Go to lowsec! Coward!

From the EVE-O-forums:

Ok, I've had it with this game! I don't know anything about PVP because I don't WANT to know anything about it. A short time ago I was running a mission in a high security area, minding my own business and salvaging my wrecks when I suddenly noticed a red flashing ship and reflexivly lock target and attack, only to realize its another player who it turned out had purposely scanned me down to my mission area and looted one of my wrecks which turned them "red" to me, which I knew nothing about before as, mentioned already, I know nothing about PVP (or its tactics) and don't want to know.

I fully support other people's choice to enjoy PVP (with others who want the same) but I also expect the same support for my own choice not to engage in it. I had thought that down the road I may get into it , but just not yet. And if any missions took me into LoSec space, I'd be willing but would actually equip my ship to take into account possible gankers where I might at least be able to warp out if needed.

But in a High Security mission area, I had no such equipped ship nor was anything dealing with PVP even on my mind when this coward that is too afraid to go to LoSec space to PVP but instead hunts in HiSec mission areas for unprepared and unsuspecting players who don't understand what the hells going on till its too late and their millions of isk worth of tech II gear and battle cruiser have been trapped and vaporized and looted.

I realize this game is geared towards PVP but people like that punk shouldn't be able to access others mission areas to bring their PVP attempts against others who want nothing to do with it. The very way they went about it shows they were knew the players in the areas they were hunting would not be equipped nor prepared nor willing to PVP with them knowingly.

Instead, they were too chicken-crap to go to areas others would take them on willingly or to places that at least people who entered them were aware of the chance for PVP.

In any case, I've got a load of frigates, cruisers and a strip miner plus millions of isk and other tech II gear thats just going to rot because quite frankly I've had enogh with the way some of the players in this game act and the way the devs leave the game designed so they can get away with it.

I know the lack of my monthly payments won't matter to CCP but I can only assume there have been, and will continue to be, others who feel the same as I do and maybe one day enough will say the hell with it to actually make CCP take notice and actually get some changes made but, until then, in the immortal words of Eric Cartman...."Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home!"

This is something we're reading quite often. "Go to lowsec or 0.0 coward!"
Not only is it more fun and often more profitable, what those highsec bears fail to realize "piracy" means fighting and stealing from people who do not want to fight in the first place. It's not a warcraft battleground where people who want to fight meet and shoot each other. At least for me "piracy" and being a villain means stealing as much valuables with as little risk as possible. Did you ever watch a pirate movie where the pirate captain didn't engage the fat galleon full of gold but sent a letter to the navy instead, asking for a fair fight "tomorrow morning at sunset?"

We are criminals for god's sake, not pvp addicts looking for fair duels.



Thank you Felicity Doomsayer for the find.

A pirate's life

We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot.
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot.
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me.

We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack.
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!
Maraud and embezzle and even hijack.
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me.
Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me.

©1967 X. Atencio & George Bruns


What defines a pirate's life? According to history and many stories either written or told by movies pirates are outlaws who act detached from politics, usually plundering those who are not prepared to fight. Wealthy merchants or passenger ships are the usual prey, as those offer good loot or high ransoms. The number of pirates among all those who are cruising the seas is relatively low. The vast majority are fine seafarers who respect the law.

Is this the same in EVE? Due to the highsec/lowsec separation the playerbase is also separated. Those willing to fight other players roam lowsec while those interested in earning money avoid fights by staying in high security space.
When I moved to lowsec several weeks ago I started marking other pilots I met by adjusting their standing. Other pirates received a negative standing and thus an orange mark while I marked all mission runners and industrials I met blue. I thought this would be a smart idea to spot the few other pirates among the crowd of potential victims.

A crackpot idea!

When roaming the local lowsec systems, especially those close to mission hubs, it is quite common to have 20+ orange marked people around me with only a few neutrals or blues - if at all. Examining their info there are usually two or three alliances involved. Sometimes they fight each other, sometimes they don't. But what about the classic pirate theme? Where are the rich merchants?

The closest to the "rich merchant" type I usually meet are more or less bot-controlled industrial ships. Ever been to Ingunn lately? A lowsec system with 100+ people in local at all times. Most of them are shuttles and industrials. Shooting at those ships is a waste of ammo however, as they usually do not carry anything but junk and their pilots don't even send a hatemail.

With so many other pirates in the area locating a victim before the others do is like playing the lottery, especially if you're flying solo like me. Also the most valuabe ships are combat ships, so mission runners and other pirates are the juiciest prey. But doesn't this lead to pirates fighting other pirates? Are we even pirates -in the traditional romantic way- if we fight each other due to lack of real customers?
Don't get me wrong, I do not mind fighting other combat pilots nor am I afraid of losing my ship. But initially my intention was to play a game of cat and mouse with pilots who are not expecting a fight. Some of the activity in lowsec reminds me more on street fights of rivaling gangs than on classic piracy.

