Moving Is Finished, Time To Work

Moving is done for the moment. Might need to take a couple days to sort things now and again, but I've likely got the rest of the year to work on current projects with little interruption. I've spent this morning clearing out my secondary hard-drive and getting my computer to a happier state. Before the end of today, I'll be able to record, edit, upload and stream anything I want to. So here's an overview of what I'll be doing the next couple of months.

Blogging

Most recently I've been doing a lot of meta blogging and haven't produced as much actual content as I would like. I'll be writing more now and it will contain content that I'll have spent more time on. This will also include more EVE Online content, as I will be playing more EVE. I'll be looking into doing more high quality Dust posts over the coming months too, likely including guides and some more opinion pieces. There's some cool stuff in store for when the orbital changes come too (hopefully in 1.5).

Boots On The Ground

I'll be recording weekly again and with my new upload speeds, should result in quicker delivery and overall higher quality. Interest in the show has dropped a bit, but I'm still committed to making it. If anyone wishes to be a guest on the show, details are in the blog on the sidebar.

CPM Live

With the success of the CPM Ask Me Anything that took place over a month ago, I've been wanting to push to do a live weekly show with the CPM members that are interested. According to Hans' latest blog, the development schedule requires a level of compressed feedback that the show should help facilitate. Format will likely be an hour long and involve answering questions posted in the Youtube comments system. I will play a pure moderator role and mostly just filter questions coming in. Time and day is still to be set, a blog will be posted when they are.

General Youtube

I've mostly just been putting low effort videos onto Youtube recently and it shows. The best videos I've made recently can't be shown to the public yet and I haven't had time for better content. After some feedback from various places, raw gameplay videos will probably stop after the Logi Bro games are up. I will be taking more time to actually edit and produce more enjoyable content. I will also be streaming EVE and Dust on the channel too, so those will be archived and used for videos.

In the end, I'll probably monetize streaming, guides and talk shows, with tournament stuff later on. This means my other videos will have no restrictions on things like music, so I can make some videos for the sake of making cool stuff.

The 4 Minute Update

This project came to a grinding halt when we realized it's problems early on. It's been in limbo until new artwork and a real intro can be made. The older interviews will likely need redone or require a rework. This is frustrating since people took the time to talk to us back in July, but hopefully we can work things out. Artwork is almost done now, so it'll be back shortly after that has been finalized.

Other Projects

In about 2 weeks, I'll disappear for a couple days to do some personal stuff and work on something with a couple real life friends. This is something outside of gaming, so I'll only mention it in the future when it impacts other stuff I'm working on.

Anyway, time to go get some of this done.

Boots On The Ground S01E15

Starting next week, we'll be back to a normal, weekly schedule again. For now, enjoy an exhausted Gimble try to host the show.

Audio link is on the sidebar.

Boots On The Ground S01E14

It's weird to think that it's been almost 2 months since the last Boots On The Ground. I'll have finished moving in around 3 weeks from now though. I managed to find some time to get an episode set up and recorded though.





Audio version on the sidebar --------->

Quick Update About Content In August

Been a bit quiet recently around these parts, figured I'd give some details into the near future.

Boots On The Ground

The next BOTG with be recorded on the weekend of the 10th August and will be the only episode until September. This is mostly an issue of free time, as it takes a large amount of time to actually organize the show. Once I've moved in September, I'll be able to dedicate myself more to the show. Doing even 1 show in August is a big deal on my schedule, but I don't want to leave people hanging for too long.

Other Video Content

There's another video on my channel right now that is currently unlisted until I get the go ahead from CCP that they've fixed the exploit it covers. It has the potential to break the game more so than anything else I've seen this year, so I'm not even going into details on that.

Other videos I'll upload in August include the tournament matches I'll be playing in for GIANT. Outside of those however, I won't really be doing much as far as my main channel is concerned.

There were some hiccups with another video project I've been working on, so that will be taking a lot of what little time I have outside packing and Dust.

Blogs

When the exploit video goes up, I'll be doing my review of the Mordu event as well. There's a 1.3 review that will happen at some point and I might do something along the lines of thoughts on the Plasma Cannon.

I'll also be doing a blog on the format I want to use for Dust competition in the future when Gladiator features come in. It's something I'll be focusing on a lot in the future (2014), so I'll be looking into feedback on that.

I'll also do some feedback on the Prime Cup or whatever it's called.

September Live Streams

Once I've moved, I'll be able to stream Dust. Given that, I'm planning on a few weekly shows that will be recorded live.

