CSM - The Council Of Stellar Management...

Well, it is this time of the year again. Almost six months ago the first CSM has been elected, their mandate was to oversee CCP's actions and to bring ideas to the developers of the game, to better the environment for the players. 

I think, although with some reservations, that CSM was a success on a number of levels. First, it actually introduced players into the insulated environment of CCP. Second, it was able to function, albeit sluggishly, and on minimal life support, for the entire duration of it's six month tenure. 

I must say, however, that with the exception of the few CSM members and their alternates, the general communication from CSM to the player community was very poor. There were many incidents of infighting, and staking out of the territory, including a fair number of virtual brawls on the forums.  While I understand that some disagreements might take place, I do not think that CSM as an entity was able to grow on each other, with each other, and with the general EVE community. Six months was too short of a time to actually justify the validity of CSM existence, and served more to cement the position of CCP, and CCP's general agenda, than actual player community as a whole. 

Above reservations notwithstanding, I believe that CSM, if it functions properly, is a good idea for the Pod Pilots of New Eden. Should they find a way to work together on things that really matter, and that would affect majority of the pilots. 

At the moment I have submitted number of questions to a number of candidates, and, since I have two active accounts, I shall pick maximum of two candidates to vote for based on the replies I receive, and their platforms later on in the election process. 

Of course, as soon as I pick a candidate, or candidates, I shall officially endorse them on this blog - not that they would ever need an endorsement from a troublemaker such as myself, or that any benefit should come from such an endorsement - but, I want to delude myself into believing that my voice counts, and, perhaps, will help others make up their minds.  

Until next time, yours truly... 

J.B. 

The CCP Debacle...

As I have mentioned in my previous post, CCP has disabled what they call "Ghost Training." It is 16th of October, and the feature has been officially removed. 

Bellow I am outlining the process CCP has taken to cover it's tracks and to prevent most of the outside world from knowing the actual degree of discontent this has sewn within the EVE player community. 

1) October 13th: a Dev Blog by CCP Fallout explains that CCP are canceling the "Ghost Training" because it was an exploit, and a bug.  A huge outcry is created on EVE Online forums, and the community at large pointed to number of CCP CEO and Lead Producer statements, as well as an Official Player guide that lists the so-called "Ghost Training" as part of EVE, and one of its features. 

2) October 13th: old Dev Blog and the post are promptly deleted.  CCP Wrangler Posts the news that a "New Dev Blog" will come out with explanation.  Post Edited - and Blog by CCP TorfiFranse further states that it is now a measure to prevent players running accounts on a "shoe-string budget" and it is a BUG... again with the Bugs CCP.... 

The thread, now 40 pages long, goes "stealth" still accessible by the forum regulars, but no longer accessible by an outside world, nor by just looking at the forum. It is actually a link within an existing announcement. 

Thread reaches 80 Pages long...

3) October 14th: CCP TorfiFranse posts the apology, and that they have been completely "oh so busy", and did not realize their own Player Guide called it a Feature, and now they are calling it 'A Bug That Became a Feature,' the thread is still in stealh. 

Thread reaches over 90 pages long.... thread is still in stealth mode.....

4) October 15th: CCP Keeps Quiet...... Thread still in Stealth Mode, reaches over 100 pages long....

5) October 16th: CCP releases 4 blogs, announces new expansion, and generally makes allot of positive noises trying to drown out over 4,000 (that's four thousand) outraged users who are still shouting their chagrin to the deaf ears of CCP. Thread is still in stealth mode at the time of this post and quickly approaches 5,000 posts.

Final words:

In the last few days I have been greatly disappointed by the company that I held in the highest esteem and regard for over five years. They have clearly betrayed their player base for a short term monetary gain, and the only thing I can compare their actions are to SOE the NGE expansion that lead to the sharp decline and eventual demise of Star Wars franchise.  Only time will tell what effect the removal of this feature will have on EVE online population, I hope that we will survive it, and the long term players find a way to adapt. 

A Dark Day for a Veteran Player...

CCP has decided that they will no longer support the "Ghost Training" feature of EVE Online. 

Let me explain a bit further what it means, for those who might be coming after me into this wonderful game - and for those who will be searching for EVE history at some point in the future.

• "What is Ghost Training?"
  

