AAR: Knowledge Is Power

"Now, it may seem I am a hypocrite, as earlier I stated that I needed a contest of forces for something to be fun, and blobbing something with Bombers does not seem like much of a contest. I respond with this: a contest of forces is not always directly between two groups of spaceships. It can be a contest between the hunter and intel channels, a contest to not be caught by gate camps, a contest to patiently out last your opponent. Things do not simply boil down to which spaceship explodes first, but how you get and arrive at that point. It is why I was attracted to wormholes in the first place, not necessarily the PvP, but the hunt itself." (Exploitation and Counters - Null Sec Edition)

That was from a post on November 14th, 2014, and it still holds true today. Indeed, any conflict of forces is much more than just punches back and forth, or bullets flying, or any violent action. It always, at the end of the day, comes down to knowledge.

If you have ever played the excellent Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Within, you have a good idea what I am talking about, even if you haven't seen Eve necessarily from that perspective yet. The mod cranks the difficulty up to harsh amounts and gives you an expansive inventory of tools to help combat these new threats. Even Normal difficulty has a harsh learning curve to it (I failed my first two attempts).

But tools are nothing without the knowledge of how, where, and how much to use them. This is why intel is important. It lets you bring the right tools, warn you of future threats, execute the perfect door breach, a superb overwatch trap, or just position optimally.

While not all of these situations are applicable to Eve, the base concept is. The fact is, the more you know, the more effective you are. Just remember the 6 P's.

Proper
Preparation
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance

That knowledge becomes even more important when highly vulnerable and expensive assets are at risk. For Eve, this largely means Capital Ships, which can be very easy targets when caught alone without a supporting fleet. And, spoiler alert, I work alone at the moment, and rarely ask for backup from friends because they tend to not be close by.

So when I found a Raitaru anchoring in a close by C6 Wormhole with no noticeable backup or defending fleet, I figured I'd do something a little risky. I was going to solo-bash it down before it completed with one of my Dreadnoughts. Even with a cheap T1 fit I easily could exceed the 5000 DPS damage cap, which meant the bash would take about 16 minutes. 20 minutes in total because the Siege timer works on 5 minute intervals. Not too bad.

So, I go home, refit, and start jumping the Dread a few jumps over to get it ready to enter system. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying too much attention to my home system at the time as I was refitting, so I jumped my first gate with them in local. I noticed them while I was already in warp, and a quick DScan told me it was a Stratios with Core Probes out. I wasn't too concerned, I see that a lot in low sec, its a really good exploration ship. So I continue on and make my jumps to the appropriate system while I scout the wormhole in more detail with my alt before committing.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Darkani, the Stratios pilot, be in my local again. Not just passing through either for exploration, but hanging around.

This sent up a few red flags for me immediately. The first was easy: there was only one Signature to scan in system, which was the wormhole I was about to siege, which was practically worthless to her in that ship. It should have taken at most a minute to figure out what it was and moved on. The second was more about the region cosmology. See, in order to get to my home system of Partod (which is where she initially saw me), you had to pass through the system of Sharza, which is where my Dread and the wormhole was. Meaning that if she was exploring normally, she should have already scanned this system and should have just passed on through without a second glance.

She didn't though, she was sticking around, which meant she was no longer interested in exploration. She had another goal in mind now.

Being my usual paranoid self I immediately looked up her killboard history. Active with a wide range of different pilots. NPSI fleets tend to look like this, and it was this kill that gave it away for sure. I also happened to be an NPSI participant as well, or at least I was on occasion over two years ago. Now I just hang out in the Spectre Fleet and Bombers Bar channels. If she was connected to them and she was hanging around to see if she could get back up, then she would have to make contact with an FC before doing anything. Which she did...

darkani > any fc online ?
Xackattack Avianson > what's up
Xackattack Avianson > there's 10 online
darkani > plz accept private

I had all I needed to know I was in danger before, but that was the final bit that nailed it. And if that wasn't enough they sent out a rage form up for me. HVT stands for High Value Target if you don't know.

I like NPSI groups. I think they do a great service to the game. But I'm not going to roll over and give them a 3+ Billion ISK kill, but nor do I want them to waste their time. So I decided to have a little fun to let them know that I knew. 

