Ecliptic Rift

Myarr!

I will admit that the idea of highsec piracy occasionally appeals to me. Hitting miners and traders to see what they’ve got? Salvaging and looting in deadspace? Shooting down overly confident agency contractors? Delicious. Sure, you have to go out and rebuild your trust with CONCORD by shooting down some NPC pirates, too, but that pays decently well on its own.

One of my associates tried it in the past, but then she disappeared for a bit on some classified assignment for the militia. I may need to find another associate to sponsor for spreading mayhem in the right places. Don’t tell the Coalition.

A former associate, Joron Darkdust, has gotten back in touch recently. He pulled himself out of whatever hellhole had swallowed him up and seems to have fallen in with some interesting folks. I hope it works out for him.

On my end of the cluster, however, I have continued my mission running for the Angel Cartel. While Curse has quite a few podders floating around, by the time I get moving, they’ve all docked up. I frequently have no other pilots in Local, and even when I do, they’ve yet to try to probe me out. Living in W-space taught me to live off the directional scanner, and so I keep a close eye on it despite the fact that it hasn’t happened yet. I believe it will soon enough, though.

Interestingly, the Cartel hasn’t had me dealing with any Republic forces out here. I suspect that the RSS has some sort of arrangement with them, because I haven’t heard of so much as a surveillance outpost. On the other hand, in addition to the expected Sansha elements, CONCORD recon forces, and occasional independent mercenaries, the Gallente Federation has quite a bit of activity out here. They like me a lot less these days.

But we all make choices, don’t we? I mean, the Cartel has sort of started to warm up. The Dominations don’t, of course, but the Archangels have, so hopefully they’ll start to have interest in working out some deals. They have things I want, I can do things they can’t, and it might even turn out that I can help with, erm, publicity.

When I play RPGs, I always struggle with choice. So many options from which we can choose. Think about the career options in EVE, for example. You have pirates, nullsec warriors, explorers, miners, traders, researchers, builders, mission runners, militia, smugglers, diplomats, salvagers, haulers, and more. Each of those has specialties as well: fleet commanders, scouts, capital ship pilots, inventors, high-sec research starbase operators, station traders, and so forth.

In EVE, of course, those choices generally don’t mutually exclude each other. You don’t get locked into a “class” from which you’d have to respecialize and lose all your prior abilities A pilot who starts out mining can decide to start training combat skills, go pirate, and end up as the CEO of a nullsec corp that specializes in small-squadron warfare, and he could still go mine if (for some odd reason) he decided to do so. Some choices might not work simultaneously, of course, but over the course of your career trajectory, you can do anything.

I find myself at a crossroads right now. Primarily, of course, I am an EVE blogger — a freelance writer who just blathers on and on, writing about whatever strikes my fancy. But I also do a good bit of trading / exploration / hauling, sometimes with some research and manufacturing or even mission running in the mix. In the past, I have engaged in factional warfare, scouting and tackling for an anti-pirate alliance, a wee bit of piracy, salvaging, W-space living, running roleplay corporations, fiction writing, EVElopedia editing, and mining.

Lately, though, I’ve started to think I want to grow in another direction. I feel like I might have something to contribute towards PvP. It takes essentially no training time for a pilot to scout and tackle effectively, and not much more to provide effective electronic warfare support. I have a number of alts that could easily become mains, moving Casiella to a background character for fiction writing and semi-passive income via datacores, trading, and perhaps some science and industriy.

This doesn’t contract my thoughts on nonviolent play, I should note. I have a character dedicated to truly nonviolent play who will start to see more action next week, but he primarily exists for roleplay (in a solo corporation) and planetary management. Some press releases on the Intergalactic Summit, checking on my planetary production networks every four days or so, that sort of thing.

Yeah, so maybe I just can’t easily decide. I don’t know whether that’s wrong… see? I did it again!

NB: I had most of this written prior to Helicity’s rant. And I generally with much of that rant, actually, but after further reflection I realized it went too far and I needed to respond. Other worthwhile posts include those from Black Claw, Kirith Kodachi, Kant Lavar, and Luccul.

For all the talk about “carebears” in one direction, and “pirate Nazis” or whatever in the other direction, these folks really miss one of the core points about EVE: playstyle diversity.

Pirates and other PVPers need the folks they call “carebears“. Who else will produce their ships and modules and ammo and drones? Who else will buy the loot they pick up from their enemies’ wrecks so that they have ISK for new equipment and other fees?

