It has finally happened. In EVE Online last week I received a contract from the leader of the corporation (corp) I am part of for the sale of a Nidhoggur carrier costing me 4.6 billion ISK (Interstellar Kredits). He built the carrier which makes it feel even more special. That this carrier was built especially for me and is not second hand feels good. For the rest of the week I set about obtaining the various ship modules, fighters and fuel needed for the Nidhoggur. I had help transporting the modules and fuel I wanted from Jita (the main trade hub) but I built around 30 or so Dragonfly fighters using minerals I had obtained by reprocessing the loot I acquired from ratting (destroying NPC pirates) with my Ishtar.
Most capital ships have a jump drive which essentially allows them to ‘jump’ into a nearby system without using traditional stargates which interconnect the solar systems. In order to use the jump drive however I need to be in a fleet with a different character that has lit a cynosural field for the Nidhoggur to jump to. I thought that this can be achieved using any ship but it turned out that I had old information. Since 2019 players need to use either a force recon ship, such as the Arazu, or a black ops ship. Luckily I have a character that was just minutes away from being able to fly an Arazu. With this I was able to light and jump to my first cynosural field pictured below.
What followed was a steep learning curve. Even with all the research and conversations I had to prepare I learned a lot during my test flights. I learned for example that I couldn’t use my jump drive to jump to a POS (player-owned starbase) and that it was not possible to dock in certain types of stations. When I eventually felt ready to clear a combat site I found managing the fighter squadrons was a lot different to anything else I had done in EVE Online. It isn’t difficult but it does require near constant attention to keep the fighters alive. Losing a fighter isn’t the end of the world, but they are costly and I actually lost 2 fighters when completing my first 3 combat sites. Since then however I haven’t lost any so I guess I am used to it now. Between keeping an eye on local, intel and the fighter squadrons it isn’t easy to take a moment to observe the majesty of the carrier in action. But I have managed to take a few screenshots.
While this has been some of the most fun I have had playing EVE Online, there are down sides to carrier ratting. The first and most obvious down side is that all capital ships, including carriers, are very expensive. I estimate that my Nidhoggur cost me about 6.75 billion ISK in total when including the modules, fighters and fuel. This puts a bulls eye on me and makes me a very tempting target. Generally speaking the more expensive the ship the more likely someone will go out of their way to destroy it. There are always groups of players (or perhaps 1 player with multiple accounts) scouring New Eden looking for a capital ship kill. It’s so tempting that even my allies may be spying and feeding their friends information. What’s potentially worse is that if for whatever reason my carrier is destroyed it’s not just me that will suffer. It will have a negative impact on my corp, alliance and the coalition. People will know that it is possible to get capital ship kills in our space, making us look like an easy target which will result in them stepping up their aggression.
This has left me (and probably most capital ship pilots) highly paranoid and cagey. Ordinarily I would have liked to of documented more about the intricacies of this achievement. I would have shared which ship modules I use, which solar system(s), which combat sites and other details explaining why I made those choices. I would have even liked to of shared a short YouTube video of me clearing a combat site, something I would look back on with pride in the years to come. But by sharing these things I would be advertising myself as a target and would be informing people where I am and allow them to plan a strategy on how they could get me. For all that I like about EVE Online, it really is a savage place filled with cloak and dagger.
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