How old is old enough to know ...

With almost 2 years of game play there are things I know, and things I don’t about Eve. I would like to think that I know a lot about the game. In three short days experiencing frig based PvP, I have learned that there are people out there who don’t know much about the game and beg the question, “How old is old enough to know …”.

My first question for the day, “How old is old enough to know not to Jet Can Mine?”

I know I learned the hard way a whooping two weeks into my first stent in the game that Jet Can mining in a busy system is not a good idea. Even worse is fighting a guy who obviously wants you to fight him. This lesson cost me an Osprey and, at the time, a lot of work to fill that can. I joined a noob mining corp and saw several of them learn this lesson quickly. Quickly we learned the proper way to mine with several ships and haulers. Throw the ore quickly and scoop it completely. Sure we still used Jet Cans with bookmarks in them, but we didn’t leave full cans around. And we were all under 2 months old and learned this lesson.

So fast forward to my first night of frig based PvP. As I learned the ropes in my Punisher with another Punisher and Rifter along teaching me, I was amazed to stumble upon a mining op in high sec with 3 ships all with Jet Cans out. A quick check of the toons showed all were over 6 months old, and part of an 80 person indy corp. No haulers in site. I gladly accepted my target and promptly flipped his half filled can. I assume this was not the first time this had happened and expected no response other then a few shouts in local. But nothing, no response at all. Within a minute though the hauler came swooping in and to my amazement, scoped a can right in front of us. I mean really, three red frigs on your overview, a message you are about to steal, and I would hope a warning from your corp mates and he still steals the ore? Oh well, 1 dead Badger.

Well then the fun starts. The Osprey decides he is going to help and quickly draws aggression. Bye Bye Osprey.

The belt quickly empties as the other two miners must have decided they had seen enough. A few shouts in local regarding our manhood, challenging our bravery and providing a few choice suggestions about what we can do with ourselves in our spare time ensue.

This brings me to question number two, “How old is old enough to know how to properly fit a ship for a fight?”.

I ask this cause after my two trainers flew off to look for more adventures, I hung around waiting for the aggression to wear off and see if our fun there was really done. Sure enough back comes the Osprey pilot in his Drake. Now my first instinct in a Punisher when seeing a Drake was “Oh Crap”, but my trainers talked me down.

“Get Transverse on him”, like I knew what the hell that meant, oh yeah that means orbit him fast. Okay, orbit at 2k. check. Afterburner on. check.

“Point him”, okay that one I knew.

“Watch for drones”, really drones? Not the 7 Caldari Navy Heavies flying at me every 6 seconds? Oh yeah, I’m a frig, those things can’t hurt me. But Hammerhead II’s will rip me a new one (funny being on the other side of that fight).

So I point the Drake, orbit and start using my pulse lasers to do absolutely nothing to him.

Soon enough my trainers are back by my side and together we eventually crack his tank and I succeed at getting my first rage-log.

In looking over his setup, it was great, for killing cruisers and other battle cruisers. But he knew he was coming out to fight frigs, and he left his most important weapon, drones, at home. Again we faced an 8 month old toon, capable of fitting out a t2 setup Drake, but not knowing enough to fit it properly for the fight at hand. A toon in an 80 person, established, indy corp. The best was he really thought, as demonstrated by his chat in local, he was in for a simple kill of three frigs, and yet he had no hope of ever doing any damage to us. Sure against one of us it is a stalemate, as we could not hope to crack his tank. But in the fight he knew he would get when he undocked, he was already dead.

Should I feel sorry for him? Only in the sense that he has played the game for that long, in an established corp, and not learned some basic principals of the game.

I learned a valuable lesson too. Carebear tears really are sweet.

Mick