Crius Bug: Research and Copy UI

CCP Logibro put out an note on an industry UI bug where when copying or installing a research job, the UI won't update and the button remains red (as in an invalid action).  Re-clicking the button or doing something to make the UI update will solve the issue for the time being.  The fix is coming in a downtime update.   By the way, I hate how the UI has to update all the time, but hey: Whatever, its still better than before Crius.  So there's that.

You can also check out the known Crius issues in the Crius Issue Thread

Welcome the Newb

I've been playing EVE (with a few extended breaks, since about 2008.  I've been an industrialist, missioner, incursion runner and miner.  I have lived in null and have participated in a fair amount of PVP. I have lived in a wormhole and explored complexes.  I guess the point is I've tried out almost every aspect of EVE.  While there is nothing more pulse-pounding than PVP, I find other aspects of EVE to be more enjoyable as I can do them at my pace.  In PVP, its a matter of finding a target and in Null, you can go a long while before you get someone to commit to a fight (at least in my experience).  

Where am I going with this..Ah, yes.  The new capsuleer.  EVE is not the most user-friendly game.  In fact, when I started, there really wasn't even a tutorial section.  I had to learn the hard way as I didn't join a corporation right away.  I've been ganked, can-flipped, robbed and at the wrong end of the blaster cannon.  I didn't know how to fit a ship or where to make the most ISK / play session.  I did speak with some of those who wronged me and they were happy to point out where I went wrong (and I mean genuinely helpful especially about fail-fits).  I think CCP has been doing a better job at easing in the newbie, but until you are put in a dire situation, you really have a false sense of security.  When you first come to EVE, you probably don't realize (until it's too late) that EVE is all about non-consensual PVP.  As soon as you leave a station, you are agreeing to be attacked.  PVP is the core of EVE and it is what drives the economy and wars.  The player has a huge impact on the game.  I am referring to things like Burn Jita (where people just sit in Jita and gank anything they can) or large scale batters in null over sovereign space (as in the battle for B-R5RB) 

ISK is pretty much your first concern.  It is like water.  You can go without it for a day, but after that, you realize it is the only thing that will sustain you.  ISK is relatively easy to get, if you want to live hand to mouth.  If you want to make serious ISK you have to invest time.  The thing I like most about EVE is that you can train your avatar in real time.  That means you are training while you are not playing.  You skill up skill training queues and you can walk away.  Grinding is one of the things that irk me the most about RPG's.  While you still have to grind missions for ISK, not having your characters skills dependent on your available time to play, it can take a lot of stress off you.  

I know, I am getting verbose.  I should get back on topic.  

If you want to know how to make lots of ISK (without PLEXing), there are some options available.  Some are available right now.  Some will take months to get to the level you need to succeed.  Start with the tutorials.  They give you ships, implants and other goodies.  You get ISK for completing tutorials too!

After that, mining is probably the easiest way to make ISK.  It is probably the most boring, but it is easy.  You grab a frigate, some mining lasers and hit a belt.  While you are very efficient in a frigate, filling your small cargohold and jumping to and from the station/belt, it is lucrative.  If you are serious about mining, I would really recommend training for the ORE mining frigate and work on rounding out your mining skills.  If you are just part-timing it, there are other things that you can train, but most new players hit the belts.  I would stick with Veldspar.  Tritanium is always a good seller.  It is the most commonly used mineral in EVE and in high volumes.  Veldspar takes up the least amount of cargo space of the minerals.  Next bet would be Scordite.  The pyerite you can get from refining it is worth some ISK.  

