So, I was killing some time this morning, just wandering about, no real plans for a whole lot. It’s a holiday here in the states and I didn’t want to start up in anything really involved, only going to be on for a short time.

I am warping around, npc ratting when I come across a guy in a Cyclone, mining. He’s just mining away and mining away. I am really just on my through the system and the only person in local was this guy, I was curious why someone would be in a Minmatar battle cruiser, in a belt, in Amarr, a 1.0 sec system. Larger cargo hold perhaps?

Well, as I ponder these things, he locks me. Mind you I just warped into the belt and I was aligning for a warp out. Of course, I ask why he’s locking me. He answers “I can kick you butt.”

Well……I’m game…..let’s go.

I alter course, kick in the mwd and close the distance to his jet can. I swap the can and he warps out.

Hmm…..either he’s got something with bigger guns, he didn’t see me take the can or he’s just a noob in a BC. A few seconds later, he warps in flying a Bestower. Okay….so….it’s a hauler versus an assault ship? Hmm……he’s not going to take the can, is he…..better lock him so I can warp scram him before he gets away……no…..he won’t take the can now……YUP, HE DID!!!

So, I obviously warp scram his hauler and promptly convo him. Ransom time!! He refuses the convo. I attempt to ransom him in local, “I WILL KICK YOUR BUTT!!!” Okay, on go the guns and release the drones!!!

As predicted, he didn’t last very long, blew him up before his auto-destruct kicked in. He kicked in his auto-destruct? Why? Does he want to go get his Cyclone that much faster? He could have ejected. Oh, wait, I would have taken the ship if he had and if I did blow up the ship, I would get a chance for some loot. Self-destruct to ensure that no modules survive and the attacker gets nothing. Yeah, use a game mechanic to stick it to the attacker. It’s supposed to anger pirates who’ve spent the “Yarring” very hard.

So, I figure that he’s not gonna come back, right? Hell no, he said he’d kick my butt. I figure he’s gonna come back with his Cyclone.

So, I orbit his wreck, waiting for his Cyclone to return. He comes in, locks me and warps out. I follow him around the system for a bit and we finally end up back at his Bestower wreck. Then we go at it. He’s hitting me with artillery shells and missiles, I am nosing him, hitting him with my rails and letting my little drones do their thing. We are going at it for several minutes. As he passes into structure, I see the system message that he has activated his auto-destruct. Hmm, two engagements in a row he has done this. Did I fall for the old “taunt the pirate and sefl destruct to frustrate him trap?” Well, if I have, he’ll get his insurance payout. He will loose all those expensive modules too, he should have paid the 50,000 isk ransom I kept offering him in local.

The counter goes down and there is litterally 1 slice of structue left, his ship pops.

As his pod warps away, he’s laughing in local. “Hahaha, no killmail for you, I auto-destructed first!!! Hahahahaha. No loot for you either!!! Hahahaha.”

He’s right, I didn’t get the kill mail.

So, I get nothing for my trouble, or do I? There is loot in the wreck of his Cyclone, a Cargo Expander II, some ammo, an artillery gun and a missile launcher.

Strange. Did a self-destruct happen or did I pop him.

No kill mail would suggest the self-destruct worked, but the loot left behind, more than ammo and/or drones and that would suggest that I popped him first.

I kindly inform him that it was nice of him to leave his extra cargo expander II in his cargo hold as well as a rail gun, missile launcher and some ammo behind when his Cyclone popped.

Needless to say, he starts a massive smack talk session. I let him go off and I eventually leave the system, after relocating all the ore that was in the jet can. So, I walk away with 6 mil in loot and refined ore sales.

Self-destruct, hmm, he seemed to think that he won that fight with that. Why is that? Hmm…., I do what any self-respecting pirate in training would do, check the forums concerning this particular tactic, self-destructing to avoid a kill mail/loss mail. I do some digging, even check the game logs. I see that his ship did self destruct before I could blow it up, even though he had literally 1 slice of structure when he popped. Were my shots in the air as he blew up? There’s no way to know. It’s so close, I decide to petition it, stating I don’t think the self destruct did not work correctly and I in fact did blow up the ship, why else would their be loot in the wreck. Shortly after I file the petition, I received the kill mail, hence the above referenced killboard posting.

So, I guess I did in fact pop his ship. To be nice, I head back to that system and post a copy of the kill mail, in several copy and paste moves, into local for him to see. I even forwarded a copy to the guy, just to let him know again what he lost. He starts smack talking, saying he’s going to petition a hack since he received the loss mail too and that activating a self destruct ensures that I should have gotten nothing from his Bestower or Cyclone.

So, either lag cause the kill / loss mail being sent or my petition worked. Regardless, I made some isk. He was so ticked and is threatening to have BoB war dec my 1 man corp. Funny how smack talkers like to name drop. He may actually be friendly with people in BoB or possibly a BoB alt. I don’t think they will war dec a 1 man corp and if they do, that would be a MAJOR milestone for me. BoB war decs my little 1 man corp, I must be doing something right.

All this because he locked me in a 1.0 sec system and lost two ships because he told me, “I can kick your butt,” as I was warping away, not even planning to swap his ore can. I was going to warp away, dock at a station and log for the day.

I swear, sometimes people only open their mouths to exchange which foot they have inserted in them.

