Posted by: Shan Dollean : Category: ¶ New Eden has lost a little bit of its’ gloss for me recently. I guess I’ve hit a bit of a flat spot, wondering where my life is gonna take me… up ‘til now, I’ve been content with disrupting the plans of the Angel Cartel, and living off the proceeds, and joining in with the defence of Omist when hostile forces come calling – and of course helping the Defias Brotherhood maintain its presence in Omist by doing what I can to keep its tower running.
¶ But just recently, things have got a bit routine. Destroying Angel battleships isn’t quite the challenge it used to be. Defence ops have become fewer and further between (which I believe is a testament to the defence capability of the new Omist residents) – although Stain Empire still maintain their frequent nano-gang visits; we may be becoming a more capable as a defence force, but it’s still better for us to let them pass.
¶ So I thought I’d try something a little different. Since Defias grew from being a pirate organization, I thought I’d try my hand at a little belt piracy. So, with a sense of anticipation and excitement, I left my Omist clone at the TCF manufacturing plant in 6T3 and returned to Empire space.
¶ Now the way I initially tried to make my living in New Eden was by scavenging the assorted components that you can find lying about in wrecks left behind by people learning how to rat, and either making use of them in modifying my ships, or selling them on for a decent profit – a sort of interstellar Womble if you like!
¶ My aim was to exploit this; jump into a low-tech ship like a Rifter-class frigate, find someone who is ratting and salvaging, and try to tempt them into opening fire by stealing loot from one of their wrecks. After all, I’d only be in a Rifter right? An easy kill even for a ship equipped not for taking on other capsuleers but for destroying pirate ships. They wouldn’t expect me to be equipped with warp scrambler and webber and whizzing round their ships at over 3kms/sec with their artillery or rail guns hopelessly trailing in my wake would they?
The Hunt Begins
¶ The system I chose for this was Eram, a high security ( 0.8 ) system in the Metropolis region of Matar space. This is the system where I learnt to rat and salvage; it has lots of asteroid fields, generally populated by plenty of light Angel frigates; and it’s also a minor trade hub, so there are always plenty of capsuleers around. So, with my head still spinning from the clone jump, I hopped into a Rifter that I’d previously built for myself, fitted it out for speed and firepower, and set my course.
¶ And it didn’t take me long to find a potential target. A Gallente Exequror-class cruiser was salvaging wrecks in almost the first asteroid belt I came across, using a salvager AND a tractor beam, which meant of course he only had a maximum of three guns fitted to his ship; and he clearly hadn’t fully mastered drone control – so vital for Gallente pilots – as he was only flying four light drones.
¶ Unfortunately, I had warped in a fraction too late as he emptied his last Angel wreck even as I decided he was a viable target and began my approach; so I decided to see where he went next and followed him, hoping that an opportunity would present itself.
¶ As I’d hoped, he went to another belt looking for more Angel Cartel frigates to destroy, so I warped in behind him – 100kms away – to watch. I was hoping to sneak in unnoticed while he was focussed on destroying any Cartel ships in the belt. However, there was no Angel presence, so my arrival at the belt was somewhat obvious. At this point I suspect the Exequror pilot figured out what I was up to, as he warped to the nearest station and put up for the night.
¶ I spent another hour searching out potential other targets, and with the exception of one possibility – a Cormorant-class Caldari destroyer – found nothing viable as a target. I decided against taking on the Cormorant because I suspected my Rifter, for all its’ speed, wouldn’t withstand a sustained barrage from seven fast-tracking blasters for too long.
¶ It was the following day before I could find another target; in the same asteroid belt that I’d found the Gallente cruiser previously, I found a Thrasher-class destroyer with a Minmatar pilot – again with tractor and salvager fitted, meaning that his firepower would be somewhat reduced. Again, I was a fraction too late, again I followed him to another asteroid belt – with no Angels in it, and as with the previous encounter it ended fruitlessly with the Thrasher pilot warping out of the belt and ultimately out of the system.
¶ At this point, I received a wire from Havo calling an urgent ice-mining operation in Omist to ensure that we had sufficient fuel to keep our station going, and being one of only a small number of pilots in the corporation who can fly an ORE mining barge, knew that as soon as my head had cleared from the last clone jump, I would have to return to nullsec space – so I only had a matter of hours to claim that elusive kill.
Harder Than It Looks…
¶ One last roam of Eram then – and I found the best opportunity yet. A Retriever-class mining barge, equipped with just two medium scout drones, and the wreck of an angel frigate that he’d taken down but clearly couldn’t be bothered to empty. It was there on a plate for me, all that needed to happen was for me to empty the wreck, him to set his drones on me (I was confident I could take the two of them down), and I’d have my first solo kill. So I set full speed, and swept towards the wreck.
¶ … and I couldn’t do it.
