Friday, October 28, 2016

Skiff Stories: A Quick Fun Visit to Aidart

After an eight months long EVE break, I recently had the occasion to login for a few days. While having a look at the avalanche of notifications and EVE mails, I roamed around Highsec with my Falcon and ECM Skiff with a close eye on GankerLookout.com, looking for miners that I can protect. As the website showed some ganks in Verge Vendor region of Highsec, I suddenly remembered the following comment that was posted by some Anonymous person under my old The Stacmon Patrol post:



Needless to say, I changed my destination to that particular system: Aidart.



I traveled about 21 jumps in my ECM Skiff with some old school classic Trance music from 2001, and finally arrived to Aidart. Local was relatively empty but one of the gankers was present. It was Snigie Audanie, a known ganker with many successful attacks against the stupid full time AFK miners. However, he did not have a ganking permit, which is a violation of Neo-Code, GankerJamming and Union of Verge Vendor Imams.


Additionally, there was a Retriever on D-Scan, whose name made me think of my favorite GMC models. I had to find the Retriever before the ganker did it.




One of the most important requirements of Anti-ganking gameplay is patience. For the next 40 minutes, I watched over the Retriever while mining some holy Veldspar. 

"A counter-ganking sits around for an indefinite period of time hoping that gankers will eventually come and be foiled by him. He has to be paying attention continuously, for his ward could probably be killed in the time it takes him to go to the bathroom. For the same degree of at-the-keyboard tedium, he could probably just go run missions and make more money than the miner he's protecting."
          -Voyager Arran 



Why hello there. That's it: My patience was rewarded by the sudden appearance of the ganker's Catalyst on D-Scan. The ganker wasn't -10, so he could just warp to our belt and take his time to approach the Retriever...


...which is exactly what happened. Inside the Skiff's navigation bridge, grins appeared on the faces of various officers as the Catalyst was foolishly approaching his target. 
"He set a collision course with the fat greedy bitch, who was now, so plump full of ore. Thrusters exploded to life and giant plumes of exhaust flames erupted from them."
         -Jaxi Wreckful 

Since he wasn't -10, I had to wait for the moment he started shooting the Retriever (=became criminal). 



Go!


Five magnetometric jammers were almost instantly activated by the Skiff's second officer Abdullah Marosier (who is also the Imam of Halaima). At acceleratingly disruptive speeds the ionized particles were sent screaming towards the heretic Catalyst. En masse.



This can be one of my favorite screenshots for 2016. When I talked about the "Mining Like a Boss" philosophy, this is what I had in mind. Look at the quality of the content. 


The Catalyst was instantly jammed and had to wait silently for CONCORD's arrival. 




Gank was prevented successfully, the Retriever was saved. 







Respectful GFs were expressed in local, bounties were placed. This is nothing new, but I had to inform the Retriever pilot in case he was wondering what the heck was going on. So I convo'd him.



He was cracking up. Not sure why. He was either watching a presidential debate or he was laughing at the ganker. At least he wasn't AFK.



He was lucky enough to be within my Skiff's sight during his first encounter with a ganker. However, I want him to mine like a Boss and respect the Neo-Code and GankerJamming, hence my suggestion of the mighty Procurer and alertness.


It was more like a Win-Win situation. Each side won in their own way, in accordance with their own Code and vision of the game. Fascinating stuff.


As always, the ganker's eerie robotic algorithm started generating the Ganker Bingo with pretty much the same repetitive statements that are common for many gankers.


So I had to bring a clarification with a brief summary that translated what the ganker meant. Tank and situational awareness. In other words, the Neo-Code and GankerJamming. 


The algorithm agreed.

The comment that I showed at the beginning of this post was also mentioning Zopiclone in addition to Snigie, but Zopiclone was not there that day. 



So I renamed my Skiff to Zopiclone's Falcon as a salutation.



By the way, the Skiff's deck cadet Salah Ad-Din AmonJaeger Al-Weaselior was recording the scene:



The miner had an exciting and instructive experience, the ganker’s monotonous routine was enlightened by our ECM-Skiff and I had a fun moment ruining his gank. Everybody had fun. This is the type of content that a well-executed Anti-ganking gameplay can bring to Highsec, win or lose.

Once again, after 8 months of EVE-break, EVE reminded me why I love and support the Triangle of Content: Gankers, Anti-gankers and Miners. Adrenalin rush, fun interactions, asteroids, neutron blasters, jammers and lessons. A reason to be in Highsec and enjoy it. These things keep Highsec interesting for many of us.

Miners, if there is one thing you should learn from this post, it's to check D-Scan and Local at all times. Obey the Neo-Code and GankerJamming™. Highsec is dangerous and fun.

Fly ruthless, and most importantly, be the change you want to see in Highsec.