Hello Friends, I'm Not Dead

 What  a relief right?

Now that we got the obvious out of the way let me give you an update.

I've started playing EVE again and I'm intentionally trying to go easy on it. I'm trying not to make the mistakes I've made in the past when I've tried to come back and failed.

Story time.

I'm a salty vet but recognizing that you are salty is the first step to rehabilitation. I posted in the /r/EVEJOBs subreddit that I was a vet looking for a fresh perspective and wormhole space. I was quickly petitioned by multiple offers but my one caveat to joining this new corp was that it had a minimum amount of people on coms at all times.

This may sound braggadocios but I can say I've done most everything in EVE that I care to do. I've done it in every way that I care to do it. This kind of experience I've found has lead me down a path toward boredom and burn out. The problem isn't the game, its me and how I look at the game its tools.

Take voice coms for example; Discord is superior in most ways and free. Its become the standard for gaming communication and left TS/Mumble and Ventrillo in the dust. Of course thats just my opinion, to which I wouldn't like being a part of those voice com servers because I find them inferior.

The above statement is how I view nearly all things in EVE. I know about the options and I am happy with what I like. This can be very limiting and boring. I recognize this and I'm trying to fix it.

There for, when I entered into this new corp I tried my damnedest to not have preconceived notions about how they do things. They use Team Speak, I don't know why, I didn't ask.. and better yet, I didn't try and change their minds to the way I'm accustom to doing things.

Fresh perspective.

I just jumped into their coms and started talking like I was excited to play the game.

I can tell you that its provided me some area of growth and challenges that I thought I would never need to overcome again.

Take wormhole chain mapping, the way they do it, makes total sense, when someone takes 30 minutes to explain it to you. Its tuff to learn and is antiquated as hell. Its not efficient, its not how anyone I've ever heard of does it, and better yet. Brace yourself.. they don't use a wormhole mapping software. Thats like driving across the country without using a map.When I first heard it, I thought these people were absolutely out of their minds. I know you may be interested how that can be possible so I'll do my best to describe it.

Mapping a chain without a map:

Lets say we have a C4 wormhole. Lets name it Mike.Mike has 2 static connections. In the corp bookmarking system, we will call them A and B.  So the Static connections to Mike are labeled like this.

W A H900 C5 YUX. Exactly like that.

The first letter W signals 'Wormhole".

The letter A signals its the A static, which is always the same from our hole.

The following H900 represents the type of connection it is between wormholes. H900 would be a C5.

The YUX is the spacial signature you get from your probe scans.

Now the other side of the wormhole bookmark looks like this.

W A Back K162 ITI Exactly like that.

Same as before, but the BACK is the important part. Because all the following wormholes will have an additional random (somewhat) letter attached to them which will make those holes appear below the W A BACK in the corp bookmark drop down.

For example a connecting high sec in the A static would look like this.

W AH D126 IFF Exactly like that.

The AH, is A hole H connection. H is a reserved letter used only for high sec connections.

Crazy right?

So if you want to know where a high sec connection is and you're in high sec wanting to come back in, you simply look through your corp bookmarks for the connection that is in Kspace with "Back" in the name. Then its just a matter of following the "back"s  to the home.

No map needed.

I thought this system would go to shit when I needed help with a target down a chain.

All I need to do is post where I am in coms or in Fleet with  "I'm at  ATKOB  and I need help".

This translates that I'm 5 jumps down the chain and anyone that would be flying to assist, simply flys from one wormhole to the next by going  to W A... then W AT.. then W ATK then W ATKO then WATKB.

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Its slightly ingenious by really hard to visualize and teach new people. I would never had that experience had I had preconceived notions about what way things needed to be done based on what I know works already.

This is just one thing my new corp does thats out of the ordinary. They also have some very interesting ways of doing nearly everything that I find endearing. I'm not going to go into all of them at this time, just know that I hold my tongue on a great many things.I let them discover and fail themselves because thats part of the fun. If I step in and try to control everything I'm just going to get burned out again.

I could be a stick in the mud and tell them stuff won't work. I could tell them the "better way" of doing stuff, but fuck that, I want to experience EVE again!!

... O and they let me fly a assault frig all the time, which I think is awesome!!! Eventually they're get frustarted with me and tell me to stop, but right now.. I'm manually piloting vs larger ships while they pick up the slack with DPS.

I'm having a good time, if you can tell.