Stop being dumb and you might enjoy the game more

Despite what my killboard would suggest, I've actually been out on solo roams fairly often this week. I just can't seem to find anyone who:

A) Wants to fight

B) Is on their own (i.e I'm not going to get blobbed so hard my ass still feels raw the next day)

C) Is in a ship with a chance of both of us winning (because murdering industrials gets old)

Basically I can't find a "fair" fight for both sides.  Then again, as an old corpmate used to say,

 "If you're in a fair 1 v 1, there's two pilots in that fight doing it wrong"

Wise words no?

However, I had a pretty close "fair" fight with my Vengeance yesterday against an Ishkur that resulted in him suffering some decent hull damage, and me nearly burning out just about all my modules before his buddy turned up. It was scary to say the least, the thought of all that ISK down the drain. Neither of us died though (which I suppose is a good/bad thing depending on your viewpoint).

But before I talk about my near death experience in the next post, I'd like to point out something to the playerbase, because I swear 80% of EVE players are like flocks of dumb sheep. You make yourself an easy target in EVE, people are going to kick your ass from here to next week. You think I'm being dramatic? 

Look at Hulkageddon.  Easy targets. 

Burn Jita? Easy targets.

Like many have said on the internet long before I started playing EVE:

"EVE is a sandbox. A sandbox full of landmines. Deal with it." - A number of posts from 2007/8

Basically, if you make yourself a target, sh*t will happen to you eventually. Those miners not paying attention to those dozens of forums posts about Hulkageddon? Targets. Those hauler and freighter pilots who still undocked with most of Goonswarm posting ASCII penis into Jita Local over the "OMG WE'RE ALL DYING" screams of everyone else? Targets.

Getting the idea? (And yes, that Burn Jita example actually happened. I was there on my trade alt)

A much less dramatic example is this:

I found this guy ratting in a Maller in Pananan. For those of you not that familiar with the area, Pananan is either fairly busy (10-12 in Local) or totally dead, depending on when you go there. And when it's dead, the ratters come out to play. Obviously this is a great time to run in there and scare the chickens, though last time I tried this, it ended fairly badly.

But anyway, I'm kicking around the system. It's fairly busy right now with eight people in Local including me, and I'm not really expecting to find anyone doing dumb stuff, like mining or ratting. A Maller pops up on D-Scan. "Hmpf" I think. "Probably at a POS". Even so I narrow him down fairly quickly to a belt. (I think I've got the hang of this D-Scanning crap now). "That's weird" I think, and I change filters to check for wrecks. Two frigate wrecks.

I'm convinced at this point that I've found one of dumb people who stumble into LowSec by accident, and warp into the belt. I land not 5km from him while he's playing "bump the asteroids". He's scrambled and murdered within about twenty seconds. I loot his wreck and then warp off. Purely by instinct, I type "gf" into Local. Admittedly from his position, this probably seemed like a dick move from me, but I didn't realise quite how he'd take it.

Pananan Local

Seraph Minayin > gf

AmarrianScu Semah > no not good fight

AmarrianScu Semah > fucked fight

AmarrianScu Semah > cyclone on a maller

Seraph Minayin > not my fault you were ratting in lowsec man

Seraph Minayin > apologies for your explosion

AmarrianScu Semah > apologize for shit

AmarrianScu Semah > you wanted an easy target

AmarrianScu Semah > so you came and got it

AmarrianScu Semah > idgaf  ( I had to look this up, it means "I don't give a fuck" if you didn't know)

Seraph Minayin > well yeah

Seraph Minayin > you made yourself an easy target

AmarrianScu Semah > lmao

Seraph Minayin > glad you agree :)

AmarrianScu Semah > I don't agree on anything

AmarrianScu Semah > there's four belts

AmarrianScu Semah > you're bored

Seraph Minayin > "If you rat in a system with only four belts your asking to get podded. "

Seraph Minayin > from your own bio

Yes that actually was in his bio. Word for word. Dear god the irony is strong in this one.

AmarrianScu Semah > yeah but did you pod me  (Not the point I was trying to make...)

AmarrianScu Semah > fuck no

Seraph Minayin > you're just lucky i cant lock fast ;)

AmarrianScu Semah > lol

Seraph Minayin > :)

AmarrianScu Semah > i'm not lucky about anything, the moment the cyclone showed up i knew there was fucked

AmarrianScu Semah > but did I get podded?

AmarrianScu Semah > no cause you suck ass

AmarrianScu Semah > LMAO

AmarrianScu Semah > a two months skilled maller with therm/em tank

AmarrianScu Semah > look bro you got my ship all good

Seraph Minayin > fair enough?  (I have no idea where he's going with this)

AmarrianScu Semah > you didn't get what you wanted though  (Kinda did, just wanted a killmail :P)

Seraph Minayin > i'm just saying, you made yourself an easy target

Seraph Minayin > if hadnt killed you someone else would

SavageKaan > ^^  ( <- Local Piwats have noticed our convo)

AmarrianScu Semah > seraph i was warping out, you came in just at the right time

Seraph Minayin > you shoulda warped the moment i entered system

AmarrianScu Semah > if I would have been out a second earlier

AmarrianScu Semah > id been in station

AmarrianScu Semah > plain and simple

I gave up on him at this point. My point was, if you're going to rat in LowSec, take sensible precautions. Do it at quiet points in the day. Stay aligned to something. Spam D-Scan whenever someone enters system. If it's something even vaguely dangerous, GTFO and dock up. (Obviously you don't have to worry about someone passing through in a pod). He did none of these things and he died. Like I said, If I hadn't got him, one of the six other people in Local would have found him and exploded him.

If you don't take precautions against known threats (e.g Burn Jita, Hulkageddon, people in LowSec looking for a fight), you're an easy target. And what happens to easy targets?

You get shat on by the rest of the playerbase ;)

Fly safe.