In Search of My Serenity

As with most newcomers to New Eden, my initial notions of what spacefaring would be like were pretty far misguided from the truth of EVE. Influenced by space operas like Firefly, I expected to work toward getting that one ship—that imperfect boat that I would learn to love, and it’d learn to love me. It’d be my Serenity, letting me salvage wrecks of fallen starships and fly under the radar of the greater powers in control. It’d be my Millennium Falcon, a barely-held-together-bucket-of-bolts built to out-maneuver the smallest frigates. Or maybe it’d be my Normandy—a slick prototype vessel that I could upgrade over time to be one hell of an all-purpose space tank.

So with all of those ideas in mind, I was initially turned off when I found out that the de-facto play style of EVE meant owning a ship for every situation, each tailored to an extremely specific niche purpose. Most every capsuleer’s hangar is found to be filled with Normandy’s, Fireflies, Falcons, Battlestars, X-Wings, USS Enterprises and Star Destroyers. And granted, owning all of those is nothing to complain about. It didn’t take me long to get over those preconceptions.

Though I have plenty of ships I enjoy flying, the thought of having that one ship to call home is still very appealing to me. I can safely say a multipurpose exploration boat that can probe, activate sites, and fend off rats and haul decent cargo shipments is practically my dream ship.

I never expected to have one ship that would allow me to do absolutely everything. By principle, the more your ship can do, the more spread-thin its skill set is—which is probably more than a few people’s ideas of a “fail fit”. But I can’t help but ask myself why is this always the case? Why is there not value in owning a ship that, sure, it isn’t the best at what it does, but it does a handful of useful things that keep you from returning to your hangar multiple times per run? Truly the main appeal here is exactly the mass appeal of the concept behind the Millennium Falcon or Firefly: the boat is the captain’s home and keeps them flying all the time, not beholden to any planet or station. The classic solo ronin vessel.

Do other pilots out there long for their Serenity too? Do any of you have a single ship you fly a majority of the time? Do you have a custom fitting that lets you do a few different tasks moderately well? Any ideas on fitting my dream multi-tasking exploration boat (I’ve heard HAC’s can get pretty close)?

I’d love to hear some discussion on the validity of flying an all-purpose ship in EVE—arguments for or against—and some feedback on how it could be done well for your solo fly-style of choice, be it exploration, trading, combat, etc.