After what felt like an eternity training and testing, I’ve finally made it to the stars with the rest of you!
This is your cue to congratulate me. No, really, feel free! (Applause is fine too.)
These last two days have gone so fast tho I gotta say. Career training, side work for the Sisters. I’ve blown through a whirlwind tour of New Eden’s cultures, and made millions in the process. The growing wallet got me gawking at bigger, better stuff and I was almost gonna splash out on cruiser training but then I looked over at my Rifter and she was like, crying from neglect, I tell you!
Okay maybe it was an oil leak, but it was a SIGN. It got me thinking maybe I should slow down and stop to appreciate things, like just how damn sexy Rifters hulls are.
I figured I’d ask all the old-heads still floating around here for some advice too: what are some things to see, and do, and appreciate before I get too familiar with this new life?
So, things to try … thiev-- er, “exploration” in lowsec, W-space, or null. Of all the lines of work we undertake, it’s one of the few outside of trading and courier work that you can do with an unarmed ship.
A lot of the stuff we do tends to make us feel powerful, or at least a part of something powerful, but poking through old battlefields or raiding pirate data havens in an unarmed frigate is another kind of experience entirely: the closest you might come in this life to being a mouse scurrying about in the walls of the world.
It’s humbling and exhilarating at the same time.
Don’t take anything you can’t afford to lose, though really that’s good advice anywhere in this line of work.
Thanks! Being a space mouse sounds fun! The exploration training sessions were the most interesting to me. Scouring old battlefields sounds like a glorious afternoon, as does the idea of tickling some databases. But it was the idea of gas clouds and happy space medicine that most intrigued if I’m honest. You got me thinking more broadly about possibilities though, so thanks!
Unfortunately I have to take my mind everywhere with me, but I’ll try not to lose it.
You have freedom of movement around the cluster that most can only dream of. You have opportunities to get rich beyond the wildest dreams of the overwhelming majority of baseliners. You also have the chance to fight for causes in which you believe in a practical and impactful way, as you’ve effectively become a living weapon.
With all that comes responsibility. I hope you choose use your newfound powers to work towards a cluster where those like us are no longer needed. You stand before a fork in your path where you get to choose to be part of the cluster’s problems, or part of its solutions. Choose wisely. Many do not.
I wish you well in your new life. Despite the perks, it is oftentimes not pretty.
Join a corporation. Find one that aligns with what you want to do and sign on. No matter what people tell you you’re just shooting yourself in the foot every day you’re on your own.
And I mean a real one, not one that air sticks you in where there is no real leadership or community.
Before you settle into your new life… never settle.
You have ahead of you the opportunity to excel in many fields, and leave your mark on the cluster in ways you would never have thought possible when you started flight training. Do more than explore space: explore possibility. Dip your toes into every option. Try it all out: mining, industry, commerce, mission-running, solo hunting, and even warfare. Find the things (because there will be more than one) that give you a sense of fulfillment, and then look to see where they intersect.
If you get the time, take a corvette and go through the Empire to Keberz. From there, risk the 11 jumps through nullsec to get to the system B-R5RB. Don’t go gate-to-gate if anyone else is in system with you, by the way. Bounce off nearby planets or moons and use your directional-scanner to make sure there are no bubbles. Or, y’know, don’t, and get the experience of hitting a bubble.
Once you get to B-R5RB, go to the monument. Fly through the debris field. Nothing left to salvage, I’m afraid (we picked it over pretty well, almost eight years ago), but… it’s an experience. You’ll feel like a mouse (especially if the locals have been awake while you traveled). But you’ll also get a sense of what possibilities are open to you. Each of those carcasses was piloted by a capsuleer. Each of them was built by a capsuleer.
And if you don’t make it there? Keep it on your list of things to do when you can fly a Covert Ops frigate.
Either way, congratudolences. You’re stepping into a much bigger world, with a lot of options ahead of you… and a lot of it’s going to suck. But that’s basically life, isn’t it?
Nah…too soon. Try again after been put in the medical express to your home station for the first time.
Nothing against you, but there is no shortage of eager capsuleers going back to their old lives after a single clone activation. I will congratulate you after you show to be better than that.
As for what to do, I agree with @Lugh_Crow-Slave, a good corp that can give you some direction and cover your back in case of trouble makes the capsuleer life a lot more enjoyable.
I took your advice - most of which I didn’t understand at first, and arrived at Keberz. It took a few clones to get through to B-R5RB but now I know what bubbles are! They’re kinda pretty…
And so was that monument site. Wow! Never seen a ship so big before, and it’s crazy to think about the scale of what happened here. Kind of spooky too honestly, like a floating graveyard.
In the beginning, go see places, meet people. Try things out. Do not join the first (or fifth) corporation whose recruiter promises you “new-pilot friendly activities”.
Congratulations are in order for passing your training. It’s not an easy endeavour regardless of the changes to the various protocols and regimens since I passed out, so take pride in having come this far.
In respect to what you should do, most of my dear fellows here have already covered most of what I intended on saying, so, I apologise if I am rehashing already spoken words.
You have a journey ahead of you that millions could barely fathom, with opportunities in abundance for wealth creation and to have a quality of life that would be the ideal for many of the disadvantaged in New Eden. You now possess one of the ultimate expressions of personal freedom that has ever been granted to individuals in this cluster, with unrivalled agency in how you conduct yourself as a person and how you carry out your affairs from here on out.
