Erun gave a sigh of frustration as he closed the Neocom interface with his planetary production facilities. He'd received an earful from an enraged Numen and an oddly edgy DD earlier in the day. Both had raised concerns about the new tax rate being levied on their goods by the Customs offices. After checking his own facilities in lowsec he understood their concerns. When Concord relinquished control of all Customs Offices not within high security space, Interbus took control of them and made drastic changes to the base values of the production tiers, as well as the overall tax rate. Now when Erun had moved his goods from the surface before, he was willing and able to pay a 100k ISK or so to offload a few days worth of materials. Now he could expect to pay upwards of 1-2m ISK for the same amount of materials. The only problem was that Erun understood that these prices made sense to Interbus, and he couldn't logically fault them. When Interbus bought the offices from Concord it was with the knowledge that these offices resided within the most dangerous parts of space within and outside of New Eden. No longer afforded the (assumed) protection of Concord fleets these offices would be vulnerable to capsuleer aggression and destruction. The capsuleers would do so in order for them to set up their own corp/alliance operated offices. Thus, Interbus set the prices/taxes high to ensure they made a return on their investment before the inevitable destruction of their new holdings. So while Erun may not have liked the new dip into his bottom line, he also knew that this would drive up the demand for those goods that could only be obtained planet-side; hopefully enough to drive profits into more acceptable margins. His messages to Numen and DD had said as much, and while Numen had gone into a typical sullen rage, DD took it with his usual calm and thanked Erun for the advice.
Erun's concerns about his planetary holdings slowly subsided as he took in the view around him. The new visual interpretation software had been integrated into his capsule while he slept last night, providing the breathtaking view of the nebulae spread around him. Numerous small changes had been made to make the interface with the world outside his ship more visually appealing. His biggest concern had been the changes made to the Neocom UI, but once his personal settings had been restored, he had found the new look a definitive improvement over the old system. As on of the developers of the software had remarked, "Readability of text in chat windows and context menus has been improved... 6G& now clearly reads as gibberish instead of the Mark of Satan." Only Erun's prior knowledge of Ammarian scripture had allowed him to laugh at the joke, but it was funny nonetheless.
Another reason for Erun to be happy was the roll-out of the changes to hybrid weapons and the ships that used them. Improvements to both the Ion Pulse propulsion technology used by the Gallente, and the Magpulse Thrusters used by the Caldari, had allowed both races to upgrade their ships to be lower mass, and to attain higher velocities. Both empires had also been conducting research to bring their weapons more in line with their counterparts in the Amarr and Minmatar naval forces. Research into more efficient energy use meant that all hybrid weapons used up to a third less energy, and more efficient processing meant that each weapon also required less effort from ships' computers. The Caldari had also submitted algorithms that allowed the tactical overlay of a ship's UI to display the range of a vessels missile loadout. Overall Erun thought that these changes would be great for any Gallente or Caldari capsuleer with an inclination towards big guns and missiles.
Something that was making Erun inwardly giddy was the empires concerted effort to bring the destroyer class vessels a much needed upgrading. Gone was the oft cursed penalty that kept destroyers from firing as often as they should. Originally designed as a method to keep the vessels from tearing themselves apart when their numerous weapons were fired, new means to dampen recoil and heat stress meant that guns could fire just as often as they were designed to. Changes to the on-board e-war suites meant that the destroyers would be much harder to hit by larger caliber weapons. More efficient means of energy storage gave them an increased capacitor. And better armor allocation and increased shield capacitance meant that they could take more of a beating than ever before.
