Tweet Fleet & Goodies

A good many EVE players have made profiles for their avatars at Twitter, and over the past six months it has turned into quite a bustling community for EVE discussion. It could best be described as a meta-game 24/7 chat channel. Always something to read, always something to talk about.

Well as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, 00sage00 has done a great job of formalizing the “Tweet Fleet”—as it has been aptly dubbed—in some efforts on his blog. His latest bit of brilliance has been to take advantage of the new Twitter Lists feature, which compiles a set list of Tweeters into an easily followable list. So even if you aren’t on Twitter yet, joining and following the Tweet Fleet is a great way to dive right in.

To give an idea of how much it’s grown, I’d like to welcome the latest member of the Tweet Fleet: @ccpgames. CCP has actually had an account for a while and posted the occasional dev blog link from time to time, but in the past few days they’ve really upped their game and began responding to us capsuleers. It’s good to see them taking the time.

Badges

Now, If you’re viewing my site outside of your RSS reader, you’ll notice a little badge in the top-left of the site, and another in the footer.

As a small donation to the Tweet Fleet / EVE Blog communities, I’ve put together a few badges to be used on folks’ blogs that are either members of the Tweet Fleet, or simply want to help promote the community. All you need to do is input a few chunks of CSS and HTML in your blog layout.

Insert this anywhere in your CSS Style Sheet:

/*BLOG PACK BADGES*/ .badgecorner { position: absolute; left: -1px; top: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0; border: none; float: none; } .badgenormal { margin: 10px 0; padding: 0; border: none; } .badgecorner a img, .badgecorner a:hover, .badgenormal a img, .badgenormal a:hover { background-color: transparent !important; border: none; text-decoration: none; } /*END BLOG PACK BADGES*/

For the top-left corner badge, insert this directly under your HTML Body tag:

<!--CORNER BADGE--> <div class="badgecorner"><a href="http://twitter.com/00sage00/tweetfleet" target="_blank"><img src="http://h.imagehost.org/0800/tweetfleet1.png" alt="Member of the EVE Tweet Fleet" /></a></div>

For the inline rectangular badge, insert this in desired location within site (suggested side bar or footer):

<!--INLINE BADGE--> <div class="badgenormal"><a href="http://twitter.com/00sage00/tweetfleet" target="_blank"><img src="http://h.imagehost.org/0568/tweetfleet2.png" alt="Member of the EVE Tweet Fleet" /></a></div>

Enjoy!

A few notes: I don’t guarantee this code will work with every site layout. If it doesn’t work easily, my best suggestion is to keep calm and move along. I also don’t have time to troubleshoot the HTML if it doesn’t work on your site, so please avoid sending me your support requests. (Though I’m a softie, so if you really need help…ah, what the heck…)

Essential Resources

…And I’m not talking ores.

When attempting to grab a new MMO space by the horns, one of the most vital, helpful, and educational steps to take are to know what resources are available to the community. Every game has a selection of “you must know about this” web-sites and apps (or mods), but a problem for new players is that most veterans take this information for granted, and its often widely assumed that all players have found it already. It’s not any fault of theirs, of course, but more that it takes time for a new player to wrap their head around the wealth of information inherent in an MMO’s community…so it may be months before they stumble upon one of these resources if they aren’t plainly told of it sooner.

In my short month playing EVE so far, I’ve found of few of these resources myself. I’m going to share my findings below. To any veterans: to help me and other new players, list any other website resources that are vital bookmarks/downloads for the new capsuleer in the comments, no matter how obvious it may be.

I’ll add any new submission to the link list for reference. If you know any new capsuleers, feel free to refer them here. For noobs by noobs, right? Thanks, and I hope this helps somebody out there.

Official EVE Sites or Related

• EVE Official Forums: CCP provided and moderated. The amount of good information to be found here should not be underestimated. Lots of activity, including the usual trolling and complaining, but hey, it wouldn’t be an official MMO forum otherwise.
• EVE Dev Blog: CCP has done a rare thing by maintaining a blog that keep players in-the-know on CCP’s upcoming game developments strategies. All the juiciest “coming soon” information can be found here regularly.
• ISD News (rss link): The official in-game news source for major New Eden happenings. Mind you, these are not things that are happening ‘about’ the game, these are actual events—political, warfare, scandal—that are happening ‘in’ the game.
• EVE Feeds: All official foods for your feed reader.
• EON Magazine: The official physical magazine published by CCP quarterly. From what I hear, it’s beautifully made (extra glossy!) but lately some issues have run a little thin on content. It’s also a bit steep in price, but the trade of is no non-game-related advertising.
• EVE Forum Search: Since apparently the official forums have no functioning search feature, this website has been hugely indispensable in my short time playing the game. Its value speaks for itself.
• EVElopedia: The official EVE Wiki. It can be spotty in regards to consistency of information, but it covers a lot of bases and is an excellent place for new pilots to get answers.