It used to be possible, until October 15th 2008 to finish training skills even if the account became disabled. As many of you know EVE is a demanding game, and even though the skills can be trained while the character is "offline," they still tend to take a good chunk of "real time." Some skills can take up to 45-60 days to train to Level 5.  

CCP Developers always touted this as one of their "major" features of the game itself; they always presented it as a sign of how "flexible" EVE really is, well, was. Just 24 hours ago CCP announced that they will not allow the "Ghost Training" and called it a "Bug." A "bug" that they themselves had in the "Skill Training Guide" for almost five years, a touted feature that attracted so many people to EVE.  

To make it a bit clearer, I am going to post what the Developers have told the community, three posts, and subsequently my sincere opinion on the matter:  

• Player News Article:
  

A statement by CCP Fallout:
"Ghost Training To Be Removed"
Reported by CCP Fallout on 2008.10.13 15:59:54 

A long overdue and much needed change will be put in place with the Wednesday, 15 October 2008 patch. Ghost Training, the continuous skill gain on accounts in an inactive or expired state - will no longer function after Wednesday, 15 October 2008. This practice upsets the balance of the game, and capsuleers who actively put their time and energy into working on their characters will no longer be unfairly affected by those few who have not.

Please read Dev Blog for more information. 

• Dev Blog In Its Entirety:
  

"Why Ghost Training Was Disabled"
Reported by CCP Torfifranse on 2008.10.13 23:17:25

As many of you know by now, on Wednesday, Oct 15th, CCP will put out a server update disabling "ghost training". Ghost Training was an unintended feature where unpaid accounts of EVE Online were able to continue training skills. While this allowed players to run multiple characters on a shoestring budget, in all effect, this was a bug.

It should be noted that we're not changing offline skill training for active subscribers in any way. This change only affects those who do not have an active subscription.

Does that mean that CCP is a greedy money chewing monster that just loves nerfing things? Of course not. We're a company like everyone else, we make a game, that we happen to love making and for most of us is the passion of our lives. But it's also a company. We make a product, sell it, get salaries and then continue maintaining the product and making it better. 

Now I'm not saying that if me personally would be at the other end of this Dev Blog I wouldn't be annoyed by CCP's actions. We are gamers. We game the system. We figure out how to maximize our returns. There's no surprise that people have done this for the simple fact that it wasn't banned per se and also for the fact that it was possible. But recently we have seen a surge in this behavior in a way that we were essentially supporting and maintaining a large number of customers that weren't paying us regular subscriptions. That's not fair towards CCP as a service provider and it's not fair towards other players that pay a subscription but don't make use of this bug. 

Now a single customer that doesn't log into the servers may not weigh heavily on our database infrastructure, just as a single snowflake isn't that heavy, hardly a measurable quantity. But it's hard not to notice an avalanche if it hits you. And that's what was starting to happen in our database. 

We can look at this from a variety of angles, but it all comes down to:

There was a way to progress a character in EVE without an active subscription

CCP noticed a surge in the trend and decided to fix the leak Players now have to pay a subscription for characters to have them progress. We truly hope that the community will understand our actions and continue to enjoy playing EVE as much as we enjoy making it.

Torfi Frans Olafsson

Senior Producer of EVE Online. 

• And, finally, the back-pedaling:
  

Posted on by CCP T0rfifrans on 14/10/2008 23:18:00
“The bug that became a feature” 

On Monday, we released news that we are disabling “Ghost Training”, the ability to train characters on inactive accounts. This resulted in strong reactions from the community as many people were routinely making use of it. We explained the matter in more detail and pointed out that this had been a bug in the original game code. Those of us who were involved in the process of making the decision and communicating it to the community did not realize this bug had been so accepted as a feature that it was listed as such in our own documentation on our own website.  

How can we not know what‘s in our own documentation? Well, to be frank, it was a case of insufficient communication on our part between various teams – a regrettable mistake and hard lesson to learn at the expense of the trust you‘ve placed in us. There‘s no way to spin it and we won‘t add insult to injury by trying to do so. It was a mistake on our part and for that we sincerely and humbly apologize. 

