On a Business Trip

Back Friday…

Twilight Imperium

So two weeks ago, I had a chance to finally play Twilight Imperium, a game that has been on my “to play” list for about 5 years now.  It was everything I thought it could be.  It was however, a slightly different than normal playing experience, I think, since we only had three players – my dad, my brother, and myself.  The game normally should be played with 5-6 players.  Thought their are rules for only three, we found them to be lacking a bit.

Twilight Imperium: Its Good to Be The King

First off, kudos again to Fantasy Flight Games.  Because they host the rules to all their games online, for free, my family members and fellow gamers were able to read and digest them well in advance of our first game.  That made the first time through a lot less awkward than it normally is for a new game.  It also let me see what all I could look forward too if I bought the expansion for TI, which I now intend to do as well.  Good business practice, as I understand it, requires some risk, and FFG hosting their rules online is paying off for them, at least where me and my family are concerned.

So we delve in pretty quickly – and really, TI is a smooth playing game anyway because of the division of rounds into actions, to keep people from wandering from the table for that second bag of Doritos and falling into watching that late football game in the next room…not that that has ever happened to me.  The game involves the usual take over the universe, build armadas formula, but with a couple of nice wrinkles.  First is that you pick a “strategic action” card at the beginning of each round, giving you a bonus that you can execute at some point in your turn.  If your economy needs a shot in the arm, grab the Trade card.  Trying to keep your undergunned systems safe for another turn while you stockpile weapons?  Think about picking up Diplomacy.  The catch:  you pick in turns, and if someone picks the vaunted Initiative card to let them go first, they may not pick it again next round.  So what you want is not always available.  In the three player game though, you pick *two* cards instead of one, and this was the primary week point we found.  More on this later.

The other nifty thing about TI is the way movement works.  You activate systems (spaces on the board) rather than units.  And when you activate a system, you can move things in and out of it, produce with it, war in it, etc.  It takes a round or two to get the hang of, but it really seems to speed up the game and allow for some flexibility.  Normally you might mass a big armada in one area and then blitz the map with it.  But since here you activate the target system instead of the armada, you can invade said system from several places at once.  On the flip side, remember to build last – since once you activate a system, you cannot move into or out of it anymore.

Theres a beautiful balancing act then that plays out each turn, as players try to clear objectives or KO players home worlds to win the game.  One of the strategy cards is “Imperial” which gives you 2 victory points and allows you to unveil a new objective card to all the players, allowing everyone to possibly claim more points.  Now this may seem powerful, and I thought so too.  Which is why, in our game, I started picking it every turn.

Now that wouldnt work too well in a 6 player game, where it would mean that you got no other real bonuses to the turn, and you went last in the round.  But I was playing an alien faction that always got to go first in actions (not in picking cards), and since there was only three of us, we all picked two cards.  So I got victory points each turn, and got bonuses too.  It took my brother and dad about 3 turns to realize what I was doing.  But both of them figured they had fleets big enough at that point to crush me before I could eek out a VP win.  They were wrong.  They forgot that since I got to go first, and we got to pick two.  Well…on the next turn, I picked Imperial again, with them laughing at me.  And then Diplomacy.  That stalled my brothers fleets a turn, and I managed to put together a stalling force of carriers loaded with fighters.  I knew they wouldnt win, I just needed to hold him off a turn.  My dad, a bit tired and still miffed at me over an earlier family fight (they just moved in down the street from us – and we are having boundary issues already lol), apparently didn’t quite get it, and made no move to advance on my with his own fleets, heavy with cruisers.

So now I’m at eight points.  And they manage to grab up Diplomacy and Imperial from me.  What they missed though, was when I grabbed the Initiative card.  It was all over but the crying and they still didn’t see it.  I blocked my brothers insanely overwhelming force with my hordes of fighters, a few other things happened.  And then it came time to pick cards.   I got to pick first since I had Initiative.  And you know what I picked.   And since my race always got the first action.  And since the game is over as soon as a player hits 10 VP.    Well, I won.  (-:

Sneaky and underhanded, I know.  But they should have seen it coming, right?  My brother wondered aloud why he would bow to anyone as Emporer when he had him by the throat, with dominating fleets above his homeworld.  We conjectured that VP indicated, at least in part, the popular support of a players claim to the throne.  This would mean that he might have the fleets above my homeworld, but that enough of his admirals no supported me that the fleets were no longer really “his.”  Anyway, it was over quick.  5 turns and one action into turn 6.  But it was alot of fun, and I love the complexity of having to deal with politics, economics, and military channels/attacks/feints from players every turn.  Excellent game.  The trick will be finding more people to play with.  Or at least, not doing the two card thing anymore.  (-:

EVE Alts Take Pay Cut, Film at 11.

