As you can probably imagine yesterday was rather busy what with promoting the launch of the Eve Posters, real life work, making hats, and trying to find time to work on a long list of commissions. Not to mention a new Alliance logo for A Band Apart. (More on those things later.) My playtime was limited to say the least and I didn't get on-line until much later in the day. Sadly I missed our RR Vexor fleet. Which was a bummer for me, but I heard things went well, so that's good.
I didn't have long so I decided to fit up a new Comet and run around a bit. My roam was somewhat limited because of several nearby lazy-ass gate camps, so I hung around the local area instead. It wasn't long before I noticed the two Algos in system. They were obviously FW pilots each running a different small plex in local. I suspected they'd be stabbed but I went in after them anyway. Sure enough they each warped off shortly after I landed on them inside their individual plex. This happened a couple of times. With nothing else to do I decided to dock up and ditch the Web for another Scram.
I don't fit a Web on my Comet for cosmetic reasons, the darn thing is important, so a dual scram fit is not optimal. But nothing else was happening and these guys were flaunting themselves in my local. (And let's pause here for a moment. I had Corp mates on that could have been called to help, ensuring a victory and a measure of safety. This was not my goal. And such a strategy would present less of a challenge. Yes, I often purposefully and knowingly put myself at a disadvantage. Things tend to get boring otherwise.)
A properly fit and flown Algos can be challenging and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. If they ganged up on me so much the worse. But I managed to finally catch one of them alone and made quick work of his ship and pod. Lo and behold, no stabs. Certainly the other one had them? I finally tracked him down and got him pinned under my dual scrams and he exploded also. Also no stabs. What is going on here?
Before I had time to think about it another Algos appeared on scan. They were at it again! I didn't even have time to re-load nanites in my ancillary repper, a lack of patience that would get my killed shortly. This time the Algos was bait. And while he also exploded, he lasted long enough for his buddy to show up in a Coercer. This time the Algos did have stabs, two of them. Remember those nanites I didn't have time to load? Yeah, that was the difference between me killing the Coercer or exploding. A web would also have helped.
I mention this story for a couple of reasons, but primarily as a response to Kirith's post over on Ninveah. He makes the argument, which so many people have, that there is nothing wrong with people being allowed to play the game anyway they want. Which I happen to agree with. But he also lumps in the use of stabs in a combat zone into the argument. And I would like to make an intelligent counter point to that insane circle of logic. You don't need a crutch.
These two FW players avoided capture WITHOUT the use of Stabs on their ships over several encounters with a well trained and highly motivated Pirate. How did they do that!?! By simple intelligence and the knowledge that being aligned means a faster warp. They stayed frosty and kept their eyes on d-scan, saw the enemy approaching, and simply warped away when danger dropped in their lap. How about that?
I applaud them. Well done. I prefer my targets be intelligent, knowledgeable, and canny in the use of game mechanics. This makes things more challenging for me and much more interesting. I appreciate being out-played. Because that is the heart of Eve. And they managed to do this without a crutch.
Imagine that?
Look, with or without, I'm exploding your ship anyway. The idea that stabs are a right is just as ludicrous as me saying they aren't. The point is that you don't need them, you only want them. You want the comfortable blankie to wrap your cold ass around and feel warm and cozy. But you could just as easily get up off your lazy butt and turn the furnace up a little.
Which makes the whole house warm. Something the rest of us would appreciate.