Ecliptic Rift

After Rettic mentioned his desire for a ship he’d never have to refit, the ensuing discussion reminded me of how well the Myrmidon did as an all-purpose low-sec solo exploration ship. If that’s your thing, then this ship will do quite well. I don’t quite recall which hybrid charges work best for this purpose, but they really don’t matter as the drones make up most of your offensive punch anyway. If you work primarily in a given area, you could replace the EANM with region-specific hardeners. And with 400 m³ of cargo capacity, you can pull up quite a bit of loot before needing to do something with it.

Assuming the pirates don’t get you first.

UPDATE: Thanks to sharp-eyed commenter knucklesamich, I’ve made a key change so that the fitting actually works. Due to my user error when tinkering with Python Fitting Assistant (pyfa) and trying to check actual capacitor usage, the old fitting went way over the CPU limitations of the Myrmidon. I recommend replacing the Omnidirectional Tracking Link with a Cap Recharger II. However, if you find yourself able to handle incoming fire with just one active armor repairer most of the time, you might think about using a named target painter instead. Sorry about that, and props to knucklesamich!

UPDATE 2: Some folks have asked about powergrid usage. Remember that you only need to online modules that you can use, so you might not want to keep your analyzer and codebreaker online at the same time.

[Myrmidon, Exploration]

Salvager I
Core Probe Launcher I
Improved Cloaking Device II
250mm Railgun I, Antimatter Charge M
250mm Railgun I, Antimatter Charge M
250mm Railgun I, Antimatter Charge M

Analyzer I
Codebreaker I
10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Medium Capacitor Battery II
Cap Recharger II

Medium Armor Repairer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Capacitor Power Relay II

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Valkyrie II x5
Warrior II x5


This post is not a typo nor talking about the EVE test server but a comment in the conversation with Kaarbaak about the Singularity in EVE. Read those posts first, especially Kaarbaak’s, or this one won’t make any sense.

Clearly, other factors besides just technology come into play. And of course we don’t really understand how the AIs work in EVE because we don’t have anything like them IRL and we don’t have enough prime fiction on them. If a sentient drone can modify and upgrade itself, however, that should lead to some sort of progress, even if it’s geometric and not exponential. (The models here break down quickly due to everything coming from pure speculation.)

Brainpower and human intelligence have major, fundamental differences from today’s CPU power, agreed. But this whole conversation takes place in the context of a fictional universe where fully sentient AI already exists. That changes everything. And when we combine self-aware intelligence with the ability and resources to modify and upgrade itself at will, both in the case of neural implants and sentient drones / artificial intelligences, then we’d almost certainly see strange and new results. Going back to the original point, I suspect that the real answer is that we can’t really imagine it and neither would CCP, and whatever we could imagine wouldn’t make a very fun game. Even if we could, it wouldn’t be this game.

Any discussion of applying the Copernican Principle to time as well as space has to take into account what we know scientifically about the Big Bang but probably goes far afield from the discussion here and, in any case, doesn’t relate too much to a fictional universe where somebody gets to invent truth.

Finally, one should consider atheism as a conclusion, not an a priori assumption, at least in terms of what other people believe. Despite the religious but derogatory “Rapture of the Nerds” name that some have thrown around regarding the Singularity, it’s not actually that. And many of us put a lot of time and thought into balancing our faith with our observations about the world around us and the conclusions we can draw from the scientific method. I view religion and science as orthogonal, not contradictory.

So we have rogue artificial intelligences, uploaded consciousness, functionally immortal transhumans, faster-than-light communications and travel that invalidate everything we know about causality… why hasn’t New Eden experienced the Singularity?

These sorts of advances should enable exponential growth in science, technology, and mathematics. For example, a sentient drone that can link to others in a hive mind (massively parallel consciousness) should surpass a normal (non-enhanced) human in terms of its ability to upgrade itself or create improved versions, and in fact capsuleers should do something similar to that. After all, once humanity can bypass the biological limitations and start to implement quantum computing architectures and instantaneous, limitless storage, we can do things that those of us stuck here in 21st-century Earth cannot even begin to extrapolate: the Singularity.