Many would hope that in light of this we will decide not to cancel ghost training and keep it active as an option but we‘re cannot to do that. EVE is already one-of-a-kind in allowing players to progress their characters through offline skill training. We stand by our policy that if you want your character to progress in EVE, you should pay the subscription fee. The fact that so many people have been able to do so for several years was our own oversight. We know this change, and our misstep in telling you about it, has created some discontent and we hope that over time we can prove our commitments to make EVE better than ever for you will be evident as you enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Torfi. 

• And now, my humble opinion and response to this fiasco:
  

I am sorry Torfi, but this is damage control, pure and simple, and do not think for a second that most of us do not see through it.

What your superiors have done is taken away a feature that was a major selling point for many people.

EVE is an addicting game, and a major hobby for the most of us. Because CCP has encouraged dual-boxing, and dual-accounting, for so many years it has become a major part of the game. After a while EVE will have an effect on a player where we simply have to take a break, and having the so-called "ghost training" was one bright spot - we could set that "special" skill that we did not quite get to, and walk away for a month, knowing full-well that when we come back we will have another avenue to explore within the game world.

It was exciting, and nice to know that you as company pretty much understood us, the adult players, with families, jobs, army service, business trips and mortgages, and car payments. It was very nice to know that despite being bogged down by real life there was a small pleasure to come back to when I hit that "reactivate account" button.

You have taken it away because you want money, pure and simple. And, in short term, it will bring you more money - in the long term, all those short attention span kids with daddy's and mommy’s credit cards will go away, and you would have most likely have lost your core gamers, the ones who stuck with you through 5 years, and would have probably stayed for longer still.

I know, I am sounding like a broken violin, but I am so very much disappointed, ever since Oveur and others have left CCP you guys act and deal with us, loyal players like strangers. I have always felt more like family with the other guys, what happened guys? What are you doing? Is EVE not important anymore?  I guess things change.

I never said "I would cancel my bazillion accounts", I only have two, but I am seriously thinking of consolidating into one, and just seeing how it goes, and where you guys will take us next. I am an adult, and I will deal with it like an adult, no whines from me, just wanted to let you know how deeply I am disappointed in what you have done.

Jinx Barker, a Loyal CCP Customer for the last 5 years.

 

Glimpse at the coronation footage of Empress Jamyl The First...

Ministry Of Internal Order releases coronation Footage

Amarr - Amarr Certified News secured permission from the Ministry of Internal Order to release exclusive footage of the historic coronation of Empress Jamyl I. Withheld for security reasons, the media contains rare footage of the famed Imperial Domain Fleet as it gathered before the Emperor Family Station in Amarr last week for the spectacular event. The fleet has since been deployed to its "undisclosed wartime assignments".

The video can be obtained here and a higher quality feed is also available here.

Jamyl Sarum - The New Empress of Amarr Empire

Full News Coverage can be be seen by following the linked file. 

Coronation of empress Jamyl launches new era for the Amarr empire 

Amarr - Jamyl Sarum, the resurgent heir to the Sarum royal family, was today crowned Empress of the Amarr Empire. In a ceremony that began with her arrival amidst a huge assembly of Imperial Navy warships, interim Court Chamberlain Hemirin placed the sacred crown upon Her Majesty, declaring her the "Holy Ordained Empress of Creation".

Delivering a powerful opening speech, Empress Jamyl boldly announced the start of a new Reclaiming, calling on all those of faith to "stand by her side" as the Empire recovered from "the excesses of a misguided path". Seemingly mindful of those questioning the merit of her rule, she ended her address with a forceful demand for loyalty, possibly directed at the remaining heirs, with a vow to return "what others give to the Empire [sic]".

If there were any doubts about the legitimacy of her ascension, no such sentiment was present among the thousands of Holders and clergy present for the historic occasion. The spectacular coronation was held within the massive vaulted chambers of St. Kuria the Prophet Cathedral in Amarr, which has also witnessed the mourning of Emperor Heideran; the coronation and funeral of Emperor Doriam II; and the proxy rule of Chamberlain Dochuta Karsoth, who is believed to have fled during the Minmatar Elder's invasion of Amarr earlier this year.

Ohhhh Goodies... Black Ops Level 4... erhmm.. WTF...

