EVE New Citizens Q&A

So I've been doing the tutorials and I have also done a bit of mining but I wanted to try out some security missions. I went to Jita to buy my ship of choice - The Caracal.

After buying and outfitting my new ship I undock and notice a suspect on my overview who is flying a Nereus. I decided to try to blow him up even though I didn't have a module capable of warp disruption. My skills are pretty low and it's my first time flying this ship so I didn't do much damage to him. He didn't try to fly away but I was really paranoid and afraid of somehow losing my new ship so I warped away after getting his shields down slightly.

So my questions:

1. Is this a scumbag thing to do on my part? Nobody else helped attack him even though he was suspect so I'm not sure if this is frowned upon. Do you ever see everyone just turn on a suspect and blow them away or do people just ignore them if they aren't the ones wronged?

2. Was it some sort of trick? I had my safety on but is there something he was trying to do to get some friends to kill me?

3. If I had somehow killed him would destroying a supsects pod be legal?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

1. Ultimately you'll have to decide on your own EvE moral code, but most other people have a moral code consisting of "YARR!" EvE is a PvP sandbox, and it's generally accepted to shoot people whenever you can get away with it, or are willing to die for it.
2. It might have been a trick. As Do Little said, if they've got a Bowhead or Orca nearby they can switch into a far better armed combat ship. If he had friends though, they wouldn't be able to engage you. When you engage a suspect, you both get a limited engagement timer, this allows you to shoot him and him to shoot you without CONCORD interference. They can still use remote repairs, but then they get a suspect timer for interfering.
3. Yup. Once you go suspect you forfeit CONCORD protection for the next 15 minutes.

I am not an expert on flags as I've lived full time in null sec since safeties have been introduced to the game and crimewatch was redone. However I was under the impression that green kept you from doing anything that would get you a timer and you needed to be set you yellow if you wanted to engage suspects. I think yellow allows you to to do anything that won't get you concordokken.

As far as morals and things that are frowned upon in Eve no such thing exists. Players can scam other players. Ransom and extortion are totally fine. Ganking and theft are encouraged by the devs. I personally don't get involved in those types of things but that is a personal choice on my part and not some code of conduct that exists in game.

As far as your chances of winning the fight the player that you were shooting at obviously could have flown away since you did not have a point but he also could have just docked if you were close to the station. Also I am fairly certain that if he had friends near by that they could remote rep him. You could maybe alpha him out of his ship in one volley with a Tornado but I'd have to do some math to say that for sure.

That guy was almost definitely trying to "Bait n Switch" on you. To do this he sits motionless and suspect flagged within docking range of the station in a defenseless non-threatening ship fit entirely for tank. When you shoot him you are locked out of station for 1 Minute due to aggression timer, where as he is still free to dock having not aggressed you. His job is to dock, switch ships, pop back out, lock you and kill you before the end of your 1 min docking timer. This is not entirely risk free for the baiter since he is putting his blingy killing ship at risk of death when he pops out in it and aggresses you while suspect. It is entirely possible for a group to bait the baiter with a single ship, warping in the group once the baiter has up-shipped and aggressed outside station (trapping him outside station for 1 Min after last aggressive act).

The fact the Nereus was stationary, had loads of sheild HP and was not being engaged by other players on Jita undock basically means he is well known and is there often and is almost certainly suspect baiting with Logi backup from a fairly well organized group.

No problem at all mate, i'm generally happy to explain anything if a new player contacts me directly so don't be afraid to EvE-Mail me should you need anything else. It might interest you to know that a portion of my game time is usually spent abusing people who do not understand timers / mechanics, and that much like most other "bad people" in EvE i'm actually a nice guy who will help if spoken to nicely.

Don't be afraid to contact people doing things you don't understand to ask why they're doing it, especially if they just killed you :D The answer might be the most important lesson you learn that day

1. Perfectly reasonable for you to shoot him, most people don't though because they assume it is a trick and he is baiting.
2. Could have been a trick, apart from bait and switch, the Nereus is the only hauler with a drone bay and can fit a good active shield tank, particularly good for taking down frigates or in my case an untanked fast locking Svipul with 34 killmarks (Grrrr). A Caracal is probably a bit much for him to take on and he might have hestitated or been ship scanning you to see your fit before choosing to commit to the fight. I assume he was on the undock of a station or on a gate and thus could have escaped if he determined you were a bit much.
3. Destroying a suspect pod is legal.