This is a collection of short in-character fiction pieces about Awakened Industries, a group of capsuleers and their crews living in the enigmatic and dangerous regions of Wormhole Space in EVE Online. None of the protagonists are actual characters or corporations in-game. All similarities with persons fictional or real are possibly coincidental and only sometimes intentional. - Emergent Patroller

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Warning: The stories on this blog contain mature themes involving sexuality and violence and are not suitable for minors or sensitive people.

15 Feb 2013

OOC Entry 74 - This is how you come home after a night out?!

That sentence was thrown at me by my mother after the first time I got really drunk on a night out and came home way later than the time I had been given to return. I looked pretty dishevelled. Barely able to walk straight and with my makeup messed up (I still did that makeup thing when I was way younger than I am now)

Since then, 24 years have passed and I am no longer accountable to anyone in that respect except maybe to my cats who look at me through half closed eyes in that way cats can look at you that makes you feel bad about yourself.

Yet, I remembered that night after a recent excursion in-game.

A few days ago, several people of my alliance went out on a nullsec roam with T1 cruisers. We had an armour fleet composition which is not optimal for nullsec, but it was as much about practising to fly armour ships (which makes sense in our wormhole environment) as it was for innocent fun.

We were busy for hours and eventually ended up in a mutual baiting match with EVE University forces. In the process of that I jumped ahead through a gate to survey the next system and found myself facing a Rote Kapelle gang comprised of Tornadoes and Taloses with a few Stilettos for tackling.

Naturally my Vexor did not make it back out the gate before they alpha'ed me off the field, and my pod didn't survive either.

After that, our next-in-line FC did his best to try and peel off something from that RTK force but we only lost a few more before everyone went to ground and eventually sneaked back out.

All that time I was sitting in station listening to the proceedings while sitting in station with my cloaky Loki I had flown out. When it was clear there was nothing we could do anymore - our forces scattered - I decided to fly home to our wormhole. It was close to 06:00 in the morning after all.

Our route back in went through a rather dodgy region of lowsec between Taisy and Oba. Those two systems are gateways into northern nullsec and usually see quite some action. I jumped into a gatecamp which I casually evaded and then landed in a rather big fight at an out-gate which I also more-or-less ignored.

I was considering to engage the few guys on the other side, but decided against it not because I felt it was too dangerous, but because I really felt like hugging my pillow instead.

I held cloak, even weighing the issue for some time.

Eventually, I warped away and went home, logging off in our wormhole.

Has anyone reading this spotted the major omission in that story?

It only hit me the next Monday. I was at work, bantering with my alliance mates on Jabber. Suddenly it came up, I opened EVEGate and saw it: I had forgotten to upgrade my clone after being podded.

There I was. In the depths of wormhole space! With an Alpha Grade clone to back up my 60 mill skillpoints!

The last time I felt so queasy involved an accident with a condom and the very real possibility of me getting pregnant because of it.

I literally had to get up from my chair and get out for some air.

EVE was real - My mind hadn't been there at a crucial moment.

I am still hiding cloaked because I still didn't make it out to upgrade my clone.

Ok, I was negligent and didn't pay attention, but one thing struck me as odd in all of this: When I hopped back into my Loki, the game deemed it necessary to warn me that I will lose skillpoints if I lose that ship.

There was no warning that I will lose many more skillpoints if I get podded after I undock with an insufficient clone.

I find that a bit inconsistent. What do you think about that?
Posted by at 22:57
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous17 February 2013 at 01:04

    Agreed.

    I've seen this topic brought up a few times over the years, with many in the "EVE is a dark, cold place" camp saying it isn't necessary. I like the dangerous nature of the game myself, but this isn't a matter of gross negligence or being stupid. It's a matter of having something you do on a (fairly..sorta...kinda) rarely basis slip your mind.

    I don't think that's stupid. I think it's human. I'd really like an a clone skill point alert thing.

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  2. Turamarth Elrandir17 February 2013 at 04:33

    I live (now) inna C6 and roam with a group of very PvP oriented guys... and I do not want to see a whole boat load of "warnings" going off everytime you do anything that might just possibly end in cloneloss... The sheer number of "possible" warnings one could say was 'reasonable" would all end with "Are you SURE you want to undock?? It's not SAFE out there!!"

    It's not safe. It's up to YOU to make it that way for yourself. I don't have a computer in my head running my life in RL and I don't want to allow myself that luxury in the ONLY Virtual Reality Game in the WORLD that is this close to RL. If you forgot it, you forgot it, things like that are how we learn... I don't want my PC thinking for me, in RL or in here, thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Emergent Patroller19 February 2013 at 00:08

      I read you Cpt. ElRandir. As a long-term Linux/Unix user I also get annoyed to no end about the 'user friendly' "Are you sure you want to do X" popups.

      I was not questioning the possibility of skill loss through a missed close upgrade as much as I was questioning the merit to have a warning in-game that basically tells you "Look you, you can lose 4 days in training of a subsystem skill" compared to the lack of warning saying "Hey, you can lose 40 days of training you put into Jump Drive Calibration 5"

      Delete
  3. Anonymous17 February 2013 at 16:04

    First of all, thanks for leading our roam to nullsec - I enjoyed our outing very much and I gained valuable experience in my Blackbird. EWAR is something you can't really practice in PvE, so its SiSi or roams for me and you led both - thanks! And having our relatively inexperienced crew in cruisers getting wiped out by Rote Kapelle in Battlecruisers is not shameful, it was a good end to a fun night.

    Secondly about the warning, I agree there should be warning of some sorts but I also think that the entire system could do with a design overhaul. Basically, the consequences need to be proportional to the action. Forgetting to fuel your tower? Sure, your corp should suffer. Forget to update your clone? Should be a minor annoyance. The logic that punitive mechanics like this one enhance games is the same one that nullsec dwellers use when they ask for high sec to be nerfed - make gameplay unbearable there so that nullsec gets more traffic. Flawed logic. If I lost all my skill points by forgetting to update my clone, I'd likely end up playing another game.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous17 February 2013 at 17:35

    http://youtu.be/q5q1Qhah1ug btw, this is the last bit where our crew makes its last stand against Rote Kapelle

    ReplyDelete

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