While I haven't played EvE in many years, I still hold many fond memories of it back from my middle/high school years.
Particularly when I chose to abandon the peaceful in-game lifestyle of building and selling ship to other players in favor of the pirate life.
I did this by fitting a small and fast ship with close-range weaponry that allowed me to take engagements versus much larger ships whose weapons couldn't reliably hit a target with so much transverse velocity. In addition I would run a special module that allowed you to deactivate your opponents warp drive, preventing them from escaping.
In game life was then just patrolling law-less star systems waiting for another player to arrive, typically they'd come to my star-systems in search of NPC pirates to destroy, netting in-game currency.
Once the prey was busy fighting the ai-pirates, I'd warp into their local space and begin shooting them to pieces. Once their ship was on the brink of destruction, I'd open a comm channel and demand an in-game currency transfer in exchange for letting them go.
This was a mutually beneficial arrangement as the ransom was lower than their ship value but also higher than what I could salvage from their wreckage.
As you'd imagine, responses were varied. More often than not however I'd get the payment and they'd return to safe space intact.
Ironically, I received more in-game love-mail than hate-mail for my exploits.
I've grown into a much nicer person since then but I can't help but look back on those times fondly.
I led a small corp and our whole play was to declare war on high-sec mining corporations (a formal war deceleration allowed one to avoid the wrath of the "CONCORD" police force). We'd then gank them until they'd pay us a ransom to end the war.
Eventually, some of our former targets started paying us to target other mining groups that they were competing with!
It was really great fun and a set of systems that facilitated the "emergent storytelling" that so many new open-world/survival games aspire to.
Admittedly, in much the same way that robbing someone at gunpoint is a mutually beneficial arrangement; because it's better for them than you just killing them and taking their money.
Yet this was precisely the business model of high seas piracy, and very much still is, so they successfully applied the model.
Ok, I get your point too, I just want to emphasize that what the OP did was essentially similar to casino side betting, going beyond the predicted actions in the world, by adding a layer of “entrepreneurial” spirit.
Great story, thanks. I wouldn't say that role-playing a pirate in a game where players willingly submit to the risks of low-sec space is not nice. You were providing an important service that made the game feel exciting and interesting!
I lived in low-sec for the majority of my time playing EVE. Was a Gal-mil rat that took any fight I could find. Still have good memories of some pretty crazy fights, and some pretty fun engagements. One of my favorites was making a mining barge into a trap for pirates and killing them when they tried to engage me.
The solo pvp life worked until off-grid boosting became so prevalent that most fights were no longer 1v1 even if there were only two ships actively shooting each other. When one ship is boosted to the gills because of a squadron mate somewhere in a safe-spot providing fleet boosts, things got less fun, and I ended up quitting.
I have a very fond memory of an event that occurred in the game while starting as a miner, this was a WOW moment for me, the adrenaline rush in Eve Online is real.
After having been destroyed entering null-sec while hauling my gear, I changed career and spent my remaining EVE time around PF-346 and null-sec. It was incredibly satisfying to be part of Cry Havoc and I certainly remember those times as the best video game experience I ever had.
it was generally accepted that not honoring your ransoms was a poor choice for two reasons:
1) Word could get around and your 'customers' would stop paying the ransom. Bad for business since the remains of a destroyed ship could be worth substantially less than the ransom.
2) More alarmingly, you could attract the ire of 'honorable' pirates who might just be willing to take time out of their day to make an example out of you. This would likely involve a plurality of suitably armed starships visiting your local space at ...inopportune times.
That is something special about EVE here, it shows that yes it makes sense to honor your word as a pirate. Real life pirates did it, at least the successful ones. Non-AI ones do it. Usually AI pirates and muggers are the only ones stupid enough not to do just that.
Nice. The best thing about Eve are the epic stories that come out of it. I couldn't get into the game, but I love reading about it. I remember a few years ago there was that massive planned attack where they accidentally left their flagship behind. It was one of those battles that was so huge the in game clock had to be slowed way down to handle it all. There was nothing the players could really do but to sit and watch for hours as their fleet was slowly destroyed. Some insane amount of real-world money just went "poof". Truly epic.
I did this by fitting a small and fast ship with close-range weaponry that allowed me to take engagements versus much larger ships whose weapons couldn't reliably hit a target with so much transverse velocity. In addition I would run a special module that allowed you to deactivate your opponents warp drive, preventing them from escaping.
In game life was then just patrolling law-less star systems waiting for another player to arrive, typically they'd come to my star-systems in search of NPC pirates to destroy, netting in-game currency.
Once the prey was busy fighting the ai-pirates, I'd warp into their local space and begin shooting them to pieces. Once their ship was on the brink of destruction, I'd open a comm channel and demand an in-game currency transfer in exchange for letting them go.
This was a mutually beneficial arrangement as the ransom was lower than their ship value but also higher than what I could salvage from their wreckage.
As you'd imagine, responses were varied. More often than not however I'd get the payment and they'd return to safe space intact.
Ironically, I received more in-game love-mail than hate-mail for my exploits.
I've grown into a much nicer person since then but I can't help but look back on those times fondly.