Play Eve Online long enough and you'll notice a lot of trends, cycles, and repetitive conditions swirling around a totally random sandbox experience. These could be the will of Bob, or just the human condition and our innate ability to recognize patterns. Or they could just be bad luck. Who knows? What I do know is this - when things are going rough in real life - they tend to go rough inside of Eve as well.
I went well over 14 years of solid, non-stop combat inside of Eve before I ever managed to toast my guns during a solo fight. (I can't speak to fleet fights, it is possible it might have happened once or twice in one of those) And yet, I managed to do it twice in the last week or so. And I can't even blame polarized guns or rapid light missile launchers, both of which are notoriously easy to toast. Nope. I have lost several fights lately that I would normally win due to simple bad module management. Fun times.
The Bad - Kestrel vs NPC
Let's start with a fight that is even more embarrassing than toasting your guns. I followed someone into one of those new sites and then started to scan to see where they went next. Did you know that the rats in these sites point you? I did and yet I somehow managed to forget this important information and stay longer than I should have. For a second there I considered quitting Eve. Just kidding. But sheesh.
The Ugly - Coercer Navy vs Coercer Navy
It is rare these days for someone to actually fight me on a gate. I lock people up and they jump or run away typically. So I was surprised when this Eve Uni pilot red boxed me. Obviously in these fights I automatically start at a disadvantage, the other guy always gets to shoot first. Not usually a problem and in this fight it started off firmly in the not-a-problem side of things. It wasn't long before I had caught up and was well ahead of him when it came to damage being delivered. Until, my guns overheated and died. After that, well you just sit and stew in your own foolish choices until you die.
The Good - Thrasher Fleet vs Hecate
Low Sec is rapidly turning into Fleet Dessies in Space and this fight just highlights the difference between the new ships and the old ships. The problem with using a fight like this to make that point is that would ignore the conditions that led to this outcome. This was a good fight and I was better positioned to start the fight than my opponent was - which created a hole he just couldn't get out of. One of the best fights I had recently.
The Bad - Coercer vs Catalyst
This is the second toasted gun fight. There is no way I was losing this one until I toasted my guns. Which is the perfect example of why you take fights - because you just never know when the other guy might mess up so badly that you win. We talked afterwards and this was indeed his lucky day.
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So far in April I am 134-28 and I have ZERO complaints. I write these posts and share my mistakes with you to show that we are all human, we all make mistakes. Even us old veteran pirates who do nothing else but PvP all day. I sometimes get bored in space and lose concentration and NPCs kill me. I sometimes get distracted while playing, or am waiting on a phone call from a potential client. Or who knows what else. It happens. Bad things are going to happen to you as well. And there is no reason to hide it.
Every fight is a story. Every fight is potentially a good fight that you will remember for ages and ages. But a lot of them are not. A lot of them together day after day can get repetitious and boring. So find ways to break things up, fly something new, go somewhere new, break the chain. And find something new to challenge yourself.
Who knows what might happen next.