What Does "Solo/Small-Gang" Mean?

I'd originally planned for this post to be a reflection on my experiences since founding Hellcats Reloaded a few weeks ago. This is a question that's come up several times during recruitment, though, and I think it's worth a blog post.

~* if you're looking for the tl;dr, skip to the next tag *~

An awful lot of groups out there identify themselves as focusing on "solo/small-gang" PVP, including Hellcats Reloaded. Exactly what proportion of time is spent solo vs. flying with others varies from group to group, something I learned the hard way when I first tried to start my career as a pirate. Up to that point I'd been flying exclusively with gangs, some of them with fellow squids, other times as part of Wensley's Wednesday night roams. I had so much fun doing the latter that I decided to jump ship from FW and join Gunpoint Diplomacy. At the time, Sard Caid warned me that the play style in RANSM was mainly solo, different than what I was used to in FW and on Wensley's roams. I wasn't too troubled by the idea - there had to be some gangs out, right?

I quickly learned how wrong I was. Between most of the corp's members being in the EU TZ (iirc, Sard, Dirty Protagonist and I were the only consistently active US TZ members at the time) and the others' inclination to soloing, I spent a lot of time spinning my ship waiting for something to happen. Combined with losses grinding my wallet down and not having easy access to ISK from factional warfare missions, I lasted a month in RANSM before I went back to Black Rise with my tail between my legs – or at least, that's how it felt at the time.

Since then, I've noticed that among lowsec pirate corps, solo PVP often makes up the majority of the "solo/small-gang" division. I've jokingly referred to the Black Rebel Rifter Club as the "solo frigate pilots' support group", and a lot of the time I spent there was either FCing my own gangs or flying with ex-corpies in RANSM or FW. I gradually got more accustomed to soloing during my quest to join the Tuskers, but even after I'd reached that goal, I mainly flew in gangs; I just didn't notice it then because RL was cutting into my play time.

In fact, most of the lowsec pirates I've flown with spend the majority of their EVE time not flying in gangs, and sometimes not even PVPing. They might prefer to solo, they might be making ISK (whether through exploration, farming WH sites, level 5 missions, FW alts, or whatever), hauling ships on an alt for their main to explode, doing corp administrative stuff, playing EOH Poker (you know who you are :P), tab out of EVE while playing LoL or DOTA, or just have gone AFK and not bothered to log out of the game (guilty). It was the opportunity to fly with people in gangs that drew me into piracy, but it was only after I took the plunge that I realised the gangs I flew with before joining the corp were most of what I was going to get.

Given that women in EVE are a small demographic as-is and lowsec pirates are a relatively small part of the EVE community, I expect that Hellcats Reloaded will turn out the same way, at least early on. What does that mean for women who've flown with us (or plan to) and want to join the corp? It means that those two things, flying with Hellcats Reloaded and wearing the corp tag, aren't always the same thing. TBH, my emphasis on "you don't have to join us to fly with us" came from how I've usually flown with corpies more before joining them than as an actual corp member.

~* tl;dr starts here *~

For people who are used to having content provided for them, like being able to log in and hop into a fleet that somebody else FCs, lowsec piracy will probably feel like a bucket of cold water. Even if you're able and willing to run your own gangs, Hellcats Reloaded is small enough  that there might not be anyone around to FC, or the people who are online might prefer to fly solo – cats aren't pack animals, after all! If you're comfortable with the idea that most of your PVP will be solo, or have other things to occupy your time besides Hellcats Reloaded fleets, I'm sure you'll adapt to our play style without any trouble. If your goal is to fly with HCATZ you can do exactly that on the public roams, without having to uproot yourself from wherever you currently are.

If you're interested in Hellcats Reloaded, please don't take this as an anti-recruitment speech; I'm not looking to turn anyone away or make them feel unwelcome. Instead, learn from my experience and figure out what you're really after. Take it from me, it's no fun to join a corp for the gangs and end up sitting in station all the time because no one's running them – and if you're not having fun, why are you playing the game?

Double Down

Some of you may have seen my Twitter update about working on a new project. If you haven't, you can find all the details over at Once a Hellcat, Always a Hellcat. I think there's a genuine niche for the corp in EVE despite the wild differences in the game since they last flew, and it'll be interesting to see what comes of it. On a personal level, I've never had any desire to be involved in running a corp until now.

