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)

Second Rifter Down

Well another day has begun and another day of can flipping has commenced.

I've been sticking around Hek lately searching for targets to flip. I came across an Osprey on my scanner and noticed there was a can in-field with him. Jumping at the chance for another fight I quickly warped to the asteroid field and was overjoyed that the can belonged to my hopeful target.

I burned towards him and quickly flipped his can. I waited a few seconds and was surprised to see him target me. This however was all set up beforehand. I set my autocannons on the Osprey and opened fire. I really wasn't doing any damage and I noticed my capacitor was completely drained. It seems as if the Osprey was just waiting for a can flipper, he jammed me and drained my cap to empty. Promptly two more ships (of which I couldn't see what type they were) warped in on my location and opened fire. I was done in all but a few seconds. My ship stood no chance and I quickly popped under fire of three ships.

Post Battle Thoughts


This one wasn't much of a learning experience in a combat sense. I'm still fumbling around trying to locate different commands and I can't make snap decisions yet. Once again I was put into a situation where I was pretty much helpless, I didn't have much of an idea of how to get out of it. My first thought was to break orbit and try to burn away from my attackers but with my capacitor completely empty I was pretty much a sitting duck.

I guess what this encounter taught me was to pick my targets well. Maybe I should have scanned my surroundings better perhaps I would have found his corpmates lurking at a nearby planet or asteroid field. I really did feel helpless here, and I don't like it at all. As well as feeling helpless I need to plan for situations like this, there was most likely a logical and simple way to flee but only being around Eve for around a month really gives me limited knowledge of the game as a whole.

I'll hit the books again and figure out what went wrong and how to avoid it.

First Rifter Down

Well yesterday I moved from my home of Dodixie to the Minmatar hub Hek. Here I started experimenting with my Directional Scanner.

I've always had problems with the D-Scanner so I really wanted to work this problem out. I set my overview to include ships, asteroid belts and cargo containers. If you don't get the subtle hints and what I was trying to do I'll just come right out and say I was can flipping. This is pretty much the most basic form of piracy known to Eve. What you have to do is find a ship jet can mining (jettison ore to fill a 'jet can' which holds a large capacity compared to your cargohold) and essentially steal the ore which he's put into it. I thought this would be a great place to start my piracy career as I could pick and choose which targets I wanted to attack.

I spent an hour or two just scanning down cargo containers or individual ships until I felt comfortable using the D-Scanner at last. I used my new skill to track down a target that I though would present me with little challenge, a retriever. Wow was this a bad idea. I flipped his ore into my jet-can and he responded by sicking his warrior II drones on me. The battle was pretty even at the beginning. I hit orbit at 500 and started unloading my measly tech I autocannons on him. His drones were his source of damage but I really had no idea how to deal with them. Eventually I took him down to about half armour, he was pretty brittle compared to what I thought he'd be but his drones were too much. I simply didn't have an answer for them.

The battle was over in less than a minute, my first Rifter was turned into dust and I quickly escaped in my pod.

Post Battle Thoughts

Although I thought this would be an easy kill I wasn't prepared for his combat drones. I really need to find a way to get rid of these things before they take me out, I assume once they're out of the picture my kill will be an easy one.

Perhaps flying away from them, hitting my afterburner, and picking them off one by one would work, although that would mean I would have to turn my attention from my target possibly letting him warp to safety. I'm going to have to do some serious research to combat this in the future.

A New Beginning

I wanted to create this blog to document my journey into the unknown that is Eve PvP.

I've done a blog for a couple of games I've played for myself to read over how I've progressed during my playtime. I thought I'd start one for my current game, Eve Online.

The mission is to familiarize myself with the mechanics of Eve's player versus player scene. I will do this through trial and error. I'll buy myself 20 Rifters, the fits will be adjusted on the fly to adjust to my playstyle.

Currently my only source of income in Eve is salvaging level 4 missions. While this may be partially profitable I need a source of income that will cover costs of destroyed Rifters. I've set myself a trial and error style goal to  get into PvP in Eve so I know I'll be losing all 20 of these Rifters quickly. I need to think of something that will cover these costs quickly. I might buy a PLEX and sell it for a quick 400 million but I hate the idea of not earning what I have.

I'll update this blog when I have everything in order.