Everything went better than expected.

I'm quite new to EVE. Very new. I'm still getting a sense of what I want to do in New Eden. However, I'm interested in solo roaming PVP. After mucking about with various not-pvp activities in high sec, I started browsing the Eve Altruist plus Flight-of-Dragons' punisher plan and some other Tuskers blogs. After that sort of reading material, who wouldn't be drawn into engaging in some pvp?

So, I first set up my overview, using a combination of the Altruist's guide plus an Eve University guide. It all seemed to make sense and work well. But really, I needed to test it. I needed to see a blinking orange or red.

More than that, I was surprised to read on Taurean Eltanin's blog how easily he roamed through lowsec, even as an unskilled pilot in a (at first) poorly fit Punisher. Was it really so easy? I suspected that there were many things that I didn't know or guess. The only way to find out was to fit a cheap frigate with some bare minimums and take a stroll.

Thus, I bought a shiny Magnate because it's "one of the most decoratively designed ship classes in the Amarr Empire." How could I resist?! I slapped on a cheap microwarpdrive and warp core stabilizer. I'd never used a MWD before, so I mostly just wanted to see how it worked (not quite as I expected, actually). Starting from Jita, I headed for the nearest lowsec I could find.

From what I had picked up from reading blogs, it seemed like a frigate could align and warp quickly enough from its gate cloak that I should be able to stroll from system to system. For a bit, this was exactly what happened. I'd jump in, pick another stargate at random, select "jump", and repeat. It was fun to see some scary-looking people in local. At one gate, I saw a fight in progress, but just kept moving. Beep beep!

After about 5-6 jumps I thought, "Well, this is as easy as folks made it out to be. Awesome! I can survive in lowsec long enough to maybe start making some bookmarks when the time comes!"

At about the moment I was having this thought, my screen stuttered and I was suddenly in a station with my mail icon blinking.

Checking the killmail for my ship and pod, they had both been destroyed simultaneously by two smart bombs. How did that even happen? I had no idea. So, I chatted with the pirate who had killed me and he turned out to be quite friendly and helpful. He explained that a scout had seen me in the previous system, that he'd seen me coming on his d-scanner, and that he deployed the bombs off the gate to catch me in warp. I had NO idea such things were possible. So I'm really glad that this happened to me. I'm unsure of how frequent this trap occurs, however. Does every person roaming in lowsec first warp to a safe spot off the gate, d-scan it to make sure that nothing that could have smartbombs is there, and THEN jump? Or was the mistake that I approached in alignment from the other gate, so it was easy to have the bombs set up for my direction? I'm really grateful for this experience, since I not only learned a very surprising way to die, but it's given me some questions to chew on. Also, the nice pirate sent me 30 million isk. I promise, good sir, to spend it on pvp.

What a great experience!

2012.10.24 01:50:00

Victim: Nowehgo
Corp: Brutor Tribe
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Magnate
System: Sujarento
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 925

Involved parties:

Name: Aerich e'Kieron (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.00
Corp: Snuff Box
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Machariel
Weapon: Imperial Navy Large EMP Smartbomb
Damage Done: 925

Destroyed items:

Warp Core Stabilizer I

Dropped items:

1MN Microwarpdrive I


Things I learned:
1) Always insure your ship. I knew this. Seriously, I did. Somehow I didn't insure the magnate. Not a big loss, but ... doh! I think I was too excited to get blown up and I just undocked and headed out without thinking.
2) Never fly what you can't afford to lose. I'm already sick of this phrase and I haven't been playing long. I already believed and planned to follow this phrase. But wow, this experience brought that home. I was vaporized before I even had an inkling that something was afoot. Awesome.
3) Damn smartbombs, you scary.
4) Lowsec pirates are (so far) as nice and helpful as the blogs portray them being. Cool!