A Day In Gaming: Oiling The Gears, Updating The Software

New Eden my beloved

I’ve been enjoying winning at EVE Online for a while now, so deciding to go back and play the game again does feel a bit odd. I think there’s just truly nothing like it, for what it offers. Add the heavy sci-fi going on and it can often be like heaven. Eventually I tend to peter out again, which I think is a mix of simply ‘getting my fill’ and then experiencing the effect of playing that game solo, loneliness. Playing solo is a deliberate choice because these days, I’m no longer a teenager with near infinite free time and I don’t want to commit to another corporation or alliance. There were those who I used to play with, and they don’t play anymore, therefore I didn’t play anymore.

Things changed slightly in 2024 where I deliberately made the effort to interact with other groups, but did not change corps/alliances. And that proved to be very enjoyable, I’ve even formed what I would call a light friendship with someone who as it turns out, is only maybe an hour away from me IRL. TBD if we ever meet! My stint in 2024 ended the same year, stress and strain in my life personally, were having a direct impact on my health and wellbeing so some things just fell to the wayside, including EVE. Two years later, I still have stress and strain in my life personally. But, it’s certainly different this time and I think a journey through New Eden could be helpful in providing joy. Which in times such as these, is a precious commodity.

I’m still figuring out what I want to do, but I have some high level themes. I’ve already started pulling feelers out for if people from the 2024 era of my playing are still around. I think my objectives namely revolve around forming relationships and providing services, in almost a light touch role play kind of way (what does the RP stand for in MMORPG…). I want to interact and provide, predominately through industry. I would enjoy it if folks saw me as a reliable partner, who can do a good deal at the same time. I want to build wealth, I want to collect every kind of ship that isn’t a collectable. I want to do the crazy complicated manufacturing flows, managing the supply chains, everything!

That paragraph is a bit vague and lofty, I’ll admit. So, here’s the more immediate plan

• Refresh my brain a bit on how the game works = You’d think I’d remember everything but sometimes the game evolves and leaves you behind.
• Figure out my bases of operation again = Last time I was based in Azer, which is in Everyshore. I plan on staying there, but again through some friends, I’ve noticed there’s some new structures I could use. My plan is to shift my copying and invention to those structures. I’ll keep my manufacturing in the NPC station in Azer for now. It’s not the most effective, but it’ll do for now. Especially if I suddenly decide to stop playing again, I’m not needing to think about assets
• Establish relationships = Like I said, I want to collaborate with people, but I still want the degree of autonomy that being in my own corp affords me. I’m starting this already with the aforementioned friend, who happens to also be based in Everyshore. I plan on pinging someone I used to work with two years ago too, they’re based in Solitude. Solitude as a region in New Eden has always fascinated me, being a highsec island. It would be cool to try and sell goods in that region
• Determine initial production chains = I need to figure out what I’m going to build on the regular. I will always prefer selling to friends or directly to strangers, just to avoid the market PvP. But I need to know what I’m building first. I have an initial order already, if I could call it that. That should hopefully help me get the groove going.

Also as a more lofty goal, I want to be an ISK trillionaire. Just because! So part of that will involve me trying to do monthly reports on my income and expenditure, to see if being honest about it, will help me to be motivated to pursue it. I have around 50 billion in liquidity, and I think maybe another 20 billion in assets on my account. This doesn’t include assets held by my corp - this is just from the “total worth” bit on the character screen. We’re still in March, but the tail end of March. I might do a report at the start of April? Or, will wait till the end of April to try it. But, I’ll need a spreadsheet. And as every good veteran of New Eden knows, this game basically runs on spreadsheets :)