¶ I don’t know what it was, but something stayed my hand. I sped past the wreck, leaving it untouched, and warped out of the belt, disgusted with myself. I sat and thought about it – perhaps it was because the Retriever was TOO easy, almost completely unarmed and not set up for combat. Maybe it’s because of my lack of experience in combat situations, I don’t know…
¶ I admonished myself and told myself not to be so stupid, re-steeled myself and warped back into the belt. At which point the Retriever pilot panicked and fled. Chance gone.
¶ And that’s the moment at which I realised – I must be a carebear. :(
¶ Although that didn’t stop me helping myself to the two Hammerhead drones that the Retriever pilot had left behind in his panic, although it felt like a scant consolation for a disturbing revelation.
I may try again.
-Shan Dollean
-Shan out.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:26 am
The first step across the line between non-aggression and piracy is a difficult one. For every pilot there is the trepidation. For every pilot, there is that twinge of conscience that says, “To do this is to become someone else. Someone I’ve tried to defend myself against. Someone I’ve always been told was bad.”
Every pilot requires a different catalyst to make them disregard that twinge and press forward. And just like the old saying, “Every man has a price,” every man has a catalyst. Those who think they don’t just haven’t had it exposed yet.
For me, it was the loss of a Scythe-class mining cruiser in Airkio. A pilot flying a Merlin-class frigate equipped with a micro auxiliary power core and a medium shield extender - the cruiser-sized variant.
The Scythe is by no means defenseless, and even with three Miner II’s fitted, it has enough firepower in the form of missile launchers and drones to deal with many small threats. Fitted for mining, it would be no match for a more martial cruiser, but any Tech 1 frigate should’ve been an easy kill… or so I thought.
“I was wrong. This changes everything.”
For weeks, we’d been harassed during our mining efforts by can flippers, and the smack talked by one of our more aggressive-minded co-founders (Shar Vari) almost got us wardecced by a local pirate corporation. I had already been getting ‘itchy’. Losing that Scythe was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I decided that just training up for PvP wasn’t enough.
I spoke to the co-founders of our first corporation about it, but my mind was made up already. I was going to form the Defias Brotherhood. I was going to take out my anger on everyone, from other pirates to industrialists like I almost became. Everybody would suffer the same setbacks and frustrations that I had suffered, only this time I would be the one entertained, I would be the one to profit, I would be the one that made them dock up when I entered local. Me. Havohej.
I was willing to hand over control of our first corporation to the other co-founders if they chose not to pursue this path with me. I knew they were also getting angry at how difficult minding our own business and being left alone was turning out to be, but I had my doubts as to whether they would want to actively cause trouble for otherwise innocent people.
Fortunately they did, and so the corporation got a bit of a head start. Anyway, I digress.
My point was, everybody has a limit, and once they’re pushed beyond that limit all the bets are off, the gloves come off, and ruthlessness is the name of the game. When it becomes more important to come out on top of any given situation than it is to come out on top of the moral situation.
You’ll come along, you’re already halfway there if you went out with trouble in mind.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
yarr! next time, bro!
April 1st, 2008 at 9:20 am
Hey Shan, don’t give up! As Havo said if you’ve gone out looking for trouble you’re half way there.
My second kill ever was a mining barge. I didn’t even convo or ransom the guy, I just flipped the can and blew the ship to pieces.
A little mindless maybe, but once you have done it for the first time it becomes easier. Infact you begin to crave and savor it.
Flip the can/loot the wreck and wait for the blinky red light to appear on the overview - then shoot! You’ll love it, I promise :)
Take care
Alia
April 1st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
I can understand how it can be. Im guessing you came into eve with the mindset of discovery and exploration, a “trekkie” way of looking at things… .not saying thats bad, but it encourages a less violent school of thought when it comes to play style.
I on the other hand, came to eve with one thing in mind. I was an avid WoW player, and while eve players often bash it, it is a game that attracts so many simply because it isnt sandbox, because it has a highly structured predictable reward system and little frustration with death.
While this is satisfying for a while, the repetitiveness was quickly tiring. Nowadays
I liken playing WoW to slamming my dick in a car door. As fun as it seems, the novelty quickly wears off.
Anyways, your probably asking what i’m getting at by now, and its this. When i came to eve, i wanted it to be real pvp. I didnt want to kill a player just to have him come back 30 seconds later and try and kill me, with minimal risk involved. I wanted people to shit themselves when they saw me coming, knowing they were at real risk of losing something of value.
On my second day playing, i tipped the cans of 6 different pilots, stealing their ore and provoking 3 to attack me, swiftly dealing death to them with the mindset that I was the little guy on the wrong side of the playground, and one would surely kick my ass.
So do not consider yourself a care bear. Rather, find the motivation to inflict harm by drawing on your inherent evilness, the dark side that lurks within and wishes to be released through the care bear veneer. It is there and the only thing you should fear is once you’ve released the sadistic destructive force, you’ll be able to cage it back up.