Before I went perma-flashy, there were a lot of assumptions that I had made about piracy that turned out to be a little off. As I talk to people, it sometimes amazes me at how twisted a view some people have of Eve piracy. Though I will never be able to dispel all the assumptions out there (people are actually pretty stubborn about some of them!) I would like to address some of the more common myths that I have seen crop up from time to time.
Myth #1 Being perma flashy is the same as being GCC all the time. Oddly, this was something that I thought for the longest time--that perma-flashies had to constantly deal with gate and station guns. However, gate guns will not shoot you if you're perma-flashy, only if you're GCC. The only thing that is similar between perma-flashiness and GCC is that people can shoot you without getting GCCed themselves.
Myth #2 Being perma flashy means you will get CONCORDed in high sec. I actually thought this until very recently, and had to have a lecture from a corpmate about all the game mechanics surrounding piracy. (Throw being in faction war into the mix and it's even more exciting.) You actually get shot by faction police in high-sec when you're perma-flashy. And yes, they will kill you, but not to the extent of being CONCORDed. In many cases you can buzz around in small ships and even kill mining vessels in belts before the police will show up. The only place you will get CONCORDed as a pirate is in CONCORD owned space.
Myth #3 Being perma-flashy greatly inhibits your ability to pvp by making it harder to reach common trade hubs. Well, isn't that a load of nonsense. If you really need to go to high-sec, it's very easy to use an alt, or have a friend grab something while they're there. Not to mention that there are many low-sec trade hubs that are stars above null-sec hubs.
Myth #4 Being perma-flashy limits your pvp. Actually, it's the opposite. Being afraid of maintaining a certain number for your sec status is often what inhibits pvp--you end up not aggressing something you could easily kill, or not going on that small gang roam where you know priacy will be taking place.
Myth #5 Pirates are better pvpers. I have to throw this in the myth list because there have been many, many situations in which a neutral gang has fled when they could obviously steam roll us, due to the scariness of our flashy redness. The truth of the matter is, people can be perma-flashy for many reasons--they could have smartbombed in Jita for all you know. Just because they're red doesn't mean they're great at PVP.
Myth #6 All Pirates are douche bags. The other side to this myth is that the NRDS anti-pirates are the 'nice guys.' The truth of the matter is that no matter what you do in EVE, you'll find nice people and douche bags whether they're miners or pirates or null-sec FCs. Being flashy red doesn't mean someone is going to lie, cheat, and/or steal from you. Though, it may mean they'll kill you if they get the chance.
You forget the one MAJOR downside of -5 in FW, anybody that remote reps you will take a faction (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, Minmatar) standing hit to their faction. That basically means you cannot participate in RR fleets if the logi is in militia as they will refuse to rep you.
Myth #8 Not all -10s are pirates.
NRDS anti pirates lol. I thought the last bastion of that was with True Reign in GW. A nest of retardation that my alliance is busily evicting from their home ATM. Is there any entity out there which is important enough to be taken seriously that is still NRDS?
I am living proof that #5 is definitely a myth.
Good read. I regularly go from -10 back up to -1.9, takes me a day or two of ratting. I got to stop doing this though, bad for your health and -10 is so much better!
Also, the anti-pies are the worst set of demonic and twisted gamers out there. They pirate more than the pirates.
For those looking for anti-pies, might I reccomend going to Mara and engaging the Drake on belt?
It usually results in the APEX alliance guys going on a killing spree.
Anonymous wouldn't happen to be Cloora, CEO of said APEX alliance, would it? Shilling for fights on blogs, terrible!
#11 PvPers NEED Bears. Apparently being a PvPer means you can only blow things up and have no abilities to haul, mine, manufacture, research, nor mission or rat for meta items to use. Not to mention plex for fancy faction and deadspace stuffs, absolutely impossible *eyeroll*.
Hong has researched BPOs for hulls, blasters, ACs, all sorts of ammo for both (plus rockets and missiles), and all the rigs that're popular with him. He CAN fly barges but prefers to just melt down low-meta loots rather than sell them, and remake them into better guns, hulls, ammo, etc.
Reality #11: PvPers don't need bears. Bears, their T2 stuffs, meta loots, etc, are a CONVENIENCE, not a necessity. Just because we prefer not to, does NOT equate "won't", and most especially does not equate "can't".
going from -10 to -1.9 don't take long at all, like Miura said about a day or two if you do it right. And you can get a whopping ammount of faction spawns while doing it aswell as you constantly move around systems in 0.0 to do it.
@Astrial: Dragoons, EVE-UNION, Shades of Gray, Electus Matari, The Fendahlian Collective, and to an extend, Ivy League.
Most of them can often be found in the Metropolis and Heimatar regions; Eve UNI has taken to sitting in Dudreda, Dragoons are often in the Taff triangle, not sure about the rest.
nrds is eve on hard mode.
The one "myth" I was expecting you to bust isn't on the list. Guess that is because it isn't a myth, but is, indeed, fact.
It is crazy easy to be successful as a pirate. If you aren't, then you are doing it wrong.
I had to try it, as I think most of old players did it at least once. I did it some times. Actually it was fun for a short time, but after the 5th or 6th defenseless ship (even the poor dominix was defenseless against 6 of us in BCs) I thought it was enough. Later went down to Eifer and checked the systems around. We've got a great fight with a well known low sec corp (we had 6 bc 1 bs they had 6 bc 1 carrier) and won. YESSS! That was fight, they did shoot back, not like the others on the gate. Piracy is for the weak who cannot manage a good fight with real enemies. After 4 years I'm still against piracy. Whats the point of smartbombing shuttles and pods on gate? Whats the point of destroying industrials in low/high sec? You can tell, it can give welth, but can it give fun? When I go hunt stronger in their home system, it can. And it can give respect. Piracy cannot.
To the last anonymous poster: Piracy isn't about not getting good fights, it's about getting all the fights. It's about expanding your target base.
also at the previous anon: Piracy is about fun (for many). My personal experience in eve began as a can flipper waaaaaay back in the day and graduated to -10 piracy around the tama onatoh region (before that in dek). I evolved further into 0.0 (as well as all other areas of hisec as I find that generally "pirates" and nullsec pilots have multiple accounts (I currently possess 53 at last count though I have played in about 4 months) for the explicit purpose of logistics/when they get bored.
Piracy comes in many forms, for some its shoot anything that moves, if it keeps moving reload and repeat; for others (like myself in my favorite reincarnation) its about ganking people who don't think in hisec. Myself and upstanding schemers like Darius III (who I cofounded several ganking rings with) take great pleasure in rapidly taking from "innocents" what they are too stupid to protect properly. I get cheery at the warm thought of nuking some retard with 5,000 nano ribbons who spent hours working for their corp and yet puts them in a t1 indy. Same with shooting players carrying plex. I dont even generally care if the loot drops (though its how I and several others paid for such a large number of accounts) but rather relish the suffering and rage/ hatemail I get knowing I've probably cut one more idiot out of the game.
Respect is good for people that want stand up fights or fun rivalries, I have characters for that, but at the same time I say as a pirate or player in eve who wants to explore the underworld if you will.... it's better to be feared.
Marc I post with my main! You should know that!