Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Boyscout or Hitchhiker?

I didn't get online last night so you get more speculative thinking posts from me today. The topic this time is are you a Boy Scout or Hitchhiker in Eve? I'm talking about your hanger contents.

The Boy Scout (or Girl Scout as the case may be) lives by the motto "Always Be Prepared". In Eve that means having a hanger with many ships of different classes, containers filled with various ammo types, and hundreds (or even thousands) of modules of various levels of quality and cost. That way the pilot can prepare for any mission in seconds from their stores and undock ready to fight/haul/mine in the shortest possible time.

The Hitchhiker however likes to travel light, keeping only a few ships ready in the hangers and buying whatever they need for the next mission or making do with the ship on hand. Their assets are always counted on one hand, and when they lose a ship they fly back to the nearest market hub and plan a new ship for the next adventure. They live by the seat of their pants, roaming free and not tied to one specific locale, easily joining and leaving corporations and alliances as the wind and their whims take them.

But their are downsides.

The Boy Scout can turn into the Packrat with too many ships and modules they will never use. They forget how the ships are armed or what modules are where. Ship builds get out of date as they get better skills and access to superior mods but they have too many ships to go and refit all the time. Moving them from place to place is a monumental effort involving freighters and multiple cans, not to mention the problems with assembled and rigged ships. Joining an alliance and moving out to 0.0 space often takes so long that they are useless for days if not weeks. Slow to respond to changing situations, they are an anchor on their fellow corpmates' necks.

On the other hand, the Hitchhiker can turn into the Vagrant who is never prepared for any task and is always fitting a ship just before an op. "What should I put in the last mid slot?" and "Anyone have some EMP ammo?" are often questions the Vagrant will ask on vent, preventing gangs from leaving for a roam until he is ready. Worse, he may only have frigates available for a battleship mission or a heavy battleship for a quick lightning strike by smaller craft. Never ready on time and always scrambling for a ship at the last minute, he may move around the galaxy quickly but his usefulness is lacking when he gets there.

Most pilots fall inbetween the Boy Scout and the Hitchhiker. I lean more towards Boy Scout with occasional forays into Packrat territory. I got to thinking about this as I looked at all my modules the other day and thought it was time to liquidate the majority of them.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:29 am

    The Mule is a "boy scout", I am a packrat, but every ship I have is updated at least twice a month ( especially when I get into better mods) I donate what I do not use to the corp I play with to keep space limited to a reasonable amount. I like to think of it being a "minuteman" I can basically fill one of 4 roles within an instant, Tackler, DPS, Ewar, Miner.

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  2. Anonymous4:23 pm

    lol id be a boy scout myself when i move into the system the first thing i do is buy about 10 station containers to unpack into lol

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  3. Anonymous6:00 am

    Wensley is definitely a boy scout. He never quite makes it to being a packrat simply because his ships never last long enough to become outdated.

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