The star's trajectory suggests that 70,000 years ago it passed roughly 52,000 astronomical units away (or about 0.8 light years, which equals 8 trillion kilometers, or 5 trillion miles). This is astronomically close; our closest neighbor star Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years distant. In fact, the astronomers explain in the paper that they are 98% certain that it went through what is known as the "outer Oort Cloud" - a region at the edge of the solar system filled with trillions of comets a mile or more across that are thought to give rise to long-term comets orbiting the Sun after their orbits are perturbed.The universe is awesome sometimes.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
The Universe is Awesome Sometimes
Saw this snippet in one of my newsfeeds today. Not too long ago (in human terms), astronomers discovered a star relatively close in our stellar neighborhood. When plotting its trajectory, they discovered that not too long ago (in geologic terms), the star (actually a binary pair) zipped past our sun and through our outer Oort cloud.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Drifter Spoilers
EN24 has a pretty good article on our new faction.
Spoilers are reasonably well marked if you just want to check out some of the screenshots and NOT read details from the test server.
Tiamat
I'm pretty excited to see the Lore behind Drifters (new NPC faction) get revealed. This story has been dragging a little bit, but that's probably just my nerd impatience showing.
I scanned the patch notes as usual for impacts to burners and other missions. I'll paste in the Mission-centric section and put some emphasis on the minor change to Anomic mission text.
Enjoy!
Missions
- A text issue in the mission Portal to War 1 of 5 has been fixed.
- A typo in the mission The Test Of Competence - Utrainen's Reports (1 of 2) has been fixed.
- A text issue in the mission Cliene Veine - Fixing the Problem (1 of 2) has been fixed.
- A typo in the mission: Evacuation has been fixed.
- A text issue in the mission: Balancing the Books 7 of 10 has been fixed.
- An issue with the completion requirements with the mission 'Not Gneiss At All' has been fixed.
- An acceleration gate is now named correctly in the Evolution agent mission.
- Typo in Industry career path description has been fixed.
- Typo in the Crimson Hand Supply Depot dungeon pop up has been fixed
- Some NPC have had their security standing boost lowered.
- In some cases NPC would get stuck on a object in Massive Attack, this has been fixed.
- Small Asteroid Cluster dungeon contained overlapping Dark ochre this has been fixed.
- Fixed a typo in agent text for mission 'After the Seven (4 of 5) "Ruse".
- The mission text for the Minmatar version of "Anomic Team" now includes information about the Mjolnir Rockets that the Burner uses.
Enjoy!
Friday, February 13, 2015
The Vocal Minority
Customers have departed, but I am exhausted. So I'll write another good ol' days post while I rest up a little.
I've never written about the first collapse of Pukin' Dogs with the amount of detail contained below. There may be 1 or 2 old Dogs reading this that may learn a few tidbits that they'd never really known. Of course, it all happened over 10 years ago, so they may not even remember. :)
-----
At the end of yesterday's post, I had taken us to the point of EVE launch, the shenanigans of opening weekends, and the establishment of Pukin' Dogs Corp.
What evolved was a reasonably close knit group of folks from the US and UK that played mostly in highsec in the north parts of the map (Caldari, Amarr zones). We were not rich, or powerful, but as a group we had enough depth of industry, loot drops, and hauling to be nearly self sufficient.
But as the weeks wore on, I noticed that we were struggling a bit. Many from the original crew were beginning to burn out and leave. Those graybeards that stayed were pushing me, via public and private convos, to push out of our comfort zone and establish ourselves as a "world power" i.e. to get into null politics. To them, it was time to grow up and move to the "endgame" that the galaxy had to offer.
I've never written about the first collapse of Pukin' Dogs with the amount of detail contained below. There may be 1 or 2 old Dogs reading this that may learn a few tidbits that they'd never really known. Of course, it all happened over 10 years ago, so they may not even remember. :)
-----
At the end of yesterday's post, I had taken us to the point of EVE launch, the shenanigans of opening weekends, and the establishment of Pukin' Dogs Corp.
What evolved was a reasonably close knit group of folks from the US and UK that played mostly in highsec in the north parts of the map (Caldari, Amarr zones). We were not rich, or powerful, but as a group we had enough depth of industry, loot drops, and hauling to be nearly self sufficient.
But as the weeks wore on, I noticed that we were struggling a bit. Many from the original crew were beginning to burn out and leave. Those graybeards that stayed were pushing me, via public and private convos, to push out of our comfort zone and establish ourselves as a "world power" i.e. to get into null politics. To them, it was time to grow up and move to the "endgame" that the galaxy had to offer.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
The Early Days
I have a customer (and longtime friend and former coworker) in town this week. That's meant long days at the office talking through very important office politics and going out to dinner every night like we're 27 years old (although when I was 27, I didn't have the money to go out every night.... but whatever).
