Monday 8 October 2012

Recovering Addict

Figured I should post up to let you know where I'm at as posting has been none existent for a month and the stream has been down just as long.

I've not been in game other to maintain skill training and keep my accounts plexed. This due to two reasons:

Firstly, the state of Faction Warfare has really put me off the game. A number of Corp-mates have been lured into doing the FW isk faucet and to an extent I don't blame them. Their boredom threshold must be far greater than mine! I'm encouraged that the end is in sight, albeit months away but until it's changed I doubt I'll be in game.

Second, which should probably be first is that I'm moving house again. This time I hope will be the last time in a long time. Finally leaving rented property behind and stepping onto the property ladder again as its certainly a buyers market. The inevitable period of sorting out and getting settled begins. I have the joys of BT to look forward to and seeing if they can get it right this time!

Out of EVE then I'm trying to curb my gaming time because truth be told I feel like its an unhealthy addiction. This has seen me having a go at a few different games:

Diablo 3, so repetitive.

Guild Wars 2, I just can't get excited by it.

League of Legends, it's like being thrown back 15 years.

World of Tanks, good fun but I'm not going premium. Love the cool looking tanks like the Leopard & Hetzer. Yes I only have tier IV tanks at the moment.

World of Warcraft, dear god how easy is this game nowadays. Feels like a five year old could go all epic in minutes.

I'm considering keeping up the character reviews, though they'll lack much content. Would you like to keep seeing what skills I'm training?

Sunday 2 September 2012

August 2012 Character Review

August heralded the arrival of a new PC for me. This meant that I no longer was playing on a two year old laptop which struggled mightily with heat issues. The new PC has allowed me to actually play Eve on something other than the lowest graphics settings and also has allowed me to start live streaming on Twitch.tv, something which I've wanted to do for some time but that the laptop couldn't cope with.

I don't know whether it is the addition of streaming to my gameplay that's changed it but I've been finding myself in a lot more fights, granted I've been losing quite a few. I think there is an element of wanting to engage as much as possible for the sake of good TV.

Here's are the kill/loss stats for August:

51 Ship Kills (33 Solo)

9 Pod Kills (9 Solo)

10,113,817,303 Isk Cost to victims (216,033,025 Isk received in loot drops)

9 Ships Lost (282,557,175 Isk cost of losses)

66,524,1500 Isk Loss in the Month

So, yeah 10 billion Isk in damage done in a month, that's got to be a record for me! These are the ships which I lost:

Crow. I lost this while interfering in a fight going on between an Enyo and a Drake. I wasn't the only one to interfere however as a Thorax also came to get in on the action. I ended up bouncing off an asteroid into the scram of the Thorax which was curtains.

Rifter x 2. The first I lost when I yellow boxed a Proteus on a gate. He agressed then 20 of his mates in T2 ships of assorted classes plus about 7 Battleships jumped through to kill me. The second I lost to a kiting Atron in a plex and his friends.

Thrasher. Lost to an Incursus & Atron duo, managed to take the Atron down with me. This Thrasher was arty fit and had zero tank.

Jaguar. Lost this when I engaged a Hookbill, paying the price for an MWD fit, subsequently got scrammed and kitied to my doom.

Prophecy. Left over from an old roam and with insurance about to expire it was lost to "damn" ECM and a 9 man goons frigate swarm. Tanked like a boss for a long time.

Stiletto. Lost to a Nighthawk whilst the gang was en-route, Nighthawk died though!

Dramiel. Lost to a Vexor and Jaguar combo. Landed on the Vexor quite by accident and paid the price for thinking it was  noob ratting Vexor.

Drake. Lost to a very close fight with a Cyclone on the way back home from Heimatar. My favourite fight of the month, closely followed by the Prophecy vs frigate gang.

Here's what Kirith's skills look like today:


This is what Kirith has been training in August and the skills he's completed:

Electronic Superioty Rigging I
Electronic Superioty Rigging II
Electronic Superioty Rigging III
Electronic Superioty Rigging IV
Combat Drone Operation V
Explosive Armor Compensation I
Explosive Armor Compensation II
Explosive Armor Compensation III
Explosive Armor Compensation IV
EM Armor Compensation I
EM Armor Compensation II
EM Armor Compensation III
EM Armor Compensation IV
Kinetic Armor Compensation I
Kinetic Armor Compensation II
Kinetic Armor Compensation III
Kinetic Armor Compensation IV
Thermic Armor Compensation I
Thermic Armor Compensation II
Thermic Armor Compensation III
Thermic Armor Compensation IV

At the end of the month Drone Interfacing V was training with nearly two weeks to run. It's part of my finishing off drone skills plan. As with last month there is always the temptation to cross train weapon systems but my will is remaining strong despite wanting to participate in some Tusker gangs which primarily are Armour HACS at the moment with the Deimos & Zealot being favourite, obviously neither of which I can fly.

I have continued station trading with my alt in August with a totally changed product list from the months before. It's certainly paid dividends, which is great as I've been losing lots of ships. PI has been inactive as I've preferred to get out in space and shoot things.

I haven't been in game the last week, nor done any streaming as my new PC developed a problem with the graphics card fan causing it to permanently run at 79 decibels. It has now been fixed so I'll be back in space in the coming days.

Total Ransoms Received: 632,360,662.30 Isk received in ransoms (22 million received in August) Battleclinic Rank: 433 (+5)
Bounty: 210,125,000 Isk (+15,000 Isk)

Monday 27 August 2012

A Long Time Ago in a Constellation Far Far Away...

Welcome to the 39th Blog Banter - the community discussion that stretches across the many communities of EVE Online through the use of arcane bloggery. The conversation is open to all and readers are encouraged to visit all of the entries that will be listed below as the discussion progresses. Be sure to leave your thoughts there when you do.

For enquiring minds who would like to know more about the Blog Banters, check out this short explanation or read this overview of the subjects covered in the last year.

After a some heavy topics in the last few editions, this time we'll be taking a more relaxed trip through the thoughts of the blogosphere. The origins of this month's concept come from a suggestion from EON Magazine editor Richie "Zapatero" Shoemaker.

"Some say a man's home is his castle. For others it is wherever they lay their hat. The concept is just as nebulous in the New Eden sandbox. 

In EVE Online, what does the concept of "home" mean to you?"

 ===============================================

A Long time ago some three years ago in a constellation in Heimatar Kirith's first home was found in a system called Aralgrund. Kirith moved there within a week of being "born", it remained his home until he became a member of The Tuskers. The system 0.4 security status and adjacent to a high security system, it was pretty populated with POS's and a number of null sec groups used it for jumping capitals to and from but ultimately fairly quiet.

It was a great staging system and I had many routes established for roaming. There were a few well known pirate groups operating nearby, M34N coalition & The Bastards come to mind first. I cut my pirate teeth in this area and I have thought of it as my home for the best part of two and a half years, even though I haven't been based there in such a long time. It says something that I still have a jumpclone there and a small stash of ships, the ships showing just what I flew when I lived there. I still go on brief visits to see how the land has changed. I must go back again soon!

Something changed recently though and it certainly wasn't concious but I no longer think of Aralgrund as my home but instead now feel that Hevrice is Kirith's home, it's taken a long time for it to become my home more than just a base of operations. I hope that Hevrice will remain Kirith's home as I definitely feel comfortable there with a huge familiarity with the neighbours and surrounding systems.

Although I'm trying to cut down the stable of ships held in Hevrice I still have over 90 fit ships in Kirith's hangar, any thoughts of moving even with two Carriers would be a logistical nightmare! A bit like moving home in real life.

So, home to Kirith is Hevrice.

