Expanding our Horizons Further

This post almost heeds as a warning that I may be a bit quiet on the posting front for the next two or three weeks.

Although we now have a POS in Low-Sec I still spend a lot of time in High-Sec. It's easier to make ISK there. However, I do pop in to the POS almost every day. I have PI out there and I also like to run scan sites. But the system we picked to harbour our POS is in the middle of a Militia war-zone. The advantage is that traffic is particularly quiet, but it is apparent that CCP has not seen it viable to implement decent rats or scan-sites. So there is not a great deal to do other than PvP, and anyone who follow's this Blog know's how much I suck at PvP. Although the moon-mining makes the Low-Sec POS worth it, flying out there doesn't seem to hold any major rewards for anyone not in a Militia. I still intend to learn PvP out there, but something else now has my attention.

I mentioned in my previous post that I was keen to run Wormhole Sleeper-sites again. At the end of last week I sent out a post to the Corp stating that I would be making it a reality from this week. This ended up sparking another twist in our Corporations' direction. After talking to the CEO about WH Space, the simple Ops I wanted to run progressed towards setting up a small POS camp. This way we could stay in a 'Hole for a few days. Then, some old Corp and Alliance friends got involved and we have banded together. Now it looks like we're actually moving into a Wormhole. It won't be permanent (they apparently weren't intended for an indefinite base anyway), but we are likely to be away for a couple of months. My CEO has expressed an interest in T3 building, so who knows - it could be even longer.

The work-up is very time consuming. Wormholes demand special attention to a few skills, like scanning. It can't be said enough - good scanning skills are vital in Wormhole Space. So I have stepped my scanning-skills up a gear. I have just trained, bought and kitted out a Buzzard with Cov-Ops and Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher with matching Sisters Probes - that was one way to spend 100mil. Luckily, I already have Transport ships trained and my Crane is already on stand-by. But it will soon be joined by it's bigger brother again, the Bustard. Then there are the other ships, both Sleeper-running and PvP for defence. I intend to mostly use Drake's and Rokh's (WH Class permitting). I am undecided at the moment whether to use a Hulk/Covetor or a Rokh for mining.

We intend to start in a C2, just to test the water. If it is C2 then there is talk of us bringing in Ship Assembly Array's so we can build our Battleships and maybe even an Orca. We want to start in a lower-class because we might not like living in Wormhole Space. A lower-class 'Hole needs (to a certain extent) less setting up, which means less taking down. We're aware that they can give you almost no scan-sites for days. Plus, we are ultimately in it for the ISK and if we keep getting jumped by POS-killers then there is no point in us being there. But the ISK-Loss ratio looks favourable.

There are actually very few of us embarking on this new adventure as we leave the majority of the Corp behind. In fact, the few former-Corp members and old Alliance members who are joining us out-number the folks coming from our Corp. Tonight I am running Wormhole Sleeper-sites to take a few of the newer (and some seasoned) players through to see if they like it. Hopefully they will, and therefore will join us. The more the merrier, right?

Anyway, I will post our progress into Wormhole Space, but the next couple of weeks will just be preparation work.

Function Vs Aesthetics

I have a thing for symmetry and neatness. I always have, I always will. When I built Lego as a kid anything I constructed not only had to be perfectly regular, but also well defined. If it didn't look right, I broke it apart and started again. The same goes for anything I design today, with everything being well-proportioned and refined with the 'less is more' motif attached. By profession I'm an engineer, and a lot of engineers will know that more than often things just can't be completely symmetrical. So I have managed to (mostly) accept that as long as things are at least 'neat and tidy' then I will pass them. But I think the quality of my work swings more towards a level of 'OCD' than 'pride'.

My girlfriend might be thinking at this point why do I not adopt this attitude with house cleaning? I just don't. My house seems to emanate a symmetry-and-tidiness dampening field that affects only me. I can't explain it, so don't make me try.

When it comes to flying ships in EvE, it goes without saying that I will always opt for symmetrical designs. I almost have to. If I ever turned up to a mission-blitz with my Corp in a Moa, it would be like arriving at work wearing yesterdays underwear and a very ill-fitting suit. I would feel dirty and ridiculous.

Being an engineer, I have even found myself mulling over some of the irregular ship designs and decided they clash with physics. Many of the vessels should not be able to fly in a straight line, unless they have a component of ridiculous mass hidden in the hull on one side of the vessel. Some of them just seem to have either too many rocket motors or oversized exhaust nozzles bias to one side.

