On Learning That EVE Mirrors National Geographic

They hunt and kill each other. Some of them are sneaky and just blend into their surroundings until the right type of prey happen to come by. Others sprint from place to place picking off their prey as they can. Some always roam in packs and overwhelm their victims by sheer force of numbers. Still others use high specialised attack roles and come at the prey from multiple vectors attempting to confuse and separate. And lastly there are those that are just bigger and leap at the prey, scattering the herd and smashing the victim into dinner.

Tigers? Cheetahs? Dingos? Wolves? Killer Whales?

Capsuleers

The Stealth Bombers, Covert Ops, Force Recon and to a lesser extent Black Ops ships are sneaking around behind you even now. They are lining up for the perfect shot and jam and will patiently wait for you to be ready to die. They pick and choose their battles learning which ships pose the biggest threats to them and which will be easy picking.

The Interceptors and to some extent Destroyers and Tech 1 frigates are the speedy, chase it down and kill it ships. Their pilots are used to moving fast and striking hard, then moving on again. Sitting still they tend to twitch and start to rock back and forth in their pods. Several faction ships also fall into this role.

Frigate and cruiser blobs are like swarms of locust, descending to devour their prey and attempting to cut a wide swath of destruction through enemy forces.

Force Recons, Electronic Attack Frigates, Assault Frigates, Heavy Assault Ships, Interdictors and Heavy Interdictors combine their effective and impressive array of abilities to engage other groups of pilots, even when out numbered can come away with impressive kills. They disorient, confuse and distract their targets all while bringing great amounts of damage to bear.

Though the Orca bears its name, the battleships of EVE represent her true killer whales. They drop in on a ship, open their arsenals and pick through their remains. The can fight in packs or solo and can be a real force to behold.

This isn’t the be-all, end-all list of animal kingdom comparisons. What others have you noticed?

On Being A Cruiser Pilot And Surviving In Wormholes

The best thing going for cruiser sized boats, is their natural low cost and ability to be easily replaced. Cruisers begin to really develop as utility ships in wormholes. While generally not robust enough for Sleeper combat, they can shine in several other venues. This is also where people begin to have very strong opinions about what is good and not good, which seems odd because the number of possible ships decreases from frigates to cruisers. Finally, I’ve excluded the Tech 2 cruisers from this list for a couple of reasons: 1) I’m just tired; B) They cover such specific roles already; III) I haven’t flown or closely associated with people who fly enough of them regularly.

Amarr

Omen: When you want to bring some damage, an Omen isn’t a bad choice.

Maller: The tankiest of the cruisers, it makes the best cruiser platform for mining gases. It’s not bad for bait either.

Arbitrator: A great anti-frigate/anti-interceptor ship. A very poor wormhole survival rate.

Augoror: A great portable battery but another dismal failure in wormhole operations.

Caldari

Moa: At least you could mine gas with it.

Caracal: To flimsy to really be much use for anything beyond a Class 1 fleet. Uniform resists on Sleepers negate it’s largest advantage of multiple damage types.

Osprey: If you have young miners that want to get involved in the effort of clearing out a large gravimetric site, they could use an Osprey, but you are likely better off having them haul ore.

Blackbird: Generally it isn’t strong enough to survive in a wormhole. It’s not bad for PVP-ewar on the cheap.

Gallente

Thorax: Another good gas miner. Also good for throwing some gank DPS at an intruder.

Vexor: The penchant for Sleepers to take a dislike to drones reduces a lot of the functionality of this ship.

Exequror: Another good gas miner for pilots who don’t have Gas Mining V.

Celestis: Not that useful

Mimatar

Bellicose: You generally don’t see this ship in wormholes.

Rupture: Good gas miner and great to have as an inexpensive damage dealer.

Scythe: Not used as much as other ships. Could be due to a lack of Minnie Miners.

Stabber: Kill People. Kill Them Now!

Summary

Cruisers allow for a slightly higher level of participation in wormhole activities, up-to and including PVP. The basic resource collection done in a wormhole can be accomplished in a cruiser and still be able to get away if need be. They have been deployed en masse as cheap fleet attack forces as well.