StrongandMighty

Our Apologies

2007-07-19T11:58:00.000-04:00

We meant to continue the storyline. We really did. But the nasty tricksy thing called "Real Life" got in the way. That, and both Oro and I wanted to actually play Eve instead of just drawing about it. So that's why the current storyline is on hold.

Never fear, we will finish the current story. In the meantime, we've convinced Lilith to say a few words on our behalf.

-Sayid

Domi's Suck

2007-07-17T01:54:00.000-04:00

A scout's role is not an easy one, especially in a combat situation. The scout is the eyes, and the brains of an activity that, let's face it, is mostly penis-driven. Nobody really listens to the brain, decides with the brain, when the insults fly, or the girl is hot. Men just act. And that's why Penicillin was invented.

Sayid and I spent an insane amount of time on this story. So you people better like it, or so help me G-d, I will turn this story-arc around and we'll go back home!

An interesting way of calculating how Sayid and I spend our time would be the number of minutes we spend CREATING a comic, compared to the number of eye-ball minutes spent READING the comic: since we have like 10 active followers, and the comic takes, at most, 15 seconds to read, that's 150 man-seconds, or 2-1/2 man-minutes spent enjoying the finished work.

Now we spent almost 3 hours on the phone Sunday night
(3 hours x 60 minutes x 2 people = 360 minutes)

Another 3 hours when I got off work (360 minutes more), plus the 5 hours Sayid spent sketching today (300 more), and the 1 hour I spent getting screenies this morning BEFORE work (60)
So this episode absorbed 360+360+300+60 = 1080 minutes to produce.

If we divide our time making by your time enjoying (1080/2.5 = 432) we see just how much Sayid and I invest in each one of you, our friends and loyal readers.
If we divided..... 2.5 by 1080.... we show a 0.0023 quotient of efficiency. So please, spend a few more seconds with the comic, or tell 173 of your closest friends to check us out, because our ratio's are sucky. (No, I didn't really read that Wikipedia article I linked above.)

Actually, those numbers don't account for how much fun this comic is to draw/write, so we actually win the numbers game. Writing these comics our way to live in the EVE world when we're at work, or with our wives, which is sometimes work (just kidding honey).

Keeping with the "living in EVE when not actually playing EVE" theme, is anyone paying for the EVE-TV, and is it worth it? I don't get EON magazine either, so I'd be interested in reviews and recommendations for that while you're at it. Come on people, there's a comment section
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Four Horseman of Something

2007-07-11T22:07:00.000-04:00

First, I want to thank Sayid for outing me. Yes I am, in fact, a dancing paper cutout. Someone has waaaay too much free time this summer, and it's not me.

Hope you guys don't mind the current "dramatic" storyline. We're having a lot of fun exploring the limits of our drawing and writing styles, and I understand we may have caused some confusion. So yes, Sub, who is the CEO of our corp, was the guy at the podium, in the last comic. Next time I'll have Sayid, draw a "Hello, my name is SubTig" nametag. And perhaps a hat. Actually, we do realise that when we change styles, it can be hard, and obviously you guys don't spend as much time thinking about this comic as we do. The women in your life probably appreciate that.

Since I don't actually have time to play EVE currently, I'm living my life thru forums and EVE-Trib. I'd like to refer you to two articles in this weeks issue talking about the bad-ass ships I fly. Well, would fly if I had time to play. sigh.

Dancing Queen

2007-07-10T23:55:00.000-04:00

Ever wonder what Oro does on his days off?

Now you know.
-Sayid

Squadron of the Dumbed

2007-07-10T00:22:00.000-04:00

We now resume our regular plot...already in progress. We hope last weeks dearth of comic has not caused undue strain on you social lives. Time spent with real people can be an adjustment. Speaking for myself, the less I talk with my wife, the more she likes me.

I am still scrambling to find time to play EVE since my vacation, so I have yet to really take advantage of any of the new features that Rev 2.0 has to offer. I know Sayid has trained up thermodynamics, but he has so far NOT boiled his mid-slots into unusable slag. We did have one recent incident where overheating would have been appropriate, but sadly, he forgot to push the little button, and instead ended in his pod.

