Gambling in EVE Online

Don't do it.  Just don't!  If you do... prepare to lose.

Gambling in EVE Online is just like gambling in real-life.  It is fun, addicting, but ultimately it can end with you feeling cheated and miserable.

I never thought I would get into gambling in EVE.  In this game you always are aware of scams and you keep a sharp eye out for them.  Obviously, a non-official gambling website raises the scam-detectors.

So how does gambling in EVE work?  Well, there is no official gambling services in the game (unless you count investing in the market as gambling, it is, and the many other risky activities in EVE).  This is actually something I would love to see.  I had great hopes that the "Walking in Stations" feature would include some form of in-game casino.  Well, Walking in Stations didn't happen and neither did in-game casino's, but there is an alternative created by the playerbase.  This alternative is the EVE Online gambling website.  It works by keeping track of your character and it's balance on the website.  For example, to gamble on Evealopalous you register your character and then send "x" amount of ISK to the "Evealopalous" corporation.  This ISK will appear under your characters balance on the website and you can then gamble with it.  Almost all EVE gambling websites work this way.

So, I've always wanted to gamble in EVE and without an official outlet I decided to try one of these website.

The first I tried was Evealopalous.  Evealopalous features many games, but the most popular are the raffles and the "Grid".  Raffles are just like they sound, you pay 10k ISK per raffle ticket and try to win valuable prizes.  I got really burnt on these, I would buy anywhere from 30% of the raffle tickets to 80% of them.  I never won.

I did however win on "The Grid".  The Grid is kind of like minesweeper for ISK.  You pay 2m per click and you have the potential to win clicks on other more expensive Grids or ISK prizes.  This was where I won big.  I won a "Grid piece" for 2m which lets me get a free click on the next higher tier of Grid (10m per click).  Luckily, I won a click onto the next tier of grid with THAT free click.... finally, I won a prize, and it turned out to be 220m ISK!  I was really happy about this, as it made up for much of what I lost with those damn raffles.

As you can see, I lost 218m ISK on those damn raffles.  I took my 220m from the Grid and ran.  Still, it was an interesting experience.

The other gambling website I tried was evetools.org.  Evetools features scratchers and a slotmachine.
The slots where fun but unfortunately didn't pay out often enough, it was pretty easy to lose 80m and so I did!

Well, that's all for now.  Fly safe and especially, GOOD LUCK!

OMG I won a Plex

Haha, wooot!  So, a chat channel that I frequent called "Radio Free Jita" (all the Jita, none of the spam) hosted a trivia contest, grand prize a PLEX, and guess who won?

It was a very exciting contest.  First, I got a question 1/2 right and so the hosts gave me .5 points.  (Oh I should explain, the contest was to see who could answer the most trivia questions correctly first in the span of 20 questions).  Right then I had a feeling that the .5 points would be what makes the difference in a win or a loss... then I got another question correctly.  Finally with 1 question remaining there where 4 potential winners!  It all came down to the line!  And... I got it correct.  :)  The question was, "What 3 countries does the US import the majority of its oil from?"

Here is my beautiful PLEX!

And the person who sponsored the contest.  Thank you Ogeko!

It was a lot of fun and I think I will have to give back and host a trivia of my own.

Vaccuming asteroids

The universe sure is a messy place, and someone needs to scoop up all those asteroids!  Nothing much to report today, just a relaxing day mining with a little trading on the side.  Hope everyone is having fun out there. :)

How long would it take me to train all the skills in the game?

Two blogs in a month!  I'm on a role!  Seriously, I think I will start updating again and sharing with you my adventures in the wonderful universe of EVE online.  I am not really the most exciting player, just a simple trader, but there are always things worth blogging about!  (Especially if you are interested in my trading exploits)

Anyways, onto the content!  I payed 7m ISK to Jita Poet for this nice little poem:

Welcome to my awesome blog of cats and MMOs,
Feel free to look around, the name's Cow Nose.
I go here to post all my adventures in EVE,
As well as any other games you'd like to see!
-Jita Poet

Great poem Jita Poe, well worth the ISK.


