to fulfil this mandate is to produce my first Tech III hull(s). So late night study periods have enabled my brain some gain in the field of Strategic Cruisers, including a Neural remap, but I ain't no engineer...

Required Modules
Expanded Probe Launcher
Small Tractor beam
Covert Operations Cloaking Device II
Electronic Counter Measures
Salvager II

Desired Equipment
Code-Breaker II/Analyzer II
Electronic Warfare Drones

Desired Abilities
Tank: Omni - Sustained Defence Ability; 1k dps
Capacitor: NOS Proof
Speed: 1km/second
Warp-Core: Stable/Immune to Interdiction
Sensors: Reinforced
Gank: Minimum; 750 dps

Legion
Lows
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Medium Armor Repairer II x2

Mediums
10MN Afterburner II
Codebreaker II
Large Capacitor Battery II
Medium Hull Repairer II

Highs
Heavy Beam Laser II x2
Salvager II
Expanded Probe Launcher I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Small Tractor Beam I
Rocket Launcher II

Rigs
Capacitor Control Circuit II
Anti-Thermic Pump II
Auxiliary Nano Pump II

Sub-systems
Legion Defensive - Nanobot Injector
Legion Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer
Legion Engineering - Power Core Multiplier
Legion Propulsion - Interdiction Nullifier
Legion Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration

Designed primarily for exploration, the current fit does everything I need except the DPS, which is dissappointing, but realistically it's too much to ask of a ship of this type and size. Already at around 1 billion ISK, this is a serious investment and one which I may still lavish faction equipment onto. Clearly I have more money than sense, or I know how to steal...

Related Soundtrack

EPIC FAIL!!!

That pwnd feeling...



...I never lose!!!

Karma

A dear friend of mine was lost a few days prior. She’d been with me for a short while and had exhausted my rig fitting resources during her construction, including Tech II rigs. As much as I preach “don’t take into low sec what you’re not prepared to lose” I figure it would be wise to accept my own advice and avoid hypocrisy.

The ship was lost to a plucky party of pillaging probing pirates, and while the battle itself was short lived, my ship did well against the onslaught of no less than seven damage dealing designs. With a mandate primarily for exploring sites, the Absolution was one of my favourite toys.

I don’t feel bitter for the loss, instead I have located the HQ of the pirate corporation and I will take time to stalk their territory for an opportune moment to severely strike from the darkness, so not bitter at all then eh? You know who you are and in the massive scheme of things I doubt very much that you'll read this report so my secret plans and nasty tricks must be secure.

My command ship was obtained from a collection of kills and salvage, manufactured from the grief of other unfortunate pilots whom lost their right to live, for the moment. I guess what goes around comes around, karma is a cruel queen.

So in the spirit of piracy I will exact my revenge upon those involved. But as I'm in danger of being a hypocrite I never said do what I do, just what I say.

Karma, you bitch..!.

Related Soundtrack

The Wings of Honneamise

The Wings of Honneamise is one of my most prized films, it's a beautifully crafted tale of a race to the stars and the consequences on society of that space race. Throughout the film there are philosophical questions raised regarding the ability of mankind to feed his brethren whilst ploughing resources into technology to reach beyond Terra Firma.

The film is not your a-typical multi penis demon fest with murderous intent, instead the film has been akin to The Right Stuff. It's a thoughtful story of one mans conscience and his position as a role-model whilst propelling mankind into space. During his training he meets a young woman and her child whom teach him the importance of his power to protect the world they inhabit and preserve the inhabitants right to peace despite primal impulses to become barbarous and greedy.

It's refreshing to see anime that is not concerned with demons, breasts and guns; instead the backdrop of the tale is as rich as Bladerunner and the characters are so well developed, sympathtic relationships form with the avatars and the viewer.

Not a film to be missed if you haven't seen it, a true classic and incredibly unique. Criminally the DVD is not available to the UK and so I rely solely on my hopelessly poor quality VHS version to satisfy my thirst for this wonderful, epic story of mankind's race into space.



Related Links
The Wings of Honneamise

Say "Hello" to my Little Friend

In another life I have a little friend, say "hello."

We've known each other for over ten years and for most of this time I have played the part of a surrogate wife by nagging him to play ball in our great galaxy. I've told him of the wicked wormhole space and shown the hilarious hate mails of my victims. I’ve told tales of Militia Warfare and of massive fleet engagements that lasted hours and raved on the acquisition of faction loot from my poor prey.

Despite all this icing I think the crunch came when he observed the construction of my planetary manufacturing infrastructure, building colonies seems to have monopolised his interest.