Sayid is essentially an EVE luddite: but he's finally come around and done lvl 3 and lvl 4 missions. I talked him into it, but he doesn't know he's isk-whoring, so be sure not to tell him. He thinks we're are doing research into the synergistic synergies of synergism. We haven't actually completed the lvl 4, but it's a hard one: "The Assault". Sayid's doing it in a Caracal, so it's more of an experiment in the possible, rather than the efficient. Lvl 4 missions in a Caracal takes a Ph.D. in aggro management, and Sayid entered the deadspace with a correspondence course diploma. It may not be surprising to YOU how fast 3 battleships and 7 cruisers eat through a Caracal's shield, but I assure you, it was to him. Luckily Caracals can be bought in bulk in the Domain.

We used EVE-voice today, which is easy enough, although not as easy as sitting in the same room, which we did last week. At least over EVE-voice, Sayid can be muted.

I've not had the pleasure of meeting them yet, but I'm told we have a couple of new Yanks in the corp. So welcome to Banith and hackn. I want to urge you to do lots of dumb things; the comic is always in need of material. Be warned though, you've got to get up pretty early to be dumber than the rest of us.

In the shrinkage department, I'd like to tell any former corp members who may be reading this that though Sayid and I will no longer have first hand knowledge of your stupidity, you will remain as hapless and poorly skilled as ever in our hearts, and in our comic. Godspeed Carita and Smeg. Remember to fit expensive gear and talk smack in local.

America Day

2007-07-03T23:16:00.000-04:00

So we've been a little busy-deal with it, or we'll come and invade your country too. Don't think we won't, because we will; we know where you live.

If you haven't already figured it out, this 4th of July comic, like our Easter Comic, is not strictly canonical. We will resume the story of Mojo's gankage next week, but this week we just really haven't had time to dedicate to a proper story, and we want to get it JUST right. For those of you who are wondering, Sayid and I did NOT discuss the plots of the comics before I went on vacation. He surprised me with them, just like I did to him when he went away. In both cases, the comic sort of generated it's own momentum and just had to turn into a complete story arc. That's the honest truth. Sometimes these characters just get themselves into the dumbest situations, and we just kind of talk about how they'll get out, then we draw it. I never really understood it before, when authors talked about characters 'writing themselves' but these guys are starting to feel real. These comic abstractions of video-game images, of 'real' people, now seem to living lives of their own, deep beneath the layers of tin-foil keeping the CIA at bay.

Speaking of imaginary people, we'd like to welcome Willem Jak to the cast of StrongandMighty. We expect big things from him in the future.

Oops! We did it again

2007-07-03T14:21:00.000-04:00

Sorry gang: no comic today. I'm still getting settled in after returning from holiday (it was great, thanks for asking) and Sayid is no longer allowed to write comics on his own, after his boob-fest last week.

We should have a special edition up for Wednesday though.

Muster the Troops

2007-06-27T13:58:00.000-04:00

Note: Sorry for the late posting on the blog and comic. I know that some of your lives depended on it. It took a couple extra days to get everything just right, and I hope you enjoy it.
-Sayid

Before Oro left on vacation, he and I talked about possible scripts and storylines for this week. Many were quite good and highly topical, drawing from recent developments in the Revelations patch. There certainly is a lot to talk about, and if you read the forums or Eve-Tribune, you'll find a wide range of opinions on these matters. Obviously, today's comic ignores these events completely, and instead continues the dramatic turn we took previously. I do not doubt that when Oro returns, he'll put his foot down and we'll cease this foolishness. It has been fun to indulge in the comic, but I doubt Oro will ever leave me in charge again.

It's been equally fun to indulge in playing Eve given that events in my RL have calmed down. There's nothing quite like a marathon Eve-session when you've been away for as long as I have. I get to see the game through refreshed eyes and with renewed purpose. And of course, it's great to be around everyone again. The best part of Eve isn't the spaceships, blowing stuff up, or even the exotic dancers. It's the people. And it never ceases to amaze me how helpful everyone is. Veterans assist noobs, of course, but the greenhorns do what they can as well. Even many pirates will tell you how you were podded so quickly if you ask politely.

Which takes us back to the comic. Tuesday left us with a man down, which is simply not the ACU way. Either we'll bring him back or, more likely, all end up as frozen corpses. In either case, you can be sure it'll be fun.

