If I've learned one thing during the last 3+ years playing Eve, writing about Eve, drawing things about Eve and generally being so cool doing all of it, is this - sometimes even I need a break from Eve.
The past month has been, for me, a break from Eve. Although I've stayed mostly active here on Eveoganda and in other places, my in-game time over the last month probably amounted to about 2 hours in total. This had nothing at all to do with Eve itself, in fact I couldn't be more excited about Crucible and the direction the game is going right now. This had everything to do with the usual things these things have to do with, a confluence of events both in-game and out, that crossed streams in places they shouldn't have crossed streams. Hence causing additional stress and poo-poo crap'ola that needed to be dealt with.
Yesterday marked my general return to form as I undocked Rixx from Hevrice for the first time in over two weeks with the intent to blow something up. Mostly I've been logging in to Ana to move stuff and buy nifty new ships. But yesterday I wanted some much needed action and explosions.
It didn't happen like that. Oh I had fun, don't get me wrong. I lucked out and logged in just as a Tusker Dessie gang was forming up. Sounded fun. I quickly fitted up a Catalyst and waited to head out. The FC was asking in fleet chat for some pilots to fly Interceptors and I volunteered, so no Catalyst for me. He wanted a long point Ceptor, so I had to scramble to find one. I have several Ceptors fitted up, but since I don't fly in Null Space much anymore, almost all of them are short pointed. Ranis, blaster/web. Daredevil, blaster/web, Dramiel, Malediction all short range killers. Maybe the Slicer or maybe the Crow. I had the Crow fitted with AB/Scram but it was easy enough to switch out.
We ran all over and couldn't find anyone to engage us. Not really. There was a decent sized PIRATES gang that was full of potential but they wouldn't engage us and kept docking up. You'd think 4-5 BCs and support ships wouldn't be afraid of a gang of Destroyers...
I did manage to get in on a Hurricane kill. And seeing just how fast his tank melted, maybe people were right to avoid us.
One more thing. It is pretty awe-inspiring watching your home system Nebula shrink into the distance the further you get from it. And seeing Cloud Ring off in the distance, or some of the other Nebula, really gives Eve a sincere sense of location. It would be easy to dismiss this in the heat of hunting and killing, but I think the impact of this most recent level of immersion may have a lasting impact on New Eden. Very interesting.