Looking back and re-reading everything I wrote, I initially judged this experiment a failure, because one of my goals was to earn enough ISK for a T3 Cruiser, and I didn't. But as I was reading, I remembered that wasn't my only goal. These are the goals I had as the experiment progressed:
#1 Find a good wormhole to live in. Completed
#2 Successfully move in. Completed
#3 Setup PI to manage fuel needs. Completed
#4 Mine some ice in a Shattered WH for fuel needs. Completed
#5 Bring in a Research Array and use it. Completed
#6 Fund a T3 Cruiser Purchase. Failed
Beyond that--once I decided to abandon the adventure--the final goal was to pack it all up in the wormhole and leave it where I could resume it later if I wanted. The blog entries say I did that, my memory says I did that. But about a year ago when I logged in on a whim, my character data did not agree with my memories.
I have four characters across two accounts. Three of those were in the wormhole when my accounts went inactive, and Niskin was in his L4 mission hub. Upon logging in last year I found Niskin was untouched, but the other three characters were now in stations. Two were in the ships they logged off in, one was not. This was odd, but not devastating, since the most important ship (The Orca) was accounted for. Still I wanted to understand what happened, so I read patch notes and searched the forums for any kind of explanation. That resulted in nothing, so I gave up, uninstalled EVE and moved on again.
Then last week an old friend sent me this article about the Orca pilot that lost hundreds of billions in cap ship BPO's and other things. That reminded me of my far less risky use of the Orca to move into the wormhole. Within a day I had re-installed the EVE client and by the second day I had re-subbed my main account. I wanted to know what had happened with my characters, and see how EVE had changed in the last five years.
All of my original thoughts on what happened were centered around the changes that were made to starbases. I figured something happened where the changes they were making conflicted with my situation and that I was moved to a station because of it. But as I got back into the game and learned more, that theory didn't explain why the other two pilots weren't in w-space anymore, and why one wasn't in their ship. After some further thought I settled on what I believe actually happened, the Alpha and Omega Clone changes. Two of the ships these characters were in required an Omega grade clone, and both accounts were inactive. The third character was in an Alpha clone ship fitted with Omega clone mods. Though it's odd that this was the character who ended up in the station in an Ibis. I eventually found that the ship (a Drake) was there in the station with her.
I could be wrong, but this explanation is the closest fit to the results I'm seeing. Still it leaves me in an unfortunate situation, I lost J150533. Bob took it from me, probably because I made fun of him a lot. Lesson learned, do not poke fun at the gods.
Having sussed all of this out, the next question was what to do? I had a month of paid time on the account, and no goals. Looking through the interface, PI caught my eye. I was still setup in the wormhole on multiple characters. Initially I thought, "oh crap, I have to get back there to shut those down." Mainly because I was struggling to use the interface properly and hadn't seen the option to tear them down. Then I found it, the button that could free me from these installations and open the slots back up. On the way to click it I inadvertently moused over the part that estimates the value of what you have in the installation. I hesitated, then pondered the idea for a bit. I didn't have to find the wormhole again, but I kind of wanted to.
That's when the rush of thoughts began. Do I really want to do that? Is it even really possible in the short term? Would I be able to keep a character in there this time if I found it again? Basically I would look at using the wormhole as a resource instead of a home. Keep an alt in there in an Alpha grade ship and use that to get my main in when I wanted to collect PI or resources or run sites.
I was mostly decided and preparing to try when I discovered that even a Prototype I Cloaking Device is not an Alpha grade mod. What would happen if I left an alt in the wormhole in an Alpha grade ship with a Omega grade mod on it? That seemed to be enough to get the Drake moved to a station previously, so I wouldn't expect anything different this time around. Still I'm curious to see if I can even come close to finding it, and there would be some reward for doing so with my PI spoils waiting for me. So I think I will at least use some of my time to try. Probing can be fun when you aren't burned out from it.
Beyond that it's just a big question mark. Do I want to get sucked back into EVE and do the MMO thing for a while? Possibly, if I can find some fun options that work with my limited playtime. I have a month to think about that and get re-acclimated. I will say that the game looks beautiful these days. It always did to some degree (the ships at least), but everything is so much more polished now. The UI is responsive and less fussy. I like what I'm seeing so far.
One major difference is that I've never had a decent computer to play it on in the past, but now I do. With a newer processor, lots of ram, and a video card that isn't totally outdated, it's nice to crank up the settings and really enjoy the view. Anyway, if anybody actually ends up seeing this, thanks for following my story. Sorry it ended so abruptly. Fly safe, maybe I'll see you in space. o/
