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EVE Online: Correspondent - A Pirate's Life for Me
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com EVE Online Correspondent Richard Morris writes this new article talking about the benefits of pirating in CCP's space-based sandbox game.
Pirates are notoriously known to pillage, loot and disobey authorities. In EVE this is just the same, only... space-like. The general EVE world mould breaks down into security sections. Pirates are only safe in low security areas that are .4 and below. Normal players are only safe from player pirate attacks with higher security levels that are .6 and above. With these security levels in place it makes it both easier to start and harder to progress. But never fear! The concord will assist you whenever possible. Well... that is assuming you're not a pirate yourself. In which case they will leave you for death (my current sources say that death likes fresh meat). Do not worry though, being pod-killed is not so bad when you have a decent clone.
Pirating is often known to be the ultimate risk in EVE. Though NPCs can be pirates and cause just as much trouble in some situations, another player is unpredictable. This makes player versus player that much more exciting.
;)
Read the whole thing here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Sorry to be critical, but this is just not a good article. It does not describe what pirating in Eve is at all. I get the feeling from the article that the author has spent a month or so in Eve pirating and thinks he understands the game. Not even close.
First off, he combines low-sec (.4 - .1 security) with the no security area 0.0 which are two very different entities and then sprinkles titans throughout his diatribe. Sorry again, titans and doomsday weapons are not allowed in low-sec. Pirates operate very carefully in 0.0 as there are big corporations there that do not like them. As to besieging a station in 0.0, there are very few pirate corps that would even have the ships to do that and I doubt they would bother.
I don't pirate, but I know a lot more about the subject than the author. The big difference between pirates and their prey, the pirate is usually fitted for pvp while the prey is most probably fitted for pve. Makes a big difference in a fight. Unless a pirate is in a well known pirate corp, most players won't pay a ransom because there are too many disreputable pirates out there who will kill you for sport after you pay it. He does not even mention why players would pay a ransom. Some players have expensive implants which will be lost if they are podded and have to go to a clone.
He talks about ore in a ore ship being valuable which it is usually not. A pirate needs a transport along to haul the ore and I don't see many pirate fleets escorting a transport. The valuable things in a ship are the fittings of which a good portion are destroyed when you blow it up.
Secondly there is another player on the other side controlling the ship being pirated. While it is a game, the other player has spent significant time building or purchasing their ship and outfitting it. The article completely ignores the fact that the pirate always has overwhelming ods on their prey and you are essencially ruining the other players day. Because of that there are NO pirates that have any respect in the game.
He also mentions the bounty system, which is majorly broken. Hence there are no bounty hunters in this game as it just is not an enterprise that pays anything.
Sorry this article contains lots of incomplete information. If you are going to write an article on something you should at least know your subject first.
I have to agree with Ozmodan, this aritcle reads like someone with little real play time. I have a few specifics areas of mis or incomplete information to touch on:
Pirates are only safe in low security areas that are .4 and below. Normal players are only safe from player pirate attacks with higher security levels that are .6 and above.
This is a huge and grossly wrong statement at so many levels. First pirates can and do frequently attack in high sec. Suicide kills are unfortunately a fact of life in high sec space. The pirate will quick kill a ship and then concord of course will kill him. However his buds are waiting close by to scoopu up the loot. Also there is the ever present grief dec, oops I mean war dec. Here the pirate and his group issue a war dec on an industrial group. This then allows them free riegn to attack the industrials in any sec level of space.
you will find yourself getting more loot from bigger ships if you search for ships in security ranges from 0.0 to 0.4.
This is not piracy but PVE play, true piracy is PVP. As such what you have described here is not relevent. In fact the odds are from a piracy view point you will get less haul in low sec as people there are more cautious, tend to carry less valuable material and use less expensive ships to keep loses under control.
I will refrain from the entire comment of earning gold as this just shows not having a good knowledge of the subject matter or just careless writing.
Finally as for respect, I have only met one or two pirate groups I would bother to give respect to. That was becuase they actually play as real pirates, they do not want to kill your skil or you, they want your loot. They do not attack armed combat ships but look for cargo ships and miners. These are RARE pirate groups.
