Ships & Modules

So as the story goes, I was sitting around in Jita, just joined an alliance. When I strolled up to the station there were 5 ships camped out. La di da, no big deal, docked and forgot about em. But as I docked I noticed, these guys were flying ships that were so stupid expensive. (I use the term expensive loosely here since it seems to not have the same meaning as it used to) There was a Cynabal, Proteus, and a Loki. All great ships when properly fitted, but I seem to remember a time where I would get castrated if I lost a ship that expensive in a wardec. If you were at war, or even in lowsec, you flew around in rifters or drakes or some other low cost ship. Part of the fun of Eve was that you could obliterate a Cynabal with a couple rifters and even if you did lose, no biggie, fly back, grab another rifter and get ur butt back out there pronto and get your revenge. So being confused since my long hiatus from Eve i looked towards the alliance, only to learn that no one cares about the price of the ship they lose. Really? How do you become and effective and economical pvper if you can't manage destroying something in a way cheaper ship. It was also a pride thing. Taking down a tengu in an ishkur or rifter was way more satisfying than taking it out with a proteus. Not to mention if you were in null, in a war, that was a HUGE f***ing nono to lose uber expensive ships like that. We used to call it stupid, now it's called fun? Wtf? Did I miss something? I mean if you have the money to blow on it, then by all means go ahead, but no other pilot I (used to) know would consider you worth your weight in salt. That was the beauty of the whole thing though. Anyways, would love to hear some thoughts on it, and sorry if this sounded like a rant but I am curious about this subject.

I remember this time too. Five years ago, someone losing a Marauder in high-sec was a BIG DEAL.

But then making ISK has become easier over the years... if you know what to do and are willing to accept some risk.


This still happens.

But as more people join the game, gain more money and ISK, and develop through the months and years... it is inevitable that you will see more people using more expensive equipment.


This is still possible... through, probably not with Rifters anymore.

Also... the Orthus is the new Cynabal.


You take precautions, make sure your tactics are sound**, know the mechanics that you can bend in your favor, and don't die.

If you don't do any of the above... make sure you have a high income or stick to cheaper ships.


** I don't know how long you have been out of the game (I'm guessing a couple of years)... but some tactics these days are ridiculously powerful compared to those of yesteryear.
This is partially due to all the ship rebalancing that has been going on since 2012-ish.

woah there charles dickens i didn't come here to read a novel.

at least format it like a normal human would.

I assume efficiency still matters a great deal to many people, its just flying t3s and faction ships these days isn't really all that uncommon. seems to me you are concerned with efficiency for the sake of efficiency. if these people are pvping in faction and t3 ships, I assume their efficiency is probably at the point where it is easily worth it to them to risk such ships.

There's a good chance that the guys you saw sitting in those ships were in a large HS Wardeccing alliance full of people that camp station undocks all day - Namely Marmite, PoH or some other entity.

Yes, these guys have loads of isk ready to throw away, but they don't need to because game mechanics, superior numbers and their player skill basically guarantees that they'll win any fight they take on the undock - Besides, they just don't aggro anything they aren't sure they can kill.

I would also guess that it's been a few years at least since you played Eve. Many things have changed in the last few years and ships worth many billions of isk are killed on the Jita undock every single day.

Furthermore I'd add that your mindset about flying expensive ships is sh*t and that I second what Dato said.

The efficiency of the expensive ships is based on a slightly different premise but they're still looking for efficiency.
They want to fund their losses from their kills after all (mostly anyway). However their approach is not to assume that they will lose their ship every time they undock (so they aren't looking for low unit cost) but to select ships for which it will take some time for their opponents to organise appropriate measures - a group like that is going to take a considerable fleet of newbies in Rifters to take down, even more to take them down before they can deagress and extracate themselves. In the meantime they can take a fair number of ships down who are not part of that fleet (and probably some who're on their way to join that fleet); it is the efficiency of the fox in the henhouse.

The difference between Eve and a P2W MMO is that the ship and fittings are only half the battle.
In a P2W MMO, you get the equips and smack your eyeballs on the keyboard to make win.

Until you can buy SP or flying skills with isk/plex, Eve isn't P2W.

I tend to agree. Which is why I am unsure overall how I personally feel about it.



I never understood "being efficient" as meaning flying crap ships. It made it more about learning the mechanics of PvP and fitting properly to be able to handle a superior ship (which the unknown was usually what modules the target ship carried). It just made sense to be able to take down a 200mil ship with a 30mil ship. In fact it was hilarious to watch cheap hurricanes shred ashimmu's and phantasms. Bear in mind though, this was the past and I am in no way saying that your way of thinking about it is wrong, I'm merely trying to understand it as it is now in Eve. Although dismissing losses as JUST PIXELS after you just spent REAL money to get the ISK to afford it is a bit ridiculous IMHO. But to each his own.

it is still easy to lose a tengu and become the laughingstock of the corp, all depends on how you lose it and how it is fit. Have a shiny fit with a resist hole that gets suicide ganked in highsec then lulz! Have a decent fit that you lose in a lopsided fight, where you take out several enemy ships, then good job. As far as I am aware it has been like that for a really long time.

Have you ever tried solo gatecamping in lowsec in a Marauder?

You will get some interesting fights.