If you want to forgoe the doldrums of mining, you can train up your combat skills and run missions out of NPC stations.  This is a fun way to make ISK and helps give you an idea of how combat works.  Let me tell you now, PVP is PVE are COMPLETELY different.  NPC's in missions are as dumb as tacks and they are in now way an analog for real players.  Mission rewards and their time bonuses can help fatten your wallet.  Also pay attention to bounty prizes you get from killing NPC pirates.  Those can be very nice.  I would suggest not taking faction missions.  That is, when you are reading the mission brief, stay away from missions where NPC Factions (Gallentee, Amaar, Caldari, Minmatar) are the targets.  You can skip one mission per agent per 4 hours.  If you skip one after that, you will take a standings hit with the agent.  As you do more and more missions, you gain standing with that agent.  After a while, you can get access to Level 2 agents all the way up to level 4.  Also, periodically, the faction that you are running missions for will give you a high priority mission.  If you can complete it, you get a standings boost with the Faction.  This is helpful.  On top of that, doing missions for agents will give loyalty points for the faction that agent belongs to.  You can use them for faction ships, items, implants, etc.  If you want to get a faction frigate, you can use loyalty points to acquire one.  They are much better than the T1 standard frigates and they run for about 20-24 million ISK.  If you don't want it, you can just sell it.

When you get better skills (battleships) and have strong defensive tanking skills (shield/armor), you can try to get into incursions.  The ISK is spectacular.  They are hard to get in fleets, but if you can, you are golden.  You can pretty much print ISK.  You will need a strong skill base, a good ship fit and some luck to get into a fleet.  Incursions are serious business.  I once went to Vegas and sat down at a black jack table.  I hit on a card that I shouldn't have.  People at the table got pissed.  What happened was if I didn't hit, they would have had a better change at getting the card they needed.  Incursions are similar.  They don't want to deal with Noobs.  They are there strictly for the ISK.  

This post is longer than I had planned and I kept it more informational than detailed, but maybe it will give you some direction.  My biggest suggestion for new players is to leave their NPC corp and try to get into a good player-owned corp.  There are soooo many benefits.  If you are looking for a corp, check out Manu Fortius.  We are happy to help new players get on their feet. 

As always, fly safe-ish

Game Review: Star Wars X-Wing: Miniatures

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to be part of a space battle in the Universe of everyone's favorite Space saga, I have a game for you!  Star War's X-Wing: Miniatures.  It is a table top miniatures game where you take the roll of the fleet commander and wage a war against either the Evil Empire or the Rebel Scum.  It is highly addictive and superbly fulfilling.  

On a side note:  The Star Wars franchise has been lacking in the space simulation arena.  SW X-Wing, TIE Fighter and (even) X-Wing vs TIE Fighter were some of the best sci-fi games I had ever played.  I even consider them superior to some of the modern ones.  There was just something special about strapping yourself into T-65 X-Wing with an R2 unit chirping away behind the cockpit or going full deep in a TIE Defender and $^&^&%$ shit up.  I am completely at a loss as to why either of those three games have not been revived and updated.  While XW vs TF wasn't as well received, the expansion pack fixed all of the glaring failures of the original release.  I don't believe there are too many people who have played any of the three that would argue their worth.  With that trip down memory finally at it's end, let's get on with the tabletop game review.

This game is put out by Fantasy Flight Games.  They have been around since 1995 and publish many excellent role playing, card and miniature games including WarHammer 40k..  They manufacture high-quality productions, so there is no need to worry about getting your bang for the buck.  They are a leader in miniatures and have also bough the Star Wars license lending to it's quality and relevance.

The base set (around $30 USD) gets you two TIE Fighters (T/F) and one X-Wing (XW).  This base/core set gives you a rule book, a few missions, a bunch of pilot cards, ship upgrades and all the chips, movement dials, movement templates, etc.  You can play with the core set and still have endless hours of fun.  The ships are a little larger than MicroMachines (if you remember those), and are pre-painted with a high level of detail and superb quality.  They tend to be a bit fragile so proper care and storage are a must.  You also get some flat cardboard asteroids, but you can take and paint some lava rocks and mount them on stands for a really genuine and realistic effect, like we did.  

One of the best parts of this game is that they are always releasing expansions.  They are affordable as well.  Single fighter expansions will run you around $15-20.  Some of the larger expansions can be upwards of $50.    When I say expansion, it is generally a new fighter or other spaceship.  It comes with special pilot cards, sometimes new mechanics and added missions.  They are releasing the expansions at a good clip, so you can add to your set regularly and expand your fun and set up larger and larger battles.  They also have large ships which behave differently, have different upgrades and movement templates.  It's really an epic experience.  

