So I read all the comments from the introduction and I must admit a lot of them were interesting; in that sort of way where you feel like your point just kinda went over some heads. I’ve never said what the undesirables of high-sec do is elite. Though, I will state there are some that are very good at what they choose to partake in, within the community. Some are expert corp thieves. They take weeks at a time to infiltrate a target and then do everything they can to get their hands on as many assets as possible. Others are masters at getting fights out of mission runners that just aren’t equipped to fight a ship controlled by a problem solving sentient. Rats don’t improvise and they don’t adapt. Most mission runners I’ve met, aren’t prepared for something like that because they are so accustomed to the script that CCP provides them via missions.
At any rate, I promised an interview with one of the more entertaining pilots I’ve had the chance to associate with at the underbelly of High-sec; Zedrik Cayne.
Sponny > First I’d like to thank you for taking the time. And I’d like to start off with asking you about what drew you into Eve initially?
Zedrik Cayne > Remember the Wing Commander series?
Zedrik Cayne > Specifically Privateer?
Zedrik Cayne > I was looking for a game like that many moons ago.
Zedrik Cayne > Quite literally ten years ago now.
Sponny > Ah; yeah I’m familiar with the game in a general sense.
Zedrik Cayne > So doing a quick google search it said ‘Try THIS:’ Eve Online.
Zedrik Cayne > Found it quite literally by accident.
Sponny > So you’ve been playing Eve for a solid ten years? Seems like a pretty good accident.
Zedrik Cayne > Not quite solid…3 months off around the whole greed is good summer of rage.
Zedrik Cayne > And I just came back from a year off because work got interesting..but yeah.
Zedrik Cayne > Pretty good accident.
Sponny > So when you decided to try Eve, what hooked you initially?
Zedrik Cayne > There is all this *stuff* to do.
Zedrik Cayne > You see, part of the thing I like doing in games, is bending and breaking the rules of the game to the max.
Zedrik Cayne > Eve has…all these wonderful edge cases everywhere.
Sponny > Very vague in some aspects, yeah. Where they promote the opportunity to do anything you want, but then there are some taboo situations.
Zedrik Cayne > Of course there are taboo situations, and over the years I’ve skated up to the very edge of them.
Zedrik Cayne > I like the game, so I don’t crowd the edge too hard.
Sponny > Well since we’re on the subject; what sorts of activities do you engage in that would be considered skirting the edges of those taboos?
Zedrik Cayne > Recently? Can’t talk about recently…
Sponny > Let’s talk about some of the things I’ve seen you engage in then; specifically suspect baiting.
Zedrik Cayne > I’m abusive on the aggression mechanics lately however, which is somewhat questionable.
Sponny > How so?
Zedrik Cayne > Well, there are rules about where and when you can actually do it. I have to avoid starter systems, and I’m careful about who I am trying to kill.
Zedrik Cayne > I try to stay a couple jumps out of starter systems so I don’t accidentally grab someone a day old who has no idea what is going on.
Zedrik Cayne > And I try to be careful about actually collecting the ore I take….so I’m stealing, and then protecting myself as opposed to baiting.
Sponny > Can you walk me through a typical case? Perhaps that Orca kill you got on March 13th?
Zedrik Cayne > Oh, him…he was a particularily spectacular idiot.
Zedrik Cayne > Earlier, I had blown up his Mackinaw, he had a couple jet-cans of ore in a belt, so I flipped’em both. He aggressed with the mackinaw which died.
Zedrik Cayne > With that big a pile of ore, I wanted to grab a miasmos to collect it.
Zedrik Cayne > So, I booked out of local…hunted one down, and came back.
Zedrik Cayne > So far, by the book…take ore, guy in the exhumer aggresses me, and he gets to die alone because he’s got no friends and is alone.
Sponny > Fairly standard.
Zedrik Cayne > Except when I get back in my shiny miasmos…buddy is *suspect* and he’s in his orca, in the belt.
Zedrik Cayne > I arrive, in a miasmos not fit for anything..and he’s warping out…
Zedrik Cayne > So, he waited until I wasn’t suspect any more, and went to go get his ore.
Zedrik Cayne > Situation went from ‘normal’ to ‘ridiculous’.
Zedrik Cayne > So, I camp him in with my nereus. And he actually undocks.
Zedrik Cayne > And I ‘help’ him into warp….webbing him on his way.
Sponny > Your nereus – this is the battle industrial, right?
Zedrik Cayne > Yeah, pretty standard triple rep setup.
Zedrik Cayne > There’s plenty of examples on my killboard of it dying 😛
Sponny > Yes, but it should be said there’s plenty of outlandish examples of kills in it as well.
Zedrik Cayne > It is pretty tough, but you get any seriously pvp fit anything on it and it’ll die.
Zedrik Cayne > At any rate…I follow after this suspect (and now limited engagement) orca.
Zedrik Cayne > And actually catch him, in the nereus…15km off a gate.
Zedrik Cayne > And began the long..long…long process of killing him.
Zedrik Cayne > For the unaware, it is a half-hour process if he’s got a crappy tank.
And our friend did something terrible in the mean time…he logged off.
Zedrik Cayne > CCP does a very poor job at explaining stuff like timers and aggression to new players.
Zedrik Cayne > Most of your readers will have a good enough understanding of them. But for anyone who hasn’t done any research, it can be deadly.
Sponny > Especially when you’re in the midst of combat. Why do you think he logged out instead of trying to do anything else?
Zedrik Cayne > As I was chewing through the orca, I called out for some help. A bit of scanning to be done when the ship exploded. The pod was going to emergency warp away, but because my new friend logged off, he was just going to sit in space for 15 minutes.