Blodhgarm Dethahal > on a scale of 1 to Space Dust, how rusted does my Naglfar look darkani ?

That didn't get much of a reaction though judging by the talk in Spectre Fleet chat, so I had to go a bit more direct.

Xackattack Avianson > we're literally doing this 1 jump from amarr so get in here
Xackattack Avianson > it's going to be a 3b+ kill likely
Blodhgarm Dethahal > it won't
Blodhgarm Dethahal > sup people
Xackattack Avianson > hehe
Blodhgarm Dethahal > if you are interested there is a C6 in that system tho with an anchoring Ratairu
Xackattack Avianson > nevermind lol
Blodhgarm Dethahal > which I was going to bash until I noticed miss Darkani
Xackattack Avianson > do you think there will be defenders
Blodhgarm Dethahal > honestly probably not, I was going to solo bash it after all :P
Xackattack Avianson > if there's defenders we could help

It is a rather tempting offer, but I just stay silent and make preparations to move my Dread back home. Too much intel has already leaked out to public channels at this point, and I would rather not get involved in this situation anymore. So after a little more patience to let the locals clear, I pop a cyno, and jump home safely.

And that was that. A fight without a single shot fired, and a Dreadnought saved.

If I am allowed to get on my soapbox for a moment (which I am, its my blog so fuck off)...

In Eve there is this near obsession with killmails and 'fights' and particularly the fabled 'good' fight. That isn't wrong, its just another way to view and play the game. However, I find that vision extremely limiting. I can't tell you how many 'fights' I've turned down over the years simply because my scouts have reported a danger ahead of time, or because I knew that our fleet composition couldn't beat theirs, among many other reasons. A battle always begins with a fight for knowledge, whether it is to gain it yourself or prevent the enemy from acquiring it, it doesn't matter.

In this last instance, I won that fight, and it quite possibly saved my Dread. I think the Eve community would greatly benefit by expanding their definition of the word 'fight' and outright removing the term 'good' fight.

A recent forum post by CCP called 'The 8 Golden Rules of Eve Online' briefly talks about this as well. With quotes like "You consent to PvP when you click 'undock'." and "There is no such thing as 'a fair fight' or 'an unfair fight'. There's only a fight. Circumstances are irrelevant." With quotes like these you can get a reasonable idea of what Eve is all about.

It is all about PvP.

More so than even the developers themselves I think realize. PvP doesn't begin with clicking the undock button. Some have joked that 'Market PvP' is a thing (which it is to be honest). But it goes farther than that. No matter what you do, or where you are, you are part of this community, and it is by sheer presence that you are a PvPer. Even those ultra carebear Incursion runners PvP. They have to learn to defend their ultra-pimped out ships from being ganked. There is a conflict of forces there. The market trader has to learn to build spreadsheets, analyse data, look for trends, to stay competitive, or else they risk losing money, rather than making it. A scout has to battle intel channels, gate camps, and communicate effectively back to their FC. A Jump Freighter pilot has to keep an emergency cyno on standby for escaping dangers.

You are not a PvPer by clicking an arbitrary button. You are a PvPer because you are you. You, as a person, are a force. A power that has the ability to contest and be contested in turn. If I wanted to get really philosophical I could argue that you PvP in real life every second because you compete with others for a job, a degree, and on and on.

But I won't, this is about internet spaceships philosophy, not real life philosophy.

I have never seen a better description of the fabled 'good' fight.

So when you miss a kill, or die, or lose ISK to a misplaced market order, or not building a spreadsheet correctly, or failing to conceal your scout, or do anything that results in a failure... do not complain.

Nod your head, accept it, and ask... What could I have done better? It is the mindset and the knowledge that you take away from it all that can turn any fight, even a loss, into an actually good fight, and not just a 'good' fight.

But at the end of the day these are just my thoughts and viewpoints. You be you. You play your Eve. This is my Eve, and I love my Eve.

I suppose I should end this post off with a killmail, since this fight had none. Gota keep with some traditions I guess.

So here, have this guy who thought it was smart to mine ice in a low sec with active people... in an Orca.