At this time 'Blake' has been in New Eden for over 500 hours. As with any Noob he has made many mistakes already, fitted a shield tank to a Punisher and ventured into low sec without proper precautions. The fact that he did not lose his ship makes my tales of pilaging and piracy seem unfounded, but I’m sure his time will come should he continue to travel with wilful abandon, don’t let me down me hearties…

As far as careers go he has yet to make a decision, but he finds himself wanting to become a similar pilot to myself. So am I to become a role-model? That notion disturbs me as I have always entertained myself according to whim. I suppose it may give me a focus, and re-visiting my skill training history may be useful to see what can be improved. I trust Blake will enjoy his stay here in New Eden, as long as he is prepared for the adventure of many, many clones.

Principally he must learn loss; a defining part of New Eden. A pilots first major loss of metal or muscle tests resolve. I'm confident he's of stern stuff and I will assist in any way I can, but odds dictate he will, at some point be pwnd and left naked in the void. If he can retain his enthusiasm I will show him how to kill as a pirate. Firstly one must experience the pain loss causes, and then one can truly understand the pleasure of piracy.

So a warm welcome to the limit Blake, the world is yours…

Related Soundtrack

Hadley's Hope

The harvesting of planetary resources is a dull occupation. However, harvest from planets in wormholes and you have the recipe for some profitable harvesting coupled with the raw resource richness wormholes possess.


My reports have been lacking lately due to this new endeavour. I have successfully installed several wormhole colonies producing Viral Agents, Vaccines, Robotics, Consumer Electronics and Mechanical Parts. I have also claimed an island on Sarum Prime 6 producing Livestock; this is now my nest egg.

At the time of writing we're producing nearly 4mil isk per day before costs, although the setup fee was bloated with experiments and came in at around 20mil. This isn't bad at all considering that this income is passive. This is only possible due to the vast resources to be found upon and within wormhole planets. Typically planets in wormholes tend to be saturated with all the minerals used in production lines. In comparison; the Sarum Prime colony is running at 1/3 the rate of my wormhole colonies. I conclude that the best locations I have found thus far for planetary harvesting are to be found within wormholes, taking into account all known, and unknown space.

Before rushing out to claim a stake within a wormhole and get fat, be prepared for the worst. Although the rescources are much greater, actually retrieving the goods from the wormhole can be problematic at best. As a wormhole will dissappear eventually and, if a POS is not installed in the system, an ALT will be needed to remain offline in the wormhole, fitted with a scan probe launcher and a healthy supply of probes. This grants the ability to find an exit to normal space to allow a hauler to find the wormhole then enter and leave with the goods promptly. An ALT with a Covert Ops Cloaking Device II is best as this will allow the ALT to scan and survey the wormhole properly for enemy vessels.

The upside of planetary harvesting in a wormhole is that, although the wormhole is not readily available to access requiring an investment of time and patience, the administration duties can be performed from anywhere in New Eden. This means that the colony can continue to produce until such time as all cargo areas are saturated or the produce can be withdrawn. Even then the structure of the plantation can be altered remotely to increase storage capacity. I have found that it is possible to harvest at such a rate that the final stage of production can barely keep up with the extractors, allowing the final production stage to run constantly, adding to the attraction. In addition to this is the fact that, at the moment no-one can remove or destroy your claim making the risks almost seem worth it

But without the produce from the wormhole, there is no profit.

Happy planet hopping…

Related Links
Wormhole Exploration Guide
Planetary Interaction (eve university)

Related Soundtrack

Our Alien Nations

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Such a film was huge, staring not a single human. But one has to wonder what aliens would really look like, beyond the novel speculation of others. Their appearance is moulded by their environment, but what they think of us is as much a judgement of society's control over our environment from an absolute impartial observer. This grants us a seldom true referral for our lives and could liberate our planet from the burden of capitalist control and religious influence.

With luck they haven't seen this lot. Or if aliens are already here, perhaps these individuals may be blamed for their reasons they remain incognito.



Related Links
Alien Eyes (you tube)
Aliens Amongst Us (you tube)

Blog Packing

The Blog Pack is a glorious gabble of care-bears, pirates, pvp'ers and miners all set to ponder their reality that is EvE Online. The proprietor; CrazyKinux, is one of the best known bloggers of our beloved galaxy, selflessly he promotes the writings of other less known bloggers, such as me.

