Ninja

In April and June, I confessed to a bit of incidental thieving. Last night, I set out to do it deliberately, although a bit circuitously.

In addition to running level 4 missions, I've also undertaken several of the Gallente COSMOS missions. Unlike most other missions, you only get one shot at COSMOS tasks, and there's a bit less hand-holding (which is to say, you need to read the text to know where to go). A couple of these limit the size of the ship you can take, so I slipped into a cruiser for them. Now, in the spirit of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie:

• Being in a regular cruiser made me think about training up to fly a Proteus Strategic Cruiser.
• Thinking about the Proteus made me wonder about which subsystems to install.
• Thinking about subsystems made me think about how I'd use the ship.
• Thinking about roles and objectives made me think about exploration.
• Exploration made me think about the difference between two pieces of ship equipment: probe launchers and expanded probe launchers. Probe launchers are easier to equip but can't use combat sensor probes.
• Thinking about combat sensor probes made me think about what, in turn, makes them different than regular probes: the former can scan down individual ships; regular probes can't.
• Thinking about combat probes made me think about the time a ninja looter scanned me down, blew up my remote tractor units, and with whom I did some fun, non-destructive sparring.
• Thinking about ninja lootting made me think about ... ninja salvaging.

Ninja salvaging and ninja looting both involve taking advantage of the ship and structure wrecks mission-runners -- like me, usually -- leave behind. Someone running a level 4 mission probably is traversing three or four "pockets" of space, each isolated from the other and accessible only via an acceleration gate. A ninja salvager swoops in to break down the wrecks, harvesting components that can be sold or manufactured into other goods. Totally legal; it doesn't raise a security alert. Ninja looting involves accessing a wrecks' innards and stealing equipment not otherwise destroyed in combat. Doing so raises a suspect flag on the looter for 15 minutes because the game sees it as stealing the destroying player's property. Other players can freely fire upon suspect-flagged characters.

Think of this way: a salvager takes peanut shells; a looter takes the shells and the nut inside. And the latter can get you shot.

I researched a few ships and fits. I briefly considered using a battleship hull for its large cargo space, but I've previously lamented their slowness. Ultimately, I equipped an Imicus frigate with some appropriate equipment -- salvage drones, a fast microwarpdrive, some salvagers -- and took off.

It took three scan cycles to track down a battleship in the same system where I pick up missions myself. I warped to its signature and found myself in a mission pocket with a couple of dozen wrecks. My intent was only to salvage ... but when I curiously opened a wreck and saw some good loot, I took it. The suspect flag activated: for the next 15 minutes, other pilots would be free to shoot at me, and that countdown reset each time I stole again. Still, I cleared out the area with room to spare in the cargo bay.

I swung through the acceleration hate, ready to warp out if I rear-ended the battleship whose loot I was stealing. But that area, too, was filled only with wrecks and a gate the a third sector. Again, salvaged and stowed. My cargo bay filled up, and I ditched a pair of bulky drones for a more precious-per-cubic-meter armor repairer. Sated, it was time to leave.

I picked an arbitrary planet and jumped 100 kilometers away from it: in the vastness of Eve space, I wasn't likely to run into anyone. I figured I'd wait out the 15-minute flag's duration before heading home. That certainly would have been most prudent. But, I got bored after a minute or two. That, and I wanted to pay a bit of attention to the movie my wife was watching next to me: clip at right. So, I just jumped (jump!) home.

I could have been shot and wouldn't've been surprised if I wound up destroyed: Eemiv lives at a busy station. But, no one shot me when I arrived, nor seemed to be shooting at the two other suspect-flagged ships. To boot, I landed within docking range and was almost instantly back inside. Once berthed, my ship and haul were safe from attack.

What fun!

From buying the hull and equipment to returning home, maybe 20 minutes passed. I scored about 15 million ISK in goods. This was faster than running most missions in terms of both time and also busy-ness: constantly directing drones, navigating between wrecks, and keeping an eye on the vicinity for my returning, unaware benefactor.

On the downside, I can imagine not as easily finding a ship to tail next time, or the complication of stumbling in while they're still at work in an area. But, ya know, if it's a battleship I could probably escape fine. And if I didn't, heck, I made enough from this first run to make up for what I invested in this looting rig in the first place.

Anyhow, remaining unaddressed is, What should I spend this money on? Ideally, it would be on keeping a combat, PvP-oriented character set with replacement ships and equipment. But I don't really have that character (even with Dengar) what with not spending a whole lot of time with Eve. But, hey, maybe when my wife is out of town for a week this month, that'll change a bit!