But who cares? It's a game, and what's more it's science-fiction. Anything is possible in science fiction. But everyone has their quirks, right? Some people worry about CCP nerfing ships, I worry about CCP not positioning the engines correctly about the vessel's centre-of-gravity. It takes all sorts. And who am I to question the design teams' work, anyway? I'm not trying to take anything away from the folks over there - it's better than what I could have ever done. And as space-ship designs go, they can be as ogre-looking as the designer likes - no atmosphere, no stream-lining required!

So enough about my peculiar mental characteristics.

Being a CareBear, much of my income has come from running missions. So, in light of everything I have just said, you can probably guess my Caldari ship-choice as I've progress through the levels.

L1 - Merlin

L2 - Caracal/Hawk

L3 - Drake

L4 - Drake/Rokh

For those who know their ships well enough, all of the above are missile-platforms (apart from the Rokh which is a hybrid. Yes, the Merlin is, too, but at that stage of the game it doesn't really count). Apart from the Rokh, I'm sure that most Caldari pilots will have followed a similar pattern up until the Drake. After the Drake, however, many would have jumped into the Raven. Me being me, I opted for a Rokh due to the Raven's very irregular design. But (as just mentioned) the Rokh is a hybrid ship, and nearly all my weapon skills are in missiles. So I had to spend a month or two learning gunnery skills just so I could fly the Rokh effectively. Is that being ridiculous? Probably. But then I will play in a way that makes me happy, as I'm the one paying for my account.

I managed to get the Rokh in a set-up where I could perma-run an X-Large shield-booster and chuck out 515 DPS. I was running all Level-4's no problem, providing a few sensible tactics were employed in some of the more demanding missions. It was working out superbly until I made the fatal error of leaving my drones in aggressive-mode on one particular run. My overview was suddenly filled top to bottom with blinking reds. The Rokh's shields quickly fizzled down and I began to align to warp out. I recovered my drones and casually clicked the 'warp-to' icon.

Nothing.

I started spamming the icon. Still, nothing. Then I realised. I had been warp-scrammed by three or four Frigates.

A lot of swear words exploded out of my mouth. There was no way I could deploy drones and kill the Frigates with the rate my armour was being chewed up. It was a horrible feeling as my Rokh popped. My cockiness and over-confidence had got the better of me. Not only that, but I now carry the shame of losing a Battleship to an NPC mission. D'Oh!

So, back to the Drake. But I didn't mind returning to that ship. Sure, it was taking me far longer to complete missions, but it is such a good ship. I also think its one of the best looking hulls in the game.

While I rebuilt my funds, I started thinking about a new mission-running vessel. I thought long and hard as I compared my missiles skills to gunnery. Missiles were winning by an obscene amount, so it made sense to go back to them. The Raven only has 3 DPS more than the Rokh with my skills, and the shields are 10,000hp inferior. But the Caldari Navy Raven is a different matter. It comes in at 586 DPS with shields 10,000hp superior than the Rokh (it's worth noting here that I always fit out my mission ships to run cap stable, hence the low DPS figures compared to what could actually be squeezed out. And, no, I don't like pulsing the SB!). I took a deep breath and (finally) decided that it was more important to have function over aesthetics.

But then a Corp mate suggested the Rattlesnake. I didn't even know what that was at the time, but now I know it's a variant of the Scorpion. The Scorpion is a ship I had always over-looked, and not just because it was once an irregular design. I knew it was geared for ECM, and I have no place in ECM warfare, so I never considered it for anything. I was almost embarrassed when I suddenly learned only recently that there are a total of four Scorpion hulls.

After some extensive research through forums, I decided on the Scorpion Navy Issue. Although the Rattlesnake seems like the T1-variant Daddy, I do not like the idea of relying on drones for DPS (for those that do not know, the Rattlesnake is a passive-fit drone-ship with an amalgamation of Caldari and Gallante technology). The SNI variant, however, drops it's ECM role to become a missile-platform.

But the biggest bonus for me is the design. I absolutely love the look of the new(ish) Scorpion hull, and anyone else I've spoken to has also given it a big thumbs-up.

At 542 DPS, it's lagging the CNR's 586 (remember I always fit cap-stable for perma-running an XL-SB). But the SNI's shield is 5,000hp superior. To me, that's an offensive-to-defensive trade I can live with. Plus, the SNI come's in at around 400mil ISK, 200mil cheaper than the CNR. I've only ran a few missions so far, and none have really been testing. But in some cases I haven't even needed to turn the shield-booster on, so it looks promising.