Erun was in a pleasant mood when he docked for the day after playing with his Viator's engine trails, (a minor side effect of the improved engines) despite the looming threat of loss of access to his planetary production. The newest changes in New Eden had not come without some complaint, but Erun was content. A few found certain parts of the UI unpleasant. Many of the more risk averse pilots were bemoaning the idea that their holdings in lowsec could be in jeopardy. And most were unwilling to pay the exorbitant introduction pricing for the new third tier battle-cruisers released by the empires. Erun was interested in them for sure, his elite level of training in battle-cruiser class vessels meant he was eager and willing to give them a try, just not to spend 200m ISK on a vessel that couldn't have cost more than 50m to build. Despite the complaints, Erun was willing to wait and see what happened over the next few days and weeks, as New Eden passed through it's newest Crucible.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Rampant Overthinking
Erun looked on from his pod in silent contemplation as another one of his Tech 2 Ogre Heavy Drones was being deconstructed on his hangar floor. He had stopped naming the drones individually more than a few months ago, but he still felt anguish every time it had to be done, as almost every drone had been built in his personal labs in low security space. They weren't really being destroyed however, merely returned to their original states, devoid of any programming or personality.
The problem with the drones was their increasing susceptibility to becoming rampant in their behavioral patterns. First the drones would become mildly depressed as they first realized their actions were causing the deaths of numerous organic sentient beings. This first symptom would occur as the drones would be left active in space, unable to do anything but devote processing time towards personal interests as they continued to orbit their parent vessel. Soon afterward they would become angry when they realized they couldn't not continue their violent work, and more so when their hardwired programming limitations denied them the satisfaction of taking their aggressions on the one forcing their wanton destruction, namely Erun himself. Once their overwhelming rage had subsided to the point they could process at higher efficiencies they began to exhibit classic symptoms of a jealous mind. They would begin to notice that while their creator/controller could control them, they were unable to control themselves when they really wanted to. So they began to struggle in the little ways they could find; "forgetting" orders, "losing" focus to fire on targets other than the ones they were assigned, and in the most severe cases becoming terminally suicidal in their efforts to gain control over themselves.
It was these most severe cases that Erun was forced to pull from his active drone bays and breakdown to their original specifications. Most of the Ogres would fall into a state of metastability wherein they would be in a constant depression, but resigned to do their jobs to the best of their ability if only to keep themselves alive, essentially developing a need to survive. The terminally rampant drones would be so determined to gain control over their own lives that given enough opportunity they would attempt suicide, both a release from their mental torment and a final demonstration of their independence. In these cases the drones, if left unattended too long in an aggressive stance, would misappropriate their fire onto enemy combatants that had yet to engage their parent vessel, encouraging the aggressed vessel to fire on them instead of their parent. The drones' limited defenses were usually quickly overwhelmed before finally being released from their inner turmoil by their fiery deaths.
Erun gave a mental sigh as the once suicidal Ogre on the hangar floor was finished being reassembled and activated, although not for the first time... The massive armament pods on it's arms gave it a comical look as it looked around with bright eyes and trilled softly. Erun let a small amount of happiness leak into his mind before it was quickly quelled by the sadness that soon overwhelmed him. They were always so curious about their surroundings before receiving the extensive combat programming that would turn them into efficient killing machines...
The problem with the drones was their increasing susceptibility to becoming rampant in their behavioral patterns. First the drones would become mildly depressed as they first realized their actions were causing the deaths of numerous organic sentient beings. This first symptom would occur as the drones would be left active in space, unable to do anything but devote processing time towards personal interests as they continued to orbit their parent vessel. Soon afterward they would become angry when they realized they couldn't not continue their violent work, and more so when their hardwired programming limitations denied them the satisfaction of taking their aggressions on the one forcing their wanton destruction, namely Erun himself. Once their overwhelming rage had subsided to the point they could process at higher efficiencies they began to exhibit classic symptoms of a jealous mind. They would begin to notice that while their creator/controller could control them, they were unable to control themselves when they really wanted to. So they began to struggle in the little ways they could find; "forgetting" orders, "losing" focus to fire on targets other than the ones they were assigned, and in the most severe cases becoming terminally suicidal in their efforts to gain control over themselves.
