Back to the Basics

First off, we have a couple former Prospects that have become fully patched members and earned their Black Jackets! Warms my heart to know we're not alone in our simple desire to cause explosions in New Eden.

                                                                                                                                                                                 

The Astero Pirate.

 Nyar Darkfire. Since he joined our merry bunch he's been out there flying around and looking for fights. His trademark is the Astero, as he'll be exploring and when the opportunity presents itself .. tackles an unsuspecting explorer or lonely frig in a plex! His fervor and willingness to fight fits perfectly with one of the Black Jacket .. erm .. pillars I guess you can say.

"We have no skillpoint or skillset requirements, all we require is a good attitude and a willingness to cause explosions be it the enemy or yourself."

Obidiah Kane. Scarface! Him and his Firetail have been fighting the good fight in Metropolis and Heimatar, spreading the pew pew to anyone willing and able to exchange with him. Although it's a bit difficult to understand his English accent on comms (but it sounds badass!) he's a chill n eager dude. Glad to have both of ya'll with us!

So recently I've been doing what I usually do, flying around in my Rifter looking for the good fights. For a little bit I was losing focus on why I play EVE the way I do. I was logging in less, and the times I did log in I would get bored after a few minutes. I felt as if I was forcing myself to undock and get out there and explode ships. A small case of the infamous "burnout". I was disheartened. Burnout?? I've only been playing for a year! How is this possible! I thought about it, the possible causes. Perhaps it was because I spent very little time in high sec and jumped right into low sec since I stumbled upon Black Rebel Rifter Club and never looked back. Solo and very small gang pvp has been my play style since then. I've done exploration on the side when I needed isk to keep the Rifters coming in, but other than that that's it (a lot of "th" words in this sentence). Another reason, I realized I made a serious SERIOUS mistake. I began to keep track of my kills and losses on my roams. That is something that will quickly end the fun of pvp and bring misery and frustration.

A few days ago, as I was thinking about all this, I decided to return back to my roots. Back to Adirain! It was late so it wasn't very busy, but there were people going to and fro. My memory of what transpired is hazy, since I didn't record anything and the footage helps me greatly with sharing what happened. So bear with me! I entered Murethand, only a couple people in system. I warp to my safe and began scanning around looking for signs of life. D-Scan reveals a Rifter out n about in space. I always get excited when I see another one of these baby's in space, so I began to narrow it down. I check the plex's, nothing. Hmmm. Check the belts! Sure enough the Rifter was on scan towards a cluster of belts. I warp to the planet and scan each belt until I find him. I land on grid everything overheated and ready to bring the pain. The Rifter was about 30 something kilometers away working on a lone NPC battleship. Ratting in a Rifter! I burn towards him expecting him to warp off before I get close. I click the "Look At" button to zoom in on him, not to check his weapons, but if he's within distance and the Look At button isn't zooming in, then it means he's about to warp off. Well I wasn't zooming in, and I was 24km away ... but the asteroids were preventing him from building enough acceleration to activate the warp drive! I smiled and giggled in glee as I got closer, now at 15km. It was like watching some kind of trapped animal struggling to escape. The Rifter bounced from one large asteroid to the other as I locked him up, webbed and scrammed him, and destroyed his ship. He didn't even fight back until he was in deep armor. His pod encountered the same problem. I locked up the battleship to see how far he got with it, and it was in deep armor already bleeding into hull. I decided to finish off the battleship, so for about 10 minutes I sat there in the belt ratting. As the NPC enters deep hull, I notice someone enter local. To my pleasant surprise it was the Rifter pilot from earlier. I wait in the belt and spam D-Scan. Unnamed Destroyer *smiles* He wanted some payback! The Thrasher landed about 50km off the belt, and I flew up to get out of the entanglement of the 'roids. The destroyer was motionless, probably expecting me to warp off. I zoomed in on him to eyeball his weapons, and saw he had artillery fitted. I smiled again. Plan was simple, use my speed to get under his guns, hold a close orbit, and fire away. We burned towards each other, at 25km I overheated my afterburner and targeted the Thrasher. He got off one volley damaging my shields but soon after I was in brawling range firing away at his destroyer. Each hit of his was missing as my Rifter was too fast. Soon after, his Thrasher met the same fate. As did his pod.

This event reminded me of why I play the way I do. It was nothing blingy or over the top. But it was a simple story of one pilot who suffered a loss and wanted revenge, bringing a bigger ship to achieve it. It was a player driven small scale drama, an interaction of different wills and goals that culminated in explosions in an asteroid belt. The days that followed this showdown, the "burnout" was beginning to fade slowly but surely. I wasn't sitting in the station, I wasn't forcing myself to undock. I doubled up with corp mates on roams, which broke the monotony of solo pvp. It was the people, and the relationships that brought me out of the funk and guided me back to my style of EVE.

"...a good attitude and a willingness to cause explosions be it the enemy or yourself."