The first time I decided to go full pirate was 2 years ago. It felt so badass to have a [WANTED] sign stamped on my portrait. Everyone will fear me, I thought... how exciting!For many many months I lived in Molden Heath and stayed a full -10, trying to living a true hard-core pirate life. To live off purely from the ransoms and loot of my victims. I didn't care about good fights. I wanted isk, carebear tears, emo rage-quits and to hear the sounds of pods squishing. They were good times. I was always poor, but happy with simply killing 1 or 2 low-sec mission runners or mining vexors per day.
Slowly my enthusiasm for this simple joy started to fade. I started wanting better quality fights, not just ganks. I started being interested more in soloing than gangs and gate camping. Being flashy became more and more of a hinderence.
My corp at the time was also feeling the same and decided to go and try high sec wardecs for a while. And so we all ratted up our security status. From a full -10 to up and above -2.
For anyone that has ever done this, you will understand when I say that it can be one of the most painful things you will ever do in the game. Maybe for people that enjoy PVE this wouldn't be a problem, but for people that mainly get enjoyment out of PVP, it is one of the most mind-numbingly boring things you'll ever have to do.
If you do it solo, killing one Battleship rat in every system, and then moving on etc... it takes roughly 2 hours for every 1.0 sec increase. And that's in a stealthbomber, ratting undisturbed, not counting any time you get camped in hostile systems and so on. So, doing a couple of hours every night, you're looking at 2 weeks of work!
I still enjoy pirating very much (mostly I engage militia targets though) but I mainly like to pirate while I'm solo, because then the target is likely to shoot you back, making the sec loss when you kill them FAR less. They also do not get kill rights on you that way (not that anyone ever uses kill rights). I also never ever touch pods, as the sec loss for podding is so extreme!
Not being flashy feels so freeing. I can choose my engagements, on my term. Having gate guns on my side is such a comforting luxury. I don't know if that makes me a coward, but I like it this way. I also like being able to go through high sec and concord space and not get shot at.
I do admire the real deal, -10 pirates. Not the gate-camping blobbers, but the soloers out there, the guys that looks for good fights. Corps like The Tuskers, The Bastards, The Python Cartel etc... These guys go out and are willing to fight outnumbered and with sentries against them. Those guys are the real deal, they play EVE on hard mode. I'm sure they love it and wouldn't have it any other way.
In the meanwhile, I'm trying to be a good girl and keeping my sec up. I go GCC while killing a frig here or there, but then I immediately go to a belt and kill one Cruiser or BS rat to atone for my sins. You do the crime, you do the time hey?
laedy man hands are manly, hey?
ReplyDelete"I do admire the real deal, -10 pirates. (. . .) The Bastards, The Python Cartel etc... These guys go out and are willing to fight outnumbered and with sentries against them. Those guys are the real deal, they play EVE on hard mode. I'm sure they love it and wouldn't have it any other way."
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words! We do love it, and you're right, we wouldn't have it any other way. Most of us see negative sec status not as a goal, but a side effect. We play the way we play, and that happens to make us outlaws.
(P. Astrid, Bastard)
Like Persephone said, thanks for the compliments. :)
ReplyDeleteFor a long time before joining Python I tried to keep my sec above -2 (hence my blog's title: Yarrbear Tales). Of course, when I joined it plummeted to -10. I enjoy the freedom from having to rat, but being blinky makes fights really tough. And every time I see a Hydra video and see the guys winning due to having gate guns on their side, I go :(
I think that there needs to be *some* sort of compensation for -10s like us.
ReplyDeleteAs you put it, it's definitely hard mode, there is literally no advantage to being an outlaw at all.
Give us "illegal" modules to jam gateguns every now and then, or let us use bombs in lowsec (afterall, we don't obey the law?) just... -anything-.
It wasn't so bad before FW, but now there's 50 mouthbreathing "pvpers" that can always have gateguns on their side against you (and consequently, they never leave the guns'range).
That is more than a little frustrating. But -10 for life here. :)
I'm a peacful miner doing a good deal of ratting and missions too. I never could understand how someone can be proud of his achievement killing noobs and miners who cant really defend themselves.
ReplyDelete"I didn't care about good fights. I wanted isk, carebear tears, emo rage-quits and to hear the sounds of pods squishing."
ReplyDeleteActually, where ISK is the main objective and it should be if you are a pirate to pod a very important and valuable customer is a bad for business if you just do it for the sounds of it squishing :(
However, I have to admit that while appreciating the valuable customers that come through gates who for some reason end up emo-raging and not calm down and throwing very rude remarks towards the selfproclaimed space guards (some might use some harsh words ie. 'pirate') it will usually lead up to podding.
Customer is the king, but a rude customer is a space junk.
I've been on both side of the security status spectrum and I can tell you, I love being a pirate. What makes things work for me is my industrial trading alt. It makes life much easier when you have a steady spruce of income for your pirating activities. Just trying to live on loot and ransoms is doable, but it's a tough living.
ReplyDeleteI hate non-blinky PvP'ers with a passion. Mostly because they sit under the sentries, never wanting a "fair" fight and act all big and bad at the same time (I know this isnt the case with you, but I'm just talking about high security PvP'rs as a whole)
ReplyDeleteThat said, I sometimes wish I had the sentry gun advantage. It adds a whole new world to what you can and cant engage.
But remember, being flashy means people can engage you freely, which can actualy be a good thing. Say you and the other guy is in a frig, and your both on a gate... if your both not flashy, chances are you not guna agress each other... if one of you are blinky, well then you could get a fight.
Kind words Laedy, a pleasure to read the post.
ReplyDeleteI think that would be an interesting notion Helicity, I like the idea of pirates utilizing ecm modules and so forth to jam gates, achieve nefarious deeds etc.
I personally don't think living on purely pvp alone is as difficult as most make it out to be, although I imagine that things will change when I finally get into bigger ships!
Aw shucks, that shoutout is making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. ^-^
ReplyDeleteGlad Kishin redirected me here in his most recent post.
No advantage to -10? You look cool and you prove that you're one of the most cunning pilots out there.
Some call it a badge to be worn proudly and rightly so.
Can't imagine not being flashy and I can't help but love it.
Agreed on the non-flashy status, and good writing too!
ReplyDelete