Sorry guys - we’re still not back to playing Eve.

We might be back soon, but for the moment we’re contending with floods, nearly breaking my neck (completely unrelated but kinda cool that I didn’t) and the summer holidays for the kids.
We are STILL planning on updating our information and reviewing it accordingly, so if you spot anything that we’ve written that has changed in an update, then, of course, let us know!

Popularity: 4% [?]

First up, I’d like to apologise - we haven’t been around much to post to our blog lately, and its been obvious from the feedback we’re getting that its something people have missed.

Anatole and I are a young, professional family, and our ‘other’ work, and other games gets in the way of playing sometimes, so we’ve been on a month long hiatus from Eve - I only got back last night.

But hopefully, over the next few weeks we’ll pick up here again, though, possibly not with quite the same amount of content, and provide aid, tips and tricks wherever we can!  Thanks again, for your positive comments.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Want to fly a rich pilots toy? Can you afford to lose it (cause the insurance won’t cover it)? THen these ships are for you, specifically designed for certain tasks these ships can make or break a fleet action. They come in 3 flavours; Interceptors, Assault Frigates and Covert Ops Frigates.

Interceptor - Regardless of Race, these ships are the fastest and in some cases, the scariest vessels to ever orbit a battleship… Lets ignore the fact that whilst warping somewhere they move at 8.0AU/Sec (faster than any other class of ship) and look at the fact that with an afterburner (tech 1) you would be considered a poor pilot indeed if you could not achieve a MINIMUM of 1500m/s in one of these. To be able to fly an Interceptor, you require a race frigate skill of 5, an evasive maneuvering skill of 5, a navigation skill of 2, a spaceship command of 3 and an interceptor skill of at least 1. I would like to add that if you have an afterburner on and are orbitting a Battleship or ust about any other ship, the chances of you being hit are close to zero unless they have you webbed…..

Assault Frigate - Need a tough frigate to fight Battleships in 0.0? Want a ship that can handle level 3 agent missions? Look no further. These tough ships are just plain scary. The lesser version of the Heavy Assault Ship, this vessel can not only take the sort of beating I’d expect a battlecruiser to take but will also deal one out too. To fly this class of ship you require a race frigate rating of 5, a Mechanics of 5, an Engineering of 5, a Spaceship Command of 3 and an Assault Frigate skill of at least 1.

Covert Ops Frigate - Want to sneak around, decloak, hum a klingon tune and then fire off a load? Well then you want a Covert Ops frigate, specifically the ‘Stealth Bomber’ variant, or if thats not your cup of tea then you want the ‘recon’ class which is designed to jump into a system, engage the ‘cloak’, sneak around, then decloak and jam enemy sensors for fleet actions. The main strength of this class of vessel is the cloaking device that can be fitted, whilst not cheap and it certainly has its drawbacks - like being within 2500m of another object will decloak you and that you move very, very slowly (unless you have the most expensive class of cloak, which only covert ops/recon ships can fit). To fly a Covert Ops ship you need a race frigate skill of 5, a spaceship command of 3, an electronics of 2, an engineering of 2, an Electronics Upgrade of 5 and a covert ops skill of at least 1.

Popularity: 10% [?]

As many of you may have noticed, its been a slow week at BlackmondayeEve - for which I owe everyone an apology.  Dave, whom many of you know as Anatole, and the font of all knowlede when it comes to Eve, has been away this week - he’s back now, but his brain has melted, I believe.

Normal services will resume next week

Popularity: 7% [?]

Learning doesn’t just decrease your training time - it also adds an attribute to your base bonus - of 2%. It’ll round down, of course, but it does mean that your attributes will go up. Software like Evemon and other external API’s lets you keep track and in the case of at least Evemon, calculate it.
Learning on the Eve Database

Popularity: 8% [?]

We (Dave and I) are looking to share the wealth a bit - we get a lot of traffic, most of which are hanging around for around five or six posts worth of reading (go us! - actually, no, go YOU guys, thank you for being so interested in what we’re sharing.

And part of giving back is giving people other places to link to - so here’s your chance.  We’re willing to echange links with anyone with an Eve Blog or resource.  Just comment, and give us your main page link, and I’ll add you to our blogroll.  In return, we’d appreciate similar.

Our only request is that you talk about Eve at least occassionally.  It doesn’t need to be a dedicated blog to Eve - and we’ll exchange links.
Let me know!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Its been a couple of weeks since the big patch - which has added some amazing features and a richer tapestry of storylines and skills - BUT…

I’m curious.
How many of you are enjoying the patch, and what’s niggling? A couple of days ago, I posted the ‘where’s my loot‘ post - I’m thinking (I know) I’m not the only person that’s found it a bit wierd - there’s the looting AND Salvage, something they are addressing today I think.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]

Childsplay 2006 - a great way to support your local or not so local hospital.
We’re donating this year, and I’d love it if you guys could join in too.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Like their frigates, the Minmatar Cruisers feature a mix of abilities like drone bays and missle launchers. They favour their projectile weaponry and their shields. Most of them are also pretty fast for their class in comparison to the other factions.

