Warfare & Tactics

I started a second account just to try new things. I decided to see what it's like to live in low sec and sample the life of pirate. So far it's incredibly boring :(. I know there's really not many targets I can take on at this early stage of the game but I cannot even seem to get on grid with anything that isn't at a gate, station or POS.

I referred to Dotlan maps to find areas where people were fighting and ships were being destroyed and although it tells me several ships are being destroyed every hour I'm just not seeing it. Is there a guide that goes into detail on how to find a target? Do people actually "rat" at belts in this game or is it a myth? Should I camp stations or gates and watch where people warp off to? Check ice belts? Any help is appreciated.

Could you be more specific on what methods to use in 0.0? Camp a gate or warp bubble? Check belts?

My advice would be to get into FW so you can engage the enemy militia on gates. Sure it takes away some targets (firendly militia) but adds so much more flexability in choosing yours. If your dead set on pirating you should really check out Miura Bull's advice on his blog. Hes got quite a few guides on there with some great info. Then theres always choice C... do both.

Amamake, top belt, go go go

There has been some good advice in this thread. I'll post my own advice:

Lowsec is only one option for PvP, as is factional warfare. Both come with their own odd brands of rules, which might suit your play style, or not. The bit I've seen of low sec indicates it's not heavily populated these days, and from what I can tell of factional warfare, there's a fairly small but active community that does it. These might be right for you.

That said, more of my experience is with 0.0, and it can be a decent place for a solo or small group of people to go. Obviously, first, you need to get used to how to move around and stay safe from anything larger and nastier than yourself, but once you master a few things, this isn't too bad.

-Read the map. Your post indicates you're already doing this a bit, looking for targets. This will tell you where there are likely to be groups of people, either camping a gate, living, making money, or whatever. Learning to spot these things a few jumps out is critical, as is learning how to plan routes around them, if you don't know how to get through them, or aren't in a ship suited to that.

-Learn the mechanics. Learn how your directional scanner works. Learn how to use bookmarks. Learn how warp bubbles work, and how they're not actually unbeatable. I'm not going to hand all of this information to you on a silver platter, but it's not hard to find - our wiki has old versions publicly mirrored, for one. All of these skills will keep you alive and help you get the drop on targets, both defenseless and hostile. Or, if you see something coming you can't handle, you'll know how and when to run.

-Fly something you can afford to lose. You're going to die learning. You're going to die when you're good. Learning how to properly fit a ship for the kind of combat you're doing, what to carry, and how to have more ready to go when you end up dying is important for PvP. It also helps you kick the notion that dying is actually a bad thing.

-Find friends. People willing to teach you, help you with organization, give you intelligence, and possibly even fly with you are very valuable in PvP.

This is just general advice for 0.0, much of which also applies to low sec. You can also PvP in high sec. The margins of error and methods of finding targets are somewhat different, but there have been some very detailed guides posted recently by leaders of my organization.