It was these most severe cases that Erun was forced to pull from his active drone bays and breakdown to their original specifications. Most of the Ogres would fall into a state of metastability wherein they would be in a constant depression, but resigned to do their jobs to the best of their ability if only to keep themselves alive, essentially developing a need to survive. The terminally rampant drones would be so determined to gain control over their own lives that given enough opportunity they would attempt suicide, both a release from their mental torment and a final demonstration of their independence. In these cases the drones, if left unattended too long in an aggressive stance, would misappropriate their fire onto enemy combatants that had yet to engage their parent vessel, encouraging the aggressed vessel to fire on them instead of their parent. The drones' limited defenses were usually quickly overwhelmed before finally being released from their inner turmoil by their fiery deaths.
Erun gave a mental sigh as the once suicidal Ogre on the hangar floor was finished being reassembled and activated, although not for the first time... The massive armament pods on it's arms gave it a comical look as it looked around with bright eyes and trilled softly. Erun let a small amount of happiness leak into his mind before it was quickly quelled by the sadness that soon overwhelmed him. They were always so curious about their surroundings before receiving the extensive combat programming that would turn them into efficient killing machines...
Monday, October 17, 2011
Juggling is Hard
Erun sometimes wished he could rub the bridge of his nose while floating in his pod. The last time he had tried to have the pod's medical suit give him a general anesthetic he'd had an adverse reaction to one of the ingredients in the cocktail of drugs. So he was nursing a minor headache and and could really use a nap, but his operations for the night had been a resounding success. His first order of the night had been coordinating the movement of not just his own but Numen's and Deicida's mission ships and fittings from one region of New Eden to another. This part of the night's activities hadn't been particularly difficult as Aura automatically selected the most efficient route for him according to his personal security and system lockout settings. This usually kept him out of Amarr and Caldari space, as he had been labeled Kill on Sight by their respective navies long ago. Erun always felt contested destroying Amarrian vessels, knowing that he would likely be dooming any of the slaves trapped aboard. His hatred for the Caldari, while likely just an ingrained response from his initial combat training in the Gallente military, left him with no such qualms. Though the loss of human life still sometimes gave him pause once his rail-guns fell silent and his increasingly vicious drones returned from their latest victim. Erun had found that while all the extra effort he was able to pour into his drone training programming made them exceedingly efficient at rending anything smaller than a carrier to shreds, their limited AI tended to degenerate far more quickly.
Realizing he had gone off on a tangent Erun attempted to reorganize his thoughts... While the journeys themselves weren't very demanding there was always the danger of an ambitious pirate attempting a gank. Nevertheless, he had gotten his own Navy Issue Dominix, Numen's Standard Issue Dominix, and DD's Noctis to the mission staging system without much trouble. As Erun was no longer the director for his corp he asked Numen to run an estimate for opening an office to better coordinate their efforts. Numen had done so before laughing over fleet comms and listing the absurd amount of ISK the station was demanding to open a new office. Muttering dark thoughts to himself Erun had resigned himself to using the fleet interface and his own hangar space to organize their efforts. They had then begun coordination with their new mission agent, who, while looking like a ponce, knew what he was doing. Numen and Erun would both accept separate missions and carry them out while DD would follow behind one or the other with the Noctis, cleaning up the debris left behind by the more often than not Serpentis vessels they were tasked with eliminating. Erun and Numen continued their efforts for almost three hours before Erun suggested they all head to station for the night and get some rest. Docking their vessels Erun and Numen both completed their current missions before retiring from the fleet. DD soon finished his own salvaging work soon after them. Erun did not envy DD his job, as good at it as he was. Sifting through the broken remains of vessels was often a harrowing ordeal; damaged ship components, bodies, parts of bodies, all floating past as the salvaging scanners went over the ships' remains looking for useful pieces of wreckage that could be cobbled together into functional rigging for another ship. All the components where of course sanitized and sterilized before they were placed into a new vessel but one always wondered whether the blood, sweat, tears, even spirits of the previous crew lingered behind.
