Why don't I join a Pirate Corp?

I've been asked this a few times, so I thought I'd address it here as it has been a slow news day in EVE as I didn't find anything to kill all afternoon. Finding an EVE University pilot in an Incursus this evening before log-out being my only kill of the day (He went down very quickly), his Pod although I locked it, I managed to scram his drone instead. Ah well, another one to learn from.

As an aside I'd like to thank the mysterious individual who increased my bounty who came forward yesterday and increased it again further. A satisfied reader of this here blog, you know who you are :)

So back to the question of why don't I join a pirate corp. Well it is fairly simple and there are only two reasons:

1. I will not use voice comms and all pirate corps that I would consider applying to require this for gang work.
2. I have always seen myself as the lone gunman, fighting sometimes against overwhelming odds. Not having wingmen to come to my aid.

There is some baggage that supports reason 1, Over a year back I played World of Warcraft (I hear you groan) for about three years, and I played it at a fairly reasonable level and fairly hardcore with raiding and such. Whenever I would raid I used voice comms, donned the headset and promptly ignored life outside the computer which included my Wife and other commitments. As you can imagine looking back with hindsight this was really stupid and now considering myself a rehabilitated MMO gamer I refuse to ever return to that level of ignorance and absorbption again.

Millionaire Club!

Not exactly, at least not in the sense that you are probably thinking.

I am pleased to announce that Kirith now had a bounty of over one million isk on his head, or should I say his pod. It had been sat at 5,000 isk for a long while and I'm dead chuffed it his hit the million.

Tonight's roam started well with me popping a Catalyst who went down extremely fast as he was engaged with rats too and already at low shields. What followed was then a 2 hour period with no sniff of another kill. I thought I was going to get popped myself a couple of times tonight as the first occasion I warped to a gate as a gang jumped through and I was rather concerned you might say that there would be the tail end of the gang on the other side of the gate (fortunately not). The second time was a Mean/Hellequin coalition of a few ships sat on the other side of a gate, they didn't seem bothered by me fortunately again.

Deciding to call it a night and head back to my home system I find a couple of capsuleers in a Rifter & Rupture, I guess that they are working in cahoots. I warp to what I think is the right belt and the Rifter was there, I land 4km from him so point him and engage straight away. The Rupture arrives as I do so so I lock him too but he warps away. The Rifter is going down comfortably and I can handle his damage on me along with the two rats that are also firing on me. The Rupture comes back, which I really didn't expect, perhaps his fleet mate was giving him grief for running! I target him again then the Rifter explodes and I target and pop the pilots Pod too. Switching my scram to the Rupture I set about it and I'm now only really taking damage from the rats as the Rupture doesn't scratch me. He doesn't last long being a big fat juicy Cruiser though I wasn't quick enough to catch his Pod. I enjoyed the fight no end, fighting two pilots and the firepower of some rats and coming out well on top a superb feeling to end the day on.

Slim Pickings

A morning free of work as I'm in until late I needed to make the most of my morning on EVE before daily downtime, just a couple of hours play time. Expecting it to be very quiet I was not proven wrong. The majority of the time being the only capsuleer in the systems I roamed. I did manage to snag a couple of kills, though only one was a true kill.

I noticed a Catalyst in system but he soon jumped out. I had no idea where he went but had a 1 in 3 chance of being correct so making my choice I jumped. Bingo, lady luck had smiled. He had warped towards a gate to hi-sec but did not appear to have warped to zero, I picked him up on long range directional scan at the gate. I warped after him on the off chance he was autopiloting, not that I could fire first due to the sentry guns. When I arrived he was there, I wanted to get him to agress me so settled into an orbit around him locking him. Using my camera drones I could see that he had activated his shield booster so I knew the pilot was at the helm, after a few second he warped away. Assessing his trajectory I again had a 1 in 3 chance of selecting the right destination. Choosing belt 1 I engaged warp. Coming out of warp 1500m away from him. He went down fast and didn't even shoot me once (because he had no ammo judging by the killmail). I managed to snag his pod too which keeps me heading nicely towards -10 security status.

My other kill which wasn't really a true kill was an Amarr Rookie ship which had been abandoned by a Moon. Yes I really was bored enough to scan it down and blow it up!

