You gave a sterile and vacuumed example and I countered. If you can’t handle that, don’t deal into the game.
I deal with all sorts of toxic people and behaviors. And I’m pretty chill with most of it. But I draw the line with gaslighters.
They build fantasy worlds around them and use manipulation, coercion, shame and intimidation to force other people to believe the fantasy they built around them as reality.
It is indeed most of Eve. But my real point was twofold…
Its not hard to see why groups such as Safety see this as an affront to the whole notion of ‘grind’ in a space game. Miners are not actually ‘mining’. Its not hard to see how James 315 came across an AFK miner and found it an affront to the whole game.
My main point…which touches on issue you raised elsewhere. The notion that Eve is built on some glorious history of grind, with player ‘effort’ and sweat and time going into everything. But then you find that that’s not really the case and 90% of Eve has been camped into existence AFK ! By people who then have the sheer hypocrisy to take affront at anyone skipping all that pretence and just bringing money into the game.
To be fair, this is unlikely to happen as you suggest. If the gankers are -10, they do not ‘roam’ Highsec, for obvious reasons.
If their security status permits them to do so, stumbling across a lone, gankable Mackinaw will require some knowledge of its fit or, if that is lacking, around 5 T2 Calalysts, just to be sure.
I’m not aware of small groups of gankers speculatively roaming Highsec in those sorts of numbers and fits on the off-chance of catching a miserable Mackinaw in an anomaly or belt.
It may happen (I’m not omniscient), but it cannot surely be a regular occurrence?
Yes, to obviate the necessity for their ganking mains to ‘stumble across’ the odd Mackinaw. Lucas specifically said that a small group of gankers might ‘stumble across’ a Mackinaw. I’m pointing out the unlikelihood of such a scenario.
I might be convinced by strong evidence to the contrary, but certainly not by your suggestion, for you are addressing a very different situation.
What you describe is confined to a relatively small number of systems (your ‘busy gates’), in which the ganking operations are highly specialised, localised, and targeted.
Lucas was perhaps imagining a broader, looser operation, one in which small gangs of gankers flit about Highsec looking for vulnerable Mackinaws.
One example without context. For all we know this person lost their venture and was instantly gifted 12 million isk.
Also is Heimatar on the list of protected systems? Because that is currently the only indicator that makes it a griefing incident as opposed to ganking.
Either way you cannot tar an entire playstyle with this one brush.
Yes, I understand the use of scouts. It leads me to believe that, even so, ‘small groups of gankers’ rarely waste their time (and that of their alts) on roaming Highsec looking for targets which might be many systems away from base and, if it’s a lone Mackinaw, hardly worth the effort?
Those scouts are better employed checking out systems known to provide content such as Mission Hubs, Ice Anomalies, etc., surely? It was only your using the term ‘stumble across’ which elicited my response.
I do not say ‘it doesn’t happen’, only that I find it unlikely to be a regular occurrence. I’ve no proof, of course.
I only skimmed your comment on filaments, Lucas. Apologies.
I’ve no interest in them whatsoever, but I suppose I should acquaint myself with their use. Point taken.
I can see how they would make it easier to contrive a surprise appearance in Null, countering the extensive surveillance systems in place in that region.