My Loot, Your Tears

With the recent completion of the 3rd installment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: “Griefing is a very big part of EVE. Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game. What do you think about all these things? You can talk about one, or all…but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it’s needed.”

Now, normally I don’t do the Blog Banter competitions, because, well, I’m lazy. However, seeing as I’m one of the “public faces” of the hi-sec Griefer scene, I’ve gotten about a dozen requests for my thoughts on this.

Most of the responses I’ve read to this Blog Banter have actually ignored the question entirely. Instead of posting their opinions on Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming, they’ve posted pages of text about how none of these activities are “Griefing”.

So I’m going to do something similar and ignore the actual question. Instead, let’s talk about words and what they mean. I’m thinking of a particular word: Piracy.

When an Eve player self-identifies as a Pirate, you know EXACTLY what he’s talking about: A player who hangs out in lowsec, looking for “good fights” against other “Pirates”. Sure, once in a while a foolish carebear stumbles into their domain, but for the most part Pirates are merely engaging with consensual PvP with other players of the same class. I’m not knocking it because I know it can be fun, but piracy it ain’t.

Being a pirate means preying on the unsuspecting, the weak, or the foolhardy. It seems to me that Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, and Scamming would fall neatly into the definition, while e-honor “good fight!” piracy would not.

So we call ourselves Griefers because our actions cause grief, not just as a byproduct but often as a primary objective. The truth of the matter is that a better term for us would be pirates, but that term was hijacked by low-security PvPers who had no real reason to use it. Folks are trying to deny us the title “Griefer” because our actions are within the intended mechanics of the game. This is missing the point entirely.

I understand the confusion, since in most MMOs, ruining someone else’s game is out of the question due both to rules and the game mechanics. In Eve, the universe is such a cold and unforgiving place that such behavior is not only allowed, but is required by a certain segment of the population in order for successes in the game by the law-abiding to have any meaning.

We’re Griefers. If you come up with a better title for those who prey on the weak in Eve, I’d love to hear it.

Carebear loses a CNR to aggro extension from a ninja. Carebear admits that he saw the aggro timer and undocked anyway, but still petitions his loss. A senior GM gives him his ship back.

Since aggro extension has been a valid mechanic for some time, I petitioned to see if it was now considered an exploit.

This has come to my attention:

http://stabbedup.blogspot.com/2010/08/eve-exchange-of-views-with-ccp.html

A missionrunner undocked with aggro from a ninja salvager, lost his CNR, petitioned it, and got it back. Is extending aggro now considered an exploit? Will my future targets now be reimbursed after I kill them? It is very important for me to know if carebears are getting unequal treatment: It may well determine the future of my subscription.

Hi,

At this point in time we will not take any action against anyone using this. Please be aware however that we reserve the right to change our policy on this in the future should we deem it necessary.

Best regards,
GM Kaliastra
The EVE Online Customer Support Team

Hey there,

I do appreciate your swift response, but it does not answer my question. Is it now policy to reimburse ships lost due to ignorance? Will my targets have their losses replaced by GMs?

Hi, senior GM Spiral here.

We are currently not taking action against anyone doing this at the current time although this is not an advertised nor supported feature. We at CCP do reserve the right to adjust this policy at any given time in the future should the situation warrant it.

Customer Support does consider this something that may be reimbursed for pending an investigation into the situation of a given incident.

If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this then please do not hesitate to ask.

Best regards,
Senior GM Spiral
EVE Online Customer Support Team

So the summary is that CCP is giving ships back to players for losses that are not due to exploits.

On the Stabbed Up blog, “Reasoned Discourse” has broken out, and the author in question has started deleting all but the sympathetic comments. As an aside, note that we have not and will never squash comments from those who disagree with us, provided those comments are on-topic and don’t break any laws in our jurisdiction.

CCP: If I wanted to play a game where my actions in PvP had no consequences, I would go play WoW. If aggro extension is an exploit, then call it such and fix it. If it’s not an exploit, then don’t coddle players who fall victim to it. If in this case the ninja had lost his ship due to combat derived from aggro extension, I have trouble believing that you would have been so sympathetic. I play this game because actions are meaningful. If you remove the meaning, I will take the money from my subscriptions and go do something better with my time.

