Now I’ve been playing Eve since 2003 and I’ve tried my hand at most professions in the game. Trading, manufacturing, mining, missions, hauling, dueling, corp wars, alliance wars, etc… you name it, I’ve probably done it at least once. Currently I consider myself a pirate. Yes, I’m one of those dirty rotten scumbags who just turned that new ship that you’ve been working so hard for months just to get enough isk to buy and outfit with the best modules you could find into space dust and a drifting cargo container. Now I’m fairly new to the pirate scene, but I have a good number of kills under my belt and I love it more than any other thing I’ve tried. However, the one thing in this game that I just cannot comprehend is why anyone would want to be a pirate hunter. The roleplay perspective of it is something I can easily relate to: You want to pvp but you want to be the “good guys� so to speak. Its almost the same as being a pirate. What I cant understand is where the fun is in the profession.
From what I’ve seen, pirate hunting goes something like this:
There are a number of corporations which consider themselves “anti-pirate� corps. They all have an alliance against the pirates and they have a “secret� channel they talk in where the pirates can’t see. Now I personally like to pirate in frigates, having been drained of most of my cash while fighting wars in Stain (they never did reimburse me as promised). They are fast, cheap, and I can take out ships much bigger than myself. So what happens is I leave the station in a punisher, where there is usually an anti-pirate or two camping in a battleship and waiting to pod me. I easily get away and start looking through belts in the system for targets. Meanwhile the anti-pirates send out call for help: “OMFGWTF NUGGAN JUST UNDOCKED IN A PUNISHER AND GOT AWAY WTF! HAX! BRING EVERYTHING U HAVE WE GOTTA GET HIM�. By this time I’ve usually found and popped some poor soul who was attempting to mine in a thrasher. Then local starts to flare up..5 people…6…8…12…15…22…the anti-pirate brigade has arrived. Eventually one of them spots me as I’m fighting someone in a belt and warps in. I finish my fight, they wouldn’t pay the ransom(as usual), and then warp out as other anti-pirates warp in. Eventually they all end up in that same belt and talking smack in local about how I wont respond to their 1v1 requests for my frig vs their BS, BC, HAC, etc…. The reason I don’t respond however is that I’m already 2 systems away popping some mammoth who was afk at a moon. The anti-pirates now spend the next 2-6 hours trying to track me down while I go along my pirate way. Usually I elude them, but every now and then they manage to get semi-organized and track me down. Sometimes they even catch me and by some miracle all 6 battleships, 4 BCs, 5 HACs, 3AFS, and 2 INTYS manage to survive the battle while my one little frig gets popped… (my pod still gets away though). Actual pirates on the other hand? They are the true masters. Just last night, when I was giving some nooblets some pointers on starting their adventures in piracy, I got mobbed by about 6 other pirates. Let me tell you, I had NO CLUE at all they were coming for me. I was at a safe spot and even though I was watching local I didn’t suspect they were all pirates or even together. Not only did they pop my ship, but they locked my pod so quickly that I didn’t know what hit me until I was back in a station. Cheers for them! That’s the way to be a pirate!
What I’m asking is where is the fun in 10 people chasing 1 person around for HOURS without getting a kill? Meanwhile I’ve had 9 or 10 fights already and the night is still young. And where is the fun without the risk? I put my frigate up against 2 or 3 cruisers at a time. Sometimes I live, sometimes I don’t, but its still more fun than 15 or so killing 1 person in a frigate. Now I’ve pirated with my corp as well as solo, and I understand the fun in swarming some poor guy who thought he was safe while NPCing in his BC, but there is a huge difference there, mainly the overkill factor. Anti-pirates? More like Anti-Fun Timesinks. YARRR!
-Nuggan
Anti-Pirates......
20 Comments
Its not just anti-pirates that need 10:1 odds. The majoirty of so called PVPers in this game (those in the big alliances) will rarely go around without a gankfleet. In all my time I've been playing, I've seen 1 person from an alliance fight properly.
I'm not even complaing about the massive gank squads.... I just dont understand how anti-pirates have any fun in the game while chasing someone for hours and rarely catching their target.
hehehe yeah i get ur point... while iw as still in U'K i was hunting npc's in my wolf... suddenly 2 incurses jump me (probably assuming i was in a rifter) and i managed to kill 1.. the other got away... Than the regional anti-pirate group called in probes and started hunting this poor guy in his incurses... the ganged me and all of the sudden i flew in the shadow of a geddon some hac and 2 cruisers while someone else was probing the pirate :D:D
they didnt get him after all :D
My favorite thing. Anti-pirate ganksquad manages to nail one or two of our outlaw players. They smacktalk for an hour to us about it, then bugger off. The come back a few days later with a small fleet. The instant we undock to fight them with even odds, they bugger off. This happens a few times. Finally we get sick of it and take the fight to them for a change. We totally caught them off guard, was chaotic as hell from their side of things. No organization whatsoever, everyone just scrambling to dock. We manage to nail a couple of them before they can and what do we get? Howling in local about how we dont fight fair. Hypocrites.
I found it more entertaining when one fo the Haine dolts came at us in a raven, flagged himself on a non outlaw geddon and bore the wrath of 6 battleships and a handful of other ships (http://killboard.eve-extra.com/read_mail.php?id=94361). Of course he called for help, because thats what they do. So he was followed closely by an Apoc. (http://killboard.eve-extra.com/read_mail.php?id=95310). The 330mil isk named loot was nice :)
Y'alright there, now before I start, I'm a pirate hunter, however I've got a bit too much honour for whats good for me, and usually end up losing the Target, or getting my ass handed to me leaving me worse off than I started.
