Retribution 1.1 Lands

  Retribution 1.1 landed and there are many things to discuss in it.  The one that I found surprisingly fun is this:

Added an Autopilot Route Visualizer into the space scene. This option is turned on by default but can be turned off in the Autopilot Route settings utility menu

  This is quite a small change but it adds a lot to the environment and the immersion of EvE for some reason.  We already knew the stars were more than just pretty space ornaments when CCP moved the stargates around to point them the right direction, but it's very neat that they are able to map a route out through the stars in the sky.

Patchnotes: http://community.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp

An EvE Documentary?

  I just read on Massively that some Swedish players are attempting to make a documentary on EvE Online. You can fine their Fundraising Site here.  It sounds interesting and I love to see activity from the EvE community.  Lately it had started to appear that the community was getting a lot quieter with some of the heaviest contributors falling silent over the last few years.  I wish these guys luck and I plan to chip them a few dollars at least.

Blops gets some love

Not much to add here but I'm just excited because I always want to do more "BLOPS" but often run into the range and other limitations which hamper my fun.

Read more about the changes:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=195189&find=unread

Modular POS (or at least a little POS love)

  First off, go read and support CSM Two Step and his POS initiative if you agree that POS's are worth a little bit of CCP's time and effort.

  For my money the POS system in EvE has asked players to make a lot of compromises and put up with a lot of hardships in order to use them.  These days less people are forced to "live out of" POS's than they were when they were first introduced; mostly thanks to the proliferation of null-sec stations.  However there are still a fair amount of WH dwellers and others who put up with the shortfalls of the POS system daily.

  For example, a big problem I have personally is the inability to share hangers at a pos with my alliance mates.  I have at least one POS that is used by my alliance but I must keep an alt handy in order to assist them with the hangers.  The ship array can be set to alliance use, so it seems logical that there could be an alliance hanger module as well.  Additionally, I find the permissioning system to be archaic.  Advanced or case by case permissions should be available.  As it stands EvE players have been "making do" with a POS system that was already bad when it was released.  Many of us have been content with the fact that CCP would get around to it; mainly because it may have been terrible but it did at least work.  If CCP is going to abandon the promise of iterating on POS design, I believe it will make a lot of people unhappy.  It's certainly going to make me sad.

  I do understand that POS's affect a much smaller number of players than many things CCP can focus their energy on.  However, I feel that they may be underestimating the market at least a bit here.  Perhaps if POS's were easier or more user friendly they would become more useful to more players.  As it stands many see it as one of those "black magic" areas of EvE that they never want to venture into.  I don't think CCP must redesign the whole system but I do think a lot of patient players deserve a little bit of love in fixing some of the biggest drawbacks at the very least.

  Again, go add your comments to Two Step's post if you like.

Losing Time

  So, I keep losing track of time and forgetting to post :(

Nothing has really happened anyway, so it's not like I've missed posting anything exciting.

I'm a little underwhelmed by the Battlecruiser changes and I know CCP is always trying to nerf the drake but I have to say I'm a bit bummed at the "playing field leveling" that this appears to be.  I'm late talking about this so you can read more about it at: http://themittani.com/features/review-battlecruiser-tiericide, http://evenews24.com/2013/01/09/dev-post-retribution-point-release-combat-battlecruisers/, and http://www.ninveah.com/2013/01/combat-battlecruisers.html.

The EvE Lull

It keeps happening to me; every so often I just don't want to log in.  For me the thing that brings me back is my friends in this game and not so much the game itself.  I've found myself getting *older* perhaps but somehow not "feeling" EvE the same way I once did.  Granted, those "glory days" as some of us may think of them were actually pretty hard times in many respects but they also had some feeling of freedom that I feel less and less with each patch.  There was once a CCP who was irreverent when it came to the MMO community and embraced their brazen players.  Now they are trying to get back there but they have gone a long way towards mainstreaming.  Those characters that made EvE have \*sorta*\ pushed through but it has become a PC New Eden despite their efforts.  I lose friends to other games or just not caring anymore monthly.  EveE is really the only MMO I have played or ever will play, and I was lured in by the rogues gallery that it used to be.  I do hope we somehow get back to that feeling; I know we need to bring in fresh blood and I think that is great.  However I don't think that should come at the loss of "eve'ness" so to speak :)

Pancho and Lefty

As it applies to EvE, our friend and corpmate continues to harass the WH lanes :)
 All the federales say
 They could have had him any day
 They only let him slip away
 Out of kindness I suppose

http://splatus.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/anatomy-of-a-whoopin/
http://eve-kill.net/?a=pilot_detail&plt_id=363845

Read his blog here: http://u93ajax.wordpress.com/