It hasn’t been going well in the finance department this past week. Three business opportunities made appointments but all of them blew up in my face. (See what I did there? twice… ;p )
I’ve continued to fly my Jaguar around in the earlier parts of the week. I seemed to be having good luck finding solid targets in it so I kept at it for luck’s sake. The Molden Heath region had been a bit slow as of late and so there have been frequent excursions into the Fribrodi constellation in Metropolis. Pirate camps seem to be happening less frequent at the Bei star gate in Hagilur and so I’ve been getting lucky.
A quick patrol of the area after some ship maintenance but before I turned in for the night awarded a wide assortment of loot. Mostly small targets that are too fast or too dangerous to ransom made their way into the area and so I’ve had to go for ship destruction followed by looting their bones instead of their wallets. It hasn’t been all small fish though, one wayward soul left me their entire ship.
The raid into Fribrodi space started like any. A blitz through the jump gates all the way to the Hakisalki system where FETID alliance resides.
Speed and surprise are they key in these raids as many times the pilots of that alliance will be distracted at the helm and not pay attention to the local channels. If they do see me though, they are well versed in warp alignment and will have their base’s coordinates locked in long before I drop out of warp.
I take the gate into system and there was a known ally of FETID in on the local channel. We’ve had our scuffles before, but I know they are creatures of habit. They would be expecting my stealth bomber, the Manticore, and feel overconfident. So the Jaguar, one of the quicker assault frigates, would give me just the edge I needed for a surprise attack before they could run.
I figure there is no point in methodically scanning for the one pilot in system, I have a pretty good hunch where they’ll be, so I punch warp to a location I already have saved in the computer and come out warp 800 km from a Porpoise, a drone style mining vessel. I check my sensors and locate the moon chunk that the Porpoise is mining and lock on to it. I punch the warp again and the ship bucks as it does a quick, mini-warp to the target.
The fight was lengthy since the Porpoise is a large ship but I saw no point in offering ransom. FETID knows the deal and has refused on multiple occasions but the offer is always there, waiting for them to make the first move.
I transfer loot from the wreckage and continue on my way, clear out the constellation of the mentioned small ships before calling it a night.
Not the best but not the worst day for a pirate but day two proves to be far more interesting rather than action packed.
I aim to leave the Fribrodi constellation and so I make a pass through Hakisalki on my way out. There are no FETID members but my scanners do pick up a Gnosis in the asteroid belts. Now there is a target I can hold hostage and score a pay day!
I scan them down to one of the outer belts and warp in their direction and wow does their ship start falling apart fast. Not to mention they seem to be fitting low quality offensive weaponry as well.
I check the pilot’s history and see they are not very experienced — probably not very rich either. Oh well, I open the communication channel and send an invitation to the ship’s pilot.
Talk is limited as I need to use a translator to communicate but I get my point across. Pay me now or I blow up your ship. They politely decline and I politely start poking more holes in their hull.
Just as the ship starts to suffer enough damage to send off some serious alarms and warning lights however the pilot pulls what I can only assume was a maneuver to save their escape pod. They from their ship early, rather then letting the safety protocols do the job for them and leave their ship just sitting there, defenseless, in the cold embrace of space.
I cease fire immediately, lock the escape pod and in one volley blow it to bits to send the pilot’s consciousness to whatever clone they have on standby and to prevent them from getting back in the ship.
Cautiously, I approach what remains of the Gnosis hull, there could be traps… Then, I get a strange message from the pilot:
“I just got the wrong button and I went out but I wanted to burst it.”
After a bit of explaining it seems that the pilot’s intent was to set the self-destruct sequence rather than eject. I can understand getting them mixed up. It seems to come standard on every ship to place those two buttons right next to each other. Honestly, can’t they find a better layout?
Either way that is the way of life out in low security space. One pilot’s mistake is another one’s advantage. This one just happened to land me a “used with minimal damage” Gnosis.
Eve Online is a game of options. Spaceships and graphics may draw people in but, the massive amount of options the game affords is what usually gets them to stay.
Sometimes however, Eve seems to present us with too many options. Read here as “drop down menus.”
I understand that the game design is very industrial, just like I would expect a ship to be. But, when it comes to the way I interact with it, I’d rather have a bit more fun and not feel like I’m working with some sort of spreadsheet or word document.
I by no means think that more sub menus is the answer though. The less clicks between me and warp speed the better but something should be done. The size alone is a bit obnoxious. I shouldn’t need to squint and read through 12 or so lines of options just to find the one I want. It is tedious and aesthetically displeasing.
I like the way the game gives options in the form of menus for most other aspects. Perhaps right clicking something for a list of options should blow up the menu over there. A simple window expansion and screen squish would do. You could add cute little icons and everything.
I don’t necessarily wish I had less options, I just want them prettier but above all else, easier to click. I’m sure the Gnosis pilot, Noah Surfer, would agree with me considering they ejected rather then self destructed and gave me a free ship.
Side note, I tried to sell the pilot a cheap Gnosis that i had very recently aquired for 20 million ISK but they said they were broke. Pilots, please stop blowing all your money and coming into low sec with it. It is bad for business when you can’t pay. Also, this has made me realize that maybe specializing in all tings cruiser size and down was a bad idea.
I mean, what if I didn’t know how to fly that Gnosis? That would have been quite embarrassing. Fortunately I was able to figure out the control systems and guide it to the station.
Fly fast,
Sai
Pirate's Pass 