So, has CCP avoided any steps toward this due to balance considerations (think Sleepers with the Luminaire Titan stats and Deep Blue game theoretical intelligence) or just haven’t given this much thought? As first steps to this, I’d like to see more content related to rogue drones as well as capsuleers getting involved in implant research and production. A rogue drone epic arc or more development of the Society of Conscious Thought would really hit the spot, too. I’d really welcome ISD Mercury members reaching out to me (even in their semi-anonymous state) about this topic, too.

Can you guess where my next fictional arc (not the Friday stuff) will go?

UPDATE: Go read Kaarbak’s counter-argument. I have to think about that one for a bit.

As I finally got some good time in-pod, I’ve put together a plan of action for the next few weeks. Mostly, it revolves around specific goals I want to achieve, some of which nest within each other. I have written this post as much to elucidate all this for myself as much as to generate conversation with pilots who have similar interests.

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For whatever reason, I’ve had trouble turning an ISK in trading lately. Maybe I’ve lost my touch, maybe regional differences matter more than I really thought, or maybe the New Eden economy has fundamentally changed lately.

I’d thought to get back into tech II ship production. However, that hasn’t really worked due to intensely volatile moon resource prices causing shortages of key components. Supply and demand: not just a good idea, it’s the law. Never expected so much trouble getting quantum microprocessors at a decent rate!

So for now, I’ve refocused on tech I ship production and some limited tech II activity, at least where the numbers work out. Drones still make really great margins, so I’ve churned out those advanced Hobgoblins and Hammerheads as fast as my staff and labs can work. I intend to get some Ogres moving soon as well, but that might take another week or so before I see real results. Barrage ammo might work as well since projectile ammo has come back into vogue. Sometimes the simplest things still work the best, as an old Brutor boyfriend used to tell me…

Anyway, I have to say that the SCC might qualify as the worst-managed organization in the history of for-profit human endeavor (which is to say, our entire history). Everyone knows that their premiums can’t possibly cover their settlement payouts, so that business line must really hemorrhage ISK into the greater capsuleer economy. Maybe their market management works, because they get a piece of nearly every market transaction and contract out there to manage the data flows and maintain some semblance of order and regulation, but the insurance does not even approach something reasonable.

One case in point: evidently, they base their settlements on a mineral basket price from years ago. As we all know, mineral prices vary wildly (and I should really spend more time talking about the factors influencing those another time). Here lately, those prices have plummeted. This does great things for production costs, of course, but that also means that the supply-demand equilibrium point has fallen, since we can sell our products more cheaply and still turn a profit. In a competitive marketplace (without collusion or other external factors), that means prices drop as well.

That ends up meaning that ship production costs have fallen below SCC insurance payouts.

Said another way, the SCC will actually pay you more than the cost of the ship.

But it gets better. Their contract lawyers must have let their kids write the documents because they will pay you under any circumstances. That includes intentional self-destruction of the insured asset. Yes, the SCC specifically covers scuttling.

When my senior staff brought this to my attention, I thought that they had to have made a mistake. Even as poorly as the SCC economists have done their jobs, I assumed the lawyers would have done theirs. I mean, we’re talking about the human equivalent of slaver hounds, right?

So I built some Drakes in Oursulaert for about 24.4m ISK. The net payout on a Drake at Platinum insurance for 26.6m. (In fact, for a bit, Drake market rates in that system dropped below the insurance payout). I took on just the barest minimum of crew, enough to get us out of the docking bay, and as soon as we were clear, I shut down the engines and had them evacuate the ship back into station.

Then I engaged the self-destruct timer, waited a couple of minutes… and made about 10% margin. (I let other folks grab the salvage, but certainly you could do this at a safe spot and go back for the salvage yourself.)

Now, I could keep doing this all day long and suck money right out of the SCC’s pockets. Even though the market rate for a Drake usually exceeds that 26.6m ISK, you have to wait a little longer for somebody to come along and fill the sell order, so an immediate 10% compounds more quickly than 15% that takes a day or two, at least in raw return.

