Solo
It’s the second unwritten golden rule* for the survival of every pilot in New Eden: to get the most out of EVE, join a player corporation. We hear it all the time. When I first got my wings, I spent months looking for the right corp, with a lot of energy and consideration being put into the search. And rightly so, as there’s a lot of truth to that statement.
Strength is in numbers. In a universe of nearly limitless boundaries and infinite opportunities, a well-run corporation provides a pilot with much needed direction for the aimless, imposes discipline on the starry-eyed wanderer, and, most importantly, simply provides a voice in the eerily silent void of space. These were all things I desperately needed when I first joined M3 Corp over six months ago, and they were quickly fulfilled.
But now, after all the invaluable lessons I’ve learned under some incredibly talented fighter pilots (Darth, Max, Greyhound, and Kirith Kodachi, I’m talking to you), here I am, breaking the second rule of EVE. Yesterday I dropped roles in my first real corp experience in New Eden.
The practical reasons for this have mostly to do with the fact that I still feel I haven’t quite found my calling in PVP. This is no fault of the corp. In fact, if I was going to get the hang of PVP, it was going to be with a team of this caliber. But, It’s more because I joined such a veteran corp at an early age, and for the past few months it’s felt like I’m drowning in the deep end, when I needed to get some experience wading around the kiddie pool. I’ll admit it. I just couldn’t hang with the sharks. Not yet.
And because of that reason, I was still a little hesitant to drop corp. Would flying solo again make my experience in New Eden any easier? No. So, why drop? When is it actually a more productive and fulfilling decision to go nomad in New Eden?
Personally, I see it as the ultimate challenge. When you fly solo, your resources are limited. There are some engagements you just can’t take. There are rules you’ll have to learn the hard way, and there are plenty of mistakes you’ve got to be ready to make. I think I learn best in these situations. Because I’m not beholden to a corp, I’ve got to use other means of networking to find pilots to learn from. I can travel to an Agony course one weekend, follow an exploration corp into a wormhole the next, and come home to a high sec system and test out fittings in a relatively safe environment.
Another project I plan to try is wormhole diving: I’ll “pack my lunch” so to speak, jump into unknown space with a few probes on my back, and keep diving deeper and deeper, stay the night, and try to find my way back home eventually. I’ll be forced to think my way out of a situation I’ve never been in, and I’m not going to get anyone else in trouble by making a risky move.
Last night I started Project Copernicus [CPCS], my solo corp for experimentation in exploration and charting the unknown. If you have an exploration corp, or you fly solo, and wouldn’t mind a blue partner to sail the seas with once in a while, let me know. I plan to get the greatest variety of experiences in New Eden that I’m able before I eventually settle down in a bigger corporation again, so I’m going to take advantage all the friendly contacts I can.
So, needless to say, flying solo is appealing to me right now. I pose the same question to you guys, because I’m curious: What do you think is the right situation for flying solo, if there is such a thing? Are there times when you prefer it?
*The number one unwritten golden rule, of course, is: don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose. I’m not going to argue this one.
