I pretty much play this game as a “law abiding” citizen. Positive security rating, 60% of my time spent in high sec, mostly PvP. I’m thinking of taking an alt into negative security, at least -5, but maybe even lower. I’ve already read the Eve Uni wiki to familiarize myself with most of the mechanics (faction police chase me in high sec, I can be shot and Concord won’t help me) but I’m interested in hearing from people who’ve actually done this on a toon. How is it? Does it get boring quickly? Do you regret/enjoy the decision? Are there any tips to follow?
The only bummer is the faction police. You cannot cloak anymore and you always need to be either “warp drive active” or targeting somebody for a suicide gank. It take about 30 seconds for the facpo to arrive after you warp in.
Being an outlaw in highsec is pretty oppressive. The faction police limit you to basically one style of play - a fast aligning, and cheap, alpha doctrine. Don’t get wrong, and can be fulfilling to bounce around a grid, but you might find your options limiting.
Alternatively, you can play the ambush predator in high DPS ships, but this requires at least one other account to do efficiently. It also is pretty restricted in ship choice and tactics.
Going suspect probably gives you more varied PvP options in highsec, but with tags it doesn’t cost too much to come back if you don’t like the outlaw life. So give it a try I guess.
I do wonder though if you built a big enough fleet of outlaws, say in a 0.5 security status system, if you could tank/kite/fight the facpo successfully enough to participate in PvP with others. Probably not, as your set up would outclass the typical white knight (who also tend to be too timid to engage if there is any risk of a real fight), but one can dream.
I dropped below -5 on my main after a few months of playing (mostly low sec piracy) and have never regretted it. I’ve been a bad boy for about 6 years now. Get an alt to do your hauling and you can simply ignore high sec (it’s irrelevant to the game anyways ), and once you decide you don’ need to worry about your sec status you don’t need to worry anymore whether this pod might or might not be worth shooting. Fire away!
The only drawback is that fleet ops in distant locations where the shortest route passes through high sec require a bit more planning. Check if there are relatively safe and short low sec only routes to your destination, or carry a depot and a travel (fast align) fit, or restrict yourself to fast tackle ships instead of main dps. If you do get pointed on a gate in high sec, burn back to gate, dock up in a freeport citadel, and reexamine your travel options.
Idk, never tried it, their dps is actually absurd. This seems different to the faction ships that chase you when you have low standing with the faction.
But this might be worth a research indeed, I didn’t find any deeper information about this anywhere.
All I know that one warp core stabilizer is enough to evade them, but I was not able to tank them more than 3 seconds, but then I didn’t really try tank-fitted bs…
Definitely. There are capsuleers that think if you have bad security status that sure must mean you’re a bad person in RL. And there are capsuleers that understand this is a game, but will shoot you if given the opportunity regardless…
Everytime I cross someone in lowsec that is flashing (terrible security)- I tend to panic and run. Even when they are in a pod/corvette- I always assume they have friends 1 jump away. Encountering them does make the game interesting though.
Well, yes, I didn’t say but I was talking about high sec… Low sec is different, NPC faction police doesn’t hunt outlaws and hence sec status is meaningless there…
And honestly, as a minmatar, I’m absolutely not fond of tanking my faction standings. It’s bad enough that I’m tanking my standings towards native minmatar corporations, but I’m not going to tank my faction standings, or our corporation’s faction standings, by shooting the faction police.
Crossing that line is a bad idea. The amount of work needed to get that standing back up is in no way or form balanced with the ease of ruining it.
Most people don’t actually look. In Hek I’m being treated as who I am, not what my security standing says. The only people who judge you based on your sec are either people who roleplay assholes (which is fine) or real life assholes who can’t seperate reality from fiction.
Possibly when that fleet isn’t the fleet they’re spawning for,
but it’s simply not worth tanking the standings of so many chars,
or the money required to pull it off … for zero gains.
Years ago my dual (or was it tripple) XL-ASB rokh couldn’t perma-tank a single spawn and I really put effort into making sure it can tank them. It’s simply not worth it except for personal amusement. Shooting back definitely isn’t worth it.
Living in HS with a negative sec is really annoying, I live in a wormhole and go to low/null for PvP while doing jita trips on my alts, so I have no issues taking bigger lowsec fights and even podding opponents every now and then.
You can always buy your sec status back up, from -10 to -2 only costs like 500mil.
Dropping below -5 is annoying for LS PvP since you don’t have gate gun support anymore tho.
I was -10 for a long time but I have pretty much lived in low or null exclusively since I started EVE. Going through highsec is interesting because the faction police will attack you. One thing is that they will often? almost always? web you first. This means that you can even get a large ship like a battleship away from them. Even on a station if you have an undock warp you can get away from the station but make sure to warp quick when you land as they will come for you. This means your main danger is actually players whom will point/scram you and let the faction police do the rest.
One benefit to -10 is that I could just say “screw it im never going back to highsec”. This allowed me to do things to make isk that would damage my empire standings such as missions for pirate factions against the empire factions. I mean if I am -10 and the police already hate me why bother with empire standings?
Also you get the flashy skull on your character for all to see. This can result in some fun times where new corp members join and have their overview screwed up (usually some default setting from when they started playing). They see you as flashy red instead of blue due to the overview priorities. They then attack you and since they are not on comms and shot you first you just kill them (well I do anyway). Also other people will see you as “bad” or scary etc.
Sadly after years in mostly null my sec status has risen to -3 from the one rat every so often I have to kill on a gate. I need to pod a few poor bastards in low/high to get back to -10.
), and once you decide you don’ need to worry about your sec status you don’t need to worry anymore whether this pod might or might not be worth shooting. Fire away!
