Giving props where props are due

Slowly but surely I'm creeping up on my first anniversary of playing EVE Online, and since Day One... actually a bit more than that, one piece of printed document has never left the side of my keyboard, and of course, with a new expansion of EVE comes a new version of this little but oh-so-important document, and I'm talking about Ombey's 2D EVE maps. This document is in my book an absolute "must have", right up there with the EVEmon skill planner and the EVE Fitting Tool, otherwise known as EFT. I could not even conceive how I could lead even a small gang without these maps, even when flying through extremely well-known space. If you don't have them yet go to Ombey's site and download them. Now. That's an order!

Another thing these maps do, apart from making sure I don't get lost in New Eden, is that they are giving me a very serious case of wanderlust. There was recently an article about EVE "tourism" in EON magazine, and fellow blogger Crazy Kinux has also talked about it in his blog; as vast as the New Eden star cluster is, most average players get to see about 50 to 100 systems and maybe 3 to 5 regions. There are over FIVE THOUSAND systems to be seen, some of them with special features like Titan wrecks, ship graveyards, junk depots, rogue drone sprouts, and more, and all of those things look way better than the average gates, stations, or gobs of asteroids we see all the time. One of these days I will have to take a break from PvP action and set a ship's destination for Parts Unknown, probably making as many new enemies as new friends along the way. Some parts of the trip could be long, and some could be dangerous, but that spirit of adventure sings a very fine tune to me, and I hope I get to do it at some point in the future, near or far. Just for fun I've already bookmarked the New Eden system. That's where we're supposed to be coming from so I have to go see it at least once.

So Mr Ombey, thank you very much for the fine maps that you give us. You made my experience in EVE a much better one. Now I just have to make sure I get you some ISK :))

In other EVE news, everybody and their cat are saying how great their Assault Frigates are since Quantum Rise has arrived, and now I'm heading into my parental weekend which means I'll be offline for the entire weekend. AARRGH !!! Oh well, at least I can still post on forums and here on this blog while I'm out. I think I'll be due for a very serious frig gang on Monday when I come back, and I'll even bang the war drums myself and lead the gang if I have to. Hopefully we'll make Curse a very dangerous place to live, unless you're Blue to us, which is very doubtful >:))

So until I can do so on Monday, fly on the edge of your seat !!!

o7