Noob to Noob: Advice

Sometimes other new players that I've gotten to know come to my for advice. I find this to be a horrible thing because I don't feel like I know very much, much less enough to share. However, I'm the only PvPer most of them know so they come to me.

This one presented me with a story. It was about him mining in a belt and watching someone become a target because they had less then a clue then he did. The reason he had a tiny clue was becuase of me. All the time he has spent talking with me about what I do and how I see Eve (to stay alive in low sec and null [lol me and null]) has given him a bit of self awareness that allowed him to avoid a gank.

I met him randomly in a random corps chat room I dropped into one day after seeing an add. I had no interest in the corp but its an effective way to meet people who want to be met. He is a nice guy and somehow, newer then I am. Since I am the only PvPer he knows he talks to me about these things. His corp claims to do roams and such but everyone's killboard is rather empty...

Beyond that, he sent me an eve-mail the other day asking what to do to avoid getting ganked in his miner. When I caught up to him later, an interesting story unfolded.

He said that he was mining away in a belt in a populated system. He knew that hulkageddon was on and that his retriever was on the list but he was operating under a "shit happens to other people" mentality. However, in the back of his mind all the things we have discussed about looking out for gankers was rolling around in his mind. So he is mining with another guy in a retriever. They are not fleeted, just two miners hanging out in the same belt...

Retrievers rule!

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...when he notices a local spike and sees a red, flashy character land in the belt.

(flashy people being flashy but not related to the story)

Now, we had discussed overview stuff and sec status and all that beautiful things. He was in a position to warp off as soon as he noticed the other player and he did. He yelled for the other guy to 'warp off! Ganker!'. The other guy did not notice/hear him or pay attention.

Boom. Retriever down. The ganked miner is in local having a tear filled fit that I'm sure the ganker gorged on. How? What? Why? My friend docks and sends me an eve mail for advice on how to be safer.

For a tiny, tiny but of awareness he made an effort to save himself. His awareness came, mostly from knowing me. Because I've assisted and encouraged him to do what he wants to do (mine atm) but always filled it with all the cautions and warnings that I can. It gave him a greater awareness of what was going on.

I'm still the blind leading the blind, but I think I now have that nice stick with the red stripes to help me find the curb.

However, it does not always work. Another story (because Eve is filled with these things) comes from a Wormhole and someone who is making their home in a relatively low grade Wormhole. He sighed and popped into a chat with me to tell me that one of his buddies (they have not corped up yet) just got ganked.

The problem was, teh guy was mining, in a wormhole in a retriever. He saw the probes appear on dscan. He saw the covops frig appear on dscan. He ignored all of this. The covops tackles him and pews him to death with one, small gun.

Zero awareness with all of the tools.