Drifters weren't the only portents for miners to come out of the recent 2015 Fanfest. Two things are on the horizon on which we should keep an eye: nullsec anomaly ore revamp and the general structure revamp.
According to CCP Fozzie, nullsec ore anomalies are going to be reconfigured in April, 2015, in such a way as to afford enough of the low end ore/minerals to make nullsec self-sufficient from a manufacturing standpoint. This could affect the price of highsec ore/minerals (can't see how it could be good for the compressed ore market since it should reduce the need to import low ends) and affect the viability of conducting mining and industry in nullsec (as in, making it more profitable). This change is right around the corner, so we'll see soon enough.
Last May (2014), I wrote about how the Kronos and Crius releases would usher in the age of nomad mining due to the POS anchoring changes (link). This was a big boost to my mining operation. Now though CCP has announced a revamp of structures, including POSes, which I'm worried could make the POS too large to comfortably fit in the Orca or similar transport vessel, and no word yet on how long it would take to anchor the new structure.
Overall, the new structure concept is exciting, but I hope it doesn't spell the end of the easy mining and light industry nomadic lifestyle.
Edit (March 27, 2015): My concern about the size and deploy-ability ease/speed of the new structures might have been premature. The new structures, at the moment, will come in four sizes: small, medium, large and extra large. While the starbase (current POS) will be large, it could be that the smaller deployables will allow for quick and easy ore compression and at least limited docking/mooring/shield safety, leaving the new POS structure for a more permanent base of operations.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
Eve Online Mining: Ominous portents for New Eden
Space travel in New Eden is highly risky business. So risky, most humans avoid it. Instead, it's normally conducted by humanoid clones, both as capsuleer pilot and crew.
Certain events over the last several months indicate that a new threat may be on the horizon in New Eden - Drifters. How this will play out is still a mystery, and frankly, since it seems the Jove were the ones who perfected pod piloting and consciousness transfer, it's hard to imagine why this offshoot of the Jovian race would need to harvest corpses instead of simply growing new specimens, but time will tell.
Certain events over the last several months indicate that a new threat may be on the horizon in New Eden - Drifters. How this will play out is still a mystery, and frankly, since it seems the Jove were the ones who perfected pod piloting and consciousness transfer, it's hard to imagine why this offshoot of the Jovian race would need to harvest corpses instead of simply growing new specimens, but time will tell.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Eve Online Mining: Capsuleers and Operators
I've received several mails asking for clarification on the recent posts about New Eden Operators and their relationship to pod pilot clones.
"And all the science, I don't understand. It's just my job five days a week." - Rocket Man
Space travel in New Eden has become very popular. However, no fully functional and sane human being would submit to the rigors and almost certain death sentence it entails (especially since the development of pod piloting, the human-machine interface technique of operating spacecraft). The development of pod piloting and the horrific, albeit efficient, life that results, led to the development of cloning techniques for the use of clones as pod pilots.
Clones were hyped as a way for space pilots to achieve immortality, but that propaganda failed once it became clear that the original subject died at the moment consciousness was transferred to a clone. It also didn't work out to use fully functional (mentally speaking) clones as they were prone to reject the idea of a life sentence of living in a pod. The brevity of life as a pod pilot was also unappealing.
Then, the corporate scientists that developed the cloning techniques, consciousness transfer, and clone-ship interface took things a step further. They realized that two things could be done with the clones that solve the normal human problems - the clones could receive whatever mental level and content the corporation desired and the neural-machine interface could be used to control the clone remotely. Clones could be created and controlled to serve as humanoid-cybernetic servants. They could be completely controlled via a relatively simple computer interface. In other words, they could and did become the space pawns of computer Operators like myself. No muss, no fuss.
The clones that today serve as pod pilots have no independent life. They are completely under our control apart from a wide variety of automated functions and do nothing important without our having commanded them via our computer interface. When we log off of the interface the clones go dormant until we log on again (dormant except for the ongoing process of acquiring new skills through a neural upload).
It seems harsh to treat clones as so easily disposable, but space is harsh and not for the risk averse. If Operators were not somewhat cavalier about the clones in their ship pods, it's likely very few would undock.
A final note for this post regarding faster than light communications for Operators.
If you saw the interface Operators use to command pod pilot clones, you'd be surprised to know that it's not real-time video. What we see is reconstructed information transmitted by camera drones. Live video is apparently too bulky to transmit, so the information is boiled down to essentials and reconstructed at our terminals. Yes, it looks a bit game-like, but generally does the job. Some find it strange that we don't have a through-the-window POV of the ship we are controlling through our pod clone, but you get used to it quickly.
