Friday, June 27, 2008

EVE Online Speedlinking for June 27th, 2008

I've been back from cottage country for a few days now, nursing a few dozen mosquito bites. This should explain why I haven't been posting as regularly over the last week.

Before I go on with the links for the week, I'd like to reassure The Drone Bay listeners that the show is still around, though we've had some difficulty getting together to record no.13. We were initially supposed to do so on Friday the 13th - which would have been really cool. But because of timing, sleeping and PC issues, we've been unable to. Rest assured, the show will get done soon. We normally record on Monday nights, so I expect Al, Crovan and I to be back on schedule after this week-end.

OK, so back to the recent news:
Lots of news on the wars and ship losses:
Various news items:
Fly safe folks!
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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Massively Speaking #10 and Aeropodcast #36

Seems like I'm on a roll with podcasts these days, except maybe with our very own Drone Bay. We've been trying to record no.13 since last Friday, but somehow haven't managed to do so. When it's not Crovan's PC woes, it's him or I sleeping through our scheduled time. We're working on both issues and should have the next episode recorded by early next. Promised!

So why do I say that it's podcasting bonanza for me? Well, as I mentioned in my last speedlinking post, last Sunday I recorded a podcast with Joe and Paul from Aeropause. This was my first podcast with them, their no.36. I hope to be able to say that I've got that many The Drone Bay episodes under my belt one day.

In the show we talk about The Drone Bay podcast itself and how it successfully helped Paul through his 14-day trial, as opposed to Joe who didn't get to listen to our show, and didn't enjoy the trial as much. I think I did a good job at promoting our show, though I have to say that Paul didn't need my help! Have a listen and let me know what you think!

Then last night, I joined my fellow co-bloggers from Massively.com, Michael and Shawn, together with my Drone Bay co-host, Alsedrech (aka Stephen) to record the 10th episode of Massively Speaking, which is now part of the VirginWorlds Podcast Collective.

In the show we discuss Empyrean Age and talk about EVE in general. The show isn't meant for capsuleers, but for new players looking to jump into a sci-fi-hardcore-sandbox-mmorpg-universe filled with possibilities. Having listened to the show myself (good job on the editing Shawn!), I must say I think Al & I did a good job. Now if I can only get that Alt into a faction and experience Empyrean Age for myself, I'll feel less like a fool!

Oh, before I go, please have a look at my 3rd and latest column at Massively - Have Clone, Will Travel: 3 Essential Tools for Capsuleers - and let me know what you think. Comments are, as always, appreciated!

So off to New Eden I go now!

Fly safe mates!
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

EVE Online Speedlinking for June 17th, 2008

Wow, was May 26th the last time I did a speedlinking post? Time flies while you're having fun I guess.

Before I go any further, please make sure to download Firefox as today is world-record-setting-day for the little red beasty.

So, what's been happening over the past 3 weeks, that's caught my attention? Lots! Too much actually to list it all. A lot of Empyrean Age articles have been posted in the blogosphere and all over gaming news. Just as I write this, the first Gallente system has fallen to the Caldari Militia ushering the beginning of more intense fighting.

Before it got released though, the guys at Warp Drive Active had a great interview with CCP ZuluPark on it. They explore the various design behind it and it's a very interesting episode to listen too.

Lots of EVE bloggers have been posting about Empyrean Age also, and it's provided a bit of information for players (like me) who haven't had a chance to jump in yet. Van Hemlock's The Distrust of Recruits... & The Path of Acceptance... are a must read. There's also Nuyan who share's his impression of it so far. It's even brought back some players who had veered off the true path. My fellow bloggers at Massively.com have been busy publishing a plethora of articles on Empyrean Age - well done guys! Finally, CCP was kind enough to provide us with IGB compatible guides: a Factional Warfare Player Guide and Knowledge Base.

In other news still related to Empyrean Age, we learn a bit more about Tony Gonzales' upcoming novel when he discusses it with the guys over at TenTonHammer. I've got that one pre-ordered (Amazon Stores: USA, CDN and UK) since the end of the last ice age, and promise to let you know about it when I've got it in my hands.

For my British readers, CCP's very own Vice President of Business Development, Thor Gunnarsson, will be a speaker at this year's GameHorizon Conference, in Newcastle. The event starts tomorrow and ends Thursday. If anyone reading this is attending, we'd love to know more about his presentation! Speaking of conferences, Noah Ward, CCP's Lead Designer will be a speaker at the Develop Conference and Expo in Brighton in late July. Any details would be appreciated also.

Also for my British buddies (Urban, Zapatero, Godlesswanderer and many more), the Gaming Radio Network will have a party in early August to celebrate EVE Radio's 5th Anniversary. Here's one party I'm really devastated to miss. Please take some pictures and send them to me!!

