Low sec - Bioware Made Me Do It

About the time that Hulkageddon V began I decided I wanted to give Star Wars: The Old Republic another try.  So I've been playing a little here and there and finally got an Imperial Agent up to level 27.  But when I went to log in Saturday I just couldn't do it.  I couldn't face doing one more mission.  I just needed something interesting to do.  But what is more interesting than grinding my way across Tatooine?  Then it hit me; I could log into Eve Online, travel out to lowsec and start bookmarking systems.

Actually, that is not as insane as it first sounds.  Eve Online is a beautiful game and I love flying around New Eden more than I like shooting things, whether they be NPCs or players.  Also, having a nice set of bookmarks in a system makes the space a little less scary.  So I started making my basic set of star gate observation, station observation and instawarp undocking bookmarks in each system until I got bored and felt like going back to play SW:TOR.  I almost finished making my bookmarks last night (one system to go) and still haven't logged into SW:TOR.

So what is so fascinating about bookmarks?  Actually, the basic act is pretty boring.   For observation bookmarks, warp to 100 km and then fly off in a direction until I'm off-grid, then fly a few minutes more just in case someone decides to play a little grid-fu and then make a bookmark.  For an instawarp bookmark for docking just turn on the micro-warp drive and go straight until I get tired.  Corporation bookmarks are great because I only have to make one set and then can pass them off to my other pilots.

The fun part about making bookmarks is the intelligence I gather while making them.  For example, I found one corporation that was NRDS in a single system because that is where they have several POCOs.  Shooting the customers is bad for business.  Also, I was amused by a pilot in a Dramiel who kept jumping from system to system looking for targets.  I think I had him puzzled because I had both Rosewalker and Wandering Rose involved and at one point they were in different systems, both of which had no stations.  Did I mention Rosewalker was in a Cheetah and Wandering Rose in a Prowler?  I wasn't AFK cloaking, just making bookmarks.  And of course both ships were unarmed because I wouldn't want to hurt anyone.  But I'd wager seeing two pilots from the same corporation sneaking around might have gotten his paranoia up just a bit.

One thing about low security space I noticed is that it is almost as empty of players as my SW:TOR server.  Just like SW:TOR, I didn't talk with any of the locals.  Not because I think anyone is a horrible person, even though I saw a lot of players with less than -9 security ratings.  No, I just tend to stay quiet whenever I do an initial reconnaissance to avoid annoying the wrong person before I learn the lay of the map.

So how many systems did I visit and bookmark?  Three constellations worth.  Why does a highsec carebear need that many lowsec systems scouted and bookmarked?  To tell the truth, high security space is getting just a bit boring.  While all the political and economic shenanigans going on keep me interested in the virtual world, the game itself was getting stale.  Low sec, on the other hand, makes me all nervous and gets the heart beating faster because I know that people are flying around looking to shoot my ship and pod me.

For now my plan is to fly into low sec and do some distribution missions for a couple of NPC corporations to increase some standings.  I don't have plans to actually live in low sec since I keep reading how that would be a horrible idea and that low sec isn't really worth living in.  Sure, faction warfare was recently improved but for a carebear like me who is interested in life outside of the FW scene I'd really have to look hard and find something to draw me in.  So I'm just visiting for a while.