Instead of logging into the game tonight, I'll work on this post.
----
Like most characters born in early 2003, my employment history is all jacked up. It begins with my time in VentureCorp [VNTR], and omits my time in the noobcorp (about 3wks) after launch, as well as my initial ~18mo stint as CEO of Pukin' Dogs.
Abavus was born on 2003.05.10 00:52:00 (May 9th US eastern), a few hours more than 3 days after EVE's original launch of 06 May.
EVE launched on a Tuesday. There were server burps and other issues. I had played beta and preordered a copy of the game, but this was well before the notion of launch-day-delivery and download on demand was more or less a pipe dream.
Instead of logging into the game tonight, I'll work on this post.
----
Like most characters born in early 2003, my employment history is all jacked up. It begins with my time in VentureCorp [VNTR], and omits my time in the noobcorp (about 3wks) after launch, as well as my initial ~18mo stint as CEO of Pukin' Dogs.
Abavus was born on 2003.05.10 00:52:00 (May 9th US eastern), a few hours more than 3 days after EVE's original launch of 06 May.
EVE launched on a Tuesday. There were server burps and other issues. I had played beta and preordered a copy of the game, but this was well before the notion of launch-day-delivery and download on demand was more or less a pipe dream.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Depth of Endurance
Non-EVE content.
I follow the Surly (bike company) factory blog. I own one of their bikes and love it. They seem like an eccentric but fun group of guys (and gals) and generally spin a good yarn in their posts.
One write-up in particular that I look forward to every year is the report on the Arrowhead 135.
It's a 135mi bike race*. In January. In northern Minnesota.
Read that again and ponder the implications. People do crazy things in the name of fun.
Anyway, this years' article has appeared, so here's a link to it. I thump my chest and say that I do Triathlons, but the things I have done are nowhere near the depth of endurance and tolerance for discomfort as this. /salute.
*Actually, you can bike, run, or (assuming there's snow) ski the course.
I follow the Surly (bike company) factory blog. I own one of their bikes and love it. They seem like an eccentric but fun group of guys (and gals) and generally spin a good yarn in their posts.
One write-up in particular that I look forward to every year is the report on the Arrowhead 135.
It's a 135mi bike race*. In January. In northern Minnesota.
Read that again and ponder the implications. People do crazy things in the name of fun.
Anyway, this years' article has appeared, so here's a link to it. I thump my chest and say that I do Triathlons, but the things I have done are nowhere near the depth of endurance and tolerance for discomfort as this. /salute.
*Actually, you can bike, run, or (assuming there's snow) ski the course.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Blog Banter #62 - Rebel Without a Cause
I'll summarize the question for Blog Banter #62 thusly: "What is and/or should be the future for walking in stations?"
Ahh, Incarna. Walking in Stations. The feature without a purpose. The rebel without a cause. The game's single most infamous feature, never finished and left to rot in full view of everyone. Sigh.
Incarna, if it had been done as part of the game's original development, could have been cool. Case in point: Earth and Beyond had WiS back in the dark days of 2002. And it didn't suck. You docked. You walked over to the job terminal, or you walked to the npc vendor. Maybe you stopped to /disco with your friends. If you were in a hurry or doing repetitive tasks (trade runs) it was perhaps grindy, but so are a dozen things in MMOs. It was part of the game, one of the fundamental truths of the game, and (imho) the tedious-ness was outweighed by the aspects of social interaction, attachment to an avatar, and checking out the nuances of each station layout.
The desire to develop Incarna came from a noble place. New players especially have complained for years that it's easier to identify with a human avatar rather than your ship. New player retention has always been a problem, putting systems in place to aid player retention isn't an evil thing, especially if it adds fun things for bittervets too.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Can't Stop the Signal
For those who missed it:
We're starting fresh as Massively Overpowered.
We'll be at http://www.massivelyop.com -- it's not up yet, but when it is, mailing list.
Kickstarter soon.
https://twitter.com/MassivelyOP
https://www.facebook.com/massivelyop
Can't stop the signal!
By breetoplay
Looking forward to it.
Edit: Looks like some of the WoW insider guys landed here: http://blizzardwatch.com/
Monday, February 2, 2015
Massively is Shutting Down
Yesterday I read the news that Massively was shutting down, as well as the sister sites Joystiq and WoW Insider. This made me sad.
In years past, these sites were the first I visited in the morning and the last I visited at night. During my WoW heyday, the Insider (and MMO Champ) were the centers of the proverbial universe. Articles published there spawned great nerd debates in corp/guild chat, and around the printer at work (we don't have a water cooler in the main room). Although my time at WoW Insider has since subsided, my browser says that Massively is still in my top 8 sites every time I open a new tab.
