Brave Voices

It's tough to take a stance on a sensitive issue. I knew the moment I said a single word that I'd come under a wee bit of fire. I knew that if I was going to open the door, I'd have to be prepared to defend my position with friends and foes alike. For instance, I like Funky Bacon and follow him on Twitter. That said, he and I heavily traded blows on the topic of Erotica 1. Trust me, I cringed every time I argued with someone on this because I absolutely understood where they were coming from (well, except the trolls).

Villains and Angels in EVE Online

My last post was about one of the more infamous aspects of playing EVE Online - scamming. Always controversial for the community that is EVE, scamming is seen as a form of game play by CCP and is protected as such - as long as the scammer does not violate the TOS, of course. It doesn't take very long to look through EVE Online's Forums to find some great stories, rage, and calls to ban scamming, which just goes to show how many out there are utilizing this form of game play as a means to farm ISK. I have always been very vocal that I do not care for scamming (I believe that it is a quick way to scare off new players as they are the easiest victims to prey on, often unknowingly to the scammer), and I go so far as to ban my Corp members in participating in scamming in any form. That said, I actually agree with CCP that it should be allowed. I may not personally condone it and do not want that behavior associated with myself, but I also do not have sympathy for anyone who does not have the sense to beware a deal too good to be true. Sorry, but it's true - if you're gonna be stupid, you better be strong.

But being a scammer is just one art of villainy in EVE Online. The Mittani has probably been called every sour name in the book, from Mob Boss to whiny scumbag. Likewise, you have Cannibal Kane - a self-described "terrorist" preying on anyone and everything that tickles his fancy with brutal, artistic efficiency. There are Psychotic Monk and the Belligerent Undesirables, whose sole mission is to fill their corp's hangers with ALL the tears, who constantly wardec industrial corps, gank anything that comes across their guns, and are some of the best Awoxers in the game. You also have CODE., the mini-empire of James315 whom solely harass and kill Highsec miners. You have Burn Jita, Hulkageddon, and Ice Interdiction, oh my! EVE truly seems to be a scary place, after all.

To the casual observer or the pessimistic player, EVE Online seems to be a universe where the most evil, chaotic players triumphantly rule over the passive, the weak, the stupid, and/or the peaceful. I am here to tell you that - in EVE as in real life - it simply isn't true.

You are quick to say "But Coffee, you JUST posted a blog about how a poor player was scammed out of his ISK and nothing was done!". Well, dear reader, that simply isn't true either. As far as I know, the scammer was never punished and CCP has not given their thoughts on an external website scamming ISK. That said, however, angels exist in this game that will swoop in and bestow blessings upon the unfortunate. I was contacted a few short days after linking that blog piece on the EVE Forums by player Reileen Kawahara who donated the entire 150,000,000 ISK loss to the victim. I spoke in length with Reileen, and have added them to my growing list of  "good people in EVE". In that one conversation, I got the feeling that Reileen and I seem to have the same outlook on gaming styles, especially when it comes to looking out for other players that need a hand.

But Reileen is just one person compared to the legions of evil, slimy baddies, right? Look, I can seriously spend the next year writing blog after blog about all the acts of charity in EVE Online that would completely dwarf the stories of acts of evil. If you look around, you'll find some amazing things that people invest loads of time, money and hard earned ISK just to benefit other EVE players. Here's just a few examples:

Sindel's Angel Project
Vaerah Vahrokha's ISK-to-Charity relief fund initiative
PLEX for GOOD
Mourning Vile Rat and donating to his family
Players giving loads of gifts away (way, way too many to link)
Chribba Fucking Veldspar (you heard bells tinging when you read his name, didn't you?)

Hell, even the so-called "villains" in EVE can't help themselves from helping their fellow EVE players from time to time. Notorious scammer Erotica1 was my first introduction to what having a "spy" in your corp meant in EVE Online. Despite losing my very first ship and pod to his alt (in my first month of playing while in an industrial corp, if I remember right), he took the time to pull me aside and explain what went wrong for me. We talked for a little while about his scamming conquests, my horrible ship fitting and some tips on the game in general. He then contracted my drops back to me and then my wallet flashed - 100 million ISK! "That should help you get started in EVE o7," he said, then flew off to find more victims.

Obviously if I advocate this type of behavior I better be walking-the-walk, right? Well, if you know me, you know I do. Since setting up Thrall Industrial, I've given away Navy Apocs and PLEX to corpies as Christmas presents (using ISK earned through speculation - I'm not rich by any means). Thrall's Director of Industry found his way into my corp after he lost his first mining barge in Lowsec. Seeing he was a newer player, I talked with him and gave him one of Thrall's loaner barges to replace his loss. Shortly after that, he asked to join and since then has been very active with us. I try to make sure that everyone's play style is respected, and work hard to see that we always have free ship hulls for members so they don't worry so much about losing their own in PvP. I've donated to Alexia Morgan's Touring New Eden corporation. I give away my ISK, my skillbooks, and my time to newbros, enemies and corpies alike.

And if you sit back and really think about it you'll realize I'm not the only one out there doing it, am I? Don't let the stories of the harsh edge of EVE online blind you to the random acts of kindness occurring every moment of the day, everywhere in this game.