I’ve always said I didn’t want an alt in EVE.   Too much work – the headache of training them, of alt-tabbing in and out, of upkeeping skills…not to mention doubling my cost for playing the game for the sake of what amounted to a luxury item.
But CCP knows how to make a tempting offer, don’t they?  The Power of Two offer, which EVE has rolled out several times over the history of the game, seems to be back.

$50 for 6 months.  That’s hard to argue with…

6 months for 49.95

Having that extra account at your disposal is sometimes indispensable. It can help turn the tides on a difficult mission or turn a taxing task into a more efficient venture. A second account also means more places you can be at once, which makes monitoring the markets easier and reduces travel time. Trying out new and different skills Extra firepower on missions An extra hauler for miners A tag along salvager There are plenty of reasons to have a second account, and right now the biggest one is the Power of 2.

Offer valid only for newly created accounts. Existing accounts (trials included), active or expired, do not qualify for this promotion. Power of 2 may not be combined with other offers. Subscription of the new account will automatically renew after the six month period. Renewal will occur at the regular six month subscription price. Offer only available for Credit Cards and Direct Debit. Offer expires October 17th, 2009.

I wonder how this actually works.  I mean, my brother is thinking of starting play again….what if I start an alt account for him.  Then he gets to play for six months for almost half price.  Hmmm…then I would have a living alt, and all the headaches I mentioned above would go away….

Pardon me, I have some quasi-evil musing to do….

$22 A Month Subscriptions?

My wife called in last night to fight over a $20 service fee we had been charged for our account dropping too low (it hadn’t – our account minimum is calculated using savings and checking, not just checking…morons) and also noticed next to my $14.95 monthly gaming fee to EVE that there was a $2 or so “International Service Charge” attached  to it.  Round two on the phone started, and ended with Wachovia refusing to take that one off, claiming that they were withing their rights to charge us extra for having to exchange currencies, and that they were surprised it was so low - the lady claimed the charge should have been more like $7 a month, and would be so in the future.

Now, we’ve already established that Wachovia is capable of deploying morons – and actually, I’ve known that for some time because of other issues I’ve had.  So I’m not entirely sure I have been told the gospel truth here, so I did some digging.

*Real* ISK.

First of all, I found out that ISK doesn’t stand for Interstellar Space Kredit.  It stands for “Iceland Krona” in the international banking scene.  And that Wachovia charges a 3% international service fee for converting currency.  So I did some quick math:

$14.95 x 1.03 = $15.40 -$14.95 = $.45 in service fees.

Nowhere near $2 or $7 either one.

Add to this my confusion over CCP itself.  While they are originated in Iceland, they also have offices here in America, and so I’m not sure what kind of exchanging needs to go on at all.  And in their FAQ page, while they list all sorts of additional charges that one might get hit with, one for converting currency is not on the list.  And costs are listed not only in Euros, but also in USD, along with this sentence:

Prices are listed in Euros and US dollars. You can use the services of Yahoo Finance to convert the US dollar/Euros to your local currency.

Bold is mine.  This would seem to indicate that CCP accepts two kinds of currency – Euros and US Dollars.  So what is going on here?  Well…I have two weeks until my sub is up.  And I have at least one unpleasent conversation with Wachovia that will be taking place.  I do have some options though. 

At the very least I will be switching banks.  I cannot tolerate incompetence and/or swindling.  The economy is too bad to reward companies that fail in the most basic avenues of knowing their own policies and customer service.  I may also switch my sub over to Discover, though I don’t  know yet what their policies are either.  Hopefully this will not mean EVE costing me $22 a month to play.  I enjoy the game, but…

Anyone else out there ever have this problem?

Anyway, expect an extra post this week so I can regale you with the insanely underhanded way in which I won my first ever Twilight Imperium game.  And no, I didn’t cheat…

I Had A Strange Night.

I went to bed late – later than I should have.  My wife was acting a little strange, and was still up when I came to bed late…a rarity.  We talked for awhile, and her mood seemed to..shift somehow.

Finally I crashed, knowing I would have to be up in four hours.  Two hours in I awoke to a bloodcurdling scream.  And then a second.  My son and my infant daughter.  I rushed down the hall.  My son claimed he had heard a loud noise that had woken him up and scared him.  I told him there was no noise and to go back to sleep.  My daughter took a little longer to calm down than that, but eventually, I was able to fall back asleep.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I too had heard a noise.  And my last hour of sleep was lost to continual nightmares that lurked just beyond my ability to see them, even in that fuzzy vision we all have in the midst of our dreams.