And the best part of all this? I have a missile-platform with a symmetrical hull! Well, in truth, the bridge is slightly offset on the Scorpion. And even the Rokh has an additional structure half-way down on it's starboard side. But, really, I'm not that pedantic!

However, sooner or later I'm sure the day will come where I will have to put aside my petty quirk and step into a Golem.

Blog Banter #22: Corporation Loyalty - Brothers and Sisters till the end?

Welcome to the twenty-second installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month topic is brought to us by L'Dene Bean of Nitpickin's who asks: Why, and how did you pick your corporation? Is your loyalty solid or just until a better placed organization "recruits" you. The shorter version:  Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and why?

By nature I am a loyal person, so it is almost natural for me to stick to a Corp even when it is wasting my time. I'm a sucker for giving too many chances. If anyone were to look at my profile they would see that in three-and-a-half years I have only seen four Corporations. And even then, two of those Corps are a merger so in reality I've only been part of three. And of those three my first was disbanded, the second I left and the third I'm currently still serving.

I enjoy being part of something. And even more than that, I enjoy being significant in that part. My second Corp I won't really count, as there was very little involvement from me (not by choice, I hasten to add!). More on that later.

My first Corporation found me, I never went looking. I was too afraid of Corporations at the time. It seemed a bit daunting to interact with other real-life players. EvE was my first (and only) MMO. Even though the game is about player-vs-player interaction, I still found it a little odd 'talking' to a funny looking spaceship on my monitor. It seemed a bit silly at the time. And I also thought I had nothing to offer a Corp while I was still a Newb. We all know that's not the case with many Corps, but back then I didn't know any better. So it's a good job I was approached, otherwise I would have eventually got sick of mining solo in my Badger and quit the game years ago.

I had a great time in my first Corp. Sure, it may have been only geared around mining, but a lot of the enjoyment was probably due to my learning curve increasing extensively. That, and the fact that the Corp and it's members were brand new. It was interesting to see the Corp flourish from a seed. And it was nice to know that almost everyone else was in the same Newb boat as myself. I was loyal without question, and this didn't go unnoticed. The CEO was starting to give me certain rights, and even a title. I was also well-rewarded, which made my loyalty stick even further. I don't remember ever thinking about leaving to find another Corp.

Then real life got in the way, and I disappeared for about 18 months.

When I got back the Corp had disbanded, much to my dismay. Even though I was playing again, I wasn't able to dedicate enough time to be effective to another Corp. So I ran solo for quit a while. But it wasn't long before the feeling of isolation set in. My game-time had picked up, so I scanned the recruitment channel looking for a new Corp.

I found one that seemed to offer everything I was looking for, so I applied and joined. There were only 5 of us in total, as it was just starting out. I liked the idea of this because, like my first Corp, it was nice to be part of something where I could have an effect on it's moulding. But it wasn't long before the two CEO's wandered into a Wormhole and never returned. The other guy was a different time zone to me so we hardly ever saw each other while the fourth was an AFK-King. So, I was back on my own running missions and mining but paying Corp tax on everything I did. Needless to say, I was getting frustrated. Not much loyalty there, although it did take me a while to hit that quit button as I kept piling on those chances. At the very least I do owe thanks because it led me to my current Corp.

My home at the time was Umokka, and one particular day I went scanning. I found a hidden asteroid field and took my Hulk for a spin. I was soon joined by other miners. While my strip-miners did what they do best, I decided to revisit the recruitment channel. I watched it for a while, but nothing matched my wants. I decided to try posting a message in the local chat about recruitment. Umokka always had between 150-300 pilots occupying the system at any time, so it didn't take long for someone to come through. It was Ron (who is now the CEO for my Corp) who spoke up first. And it turned out that he was floating right next to me in the asteroid field. In fact, a lot of the Corp were there mining alongside my Hulk. So, we got talking and I decided to give it a shot.

I'm still in that Corp. And I don't feel that I will leave for a long time. However, current times are very testing, and there is not a better point in time that this Blog Banter question could have come about. I'm not afraid to say that our Corp is experiencing a bit of a slump at the moment and Lucrosum Bellas is no where near as mighty as it once was. A lot of the 'original' players have left to move on to other things while a few have taken long-term breaks for various reasons. 