So, I was curious, how long would it take me to train every skill in EVE Online?  (Note:  this is for my character to train all the skills I'm missing, not a new character)  The answer: 19.8 years!  It would take 1368 skills, 7,132 days 5 hours and 23 minutes, and a whopping 23 billion worth of skillbooks.

Of course by the time 19.8 years passes I have a feeling there would be a few new skills by then.  It's going to take me a long time to win this game!

When you are bored in Jita...

You do things like pay 20 million ISK for pictures of peoples cats.

Money well spent!


[edit]  Got another one!

Soo cute! ^_^

What I've Been Up To In EVE Online

Is it still called EVE Online?  I mean, with the Online, part.  You know, I really don't think it is anymore, I think they dropped it and the game is just called EVE now.  Suits me just fine!  Anyways, I would like to share with you what I've been up to in the grand universe of EVE Online!  (I'm still going to call it that, that's how I learned it.)

Of course, as always, I've been mining a bit.  OK I've been mining a lot. :)  Which I really probably shouldn't even say due to the permanent Hulkageddon, but I'm not going to talk about that!  The ISK has been the same as it always was, from what I remember, slow but steady.  I actually have hopes of paying for my sub with ISK this time around using EVE's plex system.  Yes I am a bit frugal, but also, the whole plex system is giving me a nice motivation to log on and make that ISK!  More plex, means longer sub, longer sub means more skills and more gameplay options in the grand universe of EVE online.

I have been up to more then just mining, another one of the reasons why I'm having a blast this time around.  When I resubbed to EVE I was informed that I had a number of skill points saved up that I could put anywhere I wanted!  This is rather unusual as EVE skills train over time.  The reason I got these extra skill points, I'm sure this is not news to you current EVE players reading this, is because they decided to remove the "Learning" skills in the game, which previously sped up a pilots skill training time.  Anyways, back to my original story and the screenshot, I sunk all the skills points (some 5 million) I had to spend into laser skills and Amarr ship skills!  

So, I decided to ditch the boring old Gallente ships I had been piloting and try something totally new.  I'm glad I did because the Amarr ships are absolutely beautiful.  Plus, they really kick ass!  I've gotten further in EVE's PvE mission-running then previously, all the way to Level 3 missions.  The ship I've been flying in these mission is the Harbinger you see above.  She really does a lot of damage but she definitely needs to be watched.  There have been some missions where I just scraped by.  One major reason why I'm running these missions is to gain faction standing with the NPCs who own the station where I refine my minerals at.  Even though mission running is time consuming, I know reducing that tax on my refining to 0% will really pay off in the long run.  Assuming I stay in the same system that is!  I like where I've been hiding at though and I don't plan on moving anytime soon.  I would even like to start stocking the stations around my space and learn how to haul.

Safe flying wherever you may find yourself.

Greetings EVE Players!

Greetings EVE players, and a big hello to anyone else reading this blog.  A few days ago playing EVE another pilot commented on my blog.  I then realized that I had placed an advertisement for the blog in my profile.  EVE players, being a clicky lot, are likely to end up here having clicked on that link in my profile.

Realizing this, its perhaps inspired me to at least think about blogging again.  Now, I haven't made a decision, but I would like to get the opinion of anyone who is reading this blog.  Should I start up again?  Would you like to read about what I've been up to in EVE and adventures I've had?  Thank you very much.

PS:  I would enjoy blogging again.  I'm not looking for replies like, "do what makes you happy," or that sort of thing.

Eve: HULK

A major milestone in my EVE career has been reacher, I got the skills to fly a hulk! Sure I am not the first, nor will I be the only, but getting the skills to fly a hulk is a major first step in a newbies mining career.


Anyways, I couldn't resist a nice scenic screenshot.
Anyways, this hulk definitly rocks to take out rats!
It has 3 powerful strip miners.