The PI Alt: Often Overlooked and Very Valuable

On Twitter, @dettol_eve asked #tweetfleet what the perfect skill plan is for a Planetary Interaction (PI)Alt. I, in my inebriated state, basically said, “I GOT THIS!” Aaaand, here I am. I apologize to Dettol for taking a few days to get this up but I hadn't planned a PI Alt write up until my response to his tweet.

I am laying the skill plan out first so you can skip my rambling located later in this post. This skill plan may include starter skills that your character may be born with, but are still listed as a matter of prudence. Below that section you will find my explanations regarding PI and the skill plan.

The PI Alt Skill Plan (no remaps):

Spaceship Command III (for the Industrial ship)

(Racial) Industrial III

Science III

Remote Sensing I

Command Center Upgrades I

Interplanetary Consolidation I

(From here you can set up your first planet with these skills trained, and begin to understand how the PI system works while waiting for the rest of your training queues to finish – or you can just wait until the training is completed.)

Command Center Upgrades IV

Interplanetary Consolidation IV

Remote Sensing III

Science IV (for Planetology)

Planetology III

(If you are training your main, or a PI-only alt that you don’t want to waste too much time training, you can stop here and have an effective and very profitable toon. However, I would still highly recommend doing the next set of skills as you will see a large difference in the ease of use of your new PI character, and larger profits.)

Continued Training for an Advanced PI Character

Interplanetary Consolidation V

Command Center Upgrades V

Planetology IV

Advanced Planetology III

Other Recommended Basic Skills

Mechanics I

Hull Upgrades III

Engineering III

Shield Management III

Shield Upgrades IV

Navigation II

Warp Drive Operation IV

Evasive Maneuvering III

Afterburner II

Retail III*

Broker Relations III*

* Train if you plan on having your alt sell the goods instead of trading them to your main/market alt.

The Rambling

Planetary Interaction is one of my favorite subjects. This is why I felt the need to respond to my fellow player with promises of advice as I feel that too few players engage PI as a means of income as much as they should. I understand why many don’t – if you are a High-seccer, the high tax rate may appear to negate any potential profit (a 10% tax makes some PI products to be left with slim of margins, however, there are still many products that are very, very worth the tax rate). If you are a Null-seccer in unsafe territories, the constant threat of a gank or the constant destruction of POCOs (Player Owned Customs Office) makes it seem to be too troublesome.

However, if you fall into the rare category of the “lucky three”, you are foolish not to conduct PI as a means of semi-passive income. What are the “lucky three”? Well, they are: 1) The member of a Corporation/Alliance who has control of a region of Lowsec or Nullsec where the Corp’s POCOs are controlled at a low tax rate (generally 5% or less); 2) a Wormholer with the same as #1, but generally enjoy 1%-3% or even 0% tax; or, 3) a player who is enjoying low tax rates, covertly, by using another corporation’s low-tax POCOs. Let me stress this – if you can get access to a Lowsec, Nullsec or Wormhole with 5% or lower tax rate, you have no excuse not to be doing PI. A person can easily buy a PLEX each month with their PI side business, alone.

So, how can you enjoy the status in the realm of the “lucky three”? Well, outside of joining Coffee’s Thrall Industrial who loves shooting other POCO’s and setting up 0% tax POCOs for their fellow Alliance members and 2% for Blues (*cough*shamelessplug*cough*), you can find and exploit a low tax POCO of your own. But to really make big ISK doing this, your main, a trained alt, or (ideally) a combination of your main and several alts, need to have the preceding skills trained.

For the first set I’ve listed them in order of importance. The reason you need the Industrial trained is that the Command Centers you must purchase from the market are 1000m3 each and the PI goods you will be taking off the planet stack up quickly, making the need for a hauler important for each PI character. Remote Sensing will need to be trained next as you won’t know where the resources are on the planet without it. Interplanetary Consolidation (IC) expands how many planets you can conduct PI from (IC IV lets you run 5 planets), and Command Center Upgrades gives you more valuable CPU in order to set up more structures. It is worth mentioning at this point that once a Command Center is established on your planet you can manage the colony from anywhere in the game (even docked).

Planetology and Advanced Planetology are often overlooked but are valuable to your success. These skills affect the margin of error there is between the projected resource per cycle in a location, and how much the extractor actually brings in. Without these skills trained, you will find that your installed jobs will typically pull in a very different amount of resources than projected. Remote Sensing skill also reduces any additional error based on your range to the planet (yes, this matters, too, but not as much in my experience). NOTE: Planetology and Advanced Planetology do not increase the resources in an area. They only reduce the margin of error in the reporting of what is actually there when moving the extractor heads around.

I also do recommend you train the alt to use Expanded Cargohold II’s in the low slots, if nothing else. The PI goods you will be picking up on 5 different planets will fill your hold quickly.

For a more detailed and well-done guide on HOW to utilize your new PI Alt, and PI in general, I recommend EVE University’s Planetary Interaction Guide.

One last thought since this post focuses more on alts than a main character: have you thought of making use of this alt in other ways? The skills above will take anywhere from 1-3 weeks of training time. If you are using the new PLEX system to train an alt on the same account, you do not want to waste that other training time. Why not also train this toon to also use a Cyno? Or maybe a Protoype Cloaking Device I? Just my 2 cents as I close this out.

Good luck, and feel free to bug me anytime you want advice (or to argue that my own is rubbish).

o7

Coffee Rocks