My Turn

When a ship explodes, the dust has settled, the POD popped and the wreck looted we are left with a feeling of gratification, either because we have successfully beaten a capable pilot to death or because we have stolen millions by obtaining expensive items through aggressive negotiation.

It was not always like this for me. Like many, I began the other side of death as the victim of a scoundrel.

My first loss was met with horror and disgust. I was attacked by an Arbitrator in Ravarin. L33t Sphere destroyed my vessel literally within seconds. I felt an enormous sense of waste through the loss; my ship had been built over time with great love and contained the latest and best equipment for my skills at the time. I was convinced she was invincible and it took the destruction of this ship for me to realise the fact that there is plenty to learn and a long way to go.

Initially I was very angry. A small posse of my corporation kindly banded together to hunt for the pirate. After my retribution failed I was left with a hard choice; learn from the loss or not. I chose the former and decided that the judgement laid down on me was a message. I ultimately envied the pirates position and, despite the pain I’d felt losing my ship and clone, I contacted him to discuss his career.

After a few pointers from the mother pirate, I resigned form the corporation without notice and headed toward the core systems to train, develop and gather wealth to arm myself for a life on the edge.

Nearly four years later I’m at the top of my game and have never looked back. I revel in my chosen profession and believe that my current role in this life and the next is my destiny; it’s what I was born to do.

Happy hunting...

Eridani

New Eden will soon enjoy planetary liberation(Tyrannis), a developement sure to change the lives of billions of souls and grant fortunes to those savvy enough to manage their planets recources efficiently. The time is ripe to expand ones tactical skills to surely win the mass land grab which is certain to explode across the known galaxy.

Related Links
Tyrannis (expansion)

Grand Views

Behold the behemoths we navigate through the infinite heavens.

Scale is something that, without a fimiliar frame of reference, is difficult to appreciate. This simulation; engineered by a systems analyst shows the incredible sizes of the larger vessels in the Amarr fleet.

Command and Conquer

New Eden is saturated with variety. If you can think of an occupation involving space ships, I’m sure it is within our vast galaxy of infinite possibilities.


Those pilots whom prefer to engage in activities for their respective factions or corporations through missions tend to miss out on the grandest spectacle in the galaxy; that of large scale fleet combat. Generally New Eden is at its most awe inspiring when two giant forces come together to engage in the wonderful art of combat to the death. The sight of many hundreds of ships, missiles, drones and battle detritus that makes up a battlefield is one to behold.

Battles are traditionally fought with two forces; the allies and the enemy, with hundreds of forces on either side. At present when a mission is undertaken the enemy forces vastly out number the allies, those pilots brave enough to enter the mission either solo or within a small fleet. I’d assume it to be rare for more than a score of pilots to be engaged in the same mission at the same time for the simple reason that the resident enemy forces would become hopelessly out-gunned, and the battle won within minutes. This may be desirable to many, granting the ability to grind many objectives an hour, but I feel that a grander spectacle of combat is lacking for those who choose to run missions.

There could be two forces; the enemy consisting of a carefully composed fleet of ships, and the allies also consisting of a balanced composition equal to that of the enemy. These allied NPC ‘wingmen’ would have their own objectives and would engage with the enemy forces according to predetermined targeting and behave intelligently, much like the indigenous w-space forces (sleepers) employ. Imagine the spectacle of entering a mission where your ship is one of many attacking the enemy to achieve a set of objectives. The two forces should be balanced so that, without a pilots’ intervention, the objectives would be missed and a stalemate between the forces would be the result. This would prevent a passive involvement on the pilots’ part necessitating active engagement to complete the mission.

Wormhole space is a fascinating discovery, employing a medium of live combat between pilots and NPC’s. It’s usual for a small fleet to engage the Sleepers in a similar manner as I’ve described, but with the threat of piracy and the real possibility of the loss of ones own life.

For those of you who want to experience truly immersive fleet engagements without the risk of losing ones own life, the option simply isn’t there, but perhaps that’s the price you pay and is the lure to fight for real.

Just a thought...

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A Question of Choice

New Eden has the capacity to grant pilots to decide their own career paths, providing the capacity for these roles to be determined by the individual in collaboration with various support methods available across New Eden.

There are many of you out there whom, for whatever reason, do not engage in combat against your fellows through choice. However, there is a group in the cosmos whom are more than capable and willing to make that choice on your behalf. Pirates are professionals at choosing the fate of any victim, and they enjoy almost free reign to conduct their business any way they seem fit.

Although there may be many similarities between pirates regarding the implementation of professional piracy across the galaxy, ultimately this conduct is entirely subject to that individuals’ or groups' morality and abilities.