The first will be a show featuring a guest CPM member to hang out and answer questions. We'll be playing some casual games while we do this (maybe Flash Duel) to fill time between questions. Currently Kane has confirmed that he would like to do this, so it will definitely be happening. Not sure if other CPM members would be interested.

The second will be a weekly show going into specific parts of Dust for around 30 minutes before doing another 30 of Q&A. Topics might include specific weapons, dropsuit layouts, reviewing old matches, talking to veteran players and more. This is aimed at giving players some direction

I'll be doing some general streaming outside of those too, but my main focus for Dust content at first will be putting out those 2 pieces of content and Boots On The Ground while working on a single side project.

Life Is Hard, Get Used To It

Life's a bitch.

Probably the most important thing a teacher ever told me while I was at school and something I've only come to realize the weight of recently. This cliché applies to almost anything, but in this case, I'll apply it to Dust 514 in particular. There's a few points I'll go into.

First of all, Dust will evolve over time in the same way that most multiplayer games that involve strategy at some level do. If you move into the most powerful playstyle there is in a game, the meta will shift one way or another. If something is too dominant and the game has active developer support, it will get patched to allow for competing strategies. It's almost a bad idea to invest so heavily into something too dominant because in all likelihood it will get nerfed before you can reap the rewards from the time invested into it.

To use a Dust example, the Caldari Logistics suit was straight up better at being an Assault suit that the Caldari Assault suit. Large amounts of people went straight into it with no real intention of playing a "logi" role. Considering that part of the fitting system in Dust is to allow this style of gameplay to a degree, that in itself isn't the issue. The fact that Logistics suit outperforms a dropsuit at it's named role is an issue however.

So they're nerfing the logistics suits and people are crying "woe is me". To be honest, I haven't played around much with Caldari suits beyond my recruiter militia assault, so all I can do is make a loose prediction. The new Caldari logi looks like it will do fine in a hybrid support/combat role. It will still have a large amount of high slots and the new bonuses still allow for an improved tanking capability, but it will be weaker than an assault counterpart for actual combat.

People are suggesting that we should start seeing respecs until CCP finishes balancing the game. But this won't work out in the long term and balance changes will almost always exist. That's not to say that having some form of respec system that allows players to make tweeks to their skills would be bad though. Merely that offering constant respecs until the game is "balanced" or "complete" makes the consequence of choosing your skills meaningless.

With that in mind, I'd like to go into my second point: what does Dust 514 teach it's players? Back in 2006, I read this article about what World of Warcraft was teaching it's players through it's game design. It could be said that Dust shares some of the flaws that article points out, but for now I'll look at some good things Dust teaches it's players.

The skill system teaches the importance of forward thinking. If you do some brief research before investing heavily into something, you are rewarded for doing so. It also teaches the consequences of making choices. If you choose to specialize heavily into something and that becomes weaker through some means, you have to deal with being weak until you . Someone who is more general with their skill tree has to face being weaker against a specialized player.

It isn't just the skill tree either. The social aspect of this game has a similar vibe. Do well in a public match? Maybe someone will want to invite you to their corp. Leave a corporation under poor circumstances? Get blacklisted by their alliance. Send someone an angry mail after a match?

Get put on some guy's blog!

I'd agree with CCP lessening this to a degree though (it is a game). EVE has the ability to remap your learning capabilities, so Dust players getting the ability to refund a skill every x months would help prevent people getting completely screwed. So long as choices continue to matter, then I'm fine with what CCP decide to do.

Last of all, don't throw money at a company based on what they say they "could do" unless you're willing to live with not getting any return on that investment. If Kickstarter has shown us anything over the past year, it's that companies will talk big, with few actually delivering on their set goals.

Money should be used to purchase goods and services, not hopes. People who spent money on Dust to "support CCP" and were then angry with what they got out of it are simply self entitled. You were given tangible benefits from you purchases. If they don't meet with your expectations, then you should simply not purchase said benefits again and move on with your life one way or another. If you can get a refund, then all the power to you.

You can sit around complaining and feeling sorry for yourself about this all you want, but you're only going to make yourself miserable and piss off those around you. If you want to do this, you're free to. Just don't expect people to think highly of you in return however. I'd advise that you instead take what you've learned from this experience and use it to your advantage in the future.

CCP aren't innocent in all this and have made numerous mistakes along the way. Incorrect skill descriptions, obvious balance issues, poorly handling the game's release (merc packs), a lack of communication with the playerbase (exceptions include True Grit) and a rushed feel to features.

