Two nights ago, with zero ship losses to my name, I jumped into a nav beacon. Several commanders were working bounties, possibly working together, but they seemed pretty settled.
Not being one to spoil a good party, especially after my recent revelation that bounties aren't shared (oh my - I've been an accidental kill-stealer!), I came to a halt to decide where to go next.
It turned out to be my first experience of deliberate ramming - something I hadn't heard of before.
The first impact I put down as an accident - maybe I'll contact them to suggest they pay closer attention. Studying the scanner, trying to work out which pilot had been so clumsy to hit a stationary ship, I hear the roar of engines off to my right.
A brief moment where I heard half of a word from the ships computer before being surrounded by the void told me that the one thing I'd been avoiding at all costs had happened. I'd lost my ship.
I have to admit I was very angry at that moment. I had plenty of cash to cover the rebuy costs, and I had always been curious about what actually happened when your ship blew up, but I was still angry - I was trying to keep a clean sheet, and this wasn't in combat or a piloting error on my part.
Arrrgh!
(With hindsight, perhaps it WAS a piloting error on my part. I had stood still whilst surrounded by commanders intent on exploding things, and they had a risk-free way to do it to me.)
When it happened, I was immediately going to rant about a broken mechanic which allows consequence-free PK/griefing (which, to be fair, I still believe is broken - given that it's impossible to detect intent on a collilsion, and given that it's impossible to really know which one was the aggressor, solutions are to either remove the collision damage mechanic completely, or charge both parties half of the rebuy fee!).
I'm calmer now, and instead I would like to thank that commander who deliberately destroyed my ship.
Granted, I'm still angry about the WAY it was destroyed, but it needed to be done because now I've moved past that first loss. Being blown up holds less fear for the future.
I do have a healthy desire to stay alive, but it has freed me to take on tougher challenges, like the one last night.
I'm still hovering around the systems I started in, learning my way around each one of them, teaching myself about what spoils they hold. Logging on in Potriti, I decided that a bit of bounty would be good for my bank balance so flipped through the local systems and jumped to the closest - anarchic system Alrai Sector MC-V B2-7.
I'm not running a discovery scanner at the moment so that I can squeeze a warrant scanner, interdictor and wake scanner into my Viper. The other Alrai sectors are pretty empty to me - the only way I can get back to the star after a while in supercruise is to watch for one distant dot that moves with parallax - but this particular sector is one I happen to have scanned in the past so at least I can see a few bits and pieces to help navigate around. Spent a little while interdicting wanted ships (none of which were members of the Pilots Federation) and then picked on the first of the asteroid belts around the main star.
Dropping out of supercruise, I was surpised to find that the asteroid belt was empty - it was really strange to see no miners at work. Eventually a couple turned up for work.
Once they were busy working, the usual pirates appeared intent on grabbing some booty. Turning up with bounties on their head was a mistake on their part, so I spent some time "protecting" the miners (albeit not without a cost - two of the miners killed themselves on asteroids rather than submit to my idle warrant scanning - the fools!)
I saw another vessel appear and start approaching me. Pilots Federation, running a Sidewinder. Shouldn't be a match for me.
Warrant scan - clean. Damn.
Spooked, he ran and jumped to another star system.
Couple more pirates appear and are quickly dispatched.
Considering leaving when a Python piloted by Reverend somebody heads straight for me - a man of the cloth surely can't be any danger to me.... oh.... why's he firing at me? I have no cargo. I have no bounty on my head. He didn't even scan me!
Dodging around, a quick warrant scan shows he's good for 55k CR. This is where I'm thankful to the commander who destroyed my Viper. The "old" me would have probably turned tail and fled.
But this wasn't the "old" me.
Weapons deployed, it was time to take the fight to the Python. Dodging around asteroids, keeping out of sight of his apparently gimballed lasers whilst whittling his shields, and eventually hull, down.
What's that computer ... I know I'm under attack I don't need telling twice ... why did she tell me twice ...
*VWORP VWORP VWORP* INCOMING MISSILE ... boost boost boost run and hide ... don't like missiles ... no point defence on this ship ... come back at the Python all guns blazing.
