Learning to Fly

Tonight I spent the evening getting a tour of some of the local space around my new corp's home system. I needed to put together at least a couple of PvP-ready frigs so I bought a couple of Tristans and discovered much to my dismay that I hadn't trained a skill I suddenly found myself in need of, Small Blaster Specialization. I found this skill book available at the local trade hub a few jumps away. In addition, some of the parts I needed for my Tristans were available there as well, so I bought what I needed and then later one of the corp directors took me for a tour and I made a stop to pick up my purchases while we were passing through.

He had me bookmarking everything along the way and when we'd gotten out several jumps from our starting point, he said "Ok Bekka, now let's see if you can make it back home." I'll admit to surprising myself, I did make one warp to an incorrect stargate, but I realized it immediately, corrected my mistake, and successfully made it back to our home system without having to ask for help. I will say it's not easy. There's a hell of a lot to learn and remember about how to get around.

High-sec this definitely is not, but it's also (at least so far) nowhere near as scary as I used to think. Of course, I've still only seen a tiny fraction of 0.0, but so far it's a lot more empty than I expected it to be. There wasn't much of any sort of threat to deal with during the whole trip.

I am just having a freaking great time with this game right now. I love learning new stuff and it seems like I'm learning something new every time I undock. Hard to believe that it's going to get even better in a few days once Dominion is live.

Yes, this is it. This is what I was missing the last time I played. The adventure, the feeling like I'm really on the final frontier, where anything can happen. The high-sec game is a lot of fun, but this is...I'm not sure how to describe it...a different animal entirely. People have told me that consistently and now I see how right they are.

Suddenly, I get it. I understand why once you spend time in 0.0 and you begin to understand the way it works (and of course this is a process I've just barely begun), you either never want to go back to high-sec or you'd probably want to go back immediately. It truly is a completely different game in many ways.

Personally, I came out to 0.0 for a reason: I want PvP, and I want PvP that matters. I want to become good, no, great at it. I want to do my part to help my new corp accomplish its goals. The director who took me on the tour tonight said if I wanted to bring the stuff I have in high-sec into 0.0 they'd help. I think that would be an awesome idea as long as they think they'd be useful. I have two ships that I'd want to bring out, my Myrmidon and my Thorax. Both are currently fitted for PvE missions, so I'll probably have to invest a little in new mods, but I'm more than happy to offer up both of these ships in the service of my corp. It's the very least I can do considering all they're doing for me.

There's still so much to learn, so much to absorb. I'll get there though, especially with the kind of help I've been getting. I feel very lucky all the way around. I've now got exactly what I was looking for in this game, in pretty much every way I can think of.

0.0 is my home, and slowly but surely I'm making myself comfortable here. It can and is getting easier, in large part because of the great support system my corp offers. Y'know, if I had the same kind of luck with my real life choices as I do with choices I make in EvE I'd probably be a multi-millionaire by now.