The reasons for the current Corp 'recession' are too long to annotate well into this post without. But a recent move followed by some Alliance squabbles and Corp snitches/thieves has left our remaining members a bit spread out and lost. Our once tightly-knitted and active LUBEL has become an untangled ravel of (mostly) solo runners. Because of this, good members are dropping out. 

However, I am in a good position to turn this situation around. I will soon be asking my CEO to give me 'Recruitment Rights' so I can rebuild our numbers. Before I do that, I want to get myself much better established - an operation that has already taken me many weeks so far. I'm aiming to be in position where I can offer PvP and Wormhole Ops as well as mission-running and mining. I'm half way to this goal.

But even through these tough times I am not thinking of leaving. Perhaps I'm being too sentimental to the 'good-old-days' I had in the beginning. But the pilots who remain are excellent quality, and I know we can return to the 'Elite (CareBear!) player Corp' we once had. I am so sure of myself that I've turned down a few invitations recently from other Corps who can give me a great deal more than what LUBEL could ever offer. Enough said.

I think it's safe to say that if I ever thought about leaving my Corporation, it would be to form one of my own. 

Macro-Miners in EvE

Is this a taboo subject?

I think it is, as any talk of it seems mostly under the radar. But I was reading a post in the EvE Forums that addressed this, and I wanted to discuss it.

However, before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that I condemn anyone who uses mining-bots to harvest ISK to sell for real money. I have no hesitation clicking on that 'Report ISK Spammer' option. In fact, I reported someone yesterday. But I'm not talking about them. The folks I'm referring to are those who treat it as an aid, much like most of us use EFT or EVEMON.

A lot of the pilots I fly with are married with kids. Others are students who do a lot of studying. Or some (like me) are just tied up in a busy life-style. I hear it a lot when we plan something like a Corp mission-blitz; 'Sorry guys, but I gotta take the dog for a walk and then put the kids to bed.' They log and miss out on ISK. That's fine - after all, EvE's a game and real life is, well, real life.

However, ISK is needed to play EvE, and flying advanced ships is more fun than scurrying around in noob vessels. But the more advanced the ship the more expensive it is, and if you can't generate ISK to buy these it could be off-putting. A character may have 30million skill points, but actual gaming time means the pilot may never afford anything larger than a cruiser. What should the player do? Continue in a state of slow or non-advancement? Or just give up if enough time cannot be dedicated to the game? The latter would take money away from CCP, which is not ideal.

To that end, is a mining-bot an answer for these people? Is it wrong if used in a way where the player is sat at a computer studying while the mining-bot takes control, leaving the persons' learning uninterrupted but still physically at the computer? Or while a father watches a DVD with his kids leaving his Retriever to nibble away at asteroids - should a macro-miner not be allowed here?

I don't know if it should be or not. It can easily be argued that EvE is a game, and games are meant to be played. But should it even matter that a small amount of people use this tool to provide that extra income to enhance their otherwise feeble game-time? Granted, there will always be the select few who totally abuse the application and run it 24/7. But these people are everywhere in life.

It has never crossed my mind to use one myself. These days I barely touch mining. My Hulk is currently buried under a mountain of dust, and I'm not planning to bring her out any time soon. Besides, macro-mining (apparently) will bring in around 6million ISK an hour if done with a well-rigged Hulk. Well, that's not even pocket money to me so I wouldn't consider using one. But to the 'one-hour a week' players, ten-hours of mining spread over the week would make a healthy difference.

But remember this - macro-mining benefits people other than the direct user. Hulkageddon victims (in and out of tournament) are more than often macro-miners. So would it have even come about without the fields of juicy automated Hulks? Even Carebears benefit. For players involved in production there is a greater supply of minerals due to these macro-mining folk. And the more ships and components built the more fierce the market, which means cheaper prices for everyone.

So at the very least we might agree that there are some pro's coming from the macro-miners. But I would only be lenient to those who wouldn't abuse the program. And CCP? Well, at the end of the day, macro-miners are still paying customers, so I'm not sure that they would look to ban them unless they were ISK harvesting to sell for RL cash. I think it is just frowned upon.

I would safely bet a reasonable amount of money that macro-mining will never be made legal in the game, but could CCP perhaps provide an alternative for 'mild' macro-miners by introducing a similar in-game feature? The notion behind PLEx was to provide an answer to Cash-for-ISK, right? Could something be done about Macro programs?