Tactics are a fundamental to this game.  Formations, pilot and ship selections, upgrades and movements are all integral to your success or failure.  Imperials have an advantage of initiative, lower ship costs and speed. Rebels have durability and better weapon systems.  Whichever faction you wish to field, you need a different tactic to have a chance.

There are some included missions but you are free to make up your own missions and even campaigns.  You have the complete flexibility in the mechanics to do basically what you want.  

Each game consists of phases.  In phase 1, each side uses a ship dial (per ship) to secretly select their movements and then places the dials face-down.  Once all the movements have been dialed in, the player with the lowest pilot level (on each pilot card) moves first.  Once a pilot moves, they generally have an option to force an action (whether it is focusing their fire, evading, etc).  Once all movements and actions have been completed, the pilot with the highest pilot level fires (and Han Solo ALWAYS fires first) and you work backwards.  It is possible to destroy a ship before it ever has a chance to fire.  Once the combat phase is complete, the movement phase beings again.  You can bump into ships, losing your action, so proper movement is imperative.  You are not allowed to use the movement templates to see where you will end up.  You have to use your best judgment to get were you need to be.  Flying in formation can be difficult, but it is beneficial to be precise with formations to concentrate fire and maximize your damage potential.  Pilot card special abilities can mean the difference between victory and a rout.

I can't say enough good things about the game.  If you are even remotely a fan of the Star Wars galaxy, like tabletop games or just want to try something different, I HIGHLY recommend getting the game.  I play SWXWM nearly every week with a buddy of mine.  He has a bunch of ships and I have a bunch as well.  We have plenty to do, but I am a sucker for moooarr ships!  Currently, we have been playing with T/F, T/I, T/A, T/B, T/P, Lambda Shuttle, Millenium Falcon, Rebel Transport, XW, YW, BW, and EW.  

Wil Weaton (TableTop on YouTube) did a video with Seth Green and some friends.  You can check it out here: TableTop XWing.  It will give you a feel for the game.  

Again, it's truly an innovative and rewarding gaming experience.  Try it out for yourself.  You won't be disappointed (unless you have no friends).

Impressions of Destiny Beta

Over the last week, Bungie released an open beta for Destiny, it’s upcoming sci-fi mmo fps. I hadn’t heard about this game until the beta was released, but after some coaxing from my friends decided to give it a shot. This is a record of my impressions and experiences.

The first thing you get to do is watch a video that sets the scene. The very beginning of this scene is a reveal of the Activision logo. I have an active boycott against Activision products, so basically that turned me off from the game immediately; I know that I won’t buy it ever. Anyways, after my hopes were crushed, the introduction began. Long story short, it’s almost identical to Mass Effect. In fact, I’m sure the last sequence, when the “Darkness” is creeping in from the edges to engulf Earth, is copy and pasted from the end of ME1. I guess this game is part of Activision’s strategy to take some of EA’s market share.

The second thing you will do is create a character. There are three classes and three races. For my race I chose Exo, which is the android race, and for my class I chose warlock which seems like it should be the “mage” class, but isn’t really but kind of is. From what I can tell, most of the difference in the classes is the type of grenades you get and the “supercharge” ability you get. (The supercharge is your ultimate move you get to use every once in awhile.) The customization is pretty good but ultimately meaningless since, when in first person mode you obviously don’t see yourself and are never close enough to others to see their details, and in third person mode you are too zoomed out to see any of the details either. But I guess it’s the 21st century and we have to have customization.