Friday 24 August 2012

A little quiet

I've been somewhat quiet on the blogging front, this is mainly as I'm enjoying broadcasting my live stream so much! I know I've only been live streaming a very short time but its been a blast.

I'm finding that I'm being more agressive in finding fights and taking greater risks. Sure this means that I'm losing more ships but its fun! There's an element that I want to make the stream into good viewing when I'm considering targets. It is also nice to be able to ask the viewers what they want me to fly.

I had my biggest isk loss to date yesterday to Balkan Express and it got caught on camera.

There have been several comedy moments too, like the UNDEAD alliance gang that jumped on my Rifter, all 20 or so of them including Battleships to the poor Russian Wolf pilot who lost his 150 mil Wolf and associated 280 mil Pod. He could've paid 15 mil to save the Pod but didn't even try to overcome the laguage barrier despite my best Google translate attempts.

I got myself into a 1v1 (which I don't normally do) against Astral Dominix, a fellow blogger and told him afterwards that he'd just been on TV! Gf Astral, maybe next time.

Following a suggestion I've also created an in game channel called KD Twitch, so you're welcome to drop in.

And finally, the censored panel isn't off centre, it's just hiding standings. It's the most common comment people make :P

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Ragtag Roam

Some time ago I'd had a hankering to lead a fleet. It certainly wasn't born out of any great competence that I had in the field, and mainly was due to my own lack of availability / ship specialisation to take part in fleets led by others. I would actually say that I'm a mediocre FC, but also that I want to improve.

Thus it was that I advertised a roam and a bunch of foolhardy Corpmates bravely signed up. No guarantees were offered on those ships that signed on ever returning to Hevrice again.

There were the inevitable few last minute folks  joining and we headed off in a motley array of ships, our fleet comprising:

1 x Brutix
2 x Cyclone
1 x Drake
2 x Harbinger
1 x Imperial Navy Slicer
2 x Prophecy
1 x Thorax

Once I'd seen the ships formed up I wondered if I should have advertised a tier 1 Battlecruiser fleet!

The Slicer in fleet, piloted by Vlad acted as our Scout doing a fine job indeed. We set off down towards Kirith's ancestral home in Heimatar.

Little was sighted of interest until we reached Mannar where a Rupture & Hurricane were sighted in space. After pondering a plan to draw out an engagement one of our Harbingers warped to the station they were loitering at. This action drew fire from the Rupture & Hurricane along with a Pilgrim which undocked. An Archon also undocked too, which felt like total overkill!

The fleet jumped in and warped to our badly beaten up Harbinger who had to deagress and dock to save himself, our fleet landed amongst theirs sending the Rupture fleeing. I called the Pilgrim primary as the easiest and most expensive thing to explode, the Hurricane next and despite being repaired by the Archon we manged to break the reps and take it down. We switched to the Archon after the Hurricane getting him to 50% armour before he was able to safely redock again, our efforts to bump him off station being unsuccessful.

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13458905

Docking afterwards for repairs and waiting out our criminal timers our scout who was ahead of us reported a Drake gang heading towards us, around 12 strong. I asked my fleet members for suggestions as this was beyond my confidence to engage. Our gang had the potential to hurts theirs if we were able to brawl them up close and avoid being kited however this would probably require us to suicide our gang into theirs.

We ended up playing a game of cat and mouse over a gate eventually jumping into them as they were sat at zero on their in gate. Primary was called and then comms got confused causing half of our gang to reapproach and jump back as our targets burned for range, this cost us two ships for no kills.

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13459327

The fleet was despondent as we waited out GCC in station back in Mannar, repairs were made while we waited and our two casualties left fleet. All the time tabs were kept on the Drake gang who appeared to be camping us into the system. A short while later the Drake gang moved on towards Verge Vendor and our remaining fleet continued onwards. After a few jumps we received two pieces of intel:

1) The Drake gang was coming back towards us.
2) A Shadow Cartel Battleship gang was pursuing them.

At that time we estimated that we had a two or three jump lead on them. I was keen for us not to be herded onwards and clatter into a waiting gate camp as we neared the Faction Warfare hot zone. However, before I could do anything about it we landed on gate with a neutral Typhoon not affiliated with the Shadow Cartel gang. We jumped as the Typhoon did and I gave the order to engage under gate guns as nothing showed up on directional scan. Boy it had some hitpoints, as it hit mid armour it was joined by a Harbinger, Scorpion & Abaddon. Intel also now indicated the imminent arrival of the Drake fleet.

Our fleet quickly started to disintegrate under heavy fire when the Drakes joined the fray causing me reluctantly to give the order to bail with the Typhoon in low structure. Two Prophecy, our Drake and Slicer were the only ships to escape. One of the Prophecys warped back in at range to a gate but was unlucky enough to land on top of the Drakes and got torn apart.

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13459529

The Drakes finished off the Battleships, which they did on short order sadly though they were able to clear the field before the Shadow Cartel Fleet landed on them but continuing after them in hot pursuit towards Heimatar.

Given our now vastly reduced fleet I called the operation over and we began heading for home, Hevrice. Feeling guilty for being in one of the few remaining vessels I vowed that I'd shoot anything I saw on the way home.

Thus it was that a neutral Caracal & Harbinger jumped through a gate with me into Angatalie I shot at them, I thought I'd targeted the Caracal but found myself engaging the Harbinger. My active tanked Prophecy was having very hard time tanked gate guns plus the Caracal & Harbinger. I'd made a serious hold in the Harbinger but as I was teetering at 60% hull I warped out to a belt.

I landed in a belt after having had repaired my armour in warp and was surprised to see the two neutrals land with me within seconds. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth I set about the Harbinger again as my two fleet mate arrived. It was now totally one sided and the two neutrals got swiftly destroyed. They actually thought I'd baited them to the belt  rather than what had actually happened!

After waiting out GCC again we returned home. the operation, not quite a success and me disappointed with bringing my ship home intact (minus 40% hull).

The fleet showed me just how much I have to learn as an FC.

Saturday 11 August 2012

Live Stream



I've now started live streaming when playing Kirith. If you are so inclined you can find the stream here:

http://www.twitch.tv/kirithdarkblade

Thursday 9 August 2012

Seeing a Prophecy Through

I haven't actually posted about when and why I own a Prophecy, but yesterday I lost it. It's turn had come around when it became the next ship with insurance due to expire.

So solo roaming around in this rather elegant battlecruiser and finding little of interest I entered Melmaniel, a system a few jumps from my home base of operations in Hevrice and see an Enyo on scan. He can only be at a Faction Warfare plex which my ship can''t enter. I resolve to warp there anyway and find him at the gate.

I waste no time in locking him up and swiftly get him to 20% armour before a Kitsune arrives and jams me, A steady escalation ensues which see me engaged by eight ships. My ship was doing a grand job of tanking, but with the jams there's nothing I can do until a corpmate warps in and scares the Kitsune off. He manages also to take out a Dramiel as I go down and pays for it with his Retribution too.

It was good fun, and I was blown away by the active tank of my Prophecy, certainly an unusual fit but I had great fun.

Credit to the Goons for a good kill! GF.

Next ship out of insurance is my Fleet Tempest, hmm maybe I won't go and derp that one just yet...

Sunday 5 August 2012

July 2012 Character Review

With work being busy in the run up to and start of the summer holiday period I've found little time to actually play our beloved internet spaceship game. My lack of activity in game shows through in the killobard stat's.

12 Ship Kills (6 Solo)

3 Pod Kills (2 Solo)

2,210,866,868 Isk Cost to victims (76,549,436 Isk received in loot drops)

0 Ships Lost

76,549,436 Isk Profit in the Month

A pretty nice profit for such a low activity month. The fact that I lost no ships was a great bonus, a trend which hasn't continued into August I would have to say (I lost two ships yesterday)! Sadly I was only able to get in game on six occasions in the month to actually undock in anger. I'm hoping for some more activity in August.