How about a mining set-up similar to the current PI model? Special mining-drone colonies could be introduced. Asteroid fields too dangerous for humans, for whatever reason (in other words, inaccessible), could be implemented. The ore is delivered to a holding station (like a Customs Office) and the drones need to be reset after a certain amount of time in the same way extractors do in PI. The amount mined would need to be greatly inferior than actual player-mining, but enough to make it worth while for the 'mild' macro-miner to switch to the in-game method. Perhaps even the compressed minerals found in Rogue-Drone salvage could be the unrefined material found in these belts?

The example is nothing more than a spit-ball, but does anyone think an alternate method is possible?

I am very interested to here peoples opinions on this topic, so please share your views.

How NOT to run Planet Interaction

I had such a revelation with my PI that I wanted to share it right away, even though I am probably about to make myself look dim-witted.

My CEO was already involved with it and I asked him if it was worth while. From what he told me it seemed the profit was reasonable, so I trained the skills. He also sent me an e-mail with a run-down of what to do. I then set to work. I decided I would use the PI to construct fuels for our POS. I picked five suitable worlds and built my colonies. I was succeeding in my task, but production was slower than I first thought. I ran this for many weeks.

However, recently we set up another POS in Low-Sec. So, a couple of days ago I abandoned the colonies, replenished my Crane's cargo hold with fresh Command Centres and rebuilt my PI in the new system.

I paid more attention to what I was doing this time, and I noticed that a cluster of four Extractors were excavating around 2,300 units per cycle each. Collectively, that's 9,200 unit per 30 minute cycle (give or take a few units due to the slight variations in mining quantities between each Extractor).

Now, in the instructions that my CEO had mailed me, he said to watch the input levels to Processors. He also told me that the Launch-Pad would hold all my excess materials. In the previous system, I never saw any excess on my Launch-Pad so I thought the Extractor-to-Processor ratio I used was right.

Wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and WRONG!

It takes a Basic Processor Factory thirty-minutes to convert 3000 units of Noble Metals into 40 units of Precious Metals. But I would like to emphasise '3000 units' again. Remember I said I had four extractors kicking out 9,200 units per hour? So, if the Processor will only accept 3000 units every thirty-minutes, where do the remaining 6,200 go?

I'll tell you - thin air.

The Factories will happily accept the 3000 units they need, plus queue up an additional 3000 units as long as there isn't any already waiting. Any excess 'poofs' into thin air. And this has a knock-on effect to any processors thereafter. The thing is - this doesn't have to happen, but I had been running my PI like this for weeks.

The way I 'routed' (not linked) my PI buildings was:
Extractor -> Basic Factory -> Advanced Factory -> Launchpad

It seemed logical. But it's not, if you think about  it carefully. Imagine all the lorries queued up outside my Basic Factory waiting to empty 9,000 units of Noble Metal into the Processor. The problem is they can't. The Processor and it's limited storage are already full and there is nowhere else to store the excess. Well, they're not going to hang around outside a factory for days on end waiting for there turn, so they drive off home and sell my metal on the black-market for their own gains. And I don't blame them.

In my new set-up, EVERYTHING is routed through the Launchpad. That's the trick. If the building churns something out, it goes straight to the Launchpad. Then, if a factory needs a material input it can take what it needs from there instead of being directly linked to a supply structure(s), which could be trying to feed it material when it's already full. This is what my CEO was trying to tell me, but at the time I assumed that any excess would automatically be taken to the pad. The correct way is to route Extractors and Processors to the Launchpad first, and then route the relevant materials stored on the Launchpad back to the PI structures that need them.

Storing surplus stock also allows me to monitor materials that are either excessively piling up or depleting too quickly. I can then balance out the levels by either adding or removing Extractors. This can also free up both CPU and power in my Command Centre, allowing me to run additional Factories. And more Factories means more profit.

Now that (I think) I have set up my PI correctly, I am much more involved with it in a good way. I have spent many, many hours trying to configure it right and I am still tweaking days later. I actually find it fun. I estimate it will take at least a week to get all my Extractors-to-Processors balanced efficiently. This is because I have to monitor mineral piles after making any changes. Or I could use Maths, but I hate Maths.

In only 48 hours I have already produced 24% of what I made in the 3 weeks of running my old set-up. And I expect this increase to triple once the PI is finally balanced. I hope to keep on top of stock so I don't have to start building silo's, too.

So, remember to route everything through the damn Launchpad, not just link it.

Having My Work Cut Out...

So, the re-design of my Blog took a lot longer than I originally stated. There's no getting away from the trend-pattern of my promises - I say my posts will be published by a certain date, but it's weeks after said date that I finally spit them out.

