Finding a Rhythum

It has been nearly two months since I have been reborn as a capsuleer. I have learned many lessons since. Joining a corporation that has been continuously at war has been frustrating but has also been a stern teacher. I settled into a routine at this point which has lately been consistently been making me small but steady amounts of isk, about a million or more isk per hour. I have run multiple fleets, which I am still horrible at, taken some classes at the Uni and slaughtered scores of Angel Cartel pilots.

As an immortal the death of these non-capsuleer pilots seems routine, nothing more than a collection of a small bounty and perhaps a chance at some decent loot from their ships shattered hulls. I did not become a capsuleer to terrorize non capsuleers, I want to take on the best. Sadly I am not yet ready and I fly afraid of war targets. It is this fear that is keeping me alive, honing me into a weapon.

I have pretty much given up with not even a whimper my idea of forming a young worm-holing group. My leadership and organizational skills leave much to be desired. Now that I have found a slow but steady pace at making isk I don't feel the need to rush into this level of risk. I am busy training up basic skills to make me a more competent pilot. I will then train so that I can fly and then fit a Cheetah, a covert ops frigate. This will take me some time and in the interim I will continue to learn and earn. Then I will stalk dark space watching and learning. Waiting for opportunity, finding opportunity. I will make my first cloaked run to Jita to unload some of the loot I have collected for the almighty isk. I will become stronger and taking larger risks again to make more isk. More isk means more power. I still have much to learn so the Uni will remain my home for a while.

My main failure has been my inability to find a group of fellow capsuleers to fly with. It is these social relationships that harden into bonds that will mature into perhaps a small new corporation. A child to be unleashed upon the great wolves of the game. For it is in null sec that I am destined. To take and then hold space. To fight against the greats in this game. Is this all a delusion?

It is hard to imagine me, a pilot who cannot yet even really fly his new cruiser taking on alliances with thousands of pilots and trillions of isk to burn. The challenge fills me.

One Step Forward Twenty Steps Back

My Rupture training has been proceeding slowly. I was able to fly her on my typical high sec exploration routine and found a couple of Angel Cartel Hideouts that I proceeded to clear. The ship preformed admirably although the test was a weak one. I finally had the chance to deploy drones and they were fun and effective carving up frigates. I could only fly three at a time due to my poor skills but they none the less proved their utility. The Rupture surely is slower and less agile than my Rifter but the auto cannons when they hit can be devastating. I will need to train up skills so that my tracking improved as I had to sacrifice my afterburners and thus speed to hit smaller sized targets like frigates. After my short circle route of systems I had some 500,000 isk of loot in my hold and more respect for cruisers.

As I had some time I hoped into my Rifter and joined up a noob fleet and went on a patrol. I am still amazed at how bad I am at this. The patrol was led by a new FC and wasn't much fun. The highlight was when we attacked a couple of ships, which I forget what they were, and somehow I managed to shoot the gate instead of the ships. What did this mean, well that the gate guns summarily popped my 10 million isk Rifter. Then per the FC I hoped into a nearby space station in my pod and picked up a free rookie ship for the rest of the trip. While the fleet was enjoying the entertainment of seeing me get popped I caught up at them at the gate only to be popped by the gate guns again. I am now familiar with the concept of the aggression timer. This basically means that if you shoot at a gate this is considered a hostile act. Why I shot the gate, I really can't explain it. I was was so eager to get in on the kill I got confused and ended up shooting the gate. So now that I had done a hostile act for 15 minutes I am deemed and a bad guy and gate guns will open fire on me. 

So I flew with the ships in my pod until my timer expired (gate guns won't shoot pods). Luckily no one shot me and I was able to hop into another rookie ship finish the patrol and make it back to my station. So for the day I lost about twenty times the isk that I made (and I haven't really made anything because I still need to sell the darn loot I have acquired). Why am I so bad at this?

After training up some more skills I hoped into my Rupture again to find some cosmic anomalies and clear some Angel Cartel pirates. I had a Angel refuge and I think a hideout to clear this time. By now I could control the maximum 5 drones and my tracking time and range had improved considerably. I worked my way through both sites and collected the loot, close to 700,000 isk. I could not finish my route as I spotted a war target in local, lost my nerve and docked up. At this rate I will never be able to afford better and more ships. I am in a real isk bind.

So maybe I should grind out some missions.  No way, not yet. High sec exploration is a bit like a casino. Before, when I knew less than I know now, I did high sec exploration in a Rifter and on my first mission I cleared almost 10 million isk. So I will keep flying this missions, trying not to get hunted by war targets and hope to get lucky. I will continue to train my support skills and then train up codebreaker and analyzer so that I can run some cosmic signatures and do more than just pure pirate combat but some of the more profitable (I hope) high sec exploration sites.

The war in null-sec still rages on. I only hope the CFC coalition doesn't conquer all of null-sec before I can establish a presence there. It seems Goonswarm in the North is slowly grinding down NC. and that Test Alliance is holding onto it's gains in the South. This leaves the Eastern Galaxy not in the either the CFC or HBC (Test and Goonswarms broader alliances). 

My leadership abilities which I hope will one day rally legions of pilots to my cause has had about as much success and my isk earning adventures. I have not followed up in a timely fashion my wormhole expedition group. I just don't seem to have the charisma or the initiative to get this going. I really could be about the worst pilot in New Eden huh.