I've noticed lately that I tend to lose a ship at the end of the day in Eve a lot. I hate leaving my sessions with red on my killboard, but it is surprising how often that is happening. So, like anything else, it caused me to stop and consider why that might be so. What is it and why does it keep happening?
6 out of the last 8 days, not counting Saturday's Rifter FFA, I ended on a loss. So let's take a look at them and see if we can spot a trend. Or come to some conclusions.
Tristan vs Dragoon
Obviously I should never attack a Dragoon with a Tristan. I will say that I was flying with a Dramiel at the time as my wingman. But obviously 12 jumps without any action will cause you to take increasingly risky risks. I picked a Tristan for the roam because I hadn't flown one in a long time, but I admit I'm having trouble finding a role for the little ship. I used to fly them a lot, but they seem to have lost something in the past few months.
Retribution vs Phantasm
Ok this was at the end of a long roam on Wednesday in which we had already killed a WANGS Phantasm in Tama, so I admit the idea of catching two in one session was certainly driving my intentions. That plus the fact that probably half my losses in Eve come as a result of my overly aggressive Hero Tackle mentality when I play this game. So I hero tackled this Phantasm in a Retribution and it worked. Sadly the damn thing was very, very fast and by the time backup arrived we were well off the gate. I held out as long as I could but eventually...
Astero vs Blob
"Always tackle the Drake" is one of our guiding principles in Stay Frosty, so that's what I did. The only problem with that principle is that sometimes the Drake is bait. Chalk this one down to that overly aggressive Hero Tackle mentality once more. Just to be clear, I'd do the same thing again.
Hookbill vs Worm
This was just dumb. But in my defense it was a boring day and I was desperate for a good fight and - you never know if the Worm is stupid. This Worm was not stupid. And I exploded. I made a horrible error and forgot to switch my TD for my MD, so that falls completely on my shoulders. Bad Rixx shows up from time to time.
So what have we learned? First of all there is no mystery here and while this has been happening a lot lately, it isn't a trend. I have lots of days where this doesn't happen. But clearly there are days when boredom or opportunity take over and bad decisions are taken as chances. My play style is extremely aggressive and opportunistic, and for that to work 78% of the time it means that 22% of the time it simply doesn't work. Those are odds I can live with. I have been playing like that for years and years now, so I see no reason to change.
Boredom does often mean taking bigger risks, but bigger risks often come with bigger rewards. I may have lost 41 ships in April, but I also exploded and looted 182 of them.
So yeah, not going to change. Yarrr!