Bot-aspirant behavior…and a step beyond (plus: much derp by Keera)

As everyone should already know by now, the New Order of Highsec actively fights not only actual botting, but also bot-aspirant behavior. Some people might argue about the exact definition of this term, but I think we can all agree that many miners behave not totally unlike bots. 

Here, however, I encountered a particular interesting example.

And I screwed up a lot. But that’s par for the course.

I found an ill-fitted and unlicensed Retriever violating both the Code and the asteroids in the belts around Scheenins V and decided that I needed to step in and protect these beautiful  natural Veldspar deposits from being completely drained by this careless poacher. I felt like using the scan-down and warp-in technique on that particular day, so I had my scout bookmark the location and transfer the BM to Keera via direct trade in station.

I had fitted a couple of Cats the night before, so I grabbed a random ship and undocked, ready to pounce upon my prey. It was a few seconds later that I realized that I had forgotten to repair some of those Light Neutron IIs that I had looted from previous ganks. Derp. 

The red bar around my guns indicated that they might not survive another overheating, and having your guns shut down mid-gank is among the most embarrassing things that can happen. Docking back up right away seemed a bad idea since there was a lot of whiteknighting going on, so I warped to instaundock and back, repped my guns and tried to play it cool.

With blasters in pristine condition I undocked once again and warped to my staging point near the belts (in order to minimize warp distance to the actual target). At this point it dawned on me that I was missing something. Something quite important for this operation. I had left the bookmark of the target’s location in station. Herpaderp.

While Keera once again docked at station (waving to the fans outside) to retrieve the bookmark, my scout made sure that the location was still up to date (it was). Before I undocked for the third time, I triple checked that I had the BM transferred to the location tab and once again tried to repair my ship (just because). This time, things went smoothly and the Retriever was soon disposed of.

Nothing outof the ordinary here. Just an untanked Retriever. There are many like it, but this one is definitely not mine.

                           

Things got interesting once the miner began begging in local. 

Surprisingly, he did not beg anybody to shoot me or to pay for his losses like I have gotten used to. Instead, he begged the good people of Scheenins to trade him 2 MTUs via direct trade and offered 14mil worth of Plagioclase in exchange. 

This, of course, raised more than a few eyebrows.  The miner soon explained that he had a negative ISK balance and therefore could neither sell his ore (because he couldn’t pay the sales tax) nor create any contracts (due to the fee). For those who do not know, a negative ISK balance (basically being in debt) is a common consequence of breaking the rules of the game, it is used as a form of punishment by CCP.

This is, by the way, something that pirates, gankers and all other folk of so called ill-repute do NOT do. We operate strictly within the rules set by CCP. We may not like all of those rules, and we may not always appreciate changes made to them, but we adapt. We may break a social convention here and there, but we do not break rules.

Our miner here, however, has done so at one point. When people in local inquired about the nature of his offense, the miner made some vague comments about “mining like a bot” and “third party tools”. 

[ 2015.02.07 22:10:57 ] Miles FromHome > Fined by CCP
[ 2015.02.07 22:11:05 ] Kim Peek > for being an uber shitbird?
[ 2015.02.07 22:11:21 ] Miles FromHome > No for mining like a robot
[...]
[ 2015.02.07 22:11:52 ] Miles FromHome > Macro's / bots that's their reason and they banned me for 30 days too

It became rather obvious that I had just ganked a person who had very likely been botting at some point of his career.  feelsgoodman.

Even one of the resident whiteknights, who had actually spent quite some time station-camping me in an attempt to save those miners from teh eveel Keera, could not accept this behavior.

[ 2015.02.07 22:15:33 ] Kim Peek > Keera Erquilenne if you gank this guy you deserve a promotion
[ 2015.02.07 22:15:41 ] Keera Erquilenne > just did
[ 2015.02.07 22:15:45 ] Kim Peek > lol

I think that the miner should have thanked me for decommissioning his Retriever and saving him from sliding further down that slippery slope of bot aspirancy  he was on. I gave him a fair warning and the chance to purchase a permit and to remain at the keyboard while mining, so nobody can ever accuse him of breaking the rules of the Code or the game itself.

By the way, he did eventually get his two MTUs – for free. So don’t say I never do anything nice around here.

Things we learned today:

• Make sure you have everything prepped before you undock. Don’t derp
• Don’t break the rules of the game. Don’t bot, don’t use any third party tools.
• It is a common misconception that I am evil incarnate