Here's what Kiriths skill distribution looked like at the end of July:


Kirith has completed theses skills in the month:


Heavy Drone Operation V
Remote Armor Repair Systems IV
Biology I
Long Range Targeting V
Shield Compensation I
Shield Compensation II
Shield Compensation III
Shield Compensation IV
Shield Compensation V
Drone Sharpshooting V
Energy Pulse Weapons II
Energy Pulse Weapons III
Energy Pulse Weapons IV

Another Drone skill was training to V at the end of July in my long term goal of maxing my drone skills, I'm not doing it in a single push and am interspersing other skills from other plans I've had for ages. I was surprised that I'd forgotten to train Shield Compensation so maxed that in July. I do have a temptation to train blaster boats but for now I think I'm happy slowly diminishing my hangar stock rather than introducing a whole new line of ships for me to put in it.

Station trading with my alt continued in the month but has been changed as I headed into August, streamlining the range of modules I'm trading. As with the previous month I generated a profit of around 200 million from this income stream. I haven't done any PI at all during the month as I preferred spending my time undocking to kill things where I could.

The character who has been training for a Thanatos has now actually been able to fit and fly it and whilst it'll seee most action as a giant space truck she'll be a highly trained triage pilot when the plan is complete, not that I actually need one! I did enjoy my first Cyno experience, as an aspect of the game I'd never seen before but am sure that novelty will wear off.


Total Ransoms Received: 610,360,662.30 Isk received in ransoms (No movement)
Battleclinic Rank: 438 (-2)

Sunday 29 July 2012

Sustainable Solo Piracy

Prompted by some recent posts by fellow bloggers and also by a couple of conversations I've had with other players in game on the question of whether solo piracy can be self sustaining I figures I'd talk about it a little.

I've always held aspirations for Kirith to be self sustaining, well that overstates it actually. It would be better to say that when I started out with Kirith I wanted him to be self sufficient. For the first eight months he actually was. Somewhat coincidentally this change in sustainability occurred around the time I joined The Tuskers!

As I've said before, out of EVE I'm an accountant which tends to result in me wanting to create a spreadsheet for pretty anything EVE related. Therefore it probably wouldn't surprise you that I maintain a log on a spreadsheet of every ship I've flown which links directly to the kills it caused and the isk efficiency of every ship. Sad, yes. True, also yes.

Overall Kirith's efficiency when we look at the cost of losses versus the income generated from module drops from those I've destroyed it appears that my piracy career has cost me around of 800 million isk, this while my actual lifetime efficiency is incredibly high at around 95%.

So what useful conclusions can be drawn from all this information which I have at my disposal?

Statistics by hull type:
Assault Frigate: 92% efficiency, Isk loss of 382 million
Battlecruiser: 98% efficiency, Isk loss of 133 million
Battleship: 0% efficiency, Isk loss of 156 million
Cruiser: 0% efficiency, Isk loss of 167 million
Destroyer: 95% efficiency, Isk Profit of 35 million
Faction Frigate: 95% efficiency, Isk loss of 136 million
Frigate: 95% efficiency, Isk Profit of 155 million

Kirith doesn't really fly ships with added bling, so very few faction or deadspace modules have formed part of this isk sink. I consider that I fit ships fairly frugally albeit not as much as I once did, but still I mostly fit a meta scram over T2 on the basis of cost vs benefit.

Kiriths drop into negative efficiency occurred when I started flying T2 frigates, by the third Jaguar loss all my months profitable flying had been undone. Granted, I state a cost to me of 800 million isk which is not the truest reflection as it ignores the ransoms of over 600m which I've received over my career.

There are other pursuits which a soloist can do while actively hunting. A couple of examples being ratting and anomalies, the rewards while certainly not high are reasonable and are an excellent way of getting people to fight you.

When I first set out as a pirate I needed all the isk I could get, I meta 2 fit my Rifter and they cost me less than a million isk each. I also ratted despite originally not actually being able to destroy a Battleship rat in my low skilled Rifter. In addition I looted everything, including making return trips if necessary. None of these secondary income streams are reflected above.

Now that I have other income sources I'm far less concerned with sustainability almost to the point where I don't think about it at all. If I wanted to be more sustainable and efficient I would stick with fleets and gang work. This strays from my heart which is more of a soloist and as I like to fly with some degree of reckless abandon it would change the way I play the game significantly.

Can piracy be self sustainable? Simply put, yes it can but with some considerations:
  • Fly T1 hulls, preferably small ones.
  • Carefully fit your ships and don't spend where you don't need to.
  • Balance the risks when considering your targets.
  • Some ratting doesn't hurt, when you find yourself with a Battleship rat pop it for an easy 500k isk.
Factoids
  • Most profitable ship: S&M Freak, an armour tanked Thrasher bringing home a profit of 61 million isk.
  • Biggest loss: Duellist, an active tanked Tempest I took out to spring a trap which got swiftly overwhelmed losing me 156 million isk.
  • Most efficient ship: A cheap meta fit cookie cutter Rifter which took down 257 million isk total in five  ships back in 2010, achieved efficiency of 96.3% as it only cost me 955k isk in hull plus fittings!
Any stat's you'd like to know, shout out

Friday 27 July 2012

So, well yeah...

Today I had one of those moments where for ages afterwards I'm thinking how did that happen. Tbh it's still making me wonder now.

The event, I lost a Hawk after undocking from a station to be greeted by a flashy Zealot only 5km away. Awesome went my brain and I engaged it knowing how badly Zealots fare against frigates and I was in a dual web Hawk. What could possibly go wrong!?

I was surprised when he engaged me in return, less so when I was webbed and pointed. He was managing to pull some decent speed despite being dual webbed and getting fair hits on me. The additional surprise was his active tank which I was only marginally breaking.

My buffer fit could only last so long and inevitably exploded. Offering gf in local and complimenting an unusual fit I docked up somewhat confused.

I'm only contented by a well used phrase, that one should never seek to assume!

Monday 16 July 2012

The New Player Experience.......

This should have been the review of the third part of the new player expereience and the second Career Agent.

Sadly the person who was enthusiastic abouth this initially at CCP has gone stone cold quiet and not replied to either my Twitter message or in game mails as the trial account I was using has expired, I had however appraised them earlier on that it may not be completed in time and also received no response.

As such I'm unable to complete the review and apologise to anyone who was following the series.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Grumblecub Revisited

Although the first part of my EVE career was totally dominated with maximising my skillset to support flying the Rifter, I seldom find that I take to the space lanes in it. That's not to say by any margin that my skills have been wasted as the vast majority of the skills are totally transferrable to oither vessels.

Recently the Merlin & Incursus seem to have the edge over the Rifter thanks to their recent buff. Taking my preferred fit, the mighty Grumblecub out for a spin I found no Merlins nor Incursus but did run into other Rifters, proving that it popularity isn't totally a thing of history.

It wasn't until I did this that I quite realised just how at home I feel behind the sticks of the Rifter. The sheer firepower of this monster catches many by surprise. 198 dps from Grumblecub under overheat, a pity I can't edge it over 200...

It may now be outclassed and easily beaten, but it's akin to a blood relation to me and I really must fly it more often.

Saturday 7 July 2012

June 2012 Character Review

It feels like its been a quite month on the Internet spaceships piracy front this month.

Lets get to business with the statistics:

20 Ship Kills (18 solo)

6 Pod Kills (all solo)

2,004,769,562 isk cost to victims (497,630,539 isk received in loot drops)

1 Ship Lost

156,281,608 Isk cost in value of ship destroyed.

