December 12th, 2018Upon my return to my capsuleer duties, I was greeted with a message from my comrade, fellow Wormhole Enthusiast, and Tristan Aficionado Marcus Arilia: Partake of the Hunt Once Again? (
ed. note: paraphrased). It was hardly within me to deny the offers of fun, plunder, adventure, violence, and possible mayhem (and our brethren w-space denizens were keen to watch the Hard Knocks keepstar fall to the Initiative onslaught). I set out to meet Marcus in Placid, minding his advice that the Stacmon-Ostingele gate was camped (to the surprise of precisely no one, I'm sure).
After a slight detour through Dastryns, I was reunited with Marcus in Agoze, and we began our patrol. Our evening began with a flash of near-combat with Agoze as we detected a Venture on d-scan, which Marcus simply could not stand for. We determined that they were located within an outpost and quickly jumped into action, and once we entered the acceleration gate, found our Venture sitting comfortably some 38 km from our landing spot. Sadly, upon approach, the Venture seemed keen to our piratical ways, and warped to safety mere seconds after we began our approach. Marcus attempted to entice the Venture pilot in Glorious Combat, but the pilot insisted they were "broke, skill-less, and bad at EVE." Given their apparent desire to sit passively in a low-sec complex in a stripped Venture for what must be hours, I was inclined to agree.
A few jumps into our roam we detected a Tristan in a faction warfare complex, and leapt into action, no doubt in part to ensure that Marcus's desire to be the One True Tristan Pilot would not be challenged. We activated the acceleration gate, and upon landing on grid, found the Tristan a mere 3.5 km from our landing spot. Unfortunately for the other Tristan, I had learned much since my last encounter in the faction warfare grids, and he was scrammed and webified as soon as our ships hit grid. With ten drones between us, the Tristan melted with little trouble.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73971751/Tristan:
406,781.69Our roam took us farther into the contested zones of the Caldari/Gallente, and we detected our next target of opportunity in Martoh: a Catalyst. We warped to the complex, only to find that the destroyer was not sitting inside the complex, but rather waiting on the gate for unsuspecting pilots! The nerve of such a pilot. Sitting upon an acceleration gate, preying upon the unwise and the unprepared? Who did they think they are? Me? This arrogance could not go unpunished, and we set our scramblers, webifiers, and drones upon our foe, adding a new kill to our list in short order.
Despite our destruction, however, the pilot seemed content to not warp away, despite his loss. The cheek! To camp a gate and then to sit passively in front of one's vanquishers? Despite my general disinclination towards pod destruction, such an affront could not go unanswered. I locked up our post-Catalyst friend and committed his consciousness to a temporary interruption. This act also, I believe for the first time in my EVE career, marked me with a criminal status. A status that filled me with such piratical amusement, I must add. Yet this was also so unfamiliar to my EVE experience, I timidly had to ask Marcus if this status would get me fired upon by gate guns.
Hey, a pirate has to start somewhere,
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73972058/https://zkillboard.com/kill/73972079/Catalyst:
1,620,321.69Our next encounter occurred in Black Rise, where Marcus discovered an Atron combatting a Federation frigate in a FW complex. My nebulously-patriotic heart was so stricken with sorrow for my Federation comrade fighting so valiantly for the safety of the common man, I was forced to warp to a stargate, lest I lose myself to despair. Yet Marcus assured me that he had managed to webify and scramble this Caldari menace, and that the noble Federation pilot was fighting so bravely, and pressed me to join my Federation brethren in Glorious Combat. I gathered myself and resolved to join my comrades, and arrived to ensure the end to this terrible threat!
This account of events is, of course, completely true. It is certainly not the case that I managed to warp to a stargate rather than the complex because I forgot to click off of the stargate when I pressed "Warp To Zero." Nor is it the case that Marcus was forced to wait patiently while I turned my slow *** around, and I barely scraped into the killmail.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73972243/Atron:
1,055,122.70With the Federation's soverignty assured, we continued our roam back into Essence, into the den of vice and danger that is Heydieles. Here, we discovered a Punisher located at a FW complex, and I
managed to navigate my starship like a functioning adult leapt into action, landing upon the gate, to discover that, like our previous interaction with the Catalyst, our Punisher friend was sitting upon the acceleration gate. As I landed on grid first, and a mere 4km from my target, I hit scrambler, webifier, and afterburner and began my orbit, while my flight of drones flew to begin their assault. This Punisher, however, would be quite different from my previous encounters thus far, and I found myself being yellow-boxed, followed by the activation of a warp disruptor and the warning of incoming shield damage! A proper fight had begun!
