I started with Eve Online in 2004 after “Earth and Beyond” was canceled. Since I was a year past the release date, I decided to catch up by setting us with three accounts to be played at once (three pc systems), One character would be into mining, another would do PVE missions and the other was corporate. Started small with the three ships doing some mining and fighting off the “rats” (took me awhile to figure out that these weren’t players, but NPC’s).
Long story, short, after 2.5 years my miner was maxed out on the yields using a T2 barge, my fighter was doing level 4 missions and the corp guy was flying a T2 support ship for the fighter. We didn’t belong to any PVP corp, but played in our private corp. Oh I tried PVP, but found it to be boring and too repetitive.
After 2.5 years some PvP guy didn’t like the idea that we weren’t into PvP on a PvP game so he ran an exploit on me. He used an indy to steal ore from a jet can. That raised a flag in the game that allowed me to attack him. So I sent in my T2 drones - he barely warped out. So I figured it was done. He then comes back in a full blown PvP ship and reduces my fleet to structure and demands 10 million isk. I pay him and complain to the developers. They ignore my complaint and I leave Eve Online for good.
So you can’t simple enjoy the game unless you engage in PvP whether you want to or not.
EVE has been an open-world 24/7 PvP game since day one, whether you like it or not. The simple act of undocking is your automatic consent to unsolicited PvP. And what you did is called suspect baiting, and it’s not an exploit. A suspect flag not only allows you to attack the thief, but also allows the thief to attack you in return. Had you not engaged him, you would have lost your ore, but you’d still have your ships.
All the safety settings allow you to shoot at legal targets (like war targets, criminals… aaaannnd: suspects) thus the safety setting would have made no difference at all.
This guy got suspect baited, he decided he take the bait, he was overconfident thinking it is just a helpless hauler thief, the guy escaped and he decided he will just chill there and continue mining out of pure greed as he didn’t wanted to sacrifice 5 minutes of mining time to get rid of his limited engagement timer and he didn’t even pay enough attention when the other guy came back, he didn’t prealign so he can warp out, he was just sitting there thinking nothing bad will happen, he was wrong and paid the price. Works as intended.
Playing the game as literally advertised isn’t an exploit. He knew how EVE works, you didn’t. He had a plan, you had assumptions. He was prepared in advance for the outcome, you weren’t.
Incorrect, and whiny. More accurately to your situation, “You can’t pretend the rest of EVE doesn’t exist, and ignorance of the game doesn’t equal armor. You can enjoy the game if you learn how it works and take sensible precautions. And on the rare occasion when your precautions aren’t enough and you get dunked anyway, you’re fine because, not being ignorant of EVE rules, you were flying what you could afford to lose.”
That’s the actual situation, then and today. Learn how EVE works, then play accordingly.
Never understood why concord does not attack a thief when they escalate to attempted murder. Cant claim self defense when you are robbing someone. The thief playstyle should be steal and run, knowing you can’t shoot back cause concord would blast you.
It doesn’t work that way. Just because someone steals your loot and they go suspect, they still don’t have the right to shoot at you, until YOU shoot at them first. THEN they can openly attack you. Moral of the story, don’t take the bait in the first place.
There should not be a bait. You steal you are committing a crime. Should be one way where the one being robbed can shoot them without consequences and the thief can only choose to run.
If anything the can full of loot should be the bait to get a greedy thief to open themselves up to being killed.
Name one thing in EVE that doesn’t require PvP in some form. Markets are subject to flooding and undercutting by other players. You can be warped in on and ganked in the middle of a PvE mission. You can be ganked while mining. You can be ganked while running anoms. You can be ganked while exploring. You can be ganked upon exiting an abyssal filament. There is no activity in EVE where you are not subject to forced interaction with other players.
