I am a capsuleer! I have been reborn. I have shed the skin of my natural birth. It has been almost a month and my self confessional has suffered. I must be more disciplined. I have been absorbed by the vastness that is New Eden.
My early days were spent adjusting to my new self, life in a space station and life soaring amongst the stars. My orientation was slow but aided by my studies prior to my bodies death and my clones birth. I stumbled out of my protective space station and into cold dark space in my small egg shaped capsule. My tiny metallic green pod silhouetted against the enormity of space. With the help of the new pilots orientation I navigated successfully to my waiting rookie ship, provided to me free, and docked my pod inside and took control of the simple frigate. Initially the feel was foreign, it has grown less so, but I still have a ways to go before my communication with the ship feels like an extension of myself. I returned to the space station and competed my mission. This is a typical early mission in the orientation chain. Nothing very difficult and when one stumbles there are chat channels with fellow capsuleers, some friendly and willing to help. I took advantage of their kindness and have sought to repay it to fellow rookies. Over the next couple of days I worked my way thorough these mission chains and earned my pilots license.
After this I took advantage of the further orientations provided. I was and still am overwhelmed at the sheer immensity of options and complexity of the strategic decisions available. I began earning frigate sized ships (the smallest after shuttles) and worked my way through the separate career chains (combat, industry, exploration and business). Still only a few weeks old in New Eden time I did not feel prepared to test myself against the full weight of this new universe and opted to continue my training by undertaking to complete the Blood Stained Tears epic arc chain. This is a series of 50 missions geared for new pilots. At this point I had to leave the womb that was my first space station and travel from Minmatar space to meet my new agent. This meant leaving my orientation system and though still in high security space, where Concords firm hand quiets terror, terror still lurks.
The next few weeks were occupied in grinding out these more advanced orientation missions, increasing my aptitude at combat, learning my way amongst the stars and generally exposing myself to some of the new realities of my life as a capsuleer. What I have learned is that I don't really care for missioning. I did not become a capsuleer to test myself against Not-a-Capsuleer-Pilot('s) (NPC). They are not plugged into their ships and thus at a disadvantage. Their tactics are weak, and though I did lose a ship against them (safely ejecting in my pod and returning to my station) I do not risk being podded (killed in my pod to be reborn in another clone, the closest a capsuleer can come to death). They can overwhelm you with sheer numbers or higher quality ships but on a tactical level they are not sophisticated. I need to be tested and for that only other deadly capsuleers will do.
What completing these orientations provides beyond the basic early experience of beginning to become acquainted with the mechanics of the game is some isk (money) and some frigate ships. At this point I continued on with my pre-capsuleer plan of applying for membership in my first capsuleer corporation Eve University (Unistas). A capsuleer institution dedicated to teaching the many facets of New Eden. It took a few days to gather the majority of my belongings now scattered in space stations across different systems, due to traveling about in order to complete the epic arc missions. I am learning a lesson in logistics but I am now safely settled in Aldrat, my new home. I was accepted into the University and began the process of pouring through the reams of documentation about the rules and standard operating procedures, making my share of mistakes along the way. I am now plugged into a capsuleer community and this corporation happens to be at war. Excellent!
I took out my Probe, a frigate sized Minmatar ship built for exploration and scanned down a wormhole in my home system of Aldrat. Wormholes are mysterious things for a new player, it is non-security (no-sec) space which means there is no Concord looking out for you and if someone decides to engage you, you are basically on your own and there are no negative repercussion for the aggressor (no Concord to take them out). I nervously spoke with not so helpful members of my corporation as I stood gazing at the shimmering hole. The mysteries hidden behind it's gaping mouth unknown. Seems the Unistas online at the time were not worm-holers. I crossed the threshold alone and took a look around briefly. Nervous and not confident in a ship that really could not exploit any of the resources here I quickly jumped back. When I am stronger I will return, the mystery, danger and freedom of this place I think will suit me. In Eve everyone needs a job, a way to make isk. Ships are expensive and so are the fits for them. I plan to lose many of them as I become more proficient in battle and for this I need a way to make isk.
Briefly on the isk earning front, the arrangement I made prior to starting my life as a capsuleer paid off and I now have a tidy sum in my account. The goal is to keep this amount as a rainy day fund and be self sufficient from here building up my rainy day fund over time. As of today I am negative almost 20 million ISK, not a lot for a veteran but it will take a young unskilled pilot like myself some time to make back and replenish my fund. I have spent the money on ships, modules, ammunition, skill books... it all costs isk, the better the gear the more the isk.
I have continued my skill training and really have only had one adventure. I scanned down a system close to Aldrat looking for a way to make some isk that didn't involve having to go through a mission agent and grind thorough NPC missions. I found some cosmic anomalies and took it upon myself to clear them of pesky Angel Cartel NPC's. The first den I cleared was rather easy as I swiftly destroyed all of their ships, collected a bit of loot and salvaged the wrecks. The next nest was a bit of fun as wave after wave of Angel Cartel ships came after me. At times my shields got quite low and when I eventually outlasted them I had many wrecks to loot and salvage. As I was scooping up my rewards (which would be later sold for isk or some choice items kept in my hanger for later use) I was invited by a fellow Unista to a duel. Now how could I a young Brutor steeped in the martial traditions of our people refuse? Well I suppose I could of listened to my rational and critical mind which screamed, "you are only unskilled pilot, you stand no chance against an older veteran with more skills and countless other advantages". So I immediately took up the challenge but as an enterprising capsuleer made sure to add a few details. If this competitive pilot wanted my name on his kill sheet he was going to need to pay. I was in my Rifter (Mimatar's most stellar tech 1 [or basic] combat frigate) that I had outfitted to the tune of 10 million isk and he was going to need to pay for this investment after the initial joy of his kill. He would also need to salvage an Angel Cartel ship wreck that I had killed, as my meagre salvaging skills were not up to the task. Also implied in the agreement would be that he would comment on the duel for learning purposes and take a look at how I had my ship outfitted.