But they've been slowly moving in the right direction more recently however. Only time will tell how this turns out, so I guess you could go outside and enjoy the sun in the meantime. There isn't much point doing something if it's just making you miserable, because life's a bitch and you should really just make the most of it.

No Boots On The Ground Until August

The tldr of this is I'm burnt out from Dust and I have pressing real life commitments. If you want more details, I've written some below.

Burnt Out From Dust

Playing a single game almost exclusively for about 6 months will burn anyone out. My expectations of how well the game would do were dampened by multiple issues with bugs, hardware limitations, mislabelled abilities, poor communication from devs (except logicloop, foxfour, nullarbor and that guy who helped fix mouse aiming), etc

I've actually started playing EVE again and the difference is startling. Crisp gameplay with relatively few bugs, game developers who come to the community for feedback weeks/months ahead of a release, being able to play with whoever I want, a community that doesn't yell racist bullshit over public comms, feeling like I'm making an impact on New Eden while still just being pick up and play.

I'm hoping 1.2 sees the game moving in that direction. The latest dev blog is already a good sign of things to come and by the time I'm back, hopefully we'll have some details on 1.3 to further that.

Real Life and Other Commitments

I've probably mentioned this more than enough times already, but I'm moving house in a couple months. This isn't just a simple pack up and move though, I have to get rid of about half of everything I own. This consists of going through old boxes of stuff I'd forgotten about and deciding what to do with them. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes you find an old letter from a deceased family member. Either way, it's time consuming and takes a lot of mental fortitude to get through.

Outside of this, I've also been working on another project with a friend called "The 3 Minute Update". After a ton of work, we finished up our first video and published it yesterday.

Why am I not dropping this over BOTG? Well for a start, this takes a lot less work to get set up and is relatively easy as far as the type of work goes. Uploading a video for it doesn't take up most of a day and it's fairly stress free as I'm only in charge of the video editing rather than hosting as well.

We've also publicly stated that there will be a new video every Thursday and since we're working with people who are much higher profile than us, it would be really bad if we couldn't manage that. There's some other stuff as well, like how videos aren't as time sensitive so I could queue several up to release automatically and how the money used from this will allow me to continue making more BOTG. Simply put, it isn't a project I can simply walk away from, nor do I want to.

Looking Forward

The only other thing I won't be doing is making the AT11 advert for EoN. It was silly and I might save it for some other propaganda in the future. In all likelihood, it would have been rejected by CCP anyway.

Other than that, I'll still be writing on here and putting up some videos on the channel. Just not as much as I am right now. Writing can be done in bursts, so I'll probably focus more on written content for now.

After I've moved, I'll have much faster internet. This means videos will go up in minutes instead of hours and I'll be able to live stream on Twitch. I'll likely be doing a lot of live streaming once I'm able, although probably not for content like BOTG. It's something I've done a fair amount of before and enjoy the hell out of too.

Anyway, it's only a month or so from now and I'll work on making the beginning of BOTG something memorable. How does a CCP member as a guest sound?

A Week Back In Galmil

So with a lot of people burnt out from Dust right now, I've picked up EVE again as my primary game of choice. I came to love EVE PvP last year after spending about 6 months in the Gallente militia. So with Dust on the back burner and EVE side orbital support being pretty much worthless, I moved my main back to Galmil.

I started by going to cash out the LP I had when I left to join GIANT, which went poorly after flying a regular Megathron into a high sec gate camp. It really hit home how overconfident I was compared to when I had left. This probably came from leaving when Gallente owned every system and the Caldari had dropped players like flies. Since then, the warzone is much more eqaul. Drunk and Disorderly are now pirates, the Caldari have grown in numbers and some of Villore Accords have split off.

But no matter, I bought a couple of Brutix instead and with my new found ISK, went to go get some more ISK. At first, this was easy, Gallente are sitting at tier 2 and I have time in the morning to play. The burst-like gameplay of PvP plexing makes for a good way to get writing and some other work done between fights.

At first it went OK, but my cap stable AB Incursus ran into problems quickly. I wasn't able to get on top of anyone and began to get kited by Condors repeatedly. This resulted in calling for help on multiple occasions. The first time this happened, the Condor had me pointed for 20 minutes while we both waited for friends to arrive. I messaged those passing by for help but only finding a ship-less friendly who promised to send word for help. Minutes passed as myself and the Condor continued to fly from the plex warp in. At what must have been around 500km, a hostile finally showed up, but more pirates and Gallente did too. As wrecks started to appear on d-scan, the hostile left the Condor and I to our strange tug of war.

