User:Sin tsukaya/Self Defense 101
This is a draft, in which I outline my draft syllabus for a class aimed at PvE-focussed players, teaching them the basic PvP mechanics and tactics they need to survive hisec.
Self-defense 101
Whether or not you want it, PvP is a feature of Eve - and sooner or later, it will come looking for you. This class aims to teach those with no current interest in PvP how to avoid, survive, or at least minimise the impact of PvP - and is intended for those who wish to PvE in hisec.
Insert standard class boilerplate. Dock up, mumble settings, questions in chat, introductions, et al.
Motivation and philosophy:
This class is about PvP. It duplicates material covered in a lot of PvP classes, because it talks about a subset of the techniques and mechanics PvPers employ. This class is aimed at PvEers, and specifically those who choose to operate in hisec, and aims to teach you to defend yourself against potentially hostile PvPers. You are welcome to believe that you should not need to defend yourself - but the way this game currently is, you will suffer if you choose to ignore the threat posed - and it seems that CCP are not minded to change this, or to reimburse you for any resulting losses.
I will talk solely about defense. The reason is twofold: Firstly, if you are attacking, be it revenge, retaliation, opportunity, or whatever, you are willingly engaging in PvP. This is an activity I can attest to be enjoyable, but it is outside the scope of this class. Secondly, many effective ways of attacking another player in hisec involve getting them to attack you. If you never take an aggressive action, you are immune to whole swathes of potential attacks.
Your single best defense is avoidance. If you are not where the enemy is looking, or you do not look like an attractive target to them, an attack will never take place.
Your second best defense is escape and evasion. If an attack takes place, you are best served getting away, or at least into some temporarily stable state, and perhaps then seeking assistance or advice. This is generally incompatible with attempting to recoup your losses, but it is a safe generalization that anything you think you might have lost is gone, and you should avoid throwing good isk after bad.
Your third best defense consists of minimizing the impact of losses. Losses are [i]inevitable[/i], so you should always make sure you can survive them.
A word on effort, laziness and opportunity cost: Many of the things I will suggest to keep you safe will cost time, isk, or both. Your time has a value, and not taking the precautions I suggest will cause an increased risk of loss. But consider, if you can earn 100m isk in an hour of missioning, then if you spend an hour taking precautions, those precautions had better be worth at least 100m isk 'worth' of risk - otherwise you have just done yourself a disservice. If by carefully scouting the Aldrat to Hek pipe, you reduce the chance of losing a cruiser as you move down it from 12% to 2%, and the cruiser was worth 20m isk, you have just saved yourself an average of 2m isk. If that took you 20 extra minutes, you should probably have just spent the time missioning instead. If, meanwhile, a precaution is very quick to take, and you don't, then it is fair to attribute any resulting losses to laziness.
Note, incidentally, that CCP place almost no restrictions beyond the game mechanics on how people might attack you - hacking your account, and certain forms of communication are about all they prohibit. There is basically no point in either launching or threatening petitions, and you should be aware of the risk of account suspension if you allow emotion to get the better of you after suffering losses.
Why might people attack you?
There are three broad reasons for people to attack you: Isk, politics and tears.
It is perfectly possible to make a profit attacking people in hisec. Jita scams are an obvious example of this, as are suicide ganks of freighters. You can avoid these by not being profitable to attack.
Rarest of the three, there are groups who make unprofitable attacks in order to change the political or economic landscape, or to make a point. Hulkageddon, Burn Jita and Minerbumping are good examples of these. One rational choice is to avoid the targeted behavior while such movements are in place, which will avoid such attacks. If you decide to continue, then accept that you have willingly taken on risk, and take steps to minimize resulting losses. Treat such movements as a feature of the environment; it is almost certainly a poor use of your time to attempt to change them.
Those who seek tears enjoy inflicting harm other people. Some are additionally looking for an acknowledgement that they have caused upset. For the most part, they are looking for the easiest targets, and you may avoid them by being less bad than other people.
