The first thing the boys did after we moved was to run out and started to poke their heads into things. They got into several fights and they killed some things. When I looked back over the killboard I noticed that they had not killed everything that they fought. They had also not been killed by it That is par the course for Eve.
I have had some days where I was out and about and fighting things but the killboard showed nothing. Sometimes the fights were a stalemate. Sometimes the person jumped the gate and died on the other side. I think most active PvPers outside of high sec have had people suicide themselves into high sec to avoid a killmail. That was a popular option for capital pilots until selfdestruct started to generate killmails.
I have had some days where I was out and about and fighting things but the killboard showed nothing. Sometimes the fights were a stalemate. Sometimes the person jumped the gate and died on the other side. I think most active PvPers outside of high sec have had people suicide themselves into high sec to avoid a killmail. That was a popular option for capital pilots until selfdestruct started to generate killmails.
There is a lot of discussion about the fights that happen. Killmail links are a tool to prove what happened. Yet, they are a flawed tool because not all of the information is recorded. I'm a believer that CCP needs to adde logistics to killmails. Considering logistics pilots are affected by the combat pilots combat flags, it seems that some link can be made somehow.
But this is not about that. It is about the things that will never be recorded.
skirmishSkirmishes can sometimes lead to the most amazing and satisfying fights. These fights don't end in explosions on each side. Yet, they were gripping intense moments where the players have to dock up and take a few deep breaths to bring them down from the combat high that they experienced.
1. (Military) a minor short-lived military engagement
2. any brisk clash or encounter, usually of a minor nature
There is a difference between fights and kills. The two are interconnected and one is the means to a second.
"Glorious explosion" is commonly used. It speaks of an ending as a goal. It is more often used as a battlecry to embrace what shall come as the pilot heads off into the fight. And it is the fight that the pilot is looking for with a hopeful goal of an end that weighs in on their side. Yet, everyone that I know can dock up after losing a fight and appreciate how good and intense the experience was.
That is my social circle. I know that it is not that way for everyone. For some, the win is the important part. The fight does not matter. Good, bad, gank, or indifferent the outcome of the other ship dying is the goal. I understand that methodology. I'd love for everything that I came across to lay down and die. But in between wining and losing there is the actual fight and that fight.
That inbetween state is where the energy happens. In a large battle each thing that dies that is not my fleet is a relief. It is a mental recalculation of the odds for the goal of holding the field and hopefully killing all the things. Each person that we lose is a decrease in our ability to achieve our goal. None of this is a failure. The pilot who goes down in a fight is not ridiculed for their loss or considered a loser in the battle. I am often not even on the field at the end of a fight due to my position in the fleet. None of that stops me from enjoying myself.
"Almost doesn't count." I feel that is an incorrect automatic response. Back before the win and back before the loss is the goal of the parties involved. For some the almost does count. They took the fight and they lost the fight but they succeeded in points of progress in the fight. If we tell someone to start a task by taking the first step and that taking that first step is an accomplishment I do not see how telling someone that they lost a fight is a failure when the fight itself involves multiple steps before the end.
It is disappointing to lose. I have never thought the otherwise. I am not one to promote the 'fun of loss' for I do not find it fun. But, win, lose, or draw are all potential outcomes. I may enter with a goal and leave without that goal but none of that invalidates the individual moments. Those moments are what make the entire event. It gives me a lot of the reason why I enjoy the PvP that I enjoy.
P.S. Millage will vary for each individual when it comes to what they enjoy in PvP.
When I first started playing Eve I was taught by my corpmates that losing was bad and should be avoided at all cost - it screwed up the KB. Unfortunately, that was the worst advice anyone in Eve has ever given me:-( It's taken me years to overcome that advice. My advice to young pilots is go out there and fight. Even if you have a less then even chance of winning the fight take it anyway. You'll learn so much and who knows you just might win an amazing fight. Kill boards be damned!
ReplyDeleteI agree. I had a fun little fight last night that ended with me realizing my plan wasn't going to work and I escaped in 25% structure. They other guy had me in a scram but was holding my blaster Merlin away at 8750m or so, so once I turned away I popped out of the scram. He won't get a killmail for driving me off, I don't get any mystical points for "almost" getting him or even being in a fight. But it was a fun, fast fight.
ReplyDeleteKillboards have done nothing for me in EVE. Maybe its because I blow up more than I blow up other things, but I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest thing I get from EVE are the damned shakes. That feeling when you're warping into engage a ship - when you start targetting someone who's targetting you, but you are too far away yet to actually shart shooting.
The adrenaline rush from doing something for which the outcome isn't locked. The uncertainty, the risk.
KB are gash marks made on trees by bears to compare themselves to other bears.
My KB doesn't control how much perspiration falls, or how long I'll need to walk around the house to come down from a combat high.
Hell, I still get shakes from running POS fuel through losec for the wh !
And as for logistics on KB? I don't care. When I fly logistics, its so other folks who make things blow up faster than I can are free to do so. I'm not there to keep score, I'm there to keep our side playing.
killboards are information to be used for that purpose. whoare you fighting what do they fly how do they fit ect. killboards show how active a corp or person is they also can infer how risk adverse they are. mostly though use them for the information they present not the bragging rights we all love
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