Monday, September 19, 2011

"OMFG-ITS-A-PIRATE-KILL-IT-itus" - Fatal Medical Condition


There are obvious drawbacks with having a -10.0 security status in Eve. 
 
  • Firstly you cannot fly anything other than a fast ship in high-sec. The (whoop-whoop) Space Police will kersplat you if you are slow. 
  • Also, being generally unable to enter High-Sec makes logistics and buying new ships/mods difficult or expensive (inflated low-sec prices with limited choice). 
  • When in Militia, logistics won't rep you as they'll take a faction standing hit for assisting outlaws (FIX THIS CCP!!!!!) 
  • You are also a target to everyone it seems sometimes. Even NRDS corps will shoot you and everyone likes to kill a pirate! If you jump into a camp as a neutral, you have a chance that the camp will not be interested in you. As a -10.0 they will try to kill you. 
  • People can also shoot you without penalties. No gate-gun aggro, no GCC, but I cannot do the same to you. It's like having the entire galaxy having a one-sided perma-war dec on you. 

However there are good points to being -10, the main one is that people shoot at you. Which doesn't sound like a good point, but when they shoot you, you can legally shoot back.... not that the legal aspects concern me much any more.

But the thing is, it is with what people shoot you with when you're -10.0. People seem to engage in fights they cannot win just because you are a pirate. I've had this a couple of times lately but the best example was only yesterday......

I was having a little solo roam in a Thrasher. In Heyd I jumped slap bang into the middle of a gate camp..... thankfully it was fellow Gallente Militia members. As an extra bonus, especially for me, it was Spiritus Draconious, so I was fairly confident that those guys would have their overviews set up correctly and wouldn't kerpslat me. It's always a danger being -10 in a militia that a "friendly" will have their overview set up badly and will engage because they see a pirate on overview, not a friendly militia member.

There was also a neutral crusader with them, but as I assumed he was with them, I ignored him. I selected a gate and warped off. As I hoped, SD didn't open fire due to crap overview settings and the Crusader didn't do anything agressive.

Anyway, I'm in warp and on my way to the out-gate. As I landed on the gate, so does that neutral Crusader who was sat with the SD camp. He lands and starts yellow boxing me. Seriously?!?!?!? You want to take a Thrasher on.... in a 'ceptor? Suddenly he goes red box. I have an expression on my face along the lines of o.0. Seriously, I'm taking damage whilst wondering WTF he's doing!


Lets look at this logically..... 

  • Firstly off, I'm in a Thrasher. They are a ship with a fairly limited role. They exist to kill frigate sized ships, and to be fair, not a lot else unless you got a lot of them together. He does know he's in a 'ceptor doesn't he....? 
  • Well to be fair to him, he's at point-blank range. Artillery cannons would have difficulty hitting a fast moving target at only 3km away. If I had artillery fitted that is, did he look at my ship.....? 
  • ...because, since Incarna, it's become very, very easy to identify the guns on a Thrasher. Look at it. Has it got rotating gattling style guns on it or long barreled rifle/cannon looking guns? Rotating gattling style guns? Well then, that's an autocannon fit Thrasher you have there. 
  • AC Thrashers are usually fit (unless it's a lolfit) for close-range combat. And most close-combat ships usually fit a web and a scram. 
  • Therefore if you see a Thrasher with rotating gattling style guns you can probably have a good guess that he's web and scram fit too. 
  • A Thrasher, fit with AC's and web and scram will rape any frigate hull that gets close. 
  • 3km IS close. 
Web! Scrammed! Slaughtered! Not a close fight, even with me hesitating and wondering WTF for a few seconds at the start of the fight before I agressed back.

So why did he engage me solo with no back up in a ship that was no match for mine? Well, I consider it's due to a medical condition I like to call.......

OMFG-ITS-A-PIRATE-KILL-IT-itus.

This common condition affects the logic parts of the brain of many Eve Online players. When the sufferer sees a -10 pirate on his overview he engages without thinking. People with this condition have the misguided belief that... well........ to be honest I don't know what they are thinking. There are a few options I suppose:-

1. They watch too much Hollywood and in their eye's the good guys/underdog always win.
2. For some inexplicable reason, they think the gate guns will suddenly active and back them up.
3. They are taking the chance that in the next 20 seconds (or less) in which the fight will last, someone else will arrive and back them up against the ebil piwat.
4. There is no number four. I have no other ****ing idea why they Leeroy into us like this!

To be honest he didn't survive 10 seconds, never mind 20. An Interceptor at point blank range against an autocannon fit Thrasher isn't meant to survive. It's like a sloth going up behind a lion and flicking its love-spuds with a wet towel.

I posted in local "gf mad person" and got a "lol" back. Still I wish now I'd convo'd him and just asked "WHY??????????". Unfortunately I didn't get the loot. A squid Thrasher jumped in on top of me as he popped. Now a Thrasher v Thrasher fight would have been fun, but I was low shield and had to warp off.

If I was a nice person I'd say - People, please listen to me! Just because I'm -10 doesn't mean the laws of the game are any different. Attacking me when I vastly out power you is not going to end well for you. If you wouldn't take the same engagement under a war-dec scenario, why undertake it just because I'm -10.

But I'm not a nice person (in-game) so I'll just say - Please keep doing what you're doing! G'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr*

*It is International Talk Like a Pirate Day after all!

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