I woke, got my daughter ready for school, walked her to the bus stop.  On the way back, a construction worker waved at me, with an overly large smile and wide eyes.  Inside, I fell back on to the couch.  The rest of the morning is a fevered blur.  I was asleep, awake, fixing breakfast, holding my infant daughter, I heard laughing, I heard computer sounds.  There was a strange buzzing outside my window.  My alarm went off and I went to wake my wife, but she was already awake.  Seeing me, she gently guided me back into bed.  Twenty minutes later, a different alarm woke me.  Feeling groggy yet, I got ready for work.

Finally, I came down the stairs, more awake than before, and I saw it.  The reason I had had this beastly night and illusory morning.  The source of my unseen fears and frets.

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

 

Yes, I had spent the evening playing Arkham Horror, which my brother got for his birthday, with him, my dad, and my mom.  It was oh so close.  We were one doom counter from Awakening Yig.  And one failed monster fight from allowing the Terrible Experiments of Mikatonic U. to spill onto the streets of Arkham.

The game is exceptionally well done, keeping the tension and atmosphere of the Lovecraftian Mythos without being entirely impossible or bogging the game down.  I will not be choosing the Researcher as my character anymore though.  Her rerolls were helpful to others, but I got tossed into the Sanitarium and Hospital way too many times, and we didn’t have a solid beat down character like the Gangster present.  We think next time we’ll run the Professor, the Gangster, the Private Eye, and the Drifter.  Seems like a good combo to handle whatever gets thrown at us.

If you get a chance, check the game out.  And if hopeless battles against the Elder Ones aren’t your bag, let me highly recommend  you check out the rest of Fantasy Flight Games catalogue.  They are a top notch company.  I know some people have been disappointed with their handling of the Warhammer licences, but I think few can complain about the quality of the products they put out, or the genius of their designers.  Tonight we are trying our first game of Twilight Imperium and I’m very excited about it.

Our local gaming store has weathered this economy well mostly because, the owner tells me, people are rediscovering the value of board games for their family.  It costs the same to buy a game like Arkham Horror that it does to take a family out for movies and popcorn/drinks on a Friday night, but the difference is you can play the game again with no further investment.  If you are looking for a family game night and need something that defies the usual boredom of Monopoly, Scrabble, or Sorry, maybe its time to upgrade your game.

Then again, given the night and morning I’ve had…maybe you’re not ready yet.

Taking the Long View

I lost myself in EVE skill land last night for a bit, with EVE Mon sitting open on the desktop as I alt-tab’d in and out of the Level 4 mission I was helping with.  In some ways, this was a good reminder of just how far I’ve come in EVE. (Which reminds me, though it deserves a full post – it is my firm belief that the interface in EVE HQ was designed to be as user unfriendly as possible.  I used it for so short a time I didn’t even bother telling you I had switched.)

I want one...

With skills, I tend to fetch a cool idea from thin air and move into it, as I have done with Cov Ops.  But as I play I have found some gaps in my skill training.  I can fly battleships – but I could use another couple of weeks to fill out the skill set better.  I have Cov Ops at 4, and have the modules I need, but I have only a minimal rating in probing and its secondary skills.

So I sat down last night and set up a skill plan that will last a few months.  It will fill out the remainder of my learning skills to 4, get me set up for T2 gear for frigates and cruisers, all with an aim towards setting me up for command ships and then carrier training over the next year.   I’ve been way to excited about getting new ships, and not nearly excited enough about being able to utilize them to their fullest capacity.

Anyway, as I wrapped all this up and got more fully into our mission, I realized we were fighting a faction I hadn’t seen before, the EoM – Equilibrium of Mankind.    And they were driving really slick looking versions of Amarr ships.   Anyone know if I can get one of their ships via contract or specialized LP?

ETA:  After some additional research, it seems they have no LP, agents, or sov.  But they make up for it with pretty badass paint schemes…

Congratulations – And A Change

First off, high congratulations and praise for the 19 blogs that were selected to be a part of the blog pack.  I applaud CK for expanding the count to 40 to incorporate as many of the new blogs as possible!

That said, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.  There were 39 blogs submitted, which means just about half of the blogs submitted were admitted.  These days I blog almost exclusively about EVE, and if I can’t keep the quality of the blog above the 50th percentile – well, that’s a problem.

I’ve been powering ahead nonstop in EVE, especially with starting our own corp and I’ve been blogging about four times a week about my experiences.  And I’m feeling what may be the front edges of burnout.  I say that because I have a free weekend – not alot of work, wife and kids out of town – and I’ve spent less time than I expected playing EVE.  I have a hunch I need to throttle back from my current pace.