Another repeat customer

Perhaps I am exhausting the supply of pilots new to the area of space that I roam or perhaps some capsuleers that I catch up with do not learn. Today I came across the chap who I killed at the weekend in his Thrasher again in a Thrasher and in the same system again.

Maybe he wasn't keeping an eye on local, I don't know. But I was able to scan him down quite easily and catch up with him in a belt. This time he was 25km away. I approached him and he locked me and began firing. I wasted no time in returning the compliment, noticing that I was neither webbed nor scrammed. The fight was a fairly close one with me bleeding into structure a couple of times but ultimately it was only going one way. After the pretty explosion I attempted a ransom on his pod but when given the opportunity to save his assumed implants he merely put something in local in what I assume was some variant of Russian.

What I also wonder about this guy, not that I am complaining mind you is why on earth did he engage me and not run away, I mean I had blown him up before on the previous time we met. He must have been optimistic. Perhaps next time knowing that I returned him to the clone vats will deter him from making the same mistake again.

Picking on twins in Rifters is a bad idea

Just before logging off I spy two Rifters flying together. The pilots are far older than I, but I decide to chance my luck. I warp to 70km from the belts and they are there waiting. I select my target and engage, taking heavy damage quickly from the combined assault of both my opponents I hope that I can take out at least one before I crash and burn. Although close to doing so it was not to be and Mad Manuel is consigned to the scrap heap in the sky. Gf's exchanged in local it seems that my adversaries enjoyed the fight too.

You win some and you lose some, but I had fun in testing the limits. Another day I shall have my revenge.

Monday night is Rifter night

So I sit my ass inside my Pod, two people (including me) in local and undock the station. I am greeted by a Rifter sat outside. While under the station protection he rushes over to orbit me, locking me as soon as I am out of the stations clutches. He opens fire so we tackle each other. My shields are gone in the blink of an eye and he's into my armour. I establish an orbit and break his shields. His armour is going fairly quickly but I'm already into structure, my repper doing a sterling job of giving me a sliver of armour back every time he unleashes a volley but I'm bleeding into structure. Then I break through his armour and his structure vanishes under a couple of volleys, leaving me on around 10% armour & sturcture. Wow that was close. I realise after the fight that it was the pilot who took out my last Rifter when I had killed the Hurricane. Netting a superb haul of modules drops I leave the field surprisingly victorious and having beaten a character a lot older. It seems that my guess about him overheating his guns last encounter was probably right as all three of his 200mm Auto's had taken some damage when I came to repackage them for resale.

After safely depositing my ill gotten gains I set about another roam and soon find a Rifter pilot, a new player. Deciding I should enlighten him on EvE pvp I find him in a belt but he escapes as he's 40km away from my warp in point. I return to a safe waiting for him to undock from his station. Undock he does a few minutes later, I warp to a jump gate guessing that would be his choice and find him arriving a few seconds after I do, he jumps and I follow suit watching for where he warps to. I happily follow him to a belt and this time point him before he can escape. It took very little damage to drop him. His pod followed swiftly afterwards.

Now waiting out my GCC another fairly young pilot enters the system, and again in a Rifter. After a game of chase around the planets I catch up with him and we lock horns. Again the fight didn't last long and I disposed of his pod afterwards. I think he would have fared better had he not chosen to fit short and long range weapons.

Repeat Customer

It has been a slow day today. After some early success in taking out a Thrasher, the pilot of which didn't seem one bit amused spamming local in what I assume to be Russian until I told him I didn't understand. Afterwards I had a dry spell for a while until I came across someone I had killed before in a Rupture (again) in the same system that I killed him in last time (last weekend I think).

I assumed he would have the same setup as last time, and it turned out that I was pretty much right. The evil Neut & drones. I however was not flying the Cap boosted fit that has been succesful vs Neuts so I was somewhat apprehensive. But if I don't try I will never know so I went for it. This time he must have forgotten about his drones as they did not put in an appearance. What surprised me the most however was how limited the effect of his Neut was due to my Nos keeping me going. Granted his damage in the entire fight didn't get through my shields as he didn't use his drones. Who knows if the outcome would have been the same if I needed to use my armor repper, but as it was I got rewarded with a pretty explosion. I offered a ransom for the pod but I didn't receive it so I have added another corpse in my collection.