Once you create a character, another cutscene begins in which a “ghost”, which is this floating robot that binds itself to a guardian, flies through the remnants of Old Russia, which looks like any zone from Borderlands, and finds you lying in a scrapheap. Now, let’s talk about this ghost. As you may remember, Destiny is being developed by Bungie, the same people that brought you Halo 1. You remember Halo 1 right? When you followed that damned flying robot that trolled you relentlessly through the exact same corridors hour after hour? Guess what the ghost looks like. Yes, that damned flying robot. Thanks Bungie, you just made me relive my worst emotions and frustrations from Halo. Not only that, but unlike in Halo when at least the robot travels with you for only part of the game, saving you from committing hara-kiri on the spot and preserving hope that maybe he’ll disappear and leave you to shoot aliens in peace once again, the Destiny robot follows you around and talks to you the entire game. I mean, for me that’s enough reason not to play the game.

But I kept going and suffered so that you can hear about what else the game has to offer.

I don’t remember what comes next in the introduction of the Destiny experience, so let’s just jump into combat. The combat is exactly identical to Borderlands, the end. Even the treasure chests look like the chests from Borderlands and have a similar animation when opening. The only major difference here is that when loot is dropped, instead of having the actual gun model or ammo model drop, indistinct white and green squares and ovals of light drop. Damn, that’s some next level technology!

The basic flow of the game goes like this: hang out in the city to buy stuff and identify stuff, then warp directly to a zone to take part in either a story mission, a strike mission (dungeon), or exploration. This idea of having no real travel is clearly WoW inspired and makes me long for the days of yore when there was actually something inspiring about traversing an alien landscape (my heart is with you, Anarchy Online).

So our current strikes against the game right now are Activision, robot, copying and pasting ideas from other games, and WoW-inspired. Hmm, not looking so good.

This game has multiplayer, kind of. The reason I say kind of is that it’s not very meaningful since people just drop in and out of your team at random and nobody really has to cooperate to complete quests or kill bosses, since the enemy AI is absolutely braindead. I mean, this is the 21st century: can we please move beyond Quake 2 AI? Please. I’m begging someone with knowledge of AI to work on this problem.

Here’s a breakdown of the mission types for your reference:

1) story missions: uninspired and repetitive

2) strike missions: map design for the only playable mission was not bad but the bosses take way too long to kill and it’s too long overall. It’s an odd juxtaposition against the easily consumable exploration quests and story missions.

3) exploration: basically there is no exploration involved. Your ghost leads you to quests and you do the quests, in the same zones you’ve been playing for hours.

The enemies in this game are called the “Fallen” and the “Hive”. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. That sounds exactly like Halo. You’re right, it’s exactly like Halo. The Fallen are the weird alien creatures who are all evil of course, but this time around instead of looking unique, they look like either a straight up ripoff of the Tau Empire from Warhammer 40k (GW is the most ripped off company in the history of gaming I’m sure), or space oompa-loompas, depending on your opinion. The Hive are a copy and paste job of the Flood from Halo 1.

Is this really the best Bungie can do?

But the primary problem of this game is the same problem that almost every MMO has: it’s like watching a movie; once it’s over, it’s not relevant to your life anymore. I’m not sure Destiny is even a game. A game is something like chess or checkers that has replay value because every game is different and because it’s competitive. Destiny is like an interactive movie.

Procedurally generated zones would not help either, because that doesn’t attack the underlying problem that it’s just a movie. You play the movie and when it’s over that’s it. Making it multiplayer doesn’t change that fact either.

In conclusion, Destiny is a hodge-podge of every successful alien/sci-fi shooter/mmo of the last decade with zero inspiration and a lot of copying and pasting from Bungie’s previous works. I’m sure a lot of people are going to view this game as the second coming because it has the name Bungie on it and the Borderlands-like loot mechanics are digital crack for those same people. But if you get bored by cliche movies with poorly written dialogue and games with repetitive button pressing, then this game is DOA.

- warcalibre

Researching Crius

I finally had a moment to install jobs into our labs last night.  I was pretty shocked at the new cost scaling.  I have been reading about it but until I actually did some work, I was dismissive.  My eyes are open.

We are in a remote high sec system without any modifiers and I was using the standard labs (the old advanced and standard mobile ones).  Here is what I found during my experience.

If I wanted to research our Orca BPO to level 10 (10% ME) from level 9, it would cost over a billion ISK and take around 216 days.  On a side note: I feel that if you own a POS and do your research there, you should get a base discount.  