341,348,931 Isk profit for the month.

As can been seen I've not been particularly active in the month and although I turned a profit, were it not for the great event by Drackarn and the Drake kill which I got I would have made a loss again in the month. I have continued to fly when I can pretty recklessly, so I'm pleased about that. The big isk loss was a Tempest I undocked to a trap which I wanted to spring in Hevrice as I didn't know what my enemy would bring out of their wormhole.

Here's what Kirith's skill split looks like at the end of this month.

Kirith has finished training these skills in the month:

Minmatar Battleship V
Remote Armour Repair Systems I
Remote Armour Repair Systems II
Remote Armour Repair Systems III
Heavy Drone Operation I
Heavy Drone Operation II
Heavy Drone Operation III
Heavy Drone Operation IV

Heavy Drone Operation V was training at the end of the month and completed a few days ago giving me access to Tech 2 Heavy Drones. With Minmatar Battleship V completing I did take out that roam I mentioned and managed to safely get my Tempest Fleet Issue home safely. I'll write a post about that in the future.

This month probably won't see any notable skills trained as I get some shorter ones done. I have noticed that I'm missing an important skill for active shield tanking so I'll get that to V. I have a few plans in EVEmon and haven't decided which to do next, I guess it'll probably be my Drone maximisation plan but interspersed with some other skills.

I did a bit more station Trading in the month than in the previous one, but still low activity netting a little over 200m isk in profit. I'm finding that I don't need the isk drastically and that I don't have much time so why bother? My PI character has also scaled back the PI but done what she does do more profitably using buy & sell orders in Jita. Her Thanatos training continues apace and in about three weeks she can sit in the Thanatos that awaits her.

Total Ransoms Received: 610,360,662.30 Isk received in ransoms (55m Isk received in the month)
Battleclinic Rank: 436 (+11)




Dr Thermaplugg

Bought myself a neut Abaddon recently. Why is probably the questions that comes to mind, rightly so too I'd imagine.

For starters I can't even use small lasers, let alone large ones and that's before we entertain Tech 2. I have Amarr Battleship trained only to level 3 which is totally sub-optimal to get the most out of one of these behemoths.

So based on what I have said so far we can determine that I'm not going to be performing feats of heroism or great dps magic in it!

What then? I bought this mainly because previously when Tuskers have fought a carrier, the call for neuts goes out. Wanting to be able to provide whatever a given fleet needs  I furnished my hangar with one ready for the fabled "next time".

Admittedly I've only ever been online for two Tusker carrier kills and in both of those I was in a Frigate as they were quite a long time ago. Obviously my repetoire of ships I can fly has increased dramatically since those times, however now I can be certain that if that call for neuts goes out I can answer. You can probably now guarantee that when it does I'll be asked for a dps ship. Well, assuming I'm online anyways.

Here's the fit:

1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Damage Control II

Ship Scanner II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Conjunctive Radar ECCM Scanning Array I

Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Large Egress Port Maximizer I
Large Egress Port Maximizer I
Large Egress Port Maximizer I

Vespa EC-600 x5
Hobgoblin II x5

Thursday 5 July 2012

CAPITALS

I received an eagerly anticipated delivery on Tuesday, something which I ordered from a fellow blogger over at http://eveblog.allumis.co.uk/. I thoroughly recommend them for all your capital needs as their pricing is great and even more so when you do a bulk order like I did and their service is brilliant.

I am now the proud owner of three capitals, a couple of Thanatos and a Moros along with all associated fittings and equipment. It's fair to say it's my biggest purchase in EVE period, costing overall more than fifteen times the cost of my previous most expensive ship including its fittings (My Fleet Tempest: Fifi Trixibell).




The Capitals aren't really for Kirith though, he couldn't fly them for a long time if he had to train for them. As readers of this blog will know one of my alts has been training for the Thanatos for some time for use as both a vessel for running level 5 missions and as a glorified space taxi for redeploying Kirith on holidays to new places. What are the Moros and the other Thanatos for? Well, one cannot give away all ones mystique at once can one...

Monday 2 July 2012

New Player Experience: Tutorial Stage 2


I will be taking the Career agents one at a time and working from top to bottom in the navigation window.

Starting isk: 9,000

Career Agent 1 – Jouvelen System, Anmon Otsi

The first message I receive is an Important Information popup. Nice and simple.

Mission 1, The Swap

Clear the area of hostiles.

Reward 1 x Propulsion Jamming, Bonus 41,000 isk available.

Tutorial, Acceleration Gates
  • Screen 1 of 3. Tells me what an Acceleration Gate is and tells me to undock. I learned what an Acceleration gate was in Part 1 so I don’t think this is necessary.
  • Screen 2 of 3. Tells me how to warp to the mission. I learned how to do this in Part 1 so this isn’t necessary.
  • Screen 3 of 3. Tells me how to activate the Acceleration Gate. I learned this in Part 1 so this isn’t necessary.
I complete the mission easily, though the overview layout if awful as I can only see 1 red cross at the bottom of it due to the customs offices without scrolling down. A tutorial screen mentioning how to learn to target more ships would be great instead of the acceleration gates one we’re given. Perhaps even giving me the skill. Docking back up I receive my rewards and request the next mission.

Mission 2, Angel of Mercy

Fly the Frigate I will be provided with into the pirate base, once the explosive charges are set the mission will complete.

Granted: Condor. Reward: 38,000 isk, Bonus 37,000 isk available

Tutorial, Minimizing Your Losses
  • Screen 1 of 6. Tells me that I should fit my ship for the task I need to face.
  • Screen 2 of 6. Tells me to read the mission description to determine how to fit my ship. Also tells me that I have to fly the ship I have been given for this mission.
  • Screen 3 of 6. Tells me to board the ship I have been given. This is outdated as it refers to the ship hangar in the Neocom which has now been replaced with the inventory, which also impacts on some of the narrative which follows.
  • Screen 4 of 6. Tells me to strip the fitting on my ship. This doesn’t make much sense as I only just assembled it and it therefore isn’t fitted.
  • Screen 5 of 6. Tells me that it’s always a good idea to check your fitting before you undock. Nice and simple, but I don’t know anyone that does. Goes on to tell me to undock and complete the mission.
  • Screen 6 of 6. Directs me to the EVElopedia to find out more.
I warp to the mission and sue the Acceleration Gate. Three red crosses on my overview, nothing to indicate the Control tower is there if you have your camera pointing a different direction. Large Collidable Structures need to be added to the overview, or at least tell me how to. There is also nothing to tell me to approach the aforementioned Control Tower; an Agent conversation popup would be good.

I return to the Station in my Pod and complete the mission to receive my reward.

Mission 3, Your Undivided Attention

Catch the NPC using your Warp Disruptor; do not kill the main target. Other NPC’s may be destroyed.

Granted: Civilian Warp Disruptor. Reward 40,000 isk, Bonus 33,000 isk available.

The NPC tells me that I should get a new ship if I haven’t already. I’ve got my trusty Ibis so use that.

Tutorial, Warp Disruptors and Warp Scramblers

  • Screen 1 of 6. Tells me that warp scramblers and disruptors can help to prevent enemies escaping. Tells me that I should have a Warp Disruptor in my hangar, which I do.
  • Screen 2 of 6. Tells me to fit the Warp Disruptor to my ship. Upon trying to do so my ibis doesn’t have any free slots as I have one mid slot which has the Shield Booster in it. I am not hold how to unfit a module.
  • Screen 3 of 6. Tells me how to activate the module and its range.
  • Screen 4 of 6. Tells me about Warp Core Stabilizers and scramble strength, also tells me the range of Warp Scramblers is lower the Disruptors.
  • Screen 5 of 6. Tells me to undock and complete the mission.
  • Screen 6 of 6. Tells me where to find out more on the EVElopedia.
I undock and head to the mission. Please fix the overview. I Disrupt the Fleeing pirate and get a popup saying leave him alone and he’ll go away. The Agent Conversation window appears and I head back to station where I complete the mission and receive my rewards.

