EVE-Mag.com

Life on the Edge

Published on 01. Sep, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss, Tags: Articles

by Sam Guss …

The nice thing about being a newb in EVE, is that everything is new and fresh and exciting; even those things that people who have been around awhile take for granted or even with a sense of boredom.

I’ve been living in low sec space now for about a month and starting to take my first jaunts into null space. These are exciting times for me and beyond what I used to experience when I lived in high sec on previous characters.

To date so far, I’ve lost two Ospreys, a Slasher and three Rifters. The Ospreys I lost to belt rats in .3 space thinking that I could tank them, which with my skills at the time I could not. Two Rifters I lost in missions, another one to a POS’s sentry guns when I got to close and the Slasher I lost in null security when I got caught in a Warp bubble. I can honestly say that none of these losses hurt whatsoever, as I was easily able to replace them and outfit them without too much trouble or even time.

The experiences I’ve had though have been outstanding! In addition to the old hat stuff you can do anywhere, such as mining, belt ratting and mission running, there has been simply more to do in low security than I had to do out in high security. So far I’ve been able to participate in:

• Two POS sieges. I wasn’t really able to do much or add much DPS in my little ship but to be a part of an Op tearing down an unwanted POS in our system was still fun to watch.
• Acted as recon twice when hunting down known pirates in our end of space. This was a fun activity that has led me down the track of recon and as a result, by the end of September I will be flying my first Covert Ops Ship. One of these times resulted in killing off a despised pirate in our system and his cronies.
• Provided escort services with other pilots on numerous occasions as we moved goods or refueled our own POS’s.
• Explored many nearby systems and setup instas and safe spots in those systems.

While many of these activities were more about time in-game than actual combat, it was still enthralling to be a part of something that had you sitting on the edge of the seat, knowing that at any moment, things could change. For myself this is the allure of low sec space and 0.0 space – the element of the unknown that could happen at any time. The next step part being: did I successfully prepare myself for whatever may happen?

There’s a lot of different character types out here in lower sec. Wannabe Napoleans, ISK-motivated Industrialist, loathsome griefers, friendly pirates (yes friendly!), lost souls and teachers. It’s a great place to be and for myself has increased the joy of the game. See you out here soon!