I’m not the most fanatic mission runner. I have my bouts of the odd day, weekend, week, and very rarely months of grinding missions like a miller would grind corn, but these are usually interspersed with enough time not running missions that I completely forget the strategies for them.
It is surprising that in all this time, despite a great many attempts by probers to kill me when I run missions in low-sec, I’ve never encountered a salvage ninja. Until the other day.
Now, before anyone jumps on the bandwagon and laughs at the carebear, I should say that I fully support the acts of ninja salvaging. Nothing is being exploited, there’s no underhanded out-of-game mechanics or social coercion involved. Its a perfectly legitimate play-style, and if anyone who reads this enjoys those activities; more power to you!
What I can’t really understand is whining about it. By doing that you’ve instantly made it a jolly jape for griefers as well as the happy-go-lucky opportunist.
Don't let this happen to you!
While the opportunist is only likely to hang around for higher value wrecks – such as battleships – the griefer will hang around and be a nuisance for as long as she/he feels whining/tears can be extracted.
Luckily, there are a couple of simple options available to you.
Option 1: Come back later
Typically, these battleships will only be in level 4 and above missions, which have several hours (usually) for bonus completion time.
Come back a while later and complete the mission. Make sure you add the salvage ninja to your contacts with appropriate standing so you can spot them in local easily enough.
Obviously, this isn’t an option for some people with busy lifestyles or hectic jobs, but that’s why we have my persona favourite option…
Option 2: Blow shit up
Ah yes, the sight and smell of smouldering autocannon barrels after unloading enough ammo into your foe to make an action hero cry.
The tools you use to kill those NPCs are perfectly legitimate tools to blow up the remains as well. Those wrecks are owned by you/your corporation, which means you can shoot them. They die nice and easily too.
For extra trololololololl points, wait until they get near them to blow them up. This works best if you’re zoomed out a lot, then you can identify which cluster they are heading for and target ahead of time. Keep doing it until there’s no wrecks left, or they get bored and leave.
Obviously, this option requires some pretty hard-line values: “That isk is mine. If I can’t have it, nobody can.” I can assure you that its a lot more fun than whining on a forum about how some [expletive] stole your hard work.
Whichever option you go for though – even if its just to let them take the salvage – have some dignity and stay quiet in local: don’t give them the lulz.
