Updated: Rest in Peace, Drak. You’ll Be Missed. (Drox Operative)

So you know how, mere hours ago, I mentioned that I couldn’t stop playing Drox Operative? Weelllllll…I was playing this evening with the latest patch, using my level 17 Drakk ship Hotspur (I’m a Hornblower fan, sue me), and I got a bit in over my head. This hadn’t happened in a while, so I was quite, QUITE shocked when I found myself zipping around in an escape pod waiting to be rescued (this is what happens when your ship is destroyed in the game). I wasn’t rescued, and had to go back to get my black box, so that I could get rid of the XP penalty that hits you when you lose a ship.

Edit: I’m being told that one can resurrect dead crewmembers, which I wasn’t aware of, honestly. That helps a bit, but it still stings, dangit. :(

I went back to the system that the black box is in (I’ll be f’ed if I can recall the name, the system names in in this game are total wackadoo) and after I got it, on the way back out toward a safer system, I got hit with a SWARM of baddies. They took out my fighters pretty quickly, and I buffed my energy, shields and hull regeneration rates, but in the end it wasn’t enough, and again, I found myself in an escape pod.

THIS time I was lucky enough to escape in my…escape pod, but just then I saw a message scroll across the screen that my crewmember and fellow Drakk, Drak (yes, his name was unfortunately Drak the Drakk), a crewmember I’ve had since I was merely at level 2 (I was at 17) and had risen up in experience with me, had F’ING DIED! Now, crewmembers gain skills in various attributes, which add to your overall character pool. Drak had gained many levels in the various attributes he possessed, allowing me to use various pieces of equipment I might not have been able to otherwise. Lo and behold, I looked at my inventory, and more than HALF of the equipment I had installed was now red, meaning I was too low in my experience level to use them!

I pretty much felt like this toward the game at that point:

I…didn’t even want to deal with the logistical nightmare of finding new equipment that would fit my lower attribute pool, so I just saved and exited in disgust. I then created a new ship with a new race, but…it just didn’t feel the same. Drak was my first crewmember in my first ship ever in Drox, and I really felt the loss. Still do, actually.

So I ask for a moment of silence for my loyal crewmember and friend, Drak. We went through a lot together buddy, and while I don’t know what the beliefs around death are for the Drakk people, I would hope they’d allow you to go to a better place in the end.