Why the change? After being more of an off-again than an on-again EVE player the past few years, I'm slowly coming to the realisation that internet spaceships just don't hold my interest as much as they used to. A big contributor to this is my schedule at work; I'm there Thursday-Sunday every week, making it harder to get play time when other people are online.

So, I've promised myself this: Success or failure, if EVE doesn't hold my interest again after this adventure is over, I will very likely unsub my accounts for good. (Cue obligatory "can I have your stuff?") I've had plenty of fun in EVE over the years, and met a lot of great people that I still consider friends - I just can't justify spending RL ISK on a game I'm not playing. I'll give my best efforts to resurrecting the Hellcats, in a way that I enjoy and the original members would hopefully approve of. Either that'll be enough to reinvigorate my interest in the game and keep me going for another few years, or I'll be able to end on a high note.

I guess we'll see which one it is.

Upheaval, Reflection, and a Special Day

Yeah, it feels like a year has passed since the last time I posted. To make a long story short, I had a bunch of RL stuff going on that I'm now trying to put behind me. Within EVE, I left the Tuskers a year ago yesterday, joined Death by Design with Predator Elite and friends, stopped playing entirely for a while, then I rejoined some old friends in Molden Heath under the banner of Calamitous-Intent (which seems to be a Voltron-esque amalgamation of former RANSM, R1FTA and THC2 pilots, among others). After joining 7-2 I promptly vanished once again, and only really returned to the game about ten days ago.

Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Big thanks to Kaeda Maxwell for sending me this.

Moral Paradox, or "Why E-Honour Is Important"

EVE is a moral paradox, and there are days where I don't understand how this game can function on a social level with so much conflict and divisiveness. I also believe the game would be boring to the point of falling apart if everyone got along.

No, this post wasn't just an excuse to use the ducky pic.

Morality is necessary to EVE, but not in the way most people would think. Read on to find out why.

PSA (Warning: Kind of Sappy)

I had a couple of different versions of a post lined up that included some long-winded, philosophical ramblings about respect and values and such in the world of internet spaceships. The reason mostly comes from some in-game behaviours I've seen recently that are getting under my skin. One of my alts joined a major nullsec alliance - I won't say which, and if you already know I'd appreciate it being kept quiet - and... well, I'll just say that the culture is different than I'm used to, and adjusting to it is more difficult than I thought it would be. (I'll go into more detail about that in a later post.)

As grumpy as I was, though, I've also seen some incredible acts of generosity today. A corpmate helped me out of some dire straits - I won't post his name publicly, but you know who you are, and it means more to me than I really know how to express. Such generosity has, naturally, made me feel like a horrible person for not doing more to help others around me. I was looking for a way that I could pay it forward as well as back, and Twitter was kind enough to provide me with the answer, which brings me to the actual PSA.

For those that aren't aware, Sindel Pellion has this awesome thing she's doing called The Angel Project. Please check it out and consider giving her a hand.

Guest Post: Valgore Meurte

Greetings all! Since I'm sure all of my readers (all three of you) have been wondering why I haven't made any posts lately, well, it's a long story and a lot less exciting than internet spaceships. In lieu of my own post, however, today I bring you a guest post by a fellow Tusker, Valgore Meurte. In it he gives an account of a tooth-achingly exciting duo engagement and an important window into the mindset of a lowsec pirate. Read on, and enjoy! (No, Val, I didn't edit this. It's all you, buddy.)

So I want to talk about piracy and the way I view it. It is simple really, I gank people for isk. Good fights are fine, solid fleets are fine. But to me the best thing is when I tackle that Faction Fit Navy Dominix and hold it long enough till a mate shows up so we can take it down. That is where I find the most enjoyment in this game. The stalking of the prey, the rush of the nab, and the thrill I get from seeing the shiny bit of loot in my cargo-hold. Then there is the tears I sometimes get that make it even better. But those are only the things I get when everything goes smoothly.

Buried Alive in the Sandbox

Note: I had originally planned this post as part of Blog Banter 42, but I kept getting dragged away from writing a review of EVE and into more of a review of the community. I figured I'd put it up anyway for people to read, and may still end up doing a BB42 entry.

