Dog With a Bone

You cannot see what I see because you see what you see. You cannot know what I know because you know what you know. What I see and what I know cannot be added to what you see and what you know because they are not of the same kind. Neither can it replace what you see and what you know, because that would be to replace you yourself.
--Douglas Adams

It seems players often underestimate just how patiently Pirates in EVE will pursue a target.  While I can certainly understand wanting to get back to playing your game when a Pirate interrupts you, take a moment to consider the lengths that he's willing to go to in playing his game.



The first example was a miner in a lowsec belt.  Now, I was a little surprised to see a Tormentor show up on D-scan at a belt.  He seemed to generally know what he was doing, as he was at least 50km away from the belt's warp in, and quickly got out of there when I arrived.  He was also mining into Secure Containers, ensuring no one would be able to take his ore from him.  He was smart enough to dock up once he saw me and remain there for at least ten minutes while I bounced around the system scanning for any other targets.

What he didn't seem to anticipate was me bookmarking the can he was mining into and then leaving system.  Waiting a minute on the other side of the gate before my jump cloak failed, I made my way back into his system and immediately warped to his can.  I landed right on top of him and this time he wasn't going anywhere.  Well, unless you count the trip back to his clone bay.

Now, I will give this guy some credit.  I don't have any solid numbers on isk/hour made mining in a lowsec belt, but do know that the ship he was flying cost less than 1 million isk.  I assume that he's still able to turn a profit even if he loses the occasional T1 Frigate to someone like me.  This thought is reinforced by seeing him arrive back in system before my 15 minute GCC had expired in another T1 Mining Frigate.  I didn't bother pursuing him a second time since I didn't really get any good loot from him the first time, and padding Killboard stats isn't really my goal here.

The second example of just how unwilling I am to give up on a target involves a Thrasher spotted ratting in a belt.  I landed about 20km from him and wasn't quite in range of my overheated scrambler when he warped off.  Pulsing my modules when I locked him I did still manage to pick up a GCC from firing guns in his general direction even if they didn't connect.  As I looked at the countdown in the upper left corner of my display mocking me, I noticed something a bit odd.  The Thrasher was still on scan, but the pilot wasn't in local.  He hadn't warped away when he saw me, he had logged off.

This may just be a pet peeve of mine, but people pulling a logoffski to get there ship and/or pod out of a fight irritate me.  They irritate me enough that I'll bookmark the location and wait patiently at a safespot for the pilots name to reappear in local.  I probably would have done it even if I wasn't waiting out a GCC timer, but this time I didn't have much choice in the matter.

Over ten minutes passed before I saw the pilots name pop back up in local.  I was already aligned to the spot he had been when he logged off and was waiting for him when his ship arrived and this time he wasn't going anywhere.  He did manage to get his pod out, this time with manual piloting instead of just logging out, and I sent up a GF in local.

To all the carebears out there, I give you these stories so that you might consider for a moment just how much time the other guy has when you think, "Surely he's left by now."  Clearly you think we have something better to be doing.  Clearly you'd be wrong.

Regarrrds,

FNG