The Trinity Rig

The Mind Behind the Trinity Sisters
Sitting at her desk
Cape Canaveral, Florida



So I'm gonna jump on the band-wagon chocolips started over at the tweetfleet and her blog, I must confess, I have poster envy!

So that is where I spend most of my time. This space doubles as my gaming space and my work space. The nice thick glass top surface of my desk is excellent for my leather-working, and big enough for paper or my wacom (not pictured) when the mood strikes. This is why there is a mess of paints and stuff on that shelf up there.

Left to right, my 17" MacBook Pro I promised my husband I would use only for work and not for gaming (lol), my main screen, a 28". And on the right, my old 21" I hope to replace with another 28" eventually. Also have the EVE Maps book there, along with the latest issue of EON. The best part is they are all set with a Matrix screen-saver.

You can also see the microphone that hovers over my head, tormenting me to get off my ass and make a podcast.

One Night of Roc

The Mind Behind the Trinity Sisters
Sitting at her desk
Cape Canaveral, Florida



So a while back I purchased Roc Wieler's Bio, and posted my raving review of it. Not long after, I also got Roc's One Night of Roc.

It is by far a distant cry from the style of music I fell in love with in Bio, but that is not to say that One Night of Roc is not equally astounding. The line is so blurry between what is real and what is fiction, but you quickly find yourself easily slipping into the idea that it actually, physically happened. Music aside, skillfully sampled and placed tracks of roaring audiences, giving a feel that they are actually reacting to what is happening on stage.

Prime example. My favorite track, Sacrifice, a beautiful duet with Roc and a mystery lady. You can tell the moment she walks on stage, just by listening- the audience goes absolutely wild. Audience reactions aside, like I said, this is my favorite track. Much more mellow and intimate than the rest of the songs on the album, and the lyrics speak of a dynamic and deep relationship.

The album is about split between vocals and instrumental. All rock, with a tech edge. But One Night gives you the feeling of actually being there, a unique feat in itself. I daydream of the day Incarna is released, and actually attending a Roc concert at a station somewhere in New Eden, where his tracks are broadcast in-game. Wouldn't that be fantastic??


In the end, I still think Bio is my favorite of the two. Simply because that is my favorite style of music. But as far as mainstream music goes, rock is where my heart is.... and if it is rock music you like, you will not be disappointed with One Night of Roc.

A Girl and her Helios

Maeve Trinity
Octanneve
On Board Helios "The Navigator"
Solitude

A small, inconspicuous ship docked into Maeve's delivery hangar. She had finally finished her training in Frigates V and wasted no time putting out an order for a covert operations ship, a Helios. It was an unimpressive looking ship. Awkward and unattractive. But it didn't matter, this ship would spend most of its time cloaked, it wasn't meant to be looked at. The opposite rather, it was meant not to be looked at.

Plunging herself into the cockpit of the tiny frigate, she looked over all of the elaborate display consoles and scan screens. Without hesitation, she launched several probes into space and began looking for adventure. It didn't take long.

"Now this is what I'm talking about."

First, a belt of rare ore. Jackpot. This would be much help to her drone manufacturing, and what went unused would make excellent lining to her wallet.


Then, Serpentis hide aways, full of drones and good salvage. Even some modules begging to be hacked.


But her most exciting moment was the discovery of her first wormhole. She'd been inside of one once... but never found one on her own. With a gulp she jumped through.


Now, even though Maeve has spent time in Wormhole space before, this doesn't mean she actually spent any time exploring them. And more importantly, never encountered Sleepers. Her time in Wormhole space was on Wormhole guard duty in Corporations past, days, literally, staring and hoping for just one unauthorized ship to jump through.

But this time, as far as her probes and scanners could tell, this wormhole was hers, and hers alone.

Maeve opened her coms to her corporation, "Has anyone dealt with Sleepers?" Followed by a brief silence, until a lone reply came, "I dont think so Maeve....."

She stared at a Sleeper outpost on her scan readout. "Can they see through my cloak?". Again, "I don't think so Maeve...."

With a look of determination, she set The Navigator to warp to 100k, just to be safe. The warning on her display made her heart leap into her throat, she held her breath.

Maeve shit a brick.

What she saw before her was probably the most breath-taking sight she had ever witnessed in New Eden.

Please click to see the full version of this one, you wont regret it.

Zooming in as close as she could she snapped several shots. Warping from Sleeper strongold to Sleeper Outpost, taking in as much as she could.


Once she was finished feeling selfish, and properly touristy, she notified Black Thorne she had found Sleepers and would lead anyone willing to give them a shot to their strongholds.

It was a moderate success, only the three of them, two really considering she was in a non-combat ship. They managed to take down several Sleepers and empty some wrecks, but wave after wave prevented any salvaging from taking place.