Most so called pirate groups are basically griefers that get their jollies off of killing other players. They have no real gain in mind, they just want a kill for the kill board.
This entire artilce as I stated just comes across as incomplete and the author not really understanding the subject matter. I suggest no one bother to use this information to know what pirating really is in EVE.
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I have a soap box and I am not afraid to use it.
EVE vets claim newer players are afraid to go into zero or low sec space. But, I tell you, from personal experience, pirates are what keep peope out of those areas. In the month I played EVE, I was never able to get into zero space on my own. No matter which avenue I tried, gates leading into zero space were always camped by asshats called pirates. It ruined the game for me. Yeah, I know join a corp blah blah blah but that's the problem with EVE. It is rare someone who can play the game solo. Everybody else: join a corp.
I must agree, this article contains some inaccuracies and also misses the mark in terms of what a pirate's life in EVE is like. But hey...it does draw attention to our "noble" profession.
If you really want to learn what an EVE pirate's life is like, read their blogs. Flashfresh, a notorious EVE pirate and all around cool guy, has posted links to several of them right here...it's a great start for anyone who wants to know what us pirates REALLY do and think. You'll see that there are as many flavors of pirating in EVE as there are flavors in the other career paths you can choose there.
Borko: You're playing an online game. The point is to play with other people. I can't take pity on your here, if you want to play solo, go play a single-player game. People PAY to play an ONLINE game to play WITH other people. The only MMO I've ever found that can be at all rewarding for a lone wolf is WoW, and even then only if the only thing you care about is enlarging your e-penis by bragging about how spiffy your character and its gear is.
Mopar: As far as refering to the currency as gold, I couldn't say whether it's through habit on his part (I've been known to call money in any game gil or isk, depending on which I've been playing more of lately, EVE or FFXI), or simply because saying "gold" is understandable to anyone, regardless of their knowledge of the game in question. If you say "gold" everyone knows you're talking about money. It's that simple.
Ozmo: One of the risks you take in going into unexplored (that's the concept behind 0.0, it's new territory, the wild west, as it were) is that of running into criminals. If you are afraid of this, stay in high sec with the other carebears. Or join an anti-pirate corp. Then you can have fun with PvP, help protect the carebears, and get to feel self-righteous at the same time; it's a win-win for you. I will, however, say that griefing does exist, though sometimes it's justified. I remember when some corporation decided to come into OUR territory and gank one of our guys. We proceeded to infiltrate their corporation, find out they're building a dreadnaught, and then had the balls to move it through OUR territory without even having the money to insure it or fit it out properly (honestly, I don't think their dreadnought pilot even had the skills to fit it properly, didn't even have a siege module). We took out their dreadnaught and a few dozen of their battleships. Over the next week or two, we destroyed nearly all of their assets. If I remember the USD-ISK exchange rate at the time, it worked out to something like $2000. Their corporation fell apart, some of their players quit the game. We sat back, satisfied with the knowledge that a lesson had been learned about biting off more than you can chew. As far as war decs, keep in mind that it takes money to keep those running. More often than not, if someone war decs your corp, you did something to piss them off. I've never seen a war dec for the sole purpose of free reign to kill and loot for profit, it just doesn't happen (closest thing to an exception is a mercenary corporation, in which case you pissed someone ELSE off enough to hire the mercs to take your corp down).
Author: Here's another thing you got completely wrong. YOU CANNOT SURVIVE AGAINST CONCORD. After The Yulai Incident it became a TOS violation to survive against Concord ships. If you enter a high sec system and your personal security rating is too low, factional police vessels will engage you, and you CAN kill, tank, or flee from these ships. However, if you agress someone in high sec Concord will show up, and while you're free to kill the person you agressed (and anyone else you can take before you go down), you WILL be killed by Concord, and this is enforced by the TOS. If you find some way of surviving an actual Concord attack, you are violating those TOS.