"And all the science, I don't understand. It's just my job five days a week." - Rocket Man
Space travel in New Eden has become very popular. However, no fully functional and sane human being would submit to the rigors and almost certain death sentence it entails (especially since the development of pod piloting, the human-machine interface technique of operating spacecraft). The development of pod piloting and the horrific, albeit efficient, life that results, led to the development of cloning techniques for the use of clones as pod pilots.
Clones were hyped as a way for space pilots to achieve immortality, but that propaganda failed once it became clear that the original subject died at the moment consciousness was transferred to a clone. It also didn't work out to use fully functional (mentally speaking) clones as they were prone to reject the idea of a life sentence of living in a pod. The brevity of life as a pod pilot was also unappealing.
Then, the corporate scientists that developed the cloning techniques, consciousness transfer, and clone-ship interface took things a step further. They realized that two things could be done with the clones that solve the normal human problems - the clones could receive whatever mental level and content the corporation desired and the neural-machine interface could be used to control the clone remotely. Clones could be created and controlled to serve as humanoid-cybernetic servants. They could be completely controlled via a relatively simple computer interface. In other words, they could and did become the space pawns of computer Operators like myself. No muss, no fuss.
The clones that today serve as pod pilots have no independent life. They are completely under our control apart from a wide variety of automated functions and do nothing important without our having commanded them via our computer interface. When we log off of the interface the clones go dormant until we log on again (dormant except for the ongoing process of acquiring new skills through a neural upload).
It seems harsh to treat clones as so easily disposable, but space is harsh and not for the risk averse. If Operators were not somewhat cavalier about the clones in their ship pods, it's likely very few would undock.
A final note for this post regarding faster than light communications for Operators.
If you saw the interface Operators use to command pod pilot clones, you'd be surprised to know that it's not real-time video. What we see is reconstructed information transmitted by camera drones. Live video is apparently too bulky to transmit, so the information is boiled down to essentials and reconstructed at our terminals. Yes, it looks a bit game-like, but generally does the job. Some find it strange that we don't have a through-the-window POV of the ship we are controlling through our pod clone, but you get used to it quickly.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Eve Online Mining: You have to die if you want to live forever
What a gimmick. Let's clear the air (so to speak) about the nature of pod pilots (capsuleers) in New Eden: they are nothing more than clone-based bio-mechanical tools. They are not you. They are not me. They are the "things" that we command to do our bidding with New Eden space ships.
We are not pod pilots, we are Operators.We sit at computer terminals and command the industrial bred clones that interface with space ships. We operate one or a number of different clones at any one time, but we do so from the comfort and safety of land.
Face it, living in space sucks, big time. Zero gravity does bad things to your body, as do all the god-knows-how-many-and what-type of subatomic particles that constantly pass through matter. A pod pilot is stuck in a pod. No pizza delivery. No beer and pretzels. No Friday nights out on the port. And, the main rub, since the use and control of space is competitive and for all real intents and purposes lawless, your life expectancy in space is laughable, but not funny.
Though New Eden cracked the space travel nut, it wasn't long before the lines for space pilot enlistment dried up as the true nature of the horrific and short-lived lifestyle became apparent.
Enter the human-like clone. Certain corporations offered immortality - let us clone you and your consciousness could live forever. Unfortunately, the reality was that the cloned original would die at the moment consciousness was transferred. In other words, what "lived" forever wasn't you, it was a copy of you. When people figured out that offering yourself up for cloning was a death sentence (it would do you no good that another creature was prancing around with your memories if you're food for worms), the Get Cloned Here lines also dried up.
To make New Eden space travel the thriving enterprise it is today, cloning without the death of a donor had to be perfected. And perfected it was. Corporations are now able to build complete humanoid creatures from basic materials without the need to harvest a living donor.
But, what exactly are these clones? That's a sticky question. It became clear that if they were fully functional human beings we'd be left with the same problem - no thanks, I don't think space is for me. No one in their right mind is going to volunteer to become either a pod pilot or a spaceship crew member. So, what was needed were human-like creatures that could be completely controlled by Operators like me and able to successfully interface with the complex equipment of spaceship systems.
Much of this is kept a secret, to the extent possible. The clones themselves don't have the capacity to strike or revolt, but chances are some segments of the human population would find the way they're used and sacrificed a bit barbaric.
We are not pod pilots, we are Operators.We sit at computer terminals and command the industrial bred clones that interface with space ships. We operate one or a number of different clones at any one time, but we do so from the comfort and safety of land.
Face it, living in space sucks, big time. Zero gravity does bad things to your body, as do all the god-knows-how-many-and what-type of subatomic particles that constantly pass through matter. A pod pilot is stuck in a pod. No pizza delivery. No beer and pretzels. No Friday nights out on the port. And, the main rub, since the use and control of space is competitive and for all real intents and purposes lawless, your life expectancy in space is laughable, but not funny.
