The Tyranny of Choice

Damn you, security status.

As I’ve mentioned in a couple of past posts, my old corp, The Corporation of Noble Sentiments [TORAH], disbanded a couple of months ago, and were absorbed into Repercussus, a RAZOR Alliance sov-holding nullsec corp. They disbanded because after two years of PVP punctuated with long, painful bouts of sec status ratting, they could take the pain no more.

So now I’m thinking of coming back. I’ve also mentioned that I am a relatively-old 42, with only a few hours a night available to play. CTAs at all hours are a non-starter. The idea of flying nothing but Maelstroms & Drakes doesn’t appeal to me, and thus sadly I cannot bring myself to follow where my spacebros have gone. So I have a dilemma – there are too many other interesting corps to plead with for membership when I get back.

Rhavas is a solid battlecruiser pilot and scout. He can fly battleships but I find them dull. He can fly all the frigates, HACs and Recons on the Minmatar side, with some Gallente cross-trained. He can fly Transports and is a skillbook away from learning Freighters and Logistics. Because I’m not on hours and hours a week, I don’t have much ISK on any character, and Rhavas’ passive PI and Datacore streams have been crippled by CCP game design decisions.

So what do I need? ISK, PVP, a lack of security ratting, and the ability to play with a single account. There are four directions in my mind right now. In no particular order…

Wormholes

The obvious choice for me is Future Corps [FCFTW]. They were the parent corp of the alliance TORAH was part of (Sleeper Social Club). I still have forum access and have flown with these guys for a long time – back to my EVE University days. They’re awesome, by and large. Conversely, there are several other wormhole corps that have solid reputations with roots in EVE University, including The Red Circle [TRECI], Lead Farmers [LFARM] and Adhocracy [ADHC].

• Pro: Good times, good corpmates, good ISK potential. Might actually be able to pull off an RvB or FW alt on top of it.
• Con: Stuck in a wormhole, potential for PVE overkill when I really want PVP, high probability of losing a ton of expensive stuff stupidly, can’t fly a real armor HAC (can we pretend a Muninn counts?).

Agony Unleashed

There is probably no corp out there that I respect more than Agony. They are serious about their PVP and are not afraid to bring it. Any corp that lives (or did until recently) in Syndicate deserves some kind of respect – it is the true wild west, not the fields and farms of sovereign systems. But seeing the Alliance Tournament reminded me just how much awesome Agony is made of. As a bonus, a remarkable number are former corpmates.

• Pro: Awesome PVP, goodfights all the time, will learn loads. I would love to fly again with some of my favorite past corpmates like Arceris, Billy Colorado, Rake Yon, Magnus Ambers, maze9, Miranda Glade and Rynnik.
• Con: While I like to think Agony would take me, at least on a trial basis, I might not be up to the challenge. These guys are serious, and might not think I had the time to rise to that level. In addition, their bylaws are basically that when you join Agony, you can’t be part of any other corp that PVPs (including places like RvB or other Faction War or Wormhole corps). I’d probably stay space-poor. That said, the fact that they joined Faction War to begin with has made me think about this one even more seriously. Of course, in character I have no idea how on earth I can justify Rhavas flying for the Amarr…

Pirate Royalty

I’ve always had a secret desire to join the Tuskers. Ever since Suleimann Shouaa spanked one of our EVE University fleets back to the dark ages but gave us one of the best fights in my memory while doing so. Since TORAH briefly flew with Rixx Javix in his old alliance. And now having Azual Skoll there is just icing on the cake. I’ve written here before of the importance of having a code, and the Tuskers have a great one.

• Pro: I will learn a ton. I would fly with current and future legends. I may be able to have good killboard stats without blobbing some day.
• Con: The Tuskers probably won’t take me, frankly – I’m not good enough at PVP. I may not have the time to dedicate, and their almost pure -10 security status may be unworkable since I do not have an army of alts to feed Rhavas if he’s trapped in Lowsec. This would likely mean crushing space-poverty.

Minmatar or Gallente Faction War

If you’ve spent much time reading this blog, you know that Rhavas is definitively Minmatar. TORAH lived in Villore for most of its existence, and we enjoyed the occasional tangle with Quantum Cats [QCATS] up in Old Man Star – I’ve often thought they might be fun. In addition, there is a strong Tweetfleet/Blogosphere pull in this direction for me. I respect Hans Jagerblitzen‘s efforts on the CSM and Zeric Sarain‘s in-depth treatises on the topic. Even before Crucible, I’ve enjoyed reading Susan Black’s chronicles of Late Night Alliance. It sounds like fun to me.

• Pro: PVP + ISK + cheap faction ships & ammo. A heady combination.
• Con: The Minmatar sound like they are so thoroughly dominating their arena that it might actually end up boring and a griefer haven rather than fun. The way CCP is pushing things to be more like Sov Null, FW may also eventually devolve to grinding, no-choice doctrines and 3 AM CTAs.

What do you think? Maybe something else all together (Darth Skorpius suggested Legion of Darkwind – which looks eclectic, and my background is nothing if not a mishmash of trying different things). What’s an ISK-poor former pseudo-pirate with too many choices to do?