WTFB: Be Careful With Drunk Forum Posting

You know those great ideas you have when you're drunk?  Like jumping off the roof of your house; yeah guess what, they usually aren't great ideas.  This continues to forum posting.  I've had a few instances where I posted something and the next day I just scratched my head and wondered why I was possessed with such stupidity.  It makes you look like you need to go back in the womb for a while and cook some more.  Those brilliant ideas that will fix the game forever, like completely removing CONCORD, usually aren't fully vetted in your mind when you've been drinking.

If you've got something important to say, and you're drunk, think about it long and hard.  Remember, the people reading it don't know your drunk, but they do know that you're an idiot.

WTFB: Don't Mine

We all need to make isk, but mining is about the worst way to do it.  It's boring, low isk/hour, and any skills you train are useless for anything else.  If you truly enjoy mining, you're a weirdo.  If you like to make things, do something worth more isk/hour and buy the minerals.

I trained Mining to 3, Mining Upgrades to 1, Industry to 2, and Refining to 2 in a period of warped logic that I would build up some "isk making skills" when I started the game.  That's like 10,500 wasted skill points!  Don't do it, you can't get it back!

WTFB: Don't Corp Hop

I've been involved in the recruiting process a little bit in my Eve time and one of the first things that is looked at is employment history.  Having the list littered with dozens of different corps sends a huge red flag up to any recruiter and will make your chances of being accepted much harder.  This information says that either you are impossible to get along with, you're a scammer, you're flaky, you go inactive for long periods of time for no reason, or a combination of all of the above.

That's not to say you shouldn't leave a corp if it isn't working for you, or that it's terrible if you have some trouble finding your way when you're new to the game, just don't make a habit of it.  Understand that if you have a large number of corps you've been a member of, you are going to be asked questions about them and why you left.  This is especially true if the time spent in those corps is very short.

WTFB: Alochol And Expensive Things

I know you've had that moment.  You get back from the bars, or after a party, and all you want is to see some shit explode.  We've all been there.  When you are at that point, don't grab your multi-billion isk, officer fit, Macherial.  Leave the Titan toon alone.  Don't so solo PvPing in your Tengu.  Grab something cheap and go fly.  You will lose it.

Fact:  Every single time I've PvPed while drunk, I've lost my ship.  Luckily I've never taken anything expensive out, but the fact remains.

WTFB: Ask For Intel

So you've spent some time in highsec and you need to come back to the fold.  You know the routes in are often camped.  This is when it behooves you do ask if there's anything in your path.  It will save you from a stupid loss.

A month or so ago I lost a Stiletto because I didn't do this exact thing.  I was in an interceptor, I'll be fine I thought.  I came through the gate into PVH, Bubble went up, ship went down.  Had I simply asked on coms if the way was clear, or if there was any activity in the area I would have been prepared and probably not lost my ship.  Not an expensive lesson thankfully, but a lesson non-the-less.

WTFB: "Keep up to date with Eve events."

The people who should read this piece of advice probably won't.  Remember Burn Jita?  Remember how everyone knew it was happening a month or two in advance?  Remember the splash screen CCP put up warning people about it?  Remember how everyone was smart and no one brought freighters to Jita and the Goons didn't get any kills?  ...Oh wait, I guess that last part didn't happen.

If you keep up to date with events like Burn Jita you can save yourself a lot of frustration.  If you stay on top of what's going on you can make a lot of isk, or take advantage of someone else's misfortune.  Even if all you do is mine all by your self, it's good to know the basics of what's going on in the galaxy.  This is a social game after all.

Reaching Greatness

Have you ever seen that guy at the gym with biceps as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger, but with the legs of a 10 year old girl?  Why does he look like this?  Why doesn't he work out his lower body?  What about that friend who is too scared to talk to a girl?  If he talks to her, he might get a date and he might not; but if he doesn't, he won't get anything.  How about that friend of yours who always dips into drugs when times are bad?