Pretty pictures from EVE Online

Isn't that what this blog is all about? Pretty pictures? Well, I will tell you, yes that is what this blog is all about! I think of it as not just a diary of "What I did today." (yet, it is that too) But also a visual journey into, what I did today. I like to think of it (my blog) as more of a travel journal just a regular journal. A good travel blog will have little stories and tons of great pictures!

Well anyways, lets get on with the show! (lol, show)

I swear, 'roids really are bigger in zero-zero space!

If you ever where curious what a warp bubble looked like, here is your chance. A warp bubble is just what it sounds, a big-ass bubble in space designed to capture people and keep them from warping away.
This little guy is what generates the whole thing.
Here is a picture of my friends ship, but that's not what I want you to look at in this picture. Notice the very bright star to the left of his ship? This mysterious object can be seen from all parts of space! It is definitly not a star, but as to what it is, noone really knows! There is definitly something suspicious about this "star".

Ahh, a nice cool blue. Very relaxing.
And for a 360 degrees change from that cool blue, check out this awesome screenshot! Oh, this one is just gorgeous.
You have probably seen this station before, but I like how it compliments the moon behind it. Or is that a planet?
I recently traveled to Jita (trade hub of the north) for the first time, and saw my first Caldari stations. Kinda freaky looking, but I like it.
Here is the inside of that station.
And my new Itty 3 (complete with Cargo Extender II's) exiting it.
I started to do a few missions to try and get enough faction to refine my minerals 100%. However, it is just going to take way too long to get the faction I want. So I'm just gunna train up really good refining skills and say forget it, 99.5% refine is better than a whole month of mission running. Hehe, the missions I did where not exciting at all either, just some courier stuff.
On one mission however, I saw a rorqual outside a station. I have always wanted to see one of these things in-person. The rorqual is basically a big-ass mining ship that is designed to compress ore into small amounts to make it much easier to transport. (This is different from refining)

0.0 Action Continues, Fleet Battle!! (yes that is two exclamation points!)

This most recent blog is definitly one of my favourite yet. I really liked my last one, and I really like this one too. EvE 0.0 sure is a lot more dangerous and a lot more exciting than I had previously imagined!

This last weekend, I was able to engage in my first fleet battle! My computer like slowed down to a couple frames per second, I tried to scramble someone but I just got blown up. (I seem to be getting blown up a lot these days). I normally never post a screenshot with any sort of interface in it, but this one shows the craziness and confusion that is fleet combat very well. No, it is nothing like I imagined. I used to think it was like some ordered thing, you would have a wing of one ship come in and do some long rang sniping, tacklers would go in close range, everyojne sort of had this barrier between each side (red vs blue). However, turns out, it is much more of a blob-like formation than an hourglass-formation (with each side of the hourglass meeting in the middle). Nope.. it's just a big blog. I dunno how you even maintain proper distances and ranges from your enemy or target.
Well, these next two screenshots are very similar, but this one has a ship getting blown up so I'm just gunna add it in, what the heck!
And this one has me... dead... well in a pod, but that got blown up pretty soon too! I think this is why we won and they lost (oh did I forget to mention that?) they where busy targeting noobs like me and taking the time to blow up my pod while the whole time our battleships where blowing the crap outta them!
This is my friend Korvix's ship.
And here we are guarding the dead bodies of our fallen comrades, taking what we can salvage before we get out of there!
And our reward...?
Aww c'mon... I know it is a rock but hey, I like mining!
Yup, I like mining.

Interesting thing happend in EVE

Well, I didn't think I would get any content from EVE. I mean its just such a different game I wasn't sure if I was going to have anything to blog about. It's not like I can just go to some new area and take some pictures to show you guys. Well the other day I was just sitting in my asteroid belt doing some mining like I usually do when I saw some really interesting things go down.

I'm not really sure what happened but I'll do my best to explain what went on.

First I saw this rather large group of ships warp into the belt... some of them had low security ratings but not all of them. Then most of the ships warped off and left two of them in the belt.
I know the screens aren't very good but I did the best I could. I think I can get better ones in the future, I'm still learning the camera system and the action was so fast I had to be quick.

