Second Kill!

I was roaming a bit through lowsec, trying to get a grip on a certain pipeline I've been watching. I wanted to see what type of traffic goes through there during my playtime. I casually went from system to system, using my newly acquired map technique to guage what type of threat I might encounter along the way. It was pretty dead as it was getting kind of late (around 12:00 at night my time). With no prospective targets to engage I made my way back towards Hek.

Once again, nothing on my way back. I traversed through maybe 6-7 lowsec systems, all pretty much devoid of life. My hopes draining I started feeling a little frustrated that I couldn't find anything. As I entered my last system before Hek, Otou, I hit my 360 degree Dscan button (which I am happy to report is instinct now when I'm entering a system) and low and behold I spot an unfamiliar Thrasher.

My first ever kill being a Thrasher I decided to try my luck with this pilot. I was surprised how efficient I was tracking this guy down. It took me 20-30 seconds to narrow down which asteroid belt the Thrasher was hiding in. Like my first target this pilot was ratting where he shouldn't have. I quickly hit my afterburner and started the 40km trek towards my target. I had a feeling he might try to get away but surprisingly he didn't move. I burned in on him and set up my warp scrambler, followed by my Damage Control module. Establishing a tight orbit I let go my Scout cannons and watched his shield widdle down. This pilot was quicker to engage me than the last Thrasher pilot I encountered.

As he hit half armour I was still at about half shield. I knew I was winning the battle. As my shield slowly dropped I deduced that I had to set up my Armour Repairer. Things like this didn't come so easy to me before, I feel like I'm starting to react to situations a lot faster than when I first started pirating.

A couple of seconds later his ship popped and I was left sitting in the belt victorious! I quickly warped away as the rat he was attacking turned his attention to me. I told the pilot in local that he could pick his stuff up if he so wished. I was just happy to get the kill. This time I remembered my timers and patiently waited in one of my many Otou safespots till it was time to head back to Hek.

Link to Killmail


Another new player. I'm going to have to start engaging more experienced pilots but at the moment I'm fully comfortable hunting down people around my own skill level.

I'm feeling a lot more confident in my piloting skills. I'm beginning to understand that I have to pick my battles with a small frigate like the Rifter. I used to engage anything and everything which would usually leave me both at a huge disadvantage as well as fully disappointed when I eventually went 'pop'. Now, after studying up about the Rifter's strengths and weaknesses I feel a lot more prepared to assess what I need to do and when.

A small tip for people just starting out. Don't be intimidated by lowsec. Grab a cheap ship, maybe a shuttle or something to that degree and just fly out to lowsec and see what's happening. Eventually you'll get very comfortable just being around that type of environment.

I know when I started out I was a bit scared to make a move past Otou, but now that I know the traffic and what to expect I don't sweat moving through a large string of lowsec systems. Be sure to use the map technique I posted below (kudos to the original uploader), it's really helped me out a lot.

Here is the fit I used for this second kill:

3x 150mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I

1x Stasis Webifier I
1x 1mn Afterburner I
1x Warp Scrambler I

1x Damage Control II
1x Armour Repairer II
1x 200mm Rolled Tungsten Plate I

1x Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
1x Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I (this was by accident)

Trading alt

Yesterday I decided I needed a good way to make some ISK to fund my pirating ways. I opted on creating a trading alternative character on a totally seperate account. This will allow me to train skills on both of these characters at the same time.

As soon as I created Amal Varus (Amarr) I set him on his way in his pod to Jita with a 320m starting fund. I've been reading on how to station trade as well as haul for a living. I must say hauling sounds really cool, the prospect of being a space merchant traversing the stars in a giant industrial ship is very enticing.

I started training my skills towards flying a Bestower. I've read that they are a very good option for Amarr industrialists because of their cargo capacity and low skill requirements.

With my skill training on the right track I put in some buy orders and have started my trading adventure. Right off the bat I can say that increasing/decreasing my order by .01 ISK is getting a bit tiresome, I'll probably start layering my orders to cover both the high and low averages of my item so I don't have to constantly sit in-station resubmitting my orders.

Oxxe Radak (my pirate character) is training to increase his capacitor efficiency. I feel like I need a bit more of a foundation before I start spending big bucks on modules. For now I'll let my skills develop and roam in cheaper fit setups.

