Most Exciting Time in EvE

So many exciting times, so many choices but I will just start with one.

Environment: Null Sec
Activity: Exploration - Relic and Data sites
Flying: Covops Frigate

A few weeks ago I decided to go Null sec exploring. I had decided on this occasion that I needed to get out and visit this scary place in which I had been killed more often then not. I had heard about the riches to be made out there and wanted a piece of the action.

I set myself up in a covops frigate and headed out. I successfully navigated through lowsec, got through the first gate into Null, hit the second gate and found a gate camp. Now I was a bit rusty after coming back from an extended break and managed to double click my cloak, get pointed and blown up in all of about three seconds. Not the best start. Additionally I copped some abuse in local for exposing the camp but hey, it was content wasn't it. I convo'd the guy that was abusing me and tried to have a conversation and a laugh but it seemed I had upset him so he wasn't interested in chatting at the time. In essence I had achieved two things, made someone cry and noted that maybe remaining calm and not double clicking was a better strategy for escaping gate camps! Pro tip.......

So back to Jita, new covops frigate built and off with a pocket full of confidence into Nullsec with all my new experience. This time I successfully made it more than two jumps into Nullsec, scanned down and completed numerous sites, was about three quarters through loading my ship up with isk making loot when I got noticed by some locals. I had my route set and started jumping quickly through various gates and managed to leave the pursuers behind. That had been exciting, little did I know it wasn't over yet!

So I start scanning for sites and about a minute later I notice that the pursuers had found me again. I stay cloaked up, quickly pull in my probes so as not to make it obvious I am exploring and watch local closely and they move on quickly. Sweet I had outmaneuvered them and they had obviously given up. I would be careful jumping into the next system and if they weren't there I was good to continue on about my business.

No sites in this system so I carefully bounce off a planet and enter the next system cautiously. Yep, they aren't in here so I am all good. I scan the system, nothing of value here and jump through the next gate. As soon as I appear on the other side I note that I am in a warp bubble. I also note that there is an interceptor and cruiser about 50 clicks off the gate. Hmmm those names look familiar, yep, my pursuers had set a trap. Welcome to Nullsec Mhrdhr!

Alright, what do I do here, I know interceptors are fast and I can't sit here as they would have seen the gate fire, they know someone is here. So I break the gate cloak start moving to the edge of the warp bubble, recloak very quickly, change direction now that I am cloaked and start praying. The interceptor is on its way, 40,000 , 30,000 , 20,000 damn this thing is quick. 10,000 , 5,000 , 3,000 I am so going to get decloaked and turned into dust again.

Still too far away from the edge of the bubble to escape 2,800 , 2,500 , 2,200 , 2,100 yep I am done. I look down at my keyboard already thinking about how I could have survived this and starting to analyse how I can combat this type of trap in the future. So maybe if I backtrack next time, make sure my path is not as obvious, or hunt down a Wormhole and take my chances through WH space and hide in there for awhile.

I glance back at my screen and to my complete amazement I have reached the edge of the bubble, still cloaked with an interceptor flying around like some crazed zealot and still getting dangerously close as it zooms around at some astronomical speed looking for me. I will never actually know how close it came to decloaking me but I don't think you could get any closer.

The feeling of accomplishment as I warped off and the buzz from escaping this trap specifically setup to catch me by those pilots was, I must say, the most exciting time I have had in EvE to date. It wasn't an extreme PvP battle, It wasn't almost losing my ship in PvE and recovering with my amazing PvE skills. It was living, when I was the target, using the skills that I had and the experience I have developed over the years of playing on and off to effectively beat two players in their territory playing by their rules without their skills and intimate knowledge of the area. It involved a grand total of three players and no one lost a ship.

I was genuinely proud of that achievement. Yes it involved some luck I must admit but it couldn't get more exciting when piloting an exploration ship which was 3/4 full of loot. I made it back to Highsec by navigating through wormholes and successfully sold my loot to the highest bidders.

EvE is not all about PvP, although this was a component of that, there are many ways to have fun and sometimes its not about blowing someone else up.

Remember, fly dangerous, it creates content!