PS3 Running 24/7 since: 30 JAN 2008
EULA: By reading this post and associated disclaimer, you are consenting to agree with the opinions disclosed within.
i always found pirates to be interesting, i remeber mining in low sec in a bestower before mining barges where introduced when i just started playing and that was the most fun i ever had getting ganked. CCP put low sec and 0.0 in just so that there would be people doing that!
Oh and for the person maon about not being able to solo, i did it for a year and had great fun but the game is better in a corp because its a social game!
p.s. never been a pirate, but pirate dodging should be an olympic sport!
p.p.s. i thought the article, while not accurate, did make me want to get back into eve so well done for that!!
heaven and earth are ruthless,
and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs
"I've never seen a war dec for the sole purpose of free reign to kill and loot for profit, it just doesn't happen"
Actually will have to disagree with you there. It is pretty common for people to wardec new player corps and FW corps because it is a given they most probably can't fight back. Why do you think CCP is looking at the Wardec process again? Certainly not because it is being used benovalently.
As to the guy rambling about 0.0, excuse me I have lived there for over two years, there are other things to do in 0.0 besides just pvping all the time.
Probably one of the worst articles I've ever seen on this site. If you're going to write about piracy at least do some research first. I don't even think this sounds like someone with SOME experience in the game. Pirates can, and do, attack in high sec. Thus the 'suiced ganking' that goes on. Pirates also use can flipping, can baiting, and numerous other methods to attack players in high sec. I could go on but there's no point. Suffice to say that this article has some gross errors in it.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
I enjoyed SporkWatch's comments but not many other's. You can't argue that this could have been written a bit better but i enjoyed the author's energy.
(P.S. You all need to brighten up!)
Nope... it's articles like this one that lull new players into a false sense of security in high-sec space and cause them to make silly decisions that get them killed. Then they blame the game for their error rather than blaming themselves for not learning the mechanics before doing something that allows a pirate to kill them in high sec.
Then they come parading to the forums to spew nonsense about how the game is unfair, etc etc.
If you are going to write an article about PVP, especially Piracy in EVE you really need to do the homework necessary to get it right first.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Heh, it's a game. Relax guy
Besides, I'm sure not many pirates are going to want to kill the new players. They have no loot when compared to a more experienced player.
Now that comment is amusing. There are plenty of pirates that prey on new players. New players are easy, just wardec the new corp and have fun. There are plenty of pirates that do just that. Some don't call them pirates, but it is a pvp game. There is no place that is safe in this game, if you depend on safe you should not play Eve.
You would be so suprisd. MOST pirates are not truly pirates, they are not after a gain from their efforts just another kill tick on the kill board. They do not care if they kill a noob frigate or a battleship if it shows them with a kill.
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I have a soap box and I am not afraid to use it.
I was kind of dissapointed by the piracy in Eve. It has so much potential, but it is ruined by fights being so hard to come across, unless you are gate camping.
If you dont have a good sec status, players will dock up as soon as you enter the system. The only way we usually found prey was to scan probe, and sadly I did not have the skills to scan probe on my character. So pretty much I spent hours on end searching for prey, but rarely found any. I was tempted many times to just dual log a scan probe alt, but never took the time or wanted to spend the money to do it.
Of course you could have suicide killed, but that was like fishing, and you had to spend hours on end searching for prey for that as well. Gate campings were just as boring.
So in the end, the thing that gave EVEs piracy its potential, was its downfall. So much risk involved equated to players being scared to even enter low-sec space, or warping as soon as they see anyone who could be a risk enter the system.
What should have been hard fought battles with huge risk involved for both parties, turned in to a boring day of "fishing" for enemies, for that one minute of action.
There is a reason that most pirates stuck to small ships, and that is because pirating as a whole is nowhere near as profitable as any other method of making money in Eve because of this, you could ask any pirate corp. It was common knowledge for the ones I came across that the best way to truly make a profit was suicide ganking, which was very, very boring.
The only pirates I knew that always stuck to bigger ships, were the ones with many alts or who been playing since release, that had other ways of generating money (typically across multiple accounts) and werent doing the pirating for the money, but for the fun. Sadly, most players couldnt do it for either, because the money was so bad, and it just wasnt fun to spend so much time without action.