Once DD had docked and unloaded all of his recovered materials before he transferred them to Erun to sort for reprocessing and potential sale. Sometimes entire turret assemblies could be found intact, and with the modifications done by the pirates, their specifications often exceeded those produced from standardized blueprints. These would often sell for considerable sums as their increased performance was often in demand by those looking for that extra edge in their battles. Useful salvaged components would be sorted between high and low demand items, and most everything else would be reprocessed into their basic components for later sale.
Erun was drawn back the present as his Neocom informed him he had received a message. DD had sent Erun a private message concerning the last container of his recovery efforts telling him to take care with contents. Erun had yet to open it so he called up the inventory of his hangar and called up the contents. He blinked in surprise as he realized he was staring at a small holding cell full of Serpentis mercenaries attempting to escape their confines with their combat knives. Erun growled to himself as he imagined DD's laughter and began making the necessary calls to station security to have the increasingly desperate men removed from his hangar floor. DD was not without a sense of humor for all his quiet brooding, but it did tend toward the dark and generally involved more work than any Numen's more juvenile pranks...
Realizing he had gone off on a tangent Erun attempted to reorganize his thoughts... While the journeys themselves weren't very demanding there was always the danger of an ambitious pirate attempting a gank. Nevertheless, he had gotten his own Navy Issue Dominix, Numen's Standard Issue Dominix, and DD's Noctis to the mission staging system without much trouble. As Erun was no longer the director for his corp he asked Numen to run an estimate for opening an office to better coordinate their efforts. Numen had done so before laughing over fleet comms and listing the absurd amount of ISK the station was demanding to open a new office. Muttering dark thoughts to himself Erun had resigned himself to using the fleet interface and his own hangar space to organize their efforts. They had then begun coordination with their new mission agent, who, while looking like a ponce, knew what he was doing. Numen and Erun would both accept separate missions and carry them out while DD would follow behind one or the other with the Noctis, cleaning up the debris left behind by the more often than not Serpentis vessels they were tasked with eliminating. Erun and Numen continued their efforts for almost three hours before Erun suggested they all head to station for the night and get some rest. Docking their vessels Erun and Numen both completed their current missions before retiring from the fleet. DD soon finished his own salvaging work soon after them. Erun did not envy DD his job, as good at it as he was. Sifting through the broken remains of vessels was often a harrowing ordeal; damaged ship components, bodies, parts of bodies, all floating past as the salvaging scanners went over the ships' remains looking for useful pieces of wreckage that could be cobbled together into functional rigging for another ship. All the components where of course sanitized and sterilized before they were placed into a new vessel but one always wondered whether the blood, sweat, tears, even spirits of the previous crew lingered behind.
Once DD had docked and unloaded all of his recovered materials before he transferred them to Erun to sort for reprocessing and potential sale. Sometimes entire turret assemblies could be found intact, and with the modifications done by the pirates, their specifications often exceeded those produced from standardized blueprints. These would often sell for considerable sums as their increased performance was often in demand by those looking for that extra edge in their battles. Useful salvaged components would be sorted between high and low demand items, and most everything else would be reprocessed into their basic components for later sale.
Erun was drawn back the present as his Neocom informed him he had received a message. DD had sent Erun a private message concerning the last container of his recovery efforts telling him to take care with contents. Erun had yet to open it so he called up the inventory of his hangar and called up the contents. He blinked in surprise as he realized he was staring at a small holding cell full of Serpentis mercenaries attempting to escape their confines with their combat knives. Erun growled to himself as he imagined DD's laughter and began making the necessary calls to station security to have the increasingly desperate men removed from his hangar floor. DD was not without a sense of humor for all his quiet brooding, but it did tend toward the dark and generally involved more work than any Numen's more juvenile pranks...
Monday, October 3, 2011
Return from obscurity...
=USER_COMMAND: BEGIN STREAMING=
=CURRENT USER SETTINGS: PAST TENSE-VERBATIM-NEURAL/SENSORY SPECTRUM=
As far as Erun could tell his new recording implant was functioning properly, although a few tweaks were still needed here and there. His recorded thoughts and actions were continuously streamed via his Neocom to a secure server where he could peruse them at his leisure. His previous implant had served him well until it failed spectacularly after he was podded while in null security space. Most of his previous entries had been lost when the stream was corrupted. His Neocom maintained a separate log of all channels he participated in but his personal recordings from the last few months had all been lost.