And the real “carebears” — not just non-combat players, but those who express total moral outrage at not being left alone — need the PVPers. Who else will buy their stuff in significant quantities, or create demand by destroying other people’s stuff (that will then need replacement)? Yes, individuals might take a loss due to ganks or gate camps, but a bit of care can avoid most of that. And at any rate, we still make profits over time. Rewards require risk, after all. (Related to this, not all non-combat players actually count as carebears.)

Look, this should all be really obvious to everyone. But evidently it’s not, whether due to willful ignorance or an inability to play well with others (meaning sometimes you have to lose graciously).

We can’t all get along in-game, because that would get boring. In fact, we really shouldn’t: EVE revolves around competition in various guises. But can’t we all get along out of game?

Tanker Explosion Test by SiamEye

While finishing up a mission in Frarn in my new Typhoon, I saw a salvager show up on my overview. No worries, I don’t mind. He does his thing, I do mine, and neither of us can complain. He flew a Malediction and seemed to know his business. We didn’t talk much, but I suppose that particular relationship doesn’t require a lot of communication.

As I got close to finishing the mission, another salvager showed up in a Vexor. Except he also looted my stuff and went flashy. Figuring I could handle a cruiser with my own drones, I opened fire upon him.

Bad move. The Vexor wasn’t too much trouble by himself, but with endless Amarrian battleships trying to tear large chunks out of my armor, he eventually wore me down. I couldn’t get away and I couldn’t work through his own armor. He had a Myrmidon friend there who also looted, but I chose not to fire upon him, figuring that would not lead to good things. (Not that this worked out a lot better, heh.)

Eh, live and learn. Check for possible backup and don’t engage another pod pilot when you’re already under heavy fire from NPCs.

(I’ll update with a killmail later.)

The first banter of 2010 comes to us from CrazyKinux himself, who asks the following: As we begin another year in New Eden, ask yourselves, “What Now?” What will I attempt next? What haven’t I done so far in EVE? Was it out of fear, funds, or knowledge? What steps and objectives will I set myself to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal for this year? EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?

Destination : Future by gilderic

I’ve had a rough idea of how I would like 2010 to go (EVE-wise) for a while, at least in some senses though not necessarily others. So let’s take a look…

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It wasn't me!

Despite what Egonics and their ilk will tell us, copying music isn’t piracy. Doing violence against somebody’s ship to gain something from their cargo or passengers, though, definitely qualifies. And pilots can make a bit of ISK engaging in piracy, even in “high security space”.

So while CONCORD provides consequences., pilots have to provide their own safety. They can do so generally through tactical awareness, battlefield intelligence, and good flying. For example, let’s say a mining barge, such as a Retriever, sits calmly in a belt in 0.5 security space, mutilating rocks for commercial gain. Perhaps the local non-pod craft pirates (NPC rats) might harass them a little, but they keep a few combat drones deployed just to deal with the pesky little frigates. (That NPC pilot provides a great example of somebody with poor tactical awareness.) The Retriever doesn’t have much in the way of defensive equipment because the pilot doesn’t intend to get into any fights.

Now, a podder ship warps into the belt, maybe in a combat cruiser like a Rupture, and burns toward their ship. It could have arrived just to take out the rats and get the CONCORD bounty, but that assumption doesn’t actually protect the barge very much. Suddenly, the cruiser bumps the barge off of a possible alignment to a celestial, locks it, and opens fire.

CONCORD takes a few seconds to warp to the belt. During that time, the Rupture can get off four or five rounds from each of four autocannons, maybe a few heavy assault missile salvos, all enhanced by target painters. The Retriever will have exploded before CONCORD arrives, and the destruction of that pirate ship won’t console the victim very much. The pirate warps away from both wrecks in his pod.

Then it gets worse: another ship warps in and loots the wrecks. Oddly enough, those wrecks don’t belong to the victim pilot, but to the pirate. Now the victim, who might have swapped to a combat ship like a Rifter, or maybe a friend of said victim, open fire on this third ship out of frustration. Bad idea, because CONCORD enforces the law without favoritism or empathy. The victim of the first engagement has now broken the law and they will warp in before methodically scramming, jamming, and blamming. And the third ship gets away with the loot, for which the market will generally pay a decent amount if that Retriever had nice equipment on it. The Rupture pilot, who would have insured the ship that CONCORD destroyed, also probably used cheap “meta level 0″ equipment and not lost very much ISK. In fact, it could well be that the equipment from the Retriever easily pays the remainder of the replacement of the pirate’s ship.

Not that this happened in Nakugard tonight with any of my associates. Or Hek. (Or Uttindar, but that incident can get left out of this discussion…) No, I just think that pilots should understand how all this works.