Related links: Crime and Punishment Thread – Likely to be locked. Note plenty of carebears calling it an exploit, which CCP has explicitly denied. Also note the “tears” accusation, which is true. When one sees that his successes are being invalidated and his failures are being allowed to stand, there will be tears. Why should I risk ships that won’t be reimbursed to kill ships that will be replaced by a GM?

By way of my own insignificant protest, I will not be ninja salvaging/ganking until either aggro extension is called an exploit or I receive assurances from CCP that my victims won’t get their mistakes reversed by CCP. I’ll still work my infiltration alts and wardecs, but I have no motivation to continue my primary profession when it’s so likely that the work will mean nothing.

Today when I logged on in Ruvas to look for carebear targets, I saw some strange purple chat in local. Further investigation revealed that this was a pirate invasion live event. I grabbed an interceptor from my Orca and went to look.

I was pretty much immediately popped. Well then.

As I sat there in my pod, I saw an Amarr battleship suffer a similar fate. An idea sprang into my head. I warped back to the Orca, grabbed a salvage Vigil, warped back at 100km, and burned away from the fight until I had a tactical bookmark about 200k off the event.

I saw a Drake pop. I warped to it. T2 loot. Dropped it off at the Orca and warped back to my tac spot.

As I arrived, I saw an Elite Caldari Cruiser wreck. Yes! I warped to it. Faction loot! I dropped it off and set up again.

Another Drake popped. I wasn’t super hopeful, but T2 loot is still money in the bank. Only this Drake also had a faction BCU. Score!

After that, most of the loot was just T2 and best named stuff. After a few minutes some big fleets showed up with logistics and got the situation under control, meaning that fewer ships died horribly.

Then the pirate carrier spawned. Not thinking, I warped to zero to get whatever loot it dropped.

Carriers have smartbombs. My client lagged and my mailbox blinked. I wasn’t sure what had happened until my screen went dark and I woke up in a clone vat in Vylade. There goes about 200M worth of implants. Oh well.

I took my Orca alt the three short jumps from Ruvas to Jita and counted up my loot:

Two Caldari Navy Ballistic Control Units: 160 million
Republic Fleet 10MN Afterburner: 50 million
Gist A-type EM shield hardener: 120 million
Caldari Navy Shield Boost Amp: 100 million
Pithum C-type Medium Shield Booster: 300 million (!!!)

730 million ISK for being in the right place at the right time. If you’re going to do this yourself, my advice is to get to the event as soon after it starts as possible. This takes advantage of the local carebears who have no idea what they’re dealing with and warp in with their faction-fit mission boats.

CCP: Thank you. Eve needs more unpredictable and terrible ways to lose more than you intended to risk. I speak both of the faction BearBoats getting popped and of my own podding at the hands of a GM. Eve is better than WoW simply because there is actual risk involved in everything you do. Keep it up.

Ruvas doesn’t have many bears, but the ones that do live there are fat and stupid. Nitnargimmi shoots, I score. I had a chance to make this a Golem+CNR kill, but I got spooked by some logistical issues and underplayed my hand. Still, if you can’t be happy about a 1.4 Billion ISK kill, what can you be happy about?

Be sure you up the quality to 720p and fullscreen that sucker!

I’m pretty happy with this video. The new computer has made recording these things much more reasonable, and I think I’m getting the knack for the video editing and encoding software, so the quality should be excellent. The songs are “Long Road to Ruin” by Foo Fighters and “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse. I hope you enjoyed everything.

I know I keep bouncing around on video hosting services. Vimeo was awesome but I noticed yesterday that their rules do not allow video game footage. The downside of YouTube is that you’re limited to 15 minutes (used to be 10 minutes) and they sometimes screw with your music selection for people viewing outside the US. If you know of a better service that offers 720p video playback, let me know.

Scene: I’ve warped into Tokhein’s World’s Collide and salvaged a few wrecks out from under his CNR in the first room. Moonshots is there in a Hurricane. They both warp off.