Copying blueprints was much more time-consuming.  I guess it was a balancing act to keep the BPC market/supply relatively stable.  Many people ran copies out of NPC stations and those were choked off with extreme lead times and you would have to search low and null sec to find empty labs.   Many people wouldn't do that, so there was an inherent bottleneck/upper limit to the amount of BPC's being made.  Most were used for invention anyway, but it is just my opinion on the change in the lab slot mechanic.

The problem I see is for the new players or those new to blueprint activities.  Those of us who had a large library of researched blueprints are sitting pretty well after the change.  Most of my blueprints were researched well past 10 ME so they all rolled to 10 and I didn't take any hits.  The un-researched blueprints I had, or those I wish to buy will end up costing me a lot.  Here's my take (and I know those of us who have put the time, isk and effort over the years SHOULD have an advantage), but these changes will turn away those who aren't already vested or who wish to break into the blueprint arena.  In real terms, its going to cost new industrialists a lot of ISK to get where they need to be.  If they are going to manufacture (and that would be 99% of those who buy blueprints) then they have to work a lot harder to pay off the research fees before their blueprint starts making them ISK.  We 'OGs' can pluck the research cost out of our manufacturing, giving us an edge in the market (once prices stabilize to the new economy).  

TL;DR: New industrialists might end up being turned off to the industrial EVE.  Not that I mind, it's better for me, but I think what CCP was trying to do was bring new players to the industrial profession.  What is probably going to happen is that they will drive a wedge between blueprints and bittervets.  

What are you thoughts?

Future Blog Framework

I've been out of the loop for a while, but I am just jotting down some of the things I will cover over the next few days.  I will knock these out, but they are listen in no specific order of priority.

1. [video/written blog] Crius: work teams, scaling, advantages of high-volume systems, etc

2. [video blog] POS: setting up an Industrial High Sec POS

3. [video blog] POS: managing POS setups, modules, access rights, hanger usage

4. [video/written blog] Invention process in Crius, copying/invention

5. [blog] Economy: trends in Crius, how new cost scaling is affecting the industrialists trying to sell wares.

6. [blog-continuous] Around the forums: my opinions on hot EVE-O forum threads, dev posts, etc

7. [blog-continuous] bug reporting, issues, hot topics

8. [blog-frequent] Manu Fortius news, industrial program results, ideas, tips, etc

I needed to lay it out so I have a framework of what I would like to accomplish with my blog for the remainder of July and also to give you all some idea of what freakish thoughts are coursing through my gray matter.

Top 25 Most Active Industrial Systems Currently

Here is a small list of the most active systems for industry.  This is basically a list of the best places to do your industrial activities due to the concentration of work teams, not necessarily the most cost-effective.  

Also, there are new filtering options on the Star Map to show industry-related statistics.  If you can't get to one of these areas, you can use the map to help guide you to an area that you might feel is better for you.  This list is subject to change, but it's a good example of how the work teams have effected the cost scaling of industrial jobs.

Top 25 Current Manufacturing Regions
	System	Index	Region
1	Itamo	0.9	Forge
2	Jita	0.8	Forge
3	Uemisaisen	0.8	Lonetrek
4	Paara	0.8	Citadel
5	Oiniken	0.7	Citadel
6	Ansila	0.7	Forge
7	Ohmahailen	0.7	Forge
8	Peikura	0.7	Lonetrek
9	Oimmo	0.7	Lonetrek
10	Tividu	0.6	Tash-Murkon
11	Saisio	0.6	Lonetrek
12	Muvolalian	0.6	Citadel
13	Altrinur	0.6	Metropolis
14	Annaro	0.6	Citadel
15	Pimebeka	0.6	Tash-Murkon
16	Akainavas	0.6	Lonetrek
17	Usi	0.6	Citadel
18	Inghenes	0.6	Sinq Laison
19	Jatate	0.6	Forge
20	Poinen	0.6	Forge
21	Tuurainas	0.6	Forge
22	Kaimon	0.6	Citadel
23	Warouth	0.5	Domain
24	Hageken	0.5	Lonetrek
25	Funtanainen	0.5	Lonetrek

Glaring Crius Research Fee Issue

Just wanted to make everyone aware that there is an issue with the cost scaling on research jobs and possibly production.  While I haven't had a moment to test out Crius, please see this thread reply from CCP Greyscale.  

