Yesterday night, I was moving stuff from my trade hub,
warping to an insta-undock at more than 70k km from the station, I was surprised
to get some company there. A machariel just landed a few km from my freighter. Ooooops.
I already noticed that guy a couple of days ago; I just thought
that was an extraordinaire coincidence to have the same safe spot, and forgot
about it straightaway. Of course, that was a mistake.
I have a dozens of warp-off in my trade hub, but grow
accustomed to use always the same one at different range. What a mistake.
Of course, we started a dance where he bumped my ship, while
I was trying to realign. Pretty frustrating, and gosh, my heart was racing :-)
After a few secs, he opened a chat, and asks for a waaay too
big amount of ISK or face immediate destruction.
I was carrying for 1.4B isk of minerals, plus the 1.3B
freighter, I tried to negotiate a lower price, since he was asking more than my
profit for the month.
I paid him a hefty 300m ISK (which is still a lot of my
monthly profits), and he left.
My wife came at same time in my office, and asked why I was
smiling like that. I replied that I just got ransomed by a pirate, that I just
lost a good chunks of my profits but was still amazed by the ingenuity of
players in that game.
She stared at me, knocking her head, and left, forgetting
why she came to tell me in the first place.
The moral of this history is: don't be predictable!
Add more warp-off at various ranges, distant by thousands of
km, and never warp to them in a particular order.
I'm pondering once again to use courier contracts to move my
stuff in/off my trade hub. I did use them in December, but the time-to-market
was unpredictable, which annoys me.
I think I need to revisit my options with a more reliable
supplier, instead of public couriers.
Fly safe !
o7
Fly safe !
o7
