The Inside of a Capsule

Contemplating the Future.

I've started using my Captain's quarters lately. It's lonely, and the door the rest of the station remains forever sealed, yet I find it somewhat relaxing. I still have this odd lack of direction in my life as a capsuleer. This version of me is starting to become weary. I haven't died in a long time and this clone is getting old. It's not that I want to die, I'm still scared shitless to think of it happening, but I know the consequences aren't that bad. Even if I die, I'll be fine back in a new clone. It would cost me a few ISK to update my clone and I'll loose whatever I'm flying, but it's all replaceable.

This is my greatest weakness. I have little to no experience with PVP stuff and I'm not used to loosing ships, or clones. I often find myself staring at my open pod, contemplating the future and knowing that death and destruction will find me eventually. Thus is the nature of New Eden. Whether it's Pirates, Gankers, or enemies in wormhole space. The Reapers icy touch extends to all reaches of space and he reaps quite often in New Eden. I suppose he would be a little annoyed by our technology, however, never able to keep his reaped souls as they simply fly back to a station and enter a new clone.

My current goals are still locked on a freighter. I've finally trained enough to fly one, so now I'm improving my refining skills to be able to use our stations, less than adequate, facilities to get perfect refine again. I've stockpiled alot of ore and ice products, now able to refine it without waste. The ice fields have changed, why I don't know. The upgrades to ship computers across the galaxy have included improved scanning algorithms, Ice belts are no more and are now scannable anomalies. The sites are also easily exhaustible, causing pilots to clean them out regularly. I heard of this change early and kept ahold of my ice, but the market already peaked since the change and people are offloading their stock, making the price drop. I will continue to wait until the stock depletes and for the price to rise again before selling. I will keep an eye on the mineral market too and see if it rises before selling specific minerals. I want to save a bit so I can get a Charon somehow. That is my current goal.

I haven't heard from Maya in a while now. She did help a bit with ice mining, but again is opting to stay in station at Hek for a while. Maybe I will wait until I drift up to the porthole of her quarters in a massive freighter before I open comms again. Imagine the look on her face!

Sleeping in Slush

It's been hard to work alone again, but it's a lot like when I started my Capsuleer career. I still have my corp mates, but I normally just fleet up with them for the bonuses to my ship. Maya still insists on staying in Hek with her boyfriend. I've tried a few different things to make some more money. Station trading, manufacturing and other odds and ends. I know I need more direction in my career, but right now I'm focusing on mining. Lately, it's been ice.

I heard by announcements on the subspace network that there will be major changes in a few months to the skills required to fly ships and whatnot. Something about the re configuring of ship's computers by means of subspace network updates. The changes make sense, however, to take full advantage of the changes, I've started training Battlecruisers level V, a 26 day long train.

I'm not just an Industrialist. My first goal as a Capsuleer was to fly as many ships as possible. I cross trained into all the races, and now can fly just about any tech 1 ship from frigate to battlecruiser, and a few battleships as well. Since I've been able to jump into these ships, I also trained some combat skills to be able to use them. I've injected several skill books because I could train them and they were cheap, but still remain at level 0 because I've trained something more important.

That said, I admit I'm still a total carebear, as they say. I do not like shooting at other capsuleers. I know how hard it is to build yourself up and buy the ships you want. To have it taken out from under your pod can be devastating. I've tried it once, and understand the rush you get, but to me, it's more of a panic than a rush. I understand that it's a part of life in New Eden, but I'm not an instigator. Still, no harm in being a Carebear with claws...

Getting back to what I'm doing now. I'm kind of tired of getting to belts that have been mined out by the time I'm able to undock, so I've opted to trying Ice Mining. Currently, I can only use T1 ice mining lasers, so it takes a little bit longer, but there's so much ice out there no one can mine it all.

