So I continue my grand quest of the 30 Days of EVE Online with quite a bang today, my first real death scare. It was more my fault then anything else however I now realize that I cannot run head first into any situations in EVE because when you stop thinking, you get killed.

However I thought I should step back and talk about the process leading up to this rather unforeseen event. I started the day with yet another mining and construction mission to build a set of caps for someone at the base I have been working out of, which was a little frustrating to say the least. What I have come to realize in the early going of EVE is the constant attempts to keep the player engaged and more importantly a feeling of success. Each of these early simple mission are there to help you build skills that you need to survive EVE which makes it so unique from other MMO’s.

It was out of sheer boredom that I began to divert from these repetitive quests and began to search out something that had a little more adventure involved in it. Now however after what happened next I think I will stick to the repetitive stuff for a while. So instead of continuing the quest tree with my current advisor (who specializes in trade and commerce) I moved over to the military advisor for some much need change.

The mission I was given was a rather simple first exercise in combat skills that was not at all complex. Go to a satellite array that was being sabotaged and destroy the intruder. So with out little thought I accepted the mission and quickly warped to the zone to find one measly fighter who was ill equipped to engage me and easily overpowered. After completing this I warped back to the station and turned in the quest, which netted me quite a profit.

With this excess of cash I decide that if I wanted to go further down the military path that I need to invest in both a new ship and new weapons. So after about thirty minutes of scrolling and comparing I decided on a small frigate with a forward gatling gun and a laser weapon which both seemed like the most practical approach.

With EVE online however every decision you compose can make or break you as a pilot, and this one was quite an investment. One of the few interesting idea’s that EVE does that really makes in fascinating is the huge array of ways to assure yourself against a large problem.   One of these ways is through the use of a rather complex and complete insurance system that covers the cost of your rather expensive ship in inevitable accident to come.

Essentially all you have to do is pay for a plan or type of insurance that you want; it’s a tiered system with the more expensive stuff more fully covering you. I chose the most coverage I could get mainly out of a feeling that if I did not I would regret it at some point down the line, and regret is something that you don’t want to do in the punishing world of EVE.

So with the insurance set, guns in place, ship modified, and ammo acquired I took the next mission from my advisor. It started out rather simple, go to a location of a enemy staging area and disrupt their movements. When I first arrive I was only greeted by a handful of small ships that with some patients and planning I was able to dispatch.

However after finishing off the last ship I noticed that I still had to complete the quest, as I looked around nearby I saw why. It’s seemed as though I had only fought off the forward guards of the base and had to proceed into the actual staging zone through a gateway that was position close by. So I jumped through and realized that I had made a really horrible mistake.

On the other side of that fine gateway were eight fully equipped frigates with full weapon load outs from what I could see. I targeted the first and closes ship in hope that maybe I could just conduct hit and runs with some success but no… by the time I was even near him I was being swarmed by more enemies than I could handle. So I did the only sensible thing I could think to do, run the fuck away, as fast as I could. I made it back, luckily, if I would have started my warp any later then I had, it would have been over. I think I will stick to the easy stuff for a while, it maybe my best bet.

Tomorrow: More Crazy Stuff.