Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Drone Bay Podcast: Episode 2 - Now with more seismic events!



EVE Official Forums Link
Virgin Worlds Link



The Drone Bay #2 (Click to Download/Play)

Show notes:

The Drone Bay returns for Episode 2! Yes, it’s the third episode, and Crovan had to re-record the intro 2 or 3 times to stop saying “Episode Three”. This week brings you more of the discussion, guides, and listener mail that you’ve been asking for. As always, please contact us with any suggestions or feedback.

Bring on the Drones:

First off is the weekly recap, where the guys discuss the end of the tourney (congrats Ev0ke!), the stalling out of the Delve offensive (for now), and the Council of Stellar Management. Also, the guys got a bit more media attention this week, which is good, because our egos need inflating. Check out Crovan’s CSM blog entry which got a bit of press from Massively and Ten Ton Hammer this week. My economic segment notes also made Massively’s front page, so we are all feeling smugly superior for a bit.

In DON’T PANIC, thanks to popular demand, the crew discusses corporations and how to look for employment in EVE. One site we are plugging this week is EVE-Careers, a very slick looking database and classifieds site for both employers and prospective employees.

In the listener feedback section, the guys tackle a few questions about starting out in PvP, as well as explaining just what on earth skill hardwirings are for.

The discussion this week centers on suicide ganking, particularly the recent all out war on high sec miners on behalf of Goons and their alts. Tune in for their sage and wise suggestions, all in a continuing theme of telling CCP how to run their game.

Please, please keep giving us feedback. We can’t get to everything every week, but we do appreciate the input and questions. Also, please drop us a Skype voicemail or e-mail us an mp3 if you want to hear your own voice on the show (provided you sound decent and don’t talk nonsense).

Contact Info:

GAX Online Group:
The Drone Bay

E-Mail:
dronebayatgmail.com (comments/questions for everyone)
crovanateve-mail.net
crazykinuxatgmail.com
alsedrechatgmail.com

Skype:
Dronebay

Blogs:
Bitter Old Noob (Crovan)
CrazyKinux’s Musing
The Littlest Drone (Alsedrech)

2 comments:

Mertannia said...

Thanks for another great show. I said it before, but it's really helpful to a new player and has some really insightful discussion. Keep up the good work!

One thing I do disagree with to an extent is your comments about the so-called "JihadSwarm", specifically the ones about it being new players and the discussion around "PvP-free" areas.

Firstly, while a few mining cruisers and frigates have been killed in the process, by far and away the kills have been aimed at Hulks and Mackinaws which are not the domain of a total noob. Yes, with a dedicated skill plan someone could probably be flying an exhumer within about a month but a month is, in my opinion, long enough to have learned some basic personal safety tips and the use of the tools available to that end. I think it's perhaps unfair to say that this is affecting brand new players as much as it is those who have been around slightly longer - the reality is that most people don't go with a dedicated skill plan and if they are going to fly an exhumer, it's around six months into their EVE career, from what I understand.

My second point is that, again from looking at the killboard, the vast majority of the goons' kills are in systems with 0.5 or 0.6 security status and not 0.9 or 1.0. Some of the things that were proposed in your discussion are, in fact, already a part of the game mechanics in so much as CONCORD will respond far more quickly in 1.0 than in 0.5 and, as such, a suicide gank takes far more players losing far more ships to pull off.

I think it's very easy to lump everything in 0.5 up to 1.0 in a single category of "high sec", but people often forget that one is much lower security than the other and the relative difficulty of successfully ganking someone before CONCORD arrive is proportional to that.

The comments about 0.9 or 1.0 being "suicide gank free" are almost in place already as it is incredibly difficult to get a kill in 1.0 in the time you are given. More broadly, I think the discussions on the risk to reward ratio should not simply be limited to the three categories of Empire, Lowsec and 0.0 as they often are on eve-o, but should consider the difference between 0.5 and 1.0, as well as between 0.1 and 0.4.

Having said that, I do feel something needs to be done about it and perhaps the reduced insurance payout if you are killed by CONCORD or something around that truly is the solution, as I do not believe that the current mechanics in terms of the amount of time you have in the various security systems is broken in any major way.

Anyway, apologies if this comes of as a rant, as my intention is to have been constructive in what I have said. While I disagree with some of what was said on this topic, I hope to have disagreed respectfully.

But that's enough of that - keep making more quality shows and I'll promise to keep listening :)

CrazyKinux said...

Great analysis Mertannia!

I have to be honest that in view of the facts you present in your comment, it's hard to argue that the Goons are abusing noobs. You're right, after a month of playing, flying thise kinds of ship, it's kinda of difficult to say they're going after innocent victims.

Thanks for your input!