EVE - Corporations, contracts and calculus

Ok, now more than a month into the game, Iv finally learnt all the basics and began my quest at success within the stars.

And yes, getting to grips with the basics has REALLY taken me this much time.

So while I have been training my character towards combat, I have also gained the skills needed for a mining barge. This makes mining highely profitable, pulling in around 3.5 million ISK an hour.
Mining has become a solid income to support my many lost battles and ships. As PVP in the game is amazingly difficult and every decision is final, (ship gets blown up thats it... no getting it back) this semi boring profession is just what my character needs for the boost in cash.
I have also just trained to mine ice! This is alot more exciting than your standard ore because it pulls over 100k per unit that you mine! While you only get 1 unit per mining cycle (with my current skills), it still means a bigger influx of finace.



In other news i have recently joined a corporation. This group of players acts much like your average guild or clan, except working together requires much more thought and planning. While there is still the option to go out and destroy people as a group, every other in game profession (whether big or small) can also be done together. This means if you cant afford to buy your latest ship, you can work it out with your corporation to build one instead... Ultilising everyones skills and abilities.
The word party is replaced with fleet in eve, and 'fleeting up' for a specific task in known as a operation. There are daily operations in many corporations including the one I have joined. These operations can range from simple mining ops (members are assigned roles such as foreman, miner, hauler ect) to exploration groups that hunt down new systems and complexes to farm (mine/loot/hack ect).
This is a MUCH better way to play eve as you feel like your actually a part of something, and your group is actually effecting the rest of the universe.

Below is a huge ice mining operation in action. ALL of the [+]'s you see are players, working together to pull as much ice as they can.



Also, my corporation is planning a move to live in wormhole space. To which I will be a recon specialist for. I provide more details of this at a later date... as its going to take another full post to describe the mechanics involved in such a move.

Until next time!

IGN Predicts the future of gaming

IGN got video game specialists together to predict what 2020, will be like for us game neeks.

IF you like your games, then its a cracking read:

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1066907p1.html

The first weeks of Eve

Tutorials and Training

So after creating your character and choosing your race (which only affects what part of space is your start point), your thrown into the open wilderness with only two options..... Do tutorials based on your preferred career path OR go out and find your own way.
The tutorials are all a set of 10 missions designed to give you a good start in the universe. They will give you skillbooks, basic equiptment (known as 'civilan') and also a few basic ships to set you on your way while also teaching you specific techniques that will boost your rate of survival.

After completing the tutorial (or tutorials, as you can do them all), youll be well on your way at making some ISK (international space kredits). To pay the bills however, your gonna need the skills. This can be very confusing to start with as there is a expansive list of books to learn, especially if your still undecided on a specific career path.

I decided to get the best of all worlds by creating a alternate character. This means I can focus on combat based skills with one account, and industry type skills on the other character. Ill let you know how that very confusing task goes.

The Universe is BIG

The Eve universe is quite honestly, a universe. Just flying about within the first week, I quickly realised just how big this game is. The following 'star map' shows this point off. Each dot on the following map is a star system, and within the systems are as youd expect, many planets, asteroid belts and space type structures. Each system is linked by a stargate which means while the game gives the feeling of a massive, playable area, the stargates are the only way to other systems, making each system like a 'room'. Bear in mind the following map however and thats right, each TINY little dot on there is a complete system (the map is set on a players in the last hour filter, to show how busy the game can get):



Until next time!

My Journey into EVE online

Ok so I finally did it. I finally crumbled and gave in to what PC gaming has demanded off me for the last 5 years.... thats right... iv subscribed to a MMORPG, a massively multiplayer online role playing game. Im now in the same league as them World of Warcraft kids you see on the news, getting sent off to counciling because they have played so much there now intrepreting the real world as if it were still fantasy, jibbering spell translations over breakfast before trying to dejuice a frog into there A level science project. Or much like the ones that turn so pasty that they become allergic to the sun and.... uhmm.... life.

However, the same league does not mean the same game. Thankfully iv fallen for a MMORPG that is so ridiculously complicated there are no kids, because quite frankly, most kids wouldnt be able to understand the point of EVE online. The learning curve is in fact a cliff, and thats great for keeping immaturity out of the formula.... And lets not be fooled, this is a hard game, alot of adults would simply turn down the effort it takes to realise the mechanical genuis behind this massive sandbox of a game.