I am grabbing a few minutes of my favorite addiction before heading into work, NPC ratting it is. I am flying around the belts and here comes someone in a Coercer, charging towards my wrecks. I try to talk to them in local, but they manage to loot the wreck and warp out of the system before I have a chance to do anything. Convo invites are rejected and no response from emails.

So, as I am trying to contact this person to get them to apologize for their acts of cowardly theft, I see another person come in and hit another one of my wrecks. Wow, people must love to steal from me.

I follow this fella around, trying to lock him down and the aggro timer expires. Nutz, I have to head to work soon. So, I head back to one of the belts that had his wrecks in it and loot from it. Yeah, I steal from wrecks too, but I at least stick around for the fight.

I scan him down and warp into te belt. He’s there, I hit the afterburner and charge at him. He locks me and fires. Sweet, a fight between two assault ships. This should be good.

For the next 10 minutes, we orbit each other, he in his Jaguar, me in my Ishkur. Around and around, firing on each other, nosing each other. My drones firing away. We both go into armor, we both go into structure. The only thing that is helping me is my damage control and my armor rep. We are both at 10 percent structure and they, BOOM, he’s in his pod.

I have to say, skydvejam put up one hell of a fight. I personally think is was the luck of the wrecking shot that won that battle. I have to tip my hat to him, it’s why I play EVE, for the great fights. We exchange good fights and some friendly chat in local and then we both log.

So, what to do about that guy in the Coercer?

…so, I am scoping out targets in the belts and I come upon a mining barge. I read the name and it looks familar, Firncirithion. Why do I know that name? Oh, Omicron Corporation. I remember them, back from my TRAPS days. He’e the CEO that I never was able to nail, he stayed docked most of the time. Nexa finally got him, but he was a loose end for me.

He has a jet can out as his is mining. Nah, he wouldn’t attack me, would he? Let’s find out. I swap the jet can and sure enough, out come the drones. We exchange blows and suddenly, pop goes his Retriever. Loot galore, well, lots of mined ore and a few items, mainly two strip miner I’s. It’s a start. I dock and sell the loot and head back to handle the ore. I should have checked the scanner first, he’s there in his Myrmidon. I think that this is going to hurt and out he warps. I must have warped in as he was warping out. I lock my jet can and pop it, then warp out to get bigger guns.

As I jump back into the system, he’s there are the gate. He locks me and fires. I guess he didn’t see that I am in my Pilgrim of Doom. I close to 30 km and hit my nos. I get into warp scrambling range and scramble him just has he recalls his drones. They never make it back to the drone bay, he goes boom. From the loot and the killmail, I can tell that this was a quick fight because of his fittings, it was just not right for a Myrmidon. Not strong enough. I exchange good fights with him anyway, at least he made a showing.

So, on to roaming the belts, this time, in another system.

A hulk. Wow, I’ve never had someone in a hulk fight back and with the ore cans, all three of them full, this was not something I was going to pass up. He’s been here a while, I could make some money.

So, I close distance and swap one of the cans. As I am waiting for the jetison timer to exprire and jet another can, some NPC rats spawn. Out come his drones and they attack the rats. Then, much to my surprise, they attack me. SWEET, I have a chance to pop this Hulk. I work him down to half armor and in warps a Raven. I do a double take and the Raven locks me. These two are not in the same corp, suicide gank with a Raven? No, can’t be that dumb.

As the cruise missiles crash into my armor, I think, wow, I took that hit and survived, will I survive the second volley? No need, Concord shows up and attacks the Raven. Before I can get a shot off on the Raven and hopefully get the killmail, the Raven pops. A few seconds later, the Hulk goes up too.

So, I miss out on the Raven killmail, but the loot makes up for it. I head to a station and I nervously grab my hauler as my Punisher’s hold is too small to get everything. As I approach the belts, both of these people leave local. Sweet, they are not coming back for their loot.

So, a simple desire to pop a Hulk lands me with some very nice T2 loot, some E50 nos modules and 120 million isk more in my wallet. This was a good day.

What is it with newer players and stealing loot from wrecks? Don’t these people read the forums and learn how dangerous such actions can be?

I was doing my thing in Tash-Murkon Prime, warming up this gaming session with some NPC ratting in the belts when lo and behold, you guessed it, someone stole from my wrecks. He was in a Coercer and just warped out of the belt. I looked at his info and he was rather new. I let him go, figuring that small fish should be allowed to grow up.

A few minutes later, I head over to another system to pickup a skill book I purchased and sitting outside the station is my loot thief friend in a mining barge. So, you can’t make enough isk mining, you have to steal my loot as well?

Hmm….he’s flashing red, should I? YARR!!!!! I lock him and a few seconds later, pop goes his mining barge.

You would think that would be the end of it, dock your pod and wait things out. Nope, this guys comes out again, this time in a Comorant, locks me and fires. I return the favor, strike two.

So, put yourself in these shoes. You are a newer player, you have stolen loot from someone and they have popped two of your ships. You would call it quits at this point, right? Well, not this fella. Here comes his Coercer for another try. Strike three and he’s done.

So, he’s just spent a few minutes loosing 16 million is isk and fittings in three ships for stealing loot from a few wrecks that made him less that 10,000 isk. Yeah, I don’t think it was worth it for him.

He finally learns that he should just stay docked for a while and he logs off. So, finally, I can now pickup my skill book in peace.

I keep moving around, trying to work some targets in the belts. I can swap on this guy in a battle cruiser. Bad move, cost me a ship. I came back for a nice win though and made some money on the loot.

I am having fun!!!