Hey Look! Jack Dant Fixed Lowsec!

Okay, if you haven't yet seen Jack Dant's proposal for lowsec changes, go read here. Don't worry, I'll wait.

I'm going to say it up front -- I think this proposal is damn near perfect. Right now, lowsec seems to be the heart of small gang and solo pvp. I'm hardly an expert on the area, but as I've traveled through, I rarely see gangs larger than 10-15 pilots. Its not hard to find solo pilots, or least smaller gangs of 2-4 pilots. I can't speak for all of New Eden, but I love the idea of having this part of the pvp spectrum available. Nullsec seems to be more of an "all-or-nothing" situation, where vast swathes are empty until you hit an alliance hub with greater than 200 in local. Low security space has small groupings of pilots who don't want anything to do with sovereignty or CTA's. These pilots just want their Fight Club, as Hans Jagerblitzen is describing it.

I love picturing lowsec as Fight Club, except with current mechanics, I'd be out of highsec pretty darn quick. I'm already sitting at -0.4 from the occasional Hulk or pod gank, so it wouldn't be long before I hit -2.0, where you first start getting locked out of highsec systems. This isn't super appealing to me. I love being able to travel freely in highsec, and being held out of trade hubs for blowing up a few unfortunate pilots in lowsec doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth. Like almost everyone else at this point, I have alts that could help run logistics, but it can just be a pain in the ass sometimes to go through the hoops for the ship you need that's only two jumps away in a 0.7 security system.

The Dant proposal allows the casual combatant to still maintain travel rights, so long as he doesn't pod (in lowsec or highsec) or gank people in highsec. Also, no GCC for aggression towards anyone with a negative sec status is beautiful. I'd still push for a lower GCC timer in general, but let's let pilots fight  denizens without any trouble. The other great part about the proposal is that anyone who wants to go full "-10" still has the option, and they should. I understand why people would want to go pirate, whether its RP or to just be a general bad ass, and there definitely should still be ways to do so. It's just not personally for me at this point because it seems like it would take too long to grind back up to even -5.0 security status, and its just not something I want to go through at this point.

So where does that leave us? Well I think it comes round about to the CSM 7 discussion again. I think at this point I'm becoming fairly certain that my vote is heading towards Hans Jagerblitzen. Hans has the Dant Proposal as part of his campaign platform, and in general, he seems to have a good head on his shoulders about all things empire. He wants to foster empire space in terms of casual pvp, and as a member of Autocannons Anonymous, he is a part of one of the better FW corporations for the Minmatar Republic. Overall, Hans is one of the better candidates out there, he's not from a power bloc, and he supports sensible changes to the areas I've flown in the most over the past year. I'm on board, and here's two votes for you Hans!

Eve's End Game & the Hunt

I've been considering for a while what Eve's End Game is, and I think the question even bounced around the blogosphere for a bit over the past couple months. I was a bit surprised to see that the overwhelming majority of people believed it to be null sec fleet combat. I can't say I really blame them that much though, given the focus that CCP puts on it and the narrative surrounding it. I just can't seem to wrap my head around it though. Being a part of a 300+ man fleet is cool for the sake of sheer magnitude, but I can't honestly say that following an FC's barking orders is how I want to spend my time.

As cool as it is to ride a Titan bridge and get into an absolute slug fest with Supercaps et al, I can't really see much skill in it. You spend months skilling up for the FOTM, fit the FOTM as per alliance mandate, make a few jumps, engage opposition and head home. I suppose if you're the one scouting and doing intel, its great, but to just be one of the hoard seems a bit dull to me.

To me, the end game of Eve is being the hunter. If you step into my system, I want to be able to methodically find you, trap you and kill you. I want the rush of the hunt and the thrill of victory. The only places where I can see this mentality occurring currently are lowsec and perhaps NPC null. Even in RVB, the tendency is rare for corp members of either side to stray from 10-25 man fleets. I feel like the most interesting and exciting fights in New Eden come from well organized small gang warfare or even solo fights. Its for these reasons I love the Alliance Tournament as well. What's better than evenly matched, crafted teams going at it to the death (except for the Hydra/0utbreak match, of course)?

As a result of all of this thinking, I'm making a concerted effort to get more into lowsec adventures. The Syndicate region still seems to be calling my name as well, but I'll figure it all out. For some reason, Eve feels new again. And I like it.