The image has nothing to do with this story. I was out testing some ship fittings the other day and took this shot for a reward on JUST. These new ships are amazing. More on that later.
But speaking of new ships I've been flying the Tholos a lot lately. My approach on new ships has always been the same. I always grab the latest ships as soon as I can and bring them into my hangar. Usually these are grossly expensive versions, although I will often wait a few weeks for the price to settle. But sometimes I can't wait. This starts an entire process of figuring out any potential fits, testing those fits in-game, and working out the kinks. Most importantly is figuring out what the ship is useful for, what role does it fill, what is it good at, and what it isn't good at. This is all part of an accelerated and deliberate process that often starts with killing some poor NPCs in a belt and then slowly escalating engagement windows. You might not think this about me, but I can be extremely deliberate when it comes to figuring out my weapons.
The Tholos has been going through this process since it was released. And I've been slowly building an understanding with the ship - all while skilling up the new skills needed for the new breacher pod system. I've been slowly escalating the engagement window and seeing what the ship is capable of doing. It can be a slow process sometimes, because I am dependent on available targets. And that can be a rather random process. Other players continue to be tricky when it comes to getting blown up.
The other day I logged in, jumped into the Tholos and undocked. Immediately I saw the Caracal on scan. I quickly warped to a safe and cloaked up. Once I figured out where the Caracal was I started the process of getting myself into a position to engage. The cruiser was running a site in local. And when I say "local" I mean my home system of Ouelletta. Yes, for some insane reason, people still do this. I can't explain it. The site was a deep one and I had to keep sliding and burning to gates. I want to be clear here - this involved SIX rooms! So I was on d-scan the entire time, just slowly sliding and burning gates closer and closer to this Caracal.
I fully expected him to be gone by the time I got there. This sort of engagement does not have a high probability of success for me. In fact it is probably in the 10% range, something like that. 9 out of 10 times the target will eventually make the connection and warp off. But not this time.
The room was full of NPCs and the target fought back, which was good to see. I want them to fight back. I respect the effort, I always do. Fight back and I will almost always let your pod go. Which I did in this case. I'm not required to do this mind you. But I do try to be a decent human being. I took his loot and warped off.
Oh man, my boy was so mad. I got called a lot of nasty things in Russian. Again, nothing new. Almost every single day in Eve I get called many names. It comes with the territory and honestly, I understand it. Eve can be very frustrating at times. And it can be easy to let emotions get the best of you. But here's the thing, my boy had so many chances to avoid this outcome. None of which have anything to do with me. Not only in the long, drawn out engagement window leading up to his loss - but well before then. All the way back to deciding Letta would be a good system to rat in.
This was the second Caracal he had lost to Stay Frosty that day. I was the second.
Thing is, not long afterwards - he brought another Caracal into local. And docked it up in our station.
You can get mad if you want, but seriously? There is a lot more to Eve that you need to learn my friend.
A lot more.