EVE New Citizens Q&A

This is nothing new. It has been communicated by many guides as well as posts throughout these forums but bears repeating. Certain details are omitted as there are in-game intel channels for that. My purpose here is not to whine but, as a new player, share a personal experience with colleagues in order to drive this important lesson home.

Recently I was exploring a particular low-sec system. There was one other capsuleer present, a neutral, with a security status of 4.9. The personal kill records showed a couple of recent combat ships but nothing recognized as being industrial, mining, or exploration vessels. The corporation records were similar. In fact, the history showed many more deaths than kills for both the capsuleer and corporation. Simply defending themselves when attacked? D-Scan showed some NPC wrecks. Here on a mission? I then noticed that I saw no capsuleer ship on D-Scan. Did they cloak when I entered the system as a precaution? Are these old wrecks? I checked out the in-game map, aware it is often not timely, and noticed it was reporting one person as being docked and active. I felt safe enough to decloak and incur the recloaking penalty in order to deploy my probes. After awhile, enjoying the relative safety of scanning while cloaked, I found a data site.

I warped in at 10km cloaked. Nothing there but shards, towers, and mainframes. Throughout this endeavor, the other capsuleer had left the system and returned a few times but was currently present. Naturally cautious, I stayed cloaked. Periodically, the other capsuleer would leave. I would use that as an opportunity to decloak and hack. Whenever they came back into the system I recloaked, so usually only had time to do, at most, one hack. At one point I sat cloaked in the site for about 20 minutes until they left again. Finally, I was down to my last hack and impatient. I had been in the system for probably close to an hour. I had already canceled a previous hack on the same container in order to cloak. The capsuleer left the system again. I had already mentally prepared myself for their return and was committed to finishing the (rather complex) hack no matter what because (1) this person has a security status of 4.9, (2) their personal and corporation kill records don't seem threatening, (3) the person is probably here on missions, and (4) I will see combat probes on D-Scan and be able to warp out. Can't get much safer than that unless you're alone, right? I had indeed considered in my mind the possibility that all of this was a ruse and that the site had been pre-scanned down but, considering all the evidence, felt I was being too paranoid. The capsuleer came back into the system. I continued my hack. Almost done. A few seconds later they uncloaked in my site. They attempted to scramble me but fortunately my current fit included two stabilizers and I was able to warp out.

This rather dangerous and persistent capsuleer had stalked me for close to an hour. Be careful out there!

You're suggesting that I should have had more confidence in my two stabs? I know enough to understand that it would have taken three points, two scrams, or one point/one scram to overcome them. I'm not sure how easy/difficult/common such fits are on a single ship though.

The two most powerful warriors are Patients and Time - Tolstoy

I love the level of paranoia on display here (entirely appropriate btw) ,

sounds like it was an engaging experience for you.
personally i fell in love with that edgy fear that permeates eve and it seems like you might have the bug too


if they live there they can reship quickly,
i used to catch stabbed ventures with a legion i could quickly throw sebos and scramms onto.

Navy Mallus can do it with one scram, keep an eye out for those.

Loving the story. Don't worry about efficiency. When you're learning something better to be thorough. Later you can decide where to cut corners if appropriate.

We learn mostly from our mistakes, You aren't making a lot of mistakes it sounds like, so you'll REALLY remember when someone gets you.

I agree that my best protection was immediately cloaking as soon as I saw the offender in my Overview. Didn't see them on D-Scan since they were in a cloaky ship. Since this was my first near death experience, however, I panicked. I tried to cloak with the hacking window still open. By the time I was able to think rationally again and close it, GTFO, as you say, was imprinted on my forehead, so I simply warped. I may have still been able to cloak but am not at all sure if I had already been targeted or how close other things, including the offending ship, was to me before I got out.

My combat log had entries along the following lines.

Someone is attempting to warp scramble you.
Please wait...
... (same entry 4 or 5 times)
Please wait...
You can't do that because you're already in warp.

If that tells you anything. I admit that I panicked again after managing to close the hacking window and at one point was pretty much pressing every key on my keyboard hoping that something good would happen.

You did everything right in that case, because you were already targeted and warp scrambled (with too low strength for your stabs), "just" warping out was the only way. ... and you expierienced what fuels us PvP affine players and keeps us addicted to EvE, the adrenaline rush of a dangerous encounter.

just start hanging more isk on the line ,
i dont care how long you have been playing but when you fly around in 1+bill of a hull with another two in your head those
"ah shite" moments will make you sweat.

I usually use a sb with at least 2 scrams - for just such a reason as this. If he had been any good - you wouldn't have gotten away.

if you are into exploration/hacking - your best bet is to make friends with the locals or stay in systems that are off the beaten path. We don't run our systems in our home as it makes great bait for those that are hell bent on doing them regardless of the numerous obvious pirates in system.