In the last 2 days I've suffered two ship losses and one podding.
The first ship loss came with my previous log entry. In that cluster**** of a logistics operation, I lost my Scimitar. I wasn't and am not really fazed about that, as the SRF will get me a new Scimitar sooner or later (or at least pay me the ISK, 150 million).
The second loss came yesterday. This tale has a twist however...several twists leading to the ultimate conclusion actually, and we'll get there, I promise.
I was browsing the contracts in Fatal Ascension regions of space, looking for good or firesale deals, and came across a beautiful one. The contract in question was a Scimitar, fully fitted. Normally speaking, such vessels of salvation run 150 million ISK for the hull alone, and that is if any are to be found on any of the 3 markets in question (Fountain, Pure Blind, Cloud Ring). The full fit then costs roughly 50-60 million depending on the intensity of market PvP in the area. This puts the total value at roughly 200-210 million ISK for a Scimitar.
Via scouring the contracts, I had come across a fully fit Scimitar for 145 million ISK. Not only was it less than the price of the hull, but almost 60-70 million ISK less than the full fit. However, I had a problem: my wallet had never been large, even before moving to null space, and at the time, it only stood at 169 million ISK because of a Serpentis Sanctum I had cleared the day before (extremely slowly) in my Maelstrom.
I decided to sleep on it, and promptly went to sleep.
5 hours later, I woke up, decided it was too good a deal to pass up, and acquired the item for 145 million ISK. Fully fit, I got the insurance for another 10-15 million ISK (I forget exactly what it cost for Platinum Insurance). My wallet was suffering greatly at this, nigh on empty with only a few millions left. I needed some ISK, fast...
I boarded a Rifter and traversed the 11 jump pipe out to V6, where I base when in Fountain, pulled out the Hurricane I had on loan from Ranger, made two jumps to R-B, and went to work crushing Serpentis battleships. I found myself warping in and out, stunned at how much damage I was taking compared to what I remembered, finding easy ISK via ratting much less easy than before. It didn't take long to realize that I needed to finally add some resistance rigs to the thing (it was unrigged), but the only proper rigs available were in PNQY, back the way I came 11 jumps!
Seeing a golden opportunity, and just cresting 12 million ISK in my wallet at that point, I boarded my Hound, tossed the Officer and Serpentis loot I had acquired roughly a month ago into the hold, and made the trip back to PNQY. From there, it was another 11 jumps to Jita, much of which was uneventful except for a gatecamp in Kinnaka (to pirate hi-sec traffic into low, not the other way around) where I saw a friendly Machariel getting ganked by pirates.
Once in Jita, I attempted to set up contract for Brynn Jerdola's Modified Tracking Computer, only to find that I couldn't afford to set up the contract. Frustrated, I managed to sell one of my Serpentis modules for 50 million ISK, letting me set up an auction on the Tracking Computer, starting at 775 million ISK and buying out at 800 million ISK. I felt this was fair, as traders could make an easy 25-125 million while not robbing me at 400 million ISK for the module.
50 millions richer and an auction outstanding, I made another uneventful trip to PNQY, bought the rigs, then jumped into the next system on my way to V6.
The journey had tired me, and I had forgotten to check the intel channels, and found myself in a Nulli Secunda bubble camp. I aligned at something, hit the cloak and the afterburner, and tried to get away, only to get decloaked still in the bubble and tackled by an interceptor. My Hound exploded within 10 seconds, and my capsule followed shortly after. (Is it really necessary to link the killmail? Just take my word for it that it was a 30 man gang reported on intel that wiped me out.)
Twists and turns complete, we arrive at the moral of the story. Before, when I had no implants, I was invincible. Nothing and no one could catch me or kill me (although they could put me into structure, f**k yeah). Since getting implants roughly a week ago, I suffered the loss of a Scimitar, a Hound, a few (2 mil total value) shield rigs, and approximately 50 million in learning implants.
What did I gain? -100 million isk, -2 ships, -4 learning implants and several cheaper hardwirings, -4 shield rigs.
What did I learn? Learning implants are scratching mere hours off of my training times, and implants cause me to get podded and blown up ( I HAVE MY PRIORITIES STRAIGHT!). 2 of the learning implants were un-utilized, those being intelligence and memory, while the other 2 were barely working since I am maximally specced in Perception and Willpower. So, why get them at all?
IMPLANTS CAUSE YOU TO DIE AND WASTE YOUR ISK!!! BOYCOTT LEARNING IMPLANTS!!!
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