Well anyways, continuing the story. After the rest of the gang warped off, one of the pirates went over and floated by this rook(I think, not sure what ship it was) and then stole his can... but instead of flying off with the rooks minerals it just sat there.See the puff of smoke around the can? This is not the rook's can, I think this is the pirates. I'm not sure why he would jettison a.. replacement can?

Regardless... I DO know what he was doing... baiting the rook into attacking him! And attack him he did. A really cool battle happened.I know you can't really see them fighting, but I think that grey smoke is the rook getting hit by a missile and the rook was hitting the other ship with its drones. Obviously the pirate was an experienced player while the Rook was a n00b...If you look carefully in this picture you can see the smoking wreckage of the rook to the upper left of the... other ship. (I don't know what it's called XD)

But then when I thought it was all over something else very strange happened! Another ship warped into the belt, and began to attack the pirate! Is it the same pilot in a different ship? Or perhaps a corpmate?

The battle that ensued was very colorful and I'm sure it was exciting for both pilots involved.
Yay blinky lights! I have no idea what is happening here, if someone can explain what those little dots of light are?
Then like this glowy stuff started shooting out. Is this that stuff that drains your capacitor? I don't think its a damage thing I think its like a debuff. You can also see a missile exploding off the other ship.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the explosions of either ship. My cameras where positioned in a way where my view was orbiting the non-pirate ships. When they exploded the camera instantly zipped back to being centered around my ship, disorienting me and causing me to miss the big explosion. :( Next time I'll get some much better pictures.

Oh yeah, so uhm this ship that attacked the pirate died too. Too bad! But it was fun for me to watch and I bet fun for all those who fought.

The pirate then came over to me... and stole 100 ammo from my can. :P I had allready moved my ore out of the belt long ago... I wasn't about to attack the guy so he could not kill me or the NPC cops would vaporize him.

All said and done it was an exciting day and gives me hope that EVE will bring more blogging material then I thought.

Retriever

Allright, I got my Retriever! Check it out, this is a picture of it in my station. Note it has gears, and flames, and looks like it can mine a ton. And believe me it can definitly mine a ton! I never knew barges would mine so much more then my crappy ol' frigate. XDYou can see one of the strip miners on the top of the ship (the little ball looking thing). They look kind funny but oooh man is it sweet to mine in. On my frigate the vindictus I would get about 2k ore every 60 seconds, now I get 12k ore every 120 seconds!!! That is HUGE I knew mining barges where good but I didn't realize exactly how gimped I was. :PHere is a shot of it mining, notice that big stream of ore around the laser. Now the laser is fatter and has that puff of ore being sucked into the barge.

One interesting note is I thought I would be able to AFK easier with my mining barge, and this is true due to the 120 second cycle instead of 60 seconds. However after just two cycles of my mining lasers my barge's cargo space (which is a lot bigger then the frigate of course) is full. This means I still have to use a jetcan to mine just like when I was flying my frig.

Except now I have my second account to haul for me at the same time of my mining. :) I am "popping roids" sooo fast now. I haven't sold any of the ore I mined yet but I bet I will be making much more cash.

Say hello to ChewToastOnce! (again)

Haha yes that's right! I have become so addicted to EVE and have completely fallen in love with its style, its story (ie: the news because the story is the story of the players and thier alliances and economic stuff etc) and it's very unique and interesting game mechanics.

So who is this new character of mine? This 2nd account? (because its best to have two accounts if your gunna have more then one character, that way both can skill up at the same time, what a brilliant way for CCP to make tons of money from subscriptions) ChewToastOnce of course!

