First of all thanks to everyone that commented on yesterday's post. Sorry I wasn't able to respond to each of you as I usually try to do, I got called away and the day got away from me. But I thought instead that I would follow up with a follow up post, which is this one.
Secondly, I'm not a noob at this. I've been in every system mentioned yesterday, Old Man Star and Mara used to be my stomping grounds, and all the other systems and regions of low-sec around Eve. I've been ganked outside stations, I've stolen from Noob cans, I've had others steal from my cans, I've war dec'd corps, I've jumped into low-sec gate camps and suffered the wrath of station guns, I've tried suicide ganking transports... and more. In fact, I think it is safe to say if you can do it in Eve I've tried it. Except for Faction Warfare which honestly holds very little interest to me. Nothing against it.
Of course mostly I fly in Null Space. But every once in awhile I like to come back to low-sec and see if I can't get into a fight. Yesterday was a boring day in zero, not much going on and so I thought why not? In my own unique style I couldn't just fit up a Rifter or a Slicer and go at it, I had to try something different. Just for fun. So I fitted up a Autocannon Merlin with what I could find in the difficult to find anything station I live in and headed to the nearest low-sec region. Which is Minmatar space around Evati. The rest you know if you read the post from yesterday.
Except later in the day when I logged back into the game... who would also be in system with me? None other than Nashh Kadavr himself! Pirate scum sure, but also a honorable foe. A quick scan and I see he is in his trusty Rifter, we talk in local and agree to a 1v1. I figure I'm doomed here, but I want to have some fun and see what this crazy fit can do. We fleet up and meet in one of my safe spots and have at it. The fight takes a long time, but eventually Nashh is able to break my tank and explode my Merlin. In my opinion his speed was the determining factor, he was able to keep his optimal more often than I was able to keep mine. I did a quick ammo switch in the middle of the fight, which did help dps, but the gap in re-loading didn't help at all. You can check out the kill mail for yourself. Kudos to Nashh for not only accepting the fight but for being a gentleman about it, even giving me my loot back in station. We're now 1-1.
Yesterday's question was intended to cause a response and it did. It's August and typically slow right now, so we have time to ponder some of the deeper questions. I think solo PvP is alive. But it isn't well. It needs some help. But unlike most people I don't believe that help primarily needs to come from CCP. Oh sure low-sec in particular needs some loving attention and I totally agree it deserves it, but the main issue is the players themselves. If you want solo fights then you need to fight. In fact, I think a little more zero in low-sec would be good for the soul.
When someone comes into our systems in zero they get attention. And no "blobbing" isn't the result of that attention unless that someone happens to be a armor HAC gang or a fleet of Battleships. But usually that someone is one or two or three ships, seriously that is mostly what we see these days. So we go out looking for them and doing everything we can to kill them. We hunt. And sometimes, like yesterday morning, I hunt alone. I don't remember the ship type, but I undocked my Tengu and went hunting. No back-up, no blob waiting to save my ass. Sadly the bad guy turned out to be a cloaker and I was unable to find him. He eventually moved on and got killed about six jumps away by someone else... also solo.
Become the Hunter.
I plan on continuing to hunt in low-sec from time to time. Next week a whole new world of ships becomes available to me, starting with the Cane and Cynabal and ending with the Vagabond, Munnin, Rapier, Scimitar and the whole world of Minmatar Battlecruisers, HACs and T2 Cruisers. It's been a long skill train, but it'll be well worth it. My quiver is becoming more and more full of interesting weapon choices. And I plan on using them all.
Most of all, have fun.
Secondly, I'm not a noob at this. I've been in every system mentioned yesterday, Old Man Star and Mara used to be my stomping grounds, and all the other systems and regions of low-sec around Eve. I've been ganked outside stations, I've stolen from Noob cans, I've had others steal from my cans, I've war dec'd corps, I've jumped into low-sec gate camps and suffered the wrath of station guns, I've tried suicide ganking transports... and more. In fact, I think it is safe to say if you can do it in Eve I've tried it. Except for Faction Warfare which honestly holds very little interest to me. Nothing against it.
Of course mostly I fly in Null Space. But every once in awhile I like to come back to low-sec and see if I can't get into a fight. Yesterday was a boring day in zero, not much going on and so I thought why not? In my own unique style I couldn't just fit up a Rifter or a Slicer and go at it, I had to try something different. Just for fun. So I fitted up a Autocannon Merlin with what I could find in the difficult to find anything station I live in and headed to the nearest low-sec region. Which is Minmatar space around Evati. The rest you know if you read the post from yesterday.
Except later in the day when I logged back into the game... who would also be in system with me? None other than Nashh Kadavr himself! Pirate scum sure, but also a honorable foe. A quick scan and I see he is in his trusty Rifter, we talk in local and agree to a 1v1. I figure I'm doomed here, but I want to have some fun and see what this crazy fit can do. We fleet up and meet in one of my safe spots and have at it. The fight takes a long time, but eventually Nashh is able to break my tank and explode my Merlin. In my opinion his speed was the determining factor, he was able to keep his optimal more often than I was able to keep mine. I did a quick ammo switch in the middle of the fight, which did help dps, but the gap in re-loading didn't help at all. You can check out the kill mail for yourself. Kudos to Nashh for not only accepting the fight but for being a gentleman about it, even giving me my loot back in station. We're now 1-1.
Yesterday's question was intended to cause a response and it did. It's August and typically slow right now, so we have time to ponder some of the deeper questions. I think solo PvP is alive. But it isn't well. It needs some help. But unlike most people I don't believe that help primarily needs to come from CCP. Oh sure low-sec in particular needs some loving attention and I totally agree it deserves it, but the main issue is the players themselves. If you want solo fights then you need to fight. In fact, I think a little more zero in low-sec would be good for the soul.
When someone comes into our systems in zero they get attention. And no "blobbing" isn't the result of that attention unless that someone happens to be a armor HAC gang or a fleet of Battleships. But usually that someone is one or two or three ships, seriously that is mostly what we see these days. So we go out looking for them and doing everything we can to kill them. We hunt. And sometimes, like yesterday morning, I hunt alone. I don't remember the ship type, but I undocked my Tengu and went hunting. No back-up, no blob waiting to save my ass. Sadly the bad guy turned out to be a cloaker and I was unable to find him. He eventually moved on and got killed about six jumps away by someone else... also solo.
Become the Hunter.
I plan on continuing to hunt in low-sec from time to time. Next week a whole new world of ships becomes available to me, starting with the Cane and Cynabal and ending with the Vagabond, Munnin, Rapier, Scimitar and the whole world of Minmatar Battlecruisers, HACs and T2 Cruisers. It's been a long skill train, but it'll be well worth it. My quiver is becoming more and more full of interesting weapon choices. And I plan on using them all.
Most of all, have fun.