Mission 4, A Friend in Need

Find the missing Agent and repair his vessel.

Granted: Civilian Remote Shield Transporter. Rewards: Shield Emission Systems skillbook, Bonus 19,000 isk available.

Shield Transporters Tutorial

  • Screen 1 of 5. Tells me what a Shield Transporter does and that I should find one in my Hangar.
  • Screen 2 of 5. Tells me to fit the Shield Transporter to my ship, remember I’m in the Ibis? The Shield Transporter will not fit due to a lack of fitting resources on my Ibis.
  • Screen 3 of 5. Tells me how to activate the module and advises caution over range.
  • Screen 4 of 5. Tells me to undock and complete the mission.
  • Screen 5 of 5. Tells me where to find more information on the EVElopedia
I warp to the mission, approach the Damaged Vessel and activate the Shield Transporter to complete the mission. I head back to station to complete the mission and collect my rewards.

Mission 5, The Stand

Go to the pirate base and make a last stand, destroying at least one enemy ship. I’m given a Condor and told I need to fit it myself using cheap fittings. 

Grants: Condor. Rewards: 49,000 isk, Bonus 45,000 isk available.

Medical Clones Tutorial

  • Screen 1 of 5. Tells me that losing ships is inevitable and that once I lose a ship I escape in my Pod. Tells me that NPC’s don’t attack Pods but that players will.
  • Screen 2 of 5. Tells me about the skill point limit on Clones and the consequence of not having at un to date Clone if podded. Instructs me to open the Medical window.
  • Screen 3 of 5. Tells that once podded I need to buy a new clone. Tells me to upgrade my Clone, whilst I appreciate that this is difficult to explain without doing so it isn’t necessary as the base “free” clone covers up to 900,000 skill points. I would also change the default sort order so that the lower skill point Clones appear first so we don’t need to scroll down. Tells me that I can change the location of my Clone and tells me about station lockouts.
  • Screen 4 of 5. Tells me that I’m safe against skill point loss if podded and that if I get podded I should follow this process to update my Clone.
  • Screen 5 of 5. Points me to the EVElopedia article where I can find more information on skills.
Insuring Your Ships Tutorial

  • Screen 1 of 5. Tells me that all ships have a 40% default insurance pay out. Tells me I should upgrade my insurance if I’m undertaking a high risk activity. Perhaps it would be good to mention that it is recommended to fly with maximum insurance at all times?
  • Screen 2 of 5. Tells me to select the ship I wish to insure from my hangar.
  • Screen 3 of 5. Tells me to open the insurance window.
  • Screen 4 of 5. Tells me to select the ship I want to insure and click the insure button, reading then accepting the terms of insurance. Goes on to tell me about the range of covers available including the duration of insurance being 12 weeks.
  • Screen 5 of 5. Directs me to the EVElopedia article on insurance.
Note: for this mission I have the Condor and can  only use blasters as I have no skills trained other than Shield Operation. This ship has one turret slot, two launchers and I have not been told anything about Launchers. I manage to kill the enemy ship using my Condor with one Blaster (I stripped my Ibis). I will admit to being surprised at this!

I head back to the station to complete the mission and receive my rewards.

Mission 6, Don’t Look Back

Use your Afterburner to reach a location within the mission.

Granted: Civilian Afterburner. Reward: Light Missiles Skillbook, Bonus 22,000 isk available.

Afterburners Tutorial

  • Screen 1 of 5. Tells me that Afterburners are modules that increase speed and cost capacitor to use. Tells me that I have been given a Civilian Afterburner.
  • Screen 2 of 5. Tells me to fit it to my ship, now I’m currently in my Pod after my Condor got exploded so maybe tell me to board a ship. My only other ship is the Ibis so that’s what I use.
  • Screen 3 of 5. Tells me how to activate the Afterburner and that the speed boost persist while it is active.
  • Screen 4 of 5. Introduces the Microwarpdrive as something that is faster but more capacitor consuming than the Afterburner.
  • Screen 5 of 5. Directs me to the EVElopedia for more information on fittings.
I head to the mission in my Ibis fitted only with my Civilian Afterburner fitted.  I get the following message “Alright, once you enter the next area, you should see an Asteroid Station. Head to that as quickly as you can. The area surrounding it will be dangerous, but once you make it to the station itself, you will be safe.” I make it to the Station with 9% armour. It is also worthy of note that the Asteroid Station does not appear on the Overview.

Mission 7, Weapon of Choice

Granted: Civilian Light Missile Launcher. Reward: 22,000 isk, Bonus 24,000 isk available.

Racial Weapons: Missiles, Tutorial

  1. Screen 1 of 5. Tells me that there are a variety of Missile Launchers available and that there are short and long range varieties, that Launchers use no Capacitor but that damage is delayed by flight time. Awards me 100 Civilian Scourge Light Missiles.
  2. Screen 2 of 5. Tells me that missiles can do every different damage type. Tells me how to load missiles.
  3. Screen 3 of 5. Tells me that a target’s speed and size impact upon missile damage and that both Target Painters and Stasis Webifiers assist with missile damage.
  4. Screen 4 of 5. Tells me that different ships allow different weapon system layouts. Tells me to check my ships information and match weapon types so that they take advantage of bonused weapon systems.
  5. Screen 5 of 5. Directs me to the EVElopedia for more information on fittings and missiles.
NOTE: I only have an Ibis and I can’t fit my Launcher to it. I haven’t been told how to buy a new ship! I’m forced to go outside of tutorial imparted knowledge and buy a Condor from the market.
I fit my Launcher to my newly bought Condor and set off. I complete the mission using two missiles and return to station to complete the mission and collect my rewards. 

Mission 8, The Pacifist

Acquire 10 hostages by following the Concord Commanders instructions.

Reward: 18,000 isk. Bonus 14,000 isk available.

Damage Types Tutorial

  • Screen 1 of 6. Tells me that there are four different damage types.
  • Screen 2 of 6. Tells me how resistances work.
  • Screen 3 of 6. Tells me that I can fit hardeners to raise resists on both shields and also on armour.
  • Screen 4 of 6. Tells me about the different weapons systems and the damage types which they can deal.
  • Screen 5 of 6. Tells me that trial and error can inform the optimal damage type to use against enemies but also that the wrong type will take them down but take longer and use more ammunition.
  • Screen 6 of 6. Refers me to the EVElopedia on damage types.
I warp to the mission and receive a message when I approach the acceleration gate:

“Welcome to the fray, egger.

I've ordered the fleet to hold its ground for the time being, but we're going to send you in to recover the hostages shortly. Move out to the next area where the pirates are. They're expecting a negotiator, but we're sending you instead.

You are not to engage unless I give the order. We need to maintain the appearance of peaceful negotiation until the safety of the hostages can be confirmed.“

After a few moments I’m told to rescue the hostages from the Prison Facility. With the hostages safely aboard I return to base. I complete the mission and receive my rewards.

Mission 9, Glue

Use a Stasis Webifier to interrogate the pirate.

Granted: Civilian Stasis Webifier. Rewards: Destroyers skillbook, Bonus 19,000 isk available.