Tokhein > bye bye paul, not stealing my shit
Paul Clavet > I’m going to return and steal your mission objective, Tokhein. You’d better hurry and get to it before I do.
Moonshots > good luck
Moonshots > with that
Cyberin > uh oh, alt?
Moonshots > paul
Paul Clavet > Wanna make it more interesting Moonshots? Maybe a small ISK bet?
Tokhein > fuck off u damn thief
Paul Clavet > lol
Tokhein > how bout u give me isk, and then u can have my loot
Paul Clavet > Your rage is kinda funny
Tokhein > that sounds good
Paul Clavet > How about I take your loot and laugh at you?
Cyberin > i like option b
Tokhein > not going to happen
Paul Clavet > uhm, already happened
Tokhein > not really
Exodusbandar > sigh, why can’t we all just gank…er…get along?
Tokhein > i never get along with thieves
Cyberin > because the bears don’t have the balls to shoot…
Tokhein > they are retardly gay
Paul Clavet > I get along great with carebears… the loot from their missions keeps me in the kind of lifestyle I’ve come to expect

I’ve retrieved JerkTengu and started rushing through the Serpentis room to blitz the mission. Most folks don’t know that the gates to the Research Outpost in this mission are completely unlocked. You may have to kill a couple of webbing frigs, but if you’ve got a serious tank you can waltz right into the last room. When you get to the last room, target the six ships immediately around the Damaged Heron. When you kill them, the Ship’s Crew will be unlocked. I can rush a WC to completion and steal the objective in under five minutes.

Tokhein loses sight of all prudence and begins hurling racist and homophobic slurs. I’ll never understand why some folks do this in Eve, where there’s NO WAY TO TELL what race a player really is. It’s why I love the internet in general… If I’m going to love you or hate you, I can love you or hate you for your mind.

Tokhein’s mind fails him.

Tokhein > do i sound like a carebear to you faggot?
Cyberin > yes, you do
Tokhein > lol i hate too lmuch to be a carebear
Tokhein > eve is too full of niggers stealing shit for me to care
Cyberin > doing a mission, crying in local about ninjas, no balls, sounds pretty carebearish to me…
Cyberin > nice, racial slurs :D
Exodusbandar > watch the language or you’ll get banned
Cyberin > that’ll help your situation…
Tokhein > lol
Tokhein > then don’t steal
Paul Clavet > Petitioned for racist language Tokhein, enjoy your temporary ban
Cyberin > you too? :D lol
Paul Clavet > Now I will take your Ship’s Crew
Exodusbandar > ah metagaming at its finest
Tokhein > nigs are theives that simple
Paul Clavet > heh
Paul Clavet > as a person who is not white, I take a mite bit of offense to that
Paul Clavet > but no matter, CCP will take care of it
Tokhein > im not scared of ccp
Paul Clavet > Can I have your stuff then?
Paul Clavet > when you get banned
Tokhein > fuck off
Tokhein > thats what u can do
Ap0ll00 > lol
Paul Clavet > Nope, I’m gonna rush through here and take your mission objective now
Paul Clavet > because you’re a racist bastard
Tokhein > yes i am
Tokhein > and u have to deal with it
Ap0ll00 > lol
Paul Clavet > I am dealing with it… you will fail this mission
Cyberin > you need help in that mission there paul? lol ”
Cyberin > that’s a lot of tears to haul yourself…
Tokhein > no, i wont
Exodusbandar > how do you play this game with that white pointy hood over your head??
Tokhein > it has eye holes
Tokhein > how do theives play while i burn crosses in their yards
Cyberin > because we are inside at the computer, not really looking at the yard

I got his ship’s crew. He was too much of a coward to try to stop me.

It’s been far too long. For a while there I had quit salvaging and was thinking about a long break from Eve altogether.

Talking to Khalia the other day, I decided to just grit my teeth and salvage until I got a kill, to see if the taste of CareBlood would return me to my Jerk ways.

It did. Meet Qhuashimides. He was running Worlds Collide in Ruvas in his faction-fit Golem when I popped in to say hello. He fired at me.

It’s been too long. I was about to cloud up and rain all over this guy.

He stayed put while I went to grab JerkTengu and return. He never checked his directional scanner as I burned 30km to the gate and warped into the Guristas room where he awaited his doom.

When he saw me, however, he apparently mashed Control-Q in an effort to get away.