So after I finished clearing my salvage and my future foe finished up with salvaging the ship I couldn't manage on my own, I flew back to my space station, unloaded my stash so as not to lose it when my spaceship went pop, undocked and prepared for my first capsuleer on capsuleer combat. On my way back to the system system I had been in earlier, the destination for our duel, I was suddenly attacked by another corpmate, a fellow Unista, "this is not supposed to happen" I thought. Despite a bit of adrenaline I calmly assessed that I really had no idea what I was doing so rather than engage I quickly headed for the space station and docked. After hopping out of my ship I hailed the offending pilot and asked for an explanation. I was laughed at by many a fellow corp member. I was a bit puzzled and later learned that by not reading through all of the documentation and keeping abreast of the Unista news that I was in a system cleared for tech 1 frigate on frigate combat. All gloves were off. I was just fortunate that while I was clearing my Angel Cartel nests that I was not engaged by another capsuleer.
Well it was now time for my duel, I in my Rifter and my opponent in an Incursus. "Whats's an Incursus" was the thought running through my head so I asked my foe. Despite showing my ignorance and potentially making my opponent further drool at the thought of an easy kill he told me it was another tech one frigate. During the brief delay I quickly punched up some information on the ship on my computer and designed a basic strategy. I had a certain ammunition type that would be most affective on his shields and another for his armor, that is of course if he hadn't modified this. But I would use another ammo, barrage, an advanced ammunition that I had spent much time training the skills to be able to use. This ammo in combination with my ships speed and agility would allow me to dictate the range of the engagement, or so I postulated. In return his powerful blasters would be beyond their effective range and I could orbit him in my swifter ship and slowly knock down his defenses.
I was allowed the advantage of the first shot and off I went to employ my strategy. So I proceeded to orbit and fire at what I felt was my best range and happily began to see his shields go down. I was hardly being hit as it seemed my speed was too much for his blaster turrents to track me properly or my distance was just too great to do much damage. His shields began to fail and I had him in armor, I began to have hope. Then I quickly lost hope, he was obviously armor tanked (his defense was primarily in his armor not his shield) and he was able to actively repair the damage I was doing in between the rounds of my auto cannons. I needed to rethink the situation. Unfortunately I had no time as I suddenly noticed that my shields, my primary defense, was quickly being chewed through. "How could this be" I thought and then noticed that a he had a drone deployed against me. At this time due to a technical bug that has been haunting me during my time in EVE my controls locked up. My ship continued to orbit and fire but I could not make any changes. My idea was to shift to the drone as my primary target and take it out while continuing to orbit the Incursus as he was not really able to hit me for good damage. Well before I could really figure out what was happening and being locked out of my controls due to the bug, which hit me at a really annoying time, I was forced to reload my computer interface. By the time I cycled my computer back to life and was active again I was floating in my capsule and my ship was destroyed.
I had an idea what had happened but asked my opponent for comment. I was a bit taken aback by his lack of honor when he seemed to ignore me. He did deposit the agreed upon 10 million isk in my account but by not living up to the terms of our duel I was offended, and rightfully so I imagined. I have his name and know where he likes to hunt, so I may just go looking for him again someday.
A major purpose behind these confessions is to learn from mistakes, so let's do a post-mortum of my duel. A major mistake I made was not knowing my enemy. I only did a cursory review, I should of known that as a Gallente ship that it was likely able to carry drones (as Gallente ships are known for their drone use) and checked to see if the Incursus had a drone bay. This way I would of been prepared and possibly switched active targets to the drone earlier before my shields vaporized. I am left to speculate at what actually happened to cause my destruction. Despite my foe not fulfilling our agreement he did mention his blasters hit me for good damage, which I think is unlikely unless he did some good piloting and changed the initial impotence of this weapon system, but I will never know as said foe ignored my request for further information. My suspicion is that I was orbiting far enough away and fast enough that his blasters were not doing me much harm, he then launched his drone which proceeded to chew me up. I also really need to take time to train up my skills. For example I could of fitted out my ship with a neutralizer, an electronic warfare module that wipes out another ships energy (capacitor). His Incursus was using an active armor tank (using energy from his capacitor to repair armor damage) and repairing all the damage I was doing. Had I used a neutralizer I may of been able to cut off his access to energy so he could not repair his armor, also his weapons use energy to fire. I would still of taken damage from the drone but could have mitigated some of these tactical issues. I need to calm down a bit and learn to multitask. I need to look at my overview more, to see if other ships are joining the fray and I would of been alerted to the release of his drone earlier.
What did I do well. I took the challenge. Some pilots will not partake in duels or combat against other capsuleers (pvp). I think my original plan to use my longer range barrage ammo and attack from some distance was sound against a blaster, or shorter range, ship. I used my afterburner to increase my transversal velocity making me harder to hit. My auto-cannons track better so all this plays to my advantage.
Hopefully it's lessoned learned.