If the devs would ever do anything to alleviate this problem and give the game a little more action, I would go back for sure. But for now, it just isnt worth so much time for such a small amount of action/profit.
Spyri: it depends on where you are. I've usually had pretty good luck with roving hunting parties. It depends on where you are. And yes, PvP in low-sec and high-sec is going to be a lot of griefing, because there's not much there worth going after. Back in the days when complexes were static points, you had much more interesting PvP in ought-ought, as you had a very valuable asset in an area that people would fight hard to control. Just like in the middle ages kingdoms might fight for control of mines and other natural resources (you still see this in EVE around valuable asteroid fields.
Zulso: It's understandable for people to get worked up over inaccurate information, especially in a game they really care about. I've personally watched whiners affect great (and terrible) change in games. Look to the destruction of ballance in PlanetSide (Vanu Sovereignty constantly nerfed, Terran Republic buffed nearly every patch, New Conglomerate getting their fly-by-camera missile buffed up to do the same damage as one of the most powerful weapons in the game -- that weapon being a dumb-fire point and straight-line shot missile), and the complete destruction of everything that was good in Star Wars Galaxies. Or look to Ultima Online, where people crying resulted in non-conentual PvP being removed from the game, as well as the ability to pick-pocket other players. Or Everquest, again with abilities being nerfed because of people crying "it's too powerful" when it wasn't (EQ Online Adventures, for the PS2, saw the Wizard class nerfed to the point that you had to use spells that cost twice as much mana, and they still delt about half as much damage as they used to). When people cry to the devs (and the whiners are always the most vocal: if someone doesn't have a problem, they rarely have reason to be posting in response to complaints, as they're probably busy PLAYING the game), things can be hurt, so I can completely understand people getting worked up about it. At the same time, some of those whiners are here, and they're the ones crying about getting ganked. Quite simply, shit happens. Get on with your life, or quit the game.
PS3 Running 24/7 since: 30 JAN 2008
EULA: By reading this post and associated disclaimer, you are consenting to agree with the opinions disclosed within.
"Or look to Ultima Online, where people crying resulted in non-conentual PvP being removed from the game, as well as the ability to pick-pocket other players"
Well both those UO changes were a no brainer. Some people enjoy pvp, others don't. They had to offer that option as EQ was killing them. The good stuff was still in the pvp areas though. As to pickpocketing, it was implemented incorrectly, there was no counter to it, especially in towns, it was a griefers delight. be careful what you site as facts to support your arguments. Niether of those two items ruined the game in the least, what ruined UO was "Age of Shadows" which implemented powerful weapons and armor.
Matter of opinion, Ozmo. One of the greatest appeals of UO, like EVE, was the freedom. By taking away those freedoms, they killed what was great about the game. I still play on a free server from before those two items were removed. It's a lot of fun. As to PvP, it was as simple as calling out "guards" and the cops would protect you. They might not save you, just like Concord in EVE might not save you, but the aggressor is going down.
More than anything else, it's the immature players and griefers that hurt these games by abusing what is there. Even when I'm playing WoW, I tend not to attack someone that isn't within 2-3 levels of me, unless they either A) attack me first,
seem like they're stalling for time or tracking me so they can call in a 70 to gank me, or C) they're just plain rude. I usually will wave or salute, if they respond back, all well and good. If they ignore me, or are rude in response, it's good night to them (as far as C, I apply this even to people that are the same level as me, which I much prefer, as there's no satisfaction in a one-sided fight). These griefers are the same people that argue IN FAVOR of exploiting glitches on the grounds of "it's in the game, if the devs didn't want us to use it, they should fix it," and can't wrap their heads around the fact that exploiting is cheating. These are the people to blame for the griefing, and the whiners are to blame for ruining it for everyone else.