Note 2: Apparently, Stan thinks that this should go into the Blog Banter anyway. Thanks Stan, you're a sweetheart!

Every time I see any sort of opportunity for the playerbase to review EVE, I immediately think I'm supposed to go into Bittervet Mode, as if there's an expectation of a long-standing "CCP vs. the players" antagonism. Instead, it comes out more like this XKCD comic.

Ever since the epic backpedalling following the Walking in Stations debacle, I've been pleased to note that at least in the broad strokes, CCP seems to be addressing concerns that players bring up. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely - but I'm not convinced that it's CCP's responsibility to make it happen.

Re-Blog: Welcome to Lowsec

Content? Who needs content? :P More to the point, in his most recent "Welcome to Lowsec" post, Azual has perfectly explained something that's influenced my PVP ever since the first time I shot another player in a spaceship. I've never been able to describe it beyond a vague feeling of "I'm a pirate, not a griefer", but fortunately, now I can just link people to his post instead of breaking keyboards with my head as I try. (I also have to admit that, with as many times as I've seen jokes about having to revoke Azual's pirate licence, his finally just going and doing it himself was hilarious to me.)

Seriously, it's a good read.

Blog Banter 40: Van Damme In Space?

While I'm not sure I'd call this a triumphant return to EVE blogging, the topic of the latest Blog Banter (BB40) caught my eye. Interstellar Blood Sports? Sounds like the everyday life of a lowsec pirate to me, I thought.

No, not THAT Bloodsport. Not even when you count that ECM drones are the blinding powder of EVE.

Upon reading further into the question, however, I quickly discovered that the commentary was intended to focus on tournaments and "eSports" in EVE Online. The next statement that popped into my head was, never mind, that's nothing like real PVP. Normally I'd have let the matter drop there with a smug return to my dinner, but on further reflection, the comment was so stuffed with my own assumptions and pre-conceptions that I couldn't resist poking at it to see what came out.

The Passing of a Legend

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been tied up with RL. I know I have a fair bit to catch up on in terms of internet spaceships, which may be addressed this weekend. I do, however, want to pay tribute to a recently departed institution of EVE blogging. As aptly noted in the post title, all good things must end. I note with great sadness that Wensley has decided to step back from being "that blagger guy", and a such, Rifter Drifter is coming to a close. I know I'll miss reading his exciting tales and thoughtful analysis, but Wens has made it clear that he isn't leaving New Eden; in fact, he's apparently going to be a recurring guest co-presenter on Sard Caid's live stream. I'm looking forward to seeing it! For now, though, a moment of silence for Rifter Drifter. Thanks for the great reads, Wensley. o7

Anniversary

Almost two years ago, I undocked a ship with the intention of using it to PVP, without any idea what I was doing. Realising this milestone has made me reflect on the changes that have come over the past two years, and the people I've had the pleasure of meeting and flying with (and sometimes against). PVP is mostly a social activity for me, so I think it's appropriate that I take the opportunity to offer my thanks.

I can't help but feel like this is some sort of troll.

But I still think it's pretty hilarious.

Changes of Pace and Taste

In my previous post, I gave a partial list of recent engagements I've taken part in, both as the hunter and the hunted. While dredging up examples of kills and losses to post to my faithful readership (all three of you :P), I started mulling over some of the differing trends between the engagements from my time in Caldari militia to the ones I've had since moving back to Molden Heath and joining R1FTA. Below the cut, you'll find some of my observations, as well as predictions on where these trends will lead in the future.

Note: I'm very much the sort of person who processes information through conversing with others, or failing that, by formatting it into a blog post. I can't guarantee that the content of this post will be coherent (or even particularly interesting) to anyone else, but commentary is welcome all the same.

Frustrational Warfare

With a post title like that, I think I've succeeded at both banishing any confusion about what the topic might be, and losing the interest of a significant portion of anyone who might read this blog. Since I've already managed to accomplish two things with this post, I reserve the right to present the rest of the content in an utterly pointless way. :P

My perspective on Factional Warfare is admittedly narrow; I haven't spent a great deal of time in the FW environment recently, and I've never really ventured into the Amarr-Minmatar side of the conflict at all. If you're interested in getting a broader view of things, I'd highly recommend a blog written by my awesome Amarr counterpart and fellow gamer-chick Shalee Lianne. You can find it over at Sovereignty Wars.