Anyhow, just a short update, since if you look at JB's skills you will see that I am somewhat anal when it comes to keeping him trim and nice. So, we can't have any skills bellow L4, or L5. And, Black Ops was the last skill at L1 since my hiatus. 

By the way, by the time it finishes I should be well on the way to 57 Mill SP... I am thinking of buying a Fedo when I reach 60. Too Bad CCP does not allow us to have them. 

I will update again on a project I have been supporting for close to two years now - those of you who frequent EVE-O forums would probably know it. But, anyway, just tootles for now. 

The Titian Project....

Well, an interesting thing happened... I have commissioned a local EVE artist to create a work of art with Jinx as the subject. 

One of my favorite paintings is called A Man In A Red Cap, by Titian. If you must know

 more, well, then follow this link on Titian in Wikipedia.  

But, no matter, one peculiar point is that the original subject is not known, and I thought it would be interesting to incorporate Jinx into it. 

So, I contacted Leonardo DiJita, look him up in game, and he came up with this pretty amazing rendering of the original: 

The full version can be seen here, I have uploaded it to EVE Files, please note that the file is rather large, but the rendering is pretty good. 

53 Million SP +

Finally had little time to update the blog. 

JB has reached the 53 Million SP, and is climbing. I feel little odd, was thinking I would want some special skills, maybe. Something unique, or rare? 

Intelligence Analyst, that was an interesting sounding skill; of course I forgot that it was never introduced into the game, and is just part of the DB, figures. 

Still, would be nice to have, if it was possible. 

Still Working....

Got Widow and Golem BPCs today, will have my trusty "Sancho Pansa" of an ALT build the toys, then off to try and get them blown to bits! 

Other than that, slowly climbing to 50 Million SP. As a matter of fact, trying my hardest not to go and splurge on different skills needed to fly a Capital Ship. Still, will focus on the T2 BS variants, before I go for the Caps. 

An update, of sorts....

Jinx is currently inactive. Time to take the much needed rest, and train that Caldari Battleship to Level 5!
Will do a little update once the account is reactivated in March.

P.S.
I have switched to using Apple Computers a while ago, till very recently I had to use Bootcamp to play EVE in XP. However, since CCP has added Mac Client, I am really happy again. Hence, the new "Apple" logo link.

August: Skill Training Update

Well,
Jinx has finally broke the 30 Million Skill-point barrier!
One of the highlights is the  Gunnery  with 22.71% overall percentage points,   12 Level 4 Skills and 8 Level 5 Skills.
With the total gained of 7,006,513 SP.

Some Comments from Oveur:

Recently I have had an opportunity to ask Oveur, the big ‘honcho’ at CCP, some questions. Bellow is a transcript of my 'personal' Q&A.

Question: What about Developer chats? I know that allot of changes have taken place regarding the format and place to hold them. Will they ever come back?
Answer:
Dev chats are returning, although in changed form. We have also hired Wrangler as assistant community manager so there should be more room in the schedule to do them.

Question: Regarding the issue of old and 'defunct' corporation in EVE. Are there any plans to delete them and release the tickers?
Answer:
We actually have been getting quite a lot of requests about the older corps. We never delete corporations or characters so it is a very big policy change for us. Perhaps it’s the right time. After more than 1 million account created and god know how many corporation started, it’s probably time, since about 800.000 of those are trial accounts over a three year period, there is a lot in there which could probably be deleted.

Question: The upcoming expansion codenamed Kali and the issues of 'Factional' warfare. Will there be a possibility for players to 'redeem' themselves, if, and once they have reached the [-5] standing with their enemies?
Answer:
Regarding Factional Warfare it’s too early to tell how – or if at all – you will be able to redeem yourself. EVE is a game of consequences (or more correctly, we try to have it such) and I’m not convinced we should add further measures than are already in there today for you to gain standing. However, there are things which can help, which would be ways in general to increase negative standing that we might look into, but certainly nothing of the likes of amnesty. However, it remains to be seen how severe the consequences are and against whom. This is not something that sets you to -10 towards the empires and everything belonging to it, not at all, this is “sanctioned civilized warfare” as such. If there ever is such a thing.

Question: Any comments on the 'Player Housing' and Small/Personal POS? I know it is on the drawing board.
Answer:
We’re far from abandoning the smaller and personal player owned structures. I can’t tell you anything concrete at this point in time, I have a lot of other projects and promises I have to get done first and I’m afraid I can only pull so much out of my sleeve now and again.

