My name is Tandros, and I'll be contributing entries to this blog from the perspective of a once-prosperous market character who was lured into a life of low-sec piracy, poverty, and destitution.
In general, my other blog entries will have a slightly different theme as I will alternatively be discussing PvP engagements or regaling you with stories of failed ransoms...
Instead, for my first entry, I thought that I'd share with you an excerpt from the petition that I submitted to CCP not too long ago "for my recent acts of stupidity". As far as petitions go, this was mostly a protest, but it should also serve as an introduction to the nature of my character and give you a bit of an idea of what I've been up to lately in New Eden.
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Petition:
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When I was in Hadaugago (0.9 security status) recently, I saw a flashy pod on grid with me by the RMS M2.1 Station undock.
I figured that since I was in hi-sec and that since this pilot was apparently a criminal, that I would be able to freely engage. After warp scrambling the pod and opening up with my Claw's autocannons, I was informed that the insurance on my ship had just been reimbursed... and then half-a-second later I saw a notification that the Minmatar sentries had done terrible, terrible damage to me.
This is one of those "I wish I had a time machine" scenarios, because I have just spent three months stranded in low-sec for acts of piracy committed there... and I have no desire to go back. Believe it or not, it took me that long to rat up the sec to get the hell out of low. This is the type of time frame it requires for a single-account pilot to actually make any headway when they don't have the luxury of resupply alts and so on. Grinding is one thing, but do you have any concept of just how boring and repetitive sec-ratting as a low-skill character is? This isn't even a skinner box because there is no reward. It's a "you died of dysentery" type of gameplay choice where you are set on the fast-track to full negative-ten criminal status.
The thing that really perturbs me about this incident is how the heck am I supposed to tell, based on the overview, that I couldn't kill the pod? It was flashy red. To add insult to injury, after I podded the pilot and warped off I looked at my own aggression notifications... Lo and behold... my timer is YELLOW. I'm not even GCC? Why, then, was I killed by sentry guns?
What's the point of having completely obscure gameplay mechanics? If the pilot is flashy and supposedly criminal status to me, then can I engage them or not? What's the point here and how do your overview settings make this even remotely clear? Why bother having flashy pods if they can't be freely engaged?
I suspect the answer is that "we plan to fix this in Inferno". Well, that's just great. So what do people do in the meantime? When I see someone flashy on overview, can I engage them or will the sentries blow me up?
I guess the true solution to those rhetorical questions above is: just don't shoot anyone ever. That's clearly the safest thing to do. And in the meantime, I can go about running missions in this sandbox, because that's incredibly entertaining. What about people who want to actually enjoy the game interacting with players in a relevant capacity rather than fumbling through painfully arbitrary and obfuscated gameplay mechanics and horrendous PvE?
I wish I hadn't killed that pod... not because I feel remorse for having committed the act and not because my actions were a deliberate effort to grief another player. I strictly thought I was acting in accordance with allowable gameplay. Wrong again.
If I *really* shouldn't do something, how about you make the warning messages at least partially relevant. "Do you want to proceed with this dangerous act?" Could you possibly come up with a more asinine and unclear warning message? Why not simply state the consequences i.e. "If you shoot this flashy pod then you will incur a YELLOW aggression timer and the Minmatar sentries will blow your ship up. Oh, and your security status will be adjusted from -1.9 to -4.8 for no apparent reason." That's a bit more clear at least.
Of course, I should happen to be in a 0.9 system when making this mistake. You're really busting my balls here... Costly error on my part. Thanks for the 'warning'.
Tandros
Petition:
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When I was in Hadaugago (0.9 security status) recently, I saw a flashy pod on grid with me by the RMS M2.1 Station undock.
I figured that since I was in hi-sec and that since this pilot was apparently a criminal, that I would be able to freely engage. After warp scrambling the pod and opening up with my Claw's autocannons, I was informed that the insurance on my ship had just been reimbursed... and then half-a-second later I saw a notification that the Minmatar sentries had done terrible, terrible damage to me.
This is one of those "I wish I had a time machine" scenarios, because I have just spent three months stranded in low-sec for acts of piracy committed there... and I have no desire to go back. Believe it or not, it took me that long to rat up the sec to get the hell out of low. This is the type of time frame it requires for a single-account pilot to actually make any headway when they don't have the luxury of resupply alts and so on. Grinding is one thing, but do you have any concept of just how boring and repetitive sec-ratting as a low-skill character is? This isn't even a skinner box because there is no reward. It's a "you died of dysentery" type of gameplay choice where you are set on the fast-track to full negative-ten criminal status.
The thing that really perturbs me about this incident is how the heck am I supposed to tell, based on the overview, that I couldn't kill the pod? It was flashy red. To add insult to injury, after I podded the pilot and warped off I looked at my own aggression notifications... Lo and behold... my timer is YELLOW. I'm not even GCC? Why, then, was I killed by sentry guns?
What's the point of having completely obscure gameplay mechanics? If the pilot is flashy and supposedly criminal status to me, then can I engage them or not? What's the point here and how do your overview settings make this even remotely clear? Why bother having flashy pods if they can't be freely engaged?
I suspect the answer is that "we plan to fix this in Inferno". Well, that's just great. So what do people do in the meantime? When I see someone flashy on overview, can I engage them or will the sentries blow me up?
I guess the true solution to those rhetorical questions above is: just don't shoot anyone ever. That's clearly the safest thing to do. And in the meantime, I can go about running missions in this sandbox, because that's incredibly entertaining. What about people who want to actually enjoy the game interacting with players in a relevant capacity rather than fumbling through painfully arbitrary and obfuscated gameplay mechanics and horrendous PvE?
I wish I hadn't killed that pod... not because I feel remorse for having committed the act and not because my actions were a deliberate effort to grief another player. I strictly thought I was acting in accordance with allowable gameplay. Wrong again.
If I *really* shouldn't do something, how about you make the warning messages at least partially relevant. "Do you want to proceed with this dangerous act?" Could you possibly come up with a more asinine and unclear warning message? Why not simply state the consequences i.e. "If you shoot this flashy pod then you will incur a YELLOW aggression timer and the Minmatar sentries will blow your ship up. Oh, and your security status will be adjusted from -1.9 to -4.8 for no apparent reason." That's a bit more clear at least.
Of course, I should happen to be in a 0.9 system when making this mistake. You're really busting my balls here... Costly error on my part. Thanks for the 'warning'.
Tandros