Ice mining is a lot different. For one, the ship is very cold because of the ice sitting in the Ore Hold. I always have to stay in the pod because the energy requirements to heat the bridge is insane and it would also melt some of the ice in the hold perhaps. I don't want to chance it. There must be something in the pod goo that prevents freezing or something, but it does seem a bit thicker than normal in here. I'm freezing as well, but because of the mind link to the ship, I don't feel it as much because my senses are focused on the ship instead of my own body. It's an odd sensation. It's like your ghost left your own body, and inhabited the body of the ship. Now the mining lasers are my arms and hands, the engines my legs. Everything is done with a mere thought instead of levers and buttons. It's efficient, yet I feel as if I'm loosing my sense of Humanity. Ice mining cycles take so long I often sleep until my hold fills up, then make a mundane trip back to the station. It's boring, but at least there's little input I have to do so I can do other things remotely.

Now I just need to train the skills to refine the damn stuff. After Battlecruisers I suppose. In a month...

Watch Your Wallet...

It's been a while since I did a log. I've focused my training mostly on mining drones and trade skills now. Maya has again asked to remain station bound and has elected to corporation book keeping, and even took a shuttle to Hek with her boyfriend on vacation while he worked at his new job as a broker for whomever needed his services in the market. I decided to make use of his services once last week. Never again.

No offence to Maya, but that guy is a fucking asshole...

Well, that was a little harsh. What happened was entirely my fault and a learning experience to say the least. He could have said something but chose to remain tight lipped and let the transaction go through. I had posted a bit over 3 million units of Tritanium for 5063 isk PER UNIT. The broker's fee was over 140 million isk on it. It was my mistake for typing a 0 instead of a decimal, but needless to say I petitioned the owners of the station to do a mulligan and refund my money. Maya's boyfriend was denied his fat paycheque when the transaction was reversed and got what he would have gotten if I hadn't screwed up. Lesson learned and now this man hates me. Sorry man, but it cost me over 100 million isk. Of course I'm going to try and fix it!

The man and I had some ill chosen words over coms, yet we both swore to keep this between men. Maya needn't know about it, as our dislike of each other might cause her trouble in her job with me. She needed the money and the experience, yet this month she chose to suspend her pilots license, asking me not to pay for it to save up my isk for something else, or to just build up my account. Truthfully, it was alot like pushing a rock uphill. We would both mine out asses off, making just enough for a PLEX for her, only to repeat the process over again. If either of us lost a barge, it would really throw off the cycle and would cause her to sit in a station for weeks while I tried to finish off the cost of the PLEX. This month will be a bit different.

The Squirrel Effect

It's a lesser known concept, much like the butterfly effect, but it's something every new pilot will experience most of their first months as a capsuleer. It's something I like to call the Squirrel effect...

You may be asking, "What the Hek is a Squirrel?" They're small rodents from ancient earth who climb trees and eat nuts. They would be a constant distraction for people who used to walk their pets called "Dogs". Everything would be fine and quiet, then the dog spotted the said squirrel and it would hold it's interest as it chased down the squirrel. When it would disappear, another would appear and pull the dog off in another direction.

Why is this relevant? It's a lot like how a new pilot gets interested in one thing, starts training towards it, makes plans, and invests towards that goal. Then after a while pursuing that goal, something else comes along that piques their interest and they end up turning around and training off in another direction, usually in something that was unrelated to what they were after before. How many of you wanted to be a Hulk pilot, then got to Mining IV and thought, "You know what? I wanna try being a covert ops pilot." Then start training towards that and then change to wanting to be a freighter pilot. It's happened to me lots of times. Like now...

I've spent money on somewhat expensive skill books to train to be able to research Tech II drones, then I wanted to try and make some Tech II frigates. I'd make a T2 BPC or three, then look at them for a bit, realizing how much money it would cost to actually use them and build the item. I realized that most things are cheaper to just buy than it is to make by materials alone, not mentioning the time it takes to put into it. In fact, very few things are worth manufacturing. I don't get it. Why do people manufacture if it loses them money? Maybe I'm doing it wrong or not getting the concept or something.

This time it was Maya to come knocking on my door. My time was spent running back and forth to the Corporation POS in the system in my Thorax getting BPC's and bringing data cores to research T2 stuff. I wasn't in the belts making money and it was getting her worried about income. It was a wake up call to realize I had been wasting time training outside of Mining, into an apparent money sink. I think I just don't have the skills yet to make manufacturing profitable. For now, I will refocus on mining skills and soon Maya can upgrade to fly an exhumer and maybe I can get my Orca out in the fields as she fills it up.