November Progress Report – Finding a Voice

Format has gone out the window this month. Previous Progress Reports have been goal-focused, but this month, I’ve found one unique theme has shone through everything else.

That is: the development of my voice in EVE.

What do I mean by voice? Well, two things, actually.

First, my actual voice. As most readers will know, in EVE Online, taking leadership positions (in my case, the position of an FC and alliance leader) requires frequent usage of your voice.

This has led to smoother speech, for one. Generally my thoughts hold me back; my brain intervenes when I’m mid-sentence because it figures out something better to say, or worse, it tells me there is a flaw in what I’m saying, and I try to change course right there and… well… it’s no good.

These days I find I am better at starting off my talking knowing what to say and how to say it. It’s less difficult to talk, in general. There isn’t significant improvement as in I haven’t gone from mute to the most arousing public speaker in the whole cluster, but it’s there, and I do notice it.

EVE has changed me. As nerdy as it may sound… it’s probably true.

Power creeps

Should be writing an entry for the Pod and Planet EVE Fiction Contest but I’m writing this post.

Today, I took part in an alliance cruiser fleet today.

We were beaten hard.

We had a 14-man Caracal fleet, including a Keres, Bellicose, 3 Scythes and an Executioner for support.

They had T3 battlecruisers (Talos), battlecruisers (Ferox, Drake, Gnosis), shield logistics and ECM (Rook, Falcon iirc).

One of their guys came into comms to apologise for bringing the ECM, and that act led to me writing this post.

Apologising for winning a fight? What the hell is going on there?

Actually, that’s not quite right. What really got me was that when one of our guys asked him what we could’ve done better, he only had one suggestion: we run next time.

That really hurt; it was the last thing I wanted my pilots to hear. It’s the easy way out, and that’s not how I roll.

The Red Killboard

I was worried about catching up on things after a week, but so far my fears have been mostly ungrounded. I did leave a mail behind before I left for EDU, asking the guys to continue shooting things regardless of the outcome, and they rose to the challenge spectacularly. The killboard remained active – hell it looked like activity skyrocketed – during the week I was away, something I am immensely proud of.

I am a believer that the active killboard speaks volumes more than a green one. If it is active and green, that’s great. But if I am looking at a killboard and I do not see any losses whatsoever, I can only assume that 1) you are better at PvP than anyone I have ever known or seen in New Eden, or 2) you’re sticking to combat within a comfort zone.

It’s very easy to claim option 1 when in fact the case is most likely 2. I could go into that but to be honest, it is not my place to tell anyone that the way they PvP is ‘wrong’ or unworthy of praise. I am only here to say, do not be ashamed of your losses.

EDU Recap

EveDownUnder: Revi’s recap

I had arrived at Sydney on Tuesday, 18th November with a friend who did not play EVE. We had made plans to explore the state whilst we were there and as such, I missed Friday’s night-time revelry and the pub crawl since outside of the necessities (some may argue the pub crawl was a necessity) I was chilling with him. I began with that because if you were hoping for tales of drunken exploits, I wish from the bottom of my heart I could satisfy you but alas, not a drop of alcohol was imbibed that weekend.

I kind of wish I was drunk for the events I did attend, though.

EVEDOWNUNDER, HERE I COME!

Woohoo! Schedule is out, I’m speaking FIRST out of all the short-form presenters. Yikes. I hope I don’t drop the ball and make people leave before the others get a chance to speak, BUT 15 minutes isn’t too tough to get through. Fingers crossed, stomach butterflies are fluttering. Meeting all my fellow spacefriends (and devs in real life for the first time ever!) is going to be awesome, awesome, awesome.

So I’m sitting here before we head out to the airport to get me to Sydney, and I just realised I won’t be able to blog at all for the next week. Even if I did find an opportunity I won’t get any meaty posts in. 😦

Oh well, big recap post and hopefully pictures if I’m feeling the photogenic in me. He’s usually AWOL, forgive me.

So, dear readers, I’ll see you, along with my alliance, in a week’s time.

o7

…

Also regretting not setting up some alliance propaganda to bring along. Ah well, there’s always next year.