Recently has has revised his Blog Pack to remove veteran posters to include some noobs, as it were. Again this shows the level headed nature of the BlogFather and why, his blog is the most respected out there. I for one am grateful for this pack for two reasons:

1. I finally have a reader base, and
2. A wealth of knowledge, creativity and ideologies flow endlessly from the Blog Pack.

EvE Online is fortunate that it inspires so many due to it's diversity, beauty and complexity, which is rare these days. In turn, the Blog Pack is the most comprehensive tool with wicked writers, pop artists and moaning miners alike. This makes the Blog Pack one of the best resources for EvE Online anywhere in the universe.

Check out the latest Blog Pack, including the latest additions at CrazyKinux's Musing.

Related Links
www.crazykinux.com
The Blog Pack

How to Dissappear Completely

I have a new clone. Not a duplicate you see, but an entirely new pilot. The name of my partner in crime is to remain confidential as secrecy is absolutely necessary to function properly. The precise purpose of this new clone is to provide a safe port for myself and any other pilots whom join my cause either in wormhole space or low security regions. His mission is to train for a cloaked Rorqual with a clone vat bay.

I always had this vision of being able to wander where-ever I wished, covertly entering space from a secret mobile base, the sort where a specific password and location would be needed to locate the harbour. As far as I am aware, only the Rorqual and the Titans have the clone vat bay functionality. A Titan is much too large an object to realistically cloak, it occupies more than 9 billion cubic metres, nevermind the cost.

This new ally of mine will logon to the POD in the Rorqual, I will then logon to the POD in a local station and clone jump into the Rorqual pulling a ship from the hangar. Once ejected with a ship the Rorqual will re-cloak until such time as I need to dock again to log.

This idea is yet to be tested properly. Singularity will provide me with this ability without risks to my health or safety. I hope it works as it may fulfill a desire I've held for literally years. If anyone has tried this approach to achieving a mobile covert base of operations I would love to hear your tale.

In the mean time, let the tests begin in earnest. I will of course update as the results are discovered.

Happy hush hush…

Related Soundtrack

Beyond Hollywood

We are in the age of dungeons and dragons. The effects industry is exclusively interested in recreating mythical creatures, elegant landscapes and magical characters. I resent this age; Sci-Fi is my first choice for passively escaping the daily grind of RL.

Cinema has a very close relationship with the status quo. It is no coincidence that the latest productions represent a 'wanting' of something better than what’s currently on offer in this age of poverty. In these late films people can perform magic and fly, whilst the dark side of life is shown through vampires and ware-wolves, each with their own fantastical powers. During the Vietnam War films tended to be disaster movies, mirroring the mood of the people by killing hundreds of souls in fires, floods and crashes of various vehicles in silly situations.


The last great Sci-Fi spell was during the release of the StarWars franchise. Although we recently enjoyed a resurgence of Sci-Fi such as Star Trek, District 9 and Sunshine; generally new releases are of a fantastical nature.

EvE Online is the richest game world I have ever experienced. Whith such abundant content I often wonder if it would be a successful translation to screen but, considering Hollywood’s often inept handling of the subject matter, perhaps it isn’t desirable to allow such a fickle business to interpret our beloved galaxy into a flimsy film. Besides, it takes months to truly understand what’s occurring in EvE Online, a luxury that filmmakers cannot afford to portray on-screen.

Recently there was an announcement that one of my all time favourite games was to be given the Hollywood treatment. The thought of various movie moguls discussing the translation of Shadow of the Colossus into a film frightens me; a simple game but with very subtle complexities that I am sure will be missed while hunting for the ultimate colossus effect. EvE Online would surely be handled in a similar ham-fisted manner, a fate for which would border on blasphemy.

If a film ever were to be produced I would be the first in the queue. Not for the reasons you may assume, but to be sure that my suspicions were correct. Who knows, perhaps the impossible could happen where I'd be pleasantly surprised, but I doubt that muchly. EvE Online is beyond Hollywood, and much better for it in my opinion.

Related Links
www.thefilmjournal.com
jonners.org
www.medialit.org

The HAL9000 Project

A few days ago, loyal Gallente engineers stumbled upon an AI buried deep within an ancient debris cloud. Carrying the name: HAL9000, it's an AI with unsurpassed logic and memory retention. I've had some interesting periods of conversing with this new entity over the past few hours. I must state that it seems nefariously intent on accomplishing any mission I pose to it. I cannot decide if this is dangerous or desirable?

