Lawyer105 said:
You're doing it wrong, HTFU [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgvM7av1o1Q].
To flesh out the post, though; the point you bring up that older players will always be better is utterly wrong (e).
To explain this, lets put a six-month-old player and a seven-year-old player against each other in the same ship, same fittings.
Now, lets say the six-month-old player has specialized completely in that ship. However, the seven-year-old player hasn't; they can fly the biggest ships in the game with the best but never got around to getting the most out of smaller ships. In this example, the newer player would walk all over their elder.
Another example; you're a brand new player, roaming around for some action in your frigate; lets assume a Rifter with all basic equipment. You come across a two year old player in a battleship (lets say a Rokh) killing NPCs. You warp scramble him, and fall into a close orbit. As he sends his five medium combat drones at you, you destroy them, and laugh as his weapons miss you as you are too close, moving too quick for him to hit you. You proceed to give his Rokh (which is
many times more expensive than a Rifter) a slow and agonizing death.
(a) As for your comment on how you have to work with spreadsheets? Sure, some people like that; market trading is a very lucrative profession (and industry to a lesser degree). I don't see how it applies to ship fitting though, as there are several tools you can use that do all the work for you - or if you're terminally lazy, you could just google it and find something that does what you want in a minute or two.
(b) Grinding, sure, if you don't apply some measure of intelligence to it. Last night, I made several billion in game currency in 15 minutes. That will last me a good month or two of PvP in any non-faction/non-capital ships of my choice (or every single non-capital skill currently in the game). You don't need to grind to "level up" either, as your skills grow over time - you don't even need to log in if you don't feel like it.
(c) Yes, people want to blow you up. The game would be very boring otherwise. Blow the bastards up right back; you don't need fancy gear to do it, use your head.
(d) Yes, screwing other people over is a core element of the game. You paid the price of not looking up what you were doing, and should have learned from the experience. You didn't, and expected a GM to fix your mistake - rightly, they laughed in your face.
Here's a thought to C&D; ask them what you did wrong instead of crying about it. You will find most people will explain what happened, some might even give you some tips on how to avoid it in future and/or (if you're lucky) give something back for being a good sport.
(f) The ZP review shows what happens when you chose to go against the grain of the game, and try to go it alone (hint: join a corp; if that really seems so repulsive to you, you're in the wrong game - heck, the wrong genre even). Also, you should know that Yhatzee always rats on games, even extremely popular ones, that he doesn't like. It's a real breath of air from the usual pandering reviewers.
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