I might even go one step further. Pirates in highsec are often frowned upon by their lowsec brothers. Because of the CONCORD mechanics highsec pirates are limitted to ore theft, ninja salvaging, suicide ganking, can flipping, and war decs as far as criminal activities are concerned. But aren't those pirates closer to the classic pirate, the lone outlaw among a crowd of do-gooders, who needs not only brute force but tricks and bluffs to pillage and plunder? Not because he is a more skilled pilot, but because of his situation in relation to his victims?

Maybe I am wrong. At least I hope so. I am enjoying my life in lowsec. I like the fights and I like the people I meet as friends (more on those two topics in upcoming posts (TM)). However, what I miss are systems that are not already crowded by angry PVP alliances or totally deserted. There must be pirates out there who regularly catch mission runners, bust mining ops and are not busy fighting other pirates but use humor and wits to sneak up on those who are not looking for a fight.

Becoming famous!

When I logged in today I noticed something unfamiliar. I had to check twice but it's true: Someone wants me so badly he put a bounty on my head! \o/


This is my first bounty and I have been wondering when it would finally happen. Maybe I owe it to Mr Scandere?

It was just the day after I wrote about my recent customers and the lack of more expensive ships in my region when I entered yet another system with three or four people in local. Following the usual routine I warped to my scanning spot when suddenly a Myrmidon battlecruiser appeared on scan along with some wrecks in a belt. Without thinking twice I fired up the warp drive, activated defensive mods, and initiated the warp disruptor.

Within seconds the asteroids came into view, along with the Myrmidon and a flight of small drones. I was so excited about my luck! The target quickly resolved and the warp disruptor caught Mr Scandere who was pounding away at an Angel Commander. Activating my microwarp drive I set a close orbit of 2000m and once within range six autocannons began to grind into the enemy battlecruiser's armor while two medium energy neutralizers sucked his capacitor dry.
Suddenly everything went pretty fast. I expected high damage from the Myrmidon's drones so I sent my own warriors after them first. At the same time the local population exploded when ten or so people jumped into the system. A trap? A quick glance at the enemy ship's status indicated he was already deep into armor. My own ship was barely scratched but my capacitor was almost empty.
Usually I do not have any cap isues at all with the fit I use on my Hurricane, but this time I was a bit distracted by scanning for enemy reinforcements so I just deactivated the neutralizers, sent all drones to finish of the Myrmidon, and hoped for just a few more seconds.

Reinforcements never came and the enemy gang left the system as quickly as they had come. When Scandere's ship exploded in a flash of light and the wreck quickly drifted out of range I finally noticed the reason for my empty capacitor: I had left the microwarp drive running!


Mistakes like this make me realize how important it is to stay calm even when something unexpected happens.
However, this fight is a good example of why I love flying solo in lowsec also: With neither a backup fleet nor a scout to provide intel it can be win or lose each time I warp towards a potential victim. I like the unpredictable!

Solo impressions

Daily business

For some time past I have been operating from my base in Metropolis. First I flew around in my Jaguar to make myself feel comfortable in the area. I made several bookmarks, both for scanning and retreating, and I tried to get as much information as possible about the local population. Three major parties are mainly to be found: New players who roam the borders of lowsec to kill rats at belts, mission runners both solo or in groups, and other pirates or pirate hunters. Pirates and pirate hunters (or anti pirates as they often call themselves) are hardly to be distinguished between however. Both tend to move in blobs, camping gates and killing everything that comes in range.

Those gate camps are a plague for the aspiring solo pirate! Often created at a highsec to lowsec gate they block off any potential new customer. I am sure most ratters or mission runners would prefer a personal treatment I could provide instead of the anonymous mass processing a gatecamp offers. Luckily some pilotes are smart enough to sneak around those blockades and enjoy their PVE activities while the lazy guys remain sitting at their gates.

While the Jaguar is great for scouting and shooting at inexperienced pilotes, this ship has some drawbacks. First of all it's lack of tank limits the amount of potential targets. I cannot attack at gates nor stations, else the senties would rip me a new one quickly. The dps is rather low also. Enough to kill other frigates and T1 cruisers, but hardly enough to engage bigger ships.


Size does matter!

So I went back to my base and hopped into a Hurricane battlecruiser. Fitted with a passive shield tank it is quite agile and with a good fitting, it is a very versatile ship.


Here is a list of some guys I met last week:

Ceetee Emess and Avil Ligotum were ratting in a Rupture and Caracal respectively. Avil called me names in local a few days before when I couldn't disrupt his warp drive fast enough with my Jaguar. This time however he couldn't escape.