The always entertaining Nathan Richardsson (aka Oveur) gave an interview with Gamasutra's Mathew Kumar in which he talks about the current state of EVE, how it compares to other MMOs (in particular WoW), and other matters, including getting more women into the game!

It's been a while since we got some news on the behind-the-scenes-technical-aspect of EVE, but I did come across this news piece about how CCP will use Cisco hardware to speed up the access to information that resides on the EVE-Online website. Seems they're gearing-up for a population increase!

In other news:
Last not not least, I wanted to thank Joe and Paul for having me as a guest on their Aeropodcast #36, which just became available over at Aeropause. Paul had very kind words for The Drone Bay and my fellow co-hosts Crovan and Alsedrech. Hopefully I've done a good job at representing the team.

Thanks again guys for the opportunity!
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Monday, June 16, 2008

The EVE Online Blog Pack


[Latest update: March 16th, 2011]

The following list is in constant evolution as per the EVE Blog Pack's organic nature! Only the blogs I deem worthy of being part of the Pack make it on the list, and more importantly, stay on the list! See the original post below.
  1. A Ghost Blog, by Mr NOXx
  2. A Merry Life and a Short One, by Hallan Turrek
  3. A Missioneer in Eve, by Mike Azariah 
  4. A Mule in EVE, by Manasi
  5. A Scout's Domain, by Lumenarious Rex <-- Back in the Pack, yet again!
  6. Aggressive Tendencies , by Perseus Kallistratos 
  7. Angry Care Bear (The), by Serenity One  <-- NEW
  8. Ardent Defender, by Galo
  9. Astral's EVE Trial by Fire, by Astral Dominix 
  10. Chocolate Heaven, by Kala 
  11. Cogito Ergo Yarr, by Arrhidaeus 
  12. Diary of a Pod Pilot, by Myrhial Arkenath 
  13. Ecliptic Rift, by Casiella Truza
  14. Elitist (The), by Xeross 
  15. EON :: The official EVE Online magazine, by @EONmagazine   <-- NEW
  16. EVE A to Z, Lex Starwalker
  17. EVE PRIVATEER, by Rebecca Aventine <-- NEW 
  18. EVE Travel, by Webspaceships 
  19. EVE's parity bit, by Paritybit <-- NEW 
  20. EVEOGANDA, by RixxJavix 
  21. Fiddler's Edge, by Mord Fiddle <-- NEW  - FINALLY!
  22. Finders and Keepers, by Aiden <-- Updated URL
  23. Flashfresh - A Pirate, by Flashfresh
  24. Freebooted, by Seismic Stan 
  25. Helicity Boson, by Helicity Boson 
  26. Hydrostatic capsule (The), by Cailais 
  27. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, by Kirith Kodachi
  28. K162space, by Blake
  29. Kane Rizzel - A Pirate's Perspective, by Kane Rizzel
  30. Letrange's EvE Blog, by Letrange <-- Back in the Pack, yet again!
  31. Life in Low Sec, by Mynxee
  32. Morphisat's Blog, by Morphisat
  33. My Loot, Your Tears, by Paul Clavet (with contributions from Khalia Nestune) 
  34. Our EvE, by Kename Fin 
  35. Planet Risk Show (The), by Luminus Aardokay & Quivering Palm
  36. Ravings of a Lunatic, by Dos Tu Mai ‘Dossie’ Kielle <-- NEW  
  37. Rifter Drifter, by Wensley
  38. Roc's Rambling, by Roc Wieler
  39. Scram Web - An EVE Online Blog, by Toterra <-- NEW 
  40. Sleepless in Space, by Shadai <-- NEW 
  41. Tiger Ears, by Tiger Ears
  42. Wench with a Wrench, by Maeve 
  43. where the frack is my ship?, by Eelis Kiy <-- NEW 
  44. Yarrbear Tales, by 00sage00
Use this link to subscribe to the whole pack!








Original post
As you already know, blogging and EVE Online are two passions of mine. I read a lot of blogs - last time I checked I had 149 subscriptions in Google Reader, and that's after a spring cleaning. Under the "eve-online" tag I have 37 subscriptions. Of those, there are about 18 which I follow closely.

Ever since I came across a post on the concept of a "Blog Pack", I've been thinking about setting one up for our community of EVE bloggers. Basically, a Blog Pack is a group of bloggers that agree to help each other out by reading, subscribing, commenting, digging, stumbling, etc, each others blog and posts. The idea is to build our readership by building our community.

So a few weeks ago, I set out to email those 17 bloggers (actually 16, cause Winterblink's got two blogs in that list!) and ask if they we interested. After a few emails back and forth, most of them had agreed and though it was a great idea.

