EVE Blog Banter #16: Past Imperfect

Welcome to the sixteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: “Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. Eve is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you’d like to share with the wider Eve community?”

A couple of years ago, when it had been only a few months since I had graduated from the Royal Amarr Institute*, I was facing a bit of a crisis. The hi-sec mining corporation I was a part of had been effectively disbanded as the result of a mini-Haargoth incident, and none of us knew what to do. Most of us were still mining in cruisers and didn't really know enough to run a mining op, much less a corp.

"Hey, I know a guy in Strife Mercenaries," said one guy, Gwendion I think his name was. "They might let us in." He always struck me as a bit noobish, having lost his first battlecruiser less than 24 hours after he bought it, but then again, I sure as hell was no better. And I have to admit, the idea of Concord-sanctioned violence for profit made something stir in my then-carebearish loins. Other corpmates' loins were not so stirred, however. And so half of us merged into Strife Mercenaries, while the other half said their farewells and sought out another mining concern.


I joined just as Strife was wrapping up one war and getting geared up for the next: a campaign against a local corp called BR4INS. The casus belli were appropriately nihilistic: fun and reputation. Mere hours before CONCORD was to sanction the war, the intel was in, and our logistics were in place. Strife's CEO put out the call for Tech-1 ships, insured, and only what we could afford to lose. I wisely docked up my prized Arbitrator, then the most expensive ship I owned and my only source of mining income, and put together an armor-plated Punisher-class frigate.

As the clock finally ticked down and the war went into effect, our Tech-1 fleet mustered and flew off towards Hek to engage the enemy. BR4INS, supposedly on just the other side of the gate we were camping, was supposedly bringing out their big guns: Heavy Assault Cruisers, Battlecruisers, Battleships—hulls I still didn't even know enough to dream about yet. If we scored even a single kill, we would be ahead in the war, judging by ISK kill/loss ratio.

So how was the battle itself, you ask? Looking back on it, pathetic, chaotic, ill-conceived, and a complete waste of time—or to see it from the perspective with which I saw it at the time: the single-most exhilarating event I had ever experienced.

It's hard now to remember exactly how I saw it at the time. I remember the breathtaking beauty of the battlefield, a stargate enveloped by the razor-thin rings of a banded gas-giant. I remember a rainbow-spectrum of laser beams and white-hot tracer rounds radiating into our primary target from all directions. I remember the cool and concise comms calls of our fleet commander telling us exactly what to do, sometimes to "shut up."  I remember marveling at the punishment this BR4INS battlecruiser was absorbing from our fire (Note to my past self: That's because it was a Command Ship, you idiot). Eventually, as we attempted to disengage and regroup, I and many others in the fleet met an untimely end.

A few weeks ago, out of curiosity, I looked up that old kill on the public killboards, wondering what kind of ship I had been flying:

2007.03.24 18:55:00

Victim: Rolinthor
Corp: Strife Mercenaries Inc.
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Uttindar
Security: 0.5
Damage Taken: 0

Involved parties:

Name: Nebecaneczrr (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.9
Corp: Br4ins
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Ishtar
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done:

Name: Kroney Stormhammer
Security: -0.1
Corp: Br4ins
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: #System
Weapon: 75mm Gatling Rail I
Damage Done:

Destroyed items:

Radio S, Qty: 2
Warp Disruptor I
Dual Afocal Light Maser I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
100mm Reinforced Steel Plates I, Qty: 2

Warp core stabilizer? No afterburner/microwarp drive? One gun? By Jamyl's c**t! Wow. Just...wow, is all I can say, really.

So what's the point, Rolinthor? Why you got to go and tell us this tl;dr story about a war dec no one in New Eden gave a damn about even when it happened three years ago, not to mention the single worst frigate fit I've ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on?

The point, dear friend, is this: If I can have the single-best time I've ever had in New Eden while flying that flaming pile of Amarrian turd, then there isn't a damn thing you little nubbins need to be told about being a pod pilot except this: Have fun!

List of Participants

1. CrazyKinux: The Three Pillars of Wisdom
2. The Elitist: Helping the new guy/gal
3. Hands Off, My Loots: Nothing Needed
4. Rantuket: Blog Banter 16
5. EVE Opportunist: Nooby Cluey
6. Into the Unknown With Gun and Camera: EVE University
7. Zero Kelvin: We’re the young ones!
8. I am Keith Neilson: Set Your Destination
9. Prano's Journey: Just Like the Very First Time
10. A Merry Life and a Short One: No Seriously
11. Yarrbear Tales: Nublet 101
12. A Mule In EVE: If I only knew
13. The Planet Risk Show: Dared to be Bold
14. Diary of a Space Jockey: WTH did I get myself into?!
15. EVOGANDA: Why?
16. A Memoir From Space: 16th Blog Banter
17. Death’s Sweetest Kiss: Who What When Where Why How??
18. Freebooted: Beyond the Shortcuts
19. Learning to Fly: Noobing
20. Caldari Outcast: My First Blog Banter Post!
21. Roc's Ramblings: Financial Survival
22. Diary of a Pod Pilot: Free Knowledge Inside
23. Nullsec Carebear: I could've been less of an idiot
24. Facepalm's Ramblings: Something Smells Fishy
25. Kirith Darkblade: Do you wish to know more?
26. Autopilot Disabled: I'm still starting...
27. Finders & Keepers: Relax
28. Confounded Capsuleer: What have you got to loose?
29. Clan Oriana: Sixteen
30. Flashfresh: EVE Blog Banter #16
31. Rettic's The Chronofile: You Make EVE
32. More to come soon...

[Delicious Tag: eveblogbanter16]

*Incidentally, I was a transfer student from Hedion University, which I consider my true alma mater. Thanks for asking.