Hoki Moonwolf was doing a mission. Unfortunately there isn't a probe launcher equipped on my Hurricane. Fortunately I had reinforcements close by!
Some quick scanning led me to his mission site, through two mission gates, and several dozen km from my warp-in point to his ship. Maybe doing missions is so exciting he wasn't able to look at the overview or it's so boring he was browsing a forum or reading a book. His Thrasher had some shiny modules but unfortunately most of the loot blew up with the ship.

Cattirbrie was also ratting in a Caracal. Obviously he was planning to stay in lowsec for a long time since he had several skillbooks in his cargo hold.

Gemba used an interesting fit on his Thrasher destroyer with mixed guns, a mixed tank and cargo and ship scanners. I wonder if he scanned the rats for loot before he killed them?

Tangodude had two Warp Core Stabilizers equipped on his Blackbird so he would have been able to escape in case of an attack. However, he never used them although it took me some time to maneuver my 'Cane around all those asteroids to get in range.

Skarr is also a pirate. He was part of a small gang that often roam Wiskeber and the surrounding systems. This time I met him solo in a Rifter though. I expected a trap but went in to have a look anyway, and a flight of Warrior II drones made short work of him. His mates arrived minutes later with a blob of 10+ ships but fortunately didn't bring a probe launcher.

Omd was idling a few km off a gate in an Iteron MK III. He had one unit of frozen food and one unit of Kernite in his cargo. Looking at his recent losses I wonder if he is a hauler bot with a broken script? I sold the Kernite and microwaved the food while looking for new customers.

CleverCougar was also idle 40km off a gate in an Imicus. Turned out he is a textile vendor of some kind, carrying several hundred units of polytextiles in his bay. Sitting 40km off a gate in lowsec isn't as clever as his name suggests though.


No impressive kills unfortunately. For some reason it looks like all solo pilots I meet are new players in T1 ships while all the older guys are only roaming lowsec in gangs. I'd like to fight something bigger like a battlecruiser or maybe even a battleship without a support fleet next door. But then again it's been a bit more than a week only.
So far it's a lot of fun!

Wormhole shenanigans

Several weeks ago my corp decided to move into a wormhole system and live there for some time. We had a POS somewhere in Providence we wanted to move out anyway and the alliance we had joined was beginning to break apart. We planned to move several remote repping battleships, some pvp fit ships, haulers, and POS structures in, set up base at a random moon within the wormhole system, and see how things evolved.

After some hours of probing we finally found a suitable class 3 wormhole in Kheram in Domain, hauled all ships and huge loads of equipment in, and set up the POS. The system was relatively small and there weren't any competitors but several sites promised good loot.


Pew pew!

How is w-space PVE compared to missions or 0.0 ratting? First of all the sleepers we found are not as predictable as those NPC you engage in missions. Sleepers change targets often, depending (as far as I can say) on how much of a threat an individual attacker is or whether or not his tank is holding. That said, the sites we tried usually had several waves of some frigates, cruisers, sentries, and one or two battleships and didn't pose a risk to a gang of 5 or so battleships with remote repairing modules. Two or three reps on a ship seem to be enough to keep up with the incoming damage. Some of the targets spawned at a range of 70+ km though so I was happy I picked a long range Typhoon.

Once a site has been cleared some guys hopped into their salvage ships and with the POS close by it took only a few minutes to loot and salvage everything. Half an hour of shooting at sleepers at two sites yielded roughly 60 to 80 mil ISK in total.

The sites inside a wormhole are limited though, and I think they do not respawn on a daily basis. When doing missions or ratting there is an unlimited supply of targets. Once you set up a POS in a wormhole system however, you are bound to stay there for a while. Targets will respawn eventually, but it might take some time.

With no sleepers to shoot at, we soon began to look for other victims. As soon as the entry wormhole collapsed, a new one spawned so we hopped through and had a look.


A cruise around the world

I have been on two cruises IRL so far, on the Nile in Egypt, and through the fjords of Norway. Usually I do not like ships because the space is so limited and you never have a nice quite spot for yourself. The good part is you don’t need to make long trips to see all the exciting places. The ship is docking at a port and if you want to, you can enjoy a few hours of shore leave to take some pictures or to buy a souvenir. Once you are done you board the ship again, hang out at the bar or go to bed. In the next morning the ship has usually moved on and the next port is within sight.


Having a POS in a wormhole system is almost exactly the same. Granted, you neither have a bar nor a pool, but there will be a new wormhole exit to some random part of New Eden every day with ample opportunity to take pictures or pick up souvenirs.
You shoot some stuff, go to bed, and the next morning the wormhole has docked at another port with new local folk to harass.