A little time later I was convo'd by the pilot, assuming he was going to ask why I shot him (again) I accepted the convo. All he wanted to know was "were is my stuff". I told him that I had taken some and left the rest where it died. Usually I blow up the wrecks I create but on this occasion I didn't for some reason.

Rifter kills Hurricane (ableit failfitted)

Later on in the evening, in Ofage I found a Cyno Field, the scanner didn't show a POS or station at it's location so I warped to it and blew up the Kestrel that was generating it, a second frigate that was unmanned was 120km away so I took a trip over to it and blew that up too for good measure.

While waiting for my GCC to expire a month old player in a Hurricane entered the belts, quickly scanning him down and warping to him I had him pointed within a few seconds. I then wondered what the stranged noise was. The strange noise was from the Lasers that were on this Hurricane, now this abomination really had to die. He was fighting three Angel frigates which were going down very slowly. I made good progress through his ship and was rewarded with a pretty explosion. Now as I targetted his pod another Rifter entered the fray and tackled me. I had noticed the pilot who was rather old in local before I engaged the Hurricane but you know me by now. I had little shields to speak of remaining by the time he opened fire on me. I first took care of the Pod and then switched to the Rifter, I got him down to about a third armour before I exploded but his damage was incredible in the speed it tore through me.

Nevertheless I felt satisfied with my days work and my first Battlecruiser kill, albeit a failfit one. This last Rifter (RIP) also I think is my longest lived, nearly surviving an entire week!

The Hunter Became the Hunted

Today I had a days holiday form work so I it was a fair no-brainer for me to have an EvE day.

It was a quiet morning before downtime with a few people evading me in a Rifter and two Hulks. Jumping into my home system I found local crowded with a couple of people at POS's, a couple of old pirates docked up and a single "target" player. Deciding that it wasn't worth the risk of being jumped by the older pirates I left the target alone and moved on to the next system over.

The next system over was empty, so I warped to a gate many AU's away. Just as I arrived at the gate the target I had seen jumped into this system. Pulling a U-turn in my Rifter I headed back to a scanning safe. To be disappointed by one of the aforementioned old pirates jumping in aswell. Holding at my safe he didn't stay long and must have only been passing through, I set about scanning for the Rupture.

On a related topic, I don't know what happened to the fear of Ruptures I previously held, I seem to be rather gung-ho about attacking them lately!

Anyway, I digress. Eventually the Rupture turned up at a belt, I assume he had been in a safe. Warping into the belt my heart sank a bit when I saw him 35km away. Putting the pedal to the metal (If Rifters have pedals?) I closed the distance as quick as possible. Using the camera zoom I noticed he was moving away from me, but not aligned with anything, at 12km he turned and I thought he was leaving.

I got my lock and scram in before he could and we both started taking shield damage, he dropped a bunch of hammerheads on me along with a Nos, Neut, Web & Scram. This didn't look good! Primarying the Hammerheads I took a couple out before they were recalled, my cap had gone and I was struggling to hold scram and I could forget about the AB. Where I could I grabbed a Rep cycle and everytime my cap-booster had reloaded I dropped a new charge into the Capacitor. I was quickly down to below half armour. Taking care of the last Hammerheads I started applying damage to the Rupture itself. Damage on me at this point had dropped massively thanks to there being no more drones. My opponent was still getting the occasional Neut cycle out but he was clearly capped out but I made pretty quick progress down to half structure when I needed to reload. Slapping in new clips of ammo I resumed the offensive and at around 10% structure the pilot requested me to stop guns for 10m isk. Before I had time to reply the Rupture was a pretty explosion and I locked down the Pod. Deciding to offer a Ransom of 10m isk (see what I did there?) we agreed and I received the ransom and let him away with a day pass.

After the fight and good fights exchanged the pilot wanted to chat so I warped away to a safe. We spoke awhile about the fight and it turned out that he was a friend of the Stabber & Scythe pilots who I came across last weekend. I blew up his friends Scythe and Pod and the Stabber got away. He had been trying to hunt me down for a couple of days. This suprised me as I had no idea that I was being hunted! Perhaps we will lock horns again some time.

The overriding factor of this fight for me was that the Cap-Booster had once again saved my ass big-time.

