As of August 30, 2008 my Eve subscription will end, and I'm not going to renew it. I just couldn't get back into the game. It's not that I don't like Eve, but I just don't feel like playing much of anything right now. So I'm playing simple games like Carmageddon TDR and Super Smash Bros that don't require anything beyond button mashing, and enjoying the somewhat pleasant weather on my bicycle. I am planning my return with the purchase of Warhammer online for my birthday. The public quests, and general encouragement to grouping up has me interested. Some of my funnest times in WoW was battling through the 5-man dungeons from Wailing Caverns to Blackrock Depths it was fun. I've signed up for the Casualties of War guild, and will probably play Chaos. I also have some pictures of my new computer to post.

"That’s enough to become immune to ding. This old rat is no longer pushing the lever that sometimes but always longer than before, drops a sunflower seed into my salivating mouth." Tipa from West Karana. That is why no matter how awesome control points are in Tabula Rasa I am hesitant about resubscribing. It is so nice to find what I'm trying to wrap my head around clearly typed out in my feed reader. I did buy Age of Conan and even though it cost $50 I only played for 2 days. I just couldn't bear grinding yet more levels to try out their Guild PvP system. Also, the art style of AoC is rather ugly. I bought another month of WoW to get my warlock mount without having to level, and to try and force myself to finish leveling my druid to get flight form. Eve is currently suspended, but those half dozen fitted Rifters and brand new Iteron V sitting in my hangars are sounding better and better the more time I put into WoW. I am beyond the edge of my seat, kneeling on the floor, and salivating over getting a real avatar in Eve when they finally release ambulation. Damn it, I think I just convinced myself to resubscribe to Eve. Fly safe space cowboys.

Motherboard: ECS GF8200A
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
RAM: 4GB 800MHz DDR2 (Kit of 2 modules)
HDD: 320GB SATA 7200RPM 16MB Buffer
Case: Antec Nine Hundred

My accumulation of computer parts has reached a point where I now have a brand new bootable system. There is still some room for improvement via 2 more memory modules, another HDD or four, a video card, and a better CPU; but for only spending a little over $400 so far I'm happy. It's a very nice step up from my old system, and although I won't be picking up Vista anytime soon the on board video card is DirectX10 capable. The motherboard supports Hybrid SLI which looks interesting, and if anyone has some experience with it I'm very interested to learn some more about it's actual performance before I invest in a video card. Pictures coming soon.

p.s. If you want to know how lazy I am about updating this site, notice the date of this post on Gax.

You know all those features that are left out of WoW because they're too busy polishing who knows what? Everquest II has them and more.

• Learning Spells: You automatically learn the basic spell, and you can learn the advanced versions from a book you can buy beforehand and take with you.
• Buffs: No need to renew buffs every 10, 30, 60 minutes.
• Implied Targeting: This is just plain makes life easier.
• Heroic Opportunities: Combos! Group combos too!
• Quest Log Limit: 75 quests at once? Sign me up.
• Collection Quests: Find random junk and get a reward. I love scavenger hunts!
• Creature Catalog Quests: More scavenger hunts!
• Outlevelled Quests: You can find all those old quests.
• Commission System: Professionals can effectively sell their services.
• Guild Levels: Guilds that are more than a chat channel pasted to a friends list.
• Finding a Group: A real LFG tool, not a chat channel pasted to it's own member list.
• Buy a House: A home inside my home away from home...
• Learn the Languages: Not just a half-baked, unimplemented system.
• Change your Alignment: I can change my alignment, and even if I don't I can still communicate and group with the players of the other alignments.

I exported my google reader subscription list and hand edited it to make my link page. I have now found a much easier way to do things. Here is the explanation site. Here is my new improved link page.

I love rocket launchers. They do massive damage, and I can take out a group of enemies in two shots. I can take out a strider, control point cannon, or boss in about four shots. Grenade launchers are pretty awesome too. They're like a ranged shotgun with a stun instead of knock back. I've decided to go Grenadier with my first character, and I've reached level 20 now. I blew the clone point I was saving to re-spec, but I can get a new one from the Wilderness Targets of Opportunity mission once I complete the storyline missions and destroy a dozen more shield drones. I'm loving the change to Prestige. No more running around to collect tokens, and I'm accumulating Prestige a lot faster than I was tokens. One rather large problem I'm having is storage. I've maxed out, started a bank alt, and will be starting another in short order. The easy way to fix this is to carry the tab functions in my character bags into the bank. As it is now, I can carry twice as much stuff on a character than I can put in the bank.

I love control points. I can participate in a group without the time constraints required for an instance. I earn decent experience, semi-valuable loot, and tokens I can use for re-specs, XP boosters, and crafting. I've completed most of the missions in the Concordia Wilderness area, but have stayed and gained almost two levels just playing at the control points. I can't wait to upgrade my hardware though since it is a bit hard to play at the abysmal frame rates I get when all those Bane drop in. I'm playing on the Pegasus server, and my last name is Calthrop if anyone wants to look me up. I'm currently deciding whether to go Sniper or Guardian, and with clones I can have both without having to start all over from the beginning. I'm saving my level 5 clone point for when I hit level 29 so I can start a crafter alt to make my ammunition for me. I go through a lot of ammo, and I'm hoping that I can produce that ammo myself for a lower cost. I may keep my TR subscription going after Eve implements ambulation.

I've been getting some search hits for the 'Cash for Capsuleers' mission line in Eve. You can find some nice guides at Eve-Survival and Battleclinic. I prefer the Battleclinic guides for their content, but they aren't as visually appealing as the Eve-Survival guides. They both cover missions from level 1 through 5, and I'm pretty sure the 'Cash for Capsuleers' missions are classified as level 1. As many people have said these missions are very helpful with the rewards they give you.

Have you seen the numbers for GTA4? Slap in a transportation system between cities like an airport, bus, and/or train station; put two teams on new city development to keep supplying new content; start charging money for visual adjustments like armor, weapon, and vehicle paint; and shop for some advertisers for in-game billboards.

Fuck World of Warcraft. Between a recommendation and the absurdly low ($16.99) price on Amazon.com I picked up Tabula Rasa, and a bonus included but not mentioned by the seller was the preorder box. I have found something to replace WoW, and fulfill my desire to actually play a character. Once ambulation hits in Eve and depending on how well it is done I will probably drop TR, but in the mean time it is very fun to play. My current hardware can barely handle it and going near a Control Point can be screen freezing death. World general chat is crap, but regional general chat is pretty decent. I don't think a general chat can be any good unless it is separated by game regions, and even then it can go horribly wrong(Barrens Chat). The class system isn't as crappy as other class systems I've seen. With cloning and class decisions spread out over the leveling process it helps people out who aren't sure of how they want to play at first, and make some mistakes along the way. It's still not fantasy, but it does have people that aren't frozen corpses drifting in space.