Now I don't understand some corps logic in chasing down people with a mob. I mean maybe if you'd podded my best friend in game, or killed a CEO etc, I'd call the angry mob, but I'm much more of a *Hope to catch the Pirate in the act, and take him down on my lonesome*
Now I use Frigates? Why? One I'm on an even footing usually, 2 I ccan keep up with you, Frigates are so fast. So the point of this is, keep up what your doing, while you can keep the upper hand all is well!
Hope to see you starside...or not, as might be the case :P
Nuggan,
your article has truth in it but ask any decent anti-pirate and you will hear the some story with sides switched.
As a pirate finding a target is much easier than anti-pirating + pirates such have a lot more experience in organisation and combat.
Why?
1. There are a lot more targets for pirates. Basically every other player is a potential target for a pirate while anti-pirates have only you, the pirate, as a target.
2. Point one leads directly to pirates having much more fights than anti-pirates and much more opportunity to organise in gank fleets and ops.
And about the time sink. Honestly, how much time is a pirate looking for prey and not able to find any? In many stories on this blog you can read about ppl being bored while camping a gate or searching the belts. In the same time a non pirate can do several missions, mine a bit and produce items for sale, making him rich ;)
Luance,
It is true the pirates also can have tough times finding targets, but in regards to missions, etc, pirates also have the option of doing those, and I know many who do. The point in my artice is not about lack of prey in general, but about who I've seen anti-pirates pick a target and then chase that same target for hours and almost never catch them. I'm not even saying that all anti-pirates act this way, but many that I've seen do and I just dont understand where they can find enjoyment in hours of just warping around looking for one person and doing that day after day.
It all sounds a bit smokey and the bandit to me. which one of you is Bueford T Justice?
Not all anti-pirates need a gank squad to hunt pirates.
I have fought kitties when i got oppurtunity... I remember fighting them 1 vs 3 several times like this one:
Nuggan, Olixia and Mirel ganked a BC on belt. when i warped in BC went pop, all kitties flashing around. I was in Vagabond, Nuggan in Sacrilege, Olixia in Thorax and Mirel was in an inty some sort of.
Nuggan and Olixia go pop and Mirel escapes.
Anyway I don't care about odds very much. All I care is to kill many pirates to earn new ships and modules from friendly t2 corps who want to run their business in my home region. Im not specialized in pirate hunting thou - I help people to do missions, 0.0 npc-s, secure mining ops, cargo hauling whatever is needed and i got time for. its still much better than to gank people who are really not interested/fitted/ready for pvp.
In general u are correct mainly on the fact that most anti-prats are not well organised (being usually carebears at heart).
However, u should also factor in the eeeer, well, fact that most anti-prat squads exist to 'police' and 'patrol' systems so they stay reasonably free of prats and the locals (sometime alts or corpies) can keep on their heavy mining and isk-making. In other words, even disorganised anti-prat blobs usually have the desired effect (with some losses now and then admitedlly).
Now, as to how one can have 'fun' mining and not fighting, well that's a totally diferent issue and one I'm not going to discuss here and effectivelly hijack your thread ;-)
Just my 2p
"What I’m asking is where is the fun in 10 people chasing 1 person around for HOURS without getting a kill?"
Where is the fun (and skill) in 3-6 pirates camping gates blowing up every ship and then poding everyone that comes through?
Pirates are probably the most hypocritical players around...
I wouldnt know, I dont gate camp
Anonymous people looks like a bit more hypocritical in fact ...
Pirates rule. Pirates are mad. See the evil, and reach us in the dark side ....
[quote]its still much better than to gank people who are really not interested/fitted/ready for pvp.[/quote]
Not being fitted and ready for pvp in a <0.5 system is silly.
"Anti-pirate" as a term is someone trying so hard to sound smart they come off as stupid (Hey look I put "anti" in my term, I can flirt with latin mom!). The correct english would actually be:
Pirate Hunter (one who hunts pirates)
or for the more mercenary minded go-gooder
Bounty-hunter
an anti-pirate literally means some one who is the opposite of a pirate, so um I dunno. Running around begging people to recieve new ships and isk?
Every time I see the word "anti-pirate" it makes me want to throw my wireless keyboard out my window. Hunt the guy down and vomit on his bed.
I've seen a lot of talk about how anti-pirates are the good guys in this or somehow have a justified job. That's bullshit. To me anti-pirate is the most illigitemate job in the game. Pirating actually serves a ligitimate purpose, you can't go in low sec without taking risks. Everyone knows this. If you go low sec and get popped it's your own fucking fault. The people that get together or even just solo pirate hunt are just butt hurt over some pirate playing their role in eve. And another thing. In eve, veteran pirates can't go into high sec space without facing the wrath of CONCORD. They have low sec systems and that's it. CONCORD is the high sec protection, you can go there if you are clean of all the pirating business. Where is the protection for those who reside in low sec systems? Nowhere. They have to defend themselves. Anti-pirates think they can justify their actions because the game they are playing is so stacked their way in terms of "fairness" which happens to be their hypocritical aim. Fuck anti pirates.
-Drojo
>They have to defend themselves.
Some pirates say EVE is a cruel world/:) the majority of those who live in empire space will agree that pirates/suicides make their life harder, but why those people will agree that "pirates need some space to exist"? pirates should fight for that space, if they get camped and ganked by anti-pirates, then that's a "se-lja-vi", my friends. it's a game,if you can do anything there like popping a one carebear ship with 3 battleships on a mission, then anti-pirates can track and pop your pirate ass with their "blob". it's fun for them and why not? Pirates are the mostly noit so organised like alliances in zeros, so popping a pirate can give you a some good practise in pvping.
real pirates blackmail not only without podding but without destroying the target ship. Loser.