Crime & Punishment

Let's get this out of the way: this is a post about high-sec gank mechanics. This does not make it a "grr code" post. I like CODE, or at least I liked the idea of CODE until they turned their New Halaima Code of Conduct from something cool into a thinly veiled excuse to do what all the other gankers do.

I have multiple freighter alts that have been flying for about five months without the pleasure of getting ganked. I keep alt scouts in hot systems, I have known bumpers watchlisted, I watch intel channels and killboards, my cargo is never worth more than a billion, and I generally do all I can to make sure that when ganking is happening, I'm somewhere else.

WIth these scouts I'd noticed the trend lately of ganking freighters without enough ships to do it, which I'll call "underganking" for lack of a better word. This is disturbing, because it means that any five gankers can take down any freighter, no matter how smart or careful or well-tanked the freighter is. One bumper with enough patience to wait out multiple GCC timers is all it takes.

Then this morning I came across this article

http://www.themittani.com/news/alod-bow-head-shame

where underganking is taken to its natural end. In this case, one ganker with two alts/helpers kills a bowhead without even bothering with the inconvenience of GCC. Yes, the fit was miserable, and yes, the pilot logged off. But the result would have been the same, no matter how good the fit and how long the pilot sat around and watched himself pinged to death helplessly.

I thought it was brilliant on the ganker's part, and I do not believe it is an exploit. The Concord behavior was put in specifically this way, and I have to think the possibility of something like this was just overlooked. Working as intended, as they say.

I do, however, think it's the result of a confluence of mechanics that was not intended. They are mechanics that weeks ago led me to not bothering with things like Reinforced Bulkheads anymore, because tank doesn't matter. When a small group of frigates and destroyers can kill my freighter no matter how many EHP it has, the best bet is to fit triple Inertia Stabilizers and hope it's enough to sneak out of a bump. (Having webbing alts helps, but I don't think it's reasonable make it a requirement to have a second account to fly a freighter.)

I don't have a problem with gankers. I can defend against them with more tank and more care, and I know that when I'm in a big ship I'm safe if there's only three or four of them. I don't have a problem with bumpers. I can defend against them by patience enough to demonstrate that I will not pay ransom under any circumstances, along with maybe some extra agility. These defenses do not always work, but I don't expect defenses to always work. It's a harsh game. You're going to lose sometimes.

The problem happens when gankers and bumpers get together, which means that you (the freighter pilot) loses every time. There is no defense when the gankers have until downtime to kill you, and it's been demonstrated that one ganker can kill an arbitrarily large vessel as long as he has a bumper or two with him. While I know that no place in New Eden is safe, the undergankers should also be forced to recognize this, and right now they're not. (The irony that this turns undergankers into the ultimate carebears is not lost on me.)

I'm perfectly fine with 15 Catalysts killing a lightly tanked freighter. I'm perfectly fine with 170 Velators killing a Providence (and in fact I thought it was hilarious...so did the Provi pilot, good on him). But two Cat pilots destroying a Charon? One Cat pilot destroying a Fenrir? This can't be working as intended.

Oh boy more of these kinds of threads.

I do enjoy the walls of tears

Perhaps if you request the help of one of your minions to help you sound out all the words you'll have a better understanding of what you're reading and wont have to include some variation of "tears" or "crying" in 98% of your posts.

Since everyone thus far is clearly missing the point, let me distill it a bit. Here it is:

A single destroyer pilot should not be able to destroy a freighter.

If this is a point of disagreement, then there isn't much need for a discussion and it can end there, and I apologize for giving loyalanon reason to use the 'T' word again.

It is you who are missing the point.

You are arguing that a freighter should be able to move solo through a very dangerous system without an escort while also arguing the ganker should not be able to solo the freighter. (BTW the ganker wasn't solo, he had at least one friend helping him)

Do you not see the contradiction here?

No need to even pop them, locking an unoccupied ship prevents it from being boarded.

Or get your own Orca and scoop them, or just bump the bowhead far enough away from the cats that he can't use them effectively, or just get a noob ship and agress the bowhead so there are two sets of concord for him to deal with.

So you would like to nerf ganking in order that they can't operate solo, even if they use clever ways to take advantage of the given game mechanics... because you think shipping billions of ISK in defenseless ships should be something you can do solo...

I think your view of this game is seriously screwed. This is a typical "change the rules in my favor" tear post.

BTW, the ganker loses even more ships than a group would in a single strike because of the passive shield recharge. Also a Bowhead can probably fit an active tank which will completely counter this tactic. And a single logy will counter this, hell even a single t1 ECM frigate or a counter bumper could completely deny this kill.

I don't see why you need CCPs help here.

Wants to operate solo, complains about someone operating solo.

You would, it fits in nicely with your delusions.

A lot of great tips above for freighter pilots to learn about, pick up, and use the multitude of tools available in the game to everyone.

That's the problem with the carebear. He's too lazy to try and find the solution(s) that already exist for his problem(s).