My shields began to evaporate rather quickly, and I prepared to activate my armor repairer as I monitored the outgoing damage my drones and the slow punch of my artillery cannons were placing upon my target. When the enemy guns began to impact my armor, however, it became quite clear that whatever weak defense my shield had provided, my armor would be quite a different story, as only a sliver of armor vanished with each pulse of his guns. But I also discovered that, far from being a lightly-armored target as was common thus far, this Punisher would prove to be a tough nut to crack. Despite significant outgoing damage, our drones were only barely managing to overcome whatever repairs were being applied by the modules in use by our quarry. Further, the target seemed to be under the impression that Marcus would be the better target, and their guns turned upon him, even as our webifiers effectively kept him rooted in place. But his attempts would not succeed, as his repairs failed under the tearing of drones and the thunder of guns.
We began to collect the spoils of our prey (including many T2 drones, no doubt from those assailants who had faltered beneath the frankly irresponsible amount of armor this fellow had), when a Hecate appeared in our local grid. This put a rather abrupt end to our post-victory analysis, but we managed to warp away before they could engage us. At the time, I thought my drones, which were still on grid, would be casualties of this scattering, but Marcus managed to gather them up before escaping as well.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73972817/ (Good Lord, man, do you have an armor quota?)
Punisher:
8,372,220.04Post-Fight Analysis: Having had time to observe the fitting from the Punisher since the fight, I must commend the fellow for a clever build. The armor plates, Punisher bonuses, and repairs meant that it took
7,000 damage before finally succumbing! For blaster fits that are pretty common for Gallente ships, this is a terrifying amount of armor to tear through. Unfortunately, this build also left him extremely vulnerable to ship like my MNI or Marcus's Tristan, as we can project damage from quite a distance even without guns. With an anemic falloff range for those 150mm light autocannons, and the velocity penalty of 2(!) 400mm armor plates, the most this fellow could have hoped to do was kill our drones, as even our Gallente ships could outpace such a heavy-fit Punisher.
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It was at this point that our roams had attracted the attention of Ticerium, my dear friend and comrade from the pre-Uni days (read: The Dark Times). He joined in on our Piratical revelry, and we set out to find new and engaging fights. And by Engaging FIghts, I of course mean that we came across the same plex-camper as we had discovered before. With our honor at stake for having allowed this camper to escape, we once again warped to the complex, with Ticerium screaming ahead with a proper microwarpdrive. If we could not kill this fellow, he would at least learn to stay out of complexes when Marcus, Ticerium, and Vincent come around.
However, this time the fellow appeared either AFK or gripped with the existential crisis that comes with the realization that in a game about immortal space pilots casually throwing antimatter explosions at each other for "the lulz," they had chosen the single most boring career path possible. Regardless of the reasons, we were able to tackle him properly, with Ticerium managing to get the initial stab, followed shortly by both me and Marcus.
Ticerium joined in on the Flashy Red Club as he attacked the pod of this camper, putting a (temporary) end to their camping ways. It was only after we checked Local, that we realized he had spoken to us. Specifically he had said, in Chinese (according to Google Translate), "Kill me, thank you." And while I'm sure Marcus would prefer to indulge this man's wishes in perpetuity with the sort of religious fervor one usually reserves for Crusades, it was time for us to move on.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73974171/Venture:
260,083.8We journeyed to Renarelle, where our first kill of the night had occurred, and Marcus discovered a Tormenter in a complex. It is here, though, that our story begins to take a dark turn. Marcus tackled the man initially, finding him to be like the Punisher before, though equipped with lasers. Which made him either more or less metal than the Punisher, depending on whether you prefer lasers or explosions. But in my attempt to join in on the tackle, I had, at some point, managed to reset my default "Warp To" from 0m to 100km. I genuinely do not know how I managed to do that, but so it was that I managed to land at 90 km while poor Marcus fought alone. Ticerium managed to land properly, and began to add to the fight, but it wasn't quite enough to save Marcus, as his Tristan succumbed to the outpouring of damage from the Tormenter's lasers.
