Why We Do It

Yes, it is true that sometimes unusually intelligent and sensitive children can appear to be stupid. But stupid children can sometimes appear to be stupid as well. I think that's something you might have to consider.
--Douglas Adams

After my last post, the obvious question is why anyone engages anything with a hint of being bait.  Here's a time when I was absolutely positively sure I was being baited into a fight.  As it turned out, he didn't have any backup at all.  Lucky me.



Having spotted an Omen on scan towards I belt I made my way into warp only to see him warping off as I arrived.  Seeing he went towards the gate into the next system, I decided to follow in my Punisher.  Since engaging him within range of gate guns would have been suicide, I had no choice but to watch and wait when I jumped to the other side.  What I saw was the Cruiser align and warp off.

There were three objects in the direction he had gone.  A gate, a station, and a belt.  All of which were too far away to be picked up on my directional scanner.  I reasoned that if he was going to the station there was nothing I could do to him, if he was going to the belt he'd be there for a minute or so, but if he was going to the gate I might lose him.  Putting myself into warp towards the gate I began to consider that the Omen wasn't running from me so much as running towards something, or someone, else.

While in warp I'm generally doing a pretty good job of spamming my scan button like I have OCD, and this time I felt my heart sink as I spotted a Blackbird, Hurricane, Curse and Sacrilege pop up as I got in scan range of the gate.  Coming out of warp I was greeted with a site I wasn't expecting.  There was already a fight at the gate.  I didn't get a chance to piece together who was fighting who before the Blackbird jammed me and I decided jumping through the gate was in my best interest, but not before noticing that the Omen was absent from the grid.

Setting course back towards the gate I had just come through I jumped again.  This time, under the protection of the jump cloak, I was able to go about scanning for the Omen while chaos was erupting all around me.  Sure enough, he was at the belt.  Setting course for the ratting Cruiser, I came out of warp within range of my warp scrambler.  Locked, pointed, orbited and guns ablaze I went to work on this unsuspecting capsuleer.  Once his armor broke and I started slicing out chunks of his hull I considered opening up channels for a ransom, but with so many in local and several of the previously spotted ships still in range of my D-Scan I instead opted for the kersplosion.  The express trip he got back to his clone bay was just icing on the cake.

Loot scooped and my first successful 1v1 against a Cruiser in my Frigate under my belt, I spent my 15 minute GCC coming down from a high like nothing else.  So, to the question of why you'd ever want to engage something you think is bait, I point at this.  A shining example of times when things may seem like you're walking into a trap only to be pleasantly surprised by a good fight and some shiny loot.

Regarrrds,

FNG