First T2 Ship Kill

Well, I can't take all the credit for it unfortunately as the Angel Cartel had a hand in it also. Noticing a Harpy on Scan under the command of a 3 month old player I felt that I had a fighting chance of walking away, especially so if he turned out to be PVE fit (which he didn't turn out to be).

I couldn't find him in a belt but had noticed some Angel "mission type" rat wrecks on scan. Doing a scan with the system scanner picked up a couple of Cosmic Anomalies, warping to the first at 100km I notice him looting some 107km away. I warped out to warp back at zero to find him gone. I guessed I had spooked him. Despite that he was still on scan and again not at a belt so I decided to try the second Cosmic Anomaly, warping to zero this time. He was there engaged with some cruiser rats and a couple of heavy launcher turrets. Wasting no time in chasing after him I had him pointed, but he seemed to be faster than me so I became worried that he would get out of scram range. The Angels had taken around 30% of his shields by the time I fired. He was soon into my armour, biting deep with his use of a web while I was chipping away at his shields. My armour rep working overtime, I chewed through a couple of 200 booster charges to keep everything working and it was terribly close. I had already selected my pod warp point when he popped with me sat on 9% structure with a damaged AB, I think I had managed to get a Rep cycle in just in time to save my sorry ass.


Good fight was exchanged in local and I proceeded to wait out the GCC. Closest fight yet and my first T2 hull kill. I got some nice module drops too which will nearly pay for an entire new Rifter.

A little later in the evening I snagged a newb in a Rifter who entered a system while I was tracking down a bigger target, Quickly locating him I was quite surprised at how quickly he died. At least I was before I saw the fit. But hey, he was fresh out of the pram. Taking out his Pod too I at least now give him the opportunity to refit another Rifter.

Popped their Cherry

It's been a quiet evening all told, my only kill tonight being a Rifter. It had a pretty good setup. After a pretty short game of cat and mouse through two systems I pinpointed the Rifter in a belt and warped in. My quarry had the advantage of a web over me but it didn't seem to matter too much and was fairly quickly into structure. Her structure seemed to hold together longer than the armour for some reason. Post pretty explosion I attempted to get a point on the pod but was denied by the pilots swift reactions.

We chatted for a while in local following the fight, it's always nice to have a good natured conversation. During the conversation I discovered it was their first pvp fight, we talked a little about how the fight went, picking targets, soloing in Rifters and fits. I was very pleased to have dropped a ship equipped with some nice modules which I have added to my own stash to fit some more Rifters with saving me on some purchases.

I did take a screenshot towards the end of the fight but it seems I chose a moment when the target was blotted out by the sun so maybe next time.

1st proper Cruiser kills

Today had been very quiet, that is up until around 5pm. Truth be told I was getting a bit fed up as I had been roaming around all day without so much as a bite of action. This evening though I have been chasing frigates back and forth and killing cruisers, yes that's right more than one cruiser!

The first cruiser I killed (Scythe) was ratting in a belt with a buddy of his, who I recognized as a regular hauler pilot in the system. My initial guess was that he was mining with his buddy along in a Stabber to kill the rats. I was wrong though, the Scythe had been combat fit as was the Stabber. I primaried the Stabber but it was able to outpace me in my current Rifter which lacks a web so I swapped targets to the Scythe as I had only taken 30% of the Stabber shields off. As the Scythe went to low shields the buddy bugged out and docked up so I kept the pressure on. The pilot was saying "stop" to me in local but made no offer of a ransom payment. His ship went boom and I locked the pod. Asking him how much it was worth not to pod him I didn't get a reply in sufficient time to I blew his sorry ass back to the clone vat.

Later on in the evening I happen upon a normally quiet system which is really quite busy. Spotting a couple of newer pilots in local I see about tracking them down, one jumps out of the system so that decides who I focus on finding. My quarry came up on scan in a Rupture though I thought I had spooked him as he vanished form scan. Jumping between safe spots I found him again at a belt. Warping in he is engaged with a battlecruiser rat 35km away. I head for him as fast as my AB will carry me hoping he doesn't notice me (yeah right), 25km out he targets me! Then disrupts my warp drive!! Awesome news, the fight is on. I settle into a happy orbit as he very slowly picks away at my shields. The rat had already taken care of his shields for me so I set to it on the armour. At half structure he remembers that he has a web and uses it to pull some range but its too little too late and thereafter follows a pretty explosion with the cherry on top being his pod going pop too. I scoop the corpse and start looting his wreck when a Falcon decloaks 35km away, damned if I could stop the adrenaline shakes I just manage to click the warpout button before the Falcon gets close.