Am I lazy? Not entirely.

Busy? Very.

In EvE I am, anyway.

If I had published a post for every event that has happened to me in EvE over the last few weeks, I'd be in the hundreds. So I won't do that. Instead, enjoy a 'quick' run-down:

 - My Corp joined an Alliance
 - We move system to be with the main hub of the Alliance
 - Corp gets involved with the variety of Alliance activities
 - I start running Wormhole sleeper-sites with Alliance members - great fun
 - Alliance gets War-Decced
 - Forces gather ready for battle. I spend tens of millions stocking up on throw-away Frigates, Cruisers and Battlecruisers with PvP fits. I am determined to learn PvP
 - War starts
 - I manage to miss out on all battles due to time-zone clashes while all my battle-ready ships gather dust
 - Battles are fruitless on our part due to our superior opponents, but apparently fun
 - Some Corps leave Alliance to avoid the War
 - We learn of traitors in our Corp
 - My Corp CEO falls out with Alliance CEO over leadership in regards to fleet organisation (out of something-like 250 Alliance members, only 15 show up for battle)
- Arguments escalate between our Corp and Alliance members
- Our Corp leaves Alliance, and War is over for us
- I'm left with mothballed PvP ships
- D'Oh!
- Back to mission running and mining
- I buy an Orca to help with mining-ops
- I suddenly find myself never doing mining-ops
- I start up Planetary Interactions to help fuel our High-Sec POS
- My CEO and I discuss putting up another POS, this time in Low-Sec
- Low-Sec POS investigated
- Low-Sec POS materials gathered
- I discover the ultimate fit for my mission-Rokh with perma-run active shield-tank and awesome DPS. I am totally unstoppable in Level-4 missions
- I lose my Rokh in a Level-4 mission
- WtF!!?
- Back to the faithful Drake while I save for a CNR
- I learn how to set up and run a POS
- Low-Sec POS set-up with Moon-Mining capabilities
- I am promoted to 'Chief of Logistics' in our Corp to handle Low-Sec POS logistical requirements
- I take a moment to feel proud that my efforts toward my Corp are being so generously rewarded
- I start to explore Low-Sec
- I also start a Corp T1-Frigate Tournement Ladder for fun
- I find myself at the bottom of said Tournement Ladder
- I concede that I will probably always suck at PvP

And that's pretty much where I'm at. It really is the bones of my recent activities, and I would like to discuss some of the above in greater depth for future posts. I particularly enjoyed running Wormhole-ops.

The main high-light for me is Low-Sec. I am really excited to be there. No, it's not 0.0, but it's providing me more variety in my game-play. Although, there doesn't seem to be a great deal to do other than ratting and running scan-sites. Perhaps I am already seeing the problems that Mynxee is addressing at the moment. But while it's new to me, the general day-to-day events are a lot more interesting. I will remain operating in High-Sec mostly, but it's nice to be doing something different.

When out there, I'm starting to learn how to use the 'Local' channel and D-Scan effectively. I can't help but get nervous when Yarr-folk pass through the system. I'll admit that I'm a coward who runs back to the POS when a -9.8 rated pilot lingers in the system a little longer than I feel comfortable with. And I am aware that I will need to lose many ships before I start to get anywhere near good at PvP, but I am still getting myself established out there. I am in no rush.

Hopefully I will soon be losing to Low-Sec no more!

And it's also nice to be Blogging again.

Optimising your PC...

When my computer went kaput, I began a trek of learning about the internal workings of a PC to solve my problems. I signed up to www.techsupportforum.com and this was where most of my knowledge came from - the guys and gals were fantastic.

Anyway, there was one particular post that caught my eye. I read it and carried out the procedures to both my PC (XP) and my girlfriends laptop (VISTA).

Wow. What a difference.

Now, perhaps I am teaching a lot of folk to suck eggs. But I would like to share this with the IT-ignorant people like myself. So, for those of you who know how to turn off those hidden background programs as well as disabling unwanted applications at start-up, you can stop reading here.

For those still following, click on the link to this post:

www.techsupportforum.com/gaming-forum/pc-gaming-support/349169-optimising-your-system-games.html

I hope that Sven2157 doesn't mind me sharing this, but it made such a difference to both of my computers that I am keen to pass this information across to others. Although, I take no responsibility for anyone who manages to mess up their computer (covering my behind here!).

So, if you are confident enough to follow those steps, you will see a big difference in computer performance, especially at start up!

Well, I did anyway.

Enjoy!