Agent EVE

A break...

2009-06-08T16:46:00.002-04:00

I've been posting every day for a month or so and I've decided to take a bit of a break. I've got an anniversary coming up this weekend and priorities are shifting into the Domestic area of life. I'll be back in a week.

The Macro Hauler experiment continues...

2009-06-06T00:09:00.000-04:00

I’m using autopilot to move between systems. I know, it’s not really efficient but it is effective. Today or soon (haven’t decided which) I’m going to implement the “sniff a bunch of points” concept and once I do I should be able to set a destination, and then intelligently warp to zero all the way there. That will significantly increase the speed of my agent.But speed doesn’t matter yet; I’m

Hauler works for a while, then breaks...

2009-06-05T00:00:00.001-04:00

So I ran my Hauler Agent last night and got about 40 missions done before it crashed out. Well, it didn’t technically crash out; technically it right clicked in the wrong place and then crapped out. I’m beginning to think that the “sniff a single point and then react” process isn’t the ideal solution for EVE and perhaps a “sniff a bunch of points, and wherever it equals X, that’s the point you

I'm not really a coder, I'm just a quirky MMO player...

2009-06-04T00:00:00.002-04:00

I ran into several technical difficulties last night while I was debugging my Hauler Agent. I know that most people think that EVE’s an easy game to write programs for, but it really isn’t. There’s a million different ways the developers twist up the user interface to prevent it from looking the same way over and over again. You don’t notice it as a player, but when you start NEEDING the

A Macro Hauler is....what...exactly?

2009-06-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

I’m disappointed with EVE Wiki. Why? Because I expected it to be able to tell me what a Macro Hauler was. Instead I had to go and figure it out for myself and, frankly, I’m not 100% sure I understand what it is.Best I can tell, a macro hauler is an application that automates courier missions in EVE Online. And, I’m about a day away from completing mine.I didn’t even realize what I was doing,

A new agents was born...

2009-06-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

A little while back, I defined what some of my short, medium, and long term goals were. Well, with well over 500 million ISK, I think it’s time to start planning on completing those medium term goals.Sadly, in order to do so I must raise my empire faction to, at least, 5.0. And, being the lazy fuck that I am, there’s NO WAY I’m going to do that by hand…so it sounds like it’s time for a new agent!

Answering CrazyKinux's

2009-06-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

Today’s post comes to you via the blog challenge posted over at CrazyKinux's Musing. This is an answer to his #7 - "What 3 things haven't you done in EVE and why? Would you be willing to try one day? Why so? Why not?"Thing 1 – Pirating. Up until recently I really haven't had the resources to effectively enter low sec space, let alone pirate there. Now that I do, I still see no reason to go there

2009-05-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

Continuing my posts from the debate at Fly Reckless, here's - Moderator’s question 1You have indicated that you have set up a whole corp of individuals who use macro or at the very least are macro friendly. It is entirely within CCP’s right to find and ban those accounts that you use to macro, so what my question centers around is the unknowing or possibly knowing individuals who are buying the

2009-05-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

I sat down to play Call of Duty 4 once, while a friend watched over my shoulder. He noticed I wasn’t having a hard time with it and he asked, jokingly, “What, is this on Easy mode or something.” I confirmed that yes, actually, I was playing on Easy Mode. He laughed for awhile and when he was done he had some negative things to say about playing on Easy Mode. His primary complaint was that

The Other Account...

2009-05-28T00:00:00.002-04:00

I spent this weekend mining my ass off, but somehow I have LESS money on my toon now then when I started. I think it’s because I spent a lot of it on skills. I have a training build I call “A million little skills.” I use EVEMon to find out all the skills I COULD train but haven’t, then I put them all in the plan and go buy books. I que up the skills as I buy them. I’ve managed to get myself up

The Best Laid Plans

2009-05-27T03:00:00.000-04:00

I wrote a blog posting a while back which distressed me. In it I talked about how I really didn’t know why I was playing EVE. Well, I’ve decided to correct this. Despite my inability to define why I played I found myself compelled to play, interested in playing, and enjoying myself. So, when I caught myself developing a long-term goal (manage a POS) I forced myself to sit down and describe some

An out of cycle post...

2009-05-26T14:09:00.003-04:00

So as you may, or may not, have noticed I tend to post only at midnight. This is because all my posts are pre-written and scheduled (that's how I'm able to post every day.) But, today I had to break the pattern because an Event happened - I was linked to from the official forums!!!I'm pretty excited about this and I wanted to say thanks to Kance Tzu for the blast. I, of course, wish he'd been a

April 16, 2009

2009-05-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

Oh ladies and gentlemen, today is a patch day that changed the UI! It will be VERY interesting what happens to the price of minerals. I'm glad I have 8 million Titanium saved up. With the UI change I bet the macroers are going to produce less, and the price of Tritanium goes up!Today they moved the cargo hold indicator, and changed it's color. It's now much simpler to determine when the hold is

The Eternal Thread, and a Destroyed Covetor...