CERBERUS:

Well, after a long while I am finally able to fly a 'HAC' or Heavy Assult Cruiser. This thing eats through missions like a hot knife through butter, simply amazing.




Bellow are some specs:
Hull: Caracal Class
Role: Heavy Assault Ship
No cruiser currently in existence can match the superiority
of the Cerberus's onboard missile system. With a
well-trained pilot jacked in, this fanged horror is capable of
unleashing a hail of missiles to send even the most
seasoned armor tankers running for cover.
Developer: Lai Dai
Moving away from their traditionally balanced all-round
designs, Lai Dai have created a very specialized - and
dangerous - missile boat in the Cerberus. Many have
speculated that due to recent friction between Caldari
megacorporations, LD may be looking to beef up their own
police force with these missile-spewing monstrosities.

Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:
5% bonus to Kinetic Missile
damage and 10% bonus to Missile velocity per level

Heavy Assault Ship Skill Bonus:
10% bonus Light and
Heavy Missile flight time and 5% bonus to Missile Launcher
rate of fire per level

Latest Skill-Points Breakdown:

Category Name	Pct%	0's	1's	2's	3's	4's	5's	Category Total
Corporation Management	00.01%	1	1	1	0	0	0	2,191
Electronics	08.34%	0	0	1	2	3	3	1,483,538
Engineering	14.27%	0	1	0	1	9	4	2,538,498
Gunnery	05.24%	0	0	5	3	2	1	931,373
Industry	01.44%	0	1	0	0	0	1	256,250
Leadership	00.04%	0	0	0	1	0	0	8,000
Learning	10.25%	0	0	0	0	4	5	1,823,060
Mechanic	01.57%	0	0	0	2	0	1	280,000
Missile Launcher Operation	21.40%	0	0	0	0	11	2	3,806,804
Navigation	06.58%	0	0	0	1	4	2	1,170,100
Science	04.85%	0	0	1	0	2	1	862,753
Social	00.26%	0	0	2	5	0	0	47,072
Spaceship Command	25.75%	0	1	1	3	7	4	4,579,976
		1	4	11	18	42	24	17,789,615
		1%	4%	11%	18%	42%	24%

RATTLESNAKE

Well, I bit the bullet and sold my Caldari Navy Issue Raven today. Truth be told, this wasn’t such a big deal since I got the Blueprint Copy for this ship from a silly industrial pilot who tried to sneak it into empire.

I did, however, put the ISK to good use, I bought a Rattlesnake, a Guristas Pirates flag battleship a nice new toy to do missions in and kill stuff.

Once I get it all setup I shall add the information regarding modules and how well she kills.

Habitats

Recently, on the EVE forums someone brought up an idea of small player owned habitats. I have often put the above-mentioned idea forth myself, however, until now it met with a rather limited success. In any event, after some prolonged discussion I have had a chance to actually point one of the developers toward the thread. To my great satisfaction the idea has been picked up by the developers of EVE, and it is currently on the “Drawing Board.” This made me very happy indeed.

Bellow I am publishing a summary of the discussion, and I shall be coming back to this subject, time permitting, when I have more news and ideas to add.

General Summary:

1. Habitat/Structure can be anchored anywhere in space, in any sovereignty, with one exception, Empire. In Empire, they cannot be anchored in .9-1.0 systems. Others suggested that they should be placed in Dead Space Pockets Only. I personally lean toward restricting them in High Security Empire systems. Thus, allowing people in 0.0 through 0.8 own a structure.
   
   
2. Habitats should have High/Med/Low slot layout, like a ship, thus utilising internal PG/CPU to control the devices like guns, missile batteries and cloaking devices, etc. In other words they will be a single, self-sustained unit, there will be no need to anchor additional devices, at least not in the beginning.
   
   
3. Perhaps the Habitat constructs can be upgraded, by using finite and mineable materials. Perhaps even incorporate T2 components into it, or some sort of POS producible, to further support the expanding POS markets. Perhaps allow for PG/CPU upgrades.
   