For some people in my corp this is so tempting they don’t want to leave the wormhole anymore. Miners are happy because there are often juicy belts in the system, the PVE lovers are having a blast killing sleepers, industrialists are starting their T3 production thingy and those looking for PVP always have a lowsec wormhole close by. But there are some major flaws in this idea also, the main reason why I eventually left w-space and set up my own base:

-You never know when a wormhole is going to collapse. You get some vague idea about the remaining time by looking at the hole’s info, but “reaching the end of it’s natural lifespan” could mean anything from a few hours to a second. Are you going to jump through in your shiny recon or expensive battlecruiser when there is a risk you won’t be able to go back? The people still in w-space could probe down a new entry for you, but it might be dozens of jumps away, maybe in a region you cannot access with your sec status.

-Supply is even more of a problem than it is for a normal pirate. You have a hauler alt in Jita? Too bad the new entry is 40 jumps away. And where do you set up your medical clone?

-You’ll always be a stranger. Information about the local systems usually is a big advantage, but when living in w-space you often have no clue about local corps, mission hubs, trade routes, and so on.

I am sure I’ll go and visit my friends in case an entry is close to my hunting grounds, and I like reading their daily reports, but in the meantime I’ll stick to my fixed base of operations.

Consecration

Final preparations

Reallife has been a bit busy lately, so I was eager to finally set up my base and blow something up. My trusted readers made me aware of several problems the pirate-to-be should think of, so I double checked my strategy:

Money
Piracy is a money sink. Experts might actually earn money by looting wrecks or ransoming customers, but a solo noob like me is likely to loose more isk than he earns. How do I fund my adventures?

-Fly cheap ships: Frigates, T1 cruisers, and battlecruisers are relatively cheap. I'll stick with those when flying solo until I am audacious enough to use their more expensive T2 counterparts.

-Wormholes: Some friends set up a pos in a wormhole system and they are killing sleepers regularly. Whenever an entrance to the system is within reach of my new home I can join them for easy cash.

-Missions: In case I really have to use him I have a mission runner alt ready to go.

Logistics
-To keep the supply of ships and modules up and running I have a freighter alt in training at the moment. In two weeks he'll be able to hop into a Providence. I will try and set up my base in range of one of the major trade hubs to keep flight times low.

"Seriously dude, that's way too complicated! Go and join a true pirate corp!"
-Nope. It will be tricky and there is a risk I'll totally mess it up but I'll go and try to be solo for some time. I am still in my corp so there is the corp chat for those lonely nights, but I will be far away from most of them for some weeks at least. I want to learn how much of a challenge it is to make allies and foes, deal with logistics, and fight on my own.
Me likes challenges! :)


Conquest of the promised land

With my hauler alt still in training, it took me some hours to move all equipment to my new base. Buying modules for half a dozen different ships is a pain. I always list all mods from EFT in a textfile, copy it to the ingame notepad, and start shopping but it's an annoying task. Why isn't there an option to buy all mods you need for a predefined ship setup at lowest price automatically?

Two battlecruisers, one heavy assault ship, four assault frigates, and a huge load of t2 drones, ammo, and cap boosters later I was ready to go. Undocking from "my" station in a 0.5 system in Metropolis I set course for the lowsec gate and began my quest for glory and plunder.



Lacking customers I jumped into the Heimatar region. The systems around Eifer used to be busy and full of targets last time I crossed them but tonight, fortune didn't smile on me. Some systems were empty, some full of macro haulers I couldn't take on with my Jaguar, and some were busy with large gangs. I zipped around, dodged a gate camp or two, scanned belt after belt but without success.
A few jumps later I entered Molden Heath. Teonusude and Oddelulf are highsec mission hubs and a lot of mission runners enter the bordering lowsec systems to do a mission or kill a few rats. Unfortunately not tonight. A battleship gang roamed the area and scared away most pilots. When I noticed the first flight of combat scanner probes aproaching my savespot, I decided to dock and call it a night.


First blood

The next morning I couldn't resist and logged in an hour before I had to go to work. Only a few pilotes were in local and none of them belonged to the same corp. Quickly I noticed a Thrasher on scan but when I tried to pin him down I realized he was way off any celestial object, probably in a mission. (Note to self: Go and buy a covops ship with a probe launcher next time you're in Rens!)
Cursing my bad luck I read some intel channels for a while, randomly scanning for targets when suddenly the Thrasher disappeared from scan. "Done with the mission, are we?" I muttered, but for some reason the pilot didn't leave the system. Rather bored I set my Jaguar in motion and entered the coordinates for another scanning spot.
Even before the warp bubble collapsed I had the Minmatar destroyer on scan again, this time in the direction of some asteroid belts. Usually I warp to a planet first to confirm the exact position of a victim but this time I had a feeling I should hurry. I quickly warped to the last belt in the system and only seconds later the Thrasher landed directly on top of me.

Granted, a young pilot in a destroyer isn't a particularly tough opponent but a kill is a kill. This poor guy has been the consecration of my new career. May there be many who follow him!