So here is the list of blogs and bloggers that form the EVE Online Blog Pack as of today. If you'd like to join, and have a dedicated EVE Online Blog, than let me know and I'll see if you can be had.







Honorable Retirement
The blogs below have at one time or another been part of the EVE Blog Pack. As such they still deserve some special attention and respect. Please give them a visit!





Updates:
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Friday, June 13, 2008

When Carebears Attack! - Video

I would never have believed it had I not seen this video! A miner by the name of jnb got fed up and installed a tank ship setup on her Hulk - an Exhumer for crying out lod! - and then had some fun with her attackers. Watch the whole video, it's simply amazing!

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Oh dear! What happened to the Helios?

Earlier today while running a few missions in Khanid, I was chatting with some mates on The Drone Bay channel - which you should all join by the way! - when all of sudden, my good friend Madok Ironfist cries out in desperation "What have they done to the Helios!".

Now now, what was this? One of the reasons that my main is a Gallente is that I prefer the look of their ships - besides the Amarri of course! So when I heard that the Helios had been overhauled, I felt concerned. After a bit of research Madok had emailed me the two screenshots below. Low and behold, the Helios had been tampered with! I don't know about you, but the new look, hints at a Caldari influence. That wing sticking out is very reminiscent of the look and feel that a lot of Caldari ships have, or Caldari stations for that matter.

I'm on Madok's side on this one! This is a downgraded look for a ship that looked amazing and reminded somehow of Boba Fett's Slave I ship. Don't ask!





Old

New

What's your take on it? The new or the old?
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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Out of Eden: Space Siege Trailers

For a guy who's currently unemployed, let me tell you that I'm keeping myself quite busy! And though a lot of my time these days is spent thinking, breathing and living the life of an EVE capsuleer (besides all the RL chores that keep popping on the endless list - you married guys know what I mean!), there are times when I'm doing geek stuff which isn't related to EVE. Really!

The following video is one of those things that catches my attention. As the title of this post suggests, this is not related to EVE. I'll use the "Out of Eden" prefix for anything and everything that is not related to EVE Online, because I'm a neat freak and like to have things in order!

The two trailers below are of Space Siege, an upcoming RPG from Gas Powered Games; the same guys behind the Dungeon Siege (DS) series and the recently Supreme Commander RTS (which I haven't played). I've been through all the DS series and really like the style and approach they've taken. Though the original DS was simplistic in its approach, I liked the fact that your character would increase in skills depending on the type of combat it used. It was simple, yet effective.






Now the fact that this new game will be space-based is a real bonus. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Fantasy settings, but Science-Fiction has always been the preferred setting - whether it's in movies, books, video games or RPGs. So I'm really excited about this game. I'm currently reading Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson (and highly recommend the Malazan Book of the Fallen series), but if I look at my bookshelves, most of it is filled with sci-fi stuff - I. Asimov, F. Herbert, R. Heinlein, A. C. Clark, KSR, S. R. Donaldson - even the RPGs - Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, Core Command (all from DreamPod 9), Traveler or Robotech. Though I do have a lot of Tolkien and Forgotten Realms!

Since I devote a lot of time to EVE, I like my other games to be easy to pick-up and start playing. So I'm looking forward to this one! What other games keep you Out of Eden?
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

EVE Strategic Maps - Never undock without it!

With Tranquility being upgraded to the Empyrean Age expansion, I thought I'd take some time to review Serenity Steele's EVE Strategic Maps (ESM). As I mentioned in the last episode of The Drone Bay, I got my copy of the ESM about 2 weeks ago.

When I first got it, I spent about half an hour going regions where my corp (Phoenix Labs) has been active, looking at the various systems we're mining in, to see where they connect to other regions, trade routes and what not. I have to say that it's quite an eye opening experience to finally wrap your head around the geography of the systems around your main base of operation.

Since then, I've used it to help see where I was going when accepting various missions and allowed myself to drop by systems on the way to my destination to see what was out there. It's a weird feeling. I mean I know a lot of these systems, having had to visit them either for mining operations or missions. But to actually see then on a map, is a different thing - to me anyways.

EON Insert

The ESM comes to you very well packaged, in a sturdy cardboard box. So for those of you like me who are a tad picky, you shouldn't be worried about it being damaged when it gets to you. With the ESM, you'll also get the typical EON insert (shown above) and a pad of little yellow stickers (140 in all) used to track outposts in the systems you visit. Buy subscribing to the 'Outpost Alert' and using the stickers, your maps should always be up to date.

Legend

On the flip side of the cover is the Legend. You'll need to learn it in order to take full advantage of the maps. It'll take some time to familiarize yourself with it though, as it is filled with a ton of information. From the types of jumps (system, region or constellation), to the number of stations in a systems and it's security level. You'll also have a way to quickly know the types of services available at these station, just by a quick glance. And there's a lot more information in there. The bottom-half of the Legend has a few examples which were very useful.