After several hours gallivanting in her little pocket of wormhole space, she head back to Octanneve, looking back proudly at her Wormhole, then docked up at her home station.

"Save these images Rigel. Today has been a good day." She stared out her window, and suddenly the empty space looked much more mysterious, full of much more potential. She imagined herself, sneaking around in quick invisible little ships. "I think I may be getting closer to my calling Rigel." He clicked and bleeped, examining the images for himself, and whirred in wonder.

"Call in 10 Hygiea to the departure bay.... I'm going to actually wind down by mining at my favorite belt and stare at the beautiful storm systems of Octanneve II."

Maeve's New Portrait

So.... just to shake things up a bit, I've changed Maeve portrait from her old, peaceful shot, to her with a look of mischief in her eyes.


Hope you all agree its just another step towards a new Maeve :)

White Out

Maeve Trinity
Niballe V – Ice Field 1
On Board Exhumer "10 Hygiea"
Solitude

Maeve tapped impatiently on the navigation console of her Hulk, staring mindlessly at the massive block of ice that floated and slowly rotated at the end of her harvester beams.
She had been doing nothing but this for hours now with several of her corp mates, as part of a voluntary operation to help fuel the corporations station. She had never mined ice before, she had no idea that she was in for this. It had taken her hours to yield a single block of blue ice. HOURS. Okay maybe it didnt actually take that long.... but it certainly felt like it!

Maeve was starting to question her career path. Until the other day, she had her skills books all lined up to lead her straight into an Anshar. But she found herself in her Obelisk for several hours not long ago, hauling, consolidating junk.... jump, after jump after jump. Did she really want to do that? All the time?

She'd recently acquired a Myrmidon to compensate for her lack of long range weaponry.

"Shooting stuff is fun...." she thought. Looking back out at the massive block of ice, that still sat there, unchanged. She imagined setting explosives on it, and it blasting into a million sparkly pieces.

Clicking her coms, she said, "Rigel..... set Frigates V out for my studies... I want to fly a tech 2 ship thats NOT industrial for once." Rigel bleeped in compliance.

She sat back and smiled softly to herself.

"Time for a change."

EVE Blog Banter Special Edition: Why We Love EVE Online

The Mind Behind the Trinity Sisters
Sitting at her desk
Cape Canaveral, Florida


Welcome to my special installment of CrazyKinux's Blog Banter, where he asks us, "Why do you love EVE".


An interesting and more complex question than I thought before I sat down and really started thinking about it.

Besides the fact that EVE is unique in the sense that it is an original creation of the sci-fi genre... not latching itself onto any other existing franchise. The events and changes in this game happen because the players are making them happen, not because thats how it happened in the movies. And its not some.. "go raid this dungeon and kill this boss" and then 2 hours later it respawns like nothing ever happened.

In EVE.... the "bosses" are groups of hundreds of players, enemy alliance, bands of pirates, and elusive mega-personalities... living, breathing, players.

Entire regions of space are owned and controlled by massive player alliances, with no NPC interference at all.... epic battles and "land grabs"... espionage... you name it. Approximately 30 systems belonging to the Goonswarm were lost within the last few days. The systems will not reset. The Goons will not get them back outside of fighting to get them back. All of this... player driven content... and guess where the Goons are moving? Syndicate. That will make them my happy new neighbors, and will more than likely cause changes to how we function in our region of space. These ripple effects happen everywhere, constantly.

The most important part of all of this is that everyone in EVE plays on one single server (or, cluster of servers, joined together). If you know someone who plays EVE... "What server do you play on?" is not something that needs to be asked. We all play out here together. And that leads to one incredible community.

People become legendary... take for instance Helicity Boson, famed Pirate.... the scourge of the miner.... for putting effort into organizing an event to shake up those who take mining as their main source of income, some, becoming complacent -a dangerous attitude to have in EVE. I am pretty sure not a single pilot in New Eden doesn't know her name now... and her spawn, "Hulkaggedon".

And on the other hand, there is Chribba. Not an uber combat pwn u pilot... but a respected industrialist..... hundreds came to his aid to help defend one of his POS's that was recently attacked, just because he is known, and respected. And quickly the attacking corp withdrew, underestimating the power of a good reputation and friends.

Anything you want to be.... do... or become in EVE is possible. It is limitless.
So you want to be Boba Fett and be a bounty hunter? Go for it. Players put bounties on others heads, there is money to be made there.

Become a mercenary...... maybe an industrial corp wants to cut off a competing industrial corp in their system from main trading hubs. They will hire a mercenary corp to declare war on them for them (since typically, industrialists are not highly trained in combat skills), and then they profit as their competitors can no longer haul their goods to and from their destinations... because you... the mercenary... have been hired to do so.