This didn’t work. I had him locked and pointed before his very expensive CareBoat could CareAlign and CareGTFO. He soon logged back in and started firing back, but JerkTengu easily tanked his oversized Torpedoes. With a neut sucking on his capacitor and max-SP HAMs pouring into his shields, his tank broke before long.

Since he was now unmistakably online, I tried for another conversation.

Paul Clavet > o/
Paul Clavet > So how much is the ship worth to you?
Qhuashimides > i am listening
Qhuashimides > how much do you want?
Paul Clavet > Let’s say… 600M to let the ship go
Paul Clavet > I figure it’s worth that
Qhuashimides > ok\
Paul Clavet > 30S to pay

He was trying to stall for time.

Paul Clavet > I’m not going to wait for you to call in help
Qhuashimides > no
Qhuashimides > i am not
Paul Clavet > then pay up, you’re running out of time
Qhuashimides > you wqant how much
Paul Clavet > 600 million

A long pause. I know what he’s thinking.

Qhuashimides > and how i know you will no t pop me?
Paul Clavet > 20 seconds
Paul Clavet > this is how I make my living
Paul Clavet > if I dishonor a ransom, nobody else will pay

Carebears always ask me this, I always lie through my teeth, and they always believe me. Thank you, e-honour pirates, for perpetuating the myth that people who caught you once can be trusted afterward.

Qhuashimides > wait
Qhuashimides > i wont call anyone
Paul Clavet > I’m giving you another 10 seconds
Paul Clavet > then you die
Qhuashimides > ok?
Paul Clavet > Paying or not?
Qhuashimides > i payed you mate

No, he didn’t. Or did he? I check my wallet and see a 600,000 payment. Nice try. I click my HAM launcher group once, then again, sending a single volley to knock out a quarter of his structure. That seems to get his attention.

Qhuashimides > sorry
Qhuashimides > my mistake
Paul Clavet > 600k?
Paul Clavet > try again
Paul Clavet > last chance dude

Cha-ching. 600M appears in my wallet. I begin firing again.

Paul Clavet > SUDDENLY
Paul Clavet > BETRAYAL
Qhuashimides > ok
Qhuashimides > nice
Paul Clavet > yup
Paul Clavet > So then
Paul Clavet > what have we learned?

He is already offline again when his ship pops.

And here’s the killmail. Faction loot, but only about 100 million of it actually drops.

Edited to add: Oh yeah, I also got his Ship’s Crew.

The Eve universe does not stand still, and neither do ninjas (or jerks). With the rise of interest in ninja salvaging – helped by this blog to some part – mission runners have become more aware of our presence and tactics. The main problem these days with shooting mission runners is that most of them don’t hang around after shooting at our salvaging frigates. I estimate that at least 75% of those who shoot immediately dock and wait out the aggression timer.

To counter this problem, I’ve borrowed a strategy from some ninja friends. I won’t reveal all the details, but it involves using a frigate with a stupidly huge buffer tank, a point, web, and light guns. Once the target has fired, I point the ship and then use the web and light guns to disable drones. A second pilot with remote repair shows up to help keep the frigate alive, and fire on the target if his ship is fired upon. Finally, we swap the frigate for a larger gank ship – using tricks to keep the target from warping off while the swap is taking place.

This worked extremely well last night, providing me with both a Raven Navy Issue kill and a Rattlesnake kill. As I commented to Michella a few days back, “a Rattlesnake kill is my current dream.” Dreams come true, with the right planning.

The pilot of the Raven Navy Issue was Winter Borne of Angry Old Men. After finishing his room worth of NPCs while I loot wrecks, he locks me up and sends drones. I immediately throw my point on him and start pewing away at his drones. My alt arrives shortly with a cruiser fit for RR. Since Winter Borne is slowly cracking my tank, he decides that the RR ship is the threat and sends his drones after it. I get as much armor reps on my frigate as possible and then warp the cruiser out to go swap for a gank ship.