Zedrik Cayne > I don’t know why he logged….I only noticed because I tried to get a conversation going about a possible ransom.
Sponny > Do you often get ransoms in this sort of activity?
Zedrik Cayne > I usually ask.
Zedrik Cayne > I don’t often get one. And I will honor them. (There are exceptions to that rule…)
Sponny > Your Zkillboard lists a decent amount of Nereus kills; is this your favorite ship to pvp in?
Zedrik Cayne > It used to be the mighty iteron Mk V.
Zedrik Cayne > Now the nereus. It is my favorite because it harkens back to when pvp wasn’t mostly about position or dps. It was about getting in someone’s face, tank’n’blast.
Zedrik Cayne > That, and I’m getting old and slow. This matches my reflexes now a days pretty well.
Sponny > Can you tell me about the belligerent undesirable community at all?
Zedrik Cayne > Sure, I don’t think it is particularly a secret.
Zedrik Cayne > The Belligerent Undesirables are a group of pretty nice guys.
Zedrik Cayne > Bent on having fun their way.
Zedrik Cayne > Which usually involves stomping someone else’s face into the mud, repeatedly, for fun and profit.
Sponny > In what manners?
Zedrik Cayne > In most common forms of eve-stomping. Reverse Safari, wardec, corp theft.
Zedrik Cayne > Safari if you can find a corp out there with ‘you can shoot your corpmates’ still turned on.
Zedrik Cayne > And of course we have some members of CODE. who hang out.
Zedrik Cayne > And we all know they are into suicide ganking.
Zedrik Cayne > It’s something I’ve done a few times in the past to make a point. But it isn’t really my bag.
Sponny > What’s your opinion on that change? The option to turn corp-aggression off?
Zedrik Cayne > Oh, its been a change that’s been needed forever and a day.
Zedrik Cayne > It should have gone in the very minute they gave us dueling.
Sponny > For those that may not know, what is reverse safari?
Zedrik Cayne > I think it was Psychotic Monk who came up with the term, but I could be wrong. Safari used to be the practice of joining a corp to kill people in it. Usually with a heavy dose of logistics on the side. This was in the days of corporate aggression being
Zedrik Cayne > okay by default.
Zedrik Cayne > A ‘Reverse Safari’ is the practice of having a nice sounding corp..and inviting someone in with the express purpose of killing them.
Zedrik Cayne > As in ‘Hey, You’ve got a real nice mission running ship! We run a lot of missions too and fast. Wanna come on board?’
Sponny > And people fall for that?
Zedrik Cayne > ‘Let’s go do this angel extravaganza!’
Zedrik Cayne > *PEW PEW DIE DIE DIE* *SQUISH* *POD*
Zedrik Cayne > Yes, people fall for that.
Zedrik Cayne > People fall for isk doubling and bad contracts.
Zedrik Cayne > A teeny tiny bit of social engineering goes an awfully long way.
Zedrik Cayne > And it really doesn’t take much. People who fall for that kind of thing are typically *bored*
Zedrik Cayne > They want something, bigger, more exciting, yet safe.
Sponny > What activity would you say takes the most amount of concentrated social engineering?
Zedrik Cayne > Corp Theft.
Zedrik Cayne > Something I don’t engage in, can’t keep the facade up.
Zedrik Cayne > Now, there’s plenty of ways to mitigate corp theft. And if people would use all the tools available it would help. But people are also *lazy*.
Sponny > Other than what you’re up to currently that you mentioned you couldn’t talk about; what are some of your favorite eve activities?
Zedrik Cayne > I like to steal stuff…you find me wandering the universe, mashing the dscan.
Zedrik Cayne > I’ve found a couple freighters, pilot-less, at a dead tower.
Zedrik Cayne > I love stealing ore.
Zedrik Cayne > It’s been my favorite activity for…well…forever.
Zedrik Cayne > And it is a teaching moment…. ‘Do not shoot back at the ore thief unless you are ready for him to try tearing you a new asshole.’
Sponny > Would you say a freighter then, is your biggest ‘score’?
Zedrik Cayne > Oh no, best score was the mining navy apoc…
Zedrik Cayne > Was it an apoc?
Zedrik Cayne > Good lord that’s 4 years ago…still my favorite.
Zedrik Cayne > Some are worth more isk, but that one was priceless.
Sponny > I remember when this happened, actually. Still epic.
Zedrik Cayne > And of course, there’s Socratic. Still most fun thing I think I’ve participated in.
Sponny > Socratic?
Zedrik Cayne > I was on contract to harass a particular someone, name of Socratic.
Zedrik Cayne > This was just before the summer of rage.
Zedrik Cayne > So it kind of got buried. Morin Blain managed some social engineering, a social engineering extravaganza.
Zedrik Cayne > That convinced the guy to sit in a megathron, blasting smartbombs…in highsec.
Zedrik Cayne > While we had a bunch of pods arrived.
Zedrik Cayne > He took a fast ride down to -9.6 sec status.
Zedrik Cayne > And we got the pod. There’s video.
Zedrik Cayne > IT is one of those times where the exception to the ‘honor thy ransom’ rules are involved.
Sponny > Sounds like a rough situation for someone not accustomed to being negative security status.
Zedrik Cayne > I found out later I made cracked.com for it.
Zedrik Cayne > I’m number six.
Sponny > Incredible! It seems we’ve run over our agreed upon time and I do appreciate you taking the hour out of your day to talk. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Zedrik Cayne > Not really, except ‘Stop can mining, because I eventually will find you. And you will not have a good day beyond that point’
I’d like to thank Zedrik again, for taking the time to answer some questions and share some of his experiences. If anyone has any stories they’d like to share, feel free to message me in-game, and we can arrange something.
Next time on Between the Gates, War.