*WHOOSH* across the face of my ship, an Adder with a pretty red HUD box around it. So there were two of them now - the computer was trying to tell me something after all. The computer doesn't lie.
Ignore the Adder - concentrate on the Python. Dodging, shooting, boosting, shooting, 43% ... 30% ... 12% ... boom! 55k bounty awarded!
Right, now for the Adder. Dodge, shoot, hide behind an asteroid. I'm not doing this for nothing, let's get a bounty scan in before I kill it. Reverse thrust, KWS deployed, scanning ... Adder closing ... scanning ... shields dropping ... scan complete ... *VWORP VWORP VWORP* INCOMING MISSILE ... what the fsk ... you mean that wasn't the Python with the missiles? It must have been the Python. The computer must be lying after all!
Switch targets to the fast-moving white box. HE SEEKER incoming. Shoot ... it ... quick ... fire ... more ... shots .... *BOOM* my canopy was suddenly a fireball.
Shields gone, hull dropping from laser fire, time to run away to regroup and recharge ... *THRUSTER MALFUNCTION* ... dammit.
Suddenly the asteroids, which had been my ally when avoiding damage, were huge obstacles put there to annoy me ... who'd put asteroids in an asteroid belt ... grrr ... stupid asteroids.
Struggling to regain control, chaff all around me from the Adder, this isn't worth it - I have 20k of stolen plunder in my cargo hold, 130k of bounties in Federation space, plus a whole dose of bounties in non-Federation space that I need to claim. Time to run.
*VWORP VWORP VWORP* INCOMING MISSILE
Oh crap. It's REALLY time to run.
Boost. *THRUST MALFUNCTION*. Oh dammit. This isn't going to be pretty.
Crack. Phut. Pop.
Boom.
Space.
Oh. My. God.
I just lost my second ship ever. And the bounties I'd accrued. And the cargo.
That encounter just cost me 250k.
But boy, was it fun.
So thank you to the ramming commander. You freed me to take risks and have more fun.
But rest assured, that risk-taking will come back to haunt you next time you try ramming me - I'll be MUCH more prepared to go *WANTED* and light up your hull and teach you to watch who you "bump into".
Not being one to spoil a good party, especially after my recent revelation that bounties aren't shared (oh my - I've been an accidental kill-stealer!), I came to a halt to decide where to go next.
It turned out to be my first experience of deliberate ramming - something I hadn't heard of before.
The first impact I put down as an accident - maybe I'll contact them to suggest they pay closer attention. Studying the scanner, trying to work out which pilot had been so clumsy to hit a stationary ship, I hear the roar of engines off to my right.
A brief moment where I heard half of a word from the ships computer before being surrounded by the void told me that the one thing I'd been avoiding at all costs had happened. I'd lost my ship.
I have to admit I was very angry at that moment. I had plenty of cash to cover the rebuy costs, and I had always been curious about what actually happened when your ship blew up, but I was still angry - I was trying to keep a clean sheet, and this wasn't in combat or a piloting error on my part.
Arrrgh!
(With hindsight, perhaps it WAS a piloting error on my part. I had stood still whilst surrounded by commanders intent on exploding things, and they had a risk-free way to do it to me.)
When it happened, I was immediately going to rant about a broken mechanic which allows consequence-free PK/griefing (which, to be fair, I still believe is broken - given that it's impossible to detect intent on a collilsion, and given that it's impossible to really know which one was the aggressor, solutions are to either remove the collision damage mechanic completely, or charge both parties half of the rebuy fee!).
I'm calmer now, and instead I would like to thank that commander who deliberately destroyed my ship.
Granted, I'm still angry about the WAY it was destroyed, but it needed to be done because now I've moved past that first loss. Being blown up holds less fear for the future.
I do have a healthy desire to stay alive, but it has freed me to take on tougher challenges, like the one last night.
I'm still hovering around the systems I started in, learning my way around each one of them, teaching myself about what spoils they hold. Logging on in Potriti, I decided that a bit of bounty would be good for my bank balance so flipped through the local systems and jumped to the closest - anarchic system Alrai Sector MC-V B2-7.