Meanwhile, my Orca is warping to the scene. As it arrives I notice a Drake and a Dominix also arriving. That’s a problem. They pass through the first gate and my Orca slowly follows. The tank on my frigate is just about done, as Winter Borne’s strategy of recovering and then releasing drones is a good one. I decide this one is getting away and warp out the frigate right as I hit structure. At this point a smart pilot would dock up, but Winter Borne – and his friends in the Drake and Dominix, just arrived – hang around. My Orca has just arrived on scene with them, and Winter Borne slowly burns toward it.

A plan formulates with me. My frigate pilot only has a few minutes of corporate agro left, after which the Domi and Drake can not shoot at it – only Winter Borne’s CNR. My other pilot, now in a Raven, still has full aggression. I warp both of them back into the mission and on the gate just before the final room with everyone else. To stall for time I lock up everyone with the Orca and deploy my drones. That should be weird enough to keep their attention.

Right around when corp agro ends for my frigate pilot, the Dominix warps off. Is he coming back? We’ll see. I warp my frigate in and am immediately locked up by Winter Borne. I swap from the Orca for my Ashimuu, lock the CNR and throw all the neuting and lasers I can at him. Once that’s going I drop in my Raven pilot and start hammering on the CNR with torpedoes. The Drake makes some attempt to shoot at the Raven, but wisely decides to bug out. The Dominix never returns, and the Raven Navy Issue pops. No tears to be had from Winter Borne, but I was quite pleased.

Round 2 – Fight!

Hours later I scan down a Rattlesnake. These are the mother of all passive tanked ships, and therefore nearly impossible to kill. They’re usually also faction fit up the ass, and they rarely ever fire on loot thieves – who risks an expensive faction ship and mods? I don’t have any other hits at that moment, so I decide to give it a shot.

Much to my surprise, he does actually lock me up and send drones after me once he’s done with all his NPCs. I start screaming at Paul, and in The Ninja Alliance, for help. My frigate puts a point on him and starts shooting his drones, but it’s not looking good for me. My RR cruiser arrives in time to provide life-saving reps, and I finally claw back from the edge, with only 20% structure remaining! The pilot, Excido Charon, finally pulls all his drones in and opens a convo with me. I attempt a ransom of his ship.

[ 2010.06.10 02:21:03 ] Excido Charon > lol
[ 2010.06.10 02:21:12 ] Khalia Nestune > 500m for the ship
[ 2010.06.10 02:21:15 ] Excido Charon > tough lil nugged of a fit there i see
[ 2010.06.10 02:21:41 ] Excido Charon > not even a nice afternoon?
[ 2010.06.10 02:21:49 ] Khalia Nestune > it’s evening here
[ 2010.06.10 02:21:50 ] Excido Charon > hey ex how ya doin
[ 2010.06.10 02:22:01 ] Excido Charon > how are the kids
[ 2010.06.10 02:22:24 ] Khalia Nestune > the kids need college money
[ 2010.06.10 02:22:29 ] Khalia Nestune > like I said, 500m
[ 2010.06.10 02:22:33 ] Excido Charon > damn its like you’re psychic
[ 2010.06.10 02:22:51 ] Excido Charon > hmmm
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:00 ] Excido Charon > honest to god if i had it
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:01 ] Excido Charon > id pay it
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:10 ] Excido Charon > /emote shrugs
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:12 ] Khalia Nestune > you have a rattlesnake and don’t have 500m? how sad
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:30 ] Excido Charon > well
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:32 ] Excido Charon > long story there
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:36 ] Excido Charon > sum it up
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:40 ] Excido Charon > 3 months AFKness
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:43 ] Excido Charon > suprise wartargets
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:44 ] Excido Charon > gank
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:48 ] Khalia Nestune > hm
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:50 ] Excido Charon > bye bye kronos
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:51 ] Khalia Nestune > well how much do you have?
[ 2010.06.10 02:23:53 ] Excido Charon > sell everything
[ 2010.06.10 02:24:05 ] Excido Charon > 40,413,548.34
[ 2010.06.10 02:24:45 ] Khalia Nestune > bah, not worth it

The call to The Ninja Alliance is answered by Zavulon Sukkot and Kybernis. Another ninja, BM Dublyoo, scans down our party while looking for his own targets and decides to hang around. He ends up providing valuable intel, thanks to a ship scanner: the Rattlesnake is fit for an active tank! Hope goes up all around, as we can kill this thing with neuts. A passive tank Rattler would have been far more difficult.

