Year In Review

Because it's the cool thing to do this time of year, and everybody's doing it, I figured it was time to do the yearly retrospective.

Personally

This has been a year of both plunging both hands into industry, and nutting up for PVP.  It has been invigorating to be able to jump into the big times, PVP wise, with QCATS, and finally put a lot of that "noob friendly" dead weight behind me.  Not to say those that sponsor and raise noobs aren't awesome, but it's been a real joy to spread the wings of my ludicrous SP and really play with the big boys.  Unfortunately, the realities of PVP are kind of lame (2hrs of sitting around waiting for a fight, 15min fight).  When I can do enjoyable form ups, it's a blast.  I had a lot of fun putting my dreads to use, and providing logi in the big fights.  And the T1 cruiser changes have opened up the world of solo/very-small gang PVP, so I look forward to wasting some time there when work isn't destroying me.

Industry wise, it's been a huge learning experience.  As I come out of my shell and slowly become less of a fail coder, more and more tools open up to me.  From the joint tools I made with Aideron, to the development of Prosper here, I have learned a lot personally and look to really step up my game to the next level in the coming months.

Professionally

The overwhelming majority of my time this year was spent in the pursuit of heavy industry.  From my merger with Aideron Robotics at the end of 2011, to its growth and schism this summer, to heavy personal industry, it has been a year of heavy building.  Thanks to the professional relationships with TheAhmosis and Marcel Devereux from Aideron, I was really able to go from middling to prospering.

I did miss the year end goal of JF production by 3 weeks, but that's seriously not bad.  My comrades back in Aideron Robotics can attest to the 3 month build up and ultimate canceling of capital production, and being on track to still hit the goal in the same month is a massive improvement.

Lessons Learned

Tools Make the Project: After running a staff of 30+ heavy industrialists, the absolute truth learned there was that any project is bounded by the quality of tools.  Having Aideron's staffing tools was only the first step up, to really grow another set of shared tools was really required.  Also, the lacking environment of corp-level API tools means it's a whole uncharted DIY kind of territory.  This point is why Prosper got started.

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Somewhat related to the first point, not delegating responsibility properly or tracking real work became one of reasons Aideron fell apart.  With one or two directors losing entire days to managing logistics, you know you have a problem.  Also, with my personal emphasis on being in FW PVP, I needed to change my focus from maximum ISK to minimum clicks.  This is a major design consideration for Prosper, since I'd like to let humans play while computers work.

Death to PVE: This has been slowly coming for a long time.  As missions continue to be nerfed, and new content completely lacking, I've been actively avoiding ALL PVE.  Though FW was (and still kind of is) a cash cow, I just can't stomach all the boring ass PVE.  I'd really love to see some more PVE love, like incursions, but PVE content is expensive to produce and has a short shelf life.

Goals for 2013

Stop Reinventing the Wheel: There are a lot of awesome tools, and a lot of people with more freetime than sense have made a wealth of tools.  Sometimes there are niches, but team up when you can and collaborate!

Accounting is Important:  This is a personal weakness I am working through currently.  Working with Aideron Robotics and their toolset made me lazy.  Also, I have a tendency to desire constant growth, and this leads to being overlevereged.  Ahmosis has been a real great resource in keeping me on track in this regard.

Total Galactic Dominance: The goal for Prosper still stands, and it remains largely on track.  I have given myself a large buffer and decent roadmap, so the goal is to stay on track.  I continue to build the contacts list, and continue to grow the investment nestegg.