New Horizons...

...and plenty of 'em.

I just got back to the staging system after my Agony Unleashed Basic PvP class a little while as I write this. Not only did I learn a lot, but I also had a hell of a lot of fun. I've now had, as our instructor put it, my 0.0 cherry popped. Our class didn't get to see a heck of a lot of PvP but we did have some and it was a lot of fun. One thing that wasn't very fun was the amount of lag I had to deal with. We had about thirty or so ships in our group and things like gang warping and similar stuff often slowed my screen to a crawl or worse at some points.

Even so, I'm a lot more confident as a pilot in general now that I know what I learned today, and I also know that a lot of what I learned will be applicable in any group or combat situation in EVE regardless of whether it's in 0.0 or not. Cool beans. Another nice thing about this class is that I can retake it free of charge whenever I like, and I'm sure I'll be doing exactly that sometime soon. Not only did I have a blast, but I also want to practice what I've learned. I could even have stayed later as many in the class continued with the instructor to look for more PvP, but a few quick but critical RL responsibilities demanded that I quit when the group was convenient to high-sec so I could go deal with them. Truth be told, I'd have loved to have rejoined them afterward, but I think I've had plenty for today.

A great bunch of guys, these AU folks. In all honesty, I'm not sure I'd want to formally join their corp as they are pure PvP'ers and right now, at least, I'm looking for a more well-rounded EVE education. Next, I expect I'll be looking to EVE University for classes on both the finer points of PvP and on other aspects of the game. Then again, who knows? Perhaps after I've had more experience and have a better idea of exactly how I want to play this game over the long haul, I might decide to apply to AU after all. One thing's for sure: If my experience today is any guide, I'm quite certain they'd be just a great a group both in terms of skill level and on a personal level to play EVE with as the E-Uni folks are. Given my experience with E-Uni, that's the highest compliment I can pay any player or group of players in this game.

I think what I'm going to do for now is just leave all three of the frigs I set up for this class right where they are. Since I know I'll be doing this class again sometime soon, it makes no sense to use them for other purposes other than perhaps in emergency situations. Also, since they're only about 11 jumps or so from E-Uni HQ they're handy enough should I need to jump in one to lend a hand on an op or something.

Another fun thing: While waiting for the class to start, I was trying to sell a few things I'd brought with me from Gallente space that should fetch a good price but no one was interested in there. While doing that, I managed to sell four units of Quafe Ultra Special Edition for a cool three million...a nice and very needed boost to the wallet, which had been depleted by my Myrmidon purchase.

And now, my thoughts fly toward the future. I expect I'll spend some more time, more than likely just a few more days at most, fitting and insuring my Myrmidon and building my wallet back up a bit. Once that's done, I'm going to be changing my base of operations to Korsiki and jumping back to Gallente space when I need to make some ISK quickly. When I'm ok in that department, I expect I'll be spending a lot of my in-game time with E-Uni, taking classes and participating in ops and events, and also beginning to build my standings in that area. As I've literally just begun learning Caldari ships, I definitely have a long way to go in that regard, but that's fine. I'm moving out there because I want to learn more, and that's going to take time.

Now that I've had my first taste of both true PvP and 0.0, neither are quite as scary as they were before. I may not yet really have a handle on exactly where I want to go in this game as yet, but I do think I've found some important signposts leading me in the right direction, toward new horizons, new battles, new challenges, and new experiences.

It just keeps getting better and better.