Not fitting in

It's been awhile since my last post. I haven't been playing EVE much. Sometimes I wonder if moving back to lowsec was the right choice? I have changed 3 corps already. I'm considering of going back to w-space, but will give one last try to lowsec life. It sometimes can be just nostalgic memories. Like that show you liked as a kid, but after watching it as an adult you can't understand what was so special about it. Same I felt about lowsec. It's nice to smartbomb pods, kill ships that don't expect to be killed and not having to deal with bubbles, but something is missing. Unconsciously I scan and look for "something" in w-space to fill the void.

Pilgrimage trip back to w-space

I decided to pack my things and do a short trip to W-space. Just me and my alts. Go to the unknown and gank some stuff "solo". I think this play suits me well. I can play as a predictor while playing afk. I park my ships near wormholes and go watch TV, spend time with my girlfriend, study something or just plain relax. If I feel more like EVE, I just scan surrounding systems instead camping my selected home wormholes.

Perhaps solo life is for me? I don't really need the corp. Also, no sec status loss is when I can go back to ninja salvaging. Can't do that in lowsec. Not with 100 killrights above my head. I am still thinking and haven't decided on what I should do next, but for the short term - I will roam the w-space. I go to nearest CONCORD bureau. Pay off my dues and get sec status to 0. 

Afterwards, at full speed, I go towards the system where I left my Navy Dominixes to gather dust. I knew I shouldn't sell them. They are waiting for their owner to come back and that day is finally here. I jump in, check the fits and cargo hold only to be pleasantly surprised that everything is stocked up and I am good to go. I scan wormholes in the same system and off I go.

First encounter

My first encounter didn't take long. One wormhole I was watching suddenly had activation and Armageddon came through.

It's the guy from next c4. I know him. I've checked out the pos awhile ago. I guess they are rolling the wormhole. Soon Megathron jumps in and they both jump out. Yep, rolling the wormhole. Now the question is, is there anything I can do about it? BS probably gets spit out 10km off. So he would need to go back 5km before I kill him. Which I don't think is possible to do. First, because he will be half way before I lock him. And second, by the time my Dominixes come from connecting system it is very small chance I will kill it in time before he jumps back. Only way I could kill him is probably to go after him. But with no scout and not clear how much mass it has left, I might be having one way ticket here.

While I consider my options, Armageddon jumps in again. He is not activating his MWD and slowly is burning towards his wh. Fuck it. I decloak, scram and web him and initiate warp with my domi fleet. I desperately try to bump Armageddon, which is quite hard when he sucks you dry of capacitor. Thankfuly my Domi fleet is on grid and 3 ogre sets are doing their job.

Final seconds are counting. I can't tell if he is out of range to jump back. It looks like he is within 5km or very close. He can't be on the timer as he jumped out right after he came in first time. I only can assume he is a bit short. After several more seconds, his structure is gone and his ship pops. Pod warps away. I don't stick around and align to my safe spot too. I give gf in local, but don't get any response. Ah, those manners. 

Look at those plates. No wonder he was so slow. I really give credit to CCP about womhole jump range changes. Throwing out 10km out is what makes these kind of opportunities possible. It's best change w-space have received in awhile and I don't care what anybody says. A gank really gets my blood flowing. I would say I'm off to a good start.

Update on pirate life

So I have been camping with cloaky proteus quite a lot for the past few days. Mostly what I I get are empty pods. Nothing much to show for. Problem with cloaky proteus is that it can only fit 3 smartbombs, which are only capable of destroying shuttles and pods. Even if there's an assault frigate or interceptor, you can't kill it. Of course you can fit 5 smartbombs with almost full rack of reactor control units that give you extra powegrid, but that I consider a bad business.

I am prepared to lose my ship at any time. I take precautions, but I know I will be killed eventually. With 3 smartbombs I can fit some warpstabs and inertial stabilizers. The fast align time and "immunity" to point reduces risk of exploding greatly. I still have fitted Rokh, but after warp changes it is so slow, that I am not sure I will use it much. It was very handy during my earlier time in lowsec. Biggest advantage was, that I could smartbomb cloaked covertops frigates based on their timing. I need to try and do that too, but with so many gates where I live, it is very hard to collect data (actually using stopwatch to time pilots coming in and out of the system).