Given that, I’ve decided to make some changes.  First off, for the month of September, there will be only two posts a week – on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Maybe if I slow the quantity, I can improve the quality.  Secondly, only one of these two posts will be about EVE.

I’v been holding onto my birthday money, and I think its time to branch out and split my time some.  I haven’t decided which yet.  Originally I was going to do a Station Pass, as I enjoy the variety, and it would allow me to continue Pirates of the Burning Sea with my brother – but he has since stopped playing to concentrate on school, and so I may just par down to a single game.  Maybe EQ to finally experience that epic server, maybe EQ2, which really offers the complete package, maybe something else.  Suggestions (and a regular group or guild home) are welcome.

Hope you are having a great Labor Day weekend.  So far I’ve spent most of my free time watching old sci fi movies!  H G Wells anyone?

EVE Blog Banter #11: T3 Landing Craft

Welcome to the eleventh installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month’s banter comes to us from Joe Brusati a long time reader of CrazyKinux’s Musing, who asks the following: CCP states that T3 Strategic Cruisers are just the start for the T3 line-up. In future Eve expansions what would you like to see as the next T3 ship type. Please be specific on details about what role this ship would play, cost of manufacturing, and the different modules that would be available for it, and of course you must give your T3 ship a name!

So far as I understand it, T3 cruisers allow for modular design to create the ultimate in flexibility.  Of course, this isn’t really true, as far as I can tell from the few conversations I’ve heard regarding their fitting.  But the point is that they serve a variety of roles.  This is true of T1 cruisers and battlecruisers as well, who are perfectly capable of any number of tasks.  But what about other T3 ships?  Does it make sense to have a flexible T3 frigate hullin this vein?  Not really – first off, its probably too expensive to justify the flexibility, especially given the reduced survivability inherent in a smaller vessel.  Perhaps T3 battleships might go this route – but battleships serve as lineships for the most part – combat vessels.  So, flexilibity is not required really.  T3 Capitals – proposed over at Ninveah would fit this mold of course, but they are about the only ones (and maybe not even then – since there aren’t even T2 Capitals yet!).  And really the current T3 ships mimic battlecruisers more so than  cruisers, so the current range is in fact very limited in spectrum, so its hard to see the concept being applied game wide across ship types.

So I don’t think other T3 ships will be designed with flexibility in mind.  What I do think is that T3 ships will need to function, gamewise, as time and money sinks for players, much as with any more traditional MMO expansion.  What are veteran, long-time players looking to do more effectively?  So much so that they will train a new set of skills and plink down a pile of ISK for?   And I don’t really know the answer to that because I’m not one.  But I have a hunch it will play in with sovereignity and piracy, the two announced initiatives of the next expansion.   Pirates want vessels that can prey on others, and alliances want ships that will allow increase the snail’s pace of current nullsec siege style warfare.

In real life, siege warfare became obsolete when walls did.  And piracy is really only effective when you can take other peoples things.  So we need  ship that can open limited holes in tower shields, and one that can secure cargo and modules from enemy ships.

We need a Landing Craft.  Especially since land combat via DUST is headed to the realm of EVE.  So how do these landing craft work? 

Well basically like this:  These are highly advanced transport craft who eschew cargo space for the ability to launch Lancers – the tip of the spear.  These assault craft don’t bounce when they hit a towers shield bubble – they attach to it, and cut through it with hi-intensity beams – hi tech “wire cutters” – that allow them to slip through the fabric of the shield energy.  Not just tower shields, but the navigational shields of ships as well – at least, those of medium size or larger.  These Lancers then attach to the hull of their target, again burning through a hull, and disgorging a highly trained group of combat specialists – trained in sabotage, assault, and close quarters combat.  Here they secure cargo and modules for safe retrieval by their compatriots, and destroy key points of infrastructure and command to disable the ship completely and permanently – without completely destroying it.

In game terms, we are looking at a modified missile launcher – like probe launchers for exploring – that utilize a special ammunition type – Lancers.  Lancers are built using the traditional components – but also what are currently utilized as trade goods – people.  Mechanically, Lancers do damage directly to the structure of a vessel or tower without harming the components, armor, or shields.  Once the hull hits zero, but so long as some of the otheres “hit points” remain, the ship is disabled.  Pilots may still eject in their pods, but may not self destruct or fight back.  The victors may now claim x number of the ships modules or cargo, dependent on their skills trained. 