   
4. Habitat units should not be invulnerable to an attack. They should be susceptible to a conventional warfare tactics, not unlike like battleships, cruisers and frigates.
   They should be a legitimate war-target, if the owner is in a corporation at war. They should be able to defend themselves, but cannot go into a “reinforced” mode or anything like that. Others argue that they should be able to go into reinforced mode & require Calthrates to sustain.
   
   
5. They have to be locatable via scan-probing and so forth. But should not show up as a warpable object in the scanner. Unless, the cloaking device is malfunctioning – then the habitat can become a “subspace phenomena” and can be warped to.
   
   
6. They should also have some sort of functionality other than a “home in space”. Perhaps with adequate upgrades (see #3) they can have small refining and reprocessing and even repair facility. They could become permanent, but then they would be susceptible to attacks by other players if in 0.0 or low security areas, as well as war target in Empire. However, in Alliance controlled territories they as good as indestructible, since they are, theoretically, under the protection of the alliance force.
   
   
7. Habitat should have a limited amount of storage Space. Some people suggested a 5,000m/3 for a small one, and up to 50,000m/3 for a large unit. Thus, they should vary by size and accommodate appropriate vessels accordingly. However, upon further discussion it seems that the above numbers are rather limited and should be looked at. After scanning through some threads it would appear that most people prefer 1 Mill/m3 for a Small one, and up to 5-7 Mill/m3 for a "Large" Habitat.
   
   
8. Habitats can be “designed” to accommodate appropriate uses, or uses according to wishes of their designer. They can vary in appearance, fairly easy to pull off with the game like EVE, and thus have unique qualities accorded to them by a designer: Hollowed out Asteroids, Discarded Spaceship hulks, things used in construction of it like depleted station batteries and what not. Basically make them look like Minmatar ships (my apologies to Minmatar, I couldn’t help myself). Some suggested that the construction of the can be done in stages, where special ship-type, perhaps, can be used, and a modable BPO can be released and "tweaked" by those who desire to improve on the "standard" design.
   
   At some point it would be possible to develop a profession out of it: A habitat designer/builder. Perhaps all corporations that choose to specialise in such endeavours, can come to a point where they can actually patent their design via blueprint copies. We all know that most efficient design vs. use info will spread quickly. Perhaps create special Habitat Construction Modules for POS owners who can then build them and sell them to the rest of us. At the same time it might create a market for a faction owned POS that can be rented for the design/build purposes by those who do not have access to a POS
   
   
9. One should be able to secure the habitat from entry by other players. Perhaps with specifically set password one can dock, as can his friends. At the same time, and I just thought of it, when Habitats are destroyed by an adversary they should drop some portion of the loot currently held within them. Just like when the ship is destroyed it drops a can with stuff. Also a great new field for legitimate corporate spies and thieves to foray their strengths.
   
   
10. Some people want them to use fuel to power up the components or keep the battery charged or something. Others want the habitats not use any fuel – unless they are engaged in combat. Fuel involved, or rather according to posts, the desired fuel ranges from POS standard isotopes and Caltrates, to regular maintenance of the Habitat with Consumer Products and common minerals. This is a pretty wide-ranging debate.
    
    Further info on Ownership and Transfer Logistics:
    
    Everyone far agreed that limiting number of habitats per system could be another great thing to do. It will ferment discontent and wars, since people would want a nice spot. It will also support real Estate trade, where you can actually sell a Habitat to another player. Legitimate Real Estate trading can be performed via easily implemented voucher system. Lets say upon building a habitat you will have an ownership voucher, like a deed, something that would look very similar to Pirate Ship Logs. There will be information regarding the Habitat, all its stats, location, security level of the system, etc.
    
    At the same time, if the voucher is lost, if the owner carried the voucher in his cargohold and was blown up, there are two consequences:
    
    1) If voucher is destroyed, the habitat automatically self-destructs
    OR
    2) If the voucher is picked up by a new player/or the aggressor/whoever finds the can, he automatically becomes an owner of the habitat.
    
    In second case, the Habitat retains its password/security until a “new owner arrives”. Upon his attempt to dock, he must have the voucher in cargohold; he will be given an opportunity to change the password. Also, even though previous security measure were still in effect, including password, the former owner is still locked out of the habitat. It will prevent disgruntled victims from docking with their former property and cleaning it out or self-destructing it.
    