I'm not running a discovery scanner at the moment so that I can squeeze a warrant scanner, interdictor and wake scanner into my Viper. The other Alrai sectors are pretty empty to me - the only way I can get back to the star after a while in supercruise is to watch for one distant dot that moves with parallax - but this particular sector is one I happen to have scanned in the past so at least I can see a few bits and pieces to help navigate around. Spent a little while interdicting wanted ships (none of which were members of the Pilots Federation) and then picked on the first of the asteroid belts around the main star.
Dropping out of supercruise, I was surpised to find that the asteroid belt was empty - it was really strange to see no miners at work. Eventually a couple turned up for work.
Once they were busy working, the usual pirates appeared intent on grabbing some booty. Turning up with bounties on their head was a mistake on their part, so I spent some time "protecting" the miners (albeit not without a cost - two of the miners killed themselves on asteroids rather than submit to my idle warrant scanning - the fools!)
I saw another vessel appear and start approaching me. Pilots Federation, running a Sidewinder. Shouldn't be a match for me.
Warrant scan - clean. Damn.
Spooked, he ran and jumped to another star system.
Couple more pirates appear and are quickly dispatched.
Considering leaving when a Python piloted by Reverend somebody heads straight for me - a man of the cloth surely can't be any danger to me.... oh.... why's he firing at me? I have no cargo. I have no bounty on my head. He didn't even scan me!
Dodging around, a quick warrant scan shows he's good for 55k CR. This is where I'm thankful to the commander who destroyed my Viper. The "old" me would have probably turned tail and fled.
But this wasn't the "old" me.
Weapons deployed, it was time to take the fight to the Python. Dodging around asteroids, keeping out of sight of his apparently gimballed lasers whilst whittling his shields, and eventually hull, down.
What's that computer ... I know I'm under attack I don't need telling twice ... why did she tell me twice ...
*VWORP VWORP VWORP* INCOMING MISSILE ... boost boost boost run and hide ... don't like missiles ... no point defence on this ship ... come back at the Python all guns blazing.
*WHOOSH* across the face of my ship, an Adder with a pretty red HUD box around it. So there were two of them now - the computer was trying to tell me something after all. The computer doesn't lie.
Ignore the Adder - concentrate on the Python. Dodging, shooting, boosting, shooting, 43% ... 30% ... 12% ... boom! 55k bounty awarded!
Right, now for the Adder. Dodge, shoot, hide behind an asteroid. I'm not doing this for nothing, let's get a bounty scan in before I kill it. Reverse thrust, KWS deployed, scanning ... Adder closing ... scanning ... shields dropping ... scan complete ... *VWORP VWORP VWORP* INCOMING MISSILE ... what the fsk ... you mean that wasn't the Python with the missiles? It must have been the Python. The computer must be lying after all!
Switch targets to the fast-moving white box. HE SEEKER incoming. Shoot ... it ... quick ... fire ... more ... shots .... *BOOM* my canopy was suddenly a fireball.
Shields gone, hull dropping from laser fire, time to run away to regroup and recharge ... *THRUSTER MALFUNCTION* ... dammit.
Suddenly the asteroids, which had been my ally when avoiding damage, were huge obstacles put there to annoy me ... who'd put asteroids in an asteroid belt ... grrr ... stupid asteroids.
Struggling to regain control, chaff all around me from the Adder, this isn't worth it - I have 20k of stolen plunder in my cargo hold, 130k of bounties in Federation space, plus a whole dose of bounties in non-Federation space that I need to claim. Time to run.
*VWORP VWORP VWORP* INCOMING MISSILE
Oh crap. It's REALLY time to run.
Boost. *THRUST MALFUNCTION*. Oh dammit. This isn't going to be pretty.
Crack. Phut. Pop.
Boom.
Space.
Oh. My. God.
I just lost my second ship ever. And the bounties I'd accrued. And the cargo.
That encounter just cost me 250k.
But boy, was it fun.
So thank you to the ramming commander. You freed me to take risks and have more fun.
But rest assured, that risk-taking will come back to haunt you next time you try ramming me - I'll be MUCH more prepared to go *WANTED* and light up your hull and teach you to watch who you "bump into".
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