I would hold off for a bit before doing any research/production.  Obviously, bugs are going to pop up.  Just be aware and if you notice anything that is clearly FUBAR throw in a ticket.  

Unfortunately, people have to go through the motions and recognize that there is any issue as it arises.  Nobody is perfect so the best we can do is keep finding them so we can make EVE better.  Hopefully, it doesn't cause too many rage-quits

Original Post on EVE Forums

CCP Greyscale's response

Bye Bye, Remote Industry Installations

Just a reminder, You can no longer remotely install BPO/BPC jobs.  They have to be in the NPC station if you are using the NPC labs or in the POS lab you are using if using a POS lab.  In the Crius release, there is no longer any way to keep your BPO's safe if you are using your POS labs via the NPC Hanger.  

The POS value has risen as most POS installations are now superior to NPC stations.  

If your BPO is in a lab and you have the Scientific networking skill trained to an appropriate level, you can remotely start/deliver jobs in that specific lab.  So the skill is still viable but again, the BPO needs to physically be in the lab you want to use.

This could be viewed as a good thing.  Some office rental fees are quite exorbitant, especially in highly populated systems.  You can ditch the office if you were only taking advantage of the safety of having BPO's in an NPC station.  

On top of all this, since the Crius patch removed the slot limit in stations and POSs, there are no wait times for any researching activities.  You can now lose the research POS with massive quantities of labs and hang some assembly arrays instead and reap the added benefits provided by those POS structures now.  Really, the only reason to use an NPC station for industry is if you don't have or don't want to mess around with a POS.  

If you want to set up a POS and use it to it's full potential, you should have the following arrays, plus any other ones that fit your requirements (like manufacturing).  

1 x Hyasyoda Labs - benefits to ME/TE Research
1 x Design Laberator - best for Copying and Invention
1 x Experimental Lab - T3 reverse engineering

It would also be good to have these two arrays if you are heavy into mining
1 x Reprocessing Array
1 x Compression Array

Also, stick with a large POS for safety reasons now that your BPO's will be in perpetual peril.  As always, fly safe-ish.

Third Party Industrial Tools

Used to using IPH for your industry needs?  Well, with the Crius release, you will have to forego it and go back to pad, pencils and spreadsheets until Zifrian can update his IPH program to reflect the new patch release.  I find his third party program simply the best.  A lot of you stick with home-made spreadsheets, which is great, but efficient use of time is my priority.

It might take a little bit longer, but you can get the hard numbers pretty easily.  Like I said, it can be tedious at first, but doable.  Once you set up workable spreadsheets, life does get easier.

Fear not though, Zifrian is hard at work on getting IPH updated to work with Crius.  It is a monumental task and CCP put out a lot of information in a lot of different posts/dev blogs.  It's a lot to tackle.

Check out Zifrian's latest forum posts and keep on eye on his progress.  I really appreciate the work he has done, in his free time, to help out the EVE industrialists.  

Make sure to support him and his efforts!

You can find the IPH thread on the forums here: EVE IPH Industry Calculator

And his specific update note here: Update Reply

Around the Forums - That Didn't Take Long...

Considering the standings requirement drop for setting towers in Empire Space, it is of no surprise that high sec moons are almost nearly full with offline POSes.  Doing some forum surfing today, I came across this post "That Didn't Take Long.. Highsec Filled with Offline POSes."

If you ever thought you might want a POS, your window of opportunity is quickly coming to a close.  Everyone and their uncle has probably scarfed up all the moons in your area.  IF you are considering a POS (ever), get out there and scout some moons.  You might still find one.  