We start to formulate a plan: I will do a hot-swap from my frigate to the Ashimuu in the Orca. At exactly the same time, Zavulon and Kybernis will bump the Rattlesnake as hard as possible, preventing it from warping while giving me the time to reestablish a lock and point. Paul finally returns from Chick-Fil-A or whatever and shows up in an Oneiros.

Meanwhile, our target thinks he knows the game, and has declared victory for his side.

[ 2010.06.10 02:39:13 ] Excido Charon > You’re the only one allowed to shoot me , and Im not quite that stupid good sir/maam….you can keep refreshing the agro timer, but the only way YOU’re giong to kill me is if you let your point offline to go swap into a bigger ship
[ 2010.06.10 02:39:34 ] Excido Charon > and passive tanking your onboard weapons is kinda obvious
[ 2010.06.10 02:39:48 ] Excido Charon > nice failransom attempt though.
[ 2010.06.10 02:40:04 ] Excido Charon > i used to do this same exact thing quite awhile ago
[ 2010.06.10 02:40:05 ] Excido Charon > anyway
[ 2010.06.10 02:40:09 ] Excido Charon > /emote goes to get coffee

We wait for the Orca to catch up, which obviously takes a long ass time. Just prior to bump-and-swap:

With the Orca at swap distance, Zavulon uses his Typhoon for a perfect bump – the Rattlesnake turned something like 60 degrees off axis – and I quickly swap to the Ashimuu and land a point on him. Lots of cheering on our Vent server. Everyone piles remote repair onto me as I drain his capacitor and engage my lasers. Excidio realizes he’s screwed, but decides to go all out just for the hell of it.

[ 2010.06.10 02:46:29 ] BM Dublyoo > Excido can i have your stuff when you die?
[ 2010.06.10 02:46:35 ] Excido Charon > sure
[ 2010.06.10 02:46:55 ] Excido Charon > …how were you planning on doing that again exactly?
[ 2010.06.10 02:47:08 ] BM Dublyoo > magic
[ 2010.06.10 02:47:16 ] Excido Charon > woah.
[ 2010.06.10 02:47:22 ] Excido Charon > thats some serious stuff man
[ 2010.06.10 02:50:15 ] Zavulon Sukkot > I think Mr. Nestune is proceeding to break a foot off in your ass.
[ 2010.06.10 02:50:22 ] Zavulon Sukkot > Mr. Clavet, do you concur?
[ 2010.06.10 02:50:34 ] Paul Clavet > Sir, yes sir!
[ 2010.06.10 02:50:42 ] Khalia Nestune > [02:39:48] Excido Charon > nice failransom attempt though.
[ 2010.06.10 02:50:45 ] Khalia Nestune > what was that?
[ 2010.06.10 02:50:48 ] BM Dublyoo > it sure is pretty
[ 2010.06.10 02:50:55 ] Kybernis > at least shoot the rest of us before you go
[ 2010.06.10 02:50:58 ] Excido Charon > kk
[ 2010.06.10 02:51:01 ] Excido Charon > lets do it
[ 2010.06.10 02:51:09 ] Excido Charon > DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE

He fires at Zav’s Typhoon, which only quickens his sudden but inevitable death. I am thrilled. A Rattlesnake kill AND a CNR in one day is just about as good as it gets.

Again no tears, but I do find out why Excido was so surprised.

[ 2010.06.10 02:54:22 ] Excido Charon > one quick question
[ 2010.06.10 02:54:25 ] Khalia Nestune > sure
[ 2010.06.10 02:54:36 ] Excido Charon > If you and I were exclusively agroed
[ 2010.06.10 02:54:45 ] Excido Charon > how come a spontaneous ashimu whooped my ass? xD
[ 2010.06.10 02:54:56 ] Excido Charon > you’re the only one I shot and you were on overview the whole time
[ 2010.06.10 02:55:01 ] Khalia Nestune > you see that orca?
[ 2010.06.10 02:55:06 ] Khalia Nestune > orcas hold other ships =)
[ 2010.06.10 02:55:08 ] Excido Charon > Aha!
[ 2010.06.10 02:55:14 ] Excido Charon > clever
[ 2010.06.10 02:55:29 ] Excido Charon > extemely clever

A really great night indeed. Once again thanks to Zavulon, Kybernis, BM Dublyoo and Paul, without which the Rattlesnake kill would never have happened.

