Learning Cliff

OK, back to EVE Online now. Yesterday I gave myself some time to do some trade alt stuff as well as add a skill to Cozmik's skill queue. I have finally finished a lengthy PvE skill; Salvaging V was a bitch but it's out of the way forever. I know I didn't really have to push it that far because it is used only on Sleeper battleships in the deeper wormhole systems, but as there is a possibility that I may go back there I wanted it done. And now that it is done it's back to the meat and potatoes of a combat pilot, moar gunnery skills! Next in line is Sharpshooter V so I can get my T2 Large Artillery guns (already have autocannons), and then on to T2 Large Hybrids with a sprinkling of support skills; this will be followed by the purchase of a Megathron and/or Hyperion of course.

As I was mentionning in my latest post, and also telling my noob corpmate, I didn't feel like doing missions and I miss The PvP a little, so I said alright, let's do a basic PvP lesson. I'm not exactly great at lecturing and didn't have time to go too deep into the subject, but I wanted to cover some of the things that PvP veterans (which I still don't consider myself as) take for granted, like making bookmarks and safespots, high transversal speed approaches, scrambler vs disruptor, the effects of tracking, AB vs MWD, overview settings, that kind of stuff. In showing him the tackling approaches Si expressed the same wish I have and will always pray for even if it never makes it into the game: direct control over the ship instead of double-clicking all over the screen while turning the view. When I approached him from a 70 km distance to start a spiral that would end at my Taranis' optimal he overheard the clickfest I made over Skype and immediately asked me what the hell I was doing. When I told him what I did between the time I came out of warp to the time where the target is fucked, his only answer was "dude, I'm still learning the damn UI!". Yeah... I remember that feeling.

Not quite two years ago I was basically at the same point Si is in his career, but I had the advantage of a couple months of preparation for the monster that is EVE Online, and right off the bat I was thrown into a lion cage, and that cage got dumped into a pool of sharks, with frikkin' lazor beams I might add. The first roams I did I just couldn't shut up on Ventrilo because I had questions about everything, and at the same time receiving orders in broken english by some icelandic dude (hey Cerui!). When a target was called it was usually dead when I started approaching it, same thing with looting, and fleet engagements were usually a giant mess. But only two things helped me get better and that's time and practice.

But there's more than just practice to the learning cliff. A few days ago Si discovered the dangers of flying in Low-sec; he had bought a skillbook in a Pator Tech School, but the station wasn't in the system he thought. His brain was saying "Pator", but reality and the killmail say "Amamake"! For the record I will say that it was a pretty cheap kill though; a Harbinger was parked at the station undock point and was insta-popping frigs and destroyers coming out. Woo, big challenge there. I'm sure the pirate types reading this blog are better than this. But this lead into a discussion of fitting his next Thrasher... and OMFG that was scary. I know that Si is working towards my type of Minmatar/Gallente skill set, but this ship gave me the willies; when you hear "railgun", "heat sink", and "CPU usage rigs" while talking about the Minmatar destroyer, blood curdles and goosebumps appear. I'm happy to announce that this fit did not receive my approbation and the ship got the artillery treatment right away. But yes, I will need to have a beer with Si and do a good lecture on the wonderful tool that is EFT, and maybe show him Sisi so he can blow stuff up without consequence. Most probably this weekend.

Despite all the hardships of the learning cliff, Si Gong still has the will to go on and learn more about this great universe. I will keep on doing my best to keep him from hanging himself on that cliff, and avoiding that bulldozer pushing dead bodies off of it. When he started playing the game Si told me that he was never really big into reading forums and guides and stuff, but he's quickly discovering that EVE is not exactly like any other game he's played before. Let's hope I can make a scholar gamer out of him :)

Fly dangerous, and station games is for faggots.

o7

PS: if you aren't familiar with the MMORPG Learning Curve, Google exactly those words.