The good news is that the majority of people appear to have thrown up only small POS spikes, so if you really want, you could war dec them and tear them down.  If you prefer the diplomatic approach, I suppose you could offer to buy the moon.  I always worry about transactions that can't be backed by CCP (such as contracts for goods).  It very easy to be scammed on such a transaction.  Be mindful and as always, fly safe-ish.

Crius Patch Notes are Available

Crius patch notes are available for review.  Check out the official notes here: Crius Patch Notes

• Some notable highlights are
• Changes to refining mechanics, skills, outputs, etc
• Big changes to industry UI in general
• PI tab moved to NEOCOMM Business tab
• Marketplace group icons and reorganization of the manufacture and research folders
• Factional Warfare upgrades no longer give extra station slots & damage and tracking of factional warfare NPC's has been reduced
• ME/TE research & bpo changes
• Most Tech I materials have been removed from Tech II manufacturing
• Production and Research teams are now available
• Blueprints are no longer able to be used remotely.  They must be in a station or POS structure to use
• Control Tower anchoring can now be done without the faction standing requirement
• Compression Array has been added (POS Structure)
• Mobile labs (and NPC station labs) no longer have slots
• Changes to assembly array names and capacities
• Isotope requirement for jump drives, jump bridges and doomsday weapons increased by 50%

Also various fixes, tweeks and new bugs in Crius.  Have fun!

Crius Blueprint Lockdowned in Container Issue

According to a statement by CCP Falcon, there is a bug in Crius that has locked down the blueprints that were in containers.  Not having logged into EVE since the release of Crius, I can't say if it is fixed yet.

Unfortunately, you will not be aware there is an issue until you go to deliver the job from locked blueprints.

You can find the OP, Crius Known Issue: Blueprints Locked in Containers here.

Also, you can view the thread on Known Crius Issues here.

Maybe I'll be lucky and this will be fixed before I download and install the release.  Then again, as usual, my launcher will probably be broken.

Anyway, have fun and enjoy Crius.  Just remember to fly safe-ish

Industrial Control

I've posted about the benefits and pitfalls of running a corporation's industrial program.  It's like being an air traffic controller (from second-hand experience) and before Crius, it's akin to doing it without a radar.  To be honest, with all the things going on in my life right now, I just haven't been able to put a lot of time in.  I guess that it might not be hyper-critical at this point.  Once Crius hits though, I would like to jump on the business-end of the change.  I mentioned builders packs.  I will also be keeping a large assortment of blueprint copies for our corpies to make stuff with them since they will all be at least ME10.  We are building about 3-4 freighters a month.  Things are going well and I feel Crius will open up the books for more profit, more activity and more fun.  From what I have experienced on Singularity, the industry UI is great.  I really like how everything looks and feels (after my initial shock).  I think CCP did a good job on that end.  The mechanics.. I really haven't developed an opinion on that as of yet.  I just didn't get enough time to take a deep look at them yet.  With Crius being implemented tomorrow, I guess the practice will be reality.  Overall, I have high hopes for Crius.  

Here are some great blog posts to look at while you wait for Crius to download and install. They are highly informative and entertaining reads.

Foo on EVE News 24

How to access your Planetary Colonies

In Favor of Industry Focused Releases

A Scientist;s Life in EVE

Crius - Industry Teams... Worth their weight in Megacyte?

Crius - Increasing costs of T2 Manufacturing

Crius - Reprocessing

Check out these posts and show your support for the industrialists in us all and as always, fly safe-ish

Crius Release and Movement of PI Interface

Well, it is finally time.  Crius will be released during the next extended downtime.  If you have skills with short time, you may want to change them over to long trains in case the launcher gets FUBAR (which usually happens to me).

It's been a while since I have posted anything.  We suffered a loss in the family one week ago last Sunday.  It's been kind of a rough time.  45 is too young to move on to the afterlife.  Hopefully things will get better soon and I can put more focus into EVE.  Until then, here is a just a small update.  

Due to the industry UI change, the PI interface has been moved to it's own section on the NEOCOM.  You can access it via NEOCOM > BUSINESS > PLANETARY INTERACTION.