I'm feeling a lot more confident in my abilities to handle Eve's game mechanics. When I first came back I was struggling to even find the market button quickly. I'm starting to remember certain little things and it's all going to add up in the future.

At the moment I'm studying a bit of everything for both of my characters. I'm going to be researching a bit more about what the Rifter is capable of as well as more advanced trading techniques for my trading alt.

UPDATE: I'll be moving from Jita to the less competative Amarr for my station trading. I decided I don't want to be spending my entire Eve playing time on updating my orders. I'll test how the market is over there and make my decision if I stay or seek new opportunities later.

Finding kills using the map

Being a pirate isn't all fun and games, there's a lot of thinking and planning that goes into it. Here is an extremely helpful video that details how to use Eve's map and it's filters to find yourself some fights quickly:

I've started using this method and have already branched out and documented a couple of good systems for my lowsec roams. 

Side note: My vision for this blog is to go into great detail about Eve's pirate system. There are never any stupid questions and I'd really like to emphasize the small things that some people take as common knowledge. I've spent a lot of time searching the web for answers to small questions and with this blog I'd like to accumulate it all in one place to save people time and frustration.

If someone has any questions, no matter how small it would be good if you'd ask. The good thing about these blogs is they last a very long time. If I potentially stop playing Eve or I stop updating this blog it'll still be there on the web for other people to comb through for some answers to whatever question they may have.

First Kill!

To make a long story short I've decided to come back to Eve Online after about a 5-6 month break. The cravings were just too much and I really wanted to continue learning to become a pirate.

I started where I left off, docked in Hek surrounded by my Rifters, scanning ship and salvaging ship. Eve can be very overwhelming to players just coming back from a break. The learning curve is pretty intense and after completely leaving the game for a couple of months I didn't know how easy it would be to reintegrate myself.

I realized after tinkering with the game mechanics for a while everything started coming back to me. With the basic controls in line I wanted to get into piracy as quick as I could. I fitted one of my Rifters with lowly tech 1 modules and headed out to Otou for some hunting.

I got into Otou and remembered I had already set up some safe spots. I clicked on the first one and warped to 0. From there I relearned how to use the Directional Scanner. It was a lot easier to use than I remember, it's mostly common sense.

After a bit of trial and error I found a Thrasher sitting in an asteroid field. I warped to the field a couple of kilometers out to find the Thrasher was engaged with some rats. Now what I should have done already was study my local chat and figure out what type of people I was going to be dealing with. I was a bit too lazy to do this and I really wanted to just get into a fight, win or lose.

I activated my afterburner and headed in his direction. I spammed my warp disruptor not knowing it's working range (I need to study up on optimal ranges again!) and finally got him pinned down. I quickly fell into a tight orbit with all of my modules running. I hit my autocannons and waited for the damage report. Surprisingly I was doing quite a bit of damage to the Thrasher. Within maybe 3 seconds he turned his attention from the rats to me and we were engaged.

The battle lasted a little more than a minute. I realized later that I should probably micro-manage my modules as my cap ran out towards the end of the battle. I also had a Nosferatu equipped that I didn't use at all. The Thrasher ended up popping with minimal damage done to myself!

Link to killmail

I looted what I could and without thinking headed right back towards Hek. What I didn't know was that I was now considered a criminal. As soon as I hit the gate the gate guns took me out and I was left sitting in my pod. I waited out my timer and again stupidly went out to see if the loot was still sitting there. I grabbed a Rifter and as soon as I hit the gate I was gunned down again. I'll remember to always wait out my timers now.

Looking at the pilot he was a fairly new. His estimated SP is about 1.6m (a little more than myself.). I believe this fight was the perfect storm. He didn't seem very experienced in combat and the fight wasn't as intense as others that I've had. This was a great experience to get back into Eve, it gave me a lot of confidence to just go out there and start shooting at things. With a tech 1 fit I really didn't think I'd get far but it goes to show that fits aren't everything. Skill and experience are really huge factors in this game.

My fit was as follows:

1x Nosferatu
3x T1 150mm autocannons

1x 1mn Afterburner
1x Stasis Webifier
1x Warp Disruptor

1x 200mm Rolled Tungsten plate
1x Damage Control
1x Armour Repair