Bellicose - This Cruiser is a multipurpose combat vessel. She has a good drone bay (40m3) a solid mix of launcher (3) and turret (3) slots, good slot layout (5,4,3) has a reasonable turn of speed (215m/s) good shields and average armour. At Minmatar Cruiser II and considering she gives bonuses to target painters and medium projectile turret rate of fire, she makes a good escort which is not too hard to fly.

Rupture - First off the Rupture is slow for a Minmatar vessel (200m/s) but considering how powerful this crusier is, thats ok. with superb slot layout (6,3,5), 3 launcher hardpoints, 4 turret hardpoints, a not insignificant 30m3 drone bay, excellent shields, average armour and bonuses to medium projectile turret firing speed and damage, this ship should lay waste to anything that gets too close. At Minmtara Cruiser II though it will take a bit of practice to get the hang of.

Scythe - The Scythe is the easiest Cruiser to fly (Minmatar Cruiser I) she’s also the multipurpose industrial cruiser. She should not be considered an easy target though. With small drone bay (5m3), 2 launcher hardpoints, 3 turret hardpoints and enough hislots (5) to fit them all, this ship can give most pirates a bloody nose. AT 215m/s she’s not exactly slow either. Her general slot layout of 5,3,3 gives her some flexibility and with bonuses to mining laser yield and tracking links (both in range and general bonus).

Stabber - The Stabber is the scaled up version of the Slasher. Fast for a cruiser (235m/s) with bonuses leaning towards Medium Projectile firing speed and max velocity. Slot layout is high heavy at 6,3,3 with 2 launcher and 4 turret hardpoints. She has a small drone bay as well (5m3) and pretty good shields and average armour. AT Minmatar Crusier II she’s also reasonable to fly!

Popularity: 14% [?]

Minmatar ships favour shields and projectile weaponry; they also hold the fastest ships in the game. Pretty much the diametric opposite of their arch-nemsis race, the Amarr, the Minmatar have their strongest ties with the Gallente Federation. As such, some of their ships have drone bays as well. The biggest bonus for the Minmatar ships though is the projectile guns, though highly inaccurate, they give the greatest flexibility in damage types that can be applied, combined with using no capacitor whenever they fire, this makes for a deadly combination.

Breacher - The Breacher was the Minmatar answer to accurate close to mid range high firepower. As such she’s a missle boat favouring the Minmatar designed explosive warheads. Whilst this ship does not have a drone bay, it is damned fast for a frigate it’s size (300m/s) and can equip 3 out of its 4 hislots with launchers, leaving the spare for a single turret if desired. The downside of this fast little spitting cobra is that you need a Minmatar Frigate skill of III to fly her and she is a little inflexible in that she only has 2 mid and 2 low slots.

Burst - The Burst is the Minmatar all purpose cargo/miner frigate; with similar abilities to its counterparts of cargo capacity, mining laser yield and mining laser capacitor use. This version though is the fastest but most lightly protected version. She comes with no drone bay, no launcher slots and sadly poor shields. Minmatar Frigates II to fly.

Probe - The probe is a fast cargo/scout. Her bonuses lean towards sensors and cargo space. She does however have 10m3 drone capacity, shich she badly needs. At only 2 hi slots and 2 turret mounts this ship is lacking in offensive capability in comparison to its other faction counterparts. However unlike its other faction counterparts, this vessel has, again an extremely fast max velocity (300m/s) and exceptionally good shields and surprisingly armour. At Minmatar Frigate II she’s not too hard to fly either.

Rifter - The Rifter is the main Minmatar combat frigate. With good slots (4,3,3), a good combination of weapon layouts (3 turret, 2 missle) a fast top speed (320m/s) and bonuses to turret damage and tracking speed mixed with very good shields. This ship is a challenge for any other tech I frigate available. She may not have a drone bay but her payload flexibility makes up for it in my opinion. At Minmatar Frigate II she’s a little tricky to fly, but worth it.

Slasher - Need a cheap, fast and versatile patrol ship? Look no further than the Slasher. As tech I frigates go she’s the fastest thing available, period. She can fit launchers (1) and turrets (2) on her 3 hislots. With 2 medslots and 1 lowslot she can also have that afterburner, a cap recharger and shield booster to keep her around even longer. Combined with her top speed of a whopping 410 m/s this ship should terrify most people. She has average shields and some armour but no drone bay and like the Rifter she comes with bonuses to projectile turret damage and tracking speed, meaning not only will you hit harder but you’ll be able to keep up on the targets location whilst orbitting it at stupidly high speeds. At Minmatar Frigate II, she’s a bargain to fly.

Vigil - Sensing a need for a ship with longer range capability (unlike the slasher), the Minmatar pulled this ship out of the works. With a good balance of slots (3,3,3), bonuses to turrets and target painters, a drone bay, missle (1) and turret (2) slots, average shields and armour and a fair turn of speed (320m/s) this vessel seems more than capable of not only keeping the enemy at a distance but really damaging them whilst they are there. Again at Minmatar Frigate II this ship is ideal for new players with an idea of how they want their combgat to work.

Popularity: 8% [?]