Meet Mandrilllus Rex

Posted on May 28, 2008
Filed Under EVE Online, Games |

I have done the tutorials (as everyone should, no matter how hardcore a gamer you are) and am now floating about waiting for Empyrean Age to drop, doing missions and ratting in a minimally fitted Rifter. So its about time I introduced you to my new EVE character, rolled specifically to take advantage of the new opportunities for advancement in EVE’s latest expansion.

Until someone codes a widget type thing which displays selected details of a character automatically from the xml you’ll have to put up with my own muddled summary, lovingly hand typed and formatted.

This is Mandrilllus Rex (the extra l is a typo I didn’t notice till after I was floating in space), hes a Brutor Slave Child of the Minmatar Faction (with a slight squint it would seem). At under 900k skill points he’s not really anywhere near needing to perform his first clone upgrade, but I’m working on that.

Starting out as a soldier, he is severely lacking in the ancillary skills required to be an effective combat pilot such as electronics, hull and shield upgrades and other more esoteric specialities. He can shoot guns and fire missiles though, which is the main thing.

I’m currently speed tanking, and relying on my guns to take out the opposition before they can do too much damage. It has been suggested to me that Minmatar should hull tank, which at first glance reads like an insane idea so I’m going to avoid that route for the moment and concentrate on speed and shields.

Even though I’ve been playing EVE since very nearly the beginning (on and off) I still haven’t got that embroiled in PvP. I’ve been in a couple of 0.0 gangs and participated in some fleet actions but have yet to score a solo PvP kill. The latest expansion is an attempt to draw more of those players who never stray beyond the borders of Empire space into the wider world of deep space combat (more details here.)

With the new focus in many upcoming MMOGs on whats being called RvR combat, where the factions of the MMO fight to determine the fate of the wider world of the game(s), EVE looks like its coming late to the party. This is not the case. RvR combat has been a part of EVE since very early on, what are alliances if not player created factions? All that’s being added is that the NPC factions are finally getting to play.

What intrigues me most about factional warfare in EVE is where it might lead. There is a possibility that the NPC factions will finally be dissolved, or taken over by players, becoming alliances themselves. If that day comes, players in the factional militias will have to be prepared to defend empire space from attack and predation from the player alliances. EVE may yet become a fully player driven game.

So if your in the Pator area and want to say hi, do some ratting, or run a couple of missions, drop me a line and we’ll see what we can do. Amarr and Caldari need not apply