Mo Drama

2007-06-26T03:28:00.000-04:00

First off, let me say that this comic is probably doubly disappointing to Mojo. Not only does he get the raw end of the deal, but Lilith does not appear at all, clothed or otherwise. Maybe Thursday will be better in this respect. I must say, however, that as far as I know, this comic is completely fictitious. As of this writing, Mojo has yet to lose his Cardari Navy Raven, and as long as he doesn't loan it to Smeg, odds are Mojo will have it for at least another week. why is Mojo the protagonist? Why the hell not? He sure is fun to draw.

The more observant amongst you will have noticed the absence of Oro's blog posting as well as anything that resembles quality writing in the comic. Apparently he's gone this week on some questionable RL pretenses like vacations. In any event, the lack-of-humor, excess drama, and overall shoddy dialogue can be blamed entirely on him. I had to do everything without Oro, so if you're unhappy, you should flood him with hate-mail to that effect. Of course, if you actually liked this comic, you're still allowed to send Oro hate-mail.

But back to our story: you may be wondering who hunted our innocent and brave Mojo down, since the ACU doesn't really have any enemies. If we are defined by those opposing us, then it begs the question of how are we defined as a corp? I'm not complaining about our lack of enemies, mind you. I like being able to fly freely throughout the galaxy knowing that if I get podded, it's probably my own damn fault. Of course, I'll still blame Oro.

-Sayid

Return of the Artguy

2007-06-21T01:10:00.000-04:00

Phew. That's that. We've survived our longest story arc, and the big new EVE upgrade. They were both buggy, they both took way too much time, but I think we can judge them both successes. For our next trick, Sayid and I are going to attempt to over-clock the comic strip. So if you hit the overdrive button, each character will have a unique bonus. Mojo of course, will talk more, Sayid becomes COMPLETELY invisible, and Oro just blows up. And the only risks of this new feature will be a random chance that your computer will melt. Oh, and sterility.

In the few brief moments I was on today, people seem to be excited and taking advantage of all the new toys. I know we've at least looked at a lvl 5 mission (Kris put the link to the screeny you took in comments and I'll link it here). No one had died yet by the time I went to work, but it was still early. Sayid tells me he managed to get his Craptor going 6000m/s. I'm excited to explore bold new ways to waste my isk in the loyalty points store: Be the first to buy a +5 Charisma implant!! Yours for only 100K loyalty points!! It will be really interesting to see the market changes now that the LP store gives us consumers more power. But I'll save you all the market nerdity.

I'm off on vacation, and Sayid is fully in charge of comic and blog next week. Please be kind: pretend to laugh. I'll explain the jokes when I get back.

Orodyssey

2007-06-19T02:24:00.000-04:00

Dateline Derelik: We had another corp PVP op Monday. As usual, we concluded almost 90 minutes of complete boredom by leaving Mojo behind in a gang warp. Soon after, he was engaged at the gate by one Battleship, two Command Ships, one Recon Ship and one Battle-cruiser. Our reinforcements flew in to "rescue" him, and the results were as you would expect. So another glorious streamer added to the ACU banner. To quote the senior pilot on the op "I just want to see a ship explode tonight... I don't really care if it's mine." It was. On a miraculous note, I survived the encounter. Weather report from Hell to follow.

Thanks for the praise for last weeks comics; it's so nice when the audience obeys the "applause" sign. As of yet, there's no need to donate to our legal-defense fund. In this comic, we've again stolen from out betters, and we want to give full credit. This comic contains a cameo appearance by Gabe, the illustrator from Penny Arcade. And by cameo, I mean we have kidnapped his image without any right at all. The Eye of Sauron is also shamelessly stolen from them. These guys are THE GUYS. They practically invented web-comics, or they were present while the angels were still planting dinosaur bones into the still molten core of web-comics, at any rate. If the internet had any justice whatsoever, I wouldn't even be allowed to link from this blog to their site. My computer would burst aflame, and the mouse swing up, as if propelled by magic, to hoe-slap me. Thus is the nature of their expertise in relation to our amatuerity (which apparently is not really a word). I would, as I did with Mr. George Lucas, like to thank them, in advance, for not bothering to crush us like the plagaristic swine that we so clearly are.