Speaking of skills – we are looking at several.  New construction skills for the building of these modules.  New pilot skills for the Landing Craft and the Launch Bays and Lancers themselves.  A variety of skills around Lancer range, damage, precision (how many modules one can pick from the disabled ship.  New secondary modules boosting Lancers and speeding up their damage cycles.  New defensive modules for ships and stations that allow them to repel these boarders, doing damage to the Lancer itself, slowing the damage cycle.

Sieging towers takes on new levels of strategy.  No longer can dreads and battleships sit behind shields, pounding back and forth at long range.  Carriers must do more than reinforce shields.  Landing Craft must be destroyed before too many Lancers can be deployed – but not at the expense of ignoring the shield loss being endured.

Pirates have a new way to wreck havoc on other players.  No longer is it just the thrill of the kill.  Piracy means more than destroying the miner or mission runner – it means pinning them and sucking their blood out – forcing them to watch as you sort through their favorite modules and valuable cargo to take for themselves.  Ransom has new meaning – and a new incentive to pay up, if it means getting all your gear back.

Some limits need to be in place too though.  Disabled ships themselves are dead and gone – not just unusable, but not salvageable either.  Nor will bounties be paid out on disabled ships – Concord doesn’t want to encourage piracy and stealing, the Bounty Office wants to encourage people to utilize them and not get paid through alternative means.  And of course, the price on these Landing Ships and their Lancer modules and ammunition will be significant – significant enough not be cost effective to zerg a nullsec station with them and them alone.

As for names, I think these ships, with their boarding capabilities, should be named after famous pirate vessels:

Minmatar: Revenge

Amarr: Delivery

Caldari: Fancy

Gallente:  Liberty

What say you?  Did I give a little shakeup in the structure of null sec warfare?  Did I entice veteran pilots to try something new?  Did I give pirates a way to expand their ability to obtain loots and tears?

Whether I did or not, be sure to check out these other blog posters who have taken up the topic as well:

1. A Mule in EvE – ‘Thor’ the Minmatar T3 ~ Banter #11
2. One Man and His Spaceship – Blog Banter 11 – The many heads of the Hydra
3. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah – Strategic Capitals
4. Achernar – Strategic Battlecruisers: the Spiders
5. Journey to New Eden – Eve Blog Banter #11: Introducing the T3 Strategic Mining Barge
6. Kyle Langdon’s Journey in EVE – Strategic…. EVE Blog Banter #11
7. The Captain’s Log – Blog Banter 11: Increasing our knowledge of the universe
8. Deaf Plasma’s EVE Musings – Eve Blog Banter #11 – a ship called Starfury
9. Yarrbear Tales – Blog Banter 11: T3 Destroyers
10. Break Vol – Blog Banter #11
11. Harbinger Zero – EVE Blog Banter #11: T3 Landing Craft
12. Diairy of a Pod Pilot – Blog banter #11: Strategic frigates
13. Mike Azariah – Blog Banter #11
14. Ecliptic Rift – Blog Banter 11: Strategic Industrial Ships
15. Roc’s Ramblings – Blog Banter #11 – Salvation
16. Hands Off, My Loots! – More than just a cruiser – Blog Banter XI
17. Level Cap – EVE Blog Banter #11 – I Can Haz Tech 3 Battleships?
18. Internet Spreadsheets Naptime Online – Blog Banter #11 – Tactical Destroyers
19. More to come…

Where Diplomacy Is Done

One of the things that has plagued our small corp is connecting with our local community.  Finding new recruits, getting standings set, proving ourselves to the bigger corps that police the area, avoiding the neighborhood bullies, etc.

Like with sales or volunteer work, “cold calling” on people does not work all that well.  The last study I saw on the topic indicated that numbers on this had fallen even further – somewhere in the neighborhood of a .3% return rate.  This is mostly due to changes in the preferred forms of communication and culture.   The only truly effective way get together with people is to build a relationship with them.

Its the...CIIIRRRLLLLE OOOFFFF LLIIIIIIIIFFFEEE!!!! wooooo....

And we’ve slowly been seeing that happen for us.  As we become more visible in our neck of the woods, provide intel for other corps and alliances, shoot the breeze in local, lend a hand where needed, those connections have become more natural.  Until last night when we had representatives of three different corps running level 4 missions together.

There was some brief early mention of a possible alliance come the fall, but after that, we settled into a routine of chatting and coordinated destruction.  It was, in a way, a test drive for how things might work out.  And we left the night pleased with the results.   Everyone carried their weight in the mission, communication was good, trust was established by allowing the mission taker to master loot and divvy up at the end of the night. 

Of course, if you are familiar with Tuckman’s four stages, you know that’s just the tip of the iceberg, but we’ll blog about those things when we come to them!   For now, its nice to know that our world is expanding.