Recreating my alter-ego, Alexia Morgan

As most of us know by now, we've got a new character portrait creator. Personally, I think it's just awesome, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they enhance it over the next few months or so.

Last night I created a new Black Claw but unfortunately I, like many others, misunderstood the UI and thought that when I clicked on Save, it would save the 4 snapshots I created and allow me to go back to them later to pick and choose. When that didn't happen, and I was stuck with a character portrait that I didn't want and didn't like - I was pissed! Luckily for me, so was hundreds or thousands of others, and so CCP is going to allow those who don't like what the've created to have another go. Phew!

In the meantime, however, tonight I played with Alexia Morgan's new portrait, and I must say that after 4 hours of playing around with it, I've got a portrait that I REALLY like.

In the process creating the character and ending up with facial features that I really liked, I had this hairstyle:

After doing a bit more playing around, I came up with this:

Do you know how long it took me to get the right hairstyle with the right makeup? Man, I feel like a girl.... Anyway, I started playing around with the poses, lighting, angles, etc, until I finally got the exact look I wanted:

So then it was just a matter of zooming in with the camera, and SNAP! Alexia Morgan is immortalised again:

Alexia is a warrior-woman, a leader of OUCH and the Art of War Alliance (in partnership with Black Claw, of course), and there had to be the look of the warrior about her. She's gazing into the distance, calm but determined, strong but very feminine.

I'm very happy with the result.

When I can, I'll be recreating Black Claw, and I'll take similar snapshots of his development progress, with explanations of why I chose what I did.

New Eden poster

EON Magazine have updated their poster of New Eden. Click on the image to the left there, so you can see a larger version of it.

From EON Magazine themselves:

As it's a new year things need refreshing. So continuing on that theme, we decided to give the New Eden poster a little facelift and an update. Individually they are $14.95 however the cheapest way is to purchase the whole poster bundle.

You know you want this on your wall, so hurry up and order a copy. :)

Is your corp looking for new recruits?

One of the biggest issues that corps have is recruitment. The Eve Online forums have a very popular and effective recruitment section, and you do your best to qualify your potential recruits by specifying exactly what you're looking for. But then you've got a lot of time spent on recruitment interviews, where you ask questions of the applicant about what they're looking for, what their experience is, and why they're looking for a new corp.

Along the way you're trying to guage what kind of person they are, how you feel about them, whether you think they'll fit into your corp or not. Usually an API key is necessary to help you feel comfortable about who they are and what their motivations might be, although this is never guaranteed either.

OUCH's graduate placement program

We're going to start a new program within OUCH now that we've got our training department moving ahead in full swing - the placement of graduates with those corps out there who are keen on not having to qualify or interview their recruits.

You see, those people who have graduated from OUCH have already been qualified for you as fine, upstanding citizens of Eve. They've joined OUCH to learn nullsec survival and PVP. They've gone through 11 modules of nullsec survival and PVP training, have at least 10 real kills on their killboard, and proven themselves fit to traverse large expanses of nullsec without being killed.

What does an OUCH student have to achieve to graduate?

In order to graduate, our students have to complete the following training modules:

Basic PvP

1. Overview settings

2. EVE client ESC settings

3. EVE client interface

4. Bookmarking

5. D-Scan

6. Tackling

7. Weaponry

8. Fleet Ops

9. Hunter/Prey

Nullsec Survival

1. Travelling through Nullsec

2. Bubbles: Mobile Warp Disruptors and Interdictor

During their training, they will be involved in fleet operations within OUCH, our alliance, or with our blues, to practice what they're learning. They need to get at least 10 kills to count towards their graduation.

Once they've completed the modules, they than have to travel across 15 nullsec systems in a T1 frigate. They then have to travel back, so a total of 30 jumps through nullsec. They cannot be killed during the test, and they have to take screenshots at certain points that show their ship, the time, and the system. They have 5 hours to complete this test.

When they have satisfactorily completed all the graduation requirements (this includes a review by senior staff to ensure they have completed their training requirements in a meaningful way), they are given a decoration which they can then proudly display that says they are a Graduate of OUCH.

So how does that help me as a CEO or recruitment officer?

Graduates of OUCH have done the hard yards to learn how to survive and engage in PVP in nullsec. They have proven themselves to be fit and capable members of any nullsec corp or alliance. Admittedly their training has been in T1 frigates and cruisers, but once they've done the basics they're free to start flying T2 ships like stealth bombers and interceptors, etc, as they continue to work on their skills for more advanced ship combat.

* OUCH graduates are unlikely to be looking for a quick buck via corp theft. Any pilots of 'unsavoury disposition' are weeded out during training.

* They're not going to require basic training on how things work in nullsec.

* They're not going to waste a lot of your valuable time asking stupid questions.

* They're familiar with effective 'wartime operations policies' for highsec wardecs.

Would you like to know more?

Contact Black Claw in-game or via a reply below this post. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Where do I sign up as a corp for your placement program?

Again, contact me and we'll discuss it. What we'll need is your corp name, contact details, and a description of what the corp does and what would be expected of OUCH graduates who might want to join your corp.

This information will be put on our forum for graduates to see, and anyone that wants to join participating corps will be able to follow up with your nominated contacts.

We would expect that you have at least 20 active members in your corp to make it worthwhile for OUCH graduates to join you if they're interested.

I'm not a CEO or recruitment officer, but I'd like to join OUCH and do this training!

All pilots of any age or background are welcome to join us. Join our public channel OUCH-UNI if you want to ask any questions, or contact Black Claw via evemail. Alternatively, just join us. We'll accept your application as soon as possible, and get you started with your nullsec survival and PVP training as soon as you're able to.