Which if you remember from my Lineage 2 character, ChewToastOnce is an anagram of CowNoseTheCat (my first EVE character).
Well there she is, Chewy herself. That's what her nickname is... Chewy and Kitty. :) I modeled her after the Lineage 2 version of ChewToastOnce. Which means she is average looking... but deadly behind that beautiful yet not extraordinary face.
Here is the ship you start out with if you race is Caldari, it's called the Ibis. It is a very crappy ship and I almost instantly upgraded... but it is worth a screenshot. :D
This is the ship I upgraded to, the merlin. I think it kind of looks like the fighters from StarCraft (the basic terran ship, the one that can cloak). It can uhm shoot... and stuff... I don't really know how to use it yet. ;)
And here is a picture of one of my corp mates Raven I think it is called? I might be mistaken on the name but damn that this is big and can really pack a punch! He mostly used missiles which I think it the Ravens specialty. I followed him around as he did some missions so that I could gain a bit of standing with the Gallente (I started with Caldari faction but I wanted to do Gallente missions because I want to fly Gallente ships). Man missions are boring! Honestly I don't see why people prefer them to mining so much...

Mining Pro's: Can make money faster in the 'endgame", can be semi-AFK and still mine,
Missioning Pro's: Can get money faster in the begining, can get nice faction gear/loot for PvP, the skills you train for running missions are as useful for PvP as they are mission running while mining skills are (obviously) useless in PvP.

Both are boring, both kind of make the same amount of cash, but I think mining makes more money in the end.

I prefer mining over running missions because that is something that I have always enjoyed in MMOs. If I look back on it.... *flashback* In EverQuest 2 I was a huuuge harvester, in Ultima Online I was a miner/lumberjacker/fisherperson, in Lineage 2 I was the Spoiler type dwarf which is the one that hunts for rare parts and materials instead of crafting them, , and I did a good deal of harvesting in Vanguard.

It's because I enjoy to grind, but while at the same time I grind I also listen to talk radio, watch a movie, or listen to a podcast. So the type of grinding that takes the least amount of concentration and focus is usually what I do. That way I can focus and concentrate on whatever I am watching or listening to. I hate missing important bits of the story. I know it seems kind of silly, you might think that if an MMO is so boring you have to watch a movie while playing it then it is not worth playing but this isn't true. See what makes a game like EVE or Lineage 2 worth grinding for is the PvP. All of your many hours of grinding can come down to a few minutes of heart-pounding PvP action. You might in one death loose days of hard work and clicking on boring things. This is what makes the PvP in games like EVE or Lineage 2 so much more rewarding and fun.

This is also the reason why WoW pvp (and EQ2 and other western MMOs) is really lame. Sure it might be fun here and there for a diversion but it really doesn't have any substance to it other then being a sort of min-game or something tacked on to the main game.

And on a final note, this is why a game like EverQuest 2 or World of Warcraft can be fun to play casually because you don't have to grind and grind for the best gear in order to get the most out of the game. You can have decent/crappy gear and still go and do all the quests go and hit up a dungeon with you friends and you will have a good time. It doesn't HAVE to be boring and grindy, it can be if you want (I know I harvested my butt off in EQ2 for no real reason) but the main focus and gameplay is more about the quests and social things.

Of course I have never raided in any MMO because I'm always starting over with new MMOs and new characters so I never get to the "endgame" and I hear it is a totally different story then... (like I have heard horror stories of needing to grind for hours just to get enough gold for armor repairs and consumables just for one raid, and I have heard these stories from more then one western MMO)

Mining a bit and skillin up!

Well EVE is kind of a slower paced game... it's not like a traditional MMO where I can just go and explore some new area and get some screenshots from that to show you guys. So I wasn't really sure if I had enough content to make a blog, but thinking about it, yeah I do! :P

First off I would like to show you this shot of my drone killing this rat (slang for the NPC pirates).
You can see me mining to the left of the drone. Man those explosions sure are satisfying. I can't wait till I blow up some people! :) I'm not really interested in going on missions to kill NPCs but oh man I would love to kill some other players. >:) I'm sure I'll get my chance someday!

OK I got podded. ><
:P This is a picture of me!


Here I am flying in to buy 9 million ISK worth of skill books! These two books where 4.5m ISK each, and are some advanced learning books. I like how this Gallente shuttle looks... really sleek and stylish!