I only had a couple of hours before I had to return to work. The great thing about the Jerk lifestyle, however, is that you can get good gameplay in even if you only have a short period of time. I launched my probes, got five good hits, and got to work.

One of the hits led to a completed mission, so the wrecks were just out in deadspace. Since I primarily want carebear aggro, I skipped this hit at first to finish up the hits with missionrunners present. Once I had finished up my other four hits with no success, I returned to this one to find a salvage Cormorant on scan, hitting the other rooms. Though salvaging out from under a carebear salvage ship doesn’t usually lead to epic kills, it’s still worthwhile, since you know for certain that the carebear was intending to pick up what you are yoinking. I went ahead and started salvaging, making sure to leave a “Paul Clavet was here” can in case he came in after I finished. I was about two-thirds finished with the field when the Cormorant warped in, sat for a second, and warped off. This was odd: I would have expected him to at least try to grab some of the leftover cans or something. Figuring something was up, I started orbiting a wreck without salvaging to give him a chance to play his hand. Sure enough, his Raven landed well over 100km from me at the other side of the field.

I started moseying over to a can that was within his targeting range. He was approaching me at full speed. Could he really have been so blinded by his need for revenge that he couldn’t see what should have been obvious as an attempt on my part to get shot at?

Sure enough, when I reached about 50km away he targeted and fired.

That’s all fine and dandy, but would he stick around while I slipped into something a little more comfortable? I opened a convo with him and pretended to be butthurt to boost his confidence. In the mean time, I bookmarked a can that was close to his Raven. This is a useful trick to remember in large fields that allow you to warp in anywhere you like.

Paul Clavet > wtf dude
Burime > i only speak russian & this is my salvag & loot

I commented to some Suddenly Ninjas buddies last night that I never could get Russians to shoot at me. Since then I’ve killed two of their battleships.

Anyway, I grabbed JerkTengu and warped to the bookmark I had made from the can. I landed 12km on top of him. Perfect. I pointed him and started pouring Torrent Rage Assault Missiles onto his Raven:

Paul Clavet > well then
Paul Clavet > 50,000,000 ISK or your ship dies
Paul Clavet > you have 30 seconds to pay or your die
Burime > i have no 50 kk)
Paul Clavet > how much do you have?
Burime > 5 k
Paul Clavet > heh

It probably took me longer to work through his structure than it took to kill his shields and armor. I guess it speaks volumes for fitting a DCU on your combat ships.

Paul Clavet > last chance
Burime > no many )
Burime > пидарас )

None of the translators I’ve tried have had success with the last line. Any Russian-speaking readers that can shed some light?

Anyway, he popped.

Burime couldn’t see past his need to kill that vile salvaging vigil, and was too sloth-like to GTFO after making his attempt to kill it. He paid for his lack of foresight.

Administrative note: Since I built my new computer, my Eve client has been using the default low-quality setting for screenshots, resulting in crappy images for the website. I’ve corrected this problem and the images should get better. I’m also having problems with Fraps not responding to the hotkey I have for recording, no matter what key I set it to. Can anyone recommend an alternative to Fraps that is a little more reliable?

In Ichoriya, I find a Rokh running faction missions. After taking a dozen 1M ISK tags, Saelii locks and fires. I warp off to the Orca, grab JerkTengu, and return. I open a convo with Saelii just as my warp disruptor engages.

Paul Clavet > 100M or your ship dies
Saelii > death is fine
Paul Clavet > fair enough

Confident, I see. As her shields vanish and her armor starts falling apart, I make the offer again.

Paul Clavet > It’s not too late, you could still save your ship…
Saelii > k
Saelii > you could still kill me if i give it to you
Paul Clavet > I could, but then I wouldn’t get any more business
Paul Clavet > Ransoms are more profitable

Allow me to paraphrase:

Victim: Why should I trust you?
Ganker: Because you should trust me.
Victim: OK, now I trust you.

