Learning How to Hold Hands

I wonder if the boys dislike our newest, potential new member.

Bringing in an experienced pilot is a different task then raising a new player. My teenagedness has given me the maturity to noobsit. I guess. I was told that since I am a noob myself, I'll remember all the little things easier.

Mostly, I've been worring about it being a case of the blind leading the blind.

At least he is a good sport about it. Not that we have been cast out on our own...

Today, I was up fairly early and the only one around. We've had him move into our local high sec mission hub and set him blue. Space was relatively quiet around Molden Heath. I decided to spend some time with him before I ran off and got distracted by my incursion experiment. The goal was to get some ships down into our low sec area for him so that he could engage in group activities with ease.

I tasked him with fitting a salvage destroyer. Once he was set, I scouted him down.

Scouting someone else vs myself is a different experience. I may information overload on him. I'm not sure. We got to where we needed to go without any misjumps or drama. I explained aspects of various stations to him as well and made him check routes with evemaps.

Home was blue. I sent him off to make himself bookmarks around the stations and gates with word to run off and hide or dock if anyone appeared. I then went to scan the area and find some isk for us. I normally do my own scanning but I felt the need to create some focused productive content for him that would be useful for general living.

We discussed a lot of stuff. Bookmarks, safes, warping to a cloaked scout, made sure he could see probes on dscan, etc. Just stuff. Mostly, I had him following with me with a cloak on his catalyst. His job was to keep his eyes open, stay cloaked and not die. He cleaned up the wrecks on the Radar site and then I took him out belt ratting.

Everything moves a bit slower. That was unexpected. I need to make sure he is with me, or cloaked, or safe, or whatever. It causes me to think things through a lot more and debate what I am doing with a different focus. I also am a bit amazed at the sheer volume of crap I have learned as I regurgitate it for him. I worry that I'm telling him absolute shit. I worry about that a lot.

We did some sites and some belt ratting. He is doing okay ISK wise but the easy bounty money and the drops from the rat wrecks were a pleasant bonus for him. Running around with me he made around 10-15 mil. I gave him some of my exploration loot to sell as well.

I don't normally rat in my hurricane. In one system, we were popping a rat. It was taking a minute because I was having him warp to me and work on angles of approach and not getting caught on asteroids. Also, I had him shooting it with me to share the sec gain and explained the value of it as well as grooming belts for battleship spawns. A neutral popped in system. I kept an eye out since they were cloaked. Then, my scout, a system ahead had a local spike.

"Shit." I explained what I saw and told him get ready to bail. We got ourselves aligned, popped the rat, he looted and salvaged and we bounced as a roam of 7 came into the system. I explained that they sat there long enough that their scout had probably located us and gotten a warp in together for the fleet. Maybe not, but better to expect it and think about it then get popped for not paying attention.

Later, I showed him the high sec pockets that often pool exploration sites and the static DED complexes. He had been doing some ninja site running in low sec before he found us and asked to be adopted so he knows a lot of basics. With the routes explained, the incursion pointed out, I set him free to run around.

He got his exploration ships down just fine. He ran through a gatecamp and did some MWD cloaking stuff to slip away. The group that popped our POS has been sitting around the gate in the next system. I'm not sure what they are planning/thinking/doing.

He is swimming nicely. I guess it is a bit like floaties in the deep end of the pool. So far, he says he likes it. Plus, he keeps coming back.

We don't have a holding corporation for new members. So, we're including him with everything but the ticker. Not having the ticker makes it easier for him to back out if it doesn't work out. A no pressure approach perhaps? SO far though, looks like hes a keeper.