Friday 13 August 2010

Of ransoms and bad luck

I haven't been to amarrian space for ages so I decided to pack my stuff and go on a roam through Domain. My very first newbie toon was an Amarr so going there is almost like coming home. Systems like Ashab, Youl, Penirgman, and so on remind me on my early attemts on can-flipping and running starter missions. Clueless as I was in my very first frigate even some level 1 missions were tricky.

Arriving at my first waypoint, Chaven, I started scanning a bit and found a Paladin Marauder in a mission. A quick ship scan revealed this:


Jackpot? I looted a few small wrecks and this guy locked me and opened fire. It is quite hard to get aggro from Marauders. These beasts are so expensive, and they have everything they need to loot and salvage while they go, so the pilots either don't shoot, or there are no wrecks to loot and salvage for the ninja. Anyway, he shot and off I warped to get some bigger ship.

When I got back to the mission gate, the directional scanner indicated the missionrunner left his mission. I was pondering what to do when all of a sudden he came back out of nowhere and bumped into the gate right next to me. I quickly engaged and went into a close orbit.
Just to be safe I also asked a friend in a logistic ship to come and provide repairs, but as it turned out the battleship's guns didn't manage to track me anyway. He launched a flight of medium ECM drones, but luckily they never managed to jam me until my own drones killed all of them.

I was slowly grinding through the Paladin's heavy armor tank when all of a sudden one of his alliance mates showed up. This guy was not allowed to shoot me, but he started to repair his trapped friend's ship. With remote shield repairs.
Had he used remote armor repair modules I would have had a hard time dealing enough damage. When the Marauder entered structure the enemy pilot tried to start a conversation, but with all those faction and deadspace modules right under my nose I didn't want to talk! In a shiny ball of fire his ship exploded, and I quickly set my disruptor on his friend and shot his repair cruiser as well.
Then I looted the wreck and found... almost nothing. Checking the killmail I noticed the guy in the repair ship looted the most valuable loot from the Marauder (worth several hundred million) and everything he took was destroyed when I blew up his repair cruiser.

Talk about bad luck. I am sure had I accepted his chat request earlier I could have negotiated a ransom.


The next day I met another trigger happy missionrunner. He was doing a mission in an Apocalypse battleship and when he blew up the structure with the mission objective I quickly zoomed to the can and looted it. It didn't take long until the battleship locked me and opened fire. Here is the conversation in local:
TheSoulOfTheSith > why did u steal it?
TheSoulOfTheSith > u want isk?

Scopique > it was just some random loot, wasn't it?
TheSoulOfTheSith > ni i needed to complete the mission i was on
TheSoulOfTheSith > no*
TheSoulOfTheSith > so are you gonna give it back?

Scopique > oh, damn, i didn't even know that sorry :)
TheSoulOfTheSith > ah, so could we meet in an astroid belt and you give it back?
Scopique > i ejected it at your mission gate, sorry again
TheSoulOfTheSith > ah ok


Heh, you guessed it right?

TheSoulOfTheSith > douche
TheSoulOfTheSith > wtf

TheSoulOfTheSith > i give u isk

Scopique > 50 mil 30 sec

TheSoulOfTheSith > there

TheSoulOfTheSith > stop plz

Scopique > here you go

dukeinator > scopique give soul the item back for free or ill make u

Scopique > i really ejected the mission item at his gate

Scopique > i keep my word after all


I often forget to ask for a ransom, but it's easy money indeed. Loot from t2 fit battleships isn't that good most of the time and I don't even need to bother with hauling and selling the stuff.

A bit later it worked again, this time even faster:

Scopique > 50 mil and i go
Scopique > 30 sec

Alhor'Ek'Tabar > fine

Scopique > ok, here you go


This guy was so cool when he paid and I turned off my warp disruptor he didn't leave but went on with his mission as if nothing happened. I know many pirates and also ninjas do not honor ransom but kill the ships anyway but I prefer it like this. Maybe I can work on a reputation. If they are willing to pay, then they may leave or go on with what they do.

In corp chat:

Schmetterflug > Do you let them live after they payed u?
Scopique > yes. i am the nice guy :)

Saint Lucifer > wierdo

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