My third cruiser kill of the evening was another Rupture, doing a little research ahead of the engagement via battleclinic it seemed that he used drones and neuts. Now I don't like drones and I especially don't like neuts. All that said though I engaged anyway! After a little game of "chase through the belts" I caught him thanks to the fact that I can align quicker than he. It was my longest fight yet and boy did he like his neut. Without my cap booster I would have been dead as a Dodo. Several times my scram couldn't activate for lack of cap but he didn't capitalise. I took down his drones first as they were the biggest threat to me after the neut, thankfully they were T1. We then set about the dance of taking the rest of his ship away to get another pretty explosion \o/. I attempted to ransom his Pod for 100mil as this was no noob character, but he didn't pay so he went back to the vat.

To top it all off on my way to dock up I came across a Bellicose, seemingly mining in a belt as it had a mining drone out. Warping in I arrived some 40km away so again had to hope that I wouldn't get spotted on the way in. Somehow I managed to get to lock range without being noticed and really that was the end of it. The pilot must have been afk at the start of the fight as once in low shields they tried in vain to make a run for it. Unfortunately I didn't snag the pod on this occaision. Reviewing the killmail I have to say that the weapon loadout qualifies for a "lolfit".

If only I had gotten that Stabber earlier in the day I would have killed the full set of Minmatar cruisers in one day!

Avast ya swabs, I be having me some Tech 2 Auto's

Well as of yesterday morning I am very pleased to say that I am now able to fit and use T2 Autocannons. I had hoped that yesterday evening I would get opportunity to slap a trio of them on my current rusty steed Nero and give them a taste of first blood but unfortunately I found no suitable targets on my short roam.

This morning I came across a Cormorant shortly after logging in, choosing the range to fight it at was a nightmare as it had both blasters and railguns fitted. It was a reasonably close run thing as by the end of the fight I had only 25% armour remaining but once the shields were gone on the Destroyer it went down quickly along with its pilot's Pod.

These latest kills renders my officially an Outlaw at -5.66 Security Status which is something else I can check off the to-do list.

Unfortunately tonight my long serving (for me) rusty steed Nero bit the dust. I had the bit between my teeth chasing down a hauler warping between belts when the hauler and I warped into a belt which had a Vexor and Wolf in it, needless to say Nero did not make it out alive.

Tomorrow I can look forward to strapping some weapons rigging to the Rifter for even more punch. The downside to all this T2 and upgrading the bog standard Rifter is of course the cost. Including rigging a fresh out of the box Rifter will be coming in at 3.5-4m isk rather than the 800k that it did a couple of weeks ago.

2 vs 1

Having a fairly long and dissappointly peaceful roam it was that I found a Stabber at a belt, He was looting some wrecks he had created until I warped into the scene. I set about the (very) slow task of depleting his shields, he had an active shield tank so I tried making best use of my nos to reduce his cap. Eventually I broke through the shields as a fleet of 4 NPC rats warped in along with a pilot in a Vigil from my targets corp. The Vigil lit me up with a target painter, not that their damage was a problem, though the rats were moreso.

I warped out when I saw the Vigil only to turn around and warp straight back. I wanted to take down the Vigil first. Arriving back in the belt I could not for the life of me catch the Vigil the so switched back to the Stabber. He was soon in low structure but somehow got away. Still scratching my head about that. I continued to try and get the Vigil in vain so after a further warp out/in to try and snag it gave up as the Stabber warped back in. I just didn't have enough ammo to do it all over again!

Tomorrow heralds a new era for Kirith as he gains access to T2 guns & ammo, something which will increase mighty Rifters prowess.

Tuesday

Little to report tonight, I got chased a little from system to system before my pursuers gave up and moved on.

