Is pirates the best race in Eve?

While checking out the new forums I noticed the following question in the EVE Trial Citizens Q&A forum. Is pirates the best race in Eve? Judging by the numerous responses to this possible troll question... this is a confusing topic.

So what is a pirate in EVE?

Their are two answers, one that a new player would give, and one that an experienced player would give.

New Players: For a new player a Pirate is a rat from a 'Pirate' NPC faction. Some of these like the Guristas have a back-story consistent with piracy. Others, like the Sansha, not so much but are still referred to as pirates by the game. In general players start by clearing the spacelanes of these threats to all that is good in the universe. Some players desire to join up with one of these factions, only to be thwarted by the discovery that the agents are out in 0.0 (oh noes doesn't that equate to instant death) and the lack of any real ability to join forces with these red crosses.

Non-new players: For a non-new player these red crosses that we shoot at are not pirates. They are simply resources to be extracted, effectively asteroids that shoot back a little while being farmed. The truly ridiculous amount of carnage that even a single capsuleer can cause to even a massive Lv4 mission sized pirate fleet defies a RolePlaying explanation. Rather, for a player who has had a few months of game time, or even just a couple non-consensual PvP experiences, a pirate is another player that attempts to engage in non-consensual PvP. To be considered 'piracy' this PvP must take place in either low-sec or possibly as a suicide gank in empire space, and not part of a war-dec or a militia. Oddly enough PvP in 0.0 is usually not considered piracy. A player doing piracy will invariably suffer sec status hits and will usually be unable to even enter hi-sec without being shot at immediately. Often the trademark of a real pirate is the ransom demand. In an attempt to recover some of the cost of their destructive PvP activities a true pirate is more concerned about income from PvP then their killboard efficiency. Like the real pirates of old... EVE pirates do not fly the expensive and flashy ships, rather they fly efficient ships for their purposes.

As I once advised some new players who were ratting in a belt when I pounded in and blew them away, when there is another player on the field... the NPC ships, no matter how many or how large, are not the real threat anymore. Just because the pirate is in a Rifter and you are blowing up NPC Cynabals and Macharials means nothing. That pirate in the Rifter is the danger.

So is pirates the best race? Sort of a meaningless question. Is piracy the best thing to be doing then the answer is, like most things, it depends. Toterra tried the pirate life briefly and found it frustrating taking a major sec-status hit. However pirates do seem to have among the higest ration of doing that most desirable EVE PvP activity, small gang warfare so I understand the attraction. Maybe in some future expansion CCP will get it right and make piracy an easier activity to get into. We can only hope.

TL;DR - Pirates are players, not NPC ships.

PL and TEST Working Together (not really) Providing Lots of Fitting Advice

Recently Test Alliance Please Ignore managed to snag the forums from Pandemic Legion and have made them available. Most of it is major drama crap, but there are some really useful nuggets. PL is known for some innovative fittings (how many alliance tournament wins?) so the forums dealing with fittings were particularly interesting. Here are some of my favourite posts after spending a few minutes browsing:

Smallish Gangs:

LR HAC / HSLR
http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-24012-.html

Drake Gang Guide (not the traditional one, but works with smaller fleets)
http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-33238-.html

Small AB HAC Gang
http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-28920-.html


For larger fleets there are lots of posts (this is PL after all), but these got my eye.

AB HAC Gang
1. http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-24603-.html
2. http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-28888-.html

Artillery Counter to the Drake Blob
http://files.pleaseignore.com/forumdumps/www.pandemic-legion.com/threads/thread-28631-.html


P.S. Only a couple of more days on the cheapfleet challenge to go!! lots of great entries... but we still need more. See here for details.

Destructoid Review of - EVE Online: Commissioned officer edition

Destructoid (a gaming website) recently posted a review of the EVE Online: Commissioned officer edition box. The reviewer did a pretty crap job. As is often typical with reviews of EVE reviews he took the trial, got confused, got bored, died, didn't understand what was happening and eventually quit the game leaving a review riddled with factual innacuracies (somehow his shuttle contained all his assets and was blown up mid-warp). As can be expected the 156 comments on the review show a blend of EVE fanbois hating the review, mixed with a few people who actually had a similar experience and went back to WOW.

Now I am not saying that it was a good review. Rather the review and the comments reveal a real problem with the game. As much fun as it is to laugh at EVE's steep learning curve, it is new players that give the game life. If they are bored or frustrated then they will simply quit and move on. Most players start on a free trial anyways so there is no investment lost for them.

The Commissioned Officer Edition is an example of everything that is wrong with the way EVE tries to help new players. The main advantage to it is that it comes with an implant that boosts attributes and learning. However the implant only works for a month. If the implant is destroyed you can petition a GM to get it replaced.

That is right... CCP ships a new player friendly feature that likely requires petitioning a GM to use. What a great way help lower the learning curve.

P.S. Several more great entries in the cheapfleet challenge... but we still need more. See here for details.

Shameless plug ... Proposal in the assembly hall

I have put the first point from my 5 Things to improve the new player experience in the Assembly hall for the CSM to look at. Go and have a look at [Proposal] Every Race Needs a 'Rifter' and also a 'Thrasher'

I would appreciate it if people went and gave it a thumbs up (or thumbs down).

Cheers!