Stasis Webifiers Tutorial

  • Screen 1 of 5. Tells me that the web will slow the enemy down but not prevent them from warping. The tutorial also grants me a web so I now have two!
  • Screen 2 of 5. Tells me to fit the web to my ship.
  • Screen 3 of 5. Tells me how to activate the module and tells me its range.
  • Screen 4 of 5. Tells me to undock and complete the mission.
  • Screen 5 of 5. Refers me to the EVElopedia on fitting and electronic warfare.
I warp to the mission web the pirate to complete the mission before returning to the station to complete the mission and receive my rewards.

Mission 10, The Exam

Kill the terrorist leader.

Granted: Cormorant. Reward: Rapid Firing skillbook, Bonus 121,000 isk available.

By the time I got to do this I’d trained Destroyers to skill level 1 so I used the Cormorant to attempt the mission, please do bear in mind though that theoretically I didn’t know how to buy fittings for my ship. I fit 7 x 75mm Railguns, Civilian Launcher, 2 x webs and a Small Shield Booster as this is what was available off the market in station. I also insure my Cormorant at maximum level.

Combat Tactics Tutorial

  • Screen 1 of 6. Tells me that my abilities are about to be tested and that I’ll be webbed and scrambled. Gives me suggestions on different targeting strategies and tells me about blitzing.
  • Screen 2 of 6. Suggest the use of an Afterburner and tells me of some of the advantages of using speed to dictate engagements and about kiting.
  • Screen 3 of 6. Tells me of speed tanking and transversal velocity and briefly how it works.
  • Screen 4 of 6. Continues on the subject of transversal velocity by telling me how to close range and take less damage. Reminds me also that my speed will also affect how well my weapons track their targets.
  • Screen 5 of 6. Tells me about aligning out, for worst case scenarios. Tells me some about how a ship gets into warp and that being pre-aligned at full speed will enable instant warp out when pre-aligned. Reminds me that being warp scrambled will prevent me warping.
  • Screen 6 of 6. Tells me that more information on combat tactics can be found on the EVElopedia.
I complete the mission with 25% cap remaining and just over half shields. I loot the wreck of the terrorist and then head back to station where I complete the mission and receive my rewards.

Suggestions

  • All the Career Agents say that they’re Event - Distribution Agents, Can this be changed so that you can tell which career path they relate to?
  • Please sort the overview.
  • Acceleration Gates Tutorial is not necessary. Can be removed from being shown at the acceptance of “The Swap” mission. Replace this with a tutorial about the max number of targets and award the Targeting skill, suggesting that I train t to level 1.
  • Minimizing our Losses Tutorial. Alter the wording on screen 3 of 6 so that it no longer refers to the ship hangar but to the Inventory. Then perhaps use the text “Once the Inventory is open. Left click the Ship Hangar and right click the ship and select assemble ship, and then make active from the contextual menu.”
  • Angel of Mercy Mission. Overview problems again. On warp into the deadspace pocket the control tower is not on my overview, please add it to the overview. Also a conversation popup from the Agent would be great to tell me that I need to approach the tower to destroy it.
  • Warp Disruptors and Warp Scramblers Tutorial. At screen 2 of 6 I’m instructed to fit the Disruptor but have no free slots available. You need to tell me how to unfit a module to make space. Remember I’m only in an Ibis as I’ve not been taught anything about how to buy a ship. There needs to be tutorials added to tell me how to buy a Ship and also how to unfit modules. Thus far you’ve told me how to strip a fitting but that was on an unfitted ship.
  • Shield Transporters Tutorial. Screen 2 of 5 tells me to fit the Civilian Shield Transporter; however it doesn’t fit on my Ibis which has 1 gun and the Disruptor fitted. Now would be a good time to tell me about Powergrid and CPU. I unfit the Civilian Warp Disruptor to continue.
  • Mission 5, The Stand. You haven’t told me how to buy things to fit my ship and I need to do so for this mission.
  • Medical Clones Tutorial, screen 3 of 5. Reverse the Clone Upgrade sort order.
  • Afterburners Tutorial, screen 2 of 5. I would add a line telling me to board a ship as my last one got exploded on the previous mission.
  • Mission 6, Don’t Look Back. Add the Asteroid Station to the overview. The reward is the Light Missiles skillbook, which I can’t train as I don’t have Missile Launcher Operation trained to 2 and you haven’t told me where to get skillbooks from.
  • Mission 7, Weapon of Choice. I cannot fit the provided Civilian Missile Launcher to my Ibis.
  • Stasis Webifiers Tutorial screen 1 of 5. I’m awarded a Civilian Stasis Webifier but the Glue mission I had just accepted already awarded me one.
Positives
  • Racial Weapons Tutorial good.
  • Damage Types Tutorial good.
  • Combat Tactics Tutorial well put together.
Summary

So with the first Career Agent done there are a few points which I find at the forefront of my mind:
  • The Overview is a problem and needs addressing.
  • The order which the Career Agents are done does seem important, I would not have known about using the market to buy ships and modules.
  • Many assumptions have been made on what I will know when I do this chain, that needs to be considered. Perhaps this Career Agent should not be available until Cash Flow for Capsuleers is completed (not that I theoretically have yet)

Thursday 28 June 2012

New Player Experience: Tutorial Stage 1


Caution, I doubt many will find this interesting. One of the CCP dev’s mentioned on Twitter that they’d be interested in feedback on the current NPE so I present it here. Detail is first followed by suggested improvements and any positives I found. I set up a brand new trial account to do this. This post is also, very long!

So on my first entry into the game after creating the character I’m sent into my captain’s quarters. This is an environ which I am not familiar with as on my system the captains quarters puts too much strain on my PC/laptop. Swiftly then I click to Enter my ship hangar.

In my ship hangar then the first thing that comes to my notice is the constellation window in the bottom left corner. I have never, ever used this and am not sure why it’s opened by default. I right click it and close it.

Aura shows her first four tutorial windows to me in the bottom right and as someone colour blind I find the yellow and white on black very easy to read. I would like to see the window in the centre of the screen though. At stage 4/4 of this first tutorial I’m told that my next tutorial will be about moving around my Captains Quarters, remember I’m not in it anymore so I feel that this shouldn’t appear at this time. I quickly next, next through the two screens.

Tutorial 03, Skills (Caldari / Minmatar)
  • On screen 1 of 6 I’m told I’m being given the Repair Systems skillbook. I’ve actually been given the Shield Operation skillbook and that is what shows in the display.
  • Screen 2 of 6 I’m instructed to open the “items hangar”, whilst only a small grammatical point it should be the “item hangar”.
  • On screen 3 of 6 I open my character sheet and am told to open my Character Sheet and then “skill queue”. At this stage to avoid duplication of stage 4 of 6 I would say to leave this at open your Character Sheet.
  • Screen 4 of 6 makes sense with the amendment suggested to 3 of 6.
  • Screen 5 of 6 tells us to drag the skill from our hangar into our skill queue; however it doesn’t tell us how to open it beforehand so now’s the time. Also, the screenshot tells me to add shield operation into the skill queue but the graphic shows me Repair Systems.
  • Screen 6 of 6 simply tells us to move on once we’ve started training a skill. No problem there then.
Tutorial 04, The Pilot Certification Course
  • Screen 1 of 2, probably worth mentioning that the agent can also be interacted with by double click.
  • Screen 2 of 2, I would like to see mention of actually having to read through the mission text prior to pressing the accept button.
Mission 1: Covering the Basics

Fly to the location in space, retrieve your ship, and use it to carry back an item from a local Caldari Cargo Rig.

·        Seems nice and straightforward at the outset.

Tutorial 05, The Ship Hangar Balcony

Single page tutorial. Again, this refers to the fact that I’m in the Captains Quarters, which as you’ll recall I’m not. Thus this isn’t relevant to me.