All of these people have something in common, they've reached a comfort zone that they don't want to break out of.  It's easier to work our your already strong and good looking arms than it is to go through the pain all over again on your legs.  It's easier to just wish you could get a date than it is to face the possible embarrassment of a rejection.  It's easier to get away from it all.

One of my coaches once said a phrase that has stuck with me, "Become comfortable with being uncomfortable."  It's a phrase that I'm sure many of you have heard in different forms before, but I'd like to expound on it a bit.

Every one of us have this nasty little habit where we don't like to change things away from their status quo.  I have friends who are in serious long term relationships but wish they could go play the field; I have friends who play the field and wish they were in a serious long term relationship.  Both sides of the position could change it if they would only get outside of their comfort zone.

Have you ever had a friend or family member who constantly complained about how life was so unfair?  "Why wasn't I blessed to be a trust fund baby?"  This attitude ties into our inability to get uncomfortable.  That same coach once said, "You are exactly where you are in life because of the decisions you have made.  It's not someone else's fault, they aren't more lucky than you, and no one is keeping you from reaching their level."  Now obviously, this isn't true 100% of the time (a lotto winner is pretty lucky), but if you think about, almost every successful person in the world (in any endeavor) are successful because of their choices; and every unsuccessful person is unsuccessful because of their choices as well.

 So how do we reach greatness?  It's simple, do things that make you uncomfortable.  Are you terrified to approach girls at the bar?  Go find the hottest girls you can find and go for it!  Do you hate to run?  Too bad, go run!  Can't stomach to lose ships?  Get 100 of them and lose every single one!  Terrified to look like an idiot FCing?  Take a fleet out this weekend!

Eve is very similar to real life in many ways.  We all get into our comfort zone and don't want to leave.  Maybe you're a miner and want to tr PvP, but you're nervous.  Maybe you want to try a big scam, but are afraid of being caught up.  Whatever if it, if you want to reach the levels you dream of within Eve, get comfortable being uncomfortable.

My challenge to you is this.  Find something that you are terrified or hate doing, and go do it at least once this upcoming week.  Myself?  I'll be FCing my first fleet, I'll tell you how it goes.

Words To Fly By

So every week on Monday I will be giving you a piece of random advice that can help you in the game.  I know this is Wednesday, but from now on it'll be posted on Monday.  These aren't going to be the normal rules like "Don't fly what you can't afford to lose,"  what they will be are little things that you might not have thought about before.  Some will be serious, some tongue-in-cheek, some probably useless, but hopefully all with be entertaining.

WTFB: "If you have an excited pet, keep it out of the room while PvPing."

 

If you have an over aggressive dog, cat, Boa Constrictor, Gazelle, or Elephant, it is probably best if you don't let it in the room with you while you're trying to be "leet.

True Story:  About three weeks ago I was skirmishing with Agony and probably doing a pretty terrible job at it.  This wasn't my dogs fault.  I have a five month old Siberian Husky, and it is an amazing dog, but if you know anything about Huskys, you know that they are very very active and energetic.

I have my computer hooked up to my HDTV and I sit on the couch when I play, putting my keyboard in my lap and the mouse on the armrest while I play.  It doesn't sound like it would work, but it works perfectly for me.  Aurora (my dogs name) was pretty active and every now and then I would throw a toy for it to chase whenever it was too close to me.

I hooked back up with our fleet and another skirmisher found a fleet a little to big for us to take on in a straight up flight, so our FC ordered everyone to burn away from the gate so we could try and snipe one or two of them before we escaped, a fine plan.  This is when Aurora decided to go Kujo on me.

At about the exact time the order was given to burn away (and right before the other fleet came through the gate), Aurora jumped over the back of my couch and landed right on my head.  She slid down on top of my lap covering my keyboard and began licking and nipping at my face and hands as I desperately tried to align and get away from the gate.  The other fleet came through.  I was targeted, scrammed, destroyed, and podded before I was able to free myself from Auroras loving attack. 

Frustrated that I was just killed by my dog, I logged for the night and went about playing with her for a while.  Lesson to be learned?  I now keep my dog upstairs whenever I PvP.