That is, of course, provided you turn it on.
Last night, I had Fraps up and ready to record when myself
and a couple corp mates headed to Immensea to find some targets. I was in an ASB Vagabond, and we had a
Talwar, Moa, and Sabre with us. A true
kitchen sink fleet.
We dodged two fleets sparing over a POS in Catch, then found
relatively little activity – but several neutrals – on the way. When we arrived in the upper left
constellation in Immensea owned by Nulli Secunda, and saw a couple Tengus on
dscan in 94FR-S, but they were safed up.
Based on activity, we knew the staging system for the region was next
door in R-ZUOL, so I jumped in to take a look around. I figured I had the best chance of surviving
if something was on the other side.
Which, of course, there was.
Quite a large gang, relatively speaking.
I immediately called on comms for everyone to get off that gate and stay
away as I burned back to the gate. Much
to my disappointment, only a few of the ships aggressed me.
Jumping through again, I started to pull range, aligning
towards the sun as a Raptor and Flycatcher decloaked and began to burn back to the
gate. I was able to neut out the Raptor
and take him down (though, disappointingly, even my 220 guns couldn’t track
when he was neuted) with my drones. He
went down just as the Flycatcher got his scram on me.
I started into the Flycatcher down as the rest of the gang
jumped through – minus those who still had aggro on the other side. Closest was an ASB-fit Vagabond that scrammed
me a split-second after the Flycatcher popped.
Or so I believed. I’d have to
check Fraps afterwards to see if I had been free or not.
As I had already burned a couple of my ASB charges, I was
out of luck. The rest of the gang
descended. I took the Vagabond down to
half shield, only to watch his ASB rep him up – exactly as mine had done. Once I saw that, I tried to switch to a Rupture
– whatever you can kill, right? – but only had time to get him to about ¼
shields before I popped. Here's the battle summary (the Moa went down a few minutes later when it tried to get out; he had the Rupture into deep structure when he popped). I’d have a long
trip home in a pod.
While I made that trip, though, I checked Fraps. Only, I didn’t. I had forgotten to turn it on for the battle.
Did I really see the scram icon disappear when I killed the
Flycatcher, or was it a trick of the eye?
I’ll never know now, but at the time, it didn’t occur to me to warp
out. Was that because I was fixated on
the battle, or was it because my mind registered that it wouldn’t work?
Because I hadn’t recorded the fight, I’ll never know which
error I made, or if I’d even made one during the fight. I’d had a lot of fun and scored two kills
against a gatecamp gang, but the nagging thought still tugs at my mind. “Could I have gotten out after the second
tackler went down?”
If so, it means I mentally committed to the fight and
refused to adapt as the situation developed.
That meant my laspe turned a coup into an isk-negative fight.
But if that Vaga had me scrammed before the Flycatcher
popped or I wasn’t free long enough to realistically move my fingers from my
F-keys to the Alt+W to warp, then I did the best I could. That’s a much more soothing thought.
But the uncertainty irritates me more than knowing I made a
mistake ever could. We, as humans, tend
to fixate on the more positive of two possibilities, even when our brains tell
us not to. It’s impossible to
resist. The experience won’t code in my
brain as, “This is what you did, this is what happened”, but rather “This is
what you did, this may have been what happened,” which isn’t nearly as strong
of a memory.
But I did learn a lesson I’ll remember vividly: hit the damn
Fraps key before a fight!
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