Table of Content

The Table of Content follows with all the regions, including the new Black Rise region that sits between the Caldari and Gallente Empires.

The EVE Universe

The Universe map will allow you to quickly see the placement of the various regions as you jump between them.

The EVE Universe

Finally the region maps starting, in alphabetical order, with Aridia. This is where the meet of the ESM is and where all the fun begins!

Serenity spent almost two years working on the ESM, and his efforts clearly show. A job well done. Call me old fashion, but there's just something about holding a 74 page atlas in you hands - something that a PDF can't compete with.

So, if you were thinking about getting a copy, use the downtime to order yours. With all the flying around we'll soon be doing for our respective factions, I know my copy will come in handy!
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Friday, June 06, 2008

The Drone Bay: Episode 12 - The Drone Menace











Virgin Worlds Link
EVE Forum Link (please bump!)

Show notes:

Episode 12 - The Drone Menace.


Bring on the Drones:

In this episode, the EVE triumvirate becomes a duo as Crovan wanders the Nipponese countryside looking to see if the Joves are hiding in the land of the rising sun. Al vents off some of his frustration with his work and CK enjoys the benefits of Vitamin D – not the Flintstones kind!

This week, the guys decide to take a break from Don’t Panic, as it just isn’t the same without Crovan.

Al and CK discuss their wants, wishes and apprehension about Empyrean Age. This episode being the first of a two-part conversation, with the second part coming up next week, once E/A has been released. Al officially trademarks "The Empyrean Age: Don't fly stuff that you can't afford to lose" and opens talks with CCP for bragging rights and royalties.

CK drools over the Clear Skies video and pimps both Warp Drive Active podcast #38 and WDA:Industry podcast #6. Good jobs guys!

They boyz review some listeners mail and go "googoo gaga" all over again for EVEMon and the Battle Clinic Loadouts.

In Tool Time, CK reviews EVE Strategic Maps and explains how he never leaves home without it. Al promises to get his copy.

This time around AlienHand's The Shield is used as the music bed and Al fights with Audacity to get the editing and sound level just right. You decide who wins!

As always, your comments, emails, praises and insults are more than welcome. Though the later might not get you mentioned on the show, ever!

Fly Safe or die trying!

Contact Info:

GAX Online Group: The Drone Bay

E-Mail:
dronebay[at]gmail.com (comments/questions for everyone)
crovan[at]eve-mail.net
crazykinux[at]gmail.com
alsedrech[at]gmail.com

Skype: Dronebay

Blogs:
Bitter Old Noob (Crovan)
CrazyKinux's Musing
The Littlest Drone (Alsedrech)
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Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Empyrean Age High Quality Teaser 2 Video

With the launch date of Empyrean Age fast approaching, CCP is ramping up news and these amazing short videos. I think these short teasers are a great way to get the excitement going, though I'm still hoping for the regular longer trailers that we're used to. Enjoy.


Empyrean Age teaser 2 - CCP

Thanks to both Godlesswander and Derekest for letting me know about it!
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Monday, June 02, 2008

The Drone Bay: Episode 11 - Better Late than Never











Virgin Worlds Link
EVE Forum Link (please bump!)

Show notes:

Episode 11 emerges from the tubes! What dark secrets does it proclaim

Bring on the Drones:

In the weekly recap the guys go over all the new and exciting EVE podcasts. A podcast for every day of the week at last! Also, it turns out that Crovan is a care-bear at heart. Who knew?

In DON'T PANIC the experts chime in on PvP. Up for discussion: once you know what you are going to do, when and where do you get to do it? What are the rules of engagement, and when can you blow up someone who looks at you funny?

In the listener feedback section, we find out about how not to get a key logger in one easy step! There is follow up and clarification for the DON'T PANIC on roles in PvP. Our listeners express concern for Crovan's safety in Japan, and CK hears back from EVE Uni about the lockdown during a war dec.

Cry Havoc and let slip the Drakes of war! Our intrepid hosts tackle the Empyrean age. What is in store for the EVE universe, and what do we need to be thinking about as we approach this new era in EVE. Also, we all engage in some author worship in regards to the upcoming book.

This show gets a louder music bed, because the song is just that cool! Also, this was the first editing job done by Alsedrech, which explains a lot about any editing problems. If you are in Tokyo, email Crovan immediately so he can find you as he travels the Japanese countryside.

Contact Info:

GAX Online Group: The Drone Bay

E-Mail:
dronebay[at]gmail.com (comments/questions for everyone)
crovan[at]eve-mail.net
crazykinux[at]gmail.com
alsedrech[at]gmail.com

Skype: Dronebay

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