Deadlines, processes, tools, progress…

Some people are loyal to others. I’m loyal to an idea.

The first corporation I ever joined in EVE, The Southern Legion, it had something there. A will, a will to strive further, reach higher, to achieve great deeds! A desire to win against the greatest odds. The underdogs, fighting their way to the top. When it more or less fell apart due to inactive leadership, people melted away. I helped with the process of disintegrating the corporation, and whilst I am not ashamed of doing so, I still do not fully stand by my decisions at that time. Most players followed the previous leader. I did not. They left for another group who had already established a foothold in the universe, and already had a name, resources.

But as great a guy and leader he was, I was not there to follow him. I was there for that belief, so slight that it was more of a hope, that we could climb together, from the stinking pits of insignificance, to the fabled halls where all the other great corporations/alliances were remembered eternally.

So when I was approached by a friend with the prospect of creating a new alliance, I grabbed it eagerly. I don’t know why I seek to make life harder for myself by undertaking tasks of immense difficulty. In real life, too, I occasionally take the harder route to perform and complete tasks, simply because I feel proving to myself that I can do it. It stems from an uncertain understanding of myself, I think. Because I do not yet know who I am, I have to push the limits of what I can achieve to find out.

OMC is finished!

One Man Crew video is out! A little later than most expected, but it is glorious nonetheless. Some of those fights were inspiring to watch, performed with a level of skill far above what I possess, for sure.

60 minute watch, the hour vanished as soon as I hit play. 60 minutes, my eyes were glued to every movement, every module activation, every overheat, every kill. (thanks for the informative text in the video too, Mizhir!) I understand now how high I have to aim to be one of the best.

Was a privilege just to be able to submit a video to this contest. Long live the champions of solo PvP, the profession that the gangs don’t want you to know about, because they fear the day they are eliminated by a single pilot. If, in my FCing, I am ever whelped by a solo PvPer, I will make sure my fleet knows what just happened, because it is an art worthy of the opponent’s admiration.

Interesting parallels

Uni exams done! My first year of uni and my first year of EVE, and I think this blog will tell you which one took precedence. 😛

Struggled through the exams unnecessarily, I certainly could’ve avoided it with constant work instead of cramming, but enough about that, the year’s over now. Besides, EVE is going to teach me how to be organised, won’t you, EVE?

Downloaded CCP’s fansite kit… perfect for livening up a wordy article!

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The worse thing you can do to a new player is leave them confused and lost in hostile territory whilst barking commands at the tattered remnants of your fleet after a whelping.

But that’s exactly what happened today.

I went into null-sec with some 10 pilots in armour cruisers, with logi and an interceptor scout, feeling confident, expecting some fun. We got into a few scuffles, didn’t kill anything, didn’t lose anything.

Then we got scouted out by Dirt Nap Squad, and they brought something like 30 pilots in interceptors, dictors, cruisers; there was a Raven somewhere out there as well. We were locked into a system, they started probing us down, I tried vainly to keep bouncing, and eventually I tried to get the fleet through a jump. Naturally, there were people on the other side. Perhaps we could’ve gotten away, but some of us would’ve been sacrificed. I didn’t want that, so I got us to burn back to the gate.

As we jumped through, we had probably drawn the aggro of about 10-15 of them. Hence, surely on the other side there would only be 10-15 people fighting us. We could’ve made a brave last stand, and perhaps slayed a few of them.

The next learning cliff

I thought I scaled EVE’s learning cliff after I realised I could answer 80% of questions in the Help channel.

I thought wrong.

Then I thought I had scaled the cliff when I could safely fly with my safety set to yellow.

I was wrong.

Then I thought that surely, since I’ve led one successful roam, I finally understood most of EVE. Then I got into fleet combat proper, and whelped a few fleets. Then I realised that even if I had scaled that first learning cliff all newbies hit, there is a level 2.

My version of the learning cliff.

This cliff face is smooth, and more or less vertical. An impossible climb alone. This, I feel, is where EVE really becomes more than a game. Because this level is where you turn to others, to friends who have made it all this way together, to allies you’ve formed strong bonds with, and together, forge your own path up to eternal glory.