    And finally, having a voucher in the cargohold will allow the entrance into the Habitat password free. This could be useful in case of forgotten passwords - and it will expose vouchers to the possibility of being lost if you are attacked on the way.
    
    They could also be placed in the Escrow - where potential buyer can see the habitat information and gauge for himself if he wants to buy it. Thus making vouchers readable, but not useful if they are in Escrow, at least not until they are claimed and ownership is transferred. Again, Voucher in Cargohold=Password free entry will mean that the seller doesn’t have to do anything as far as security is concerned. A fact that the voucher is no longer in his possession automatically revokes his ownership while retaining habitat as secure for a new owner.
    
    In order to prevent Scams on Escrow, where an "Empty" voucher can be sold - in case habitat is no longer there, if it blew up or was destroyed or what not - the voucher would destroy itself as well. Thus two would be linked, if one goes so does the other. No way to scam people with "fake" vouchers.
    
    This will make peeps keep vouchers/deeds/titles as safe as their own BPOs

ADDITIONAL INFO. ON HABITAT PLACEMENT & CONSTRUCTION:

Most everyone agreed that Habitats must be limited in numbers per-system. There is a debate, however, as to a Security Rating of a system where Habitats should be allowed. On a System Security Issue, I would still go with the idea that even carebears in Empire must be allowed to have their rocks! However, I do believe that placing them in above .8 systems will cause undue hardship on the servers.

Regarding the number of Habitats per system, here is a suggestion. Lets take POS as an example. In theory, a POS can be anchored at ALL of the Moons orbiting the star in the system. So, if there are 20 Moons, then 20 POS' can be erected. As a starting premise lets presume that the number of habitats can be, should be, limited to the number of moons in the system. If CCP has created POS system, and allows them to be anchored at moons, we can safely assume that if Habitat number is limited to number of moons in the system - the lag issue should not arise.

Furthermore, the habitats ought to be RESTRICTED from being anchored near moons. That’s correct, I think the restriction is good, it will allow a proper POS development that would be un-hindered by Habitat expansion. The only reason we are talking about moons is to shake down a minimum number of Habitats per system.

Habitats Platforms, once build, will be taken out to the specific location and launched, very similar to how outposts building is designed. Once the Platform is launched, the owner of it shall hit an "Assemble" button or menu, and the process of construction will begin. Details can be worked out later.

The "Beast"

Well, recently I bought an Alienware “Laptop.” I am using the term “Laptop” rather loosely in this case – since the beast weighs at about 19Lbs. loaded. However, I must say that for my purpose it fits the bill. I only rarely travel, spending about nine months out of the year in UK and Summer in USA. I must admit, however, that this is indeed one of the best mobile systems I have ever owned. Hell, it will rival most desktops in performance. Anyway, I think I will cover the basics of running multiple accounts simultaneously here.

The main thing to remember is to create a separate directory /secondary instance of the client. I noticed that if you run the game from a single directory the CPU load is much greater, than if EVE runs from a separate location. It would further help if you have more than 1Gig of RAM, since we all know how CPU/RAM hungry the game is. You don’t need to do anything special to setup a second, or even a third, instance; just copy the original directory to a new location, create a shortcut and it is done.

Bellow are the specs of the machine I am currently using to run three separate instances.

Operating System:
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Edition
Processors & Chipset:
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology
(3.6GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB Cache, Socket 775)
Intel 915P + ICH6 chipset
Graphics and Video:
NVIDIA GeForce GO 6800 with 256MB DDR3
Memory:
2GB CORSAIR PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz.
Drive Bays:
24X/60X - CDRW/DVD
24X/14X - DVDR/DVROM
I/O Ports:
IEEE 1394: Two mini IEEE 1934a (4-pin) ports
USB: 4 Hi-speed USB 2.0 ports
Network: Integrated Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45
Modem: Integrated 56K V.92 modem RJ-11
Infrared: Infrared port for Data transfer
Internally accessible:
Dual 60GB Hitachi HDD/Raid: 0
Total 120GB.
LCD Panel:
17” WideXGA+ 1400x900 LCD Display

The Ships

[RATTLESNAKE]
In the time-honored tradition of pirates everywhere, Korako ‘Rabbit' Kosakami shamelessly stole the idea of the Scorpion-class battleship and put his own spin on it.