There is another aspect of EVE I think many may take for granted... or will even deny - Roleplay..... In EVE more than any other MMO I have ever played (starting in '99 with EQ1).. people truly roleplay their character. Just take a look at the massive amount of EVE blogs.... almost all of them written "in character".

Take Maeve for example. She is an industrialist. She mines, she missions, she daydreams of adventure one day, joining a wing of her alliance in 0.0; but for now is perfectly happy to stay in her quiet system, grease to her elbows, and hair a mess.... building nothing but drones. Not because she can't build things other than drones, but because that is part of her character. She just loves her drones, and every combat ship she flies boasts a full bay of a variety of what she lovingly calls, "her babies".

In EVE you never know what you are up against.... you never know what skills that pilot that just locked you has.... what surprises up that sleeve.... what weaponry... what drones.... are friends waiting for a command to warp right on top of you in ambush?? Definitely not as simple as looking at that human warrior, seeing with your own eyes exactly what armor he has on, and knowing his level and what spells exactly to use most effectively against him.

In EVE you are not just another Human Warrior, or Elf Mage, grinding for the best gear you can get, becoming a cookie cutter of every other class like you. In EVE... you are what you make yourself. And many people form who they become based on a personality they have placed (maybe unknowingly) onto their character.

Pirate, bounty hunter, industrialist, hauler, spy, even eco-warriors.... these are not classes you choose in EVE, this is who you become. All in one New Eden... all connected... together.

UPDATE :: February 8th, 2009 ::

I'm sure pretty much everyone who was involved in this fantastic blog banter knew CK was announcing his winners this morning. Well... technically a few days ago, but more entries than he anticipated rightly pushed him back a few. Personally, at my sloth-pace, it would have taken me weeks to not only read all 56 but to judge which were the best on top!

So I dragged my sleepy little self to my computer this morning to see what was new in interweb-land, as I do. Saw CK's post on Facebook.... so I clicked.... definitely NOT expecting to have been placed anywhere in the top of some dozens of incredible entries. The little greedy monster inside secretly hoped I made it in the top 10.

Of course my eyes fell on #1 first.. I mean come'on, you know you did too!

I wanted to read the winning post first thing! (because I admittedly have only read about a dozen or so, so far). What was that? "Wench with a Wrench".... I blinked.. haven't had coffee yet.... refresh the page.... read the whole post this time... maybe I was being tricked... reading it wrong?

"1st Prize: Wench with a Wrench"

I have to say how incredibly excited and humbled to be placed at the top. Seriously. I don't win things, and I am no writer! (But that doesn't mean I'm not taking my $100 and running off to the EVE store now!)

Thanks CK... and thanks to the rest of the pilots out there who participated. And as CK requested, my email - lea (at) leadidit (dot) com .

Oh... and I just wanted to share my personal favorite of all the entries.... Ecliptic Rifts Boom dee ah dah

Fly safe! \0/

In Times of War... we keep on keepin' on...

Maeve Trinity
Octanneve V – Moon 1
Federation Customs Assembly Plant
Solitude

A wrench went spinning across the tiled floor of Maeve's quarters, hitting the wall in a clatter. It had slipped from her hands, she was distracted. With a long sigh she carefully lifted the Warrior I Drone she was detailing from her lap and onto the bench beside her. She was never quite happy with how they came off the assembly line, and the artist blood in her wouldn't be happy if she left her Trinity Drones without some mark of character and beauty. She wanted them to be sturdy, obviously finished by hand. This didn't make a hill of beans once on the market, but she did it anyway.
A Trinity Drone, pestering a big angry Serpentis Pirate.

Maeves source of distraction came from a recent transmission of a declaration of war against her entire alliance.

Intel said they were hired, by who? Anyones guess was as good as anothers.

But as a little time passed, it became apparent these guys were just looking for easy pickings... limiting their members to systems around Jita, likely hoping for an easy target passing through the trade route. But as more intel came pouring in, it seemed the vast majority of the Corp who declared war on our alliance spent their time docked in stations. Hopefully whoever it was didn't pay them much to declare this war.

So life continues normally for now in Solitude, taking jobs from customs, spending time looking at the stars while listening to the hum of her Hulks mining lasers... and manufacturing her drones. Though, this didnt stop Maeve from feeling on edge. Constantly monitoring her local population channel, inspecting every red and even neutral to enter the system.

She knew the alliance had scouts monitoring the pipe in and out of Solitude... so far so quiet.....

Maeve popped a reel of captured images into Rigels projector, and sat back and watched some images from some previous Serpentis engagements.

Trinity Drone VICTORIOUS!

"Damn I love my Domi." Maeve thought out loud, Rigel bleeping agreeably. And pondered thoughts of how she might hold up if indeed, the war was brought to Solitude.