Moving on to topics NOT involving criminal and financial penalties; it's patch day! Hopefully, as you read this, you are creeping towards completion of Battleship V, or Clarity V, or some other ungodly long skill. If not, you have my condolences. You are, truly, stupid. If it's any help I know that at least 3 of the senior guys screwed up and will be riding out the patch downtime in the dumbest clones they own. Boo-hoo. I suppose that's a bit like reading about Paris Hilton's travails, while you await your next water-boarding at Gitmo. When you do finally get the chance to log back on, please (and I can't believe I'm saying this) follow Mojo's advice: DON'T buy anything on the market; DON'T do any mission you know you can survive through a server lag-crash. The first 24 hours will be odd, and uncomfortable. Think about new shoes. Sure they look great, and sure you bought them so you could finally get out there and start jogging. But take it slow. Stretch out. You don't want to be 3 miles from home with blisters on your feet and wild dogs on your tail. Or something. That analogy is a bit strained. I'm not sure EVE has ever been compared to feet before now. But that constant nasty itching sensation of athletes foot does seem a bit Mojo-esque.

See ya'll on the other side of the patch on Thursday.

Counter-fett

2007-06-13T23:54:00.000-04:00

We'd like to start this blog off with a request: Please, please, please don't sue us, Mr. Lucas. You guys may think I'm joking, but I'm not. So I'd like to explicitly state that we have created likenesses of several Star Wars characters in this comic (if that comes as a surprise, I think you need to study up.) The other reason we are giving attribution here to Mr. Lucas and his team is that we feel like, having put out 20+ comics, that we need to think like professionals. If someone stole/copied our work, I know we'd be upset. OK, first we'd be really flattered that someone noticed, then we'd go all medieval on them.

Another thought: do you have a profession in EVE? The dev's always seem to make mention of professions, usually in reference to 'mini-professions' like salvaging or invention. You guys know that I do some mission running, some mining, some production, even some PVP. All I have is mini-professions. Makes me very flexible, but not an expert in any one thing, which Sayid will confirm is true in RL also. Last night I was 'complaining' to Kerth that I can make just about 5 million isk per hour in a variety of ways, but can't seem to break that limit. I am omni-mediocre. I'm wondering what paths others are taking, and if you find what you do in EVE is getting broader, or more narrowed?

We've seen a drop off in comments recently. I'm not sure if that's because people aren't reading the blog, or if we've scared people off, or if it's just because neither Sayid nor I have been around lately. No matter what the reason, we miss you. So I am officially re-inviting your comments. And since the previous paragraph ended with a question, none of you have an excuse.

The Fandom Menace

2007-06-12T02:47:00.000-04:00

I can't tell you had good it feels to post a comic.

Sorry about last Thursday all. I'm adjusting to a new, far less regular schedule, and I'm not adjusting quickly. Sayid was away last week as well. Apparently taking his wife to see a giant hole in the ground is more important than our comic....

I'm afraid I haven't been playing EVE much this week, I'm grinding out a 20+ day training (lvl 5 cruiser) and it's just too depressing to to log on and see how little percent complete the skill is. Also I'm still moping from when Smeg and I dumbly jumped through hostile gate camp with our smart clones. Nothing like watching 60mil in implants vanish. I know others have lost more, but I'm still feeling pissy.

Since I haven't seen many/most of you in the last week, I'm not sure what the corp news is. Hopefully I'll be on some on Wednesday, and can hear the juicy stories. I will only allow Sayid to play EVE if it doesn't interfere with his comics work.

I want to thank you for your patience. Several of you told me that the lack of a comic has affected your lives in adverse ways, both social and professional. Ironicallly, two weeks of tribulations with the comic has refocused us, and I think we'll make the next couple weeks worthwhile. Sayid's road-trip began and ended with a stop-over at my house, so we hammered out the rest of the month, story-wise. So that means I get to kick-back and do nothing, while he slaves away at all the drawing. Poor hand-cramped Sayid. If he'd bothered learning to spell in school, he could have been the writer.

A non-comical experience

2007-06-07T15:00:00.000-04:00

Sorry gang. No comic/blog for today (Thursday June 7th). I'm getting my ass kicked at work this week. Between that and Sayid being on vacation, I just didn't have energy to do anything creative.

Rest assured. My shame is deep. We shall not fail you again. Well, we probably will, but we'll feel bad again, I promise.

Missing In-action

2007-06-04T22:00:00.000-04:00

Grrr. I was in a very bloggy mood, and then I got interrupted. I hate that. It's nobody's fault really (wife), but I had all these thoughts in my head, spinning like one of those Romanian circus guys who keep the plates balanced. And then "Oh just one thing I forgot to tell you...." and CRASH! There goes the dinner-ware, and we'll spend the rest of the week doing wound repair on our feet and eating from styrofoam containers.