Eventually a pirate Slasher appeared and started to burn towards us. As I awaited my slow death however, a Maulus also appeared. I hadn't played too much after Retribution, so was unfamiliar with what a Maulus was capable of. As the Maulus burned after the Slasher at over 6km/s however, I soon realized I was saved. As the Maulus caught the Slasher, slowly devouring it with drones, the Condor pulled off and I was free. My friend had also arrived but to no matter, I was safe for now and more plexing awaited.

This respite was to be short lived though. As another Condor caught me on an acceleration gate, a repeat of the last half hour dawned on me. Luckily my friend was still nearby and we actually got a chance to catch him. Sadly my friend burned out his web and we let him escape, but it was a good fight while it lasted and my taste for PvP left me wanting. A few more plexes and another Brutix sale later, I decided to step up my game and fly a Harpy instead.

Now this is where my time playing Dust had come in handy. A long break from EVE meant I wasn't logging in much, so I had decided to queue long skills such as Assault Frigate V. A small amount of playing in EVE fitting tool later and I had a Harpy build I was happy with. For those interested in the exact build, here's the loss mail. The Harpy was good for plexing. It could take on most other gun based destroyers and frigates while also being able to kill missile frigates. It's main issue was ships being able to escape with webs, but as I was able to stay on the plex while my enemies fled, it didn't matter too much.

I think I made around 400 million ISK from this Harpy while actively PvP'ing. The issue was having to run from other missile based platforms, but it did it's job well while it was alive. I decided to switch things up with it's successor however. The rocket launcher wasn't doing as much as I'd hoped, so I switched in a small neutraliser. This allowed me to do well in cap wars against the wave of repairing ships I was encountering. Like it's predecessor, it earned me a large chunk of change and I only lost it through attacking into an obvious trap. I'll likely fly more Harpies in the future, it's a great ship and I've got more ideas for how I want to fly it.

After all this, I'd plexed my account and had a big chunk of money left over to play with. Feeling the need to have a frigate that used a web, I did what anyone with more money than sense would do: I spent a quarter of a billion ISK on a Daredevil. The thing was a really beauty; multiple A-type modules, a faction web, a tight fit with a logical purpose and around 300 damage per second. I went to sleep last night happy with my purchase and after some early more Dust, decided to take it for a spin.

After a quick novice plex done, I moved on to the next system to do another. With 3 minutes left on the timer, I noticed a Merlin and a Tristan on short scan. I decided to stand and fight, not knowing whether I would win or lose against such a force. I felt confident in my chances though and it wasn't completely unfounded. The Tristan landed first and fearing ECM drones, I quickly jumped on top of it and overheated my guns to bring him down quickly. He was tougher than expected, but I was basically touching him, so my little Ion Blasters powered through and brought him down.

I rejoiced for about half a second before realizing I had been heavily by the Merlin and was in half armour. In my tunnel visioned blood-lust, I had forgotten to target the Merlin. With barely any capacitor left, I tried to drain some cap and started repairing again. I panicked and wasn't sure what to do. At first I fought back, but realized I should have run. I could have escaped him if I had wanted to, but I was too used to standing my ground. I died with barely any capacitor left, desperately trying to repair when I should have been webbing him. I flew my pod to the sun and with a "gf" in local, left to go find a new (cheaper) ship to start earning my way back up again.

Fare thee well Daredevil.

At the end of the day though, I'm having a blast. Solo PvP is insanely enjoyable and I'll be sure to fly more expensive ships to their doom. I have no idea what the future holds for my Dust corp and I may well get dragged into fighting for another militia. What I will say is I missed you Galmil and I hope we get to spend more time together.

Boots On The Ground S01E13

Didn't talk much about a couple things last week because of time constraints and Hans being unavailable. We also talk a bit about E3 because that was a thing that happened this week.

Audio version on the sidebar ---->

Boots On The Ground S01E12

After some technical hiccups on the guests end, we decided to use Skype. This process cut us short by about 40 minutes, so we had to rush things along towards the end. I'll try to get Mavado on again in the future, as he couldn't get Skype to work properly either.





Audio version on the sidebar ---->

Boots On The Ground S01E11

So after getting a number of requests, I've decided to split Boots On The Ground into 2 parts (maybe more when needed). This should take what was the 90 to 120 minute long video and break it into smaller chunks that can be comfortably watched in a single sitting. The audio version will remain as a single part however.