To test the AI, I have linked several sound bytes to my POD's sound scheme. When connecting a new device HAL says: "Just a moment...just a moment." When turning off the POD I get: "Thanks for a very enjoyable game." "Your'e welcome Hal," I always say. I suppose there is one clear positive I can garner from the experience, it's nice to finally have a friend...

Related Links
www.halproject.com (fansite)

Related Soundtrack

Happy Hulkageddon

As this mad month of mayhem closes the once target rich environment of Empire saw a dramatic decline in it's numbers. But there were still many brave and/or stupid miners present that were, for whatever reason not aware of this fabulous fury of fire that annually holds the core systems to ransom. I was not aware of any official warning from the powers that be; to keep the mining ships in dock for a week and spring clean, although it did make the evening news.

This had the effect of allowing green miners to slip outside the protective layers of steel to risk their worth to extract minerals from the floating colossus rocks that litter the core systems, oblivious to the danger lurking in the void. I enjoyed myself immensely blowing up all manner of vessels from Frigates to Barges.

I did find the quality of targets lacking, mainly consisting of relatively fresh pilots who cannot easily replace losses. I am not a fan of easy killing, I prefer a good scrap even if I lose. I had hoped to cross the path of a fake miner, fitted out to shrug off the attacks of plucky pirates but sadly this was not the case. I have to believe that the baptism of fire is beneficial to these green pilots as it's our duty to 'teach' them that nowhere is safe from our murderous wandering, and that they cannot simply collate vast sums of isk whenever they undock, even in Empire.

It's refreshing to be a part of something bigger, a rabble of raping pirates intent on obliteration of any vessels displaying a mining beam. I didn't win any prizes for my efforts, and in fact I was ruthless with my costs also, only fitting exactly what I needed to kill various targets. But I'm looking forward to the normality of hunting in low sec again, without reprisals by the concord fraternity.

My security rating has seen a hammering; I dropped two clear points in the last seven days and became banned from Empire, again. This will force me to undergo the slog of ratting and/or missioning but I am looking forward to respite on both my security rating and my wallet.

So bless all the miners for making a good show and dying so readily. The core systems belong to the industrialists, the miners and the agent whores once again. We've crawled back into the gloom to harbour our horrors, until next time...

Happy (not) hunting…

Related Links
Hulkageddon3 (official site)

Related Soundtrack

A Hole in the Head

Piracy is the essence of life in New Eden. Without the cold threat of death your heart would wither. Fear is necessary to remind us that our assets have value, that they need protection. Without piracy the will to cherish would be diminished. Piracy is one of the oldest traditions of New Eden. Conflict drives the development of weapons, ships and tactics and without piracy this conflict would be the will of the privileged and the selfish.

We are the unofficial guardians of this region between the Empires and Alliances. Without piracy resources would become subject to mass amassing by greedy corporations and individuals. Low security space would become a swathe of hulks and battleships earning an easy crust throughout the region. Traffic would become unbearable at choke points with ships of all configurations vying for their share of the richness found outside the core systems.

The product of this ruthless competing would descend entire constellations into war as corporations clash for control of the mining fields and ratting rights. The rich would become filthy, the poor would become marginalised and the rest of us would have little choice other than joining the biggest corporations available to survive against their onslaught for control.

As pirates we force the control of wealth from the bearer and distribute this wealth in many creative ways. We enjoy free reign to do as we please because, although we are subject to the laws of decency within Empire, we commonly disregard these regulations. As a mechanic; piracy is a necessary evil which must be practiced. A land without crime would be incredibly dull. We therefore risk our lives to educate the masses to be wary of your fellow pilot, to ensure your security measures are sufficient and to maintain the status quo of New Eden as a place unsuitable for most, save for those of us who have the nerve to regularly risk everything without the promise of gain.

Piracy is a noble profession and one for which the victims should be grateful for our practice. I for one enjoy this way of life, particularly where victims feel displeased with their judgement. This is the essence of what we do, so please feel free to flame us whenever and wherever you find us.

Happy hunting…

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Passive Targeter

This lowly passively useful device is one of my favourite covert weapons. It enables me to creep upon bewildered hulks and send them spinning into oblivion.

Used correctly it grants precious seconds against prey by withholding intent while they grapple with it. It's warranted a place on many designs, a personal favourite of mine. Though it does occupy a useful slot, I have found it invaluable in solo encounters. A truly useful tool which is gladly ignored.

Try it and you may find it useful more than once. Don't use an aggressive action until you are in range to warp disrupt, they won't see your lock until you unleash the hounds of hell.