So you get the cold left-overs of my mind, instead of the gourmet concepts I was preparing, to be served out on fancy silver spoons with just the right wine. It was to be "how do you think the EVE market will respond to the recent trend in tech 2 invention, now that Revelations 2 is in it's final stages?" But now all I've got is "I really don't like blowing up."

On that note: I really don't like blowing up.

Hope you like the comic. My first "solo" comic, although Sayid dropped by on his way out of state, and we had a good laugh and came up with a couple humorous tweaks to it.

He ain't heavy...He's my brother

2007-05-31T00:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry gang. Not a good week for the strip. Sayid's computer/software keeps crashing and it's midnight (almost) and my personal rule is no computer repairs after 10pm. Nothing good comes from troubleshooting this time of night.

Sayid's on vacation next week, so I'll be drawing the comic. That should be fun! Imagine your child's drawing skill, or perhaps your dog's.

It's not like you people are actual customers or anything, but I have grown accustomed to your twice weekly affirmations of my value.

See ya in the game

Oh. The photo is of my older brother Jim, and his family. Jim is just home from 9 months in Iraq, and he narrowly survived a suicide bombing attack in February. I'll get to see them all in about a month.

The Wider World

2007-05-28T21:47:00.000-04:00

Official Comic will be up "late." Hope you guys are enjoying our little story arc. I know putting a bunch of mining episodes in a row means mojo and smeg have moved on to some new comic or just plain internet porn. But we're having a lot of fun learning how to put spaceships into our comic, so they'll just have to cope.

I don't know if any of you were following the allegations of Dev misconduct. I wasn't really, but when the news bits on the log-on screen had 3 consecutive mentions of it, I had to look in a little deeper. I didn't bother reading the threads, since I get enough flaming from my wife, but I didn't really understand the issue. I DID read all the threads during the Band of Developers scandal, and that didn't make a lot of sense at the time either.

An all-out war has been raging in our back yard for well over a month, and our best friends outside the ACU (yes, that's you Cognet guys) are in the thick of it. We are not. Since I was at work today, I'm not sure how "Fight Night" went, or whether we even had it, but the times I've been to fight have been more of a "lets play at being in a war" rather than actually getting into the mud and staying dirty until the fight was won. I try to keep up with the fighting, but even their news reports seem confusing to me. I think 95% of it, is my lack of context. This leads me to think that I'm not engaged enough in the wider EVE world. I'm starting to feel like I'm at EVE-camp, while our friends are really playing EVE.

I don't know about the rest of you, but the war-dec by the Privateers was almost 'flattering', in the sense that WE were a part of a big EVE event. Of course that's kind of like being proud that you slept with Wilt Chamberlain (thank G-d for hyperlinks on that reference).

This is just me musing. This is definitely NOT me saying lets declare war on B0B and recreate the 300, but I guess I am feeling like I'm playing in an ever-shrinking box. Stepping out might be dangerous, but it sure sounds like fun at the moment

Vision does Not Equal Foresight

2007-05-23T14:17:00.000-04:00

Dear Diary: Sayid's a jerk, and he makes fun of my writing. I hope the belt rats shoot him.

_________________________

Despite appearences, this script was preplanned, not just thought up at the last minute. You non-miners probably think this is how we actually work: we just set the miners on the rocks and check out. This is NOT actually the case. Sayid and I spent most of the past weekend together, working on the comic. In fact, we spent all of Saturday night working on the comic, and if you think those 3 hours sitting on the outdoor patio of a restaurant overlooking a river, while a cute waitress brought us beer wasn't work, then I just don't know how to explain it.

I spent the entire day yesterday inside a 10 part storyline mission. I can't complain: I got this great piece of loot last night: Ocular Filter- Standard! My first +4, and it's worth a couple of ISK too. Still have 3 more parts to go, as well.

But I haven't actually 'played' EVE, as in interacted with any real people since last week, when Carita and I killed 2 frigs in PVP. I'd call that a rousing success if I hadn't forgotten to launch my drones. That's right, 3 million skill points in drones and I can't even remember to launch them. I just sat there wondering why this guy was lasting so long under the massive hit points that are my lame heavy missile skills (60,000 sp in missiles ftw!) Thankfully Carita was there with his usual cool manner to mop the guy up. And then this dude actually talked smack in local. It takes a lot of balls to attack someone, die and then jaw in local about how unfair it was. Not a lot of brains, but a lot of balls.