I spied a Reaper in a belt piloted by a week old player, I pondered the idea that it was a trap but decided to go for it anyway as I doubted it would take long to kill a Reaper. I found the Reaper mining for Kernite and swiftly releived the pilot of their ship and pod deeming it pointless to try and ransom a player so young.

Punisher vs me at gate = dead Punisher

Little to report on today, only a small engagement whereby a punisher warped to a gate as I was there about to warp away. I cancelled warp and he proceeded to lock and scram me. Within 3 salvos the gate guns had toasted him before I even got into range. I bet he was narked as he had some pretty nice modules on it. I on the other hand was quite chuffed!

A poor day in the saddle

Today has been sub-par, I think that would put it mildy. I have lost two Rifters today but it feels like I have lost many more.

The first fight was quite enjoyable against a fellow Rifter pilot of similar age, it was incredibly close fought and came down to structure, he finished on 20%, I finished on none. Had I been in my cap-boosted fit there is no doubt I would have been the victor.

This evening I tracked down a Thrasher to a belt and went in guns blazing, or so I thought. Wondering why I was doing zero damage to him I noticed at 20% armour that my guns were inactive (Doh!), I attempted to warpout but didn't make it before I had been reduced to my pod. An embarrassing loss but the opposing pilot was good natured about it.

This evening I located a young pilot in a Rifter and throwing caution to the wind engaged, not optimistically after the days performance so far. He died and so did his pod. His fit was bad and I think I did Rifters the world over a favour by killing this one.

I feel that my confidence in my original "classic" pvp Rifter is diminishing so perhaps this is why I am dissatisfied with the days performance as I have been "using up" my stockpile of classics.

Performance Review: Cap Boosted Rifter

As promised in yesterdays post I would review the performance of the new loadout after it's first fair fight. Just now it got it's first test. Up against a pilot 5-6 months older than me at the very least it was going to be a tough fight, clearly attempting to scan each other down in the system I landed at a belt before she did, but I was on the way to warp out to a nearby planet as I didn't want the belt rats to sway any fight against me. Landing at the planet she soon came in landing just 11km from me.

The distance was closed and we crossed swords, she had the advantage of a web and I had the advantage of a cap-booster. It was a very close run thing in the end and I can categorically state that the cap booster was what allowed me to fly away victorious. Even with it I came away from the fight having consumed 6 "200" charges and with 52% structure remaining. Looking at her fit from the killmail I am very pleased to have beaten a Rifter fit with T2 guns & tank which bodes well compared to my low skills and Meta 1/2 modules.

This also now brings me into a favourable kill/loss ration which is nice, not that I expect it to last.

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After downtime I spotted a Wolf piloted by a player 6 months older than me. I decided to seek and engage, perhaps buoyed by the performance this morning. Unfortunately it was not to be and although I made it through his shields quickly enough and into his armour the superior firepower he could bring to bear blew me to pieces very quickly once through my shields. Lesson learned for now!

First night with some combat skills

Well tonight has been my first evenings play with some actual combat skills, still very basic but hey, its an improvement. Also I decided a few days back that my next 4 Rifters would test a cap-boosted setup:

3 x 150mm AC
Rocket Launcher
AB
Scrambler
Small cap booster with "200" charges
200mm Plate
Small Armour Rep
Damage Control

So tonight was fairly quiet until I happened upon a fairly new player in Thrasher, there was an Arazu hopping about but I decided to chance it. As I warped in the Destroyer was engaged with three Angel rats which became two as I entered scram range. It was over very quickly as the Thrasher was already without shields due to the rats, the pod also followed very swiftly.

The performance of the new Rifter setup packs a greater dps than my normal by around 15%, I have yet to really test this properly so will report back when I have done so in a more balanced fight.

PARTY time

Just a quick entry today.

Break out the Champagne and party hats. Learning skills are done, now down to the business of getting some combat skills learned!

A Close fought fight

Logging into local to see 18 pilots was little bit of an eye opener. The highest I have ever seen in fact, there was a mix of newer and older players present. After scooting around a I happened upon a vigil in a belt, zooming in at max camera range I noticed that it was unarmed, thus sensing another trap (see yesterday) I decided not to take the bait.