Really, this kind of feels like insurance fraud. But since the contract explicitly allows this, I don’t think that it actually defrauds anybody. They just made an incredibly bad business decision.

I still don’t like it, though. I mean, I’ll take advantage of somebody else’s mistake, sure, but it seems like an even bigger waste never to let the ship do its thing. Not every ship looks nice, but these vessels represent something approximating the pinnacle of our species’ technical achievements. They should at least get the chance to do their jobs. Maybe pilot error loses them sooner than anticipated, of course, but that seems like a separate problem.

I know this sounds a little irrational. Anthropomorphizing a podder ship? Yeah, my implant probably needs a service visit. But I’d rather see the SCC get its act together, implement some sort of dynamic settlement payouts (and hey, while they’re at it, take a look at payouts for tech II and tech III ships).

Until then, I’ll keep building ships and making them available to pod pilots for slightly better return. No promises when market rates drop completely below insurance payouts, though…

Image credit Boogies with Fish

We’ve already looked at the Caldari Navy Hookbill and Republic Fleet Firetail changes coming in EVE Online: Dominion this fall / winter. Today, we’ll investigate the changes coming for the Gallente Navy Comet, including a name change. The ship will henceforth be known as the “Federation Navy Comet”, and it will turn into a competent frigate droneboat.

Drones

The old Comet had vestigial drone capabilities at best, with a 5 m3 capacity and 5 MB/s bandwidth. But after the revamp, the ship will have 30 m3 available and 15 MB/s. This will allow the ship to easily field 2 flights of 3 light drones each, increasing the available firepower by a factor of 3 with more backup available just in case. The loss of the two launcher slots partially offsets this, but in general Gallente pilots tend to train drone skills rather than missile skills so this undoubtedly nets positive for them.

Really, drone users don’t have many choices for T1 frigates. The Gallente Imicus has a 15 m3 bay with 15 MB/s of bandwidth, and the Maulus has 10 m3 and 10 MB/s. No other T1 frigate can carry more than one scout drone.

Design

The Comet not only loses two launchers but one high slot, with a new 3/3/4 layout (though still only two turrets). Interestingly, though, the bonuses make up for this loss of firepower, as the small hybrid turret damage bonus per level of Gallente Frigate increases from 5 to 20%, meaning that a fully trained frigate pilot gets a 100% damage bonus. The 7.5% tracking bonus per level remains unchanged. The CPU gets a nice 21% upgrade also, increasing from 125 to 152 tf. CCP does not plan any capacitor tweaks for the Comet.

Like the Hookbill, speed bumps up a little (282 to 350 m/s) with the corresponding inertia modifier increase we’ve seen in the other naval frigates (2.79 to 3.3). Scan resolution decreases slightly, from 590 to 580 mm, but most pilots should not notice this negligible change in most circumstances.

Most Gallente frigate pilots should really enjoy the ship, as the new design plays to their strengths and receives negligible decreases. It may well replace the Rifter as the preferred PVP frigate, at least for pilots intending to focus on drones rather than turrets. I will almost certainly try to get one for my drone pilot, at any rate, even if they don’t put the “GFPD” back on the texture.

The series will end next time with a look at the Amarr Navy Slicer.

The video feed from the camera drone fuzzes in and out with the range, but the escape pods in the wreckage appear clearly. The pod pilot nudges her ship closer. Salvaging could wait; survivors from an Amarrian transport might not.

Leaping ahead almost before her command, the ship seems to want to reach them just as badly as anyone. Energy beams lance out from the destroyer, trying to lock on to the escape pods. The distance hasn’t closed enough yet, though, so the Cormorant-class destroyer and cargo runner pushes forward, afterburners blazing.

25 kilometers… 24… 23…

Casiella waits for a moment, then engages the tractor beams again. This time, they find their mark. She wonders what the people inside feel and hopes they had strapped down. The pods don’t respond to hails and haven’t broadcast anything on their own. Anyone inside the pods must have waited in terror since her own drones shredded the hulls of the transports and their escorts, knowing they only have a limited supply of oxygen and power.