Smartbombing Rokh

It has more extra power that is needed to kill anything above shuttles and pods. It also has more room for error in case you have bad timing compared to Proteus. Sometimes I get aggro, but pod or shuttle still manages to pass, which means some smartbombs were out of sync. Here's my top kill so far:

Lovely. I really do enjoy role playing a wall that some travelers hit on their way. The downside is that area has quite little traffic. And most traffic is either covert ops or interceptors. You would think what's wrong with interceptors? They are too damn fast. Perhaps I haven't learned timing yet on when to smartbomb when they land, because watching them get into tactical overlay always ends up being too late. I found that once I see them on overview, pressing my keys few mili seconds later is close as I can get. Nevertheless, I only managed to kill one ceptor out of 10 and even that one felt as a lucky shot more than anything else.

Gate camping

If there would be customs officer role, I probably would fit it well. Smartbombing small fast ships and gate camping bigger ones is like a customs office you have to pass. I am still very rusty and doing very beginner mistakes such as putting a web too soon on a ship with full rack of warp core stabilizers. I use couple of remote sensor boosting Dominixes, so my Proteus can instalock pretty much most of the ships. It's always fun to kill by passers. I don't care what others say. Gate camping and smartbombing are being looked down on and a lot of people in local hardly resist not to flame on this "skill-less" type of pvp. Even though I am always up for occasional roam and pvp opportunities. There are a lot of wormholes connecting to different areas, unfortunately we haven't done many of those fleet ops yet. Perhaps that will change in the near future.

My first fuck up

To finish, I would like to share my latest fuck up. It's really embarrassing. Everyone piloting multiple accounts will probably understand. So here I was, scouting gate for incoming pods. I have been scouting for half an hour in covert ops Proteus. All is usual, except suddenly I see falcon decloak and scram me. That was a big surprise. I assume I got decloaked or never actually turned my cloak on and just been sitting there like a retard. Few seconds later I see a bunch of black opses on my ass.

I'm quite happy with myself. Happy, because I did not panic. I did not aggro falcon to try to escape. As soon as I saw cyno, I just calmly ejected and Proteus anticlimactically exploded. I saved my 3 day training time and a pod. It really sucks losing, or should I say - sacrificing, ship this way, but that's how it is. Next time, I hope it will be a bait.

Life in lowsec

It's been several days since I moved in to lowsec. Logistics is a pain. Even owning a freighter and a jump freighter, buying stuff, moving, fitting, some more moving, it's a nightmare. Nevertheless, I put together a ship that I wanted to try out for awhile - cloaky smartbombing proteus.

I've been flying around to get some kills. I scored my first one quite successfully.

Impressive, I know. Unfortunately there were a lot of targets that I missed. Sometimes I do not know what I am doing wrong. Seems like I activate my smartbombs exactly same time when pod or shuttle gets in range, but they just pass by without issue. Go figure.

Thug life chose me

I'm already below -5. Highsec is closed for me now. I won't be able to bring a ship with me now. Let's see how fast I can get to -10. Killing few pods should help. Location where I live might not be perfect. There are so many gates and so many options for pilots to fly to. Usually when I watch them warp, by the time I align after I fall behind few seconds, even with superior warp. I need to change my game. Perhaps roam further out. I am pretty sure I will soon screw up and will die horribly. Even with multiple scouts.

I also need to do some gatecamping, but so far, corp doesn't seem to be much into that stuff. Perhaps they just need a little push. Sometimes we get quite a lot of traffic, sometimes nothing at all. We also need to take care of constant hot droppers roaming around, but that's always a risk. Just need to play it smart. Anyways, I have capability of doing solo camping, but if ship is fitted with afterburner, I will not be able to kill it in time before he burns back to gate. I will follow up as I go. It's been hard to find much time for play lately.