Running scared..?

Ripard Teg and some other Rote guys announced Rote’s intention to rid their NPC nullsec home region, Syndicate, from the risk averse alliances and corps living there. Rote wants good fights, and the current crop of Syndicate dwellers apparently can’t or won’t comply with Rote’s specific demands in that regard. On Eveoganda, a discussion on the topic ensued, with Ripard saying this in the comments:

“It takes one Rote frigate to get whole gangs to run from us. Couple of weeks ago, one of our guys scared off a 25-man fleet by unknowingly jumping into the system they were in in a pod.”

To which Mord Fiddle replies:

“Isn't the frigate they're scared of. It's the Rote fleet they're sure is waiting off grid. To a certain extent you're victims of your own success.”

How true this is! For us in Catch, there are a few hostile fleets we know will roll through our space, every now and then: CVA, Brushie Brushie Brushie, Eye for an Eye, The Fourth District, Darkside for instance. Many of these have become familiar: we know who their usual scouts are, what they are flying and what follows behind them.

When living in nullsec, there are two major activities to be done: player versus player combat, or player versus environment activities. When you're not actively doing pvp, you will most likely be doing pve.. to earn ISK to fund your pvp habits. But when I am in a pve fitted ship, I am not going to engage a well known hostile forward scout, because I just know the rest of their fleet is behind the next gate, ready to jump in..

It often takes some time to switch from pve to pvp, especially when you have pilots spread over multiple systems. Yes, everyone should have pvp ships available in multiple locations, but even then, it is not easy to swiftly organize an effective fleet that is capable of successfully engaging a disciplined and able enemy. So unless we are already PVP’ing, chances are we will safe up to let these hostiles roll through. It’s not that we don’t want to fight; it’s that we don’t want to bring a knife to a gun fight. We have engaged these fleets, and successfully too; but on our terms, on a moment of our own choosing.

On a more general level, you could say that a well prepared roaming gang, looking for a fight, will usually have an advantage over a local population that wasn’t prepared to pvp at this specific moment in time and space. And when that roaming gang has a solid reputation to boot, odds are the locals won’t engage this time.