Image credit Dyanna

Sometimes, the EVE-Bloggers channel provides too much fun.

TL;DR: Vol Jbolaz believes that EVE players should have the ability to “opt out” of PVP and that players who choose to ‘force’ PVP on others have it too easy under the current design. The other denizens of that channel, at least those present last night around 0300 EVE time, did not agree.

UPDATE: Vol has posted a lengthy, thoughtful response on his own blog. I encourage everyone to go read it.

Feel free to share your thoughts below, but I will wield the moderation hammer for great justice if people get unduly rude toward others. That includes toward Vol, who deserves respect for standing up for his game philosophy (even if the philosophy itself doesn’t deserve respect :p ).

(Edited only for readability & typos, off-topic stuff, and such.)

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I can haz ransom?

Some pirates use their head. They grab your industrial quickly with a heavy interdictor (whose “infinite point” overrides any warp core stabilizers), invite you quickly to a private channel, negotiate a ransom, and send you on your way.

Other pirates, not so much. They just two-volley you with multiple gank battleships, getting less ISK in the process.

Yes, you can haz my ransom

And some of us traders should think through their own tactics a little more so as not to run into both types in the same trip. Because last night… well, let’s just say Essence has more variety than my friend might have thought. I mean, it happened to a friend, but it could happen to anybody, right? Everybody gets caught sometimes…

Image credits EssjayNZ and shutupyourface via Flickr

I’ve rejoined the Minmatar militia, this time with Ghost Outrider. I’ve started a series over at EVE-Mag, “Ghost Outrider in the Sky“, which will chronicle her adventures from an IC first-person perspective. (By the way, don’t get intimidated at all about submitting a piece to them. Very friendly folks and I didn’t have any trouble working with them.)

In any case, I didn’t want to put a whole lot here so that I leave material for there, but I did want to muse on my recent loss of a Cyclone to the Python Cartel which led to an amusing little exchange in Local.

[ 2009.09.10 03:01:29 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Arzad Local Channel
[ 2009.09.10 03:03:04 ] Ghost Outrider > Thought you folks would give up the chase
[ 2009.09.10 03:03:20 ] Ghost Outrider > Was worth a try, anyway
[ 2009.09.10 03:06:46 ] Ghost Outrider > /emote sings, “shot dowwwwn in a blaze of glory”
[ 2009.09.10 03:07:15 ] Spectre3353 > your vocal talents are inspiring
[ 2009.09.10 03:07:31 ] Ghost Outrider > Thanks, some days it’s all I got.
[ 2009.09.10 03:09:16 ] Ghost Outrider > You folks are quiet.
[ 2009.09.10 03:09:31 ] Ghost Outrider > I figured the pilot who singlehandedly wiped out the Goons would have lots to say…
[ 2009.09.10 03:09:39 ] Ghost Outrider > I mean, they felt the pain you laid down on them.
[ 2009.09.10 03:10:02 ] Spectre3353 > i try to keep quiet these days because i dont want to hurt anyones feelings
[ 2009.09.10 03:10:11 ] Spectre3353 > im like a pirate bull in a carebear china shop
[ 2009.09.10 03:10:12 ] Ghost Outrider > I’ve got a thick skin, really.
[ 2009.09.10 03:11:54 ] Ghost Outrider > You folks enjoy your roam.
[ 2009.09.10 03:12:00 ] Spectre3353 > thanks bud
[ 2009.09.10 03:12:01 ] Spectre3353 > cya later

This happened after they’d seen me on a gate when they arrived just after my scout had jumped through, then pursued me through several star systems. I was running a mission for the Tribal Liberation Force and so had a mission fit, not set up for PVP at all (though usually I do when I run TLF missions). As I told my corp’s XO, wartime involves losses. “Can’t win ‘em all,” my dad would say. (Given my win/loss record, that’s particularly true.)

Look, folks, at the end of the day, we’re all just playing with Internet spaceships. I don’t get frothing-at-the-mouth angry when somebody takes my rook playing Chess, or when my daughter beats me at tic-tac-toe. Despite all the anger about pirates, gankers, and what-have-you, I distinctly remember my childhood lessons on good sportsmanship. We were always taught to lose (and win) graciously. I gambled and lost; next time, maybe they’ll take the hit. Or maybe we’ll end up shooting at the same people.

And for those who complain that the other side doesn’t act graciously when they win: remember, they fuel their ships with your tears. Crying only adds to their victory. Smile, nod, and act like you know it’s just a game.

Image credits somethingstartedcrazy and pareeerica via Flickr