Also, as a 1 time thing, we squaded up to hunt Templars for the event this weekend. It was a lot of fun, but it doesn't make for an amazing talk show.

Audio is on the sidebar ->

New Video Series, SUPC

So after recording a Planetary Conquest battle today, I thought about the things that I could do with the footage. These ranged from taking parts for a frag video, to a possible 10+ minute commentary on my gameplay.

The general rule with "serious business" matches is not to release them. You could potentially be giving out intel on your strategies and tactical decisions. There's also the fact that some people don't like having their voices recorded and I would always choose not to record, over doing wrong by an alliance member. Also, Dust is a fairly slow paced game and many people don't want to sit through 20 minutes of raw match footage.

So with that in mind, I've decided to do a new style of video and I hope others consider this as well. I call it 'Sped Up PC' or SUPC for short. The idea is to take a full corp match and speed it up to 3, 4 or even 5 times it's original speed. This makes watching PC battles a bit more time efficient (and makes Dust's shitty framerate less apparent). Instead of game sounds, simply slapping some music over it so no-one has to worry about stealing plans and such. I realize Pyrex did something like this a while back, but I guess I want to start a trend for it.

Outside of gaming and making videos, one of my favourite things to do is search Youtube, Newgrounds and Soundcloud for new music to listen to. This allows me to combine the 3 in a simple manner and I hope others decide to join me.

Anyway, here's Ill Omens vs Seraphim Initiative.

New Blog Series, Updates To Youtube Content

Looking Back and Looking Forward

So the time has come to start putting a more serious effort into whatever it is I'm doing with Dust. For the most part, I've been charging into things with rough ideas. This has taught me a lot about myself, producing content and where I want to go with things.

When I first decided I wanted to try and produce content for Dust, a friend I'd worked with before said to me, "do you think you're interesting enough?" I've since come to realize he had a good point. At this point in time, CEOPyrex, DStheDrunkHeavy and lowratehitman are all better at doing regular videos that involve themselves talking while playing than I am. In all likelihoods, this will always be the case and I should accept that while moving on to things I am good at. I spent two days depressed about (not) doing a "5 issues I had with Uprising" because talking into a mic for 5 minutes solid is that far removed from my comfort zone. I also spend the hour before each Boots on the Ground with knots in my stomach for similar reasons (although am fine during the show).

So now that I know what my weaknesses are, it's time to focus where I'm strong. Writing doesn't make me nervous at all, so when I have an opinion on something, you'll be finding it here. This might not always Dust and EVE related, but for the most part will be. My other main strength is in being consistent. The only reason you don't see a Boots on the Ground every week is scheduling issues with guests, I could do 2 shows a week and be fine but my method of organizing who comes on the show every week has been lacking. This will need fixed as I plan to make more weekly content.

So with all that said, here's what's coming.

Boots on the Ground

I'm changing how I manage guests for shows starting now. Instead of creating new Skype groups every week, there will be one group that has everyone who is interested in being on the show in. Every week I'll say when the next show will be recorded and people interested in being on the show can message me. If you want in this group you will need the following.

• To be at least 18 years of age (legal reasons).
• A good quality mic and an image of yourself, your EVE/Dust character or a webcam.
• 2 hours of free time that doesn't involve getting scolded by family.

If you want into this group, you can contact me via Skype, Youtube or twitter (@GimbleB).

Aside from that, I only need to get some artwork and the RSS feed for audio downloads done, but that will come later.

Frontlines

Frontlines is currently pegged as a weekly show that highlights Planetary Conquest activity in Dust. The rough outline is for the show to last 5 to 10 minutes, talking about Dust and EVE fights that have taken place. Youtube annotations will be used to promote videos of both games for those interested in seeing the action itself. All content on the show will be community sourced.

Threads for this will appear on the "My Dust" and "My EVE" forum sections within 24 hours of this post with an accompanying blog post.

Other Content

I will continue to post more content on Youtube outside of these two shows. This will include but not be limited to corp battles, frag videos, humorous videos (LAV racing), EVE battles and videos to match written guides.

I will also start writing guides for fittings (both Dust and EVE), updates on the channel, thoughts on Dust/EVE/Gaming and more.

For now though, I've got work to do. Boots on the Ground 9 and the Frontlines pilot will be up next weekend. New blog post tomorrow.