Piracy is a representation of the purity of New Eden’s nature and this is expressed through greed, combat and appropriation of items through aggressive negotiation. The only restriction a pirate may face is the right to enjoy the protection of the Imperial defence fleet or the local faction's, but this too can be remedied through the maintenance of the security rating; the grinding of missions and the elimination of undesirable enemy 'pests' found across New Eden.

There are similar professions in New Eden which also display many of the facets of piracy; bounty hunters for instance, tend to match many of the attributes a pirate may display, but they are obliged to obey the mandate for which they have been hired, to eliminate certain individuals or parties in order to be paid.

There is little doubt that the most liberated group of individuals in New Eden are pirates, and if one wishes to roam the skies of Dominion and behold to none other than ones' own conscience, piracy perhaps is the profession you seek.

Related Links
Piracy Guide

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My EvE Space

With my abode currently undergoing renovation, my cubby hole (as my wife describes it) is far from comfortable. Perhaps this is the reason behind my poor mood when online, killing all I see and laughing loudly at those unfortunate souls.


The sloping roof-line will enable me to fit a curtain across the wall enclosing me within, much like a real cockpit or POD. I plan to buy the biggest screen I can physically fit into this hole in the wall and purchase some quality surround sound headphones so that, when the curtain is drawn I'll be a million miles away - virtually.

Real Lives

I am proud of being the initial spark which caught the imagination of so many of my friends where I reside here in the UK, to become hooked into EvE Online. I remember reading with great interest, the development of our beloved galaxy in Edge magazine way back in January 2002. It wasn’t until the Yule tide celebrations of 2005 that I finally purchased a hard copy of EvE Online (the booklet of which details the Jovians as playable characters) as a gift for myself and began playing.

One year later and many of my good friends became hopelessly addicted to EvE Online, some displaying unswerving dedication by having several accounts on the go simultaneously. EiD, B13, Ntz, LPsyon and Xa are all regular players in all aspects of EvE Online.

EiD recently relocated his pad to that of an attic conversion. The rather large room is currently undergoing designs as an interpretation of a spacecraft. We’re arranging wardrobes, book-shelves and other furniture to form different zones and corridors through the room with the flight deck housing the PC’s and the bed suitably within the living quarters. The noisy engineering zone is to appropriately house his drum kit. It should look ace when we’ve finished.


I suppose all that’s left to do is to dress like our characters and hit the local pub. Should be fun, or perhaps foolish – I can’t decide which.

Ricochet

Your Large Tachyon Beam Laser II Narrowly Misses Lordy23 Causing For 0.0 Damage

Really? As far as I can see the entire battery of laser fire burnt directly onto his fragile hull!

The fact that we are given a number to represent the impacts our weapons have on our targets highlights the imaging capabilities of our respective PODs are so out dated that computer readouts are necessary to indicate the percentage of the charge that completes its journey. New Eden is rife with this problem, some areas are so far ahead of the curve that issues such as this are becoming so lagged that they are completely undesirable.

I like to turn off the readouts at times because their presence detracts from the suspended disbelief of space combat which reminds me that there are some glaring oversights within our beloved realm. Given the impressive amounts of information running between our respective vessels, a correct representation is vastly overdue and should really be forthcoming.

So it continues to annoy, not just myself but many of you currently out there practising the art of combat. If New Eden possessed any kind of integrity, this issue would be dealt with so that we may not rely entirely upon our on-board computers to confirm a full collision, a glancing blow or indeed a miss.

Priorities need to be addressed correctly, but as this issue relates all the way back to the invention of space flight, I for one would’ve assumed it would’ve been addressed and resolved.

Related Links
www.eveonline.com(forum)

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Battle-Scarred Galactica

Space is a cruel harsh infinite environment made incredibly inhospitable by the cruel minds who wander there, preying on the weak and foolish. It’s no wonder that of teh trillions of souls in the galaxy, only a fraction choose to leave terra-firma to seek fame and fortune amongst the stars.

Our chosen existence is one of boundless possibilities; our steel vessels carry us through episodes of pain and wonder and are an extension of our own fears and dreams. Every single vessel is a gleaming example of precision engineering and technological majesty.


This makes the similarities between each vessel very striking. Once when I returned from an excursion of a hundred days my ship appeared exactly the same as when it departed, despite the tale played, the story of which should’ve been visible upon the armour. It’s a shame that, although we all have individual ships, we all look the damn same no matter the age, use or configuration we respectively harbour.

This similarity serves to interrupt the suspended disbelief that we enjoy and reminds us that New Eden is not as advanced as the reality it portrays. I’m not interested in the technological excuses for the omission, only that effects should be layered upon our ships' surfaces to represent the life that our ships have endured; otherwise we simply shimmy around in apparent identical vessels which makes ownership far less personal than it should feel.

I resent shiny and new, I desire dents, scrapes and burns. I think this befits better the New Eden we all bear.

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