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Mr. Bugsy Goes Camping

September 9, 2017

Over the next few months, I have been given access and permission to fly with different alliances, corporations and solo pilots to cover their experience with EVE Online, and life in New Eden. I will bring the readers of EN24 a look into every aspect (including ship spinning) in EVE Online.

During the last few weeks I have been given access and insight to a prolific system in New Eden. This article will give you an insight into their daily life and my own opinions on it. The system in question is infamous as a ‘no go’ due to its constant nature of camping (yet a surprising amount of pilots are still to receive this memo). As far as systems go in New Eden, this is ideal for this activity for several reasons;

Over the last few weeks, I have been flying with a small gang of pilots in a highly prolific system in New Eden. This article will give you an insight into their daily life. The system in question is infamous as a ‘no go’ due to its constant nature of camping (yet a surprising amount of pilots are still to receive this memo). As far as systems go in New Eden, this is ideal for this activity for several reasons;

  • Only a few jumps out from High Sec: This means passing traffic is high and varied; from fleets ducking in for a fight or an explorer running back to Jita to buffer his wallet, you have it all.
  • A pipe system: Meaning there is only one way to go, allowing you to funnel pilots with little to no effort at all.
  • Location: It is slotted in-between several battling alliances. Alliances need pilots, supplies and activity to keep the war effort going, just so happens these guys are taking a bite of the cake.
  • Clever advantages. The system has no regional gates, limited wormhole spawns and celestials. This creates no/limited escape and nullifying any range issues when catching a travelling pilot.

If you’ve ever studied or watched nature, there is one main rule; never intervene. I adopted this rule as I watched their day to day life but it was incredibly hard to stick to. You watch the same pilot (who instantly froze in space ten minutes ago) plight their luck for the fifth time to (no surprise) no avail. I wanted to flick them a message simply titled “Just stop mate”. Even the guys became surprised that their ‘eyes’ (cloaked alt in neighbouring systems, they monitor who and what is entering the target system) saw the same guy in local land on gate… “Is this guy actually doing this again?”.

The first thing I noticed with these guys was their bond, it felt like they were all sat round a table in a bar, numerous drinks and stains later you walk in and have to play catch up. I instantly felt welcomed and attuned to their customs. Their main source of food is salt. They know how to rile up any member of their gang to get a good feed.

If you wander into the system and ‘throw your dolly out the pram’ through means of local chat, mail or channel chat you are literally serving up a four-course meal, and these guys love it! The icing on the cake is if one of them receives a mail, it is handed around like 420 and thoroughly demolished.

I came into their territory with an open mind and a notepad by my keyboard. The only thing that matched their bond is their setup. It is incredible, a jump freighter to supply an endless stockpile of ships, types and variations. All available to anyone to pilot and take on anything heading their way; from mass fleets to catching an ‘insta warp interceptor’. Yet, most fly their favourite officer fitted toy with the new skin.

There isn’t any real way to get around these guys and I’m sure if a big toy came through they’d have their own means to reap the kill or pick up the batphone to deal with it.

When times are quiet they flip the coin and hunt their salt through BLOPs operations. Sending out hunters whilst laughing about the CEO’s failed date, they keep the killboards ticking over and the content fresh.

The risk vs reward is minimal, the profit from looting cargo is distributed and when a transport ship carrying several billion in loot comes through, these guys can PLEX and shine up their toys in no time. Their pilot skills are extremely good (I will be the first to put my hand up and say there is no F1, rinse and repeat), they deal with small tactical skirmishes, slippery targets and face hitting battleships, there is a lot of tricks to be used here.

The icing on the cake came on my last day flying with them. A scout for a DST entered our system, they had already clocked the DST a few jumps behind and with a quick pilot check realised the connection…An epic game of chicken had just started…

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The scout knew this system was active and looked dodgy, he warped to a gate ping (pilot made bookmark used as a perch to ‘suss’ out gate shenanigans) cloaked and spied on the system for over 30mins. What he didn’t know was that the guys had already cloaked at the gate and were lying in wait.

The guys let all ships glide past, including shuttles and interceptors, a normal ‘easy-pickings’ – all in the pretence of trying to give the illusion that no one was around. The chat was buzzing, dreaming of what could be in their cargo (the general consensus was a Titan BPO), will they / won’t they do it, and then the ‘mother of all mothers’ plan was dropped… Bridge their own (neutral alt) DST a few jumps away to an alt hunter (flipping that coin paid off) and fly him through the system. The plan was setup, crossing their fingers the scout was not in d-scan range and was not looking at local they lit the covert cyno; the DST was bridged. (little tip, if you click on a pilot in local, press CTL+A which highlights the list, anyone new who enters will not be highlighted – an easy way to track local movement). I have never felt as nervous in EVE as I had during this moment, the only thing to come close was the first time I jumped into null-sec back in 2009.

The neutral DST alt glided though as we all waved to him (through comms)………….and lo and behold “HE’S HERE!!”

The ill-fated DST jumped through and before the CCP server had logged him aligning to warp the guys had pulled a Concord on him: scrammed, webbed, drained and dead. I won’t divulge the loot or kill but they threw me a few PLEX. I had such a rush of adrenaline. I had just witnessed a pack of wolves stalk its prey, pull the wool over its eyes and pull off a remarkable hunt.

I know pilots have a wide array of views on campers, but moments like those are a true experience and reflection of this game. Plus you get to fly your favourite officer fitted ship, drink a cold one with your mates and tone your abs through laughter; I can see the big attraction to this lifestyle.

Disclaimer – the system, corp and pilots have been kept anonymous for obvious reasons…we’re watching nature here!