We had run out of targets but still had a lot of energy and the high sec system one jump out of low had a full ice belt. "Who wants to go suicide gank someone?" It turned out that everyone was up for it.
Suicide Ganking has been something on my list of things to do. I've participated in fleets as support but I have not yet been one of the shooters. For a long time, I looked at it with distaste. Later, it just seemed wasteful and then still later I decided that I wanted to give it a try.
I can't answer the, "Why suicide gank" thing other then it is something to do. I don't run around and pretend to have a motive like the Miner Bumpers do. It is something that I wanted to try and someone was going to be unhappy with the end result if it was done properly. It is also something to learn. I would like to try my hand at destroying untanked T1 industrial haulers for profit. I've done exactly zero high sec pvp/ganking/whatever the hot button description for the day is.
Operating in high sec when your security status is low enough to summon the NPC faction police is inconvenient. They chase you around and destroy your ships if you sit still for too long. A slow, fat ship may not make it. Sprints across high sec systems can be quite interesting when out on a roam. Gank Operations are a study in movement and timing. To much time and members are picked off one by one before the goal is ever reached.
As we organized the fleet and reshipped into destroyers, our scouts started to scan the belts. They wandered through and checked the barges to see who was tanked and who was not tanked. We looked to see how close groups were together. Were there suitable targets within range of other targets? Eventually a Mackinaw and a Hulk were chosen. The fleet was split into two groups and the warp ins settled down.
Fitting the ships turned out to be something of a cluster. We had the catalysts but not the fittings. Random, spur of the moment catalyst ganking is not something we have supplies for. The solution was some very strange and very random fits with mixed guns and all sorts of random nonsense. The goal was for the DPS however not the pretty. In truth, the fits were embarrassing but their lives were to be short.
We gathered about the gate in whatever people had fit into. The squads were split and everyone got their orders. Jump in, hold cloak, squad warp, primary announced, target, count to three...
And poof.
Then CONCORD.
And the comments start. The fact that the ships are unarmed and cannot fight back and picking such a target is a 'brave' thing to do. I understand the argument. I just don't understand making the argument in the first place. No one thinks that the mining barge is going to turn on the gankers and destroy them first. This is why bait barges are so successful It is not looking for a 'fair' fight. It is a gank. I'm puzzled if anyone really believes that the ganker is looking for a fair fight and somehow got confused between a Hulk and an Megathron. Or, it may be my reaction to not doing the role play and smack talk that so often follows ganks.
My end feelings is that the preparation and planning were more interesting then the end results. I've enjoyed catching miners in belts in low sec or jumping through gates but this was just land, target, approach press F1. The end result was someone that died, we warped off, they told us we were bad people, we left the system. I don't see this becoming a pass time for me. I'm more interested in trying to pop the T1 industrials for goodies to fuel my industrial machine.
Suicide Ganking has been something on my list of things to do. I've participated in fleets as support but I have not yet been one of the shooters. For a long time, I looked at it with distaste. Later, it just seemed wasteful and then still later I decided that I wanted to give it a try.
I can't answer the, "Why suicide gank" thing other then it is something to do. I don't run around and pretend to have a motive like the Miner Bumpers do. It is something that I wanted to try and someone was going to be unhappy with the end result if it was done properly. It is also something to learn. I would like to try my hand at destroying untanked T1 industrial haulers for profit. I've done exactly zero high sec pvp/ganking/whatever the hot button description for the day is.
Operating in high sec when your security status is low enough to summon the NPC faction police is inconvenient. They chase you around and destroy your ships if you sit still for too long. A slow, fat ship may not make it. Sprints across high sec systems can be quite interesting when out on a roam. Gank Operations are a study in movement and timing. To much time and members are picked off one by one before the goal is ever reached.
As we organized the fleet and reshipped into destroyers, our scouts started to scan the belts. They wandered through and checked the barges to see who was tanked and who was not tanked. We looked to see how close groups were together. Were there suitable targets within range of other targets? Eventually a Mackinaw and a Hulk were chosen. The fleet was split into two groups and the warp ins settled down.