Saelii pays. The result is inevitable.

Paul Clavet > SUDDENLY BETRAYAL
Saelii > let me go
Paul Clavet > No?

Pop.

Saelii > you got the money why you did not let me go?
Paul Clavet > Because I’m the CEO of Honorless Internet Jerks?
Saelii > fair

They never learn.

I moved up to Umokka in Lonetrek to do some salvage-and-bait. Dodixie is the traditional ninja home, but it’s fun to terrorize and annoy the runners from other parts of the game – who are hopefully not as jaded as Dodixie runners often are.

However, I wasn’t having a very good day. I had already lost an Anathema to my own carelessness and the fish weren’t getting in the boat. I was going to have to get some kills through sheer persistence of annoyance.

My target was Crigga, a 2008 character in an NPC corp, piloting a Hyperion. He obligingly set his Hobgoblin IIs on me after I looted a few wrecks. I go off for gank, but he docks up. I extend the agression timer once, twice… three times. At this point I’m ready to give up, so I move on to some hits. Another fifteen minutes later Crigga undocks in his Hyperion and warps back off to the mission. I give him a few minutes and then warp over to him and start looting from wrecks again.

Crigga is more prepared this time and puts both a web and a scram on me in addition to the drones. I quickly overheat my afterburner and small shield booster, align to a station, and warp as soon as I get out of scram range, at about 50% armor. Crigga docks up again.

I want this guy dead now. He’s obviously up on how the bait-gank game works, and I’m determined to beat him at it. Like the last post, Fightin’ Dirty, this will require abusing the ship bay of the Orca.

While Crigga is docked, I head back to his mission. Oddly enough I find a Rifter, Rokh and Dominix from some corporation working on the mission. Friends of Crigga? I don’t know, but I hang around and snag more wrecks. The wrecks are still owned by Crigga so they can’t get any aggression on me. They finish off the room and warp off, which is fine by me. I warp the Orca in – now fitted out with a Prototype Cloak – and place it about 10km off the the gate to the second room. Then I cloak it, and hang around.

Crigga shows up after my aggression timer on his has worn off. He locks me up, and I buzz around, waiting for him to open fire. Instead he warps to the next room. I’m going to have to spring the trap in that room, so I start the Orca moving toward the gate… very slowly thanks to the cloak. I go read some websites while it drags ass toward the gate.

Crigga’s friend from the other corporation shows up in his Rokh, and proceeds into the second room. Directional scan shows me both of them are busy pewing mission rats. Assuming they’re not going to be looking at dscan now, I uncloak the Orca and position it on the gate. I warp my Vigil into the room and start looting. Crigga locks me up. We wait… I loot more… finally he scrams and webs me again, and the Hobgoblin IIs come out.

I’m not even trying to save the Vigil this time. It’s going to be a sacrifice. The Orca is now warping into the second room, and I run the booster on the vigil as long as possible, but it finally pops. Crigga must be feeling pretty satisfied by now, and that’s his undoing. If he was smart, he would have aligned and warped out right away. Instead he sits there pewing rats while the 30 second session timer runs out (I had forgotten about it) because of my ship popping.

That’s when I swap into the Curse inside the Orca’s hold.

Crigga immediately has a point, tracking disruptor, and a whole lot of energy neut on him while I burn out to a distance of 20km to orbit. The drone wars start. He launches Hammerhead IIs and I launch a flight of Hobgoblin IIs. Along with my web, I eat up half of his medium drones until he wises up and recalls his. This happens twice more before he gives up and keeps his drones docked. My Hammerhead IIs launch and start pounding away at his armor.

Crigga launches his Hobgoblin IIs to pick away at my Hammerheads, but he can’t kill them as fast as I can recall and redeploy them, while killing his armor. He manages to kill three of them before his structure runs out and he pops. I finish at about 60% armor remaining.

Just before he pops, I throw out in local:

Khalia Nestune > Suck it, Crigga

Crigga is next seen departing from system in a shuttle. No tears to be had, but this was a particularly satisfying kill. Crigga knew how the game worked, and I managed to out smart him.

Persistence and cleverness *do* work. Make the effort, and you might be surprised at what you accomplish.