Tutorial 06, Undocking From the Hangar

Single page tutorial. Wants me to go to a balcony. As I’m in the hangar and not the Captains Quarters it actually gets stuck and I can’t advance using the next button. As a new player I would have to guess at how to undock.

On undocking the station I find page two of the tutorial which explains nice and clearly how to warp to the mission location. 

Tutorial 7, Camera Movement
  • Screen 1 of 3, explains nice and clearly how to move the camera around your ship.
  • Screen 2 of 3, explains nice and clearly how to zoom the camera in and out.
  • Screen 3 of 3, explains nice and clearly how to sue the “Free Look” function.
Tutorial 8, Basic Commands
  • Screen 1 of 2, tells me to select the Acceleration Gate. As a new player how do I know what an acceleration gate is? The Acceleration gate on screen is called “Targeted Acceleration Gate”, I’ve no idea why.
  • Screen 2 of 2, tells me how to activate the gate. Other than the naming description discrepancy above this is nice and clear.
Tutorial 9, Ship Movement
  • Screen 1 of 5, tells me to board my ship and shows me a graphic of what I should see on my overview. The overview on my screen doesn’t even show the Ibis as, due to it not being sorted by distance it’s off the end of the page to me and I would have to scroll down to see it. There is also far more showing on my overview than on the graphic, largely due to Customs Offices. If they didn’t show up then my Ibis would also be visible.
  • Screen 2 of 5, tells me about the HUD (Heads up Display). Overall I was pleased with the information presented, I only felt that it could be mentioned that shields naturally recharge themselves slowly in a similar vein to the capacitor.
  • Screen 3 of 5, nice description of the selected items panel. Again the naming issue of the Acceleration Gate comes up when compared to the Targeted Acceleration Gate shown on screen; however the graphic matches even if the text doesn’t.
  • Screen 4 of 5, Tells me to approach the “smaller structure”, the graphic below it depicts an Amarr Cargo Rig whilst I am presented with a Caldari Cargo Rig. I would suggest that instead of describing it as a “smaller structure” describe it as a “Cargo Rig”.
  • Screen 5 of 5 was skipped and it jumped straight to Tutorial 10. I found the tutorial through the F12 menu and looking at it, it’s about manual piloting. Not sure if this would be the right place for this and that therefore is why it is skipped. If it’s not relevant at this point then it should be removed and this altered to a 4 screen tutorial stage, otherwise consider moving manual piloting to earlier on in this tutorial stage.
Tutorial 10, Looting
  • Screen 1 of 2. Nice and clear.
  • Screen 2 of 2. We are given this wall of text:
    • “You are now looking at your ship's cargo hold in your Inventory Index. The cargo hold of the ship you intend to loot is also viewable from here. To loot an item, simply drag and drop it onto your active ship at the top of the Index. You may also press "Loot All" to move everything to your ship's cargo and remove that ship from the index at the same time.”
    • I think it could be simplified thus:
    • “You are now looking at your ship’s cargo hold. The cargo hold of the ship/structure you intend to loot is also viewable from here. To loot an item, select the ship/structure you wish to loot then drag and drop it into your active ship which will be shown at the top of the left hand window. You may also press "Loot All" to move everything to your ship's cargo and remove that ship from the index at the same time.”
Tutorial 11, Mission 1 Complete
  • Screen 1 of 2. It tells us to return to station. To do so I must select the station on the overview. It would help if it told me what the station looked like so that I know it was the white square.
  • Behind the tutorial window the Agent Conversation window had appeared.
  • Screen 2 of 2. Again this could tell me that I can interact with the agent through double click. Also, as the agent conversation appeared when I completed the mission and I was not told to close it conversing with the agent again doesn’t actually do anything as the window is already on my screen.
Tutorial 12, Your Next Mission

Single screen tutorial, tells me to interact with the agent again, though the agent conversation window is still open.

Mission 2, Combat Basics

Destroy the fuel depot, and then destroy the pirates in the next area.

Tutorial 13, Fitting Your Ship (Caldari)
  • Screen 1 of 3. Tells to open the fitting window, nice and clear. The second paragraph should probably be altered removing “Every station offers” and replacing it with “Stations offer” as not every station has repair facilities.
  • Screen 2 of 3. I am given a Light Electron Blaster and a Small Shield Booster.
  • Screen 3 of 3. I am told to drag and drop these modules into the fitting window to fit them to my ship. Nice and simple.
Tutorial 14, Undocking Instantly
  • Screen 1 of 2, I am told to undock. Nice and simple.
  • Screen 2 of 2, I am told to warp to my second mission. Again nice and simple.
Tutorial 15, Weapons: Hybrids
  • Screen 1 of 3. Again the graphic doesn’t match, it shows a laser and multifrequency s not my blaster and antimatter charge s. Also, there should be a minor text change to from Antimatter S to Antimatter Charge S.
  • Screen 2 of 3. Tells me a little about the ammunition and introduces me to how ammo type links to damage output.
  • Screen 3 of 3. Instructs me to use the Acceleration Gate, again we have a Targeted Acceleration Gate so there is a text discrepancy.
Tutorial 16, Target Practice
  • Screen 1 of 2. Destroy the Fuel Depot. The Fuel Depot doesn’t show on my overview. On selecting it I am told to click the “target” button and no the “Lock Target” button. There is no graphic for this as there have been for previous instructions like this. I do as instructed and shoot the Depot, which explodes and takes out a chunk of shields
  • Screen 2 of 2. Tells me I’ve taken shield damage and instructs me to use my defensive module to repair it. It would be useful here to explain that the defensive module should be deactivated once the damage has been repaired thus preventing me from capping out. I am then told to use the Acceleration Gate to move to the next area.
Tutorial 17, Basic Combat
  • Screen 1 of 4. I am told to find the red crosshair on the overview. My overview is still cluttered with Customs Offices and I cannot actually see the ship on the overview without scrolling down.
  • Screen 2 of 4. Tells me how to lock an enemy ship. Nice and simple.
  • Screen 3 of 4. Tells me to shoot then approach my target. Whilst ok, it works it leaves me stationary after the kill and taking more damage than I need to.
  • Screen 4 of 4. Tells me to activate the defensive module to repair any damage. Nice and simple.
Tutorial 18, Mission 2 Complete
  • Screen 1 of 2. Tells me to dock at the station. Nice and simple as long as I know what a station is as highlighted previously.
  • Screen 2 of 2. Tells me to talk to the Agent and complete the mission. Pretty straightforward.
Mission 3, The Academy

Acquire Pilot Certification Documents from another system and deliver to the Agent.

Tutorial 19, Interstellar Travel
  • Screen 1 of 6. Tells me how to Set Destination. The graphic shown is again Amarrian and not for the system I’m in.
  • Screen 2 of 6. Tells me a little about stargates and my destination stargate being highlighted yellow. Nice and simple.
  • Screen 3 of 6. Tells me to undock. Nice and simple.
  • Screen 4 of 6. Tells me to warp to the gate at 0m. Nice and simple.
  • Screen 5 of 6. Tells me to jump using the gate. Nice and simple.
  • Screen 6 of 6. Tells me to warp to my mission location.
Tutorial 20, Inside the Academy
  • Screen 1 of 3. Tells me to go and retrieve my Pilots Certification Documents from the Academy Office. They’re way down on my overview under 5 stargates and 5 stations but they’re there.
  • Screen 2 of 3. Tells me how to use the Look At function. It would again be helpful to have a graphic here to show which the Look At button is. In addition only 1 ship shows on my overview without scrolling down. It would be helpful to tell us how to cancel the look at function too.
  • Screen 3 of 3. Tells me about the Show Info function at a glance. Subsequently I am told to return to Aura to complete basic training.
Tutorial 21, The Mission Journal
  • Screen 1 of 3. Tells me to open the Journal and read details of my current mission. Nice and simple.
  • Screen 2 of 3. Tells me to set destination back to the system I came from using the information on in the window which appeared. The graphic shown is again Amarr and is also misleading as it implies that I should choose the destination which is displayed above “Reward” which is in actual fact the objective system, the one I am currently in.
  • Screen 3 of 3. Tells me to warp to the stargate, jump and then dock up and speak with the Agent. Nice and simple.
Tutorial 22, Further Training

Single screen tutorial. Tells me that I’ve completed basic training and will be sent to other nearby Agents for more advanced training courses.

