Friday, September 13, 2013

Tension...

Before I switched corps to Aideron Robotics, I was flying about looking for lost T2 drones. This is a fun and profitable way to pass the time in Eve: it takes about 5 minutes to pick up 2.5M worth of Tech 2 drones, if there are any around.  For a change of pace I scanned down a cosmic signature and it turned out to be a DED 4/10 "Serpentis Phi Outpost". This is a more difficult kind of room to fight in so I switched to my Algos and entered the room.

The was already a ship ahead of me, clearing pirates like there's no tomorrow.  I managed to kill 3 or 4 rats, salvaged them and followed to the next room. He'd made short work of this room too; I killed a few and the room was done.

He messages me: "do you want these wrecks and loot? You need them more than me." He has checked my pilot history and sees I'm only a 1 month old player. "Sure, thanks!" I say, and wait for the wrecks to turn blue. 30 seconds go by....and he has left the room with the wrecks still yellow (i.e he still "owns" them. I could salvage them, but not take the stuff inside without being flagged as a suspect).

I open up a chat window with him and ask if he could please abandon the wrecks so I can loot them. "How do I do that?" comes the reply.

First alarm bell: I checked his pilot history...5 years....how does a pilot with 5 years experience not know how to abandon wrecks?

I say "You need to right-click on a wreck and choose the 'Abandon all wrecks' command"

He says "OK I'll find a rat, kill him, and do that"....hmmm....that's not right. He can't just kill and abandon any random pirate, he needs to come back and abandon the wrecks in this room.  I wait a bit; maybe there's a way I don't know about. The wrecks here stay yellow and I'm worrying that new players will soon show up and start salvaging.

"I think you need to come back here and abandon these wrecks" I say.  I assume that since this is a cosmic signature, he would have scanned the room down, bookmarked it and could come back easily.

Second alarm bell: He says "Can you fleet me so I can warp to you? I can't jump back in there otherwise".

Hmmm...doesn't that mean he could blast me....yep, as I add him to a fleet the game warns me that fleet members can shoot me without any punishment. (Edit: Nope, I was safe, since he was in a different corporation.) Unfortunately I clicked past this warning too quickly to read it carefully.

So I'm waiting. My heart rate increases...what have I done!? He's taking a long, long time getting here....is he bringing friends along to get on the killmail?

I start flying away from the wrecks, in case that might help put some distance between us.

He arrives.  I turn on my adaptive shield and watch him.

*bing* The wrecks turn blue...my eyes pop open! Wow! Maybe it's for real!

I watch him some more....off you go, scoot, move along, thank you :)  He begins to move but doesn't warp....then he warps - gone!

He messages me "Sorry about being a bit rusty, I'm just coming back to the game after a long break". "No problem, thanks again for the wrecks!" I say. I offer to give him a portion of the loot if there's anything valuable in there, but he declines.

The total take was about 4M ISK in loot and salvage. I flagged him as in excellent standing and went on my way.

4 comments:

  1. A healthy does of paranoia will do you good :)

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  2. Wish I'd been more paranoid about that Incursus that entered the plex yesterday. But I've now learned my lesson: max paranoia all the time :) I was moving a ship during lunch and I saw a wreck at a gate that I'd have loved to salvage. But there were two flashies in system, and even though they weren't on d-scan, I decided not to stop. Just in case.

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  3. The message box when you join a fleet actually informs you that you can NOT be shot by or shoot members of your fleet. Being in a fleet with someone has no effect on the consequences of aggression.

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  4. Thanks Araziah, you are right! I was worried that being in fleet with him would grant him the right to shoot me without Concord turning up to kill him, but according to https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Fleet_options only members of the same corp in a fleet can do this. Members of different corps, even if in fleet together, shooting each other WILL trigger a Concord response.

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