I am not all too familiar (read: completely uninformed) about how your personal culture approaches this, so I would ask for your forgiveness if my words conflict with yours, but I would recommend taking a moment to reflect on what motivates you as a person. Do you define yourself by service, or by your own ambition? Consider the impetus that would propel you in whatever path you choose. Find a cause that you believe in and are willing to commit yourselves to it.
Arrendis has already recommended you to visit a location where our capacity for violence manifested itself in one of the grandest battles ever fought between independents in the history of New Eden. I would recommend visiting locations such as the Golgothan Fields, where the earnest desire for freedom triumphed over those that would smother it in darkness. Visit any one of the recently-constructed Stargates and see what our power can be used for when we build, rather than when we destroy. Speaking of stargates, Old Man Darieux’s creation in Old Man Star should be an inspiration to any that would seek to leave their mark in the annals of history (be warned, it is the site of outlaw capsuleer blockades!). And if you visit the Solitude region through Kenninck, stop by the Duvolle Laboratory installation in Gererique and the Kyonoke Outbreak containment site in Postouvin.
The above are all but a fraction of the possibilities you have to see, explore and experience in New Eden. So once again, welcome to the varsity. I’ll undoubtedly see you on the spacelanes in the not-too distant future.
The stark inhospitable beauty of space itself. It still amazes me.
Second to that, is the diversity of capauleers personalities.
Third, would be discovering your own personal stride and how you fit into it all. Of course this is mutable and an ongoing development, take in every moment of it. Every victory, every loss, every discovery.
Life. You’d think that veritable immortality would make us all a bit nonchalant about it, but life is important–often more important than your ship. Ships are a tool, like ISK, to get where you want. No ship is really special, apart from the very few golden trophies that remain docked.
Life, on the other hand, is important for a number of us, especially when we might have implants that cost more than the ships we fly in. When those implants save you time in training, it’s sometimes worthwhile to eject if it’ll save them.
Even more important than that, it’s okay to eject from the Capsuleer lifestyle once in a while. Feel free to dock up and sleep–to “log off,” as it were–and to enjoy those experiences outside the Capsuleer lifestyle. You can always come back to your ship when you’re ready.
While there is wisdom in what Mr. DeMoreno says, I would instead suggest a different way of viewing things. Yes, ships are tools, but they are also crewed by humans. You have the convenience of avoiding permenant death, but many of your crew do not. Taking care of what you fly is not only healthy for your bank ballance, but for your soul as well. Many of our kind have become cold to the baseliners we once were. Monsters who have no problem throwing away the lives of people they have much power over, but who they often don’t even know the names of. I would caution against walking this dark road: the consequences may seem few to you, but how we treat those below us may affect the way your peers view and interact with you.
Further, your ship need not be a simple thing to use and discard. There is nothing wrong with becoming attached to a certain vessel. We are still humans, after all, and sentimentality for our possessions is a part of our nature. ISK-wise I can replace one of my favorite ships, a Buzzard hull by the name of CSS Lost Hope, quite easily. Indeed, I could buy hundreds of them. But there’s something about it, to me, that is irreplaceable. The feel of it’s controls, the things I’ve done with it, and the situations I’ve gotten out of while piloting it, give it a spirit that can never be duplicated. If you find you’ve become attached to something, there is no shame in treating it with more care. You’ll eventually become rich enough that you can easily buy some hot-off-the-factory duplicate hull and take that into dangerous situations instead.
I love your enthusiasm! I encourage you to continue to explore New Eden. Meet new people, learn about new cultures, seek new sensations and experiences. Develop your skills and make your mark on the cluster.
What do I appreciate from this? I’d say the endless opportunities. Want to get rich? Just put in the effort. Want to fight for a cause? Just pick one. Want to be the best? Just keep trying until you are.
Alenni, if you are up for another very dangerous adventure, 6QBH-S has a good view of the Pool of Radiance in the region of Stain. Alas, it’s still on my list of places to visit.
When you kill your first slaver ship in your Glorious Rifter, smoke streaming out of your Autocannons… Droplets of blood, painting your hull… A golden wreck now shattered and disfigured. The burning red constellations of Minmatar Tribes as a backdrop… Beautiful and something to be appreciated.
You … have a very romantic understanding of what you do, Mr. Macsliebh.
Relatedly, about causes, Pilot Savas, I do, kind of, agree with Ms. Elkin about responsibility and the importance of causes.
Kind of. Actually I tend to believe more in people than in causes.
Either way, in the end our immortality is greatly overstated. In the scheme of things we’re mostly still pretty small and fragile. For all our strength, we’re still ephemeral-- temporary. So it seems to me that there’s no purpose in serving only ourselves.
That said, there are a lot of conflicting opinions about which causes or people are worth following, and, as capsuleers, our paths are almost always bloody ones.
Whatever you make of yourself, I’d suggest approaching it with eyes open and without illusions, as much as you can. Lofty ideals can achieve some impressive things (including some that might not be attainable otherwise), but they’re no replacement for clarity.
If possible, maybe try to understand the why of things before you go painting your hull with blood.
