I think I've discovered the downside to being an EVE University instructor.
That downside is that we get wardecced on an apparently very frequent basis. Somebody ventures an opinion on a GalNet board, wardec. Somebody posts a mining op to the alliance calendar, wardec. Somebody farts, wardec.
Which ordinarily wouldn't be a problem. Seriously, I'm so used to dodging hostile ships in nullsec that some half-assed joke started by pilots whose idea of "war" is to park themselves outside of Jita Four-Four and shoot anything that's red just doesn't register.
But, I'm an E-Uni instructor now. And E-Uni has rules about war. Standard Operating Procedures designed to minimise the number and value of the losses it suffers. Rules like never going anywhere without a buddy or two to hold your hand. Rules like not even undocking unless and until a friendly fleet comes to collect you. Rules like not being allowed to fly certain classes of ship, including stealth bombers.
I mean, really? Stealth bombers? Possibly one of the most slippery and difficult to intercept ships in all of New Eden? A ship that any competent pilot should be able to use to thumb their nose at a gate camp of any stripe, even nullsec bubble clusters. On the prohibited ship list.
One of the reasons I was given is that they're fragile. "paper-thin tank" one member said. If we hadn't been in the middle of a briefing, I'd have explained to that pilot that if the enemy get a chance to shoot back, you're using the ship wrong.
That's the primary reason, of course. EVE Uni is a training service for rookies and greenhorns. It exists to cater to a population of graduate pilots who lack any training, knowledge and experience. Such people can't be trusted to pilot a stealth bomber correctly, so they're on the prohibited list. Never mind that recon cruisers, heavy assault cruisers and interceptors are allowed, despite arguably requiring even more skill to use properly.
All of which kind of misses the point if you ask me. Why in the hell should Ivy League give a damn about their killboard efficiency and whether or not the other guys are claiming to have "won" just because they shot up a pack of rookies? These SOPs exist only to preserve the university's apparently fragile ego against the unbearable shame of some other people arbitrarily claiming victory in a pointless war that didn't achieve anything other than the destruction of a few ships and the death of some crew members.
In other words, it suggests to me that in this regard at least the University is more concerned about keeping up appearances than about actually doing its damn job. Throw the little buggers in at the deep end I say. Let them lose ships to station camps in market hubs. Let them try and take on five cruisers in a stealth bomber and watch it get shredded by autocannon fire. The function of the university is supposedly to educate, which makes it a little frustrating to see that the best teacher of all - experience - is off the payroll and locked in the janitor's closet, bound and gagged.
Maybe I'm just a classic bitter veteran, but where I'm from a wardec involves actually fighting, not going into some kind of panicked lockdown mode and forbid everyone from going about their day-to-day without their fucking nanny present.
Well, mine not to reason why. I'm here to do a job and I'll do it damned well. But I'm entitled to think that the alliance's whole policy is ass-backwards.
Save. End.
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