Crime & Punishment

So it's the pirate's life for me. Pixels are replaceable, rum is tasty, and girls dig scoundrels--or so this biker chick with a Bozo the Clown tramp stamp I know tells me.

I spent my first month skilling up a high-sec miner, since I work from home and this arrangement lets me earn a living in game while I'm earning a living in real life. I feel bad for billing my clients for all the time I spend sucking on Veldspar, but I'm getting over it.

But this is not the diary of a miner. This is the diary of a man of action. A man of courage. Dare I say…a man who doesn't really care how often he blows up today, because he knows that one day he'll be the one doing the blowing.

Anyway, I decided to write about my early adventures in space. Maybe my tale will entertain you. Maybe it will inspire you to pursue the pirate life yourself. Or maybe, just maybe, you'll nod, smile, and get all misty-eyed with nostalgia at how you, too, were once utterly clueless and died with alarming regularity.

Days 1 - 17

If CCP put a giant, red, flashing notice on everyone's screen which read "Learning to PvP Will Cost You Ships," I don't think the message would be any clearer. No matter what my other failings--and oh boy have there been failings--I absorbed this lesson immediately. My miner loosed upon the unsuspecting belts in high-sec to ensure a decent income, I halted her training, created Duke, and started skilling him up while banking as much ISK as I could.

I decided to focus on skills which would let me fit and fly a Rifter, which is sort of the least imaginative noob PvP ship you can fly. It's EVE ship equivalent of a Long Island Iced Tea, the signature drink of the newly-21 who don't yet know the glory of downing three Pearl Harbors and waking up in a different state wearing someone else's pants.

Day 18

I found what seemed to be a reasonable fit off Battleclinic and kitted up a plated Rifter for my first foray into low sec. My goals were pretty simple: scout a few systems, make some off-grid safes near the planets, and learn to use the onboard scanner.

That was another lesson I learned right away: use the bloody scanner.

Starting warp? D-Scan. Dropping a bookmark? D-Scan. Warping again? D-Scan. Taking a sip of my coffee? D-Scan. Been sitting in the same safe spot for more than five seconds? D-Scan.

It's a wonderful, blessed tool and I've named her Beverly. Beverly keeps me safe. Beverly shows me the three Lokis hanging out near the Novice FW beacon, and while they might want to be friends, Beverly suggests it would be rude to just fly in uninvited.

Yet Beverly has shown me precious few ships which wouldn't be able to turn my humble Rifter into a fireworks display before the grid fully loaded, but that's okay. I'm a tiny little fish in an ocean of prehistoric predators, but I'm confident there's something out there I have a chance of taking down.

Day 19

I saw a lone Rifter in a belt, today. I warp in, get ready for the murder, and find myself 30k from the target. Potential victim warps off and I begin to seriously doubt the logic of the armor plate I glued to my ship. I also begin to doubt the 7.5k range of the Scrambler I have fitted.

In the next system over, Beverly showed me a lone Stabber in a belt. Now, I hear tell that a skilled Rifter pilot can take a cruiser from time to time. Now, while I'm not a skilled pilot--and had no illusions of seeing the Stabber go poof--I was curious as to just how long I could last against it.

As it turns out, not long at all. That ship turned my Rifter's capacitor into a cold, empty shell in about a second, then relieved me of my ship completely.

(Many thanks to Seliah Aldard, who not only provided my very first engagement--tons of fun, even though it didn't quite go as I'd hoped--but also exchanged his fit with me and explained why I died so quickly.)

I bought and fitted a new Rifter, then spent the rest of the day hopping from system to system, looking for anything my under 1M SP pilot had any hope of taking, reading every PvP/Pirating guide I could find, and scouring Battleclinic for alternative fits. I ditched the plate for a gyro and replaced the damage control with an inertial stabilizer.

Day 20

I log in and I'm off like a prom dress, running through a bunch of low sec systems, scanning everything that will hold still, and being delighted that Beverly was finally reporting a few ships which wouldn't insta-pop me if given half a chance!

As luck would have it, in the third or forth system I checked I saw a Rupture. Curiosity once again won the day and I warped in. This time, I got the ship into armor before I went poof, and managed to remember to keep my transversal up while on approach.

Oh well, back to the shipyard, grab another Rifter and head out again. A few minutes later I see a solo frigate on scan. Yes! Thank you Beverly! I warp in and everything is going great. Until Beverly shows me three other ships on scan.

Needless to say, the 4v1 didn't exactly go my way, and the corp is probably doing unspeakable things to my incredibly sexy corpse as I write this. Really, though, who could blame them?

In truth, I'm actually pretty proud of that last fight. I'm only speculating here, but if it had stayed a 1v1, I think I there's a chance I might have come out on top. And if I'd been rocking T2 guns, I might have taken the first frigate out before his three friends popped me.

I can dream, can't I?

The Future

So, I'm absolutely terrible at this right now. I've lost three ships, a pod, and have yet to get my first kill. I can't help but think I'm missing some fundamental tactic, but I'm pretty sure only experience can teach it. Which is why I just bought and fit out another five Rifters.

Of course, the inevitable learn by doing aside, if you have any advice or tips you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them.

I've put Thermodynamics and Projectile Rigs at the top of my list. Unfortunately, my main albatross seems to be my not-yet-ready-for-prime-time fitting skills.

Well, that, and my total incompetence. But one thing at a time, as they say.

Novice FW plexes are your friend if you want more 1v1.

I started scanning these and the smalls yesterday, which has had the side effect of making me learn how to use the system map so I can drop a bookmark near the plex and scan from there, as opposed to just warping right to the front door and into the arms of whatever unspeakable horror happens to be lurking there.

I know practically nothing about FW--surprising, isn't it?--so I have a question: Do these plexes linger forever in their locations, or do they move around?

They move around. People in FW 'capture' plexes by sitting in the plex while a timer counts down. This is something like 10 min for Novice, 15 min for Small and increasing for larger ones. When the timer has counted down the plex disappears and a new replacement plex will spawn after some time.

FW pilots get loyalty point rewards for such captures. You will find LP farmers who are fail fit or stabbed. These aren't much good for PvP but there are plenty of fun pilots out there.

Read up on what the plexes allow. Novice only allows T1 frigs through the acceleration gate (note that this includes faction frigs). Small is up to dessy and T2 frigs etc.

Thanks. I still have a lot of lowsec to explore, so I'll be moving on in the next day or two.
I'll send you an EVE Mail later today. Thanks.

Mmmmm. My kind of Scum. PM me if you need any tips with that.

I don't know who this Duke guy is, but I like the cut of his jib.

I allready hate myself for saying this, but:

You could also join faction warfare till you got enough experience to go out on your own.
Pro: still plenty to pew, solo or with gang - whatever you prefer. You also earn some ISK while doing so.

IMO it´s THE opportunity to learn lowsec pvp with reasonable low risk of getting stomped.

I really did think about this for a while, back when I'd just created Duke and was saving up ISK to get me started, but I just couldn't do it. I dig the scoundrel thing too much, the lone wolf moving through space, hunting his prey--anyone's a target, no one is safe.

Unless I'm shooting at them. Right now, the pilots I'm shooting at seem to be the safest people in EVE.

Once I know what I'm doing, I'd like to fly with others, but I'm pretty sure it won't be for Faction Warfare. I don't have anything against it, it's just not for me. Thanks, though.