But her agent assigned her a rescue mission, and so simply removing the threat won’t get the job done. The tractor beam pulls the pods closer even as the ship burns towards them, and suddenly they fly past each other in a delicate dance among the stars. She eases them together, juggling the vectors as deftly as a Luminaire clown.

Safe now, in the cargo hold.

Her medical and security squads wait outside the cargo hold as it pressurizes. The security officers enter the hold first, arms drawn. At this point, they have no idea who might be inside those pods, or what sort of disposition and condition they will have.

Plasma cutters open the pods, who’ve taken some damage during the ordeal. The security officers clear the pods professionally and quickly, but she can’t see what’s happening via the internal camera feeds. She can hear indistinct shouting and cursing, then quiet.

The bodies of four slaver hounds, burnt to a crisp by her security officers, are drug out, but behind them comes a disheveled but upright Gallente man. Mission accomplished, a reporter recovered despite her misgivings about the profession. The security squad doesn’t seem to think they’ve finished, though, clearing the other pods as well.

And with good reason. The stench of sweat, grime, and blood waft out from one more pod, but then goosebumps pop up on her skin.

Three Brutor families: two men, three women, and children ranging in age from infants to adolescents, at least a dozen of them. They stride into the light, cowering in the fear they’ve known all their lives. While they think of themselves as slaves, already she knows the truth.

She’s salvaged people straight into freedom.

As much as I generally believe that violence is a messy, inefficient way to resolve things, I understand that a lot of pilots resort to it for one reason or another. And occasionally, I end up having to do that myself.

So I’ve started building cruisers and destroyers to keep the cash flow going while my research progresses. So far, that mostly means Stabbers and Thrashers but I plan to add Ruptures soon enough. Not sure about other ships; the Vexor could be a good addition to the lineup, as would be Blackbirds. I know that pilots who do a lot of agent work like the Vexor, and the Blackbird’s ECM capabilities make it a perennial favorite among those involved in PVP warfare.

Really, though, I continue to think the future for me might lie in drones. I’ve started to use them quite a bit more in my own exploration and such. And tinkering with their control software keeps me fascinated for days on end. I see a lot of potential for optimization in their threat evaluation and target selection, for example. CreoDron has done a lot of work in this area, but past experience has shown that big, bureaucratic organizations can’t move as quickly or take the same sort of risks that we freelancers can. The safety protocols they put in place after the so-called rogue drones seem to have really hampered their work all in the name of fearful bureaucracy.

This bears further investigation and research.

A few days ago, I started engaging in “aggressive salvage operations” in Federation space. This means scanning down podder ships to salvage the Serpentis wrecks they leave behind and occasionally the loot as well. Yes, this latter bit means that they can take shots at us (Vikarion came along as an escort), but so far no one has. Oddly, they bluster about a wardec, but why would they pay CONCORD 5m ISK to do what they can do right then? Recovering abandoned T2 drones works pretty well, too. Also, I picked up some unsecured ice over in Everyshore. Most of the Mackinaws had properly deployed secure containers to support their work, but some folks just don’t want to take the time to do it right. I don’t know if any of them actually learned their lesson; they might need a pop quiz for a refresher soon.

I started working around Dodixie, primarily, but I’ve decided not to stay around there. Too much competition, with Suddenly Ninjas basing out of the same location. I didn’t realize that when I started. The ISK per hour doesn’t reach really high levels, but the practice at scanning people down and sticking it to the Navy lackeys has made it all worthwhile.

Actually, I think we’ve performed a public service. After all, this debris in space presents a clear navigational hazard to all the folks flying around the system, and abandoned drones just seem so lonely.

Now, several of us in the White Rose Society intend to head over to space where our colleagues in the Sansha Nation have tried to carry out operations against the Amarr. I understand that the Empire’s agents in some areas hand out a lot of assignments to corrupt podders doing their bidding and use this to try to stem the tide. We’ll see what happens when the non-podder ships get a little bit of support, both in terms of recovering the crews via aggressive salvaging and intervening more directly in low-sec operations.