In the wider EVE-world, those of you who are interested in buying a stealth bomber had better jump on it, or wait a loooonnnggg time, while the market equalizes. The buff to bombers on Sisi, the talk of new 'bomb launchers' and the EVE-Tribune article have sent the prices through the roof. I know the price for the Gallente version (Nemesis) is up 400%. The others have jumped similarly, to as much as 30 million isk. Nice to have been slow on yet another EVE market opportunity.

Mein Covetor

2007-05-22T01:58:00.000-04:00

Two guys I know got into this convo yesterday about whether or not to insure a dedicated mission/ratting ship. The details aren't important, but one guy mentioned he'd had the same ship for 7 months. That got me thinking and I realized my Retriever is almost a year old.

It's not the 'best' time to be a miner: the mineral prices have more or less tanked, but it's pretty cool to be able to say I've been in the same ship for a whole year. Especially in my case, since most of my ships have a life-cycle of a fruit fly. Sayid's been in the same Moa for over a year, but that hardly counts. To use the insect analogy again, I like to think of Sayid as more of a "collector." Each of his ships stays safely pinned to a little card in his hangar, where he can look at it at his leisure.

So here's to my mining ships: "Om's Little Turtle" and "De Chelonian Mobile" They have served me well and faithfully and I will fly them as long as I can. And if an eagle (or a Raven or Moa) should attack me, I will bite them in the nuts (let's see if we have any DiscWorld scholars other than Kris)

I now yield the floor to Mojo...

EVE and the Outside World

2007-05-17T01:53:00.000-04:00

I have not been on EVE a whole lot this week, but I have played it on 4 different computers. These 2 things are linked: I have had on-going problems with my Dell PC, and now the repair guys think the motherboard has a short somewhere. (New commercial idea: "Dude, you're getting F**ked"). So I used my wifes laptop when I could (thank you Intel Macs that run windows), and my old computer (thank you inability to throw out any electronics), and now finally my new computer. I still have to run EVE on Windows (for now), but let me tell you, at 1600x1050 resolution, even a Kestrel looks gorgeous.

So I should playing a little more this week. Sayid, alas probably will not be. He's serving a 25 years to life sentence for beating a student to death. It was understandable: Sayid is in charge of the school graduation booklet, already late for the printing shop, and some kid brought him changes tonight at 9:30. We are appealing the case on grounds of justifiable homicide, but you know how Texas is....

I would direct your attention to this weeks EVE Tribune, specifically the Corporations article. I found it super thoughtful. Not interested in getting out the soap-box tonight, but it was a great comfort to know that what we're going through is a typical growing pain for corps our age/size.

We hope this will be the end of the "are they or aren't these guys Oro and Sayid" controversy. We've had fun with these two characters and they'll be back...probably to do embarrassing things to other corp members.

Appearances May Be Deceiving

2007-05-15T02:08:00.000-04:00

Stop me if you've heard this story...When Mojo was like, 3 months old, he had Ferox, which he thought was the baddest thing in EVE. One day he and I were finishing up a lvl 2 mission (for the record, I couldn't have done it without him) and a much younger corp mate was hollering in corp chat that he was being ore-thieved "by some guy in a cruiser." Mojo and I rushed to the belt where he was, to see a guy in a Curse baiting our mate by stealing his ore, bumping his ship... the usual. Mojo was all for charging in, guns a-blazin'. Not me, for the simple reason that I recognized that the 'cruiser' was a Tech2, PVP demon ship. I talked Mojo out of it by convo-ing the Curse in local, and asking him, theoretically, how long he thought it take to kill us. I don't recall the answer, but it was something like "ha ha ha, evil laughter." This guy boasted that he'd killed 4 ravens, at one time. We said thank you very much sir, please enjoy our ore, and moved on.

At the time, I had just enough experience at the time to know that T2 ships may have the same hull as a T1 ship, they are entirely different beasts underneath. One thing that drives me crazy in Eve is that much of the game has an "optimal" way of doing things. Each ship has a 'best' configuration of modules, and everyone uses it. At this point, any time you see a drake, you know it will be set up for tanking. Seems to me like shooting at the Drake is the dumbest thing you can do. One of my favorite recent videos is the Osprey of Doom, which I love because this guy's set-up is definitely NOT the standard. Of course you can bet that lots of people went out and set up their ospreys that way afterwards.

