Journeys Through Eve

I’m not a real big fan of people who preach about “honor” and “fair play” in games like EVE. In my opinion, EVE is a game, nothing more, nothing less. If the game allows you to do something then I have no qualms with you doing it. EVE is a harsh universe, but thats what I like.

However I do cringe at people who are baiting / harassing in the rookie systems. I think that tricking a player who is only a couple of hours (if that) old into a fight so you can kill and pod them is lame. It’s like expecting someone to play Monopoly with you when the don’t know the rules at all but you do. Once someone has completed all the tutorials and are ready to step out of Todaki (or whatever) then they are fair game, but up until that point attacking them is not only pointless but downright harmful to the game.

I have stated before that when ships get blown up, it helps EVE. After all someone has to rebuild and sell that ship, which fuels the economy. The more ships that get blown up, the more work that the Indy players have to do, which keeps them happy and productive, which means there is plenty of ships and modules for PVPers to go out and get blown up all over again. PVP outside of the rookie systems fuel the game engine, which makes a better experience for everyone.

Inside of the rookie systems though, there is no benefit to the game or either player for PVP. Rookie ships are replaced free and cannot be reprocessed, therefore they do not contribute to the economy in any way. A player who has a bad experience that early in the game is likely to quit as they haven’t built up any assets or friendships that will anchor them into the game.

So, if Xao Chin from the Racketeers (RAK) corp wants to continue baiting new players in Todaki, I guess that is his right. It is also my right to think he is an ass for doing it.

Over the weekend TRAPS joined the Privateers Alliance. I don’t know if this is a permanent thing or if they are just joining cause they have some history with Eve University. I have no real opinion of TRAPS as I never encountered them in space before. Their presence on the forums tends to generate a bit of drama, but what doesn’t? I can say that they are enthusiastic, whenever they are on they are ready for a fight. I think some of them might have actually been disoriented by the “whatever” nature of Privateers. I have seen some TRAPS players asking about “ops” and I don’t think that Privateers ever actually run “ops". Most of the time we don’t even form gangs when we are in the same system camping the same gate!

Over the weekend I lost several ships : a Vexor, a Thorax, a Taranis, and at least 2 Tristans. All of these were lost to Eve University I think.

I did manage to get my first solo kill though, plus I created my first Alt for giggles. In addition I planted quite a few flowers, mowed some grass, and bought some new sheets for the bed.

The war with Eve University has been fun, at least for the Privateers. I don’t see how the Eve University style of fighting could be fun for them since it involves blobs, which involves lots of coordination and timing and listening to orders. Note that I am not saying that what Eve University is doing is tactically unsound, they do tend to have a lot of younger, less experienced players and keeping a tight leash on them is actually good for their survival (but not letting them talk in local is kind of silly). Any good PVPer knows that you want to go into any battle with an advantage, and Eve University tries to maintain numerical superiority at all times. Even fights and being outnumbered can be fun, but in the long run are a losing proposition.

However, when you are in a blob of 15+ ships, how much fun can it be to jump 10-15 systems to try and engage 3 or 4 people? This is what happened all weekend. The Privateers would be roaming or camping around Korisiki or Kaapatunen, doing whatever we wanted for 2 or 3 hours. While we are doing whatever we want, the EU guys are building their blob. Once they finally undock and come after us, it’s usually past everyones bedtimes.

So how did I lose my ships? Well I lost the Vexor on Saturday I think when I was heading back to Ikami to carebear for a while. I was in Osmon and noticed a large amount of Eve University hanging about. I warped to planet 1 to try and scan the gate into Ilo. However when I landed at the Planet there was a EU caracal there who scrambled me. I sent my drones after him and Nos/Neuted him. He didn’t do much damage to me and my drones where ripping through him. I knew I was going to beat him but I knew I was dead cause his buddies were on the way. And I was right, a few seconds before he popped a bunch more of his pals showed up and killed me.

Last night I lost my Thorax to E-U by getting careless and trying to argue with my ex-wife while playing Eve at the same time. I was camping the Kamio gate in Kaap, keeping an eye on a Bruce manticore who I think now was bait. I took my eyes off the screen for a moment and when I looked back local was full of reds and I was being scrambled and jammed. They had 3 blackbirds so I never even got to lock target on any of them, which is a shame. My ship actually survived quite a while but if you can’t lock targets you can’t do any damage (blasters have no friend or foe ammo).

Despite my losses, joining the Privateers was the best thing I have ever done in EVE, and I suggest other people join as well. If you think that Privateers do nothing but hang out and pop haulers in Jita, you are wrong. If you think that Privateers run from fights, you are wrong.

Last night the action started almost as soon as I logged in. My home star cluster was quiet of course since it is off the beaten path, but as I approached the systems around Jita and off towards Korsiki more and more war targets began appearing in local.

Eve University was camping the Sirseshin and Tuuriainis systems, although they were a bit scattered. I don’t know if they are still at war with TRAPS, so I am not sure why they would have had camped those systems so heavily that early in the evening considering how few Privateers were on at the time. Not complaining though, when your enemy decides to sit still that puts them at a disadvantage. They had 2 systems camped, and of those 2 systems only one gate had a serious camp on it, the other gates were being watched by frigates and other small ships.

When I first logged there were only 2 or 3 Privateers active, so it took a while for us to get “organized". Rather than foolishly engage a gate camp outnumbered we warped around looking for their roamers. We would encounter them in local from time to time but they were either docked up or running. We managed to catch a Cormorant as it warped into Tuur and took him down. It was nice being 1 of 3 ships in a fight instead of 1 of 200 for once.

After we took him down we warped around some more trying to catch a Rapier but he was elusive. We spotted a Hurricane on a gate in Obanen and I warped in to tackle him and as soon as I did a large EVE University force came through the gate and whomped me, sending me back home to Ikami in my clone.

So I lost a Tristan (no drone, forgot to make sure I had one before I left), after insurance I am probably out about 500k, less if you consider the fact that I manufacture my own Tristans. I got about 150k in loot off of the Cormorant (plus his Corpse), which I had stashed in a station before getting pwned.

Privateers is a hell of a lot of fun so far, can’t wait to see how things are on the weekends.

Oh, in case you were wondering, I seemed to have fixed the lag problem. I currently use EVDO Wireless through Sprint for Broadband (DSL and Cable are not available where I live). Usually I use the Sprint Connection Manager software to connect, but last night I used Vista’s built in dialup connection software to connect to the network and it worked like a charm.

I don’t know if Vista SP1 broke the Sprint Connection Manager or not, but if I use it my latency is horrible. If I bypass it I am fine.