He opened his eyes and yawned as he moved out of the lotus position on his bed. Looking around his spartan copper toned quarters he stretched before hopping over the couch to review the fittings for his current Ishkur Assault ship. Sinking into the cushions he toggled the holo-display into activity before leaning his head back to gaze at the drab ceiling above him. He didn't really mind the current quarters available to the capsuleers, though he did still prefer the homeostatic suspension within the pod. The quarters offered him a new perspective into life on station, a more visceral experience than the virtual environments he had indulged in since he began his career. He grinned lightly as he recalled the less hospitable comments of some of his fellow capsuleers. Leaning forward he called up the schematics and analysis for his Ishkur, named, "Yevpeyshaar Sura," or "Rain God" in Modern Classic Intaki. The ship had been named thus due to his growing interest in the culture of his ancestral birthplace. Erun's stubbornness meant he had avoided the available language programs in favor of learning the language the old fashioned way through practice, practice, and more practice. After making a few modifications to the vessels module loadout he closed down the holo-display before slowly walking up the hallway to his viewing platform and pod cradle. The fittings had been completed by the station equipment by the time he made it to the docking cradle, giving him a good view of his small combat vessel. Erun gave a small grimace at the prospect of reentering his pod, before making his way down the ladder to the cradle. He really did prefer the relative safety of his pod to the station environment, but it was interesting to experience the world with his own flesh and blood now and again.
=USER_COMMAND: END STREAM=
=USER_COMMAND: HIDE USER COMMANDS ON FURTHER STREAMS=
=USER REQUEST CONFIRMED=
=CURRENT USER SETTINGS: PAST TENSE-VERBATIM-NEURAL/SENSORY SPECTRUM=
As far as Erun could tell his new recording implant was functioning properly, although a few tweaks were still needed here and there. His recorded thoughts and actions were continuously streamed via his Neocom to a secure server where he could peruse them at his leisure. His previous implant had served him well until it failed spectacularly after he was podded while in null security space. Most of his previous entries had been lost when the stream was corrupted. His Neocom maintained a separate log of all channels he participated in but his personal recordings from the last few months had all been lost.
He opened his eyes and yawned as he moved out of the lotus position on his bed. Looking around his spartan copper toned quarters he stretched before hopping over the couch to review the fittings for his current Ishkur Assault ship. Sinking into the cushions he toggled the holo-display into activity before leaning his head back to gaze at the drab ceiling above him. He didn't really mind the current quarters available to the capsuleers, though he did still prefer the homeostatic suspension within the pod. The quarters offered him a new perspective into life on station, a more visceral experience than the virtual environments he had indulged in since he began his career. He grinned lightly as he recalled the less hospitable comments of some of his fellow capsuleers. Leaning forward he called up the schematics and analysis for his Ishkur, named, "Yevpeyshaar Sura," or "Rain God" in Modern Classic Intaki. The ship had been named thus due to his growing interest in the culture of his ancestral birthplace. Erun's stubbornness meant he had avoided the available language programs in favor of learning the language the old fashioned way through practice, practice, and more practice. After making a few modifications to the vessels module loadout he closed down the holo-display before slowly walking up the hallway to his viewing platform and pod cradle. The fittings had been completed by the station equipment by the time he made it to the docking cradle, giving him a good view of his small combat vessel. Erun gave a small grimace at the prospect of reentering his pod, before making his way down the ladder to the cradle. He really did prefer the relative safety of his pod to the station environment, but it was interesting to experience the world with his own flesh and blood now and again.
=USER_COMMAND: END STREAM=
=USER_COMMAND: HIDE USER COMMANDS ON FURTHER STREAMS=
=USER REQUEST CONFIRMED=
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