The pilot turned their attention to Ticerium, who was now the sole participant of this contest. Though his ship lacked a repair module, the hefty buffer provided by Ticerium's 200mm plate and nano-membrane (as well as the significant resistance already present in armor against EM damage), managed to keep him safe until I entered 57km, and was able to finally engage my drones fully to the fight.
So it was that Marcus lost his Tristan, but his loss was not in vain! The enemy pilot also seemed to take his loss in stride, even offering a rematch in another system. As I alluded to, however, our luck had run out at this point, as we discovered in transit to a new system that a rather hefty group of pirates had taken up residence on the in-and-out gates of Abune. While I managed to direct Marcus away from the gate, and I managed to squeeze past just as they established themselves, Ticerium fell to their guns, and was pod-killed to boot.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73974711/Tristan:
6,776,827.49https://zkillboard.com/kill/73974728/Tormenter:
7,916,334.81https://zkillboard.com/kill/73975738/Comet:
21,245,009.38Lesson Learned: Don't reset your "Warp To" button? Seriously, that was baffling to me, though at least I'm cognizant of it now.
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With a few losses of ships, and separations borne out of gate camps, and the fragmentation that naturally occurs when bouncing between star systems, we regathered near Ostingele, and set out to find new fights. But it is here, dear readers, that the last encounter of the night occured. We detected a Garmur on the directional scanner, and decided, after some deliberation, to give a proper go of it.
I warped in first, landing on grid approximately 20km away from the Garmur. In retrospect, I see why this fellow set up there. As I engaged my afterburner, the Garmur activated it's microwarpdrive and began to orbit me at about 20km. It was at this point, I need to say, that my god, Garmurs are
fast. I have never quite seen a vehicle move like that save for my Dramiel. Sadly, it was clear to me, and to my compatriots that there was little I could do, as my attempts to orbit something that had me seperating rapidly from my teammates. Further, as everyone in the group was equipped with afterburners, there was little chance for them to catch up to a vehicle that was moving at roughly the speed of light.
Still, at least my repairer did its job to the bitter end. To the point that the Garmur's pilot felt it necessary to call in a Dramiel for assistance. Between their two weapons, my ship was not long for this world, though I was able to warp away before they took my pod along with me. Additionally, they were able to catch Ticerium in their grasp, and his Hookbill was their second catch of the encounter.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73975994/Maulus Navy Issue:
32,769,519.59https://zkillboard.com/kill/73976009/Hookbill:
27,002,775.67Lesson Learned: Garmurs are cancer and if you fly one you are literally The Devil.
Actual Lessons Learned and Final Thoughts:Warning: Incoming REAL TALKWhile my description of the last combat encounter of the night might seem depressing, I actually had a really good time on our roam. The Garmur engagement didn't go our way, but I knew full well that I may not win the encounter. I feel like I really learned how my ship can handle different combat encounters through the night, and the Garmur fight was no different. I also learned about the Garmur's operational envelope which is genuinely something I did not know, as the Garmur was added to the game well after I had gone back into hibernation.
My frustrations with EVE both in the present and in the past have been a feeling of uselessness. That nothing I do will ever let me win a fight, or get better at the game, no matter how much I try. This leads to a dark cloud over my head at times when I am "blapped" early in a fight, because its a sudden return to that feeling of uselessness. That I should have just stayed in a station because I didn't contribute as anything other than cannon fodder, and I'll never been seen by my fellow EVE pilots as anything except chaff to be entertained at best, and ignored at worst.
But this engagement feels different because not only do I know why I didn't win the fight (and choices I could make to better approach a future fight), but I managed to at least continue to fight and use my modules and my tools to the best of their ability. An example, at least to me, is that my repair module really made this pilot commit to the fight (such that his partner did a not-insignificant amount of damage!). Given how my ship was set up and the choices I made during the fight, it's likely that no iteration of this particular fight would have gone my way, but for really the first time in EVE, I genuinely feel that I gave a hard fight to a player in a combat situation, and got a good fight in return.
As far as better choices that might have swung the fight in our favor, I believe the principle mistake I made is that in my attempt to approach the Garmur, I pulled the fight away from Marcus and Ticerium. Had I moved back towards my squadmates, it's possible they could have exploited the orbit mechanics and caught the Garmur with a warp scrambler, which would have effectively ended the fight.