Welcome to Hevrice (part 1)

Prelude

As I go through the different phases of my training I find that I want to change the format of my posts. When I started the Punisher Plan, my fights were discrete events, in no small part because I was looking for fights in high sec - there was a distinct beginning, middle and end to each fight. With so much to learn, I needed to pore over every aspect of the fight. It was akin to writing a detailed analysis of a laboratory experiment, or a blow by blow account of a boxing match.

With the T2 Tour, certain parts of the story became less interesting (the fit, etc), or could be taken for granted (how I used the D-scan, etc), and my goal was different; it was less of a fight analysis and more of a record of how I felt about flying each hull. In choosing a ship, how I "felt" was a more important factor than how I performed, although I don't think I realised that at the time.

Now, however, things have changed yet again. Fight analysis is once more an important focus, but events are less discrete, and are often interconnected. My move to Hevrice has also led to longer roams, and more characters (my corp mates) are being introduced; the days sometimes feel more like a story than an experiment or a series of self contained fights.

This, then, is the story of my first "real" day in Hevrice.


Per ardua, ad astra - through troubles, to the stars

Initially, I had intended to spend a week or two grinding exploration sites to refill my hanger and give me a financial buffer; I had seriously crashed and burned the month before. And indeed, I did run some exploration sites around Hevrice, but it seems that some of my readers had other ideas about how I should be spending my time.

Over the last week or so I have had a stream of donations come pouring in; enough ISK and ships to get me back on my feet and right back into the fight. I've tried to acknowledge each of my donors personally, either by in-game mail, or in the comments to my blog, but I'd like to thank them collectively in this post; their donations have really pulled me out of a hole, and set me up to hit the ground running.

Of course, many of these donations came with messages, some encouraging, and some (more humorously) along the lines of "Get the fuck back to work" and "You don't have any excuses now". What they all suggested, though, was that what people really wanted was some more pvp.

Well, as I was now under a moral obligation to go and find some fights, I started the day by jumping into a blank clone and undocking in a Vengeance. Here's the fit:

Rocket Launcher II (x4)

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

Small Anti-Thermic Armor Pump
Small Capacitor Control Circuit



Chapter 1 - Introducing myself to the locals

As soon as I slipped into space, I started looking at my surroundings with a new eye. First, there were no celestials in the direction of the station exit, which meant that I had no easy warp-out if the station was being camped.

While it would take a brave man (or a battle fleet) to camp the Tusker home station, I did not feel comfortable with the align time when warping to one of my hunting safes. I made a mental note to get a bookmark in place ASAP.

However, before I could do that, Hevrice itself seemed to welcome me, and a Navitas decided to light up a cyno. I jumped in, and quickly destroyed it. With the station guns pounding on me, I had to leave the loot and the pod, but I suspect that once I fit a deadspace repair system, I'll be getting the pods too.


Chapter 2 - Finding a fight

Waiting out my criminal flag in a hunting safe, I noticed a new pilot in local. I would have jumped in to say hello, but another Tusker got there first. (This is something that happened a couple of times over the course of the day. My corp mates are very proactive.) It was a short fight - the newcomer was very young - but the chat in local indicated that he was keen to learn by doing.

I then took a quick look at the nearby systems to the north; I didn't find very much, and there seemed to be an incursion a few jumps away that I wanted no part of. I returned to Hevrice, set on heading south, when I saw that the newcomer had returned.

This time I did jump in to say hello, and despite the distace between us - I had jumped to the sun at zero, he was waiting at 100km - he turned his little Rifter towards me and we both moved to engage.

It was not a long fight, although it was made longer by the fact that I did not open fire right away. I wanted him to get a feel for the fight before it was over, but eventually I onlined my rockets and destroyed his ship.

2011.07.03 07:15:00

Victim: Tawa Suyo
Corp: Imperial Academy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 1826

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -7.7
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Damage Done: 1826

Destroyed items:

Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 30
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Armor Repairer I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
150mm Light AutoCannon I, Qty: 2
Energized Basic Magnetic Plating
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 4319 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

'Malkuth' Rocket Launcher I
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
EMP S, Qty: 145
150mm Light AutoCannon I
200mm Reinforced Titanium Plates I
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 290
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I


Chapter 3 - After the fight

I snagged his pod, and we spent the next 20 minutes or so reviewing the fight. He had tried to get in under my "guns", and I explained that against rockets you want to keep your speed up, which means a wider orbit. He had also used the wrong kind of ammo against me, not realising that T2 ships have different resists than T1 ships. I showed him how to use the "Show Info" button to get details about the ship and the pilot.

We also talked about the best way for him to get a start in pvp. I pointed him to this blog, and also explained the difference between the lowsec network and isolated pockets of lowsec; he was likely to find newer opponents in the low sec pockets because outlaws like me can't cross highsec easily.

After chatting I offered to let him go for a token ransom. He preferred to be podded, though, as it would save him having to fly back to his next ship. I pointed out that he would lose his implants, but had apparently lost those earlier and had not replaced them. This led us into a conversation about Estel Arador Corp Services and jump clones.

I then wished him a safe journey and sent him on his way. He sent me a ransom any way, though, and thanked me for the advice.


Afterthoughts

Logging off for downtime, I was very happy with the first part of my day. Despite the early hours, there seemed to be a fair number of solo targets around, and had I managed a number of kills, albeit nothing tactically challenging. A good start, nonetheless.

I later sent Tawa an email pointing him towards Agony Unleashed and Blood Money Cartel, both of whom run reputable pvp training courses that allow new players. As of posting, I have not received a reply, but I do hope he applies to one of them; I know from experience just how much better the game is with a good corp.

To be continued...