I am hoping they revamp the PI Interface to be more user-friendly and efficient, but I would rather CCP fix the POS and CORP UI's first.

If you want to get a quick brief on the industry UI, check out my two posts from my test drive on Singularity

Video Blog

Test Drive by the Numbers

Crius Breaking News: Removal of POS Stacking Bonuses

CCP Greyscale announced that CCP has decided to waylay their changes to POS mechanics allowing stacking of bonuses on similar POS modules for production siting implementation difficulties.  As one might expect, there was an uproar of discontent from the industrial community about the decision.  It is my general opinion that POS mechanics and Corporation management mechanics are just North of broken.  Hopefully, these issues will be addressed soon, but I am not holding my breath.

Forum Post: [Crius] Starbase Feedback

Video Blog - Crius Overview on Singularity

Here is a quick video of the industrial UI coming in Crius on July 22nd.  Enjoy

Test Driving the Industry Changes on Singularity (By the Numbers)

I had a few hours to kill last night so I fired up my Singularity launcher and patiently waited for the large update to be completed.  It took a while, but once I logged in, I jumped right to the industry tab.  You will notice that it is a completely different interface.  It is pretty shiny.  Lots of cool graphics and all the information is available from one view.  You don't have to click through a bunch of boxes like in the current legacy system.  

Rolling an item into production is pretty simple.  If you are using your corporate hanger, you select your input and output hangers and manufacture to your heart's content.  When you input the run count, you can see if you have all the materials on hand.  If you don't, you can't manufacture.  It all happens from the initial screen.  Another cool thing about it is that you can see your effective range that you can start jobs.  In this instance, I can affect production anywhere within 25 jumps of my current position.   Another super-handy UI upgrade is to see how many jobs you have active and how many slots you have.  Here is the dissection of the industry UI by the numbers.

By the Numbers (Click to Enlarge)

1. Mineral Requirements: This shows what is required to manufacture the item.  If you don't have all the minerals, the boxes around the graphic will be red.  If you do, they will be blue.
2. BP Research Modifier: This will show the effect of research on the blueprint
3. Location: Pretty self-explanatory
4. Location Input/Output:  If you are using a blueprint from your personal hanger, this is irrelevant.  If you are using a corp hanger, you can/will need to select the input and output hangers.  This also tells the system where to pull the minerals from.
5. Output:  This is just an info-graphic to show what and how many items you are manufacturing
6. Time Required:  This is the total production time of the manufacturing run
7. Manufacturing Cost: This is how much it will cost to install and complete the job
8. Skill Requirements: This will show you a go/no-go on whether or not you have the skills to manufacture the item
9. Slots Used/Available: Now you can see how many jobs you have installed vs your max.  This is AWESOME!
10. Control Range:  This tells you how many jumps away from the bp/mineral location you can start a job.  Blueprint and minerals need to be together in that station (and in the same corporate hanger if applicable).
11. Activity Type:  This is a selectable icon that allows you to choose what activity you want to perform on the BP.  From left to right - Manufacturing, Time Research, ME Research, Copying, Invention (I think), & I don't remember the far right one.  
12. Work Teams: Here you can select work teams.  I didn't get to try this one out.
13. Blueprint Section:  Here you can see your blueprints.  You can select personal ones and corporate ones.  Explanation from left to right: blueprint name, TE Level, ME Level, runs remaining, activities you can perform on the blueprint, jumps from current location, facility location, hanger location.

Also, one thing that I didn't label is the tabs above the blueprints.  You can select (from left to right): blueprints, facilities, jobs, teams.  They work the same way they used to, with the addition of teams.  You can view current jobs under the job tab, similar to what we used to do.

As I test out the industry system, I will post updates and maybe some tips and tricks on how to make the system work for you.  All in all, I was pretty impressed after my initial system-shock.  The graphical UI was a bit overwhelming at first.  It's like the old system was a Chevy Vega and the new system is an Audi A10.  Hope you enjoy and as always, fly safe-ish.