Massively's coverage of EVE was sometimes hit or miss, but during my times away from New Eden, it was the coverage at Massively that kept me in touch with the major events as they unfolded. It was Massively and WoW Insider I had on my RSS feeds at work. It was Massively and WoW insider that I checked on the phone during meetings.
Along a similar line, I'm going to have to figure out how to keep tabs on the useful GW2 news now.
Good luck to the Massively staff. If there's a silver lining in this, it's my hope that the writers will relocate somewhere new, free of corporate jerks.
In years past, these sites were the first I visited in the morning and the last I visited at night. During my WoW heyday, the Insider (and MMO Champ) were the centers of the proverbial universe. Articles published there spawned great nerd debates in corp/guild chat, and around the printer at work (we don't have a water cooler in the main room). Although my time at WoW Insider has since subsided, my browser says that Massively is still in my top 8 sites every time I open a new tab.
Massively's coverage of EVE was sometimes hit or miss, but during my times away from New Eden, it was the coverage at Massively that kept me in touch with the major events as they unfolded. It was Massively and WoW Insider I had on my RSS feeds at work. It was Massively and WoW insider that I checked on the phone during meetings.
Along a similar line, I'm going to have to figure out how to keep tabs on the useful GW2 news now.
Good luck to the Massively staff. If there's a silver lining in this, it's my hope that the writers will relocate somewhere new, free of corporate jerks.
Vengeance on the Team Vengeance
I'm writing this on Sunday, but will delay the post until Monday AM.
The random number generator gods are being more kind, and I've seen more offers in for burners in the past 8 hrs than I have in the past 3 weeks (give or take).
I pulled the Team Vengeance this afternoon and got settled in to tackle it. This is the one burner that I dual box. I send Aba in with the Garmur and I send my primary alt in with a Kestrel for dps support. In the past I've called this Kestrel fit the Mortar Team.
I had always meant to see if two Mortar Teams could down the Vengeance. It seemed plausible, at least without specifically running any numbers. I had some time today so I cloned the Mortar Team, handed it to Aba and the pair of Kestrels set out to take on burnerville.
Bad news first: Dps was too low to crack the first logi. I fiddled with overheat a bit, but eventually saw the writing on the wall and hopped back for the Garmur. The Garmur is a beast and the Vengeance died without significant effort.
Next step is to change both Mortar Teams out to T2 rigs and see where that gets us. I'd like to find a reasonable alternative to the mega-isk Garmur.
What's playing: Star Wars Rebels on DisneyXD.
The random number generator gods are being more kind, and I've seen more offers in for burners in the past 8 hrs than I have in the past 3 weeks (give or take).
I pulled the Team Vengeance this afternoon and got settled in to tackle it. This is the one burner that I dual box. I send Aba in with the Garmur and I send my primary alt in with a Kestrel for dps support. In the past I've called this Kestrel fit the Mortar Team.
I had always meant to see if two Mortar Teams could down the Vengeance. It seemed plausible, at least without specifically running any numbers. I had some time today so I cloned the Mortar Team, handed it to Aba and the pair of Kestrels set out to take on burnerville.
Bad news first: Dps was too low to crack the first logi. I fiddled with overheat a bit, but eventually saw the writing on the wall and hopped back for the Garmur. The Garmur is a beast and the Vengeance died without significant effort.
Next step is to change both Mortar Teams out to T2 rigs and see where that gets us. I'd like to find a reasonable alternative to the mega-isk Garmur.
What's playing: Star Wars Rebels on DisneyXD.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Dead Worms
I pulled the Guristas Worm just a few minutes ago, and kicked his teeth in. This was the first time I'd seen him since Proteus launched last month (hey, look at that it's February). I didn't have any great anxiety over him as I'd read the Daredevil fits seemed to still be working, but reading it and doing it are sometimes two different things.
So, I've updated the Worm battle reports to reflect the updated status.
I did run a link ship, I almost always do.
I realized this morning that I owe a Burner Stats update, but to be honest it's not going to be very interesting. Between other distractions, highsec anoms, and a really bad string of lvl4's where no burners were offered, I didn't run very many this month.
I'm updating the Anomic Agent Info page (link in the menu bar above) to include the Enyo fight.
Happy Superbowl Sunday!
So, I've updated the Worm battle reports to reflect the updated status.
I did run a link ship, I almost always do.
I realized this morning that I owe a Burner Stats update, but to be honest it's not going to be very interesting. Between other distractions, highsec anoms, and a really bad string of lvl4's where no burners were offered, I didn't run very many this month.
I'm updating the Anomic Agent Info page (link in the menu bar above) to include the Enyo fight.
Happy Superbowl Sunday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)