Online Magazines/News

• EVE Tribune: Weekly mag with the highest quality player-written articles.
• Battle-Clinic: OK for news, but best for their kill boards and ship fitting (loadouts) sections.
• EVE Mag: A smaller profile, more indie-style magazine that takes good writing submissions from regular players like you and I (but good quality control from what I’ve read). Some inconsistency with the frequency of publishing but plenty of older articles for new players to dig through.
• The New Edener: Another news site worth throwing in the mix.

Tools & Applications

• EVEmon: Probably the single most utilized desktop client in the EVE community other than the game itself. Track your skill training and plan to meet your goals as a pilot. This is a must-have if you’re on a PC.
• EVEHQ: A newer contender for must-have status. This is a fitting tool, skill planner, and plenty more, all wrapped in one intense interface. If you don’t mind a little learning curve, you might prefer this.
• EVE Fitting Tool: Try out ship fittings before you buy all the modules in-game. Make your character has the skills to fly them well, and learn what skills you still need.
• Battle-Clinic Loadouts: View, create, and rate ship fittings. A decent resource for those at a loss on how to make their boat the best at what they do. Be wary though, plenty of these fits are as noobish as you can imagine. Use with caution.
• EVE Metrics: An excellent web tool for EVE’conomists and market gurus.
• Charactr: An online alternative to EVEmon that can send helpful updates on skill training via SMS and email.
• Capsuleer: An iPhone/iPod Touch app that has shaken up the status quo on 3rd party tool development for the game, and given Mac users something to shake in the faces of their PC-playing peers. Still in its early stages of release, but already making waves. I anticipate this will be on the same “must-have” playing field of EVEmon in short time.
• Ship Identification Flash Cards and Quiz: Perfect tools for the budding scout or rookie pilot.

Maps, Charts, & Visuals

• DOTLAN EVE Maps: Beautifully made online map application.
• Obeve Maps: Another comprehensive map system, downloadable in PDF form.
• EVE Strategic Maps: The official map book sold at the CCP store. Excellent production quality.
• Player Influence Map: Sometimes referred to as “the map”, for its extremely useful rundown of who owns what in the ‘verse.
• EVE Ship Database: Want to know what a Titan looks like since you know you’ll never fly one? This is the place. A screenshot of every ship in the game.

Radio Stations & Streaming

• New Eden Radio: Classic gaming radio station, playing everything under the sun—because EVE’s music can’t hold you off forever.
• Eve Radio: A station that has been running for 3 years and counting, also rocking space-worthy jams.
• Blue Mars: Ok, this one is extra special. If you want non-EVE music, but still want your game to feel immersive and EVE-like, go here now. It’s an incredible 24/7 stream of ambient sci-fi sounds, from contemporary soundtrack music to vintage Vangelis. And it’s three stations in one: Blue Mars, Cryosleep, Voices Within.

Podcasts

• The Drone Bay (iTunes): CrazyKinux, Alsedrech, and Crovan have done something pretty special here, in my humble opinion. They have great dynamic, and going through the back-catalogue of episodes is extremely valuable (not to mention addictive) for new players. They fell off the podcasting wagon a while ago, but even their old episodes are a must-listen for any new player. Just be aware that some information they discuss is dated.
• Podded (iTunes): War Childe and Dillon Arklight go over the news in their fancy British accents. My personal favorite way to keep up with the player happenings in New Eden.
• Warp Drive Active (iTunes): Winterblink and Urban have more or less stopped podcasting, but as with the others, back catalogs of podcasts are packed with invaluable history and information for new players. Lots of great listening here.
• Missions Collide (iTunes): A podcast for PVErs, by PVErs. Even if you aren’t particularly interested in missioning per se, new and old players are going to find plenty to learn from Song Li and co.
• Planet Risk (iTunes): A hefty 3 hour radio show (because it is cut out of a live radio program) with music interludes and all. While a bit too drawn out for my taste most times, there are still some great segments to be found. Great for turning on in the background while flying.

EVE Community

• The EVE Player Blog Roll: And a post about EVE resources cannot be complete without CrazyKinux’s mastermind community experiment gone-wild: an attempted list of every EVE player blog on the internet. This is the new heart of the EVE community, and it’s only growing.
• The EVE Blog Pack: CrazyKinux’s other (smaller) list of the blogs he follows closely and post most frequently, that are conveniently packaged in both Google Reader feed format and OPML provided by Ga’len.
• The Tweet Fleet: This is the name dubbed for EVE thriving community on twitter. Just create a new account, upload your character avatar, start following the Tweet Fleet and get in some conversations. It’s an excellent place to make connections, network, and pass the work day by when you can’t fly. Big props to 00sage00 for maintaining the list.

Other / Miscellaneous

• ISKsense: Like Google Adsense, but with kredits. Pay ISK to advertise on a network of websites, promote your corp or alliance, or monetize your own site.