The Thorax Flies Again...

...out of necessity, mainly.

I had another Myrmidon blown out from under me a couple of nights ago by a Veto gang. It was really my own fault this time. I'd gone to pick up a new mod in a low sec system (I forget which one...something starting with a "G"). I did see one Veto ship but figured I could handle it if attacked. My big mistake was that I forgot to check local before I left the station, and when I reentered space three Veto ships were waiting for me. I was toast in about ten seconds.

After reappearing in Korsiki, where I'd had my medical clone set for easy access in case of E-Uni emergencies and/or event participation, I jumped in my Thorax and flew it back to Gallente space. Once there, I bought myself another Myrmidon and insured it, but realized I didn't really have anywhere near enough ISK left over to fit it properly. Most of the usable mods I had lying around I'd already used in fitting my last Myrm, and so I've started doing Level 2 missions again in the Thorax to fatten the wallet a bit.

As long-time readers of this blog know, I never have a problem bitching up a storm when I believe I've been unfairly fucked over, but this time there's just no way I can do that. I should have checked Local before undocking but I didn't, and it was that mistake on my part which cost me my battlecruiser. Live and learn...again.

I think part of the problem is that I haven't been playing with any regularity over the last several weeks because I've been so busy in RL and so I'm probably more than a bit out of practice. A month ago, I doubt I'd ever have forgotten to check Local before undocking, and in this game that kind of noob mistake is all an enemy needs to take you out. The good part is that things are finally beginning to normalize in RL so I'm hoping to have more in-game time in coming weeks. It probably won't last, though. Right now, there's a lull in the demands on my time, but I expect that to change fairly soon so I'm going to try to take advantage of the extra playtime while I can.

The other good part is that you'll probably see more posts from me here in the immediate future. I really enjoy writing this blog, and I've missed not having the time to post more regularly. Again, I don't know how long this is going to last...such decisions are made by others...but I do plan to use the time to try to get back into the swing of playing and writing here. No promises though...it can all change at any time.

One new annoyance I've discovered is that since the Revelations 1.4.3 patch, some of the audio effects such as the music and the voice stopped working. After scouring the E-O forums for a solution, I discovered that changing my audio acceleration in Windows to Basic level solves the problem, at least for now. From what I've read, doing this may also render Teamspeak and/or Ventrilo useless, but I haven't had chance to test that just yet.

You'd think that for all the time and effort the devs put into making this game great they could at least give some attention to the audio. As it is, I have to turn it off every time I go somewhere where there's even the possibility of any kind of combat because the lag it generates can be deadly. I know the audio is the culprit here as I've done some of the same missions with and without sound and the lag in combat is always significantly less when the game sound is off.

To be honest, I don't know why it has to be that way. EvE is the only game I've ever played where the sound causes this kind of a problem with the gameplay. My understanding is that they're still using the same sound engine they had during beta, over four years ago. Given how much attention is given to other aspects of the game, I'm at a loss to understand why this hasn't gotten at least some dev love by now. According to recent dev blogs, audio fixes are planned, but what I've read on the forums is that CCP has been promising a new audio engine since the game came out of beta and most don't seem to believe that a fix is actually coming anytime soon.

Personally, I like the sound. It adds a depth to the game that's missing when I have to turn it off. I wish I didn't have to detract from my enjoyment of the game in order to have it run at maximum efficiency. Thing is, with the cost of death so high in EvE, there's really no choice but to use every possible advantage in combat, and that's the place where the audio can be the most useful in terms of warnings and such. It just doesn't make any sense to me that CCP has spent so much time and effort making every other aspect of this game the best it can be, but seemingly has this issue on a very low priority. Considering how integral to the overall experience of EvE the audio is, you'd think they'd want that aspect of the game to be as immersive as the rest, but as far as I can see, that obviously isn't the case, and I think that's really a pity.

OK, enough for now...RL calls.