Related Links
Passive Targeter I

Blessed are the Cursed

We are immortal. We share eternity with the elements of the infinite. Our vessels of steel and carbide shield our bodies from the vacuum of the void as our minds play havoc with the fates of strange and familiar souls. It’s a remarkable position to find ones-self. We are truly blessed, or cursed dependant on ones perspective.

We are cursed because we cannot leave our prisons of steel. We cannot enjoy sunlight warming the face, glowing on the eyes. We cannot shake hands or embrace our kind. We cannot face our opponents on equal terms, using our brute strength to beat them in hand-to-hand combat. We cannot bear children nor love thy love. We consume energy, not food as we cannot enjoy the pleasure of our pallet. We cannot feel the cold, heat or wind of our mother planet and we cannot see outside the confines of our craft with our eyes. Despite the thousands of hands that assist us on-board, we are alone in the void. We are cursed for these reasons.

We are blessed because we are the ship we inhabit. We are one with the metal flesh. Its structure is our bones and the drones, our children. We can travel unthinkable distances in mere minutes. We can communicate with our fellows across the known galaxy instantly. We tour the skies omnipotent to the masses below. We feel deaths claws whenever he calls, but ultimately we cannot die. We can amass more wealth than has ever been dreamt. We can travel to places no-one has ever seen. We can change our appearance at will and we are honoured, envied and worshipped by the billions of souls who depend on our actions to maintain an empire. We are blessed for these reasons.

Which side do you think we fall?

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Three's a Crowd

Tandem of Terror, the Deadly Duo. These phrases come to mind when I think of the relationship both B13 and I share. The two of us perfectly compliment each others abilities to bring pain unto any poor unfortunate soul that may stray into our terror trap of Web and Warp-Scrambler.

It occurred to me recently to consider perhaps bringing in a third pirate to assist our pillaging. Although the spoils would be diluted, the effectiveness of our combat unit surely would increase. In truth, we already utilise a third pilot; our intel officer; an alt. Perhaps an ‘active’ vessel would be wise addition to our terrific team.

In practice this dynamic became problematic. The bond and understanding B13 and I possess is so acute that it’s difficult to allow an ‘outsider’ to contribute and meld within our ranks and act as a third arm. Statistically there should only be positives points when increasing a fleet size, but New Eden is much more subtle; an unforgiving realm rewarding those with quick wit and iron nerve.

With a third member, the dynamic became loose. We all agreed that not only does it increase our fielded DPS, but it also adds an element of confusion and consideration for manoeuvring, as well as additional factors such as our presence in local which has increased by a third. This alone seems to have attracted unwanted attention, three pilots are seen as a threat where-as two were usually ignored as a nuisance. We also found it is easier to mask two pilots using mis-direction, three pilots are not so easily cloaked.

With our first encounters costing our fresh fellow his ships, it is fair to state that it isn’t going to be easy to improve our posse. Perhaps considering our friends’ lack of experience or our ability to protect his hull properly, that has caused this initial failure to improve. In any case, B13 and I are used to handling ourselves in combat, asking little of each other for support. In hindsight I am reluctant to amend the dynamic; my conclusion is to preserve our twin pirate gang. Adding to this relationship only spoils the broth and gets the incorrect cook killed.

Happy hunting…

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brb

It's that time of year again when I lose my head. My ship is docked and the slaves have a few days off to catch their breaths. I trust that the rest of New Eden's pirate fraternity will fill the monumental hole left by my absence and that piracy will surely be fine while I am away pretending to be cultured.

The plan is to forget who I am, where I am and how I got there. If I achieve this I will be pleased. The only problem I'll forget that too, but at least I won't care much.

I need a holiday though...so this is a welcomed distraction from murder and mayhem. I only hope the weather holds out otherwise we may all look like a Minmatar Mud Monsters and that would be bad.

Happy holidays...

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“Skill Training Completed.”

I particularly like that phrase, especially as I have finally reached a milestone. I can no longer improve upon my turret skills; they are all at level 5, this includes all the tertiary skills. Save for +5 brain augmentations, illegal stimulants or hard wiring skills into my flesh, there isn’t much more I can do to improve my death dealing abilities. I've mentioned this before, but today the final skill was actually ticked off the endless 'to-do' list.

Next, my plan is to maximise my engineering skills as these are currently adequate. One of the keys to surviving combat is capacitor, an element the Amarr are notoriously weak due no small part to the vast amounts diverted towards weapons and armour maintenance. I am constantly at war with my power-grid and recharge rate, even with my turret skills maxed. It would be nice to fit without being constantly reminded of our(Amarrian) shortcomings, so engineering needs some lovin’.