Mission 4, Moving Onwards

Transport Clearance Papers to another system.

Tutorial 23, Moving Onwards
  • Screen 1 of 3. Tells me about navigating multiple jumps. Graphic is Amarrian and little misleading but we’re used to that now. I also feel that this text “Remember that any items you've acquired so far will remain in this system unless you take them with you.“ should be highlighted.
  • Screen 2 of 3. Tells me how to complete the mission once I arrive at the destination. Tells me to put the item in my Cargo Hold. This was a little misleading as I still had the Clearance Papers from an earlier mission.
  • Screen 3 of 3. Tells me about my stargates being highlighted yellow and also gives me brief detail on how Autopilot works.
Tutorial 24, Career Agents
  • Screen 1 of 2. Tells me I’ve arrived and that I should see the Career Agents in the station panel.
  • Screen 2 of 2. Tells me that a variety of mission types are on offer and they can be done in any order.
TO BE CONTINUED...............

Suggestions Thus Far
  • Do not open the constellation window by default.
  • Relocate Aura tutorial windows to the centre of the screen as default, players still able to move them when desired.
  • Make the tutorial on navigating the Captains Quarters appear only when in Captains Quarters.
  • Tutorial 3 screen 1 of 6. Told I’m being given Repair Systems, actually given Shield Operation.
  • Tutorial 3 screen 2 of 6. Grammatical change “items hangar” to “item hangar”.
  • Tutorial 3 screen 3 of 6. Change “Open your Character Sheet and proceed to open your skill queue. It is highlighted now.” To “Open your Character Sheet. It is highlighted now.”
  • Tutorial 3 screen 5 of 6: 
    • Needs to tell us how to open the skill training queue. I know there’s a white balloon that points to it, but something in the text to lead us to it would be helpful.
    • Alter the graphic to show Shield Operation and not Repair Systems.
  • Tutorial 4 screen 1 of 2. Mention that agent interaction can also be done via double click.
  • Tutorial 4 screen 2 of 2. Insert a short paragraph between the two present indicating that the mission offered should be read through prior to hitting accept.
  • Mission 1. I would highlight in the mission narrative the need to pick up the Clearance Documents.
  • Tutorial 5 screen 1 of 1. As mentioned previously please detect whether the character is in the Captains Quarters and adjust the tutorial popups accordingly.
  • Tutorial 6. As above, wants me to go to the balcony at the end of the walkway. Not relevant. Also at this point the tutorial will not let me advance.
  • Tutorial 8 screen 1 of 2.
    • Show the icon for the Acceleration Gate in the tutorial window so I know what to click on.
    • The actual Acceleration Gate description in space is Targeted Acceleration Gate, it should either be called Acceleration Gate or the tutorial modified to give it the correct name as it appears in space.
  • Tutorial 9 screen 1 of 5.
    • Sort the overview by distance, nearest to furthest.
    • Remove Customs Offices from the overview to remove clutter.
  • Tutorial 9 screen 2 of 5. Expand the text next to Shields to mention that they naturally recharge slowly by themselves.
  • Tutorial 9 screen 3 of 5. Adjust the text or Acceleration Gate name so that they match.
  • Tutorial 9 screen 4 of 5. Adjust the description to change “smaller structure” to “Cargo Rig”. If it is possible to customise this by faction so that it said “Caldari Cargo Rig” then all the better.
  • Tutorial 9 screen 5 of 5. My tutorial skipped straight to Tutorial 10 without showing this one. It’s about manual piloting so either needs to be removed and this made a 4 screen tutorial or the subject which this is about (manual piloting) moved to earlier in this tutorial.
  • Tutorial 10 screen 2 of 2. Replace second paragraph with “You are now looking at your ship’s cargo hold. The cargo hold of the ship/structure you intend to loot is also viewable from here. To loot an item, select the ship/structure you wish to loot then drag and drop it into your active ship which will be shown at the top of the left hand window. You may also press "Loot All" to move everything to your ship's cargo and remove that ship from the index at the same time.”
  • Tutorial 11 screen 1 of 2. Show me the icon for a station in the tutorial window.
  • Tutorial 11 screen 2 of 2. Tell me that I can interact with the agent using double click.
  • Tutorial 13 screen 1 of 3. The second paragraph should probably be altered removing “Every station offers” and replacing it with “Stations offer” as not every station has repair facilities.
  • Tutorial 15 screen 1 of 3. Amend the graphic so that it shows a blaster loading antimatter ammo instead of a laser loading a crystal. Also amend where it says “select antimatter s” to “select Antimatter Charge S”.
  • Tutorial 15 screen 3 of 3. Again either change the instruction to use the Targeted Acceleration Gate or change the name of the Acceleration Gate.
  • Tutorial 16 screen 1 of 2.
    • Add Large Collidable Structures to the default overview.
    • Change “click on the target button.” To click on the Lock Target button.”
    • Add a graphic showing the correct icon to press.
  • Tutorial 16 screen 2 of 2. I would suggest altering paragraph 2 to something along the lines of “Use the defensive module you fitted to repair the damage, deactivating the module once the damage has been repaired. Deactivating the module avoids unnecessarily depleting the Capacitor”
  • Tutorial 17 screen 1 of 4. Please organise the overview differently so that I can actually find the ship without scrolling.
  • Tutorial 18 screen 3 of 4, Tells me to shoot and then approach target. This is not optimal for mitigating incoming damage so how about suggestion orbit instead?
  • Tutorial 19 screen 1 of 4. Alter the graphic to be specific to the faction involved if possible as I was shown an Amarr graphic and not Caldari. I appreciate that this may not be possible.
  • Tutorial 20 screen 2 of 3.
    • Add a graphic showing the Look At button.
    • The default overview also only shows me 1 ship as the rest would have to be scrolled down to.
    • Tells us how to cancel the Look At function.
  • Tutorial 21 screen 2 of 3. I should be instructed to Set Destination to the Drop-Off System and given an appropriate graphic.
  • Tutorial 23 screen 1 of 3.
    • Graphic is misleading as it shows an Amarr and not Caldari system.
    • Highlight this “Remember that any items you've acquired so far will remain in this system unless you take them with you.” Text.
  • Tutorial 23 screen 2 of 3. I still had Clearance Papers from an earlier mission, I would like to see this item consumed or destroyed in some way to avoid confusion.
Positives
  • Colour use on Aura windows good from a colour blindness and clarity perspective.
  • Tutorial 07, Camera Movement I found very clear and easy to understand.
  • Tutorial 14, Undocking Instantly I found very clear and easy to understand.
Not so many positives there and that’s only the basic tutorials done. Over the course of the next week or two I’ll share my experience of each of the five Career Agent chains.

I bare no malice towards CCP in this exercise, I'm hoping that I can contribute to making the NPE a more streamlined one without re-inventing the wheel. Sure I'll have a few ideas at the end of this process but for the the time being this is about improving quality and removing annoyances.