2009-05-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

The EVE Online Forums have a policy – any thread which is not posted to for 45 days is locked. This is to prevent what’s known as “necro posting.” So I consider it nothing short of a MIRACLE that this post, created in 2006, is STILL active. It is the post that was created by Wrangler and it was intended to be a “One thread to rule them all” sort of thing.In 2006 the forums exploded with posts

The wife, and our life…

2009-05-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

At the moment, I’m saving for a freighter. A freighter cost about 900 million ISK and I’m at about 300 million now. I’ve been talking (whining?) to my wife about how long this is taking and she said it reminds her of saving for a horse in WoW. We both played WoW for about a year or so before we quit because life was just too busy to compete or even enjoy it. We would get the game loaded up, leave

About Bumping…

2009-05-22T03:00:00.000-04:00

Today, for the first time, I watch myself get bumped. It broke my agent.I was wandering past my computer when I noticed that I was about 40k away from the nearest asteroid, and there was this guy charging at me moving very fast. The nose of his ship almost collided with mine but at the last moment my ship veered away, sending me still further away from the asteroid

Online Debat Post 1

2009-05-21T00:00:00.002-04:00

Recently I stumbled upon a debate hosted at Fly Reckless. Linky. I've decided to spend some posts dedicated to answering the questions there for myself. I figure it'll be interesting and, if not, at least fill my writing quota for a week or so!Question 1, from FinneganWhat level of economic damage would you and other cheaters have to do to non-cheating miners before you agreed that it was too

Ice Ice baby

2009-05-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

Ever since I found out that an Iteron Mark V can be fit to hold over 39 thousand cubic meters of items I decided I simply MUST have one. So far I’m about 17 days away from completion (JESUS that’s a long time!) It’ll be nice to be able to haul over 4 million tritanium in one shot.I spent most of yesterday flying back and forth, mining Veldspar in a system that only had three asteroid belts. I’m

Irony Took My Hulk

2009-05-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

Want to know what irony is? Irony is being killed by an NPC rat when you just quit your Corporation because you didn’t want to be killed by someone in High-Security space. Yup, I lost my Hulk at some point yesterday. Christ, it wasn’t even overnight! I have no idea what could have packed that kind of firepower in High-Sec, but what’s done is done. I’ve still got my Retriever and Covetor, so I’ll

I'm Valid, Damnit!

2009-05-18T03:00:00.000-04:00

When I quit the Corporation and discussed the reasoning with its leader he made a comment which really set me off. I didn’t yell at him, but I did mention that he had a dismissive attitude about the validity of other people and their perspectives.Here’s how the discussion went:Him: You know you don’t have to come to each and every CTA, but we do require you to attend

Corp Life, Last Day!

2009-05-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

I decided that I needed to get back into High-Security space in order to make a few more ISK. Only, once I got there I had a terrible memory come back to me – the Corporation I was in was at war with a small High-Security Corporation. That meant that when I was in Empire space (.5 to 1.0 security space) I could be attacked. It’s awfully hard to AFK Game when you can be attacked!So, of course, I

Corp Life, Day 2

2009-05-16T00:00:00.000-04:00

Well after losing about 40 million ISK worth of ships/fitting, it’s time to limp back to high-sec (using a jump clone) and macro some more money into my holds. Macroing when someone has declared war on your corporation is dangerous, but I need money!Let me tell you why Corporations suck for AFK Gamers and, in general, people who aren’t PvP whores:1 – Call To Actions (CTA). Basically, when you

Corp Life, Day 1

2009-05-15T03:00:00.000-04:00

I made a mad-dash down to 0.0 today to meet up with my new Corpmates. Someone in alliance asked if anyone was in High-Sec space. He needed some blueprints. So, I said what the fuck and bought a few and headed down in my Caracal. EVERY jump was a stressful one, but I managed to make it all the way down with about 5 million worth of blueprints in my hold. Can’t complain!

I Joined A 0.0 Corporation!

2009-05-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, I’m a AFK Gamer, why join a corp? Well, because why write a simple agent that can mine in High-Sec when you can write a complicated agent that mines in low-sec? :-DBut beyond that, there’s a lot to EVE and players tend to focus on one, two or maybe a handful of sub-systems through the game. I’m not that player. I’m someone who likes to see how all the

But I Won't Do That...

2009-05-13T00:00:00.000-04:00

I’ve been reading up on the dust-up between Goonswarm (fuck you, Monsters and Sociopaths!) and BoB (You’re just as bad as Goonswarm, you elitist fucks). It’s been interesting, but it brought up a point of contention with me and an online bud. See, he thinks that “cheating” is wrong but sees nothing wrong with running scams on people. I think that “cheating” is fine, but I think that scamming

The Struggles of a Cheater...