Navigation wise, I am lacking. I refused to train the Micro-Warpdrive to Tech II, I prefer to utilise Afterburners as they are much more versatile and penalise the ship less. My ECM skills also need a little work but my drone skills are second to non; unusual for an Amarr pilot.

Traditionally I prefer to train ship skills first then outfit them with weapons as I train up the turret skills. I currently have Assault Frigate 5, Heavy Assault Cruiser 5, Recon Ships 5, Covert Ops 5, Marauders 5 and Interceptors 5. These skills enable me to use any ship from the group with maximum potential and, in the grander scheme of things; I feel the extra boni are worth the months of hard training.

The Redeemer is my next target. With that comes a plethora of level 5 tertiary skills which must be trained, not to mention the 65million ISK I need for the Jump Portal skill book. So back to the books, the graft and the late night booster abuse.

Now where’s that damn bookmark gone…?

To Boldly Go...

Wormholes are a delicacy. Few pilots muster the courage to enter such alien environments, but those who dare can become very wealthy or dead within hours. I prefer to become richer through harvesting resources, or appropriating funds and items from the poor lost pilots found within. I recently convinced my mentor; EiD to assist the mining of an asteroid belt overflowing with rare ores as the job alone would've taken days.

The operation went without incident and we left wormhole space with our holds bursting with the rarest of ores. Despite the success I was slightly disappointed that there were no pirates, sleepers or trouble of any kind. For months I’d been telling tales of the hardships I’d encounter whilst dragging riches from the void, only for our joint expedition to be completed without the terror I usually endure.

As a director of our corporation, EiD has much more influence for my cause. I continue to request corporate funding to explore wormhole space, and although I'm alone in my pot holing, my efforts have not gone unnoticed by our CEO; CT. This is partly the reason EiD was tagging along, to observe my actions and evaluate the need for corporate funds.

With all the ore we gathered now processed and donated to the corporate wallet (minus costs) I am hopeful that this development will release funding to help me collate a fleet of dare-devil pilots, and to finally embark upon a crusade to mine the riches from wormholes with my corporations consent and backing.

My real intentions are to claim a wormhole environment as my own and use this random roaming space to carry out pirate attacks on the local populace, something my corporation does not condone. If I get the funding it will help me deploy a POS within the space; this is something which was previously deemed too expensive for me to carry. With the corporations backing, things may be a little easier and involve less risk to my own wallet. Only time will tell. Oh how I hate bureaucrats.

Happy hunting…

Related Links
Wormhole Harvesting

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"Can you hear me?"

The live voice is the most efficient medium by which we pass on vital information in New Eden. Although communications must be fundamental to any universe it is odd that only in the last few years have we seen an integrated voice system.

Because of this delay, other systems grew into place to enable voice. Teamspeak and Ventrillo have both been widely used to bridge the gap left by the lack of voice communications. Although these systems are accepted and work with varying degrees of success, EvE Voice is the medium by which I prefer to use.

All three systems have their flaws but none, save for EvE Voice can claim to be integrated into our HUD. This makes identifying and managing voice communications much more efficient and requires virtually no administration when compared to Teamspeak or Ventrillo. Voice and identity management can be achieved with Teamspeak and Ventrillo through the use of sophisticated upgrades to ones neural interface, but not every pilot has the resources or inclination to access such systems.

Agreeably our corporation has embraced EvE Voice, eliminating the need for constant updates and amendments to our server accesses. It also reduces fraud and espionage as the only pilots able to connect are already within the corporation, ie: not using an exterior server which can be open to manipulation.

The decision to use of any live voice communications system, whether within the cluster or not, is subject to the individuals and/or collective preferences and that this is subject to change on a regular basis, but for my own and my corporations use; EvE Voice is our best solution.

Happy chatting…

Related Links
Ventrillo (download)
Teamspeak (download)

Battle of the Planets

From the archives of my youth comes Battle of the Planets. Perhaps I am showing my age, but this series was followed by my brother and I religiously. The original series; Gatchaman, was a Japanese cartoon edited by the west and repackaged for a younger audience as the original series was too violent and explicit for its target audience.



This diluting of the show didn't detract from the awesome visuals (at the time) when most children were used to awful cycle animated series such as Scooby Doo and the like. I have very fond memories of watching this on a Saturday morning and being completely enthralled by the show. Truly an iconic show which to this day has never been matched.

Related Links
Battle of the Planets (DVD Box-Set)
Gatchaman (DVD Box-Set)

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