I'm trying to make a point here, but I'll be damned if I know what it is. Sayid doesn't know either, but he says I should always reference the comic. The point is NOT that Sub doesn't know what we look like, and the point is NOT that Sayid and I don't write ourselves into our own damn Webcomic, although both of those are true. The point is, the point is, is.....

Screw it, find your own damn point.

Innovation and Excellence

2007-05-10T01:37:00.000-04:00

Albert Einstein wrote "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Or it might have been Ben Franklin. Or an author named Rita Mae Brown, who wrote a very funny book about lesbians. Wow. I've derailed my own thread, and only 2 sentences in; that's not easy to do.

Anyway.....Is attempting the same task in a totally unique way each and every time you try it also insanity? Dunno. But that is what my esteemed comic partner is seemingly shooting for. After a dozen comics, we could finally say we've gotten into a rhythm. So do we knock the comic out by midnight and get some well deserved rest? Noooooo. Let's do a comic homage to Frank Miller. Sleep is apparently overrated.

Seriously, I'd like to sing the praises of the 1/2 dozen Korean wage-slave animators collectively known as "Sayid". This comic really rocked. In fact it was so good, that I wanted to remove my snarky dialog completely. He resisted, out of compassion I think. Oddly enough, I get most (all?) the praise for the comic, because I'm on earlier, and more regularly. But as my mother noted this weekend: "You write a comic? Aren't comics more drawing than writing?" (Yes mommy, thank you for pointing out that I now have a second hobby even less useful to society than playing a video game all day. Seriously I heal the sick and poor for a living, shouldn't that be enough?) But Sayid really is THE KEY to this whole endeavor. Otherwise this comic would be called, and look like the Adventures of The Badly Drawn Stick-People.

On a more soap-boxy note (you knew it was coming, admit it), I'd say that the best things about this comic are that 1) Sayid and I talk to each other every single day, in one form or another, 2) it's hugely entertaining to the two of us, and your enjoyment is a side-effect, and 3) by combining our skills we're producing something of much higher quality and consistency than either of us dreamed of. There must be some type of corp-related moral to that surely.

Oh, and in case we haven't made it clear, we think Lil kicks ass!

First things First

2007-05-08T02:04:00.000-04:00

Mojo stop drooling!

RL work day sucked today. Sucked. And all I could think about is how much I wanted to be playing EVE. Which then got me thinking about what parts of Eve start to feel like work. Now Sayid says that drawing a pirate hat that does NOT look like a banana is work, but I suspect that he's just being one of those whiny artist-types.

I was actually thinking about something more like, oh.... I don't know... corp mining. Now I actually am a miner at heart, and shooting rocks seems to be safer than shooting missions NPC's. For those of you keeping count I've lost 2 Ravens and 1 Myrm in past 2 weeks. But I will admit that mining, or worse yet hauling is work. So as much as I hate seeing suck-ass turnout for mining ops, it's not hard to understand. A bunch of us got into a conversation last week about how to scare, encourage, cajole, push, punish, reward, or offer cookies to get people to be more team-ish. But I'm starting to speculate that we'll eagerly participate in what feels fun, and grudgingly do what helps the cause. Again, after a hard day of work, why would anyone want more work?

So a couple questions: What parts of the game do you really enjoy, and do you spend enough time doing it? Do other folks in the corp know what you really like doing, and could we be joining you? Could the corp turn that into some sort of group op with you or for you?

The Point

2007-05-03T01:48:00.000-04:00

I want to follow up on Tuesdays blog, and talk some more about the direction the ACU is taking. Or directions. Or more accurately, the direction the corp members are looking. Or directions. I think we are looking past each other, like a bunch of cross-eyed hammerhead sharks, and in doing so we are squandering a huge opportunity. I'd like to encourage people to look within the corp, rather than outside the corp for resources.

For example, Mojo had to buy a rig that I have a fully researched bpo for because I haven't advertised my building skills. This meant he payed more than he needed too, and I lost badly needed isk. So many of the builders have purchased and researched duplicate bpo's that I want to tear my hair out. Carita is a ship-building machine just looking for things to build. He's got a growing business and reputation in the region. What ever the opposite of synergy is, we are currently taking it to new levels.