WARNING: This is going to be a long post, even compared to some of the wordier ones I've written here. I won't be offended if people don't read the whole thing, so don't expect me to come out and randomly start quizzing people on its contents or anything like that.

What is a Carebear?

If you're at all familar with my background in EVE and in this blog, I'm sure you can agree that I'm eminently qualified to write a post on carebears. (Yes, you may start laughing now.) Admittedly, a lot of the thoughts in this post come from the fact that since I started writing this blog, I've seen myself as less and less of a carebear than I have in the past. Eventually, it lead me to wonder exactly what defines a carebear in the EVE sense, specifically in the context of lowsec PVP.

My thinking on this topic started a few months ago while having a chat with some of the ladies in the Women Gamers of EVE channel. We were discussing different types of ship fittings, and without quite realizing what I was getting into (the fits were related to highsec missions), I started offering a few points before realizing that I'd absent-mindedly been thinking along the lines of fitting said ship for PVP, rather than PVE. The response of one of the ladies in question was, "Yeah, Dian, but you're mostly a PVP pilot anyway."

Oops.

So there I was, lurking around a bit in the EVE blogiverse and thoroughly enjoying the significantly less taxing approach of reading things that other people had written. On one of the blogs - I believe it was Laedy's (congrats to her for going back to uni!) - I saw a link back to my own chronicle, the one you're reading right now. Last update: Three months ago.

The title of this post says it all.

In fairness, I've been suffering an unexpected absence from EVE for quite some time. I won't go into the reasons aside from saying it's RL-based and somewhat ongoing, but I'm slowly making my way back into internet spaceships and seeing what trouble I can cause.

I don't really have anything interesting to post here right at the moment; I've got a ton of posts I've been thinking of writing over the past few months, but none of them are anything I've gotten around to actually doing. Instead, I'll link you an article that's captured my attention recently: a guest article on Azual's blog regarding certain aspects of FCing.

See you all soon!

Just for the Hull of It

One of the recurring themes of both my PVP career and my "ooo, shiny!" approach to skill training plans is being unable to decide which ships I want to fly. Recently I took the opportunity to sit down and look seriously at which hulls I've been undocking the most. The results I ended up with were very different than I thought they would be.

A Pirate's Life For Me

About a week ago, I came to the realization that I needed a change of pace in EVE. There were quite a few reasons for my decision, stemming from both my own preferences in the game and the environment that seems to have taken hold in Caldari-Gallente factional warfare. (The explanation of the whole thing is long and relies on people having knowledge of the current FW scene, so I'll leave it out.) Eventually, I decided that I'd hang up my State Protectorate badge for the third time and look for other opportunities.

Huo and I talked about our next steps at length; I mentioned not too long ago that he'd joined the pirate corp Meatshield Bastards, and while he was enjoying the PVP, the inconsistency of being a US time zone player in primarily EU-based corp was starting to take its toll. He wanted to continue lowsec piracy-style PVP, and I've been more and more interested in the field myself of late. The decision wasn't without its hiccups - we had a couple of significant differences of opinion on exactly how we'd go about the next chapter of our lives in EVE, but eventually, we came to an agreement.

Broadening Horizons

Looking back over the past ten days, I'm not sure which has surprised me more - how much my perspective on PVP has opened, or how it took me this long to really realize things that people have been telling me forever. The previous week and a half has been a collection of events that have ended up meshing in my head - not terribly coherently, at first, but hopefully I'll be able to sort them out enough that they make sense to read!

As we often do, my fiancé and I have decided that in addition to the prospects we're already waist-deep in, we wanted to try something different. A friend and former corpmate of mine is a member of Fiskl Guards, a corp which fairly recently left the blue-to-IT Black Star Alliance and decided to join up with Red Overlord in Feythabolis. Huo and I agreed that it seems like an interesting place to be, between their PVP fleets and the opportunity to do some carebearing away from prying eyes. So, I've packed up my alt and am currently waiting to get her and her things moved down to the middle of nowhere. I can't really offer much more on that at the moment, since I've only been a member of the corp for a few hours, but I'm looking forward to seeing what comes.