I set off on a roam for some 30 minutes or so and came across a fairly new player in a Rifter, he appeared to be roaming the belts. Scanning him down was easy, however finding him at the scan location by the time I warped in was not, so after some 15 or so near misses and deciding that he was also trying to scan me down I waited at a belt. A couple of minutes later he turned up at the belt I had parked in and we entered combat, against his shields I definitely had the best of it, going through them quite quickly compared to his progress through mine. When we hit armour though things changed and mine fell away alot faster than his. I entered structure shortly before he did and started sprouting smoke and flames. Lingering in at around 10% structure I got another rep in but alas it was not enough and once again I was dropped to my pod with him at around 60% structure. I warped out to safety and we exchanged "gf" and briefly followed a short conversation of a good nature. Returning to collect another new Rifter from the stable and looking forward to just three days away when hopefully my combat prowess will be on the rapid increase.

A busy evening

Tonight set out looking very quiet on a evening roam of the local systems. Continuing however in the hope of finding something to shoot I was not disappointed on entering a system and seeing a pilot flagged as an outlaw for some misdemeanor.

I fairly quickly, for my scanning skills are improving managed to scan him down at a planet, however also on scan was a second ship. Deciding to warp in anyway I saw both ships on the overview, around 20km apart. I set about the flashy red ship first, which was a Maller cruiser. It didn't take long to get through his shields but his armour was a different story. During the fight the other ship, an Omen cruiser engaged aswell sending his hammerhead drone after me. I switched fire from the Maller which by this point was only at 60% armour to the drone and took it out fairly quickly. The pressure of the two ships and drone were starting to tell as smoke and flames pored from Baron Greenback. I got in a couple of rep cycles before dropping into the escape pod. Reviewing the fight in hindsight whilst on my way to grab another Rifter I would have been comfortably able to take out the Maller solo were it not for the other guy who joined in.

The second engagement of the evening took place after another spell of unsuccessful roaming. Back in my home system I scanned down a Rifter, piloted by a five year old character, warping into the belt I tackled the other Rifter, but took no fire in return (not that I noticed at the time), very quickly a Crow Interceptor warped in starting to pound on me with Rockets. I popped the Rifter but was heavily into armour/structure. Switching to tackle the Crow I took out some of his shields before been relegated for the second time this evening to my pod, luckily escaping with my pod. Again with hindsight, had I noticed that the Rifter wasn't shooting me I could easily have downed the crow and then the Rifter, but then I live and learn. Clearly the Rifter was bait.

Back to the station to pickup another Rifter. Only 4 days to go now until learning skills are finished and I can start training real combat skills.

Play Dead

A lesson learned just now in that not everything is always as it seems.

After yesterdays experience with the afk stabber at a planet, I was rather surprised you might say to find a 6 week old player afk at a planet in a Rupture. Not beleiving my good fortune I proceded to close the gap with it as it was some 115km away from where I had warped in. Keeping the camera fixed on him as I approached there were no signs of life. Priming my point and targetting him when he came into range. It was then that things went wrong you might say. Suddenly his thrusters light up, and I myself am also tackled. Next, all my cap has been neutralized. Working on his shields as quick as I can while I am torn apart my Nos gives my repper a couple of cylces which delays the inevitable but it's only a matter of time before I say goodbye to "Agent 57". Safely away in my pod I offer "gf" in local, which is reciprocated. I had a very brief conversation with the pilot afterwards but hope that I will perhaps learn my lesson.

Let's see how long "Baron Greenback" lives.

Afk Stabber

By chance this evening I stumbled across a Stabber sat afk at a planet. I was sure he would be in a belt but alas it was not be, thinking to myself that he can't be at the planet I checked to make sure. There sat some 50km from my warp in point was said Stabber. Approaching at full burn there was still no reaction. I left targetting to the last minute so as not to scare him off and land my point. Settling into orbit I starting pecking at his shields, they went down very slow, incredibly so in fact. I actually wondered if I could break them with my measly 27 (I think) DPS. I noticed then that he had started boosting... so he was there. Chewing to 75% took one full hopper of EMP ammo, things starting going quicker down to around 60% when after calling for help in local he realised we were the only two pilots in the system. He asked me how much to leave him alone so I switched off my guns but holding the point web & nos, I countered asking what he would offer. After receipt of my 8 million isk I let him go about his business.

Quite a profitable evening