Here's an idea: I think our corp needs some sort of classified adds, our own internal Craig's list. The 'new' contract system is designed for something like this. Every time I look at my contracts page it says I can make "up to 500" personal or corp wide contracts. Imagine putting open contracts for ore or mins, or rigs or equipment, or ships. Going further, how about contracting someone to salvage for you. Or even tank for you, which is the only way I'll ever try another lvl 4 mission, having just lost my SECOND Domi in as many weeks, on as many missions. How much do you think Kris would charge to sit afk in his tanking Drake?

Sayid says I should get off my damn soap-box. Admittedly that last example was extreme, but not THAT extreme. Tuesday was the first time I've done a mission with a corp mate in at least a month, probably more. I learned more tricks from Mojo in one hour than I care to list, admittedly most of them AFTER I blew up. Some of us need to get hit over the head to learn. I'm one of those people. If the rest of you can't learn from my mistakes, then I'll just wait for you to learn from your own.

The Power of One

2007-05-01T01:17:00.000-04:00

Let's talk about the power of one for a few minutes. Or the lack there-of: By my rough count, at least 6 members of this corp (perhaps 9 of us) have access to lvl 4 agents. As far as I know, only one of us is regularly doing lvl 4's because the rest of us just don't feel safe soloing these missions. This is ENTIRELY appropriate, because lvl 4's are not meant to be soloed unless you own a pimped out T2/faction, specialty mission grind-mobile.

We are, as individuals and as a corp, letting a huge resource go to waste. Some of this is understandable: most of the older guys have their 'good' agents in The Citadel, a scant 74 jumps from home. I'm not sure who else has a 'local' agent, but my lvl 4 agent is 10 jumps away from our nearest corp office. But it was not always thus: I remember a time, not long ago, when we were soooo excited to get a group together and gang a lvl 4. In fact, Mojo lost his first Ferox that way (or was it his second.....).

CCP says that in the near future it will add lvl 5 and 6 missions to the game and these will be IMPOSSIBLE to do solo. So let's get ahead of the curve. Every activity doesn't have to be circle jerk, but maybe grab a friend in a BC, and another friend in a destroyer/cruiser set for salvage and go nuts. I can personally say that a mission with Sayid as my wingman is far better than any mission solo.

Unless I get really nice loot, then screw him.

Happy smegBirthday

2007-04-26T01:40:00.000-04:00

Our good friend SmegB is all of 25 years old today. So first off congratulations for that: he's managed to feed and clothe himself, and NOT get run over by a bus for a quarter century. This proves that EVE is not an accurate reflection of real life, because in EVE Smeg goes though ships like I go through a bag of cookies.

This comic had Sayid and I reflecting on how growth and change occur in EVE and how that affects our game-play. As most of you know, I am not a member of the 'next big ship' club, and Sayid is even less 'big ship' oriented than I. I would wager that Sayid is the oldest char in game who has NEVER flown a BC or larger. Hell, the boy still waxes dreamily about his destroyer. Now that's not everyone's style, but one thing about moving up to a big ship is that you're moving into a ship you have weak skills in. Sayid recently fitted a Caracal. With a year of skills in missiles, shields, agility (he's a inty specialist really), he can really fly the hell out of that thing.

Interestingly, Smeg, after months of experimenting in Cerberuses (Cerberi?), is back in his old baby, a Raven. I haven't really asked, but I'm curious if it doesn't just 'fit' him better? I would bet that after all those months of increasing the missile bonuses to max out the Cerb, a Raven is even sweeter than it was before. EVE is unique (I assume) in that skill trainings allow you to pimp not only one's ride, but also oneself.

Patch Day

2007-04-24T02:26:00.000-04:00

Ah, patch day. A day for relaxation, maybe some exercise. Sunlight perhaps. Catch up on a good book. Eat food that doesn't come packed in Styrofoam.

Let's not kid ourselves. These hours spent with EVE-Off-line are spent like an addict without his crack: scavenging behind the couch for just one hit, curled up in a ball rocking back an forth, or figuring out who to offer to blow for just one rock. But those minutes furtively checking to see the queue come back on the log-in screen finally pay off, and you can be the first person to see what crazy-ass bug has infected the chat window, or the first to petition that failed market sale.

So I hope you took the chance to check in with family and friends today. See if your pet/ kids are still alive. They are? Good. Has your wife left without you noticing? No? Excellent. See you in space.