Naked Zones

In a MUD I used to play, TorilMUD, there was a naked zone.

And when I say naked, I mean there was a portal through which you entered the zone, but you could only use the portal if you had remove and stored away all of your equipment.  No armor, no weapons, no nothing.

I think there were a couple exceptions.  Casters that needed spell books could bring those through with them as I recall, and maybe shaman could bring their spirit totems.  It has been ages since I even thought of the zone, so the details are more than a bit hazy.  Laniala or Gaff will come along and correct me.

But, in essence, you came into that zone the way you came into the world… naked.

Remember the time machine in Terminator?  Same story.

Once in the zone, naked, you had to kill stuff to equip yourself.  The equipment drops were pretty decent, but most of the drops were transitory.  They only stayed with you in zone or until you logged out.  Then they were gone.

Of course, some of the drops, some of the sweetest drops in the game, were solid and real and could be taken back with you.

I always thought this was a neat idea for a zone.

Of course, mentioning it here means I was thinking about how it would work in a current MMO.

I think the biggest challenge would be storing all of your gear to actually get to the naked state.

In EverQuest II I have more than enough storage to manage it.  EQ2 is very generous with storage.

On the other hand, in World of WarCraft or Lord of the Rings Online, there is no way I could store away all my gear.  My bank slots are full in both games and storage options are limited.

Not that such a zone would be kosher in LOTRO.  But it might be interesting in WoW.

So should somebody make a naked zone in an MMO today?

Or are we all too wedded to our equipment to go for such a thing?

Mammoth Undertaking

While my miner was working his way towards a mining barge, I was also working on the hauling end of the equation.

While the Badger is a competent freighter, it is a bit on the small side.  Halada, in his Complete Miner’s Guide recommends the Mimmtar Mammoth for a hauler, so I went that route.  The Gallente Iteron V does beat the Mammoth in capacity, but it requires Gallente Industrial V to fly, while the Mammoth only needs Mimtar Industrial IV.  So I chose the somewhat more nimble Mammoth two weeks earlier.

Here is my new Mammoth.

EVE is so good for screen shots.

The Mammoth, now dubbed “Twilight M&S,” is equipped with:

Miner II – I stuck a rail gun on my badger at first, but the time to lock a target was so long that the Osprey had usually made the kill before I got a lock.  So I figured that my hauler out to make itself useful while hanging about.

Salvager I – Just to maximize my rat kills.  I loot the full ones and salvage all the remains.  I do not quite get what the salvaged stuff is good for, but people are buying it on the market, so who am I to complain.  It paid for itself with my first two successful salvage attempts.  I netted 4 burned logic circuits, which seem to be in demand.

10 MN Afterburner – I had a bunch of 1MN afterburners sitting in storage, but they added so little thrust to this big boy that I opted for the 10MN unit to pick up the pace.

Shield Recharger I – Something I had in storage.  Free is the best deal.

Small Capacitor Battery – I think I have a dozen stashed away.  I should do something with all these rat drops.  I get my act together and sell them on the market once in a while.

Survey Scanner I – Best drop ever.  This just shows you how much ore there is in the asteroids near you.  The Revelations II 2.2 patch updated the way the data is displayed and added in the range of all of the listed asteroids, so it is actually quite useful.  Okay, maybe not that useful, but I like it.

Small Hull Repairer I – Another drop.  I had an empty slot.  I put it on there to figure out how to use it.  I have never done anything with hull or armor repair units, so I haven’t clue.

Expanded Cargo Hold I – Four of these.  I had three on hand and bought the fourth just to round out the set.  These plus my other bonuses give me a cargo capacity of 12,866 cubic meters.

In theory the Mammoth can haul around 16,686 cubic meters of stuff by dragging around four Giant Secure Containers.  A GSC holds 3,900 cubic meters of material, but only takes up 3,000 cubic meters in your cargo hold.  The problem is that there is a spacing requirement for containers.  There has to be a certain amount of space between them, and in the asteroid fields I have been working, there are already so many containers that finding a place to drop one is a challenge.  In the end I had to opt for jet canning.

So now that I have some better hauling capabilities, it is about time for me to get that mining barge.