Thursday, October 21, 2010

Back from RL No longer just a EVE blog

Wow I don't remember how long its been since Ive last blogged, 2 weeks without power due to a issue with my roommate is one cause. 3 weeks without internet after because our neighbors below us in our apartment complex decided to cut the wire shortly before being evicted and BrightHouse incompetence in getting out to fix the problem didn't help either.

Been a long time and I got alot to talk about.

First off I am actually aiming to increase my EVE time greatly. Sadly I am down to 2 accounts as my 3rd account that my friend used to play on and I used to do some extra mining on is no longer functioning. Meaning Its going to be alot harder to plex my 2 accounts.

Thankfully my superiors in Reliable Inc. have decided to keep me around even with my absence. Through a friend that still plays EVE from time I've been able to keep my skill training going whilest I was offline for about a month. Plus I would visit my parents once a week for some internet mooching =x.

HAC training is complete and due to my cross training with Caldari I can now fly the Cerebus and Ishtar. Which I plan to on smaller gang runs. I can also fly the Onyx which I have in a few fleets. Got maybe 1-2 kills on it but Ive had more fun flying HICs and DICtors then I hvae flying anything else so far. Logi love is fun but its nice to have a break and fly something you can get alot of action.

After some poking by some corp-mates they've talked me into cross training into a Sabre instead of using the almost useless Eris for interdictors. Which is complete now I'm spending a additional 4 days to train for the T2 small autocannons to complement the Sabre. After which I plan to train for T2 Rails for HAC's and BattleCruisers then onto Large T2 for Megathrons. Then Battleship V' Logistics V and other skills before I begin the long road to carriers.

My miner has actually gotten as far as I want him to get as far as Industry is concerned. He can fly A Rorqual the only capital Industrial ship in the game. (took me a month to save up for cost me a little over 1.5 billion isk) With it I can make my own High sec runs and help the corp out with logistical moving operations as well as mining ops. As a captial ship it cannot use stargates but instead must use its own jump drive from one system to another. While this sounds like a handicap its not. Capital ships jump drives can bypass 1 or several systems depending on their distance from one to another. I can actually jump from our home system in my Rorq to a low security system in 1 jump to make runs into the neighboring high security system.

Since my miners mining part for the most part is over, Ive decided to get him into a dreadnought
Specifically the Amarr Revelation. This is going to be a long road to travel but it will allow me to do two things I would not be able to (or willing to do) on my main account. Fly ships that fire lasers and fly dreadnoughts) Ive always wanted to fly Amarr but cross training again would've taken far more time then I would have wanted to spend. Instead I opted to fly more ships I wanted between Caldari, Galante and spend my unused skill training on my miner to train up some "useful guilty pleasures".

Thats all I think for EVE.
And This blog first started out as a EVE blog of sorts but now with Halo Reach and StarCraft 2 being out I've decided to change this to more of a Gaming Blog then simply a EVE blog. I typically record my SC2 games with FRAPs and post them on youtube, all of which I will soon post here with some commentary.

SC2 is a fun fun game especially comeptiviely. I am currently in the silver league 27th in my current division. In 2v2 I am in the gold league with my friend Blindminus. Last of the 4 placement games we played was pretty epic. I started MMM (Marines Medics and Marauders)
which did ok for awhile but the middle of the map the lines were drawn and the battle raged on. I mainly macro'ed and produced units and let Blind control them. We were going nowhere but holding the line until we switched to Mass Thros siege tanks and Hellions. Which hard countered their Mutas, banglings and Ultralisks. We ended the game with 27 Thors and I dont know how many hellions. Was a sweet game.
Just to clarify in starcraft 2 there is the
  • Diamond league
  • Platinum league
  • Gold league
  • Silver league
  • Bronze league


That said I havent played much SC2 since I got back. SC2's community is full of people that have been playing the game since the first StarCraft and I think more then 75% of the people playing SC2 probably have played the beta of Sc2 or just have alot more experiance then me. I played SC when it first came out it was the first computer game I ever played (on my own PC that is) I just for some reason feel a great ammount of intimidation whenever I think about playing SC2 competitively.

I watch alot of SC2 replays with commentary by "pro" players known to the SC2 community as "SC2 Casts". I mainly watch "casts" by HuskyStarcraft and HDStarcraft, some of the most knowledgeable (and entertaining) player commentators who have been allowed to host and comment on some very high level SC and SC2 tournaments. Needless to say the games they cast and their commentary can help low level players like myself. So I watch alot.

One of the main things I learned is to learn basic build orders like MMM, Siege Expand, Destiny cloud fist build aka the 1 starport 1 factory 1 barracks build.

Some things that I learned from the pros

  • Keep your micro as strong as your macro
  • Never sit on resources spend spend spend
  • BE AGGRESSIVE
  • SCOUT SCOUT SCOUT
  • Stick to your best build orders
  • Adapt to enemy counters
  • Expand when you attack
  • Keep that gas line up
  • Harass whenever possible
Another piece of good advice they gave for new players was to choose a build order and stick to it, even its a bit cheesey. Get it down pat and then evolve from there.
Im currently working MMM Siege expand and Banshee Rush build orders.
Banshee rush being the most successful.
So far since Ive been writing down the build orders in a notebook and strictly following heres the games Ive won,

Banshee Rush 6
MMM 3
Siege Expand 1

Terran continues to be my favorite race despite the nerfs they've been getting lately.
Hope to get some more games in but i need some friends to practice with, Gamertag is a bit different from my norm since Blizzards Battlenet doesnt allow numbers in gamertags

Its "ApackofNinja" Friend code is 393

=)

Moving on to Halo Reach.

In many games I prefer PVP or competitive play. I know I wont be the best but still like to get as high ranked as possible
Before I lost power and internet I was in the Silver league of Team Arena.

Since the seasons are so short Ive been reduced to currently not being in any division

Reach's divisions are a bit different then SC2 in two main ways
First off is the names

In Reach its

  • Onyx
  • Diamond
  • Gold
  • Steel
  • Bronze
Secondly your arena rating must be maintained by playing at least 3 Arena games per day. Your rating goes low enough you drop a division to the one below or lose divisions entirely. Your overall division rating lasts a entire season which I believe is around 15-30 days. Im note entirely sure.

In SC2 you keep your division and league until you win or lose enough games to rise or fall out of your current division/league.

About Reach....

I am very glad to see the BR gone with its accurate spam but somewhat annoyed how a DMR can be spammed and still get above average results. The addition of the loadouts have made competitive play very diverse and adds alot more fun to the games. Choosing the correct loadout and playing it well with your Team can mean victory or defeat in Reach.

One thing I am super happy about is how your rating is not determine merely by your simple Kill Death Ratio but by a complex system that determines how well you work with your team in addition to what you personally contribute to victory or defeat. Being counter productive by betraying even hitting your ally accidentally actually lowers your rating. And quitting earns you almost a negative rating but in repetitive cases can get you soft banned from Halo Reach matchmaking from 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

All in all the Halo experience remains the same, Gameplay that rewards teamwork and allows the skilled marksmen or the cunning attacker a chance to win based on more then just simple aim and shoot skill.

Thats all for now. Hopefully I'll be alot more active in posting about these 3 games and more.

Stay tuned.

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