Though New Eden cracked the space travel nut, it wasn't long before the lines for space pilot enlistment dried up as the true nature of the horrific and short-lived lifestyle became apparent.
Enter the human-like clone. Certain corporations offered immortality - let us clone you and your consciousness could live forever. Unfortunately, the reality was that the cloned original would die at the moment consciousness was transferred. In other words, what "lived" forever wasn't you, it was a copy of you. When people figured out that offering yourself up for cloning was a death sentence (it would do you no good that another creature was prancing around with your memories if you're food for worms), the Get Cloned Here lines also dried up.
To make New Eden space travel the thriving enterprise it is today, cloning without the death of a donor had to be perfected. And perfected it was. Corporations are now able to build complete humanoid creatures from basic materials without the need to harvest a living donor.
But, what exactly are these clones? That's a sticky question. It became clear that if they were fully functional human beings we'd be left with the same problem - no thanks, I don't think space is for me. No one in their right mind is going to volunteer to become either a pod pilot or a spaceship crew member. So, what was needed were human-like creatures that could be completely controlled by Operators like me and able to successfully interface with the complex equipment of spaceship systems.
Much of this is kept a secret, to the extent possible. The clones themselves don't have the capacity to strike or revolt, but chances are some segments of the human population would find the way they're used and sacrificed a bit barbaric.
Eve Online Mining: From Kronos to Tiamat
Won't list all the short-cycle updates we've had to Eve since Kronos. Latest was Tiamat. Scylla will hit later this month (March, 2015).
Continuing the 2014 nomad mining theme, I've moved quite a bit over the last 6-8 months, constantly searching for better ore and ice opportunities.
At the moment my week is split like this: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday I mine ore. On Mondays and Fridays I mine ice. The reason is ore spawns contain small asteroids on Mondays and Fridays, so I prefer to mine ice on those days.
For ore, I'm in .9 Amarr space using Hulks and pursuing the +10% high yield Scordite and Pyroxeres ores, which I compress and take to the trade hub in the Amarr system for sale. I am not mining Amarr ice at the moment as that market has tanked. I jump clone my six mining toons to Caldari space on Mondays and Fridays. Caldari ice has fallen, but not nearly as far as the other Faction ice. I reprocess the Caldari ice and sell the ice products in Jita.
A few months ago I did something really stupid and trashed one of my monitors, so I'm now running all six toons on one 22 incher. Here's a screenshot of the four mining toons (in Skiffs working Caldari ice) - the Orca and freighter pilots clients are minimized until needed.
Was an unhappy moment going to one monitor, but the working technique has grown on me.
As usual, a fair amount of grumbling on the forums requesting that CCP make changes to mining. The problem, as I see it, is that mining right now is great for those of us who multibox (no, there is no ISBoxer involved) a crew like mine - 4 miners, an Orca and a freighter - as ice is competitive and Hulk mining forces you to stay engaged when you're harvesting highsec 'roids. However, it's not nearly as engaging for a player running a single toon. That's the rub. My hope is that it can somehow become more engaging for the solo miner without ruining it for us multiboxers.
Continuing the 2014 nomad mining theme, I've moved quite a bit over the last 6-8 months, constantly searching for better ore and ice opportunities.
At the moment my week is split like this: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday I mine ore. On Mondays and Fridays I mine ice. The reason is ore spawns contain small asteroids on Mondays and Fridays, so I prefer to mine ice on those days.
For ore, I'm in .9 Amarr space using Hulks and pursuing the +10% high yield Scordite and Pyroxeres ores, which I compress and take to the trade hub in the Amarr system for sale. I am not mining Amarr ice at the moment as that market has tanked. I jump clone my six mining toons to Caldari space on Mondays and Fridays. Caldari ice has fallen, but not nearly as far as the other Faction ice. I reprocess the Caldari ice and sell the ice products in Jita.
A few months ago I did something really stupid and trashed one of my monitors, so I'm now running all six toons on one 22 incher. Here's a screenshot of the four mining toons (in Skiffs working Caldari ice) - the Orca and freighter pilots clients are minimized until needed.
Was an unhappy moment going to one monitor, but the working technique has grown on me.
As usual, a fair amount of grumbling on the forums requesting that CCP make changes to mining. The problem, as I see it, is that mining right now is great for those of us who multibox (no, there is no ISBoxer involved) a crew like mine - 4 miners, an Orca and a freighter - as ice is competitive and Hulk mining forces you to stay engaged when you're harvesting highsec 'roids. However, it's not nearly as engaging for a player running a single toon. That's the rub. My hope is that it can somehow become more engaging for the solo miner without ruining it for us multiboxers.
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