Fitting the ships turned out to be something of a cluster. We had the catalysts but not the fittings. Random, spur of the moment catalyst ganking is not something we have supplies for. The solution was some very strange and very random fits with mixed guns and all sorts of random nonsense. The goal was for the DPS however not the pretty. In truth, the fits were embarrassing but their lives were to be short.
We gathered about the gate in whatever people had fit into. The squads were split and everyone got their orders. Jump in, hold cloak, squad warp, primary announced, target, count to three...
And poof.
Then CONCORD.
And the comments start. The fact that the ships are unarmed and cannot fight back and picking such a target is a 'brave' thing to do. I understand the argument. I just don't understand making the argument in the first place. No one thinks that the mining barge is going to turn on the gankers and destroy them first. This is why bait barges are so successful It is not looking for a 'fair' fight. It is a gank. I'm puzzled if anyone really believes that the ganker is looking for a fair fight and somehow got confused between a Hulk and an Megathron. Or, it may be my reaction to not doing the role play and smack talk that so often follows ganks.
My end feelings is that the preparation and planning were more interesting then the end results. I've enjoyed catching miners in belts in low sec or jumping through gates but this was just land, target, approach press F1. The end result was someone that died, we warped off, they told us we were bad people, we left the system. I don't see this becoming a pass time for me. I'm more interested in trying to pop the T1 industrials for goodies to fuel my industrial machine.
****
I was going to leave my post here and be done with it. I have realized that I do not wish to be lumped into the mess with minerbumping.com and Jester, told I'm doing it for any deeper reason then the fact that three days ago, it was something to do that I had never tried. Mane was running around with the Molden Heath Environmental Authority (MHEA) long before the New Order became a thing as I wrote here and here earlier last year. When a topic is hot there is often an unfortunate habit of pushing everyone into the same, very small circle. Not everyone goes there. I did not try this for any other reason then it is something on the list of things that we sometimes do that I have never participated in.
Well said. I feel pretty much exactly the same way about it, I've done it dozens of times but usually only to participate with my m8s and because it has been awhile. It's mostly boring and I lose my ship, which never sits well with me - the 1 ship for 1 ship trade goes against everything I believe in honestly.
ReplyDeleteThe ganking is not the main problem anymore (IMO). With kill rights to sell and the option to place bounty on those who do it everything is fine to me. If you decide to shoot that miner so be it, maybe next time in highsec the kill right on you is used and your roaming fleet sits next by and can't do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteBumping is the problem at hand as it is not sanctioned and you can hardly do anything against it. But eve will survive that new order BS. Nothing against role play but appropriate tools to counter actions are needed.
If you are looking for another new flavor, try the "other side" look around in the ganking systems and claim the kill rights. Another target to shoot. ;-)
I'm -8.8. I have no more interest in high sec PvP now then I did before. It may even be less.
DeleteKill rights mean nothing to me. I have a whole stack of them available. If people want to come to low sec and activate them they are more than welcome.
This has given me zero desire to increase my time in high sec. Spending my time working on my tackling skills and frigate skills in my Jag is far more appealing and valuable.
I still don't get why people gank. I don't mean ganking for profit, but just the random gank. Is it fun? Are folks that bored? And if that bored, well, why log in? Does the fun of the gank balance out the boredom?
ReplyDeleteAnd before the comments about filthy carebear start, I've lived in null, and wormholes, done highsec mining and mission running for a long while, and am now trying my hand at faction warfare. I get the whole dark universe, blah blah. I just don't get what thrill that ganking provides.
I was curious so I tried it. I don't know since it didn't do anything for me.
DeleteNow barges fill of goodies... That's stuff and I like stuff...
You should be ashamed of yourself! Not fitting the catalyst properly, how could you do such a thing? So when it went to Catalyst heaven after CONCORD 'xploded it all the other properly fit catalysts will laugh at it for all eternity.
ReplyDeleteThankfully it has all its shit fit brethern from the bank to keep it company.
DeleteI would try our suicide ganking for the same reason, because it's something new to try. Not because I have sucha desire to gank others, but that's just because I always fear my victim is like a 13-year old kid with autism that likes mining and spent all his isk on his first mining barge and doesn't understand why anyone would gank him. Or a newbie just leaving the starter system with all his assets in his t1 industrial taking that shortcut through low.
ReplyDelete