The result: the fearsome Rattlesnake, flagship of any large Gurista attack force. There are, of course, also those who claim things were the other way around; that the notorious silence surrounding the Scorpion's own origins is, in fact, an indication of its having been designed by Kosakami all along.

Special Ability:
50% bonus to Cruise Missile and Torpedo velocity
Caldari Battleship Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Cruise Missile & Torpedo ROF per level
Gallente Battleship Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to LG Hybrid Turret damage per level

[CALDARI NAVY ISSUE RAVEN]
The Navy Issue Raven represents the best the Caldari have to offer on the battlefield: an all-out assault vessel with tremendous electronic warfare capabilities.

Commissioned by Caldari Navy Special Operations Command a decade ago in response to a spate of coordinated Gurista attacks which threatened to decimate the populations of several planets in the Obe system, this hefty warship has since proven its worth many times over.
Special Ability:
5% bonus to Missile Launcher Rate Of Fire & 10% bonus to Missile Velocity per level of skill

[CYNABAL]

The Cynabal was one of the earliest designs put forth by the Angel Cartel, and to this day it remains their most-used. The ship's origins are unknown, but as with most Cartel ships persistent rumors of Jovian influence continue to linger. Whether they have basis in reality or not, the facts are on the table: the Cynabal is the fastest, one of the most powerful cruisers to be found anywhere.

Special Ability:
25% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret rate of fire
Minmatar Cruiser Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret damage per level Gallente Cruiser Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret tracking speed per level

Red Moon Rising & Jump-Clones

Advent of RMR (Red Moon Rising) has brought us the next stage of capsuleer technology: Rapid Fleet Deployment. By combining advancements in pod and cloning technology, pilots are now able to "jump" instantaneously between clones without sacrificing skill points but leave the enhanced benefit of implants behind, provided that the clones are exact replicas of the originating specimen. This capability will facilitate the rapid transport and deployment of pilots to specially equipped "receiving" capital ships on or near the battlefield, irrespective of the pilot's current physical location.

Jumping to stations is also possible but Faction owned stations do not allow jumping to them unless the minimum 8.0 corporation and personal standings requirements are met. One thing to remember is that the owner of Outposts and Conquerable Stations control standings prerequisites. Only one (1) jump per 24 hours is allowed to prevent serious mental and physical harm to the mind and bodies. You have to have visited the location you want to jump to and install a clone there.

So, a little while ago I have gone out to a friend’s corporation and had installed four Jump-Clones myself. The restrictions placed on Jump-Clone installations are rather arduous. Not only must a pilot have an 8.0 standing with the clone-issuing corporation, the corporation to which the aforementioned pilot belongs must have at least an 8.0 standing. Thankfully my friend is running a “one-man show”, and has a high standing, above 8.0 with Federation Navy. It helped quite a bit to have my own standing with Federation Authorities of above 8.0.

Signature Contest Update:

As I have planned, here is an update on my signature contest. It wound up costing me a bit more than I have anticipated, but I think it was well worth it. The contest itself lasted for little over a week, due to some problems with EVE-Online website.

The Grand Prize winner has developed a very uncomplicated and smart signature. He was able to utilise humour and JB's insanity in a very simple but elegant form. At the same time he achieved a perfect balance between words and images. I liked the incorporation of pastel colours in combination with the retro Sci-Fi theme.

Winter Star won Grand Prize for the “An Accident Waiting To Happen” Signature.

The 2nd Prize-Winner has submitted a number of unique and riveting designs. He relied more on JB's obsession with cybernetics than retro Sci-Fi. He captured my desire to enhance JB with some mechanical uniqueness. As a result he chose to concentrate on the dichotomy of Man vs. Machine.

Traiben Mightius won Second Prize for the "Jinx Barker: Man or Machine?" Signature.

The 3rd Prize-Winner used a style ala The Goldmember, combining it with some other provided material. In this case Brother Benthor decided to incorporate a neo-retro style with Frankenstein.

Brother Benthor took the 3rd Prize, for "It's Aliveeeee!!" Signature.

And finally, Traiben Mightius for the “Rocket Man” Signature took the 4th prize.