2009-05-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

AFK gamers are often accused of things that go far beyond AFK gaming. For instance if you read Telbrah’s comments on this site you’ll see:http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs.cfm?isapi_rewrite_remap=zergwatch%2F042008%2F1492_Why-do-MMORPG-publishers-REALLY-hate-the-Chinese-Gold-Farmer&bhcp=1“Why do the MMORPG Publishers not like Gold Farmers? Because hacking and then stealing accounts is where they get

Decisions…

2009-05-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

EVE is a game of decisions and Opportunity Costs. That’s part of the draw, for me. “What’s the most efficient and effective method?” is a question I am always asking myself while playing this “game.”For instance, right now I’m wondering “Should I add more cargohold room to my Hulk, or should I increase its yield?” My gut tells me that I should increase its carghold capacity to the largest I can

Cheaters in our Online World

2009-05-10T00:00:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine got hooked on Battlefield 2142. No, I mean HOOKED. He’d talk about it every day. He’d devise strategy. He bought a server. He organized a guild. He bought a website. In all, he dove in headfirst.And after awhile he was up at the top of the ladder. He was high rank and high rated. And then he told me something that has stuck with me.“You know what I’ve learned? It’s that at the

The Sky is STILL fallling...

2009-05-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

Oh man, I am going to get several days worth of posts about that article!“NotImportant” at http://www.eve-mag.com/wordpress/archives/the-sky-is-fallingSo in-fact, the macro miners most likely stand for 50% of all ore being mined. Couple this with the fact that macro miners only “effort” is having to wait for the ore to roll in while a hard working miner has to WORK

If the Sky is Falling then I am in Trouble...Because I'm IN the Sky!

2009-05-08T00:00:00.000-04:00

Today as I continued looking for information about macro mining when I found “EVE Player’s” article titled “The Sky is Falling”http://www.eve-mag.com/wordpress/archives/the-sky-is-fallingWow!!! I could have written this article, it is SO MUCH like what I do.To the first point, I play the game using macros because it is a fantastic challenge. I hit a Zen like state

Still Writing...

2009-05-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

Last night I finished my rewrite of EVE Agent’s code. Well, mostly. There’s still one small bug in it that I can’t quite figure out, but I think one or two lines of extra coding will catch that exception.My Agent used to warp out to an asteroid field, lock three targets and mine for about 6 minutes. It was all done on timer and if the agent's lock on an asteroid was

Best Mining Ship?

2009-05-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

I was talking about EVE yesterday when a friend said he was pretty sure that the Hulk wasn’t the biggest/baddest mining ship in the game. There simply MUST be a capital ship which was bigger/better at mining. So, we looked in EVEMon and, it would seem, he’s wrong – the Hulk really is the best ship for mining for a single person. Now if you want to expand the question to include gang mining then

Who else is blogging about this?

2009-05-05T00:00:00.000-04:00

I decided to go looking for other people blogging about AFK gaming.I’m still looking!What I have found is that AFK gaming goes by many different names. Bots, Macros, and Farmers are the most common, but each describes a different thing despite the fact that the ignorant use them interchangeably. So in this post I’d like to differentiate between Bots, Macros, Farmers, and other terms applied to

Target Coninuity!

2009-05-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

I worked on the next version of my EVE Agent last night until about 11:15. At that point I realized that I wouldn’t be able to finish it before bedtime so I just threw in the towel. Although I didn’t finish it, I did manage to make some serious headway.I managed to address target continuity.In the previous version of EVE Agent the targeting routine only activated once. This meant that if the

Witch Hunters

2009-05-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

In every MMO there is a group of players I call "Witch Hunters.” A Witch Hunter is someone who investigates other player’s activities with the goal of determining if they are cheating. These players are not sanctioned by the developers and have developed a playstyle which makes them act like online vigilantes. Similar to real-life vigilantes, these Witch Hunters lack any authority to accuse other

AFK Gaming...

2009-05-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFK_gaming“AFK (Away From Keyboard) gaming is a technique used typically by multiplayer online role-playing gamers, but also can be theoretically used by any other game genre. AFK gamers use software, either in the form of a bot or a game's built-in macro system, to continuously do a repetitive task for them, over and over. It also gives the player a significant

This Blog...

2009-05-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

This is a blog dedicated to the online game EVE Online, and one of its players (me!) I play EVE Online using a program (agent) to help me accumulate money while I’m not physically at the keyboard. This is known by many names (Macroing, Botting, Cheating, amongst others).In this blog I will discuss a lot of topics but I wanted to lay a few ground rules down first.1. No, I won’t help you write a