NE*RA Season 2.0 Kicks Off

I haven't been very active in Eve for the majority of the summer; partly thanks to some RL events and partly (I suspect) due to my bittervet status and my recent disenchantment after the whole Greed is Good debacle.

Only racing - the thing that made me really want to try Eve Online to start with - could manage to bring me back week after week.

Last season, my computer issues coupled with some clashes between my RL and the race schedules kept me somewhat disheartened and uninspired. I can't not show to a race if I possibly can make it, because even on a bad day it's easily the most fun I can have in Eve.

Now... I still have computer issues (biggest issue being not having cash to get me a new one :P) but at least the races have been rescheduled to a day and time that I can come back to racing in. For my part, I couldn't be more grateful to Gyra for the change ;)

Yesterday, Season 2.0 started. The race was... eventful, to say the least. My computer is still crap, I still struggle with system loading times, but my team was united again. Our team. And Quin was on the track. It was just like old times and I loved it. Even though by the end we at Scuderia Dragonstar were sad. But despite on-track setbacks, it felt to me like the races of old. I loved it.

My inspiration seems to be back. I wrote a report and posted it on the NE*RA forums. A blog is hardly the best venue for such a lengthy text, but if you want to know more about KayJay, the Scuderia, and how Quin's famous executioner met its end, that's the place to go.

Links:
Scuderia Dragonstar Race 1 Report
NE*RA Official thread on the Eve Forums
Quin's account of her loss
Norrin Ellis / Venture account of the race

I need to be where?

Amusing factoid: even though I have CQ active and am visually up and walking around in my quarters, when I try to clone-jump across the galaxy it still says I need to be in my pod. (As opposed to having some other ship spinning around in my tabletop holo thingamajig.)

I realise I'm nitpicking because I'm still bitter about recent events, but for a feature which is supposed to make the experience more immersive this seems sort of fail.

Betrayed

Yesterday I was giddy. Today I am depressed.

At first I didn't take the leaked CCP newsletter thingie seriously. Could be a hoax, could be a joke, could be a lot of things. Then it got confirmed that it was for real. I am depressed and I feel betrayed.

I need some sleep. I've been reading too many threads and blogposts about this. Perhaps tomorrow I'll find some words of my own to express my disappointment.

Incarnate!

I have legs!



Right now I'm still giddy about the fact that I finally have legs! I remember going to Fanfest in '07 and being floored by the idea of a full-body experience in Eve, but the bright-eyed noob soon turned into a bitter vet whose words at the mention of Ambulation became "That's all very pretty, but I'm not holding my breath."

I've been waiting so long for this that I don't much care by this point if our quarters are somewhat small and there isn't much to do but walk from couch to balcony and back. I know more will follow, and now this particular snowball is rolling, it'll follow soon.

The sight of my ships at the balcony is impressive, and I don't even fly any big ones. I can only imagine what it's like to walk over there and have a glorious Machariel filling your vision. It's funny to realise for real how tiny my racing interceptors are, compared even to my other frigates. But old habits die hard: I keep trying to spin the ship to see the turrets from the other side ;)

Ship spinning replaced by vegetating in front of a TV screen. I'm not yet quite sure what to think of that, but I have to admit the screen is rather hypnotic, even if it keeps trying to sell me Rifters, of which I already have tons.

I have to say, however, I'm not impressed with the Noble Exchange. Yes, I want extra goodies, but I took one look at the prices and reeled back. Let me quote someone who was involved in a discussion about aurum and prices last night on the DUST514 ingame channel:

[ 2011.06.22 01:58:38 ] Alextrovarius > but i am not shelling out 45 euro's for a stupid eye piece that no one gets to see...

I am going to second that. The prices going on in there for ridiculously small things (like the eye implant) are through the roof. And to top that, these are things which, in good Eve tradition, you can lose if you get podded. So let me see, a month of gameplay or a new skirt: that's not a difficult choice. I'm not even tempted to buy any of the NeX items at those prices, which I imagine defeats the purpose. Perhaps I'm wrong but I assumed these were to be micro-transactions? They look rather macro to me.

So... back to my ship, undock, zoom in really really really close and drool at the new turret goodness. Giddy! :D

Now, if only my Tech 3s would stop flying backwards...

Season 1.0 - Race 2 - Placid

Sixth to dock. Again. And this time none of the Re-Aw members of her roster had shown up. Not a single one.

So she had fleeted with reds, in one of her flashes of temper. She did seem to have a quicker temper whenever she was in her racing clone. But this time she didn't regret it one bit. She'd be damned if she was going to toss aside her personal beliefs plus her racing family and then be made to race alone.

Facing Ciarente wasn't going to be pleasant, but right now it didn't matter one bit how much she liked her CEO. Kayleigh Jamieson-Read was feeling both angry and betrayed, and not one bit repentant.

Season 1.0, Race 1 - Derelik - DSR Race Report

The official results aren't in, yet, but I managed to jot down my impressions of this race soon after, while things were still fresh in my mind. Follow the link and I hope you find it interesting reading.

http://www.pleasure-hub.com/nera/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=51

Season 1.0 - Race 1 - Derelik

The jin-mei groaned. Sixth place. Sixth. She probably hadn't had a result this bad since Season 1 of the previous league. Sixth overall, sixth in her class - barring any time penalties the official results might uncover.

Embarrassing.