In any case, this is only one of the games in my post. One can't really argue it at all in the case of PlanetSide (the whole purpose is PvP, that's what the game IS, even more than people try to say EVE is; unlike EVE, there IS nothing else but PvP in PlanetSide), and even SWG, where the changes were nothing to even do with griefing or PvP, it was to make the game into another piss-poor WoW clone, as if WoW itself isn't bad enough.
As a note, while yes, I do play WoW, I'm not even close to being a fan. The only thing that game got right is crafting, and even then EVE's system is better and deeper. The only good thing about WoW's crafting is it's simple, easy, and doens't take much to feel like you got something out of it, which can't be said for crafting in almost any other game. The sole reason I play is one of my army buddies that I've been gaming with for the better part of a decade now plays it as his main game right now, so it's a way to keep in touch. I still play FFXI and EVE Online primarily and prefer them over WoW by a wide margin.
PS3 Running 24/7 since: 30 JAN 2008
EULA: By reading this post and associated disclaimer, you are consenting to agree with the opinions disclosed within.
Jon-You got many things wrong here, which will be repeated by every EVE player that takes time to post...I'll just say that you need to spend the time getting the info correct before you write or opine on something. I mean Leeches?!..dude..
In point form (topics which may or may not have already been covered)
Spectre, a couple points (although overall what you wrote is good and accurate, to the best of my knowledge).
1) I'm not sure if it's -5 or -10 status that will allow players to kill you in high sec, but whichever the cutoff is, it also applies to lowsec (obviously).
2) Titans cannot leave 0.0. Part of the backstory (read: rationalization for doing this, because doing it is needed for ballance) is that it would be considered an act of war against an empire to have a titan enter their space. In any case, they can't leave 0.0, as far as I know. Capitals, as you said, must operate out of low-sec.
3) In regard to concord, if it's actually concord, AFAIK you're not allowed to survive. Period. You can't even run away. This is due to The Yulai Incident. The ships that attack you for entering high sec when your personal sec status is too low ARE NOT CONCORD. These are factional police vessels, not Concord, and you ARE able to run away, tank, kill, etc them (though I believe engaging may bring Concord down on you). It's only Concord that you aren't allowed to survive, as they only appear to prevent casual ganking in high sec.
PS3 Running 24/7 since: 30 JAN 2008
EULA: By reading this post and associated disclaimer, you are consenting to agree with the opinions disclosed within.
Thanks Spork. I do remember reading somewhere that it's a -5.0 and it's free-for-all, but that was a while ago, so not sure if it's changed or still stands. I wasn't aware that Titans could only roam 0.0, but it's good to know, and emphasises my point of there never being a standoff between Concord and a Titan a little more.
And you are probably right on the Concord thing as they'd have you Webbed and Warp scrambled before you even thought about running. And I'm pretty sure firing on a factional police vessel would encite them to enlist the aid of Concord.
You seem to misunderstand. Prior to The Yulai Incident, it was perfectly possible to survive and even fight Concord (albeit difficult, to say the very least). After The Yulai Incident they gave Concord massive buffs to virtually every characteristic, as well as (to the best of my knowledge) making it a TOS violation to survive an attack in which Concord (NOT factional police vessels, just actual Concord) has engaged you.
PS3 Running 24/7 since: 30 JAN 2008
EULA: By reading this post and associated disclaimer, you are consenting to agree with the opinions disclosed within.
The has changed a lot from the original release. Lots of things have been changed as the population has increased and players found weaknesses in the game to exploit. CCP is still plugging them, but then that is pretty common in most MMO's. I do applaud CCP for being very hesitant to make the game easier.
I'm aware. It's not even so much of a "make it easier" thing, CCP is just very hands off, they know that what's killed most games is too much developer intervention. And honestly, I think the only reason the reaction to The Yulai Incident was as severe as it was is because the perpetrators didn't stop when the GMs told them to. If they had obeyed GM instructions, good odds they would have only received a buff, as opposed to the current state where it's impossible to survive, and if you do, it's considered a TOS violation.
PS3 Running 24/7 since: 30 JAN 2008
EULA: By reading this post and associated disclaimer, you are consenting to agree with the opinions disclosed within.