So the game itself is set in the distant future. Space travel is in its golden age... Average humans can now become a space pilot with ease, which means exploring the heavens, fighting distant aliens or conquering the universe corporately is open to almost anyone.
Then, for some crazy reason the games story twists, depicting a blackhole sucking alot of human civilastion up to a distant part of space they now call eve. Your avatar starts from here, with the universe of eve at their feet. Now i dont really see the point in this twist in narrative, but i can only assume it was the only way they could create a believable plot that gives specific reasons why you cant visit earth and walk about on planets.

As for the general gameplay its all about you and your ship. Sorry but there is no walking about currently in the game (CCP is developing a walking in stations system, which will be described later in my miniblog). The bulk of the game is made up with various careers, which can be mixed, developed and partaken in any way you see fit. Careers involve mining, trading, mission running, couriering, manufacturing, inventing, piracy, pirate hunting, pvping and MANY MANY more.
These careers will require certains things to be successful. Ships and equiptment will make your career easier and more profitable, such as expanders for your cargo or upgrades for your mining lasers. Now buying this equiptment isnt the be all to end all however. Skills are required to use certain equiptment and act as 'levels'. Eve doesnt use a normal level up system to dictate how good your character is. Instead skills are trained in real time (ie: Refining skill takes 2 hours to train to level 2, 8 hours to train to level 3 ect) and these skills train even when your offline.
Skills are the most the important thing and because there are so many, careful planning must be taken in order to boost your chances at success within your chose practice. Industry skills need to trained for traders and miners, while combat and mechanic skills need to be learnt for a.... well... combat profession.
Now the sandbox part of eve kicks in... as what you do with these professions/skills/ect is completely up to you. Missions are given by agents around Eve's many stations that are usually directed towards combat. These agents come in levels, the higher ones paying big enough bucks to make many eve players what i said earlier as: 'mission runners'. People who gear themselves towards the industry however are completely on there own, having to utilise the player driven economy to buy and sell there way into profit. OR they could mine away the many asteroid belts, refine the ore and either sell it on. Ore can also be used to manufacture in game items or ships to sell on. Basically, what im trying to say is... The choice is really yours.


Whatever you do, make sure its making you ISK!

Look out for my continued posting for a more detailed explanation of Eve.... I cant begin to describe the many features in this post, so look out if space ships interest you as much as me.
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My most recent mixes

So i realised i havnt actually posted any of my DJ sets/mixes on here yet.

Thats gonna change right now.

The first is a straight up Ragga Jungle mix, featuring tracks like The dream team - stamina, Topcat- Junglist, Diamond Geezer - Dont cry and lots others.

You can download it here:

http://www.dnbshare.com/download/knowname-RaggaJungleMix09_1.mp3.html

The next is of the harsher sides to Drum & Bass, inlcluding Evol Intent, Spor, Break, Renegade hardware and more.

Download it from the link below:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZGR0EA8S

And the below youtube mini mix is for anyone who likes their jungle to be of the old school nature. Features tracks from ST flies, DJ Nutnut, Spider Don and others.

Watch below:



Hope you like! If you do please visit this blog and my youtube account for more mixes coming soon!

Introducing Mr Burton

Just a very quick update for my proposed film. Luke Burton (from the 2nd year) has agreed to co-direct it with me, so look out for any updates from him on his blog:

http://hatedinthenation.blogspot.com/

Untitled Project - Ideas

Ok so Iv been researching narrative ideas for inspiration for my own short film.

As I grew up in a small town, achohol, drugs, partying and violence have been a part of everyday life for me. While Iv not partaken in any (cough, cough), I have witnessed first hand how these things have had a massive impact on a community, good and bad. I have seen how it creates relationships, destroys families and effects social status. How alchohol can make a night out, while secretly ruining lives. How drugs inspire and expand the mind, while creating their own brand of social misfit. And how violence depicts an age of degenerate sheep that just cant say no to their peers. While this might be expected anywhere, its the fact of 'small town mentality' that give its younger inhabitants an almost pathetic choice, be cool, or dont be.

I have realised that in places such as my hometown, having a good time has a price.

I want to create a narrative that describes what Iv mentioned above, but without fitting to a standard drug film cliche. While the massive question is on the eventual issues with mental and physical health, I also want to depict the change in social status and personal wellbeing of individuals facing such problems, including the good times one can have with the right self control.

While I have no definitive storyline or structure, I feel like the below images suite what i eventually want to achieve.











In the next few weeks im going to attempt to write a base storyline, maybe even storyboards and a rough script. Ill keep you updated.