I attempted my first level 4 mission this evening. Before I cleared the first room, some loot thieves appeared. They started grabbing the loot and salvaging the wrecks. It was probably about 4M worth of loot. I didn’t finish the room. I just warped out, went back to the agent, and dropped the mission. I wasn’t about to risk my reasonably well fitted ship.
Let’s see, my first mistake was doing a mission out of dodoxie. It’s a huge trade hub with lots of folks of all ethical stripes. My second mistake was not bringing along my own tractor beam and salvager for the important stuff. My third mistake was not remembering that EVE encourages behavior that most folks wouldn’t consider in real life.
The good news is that My dom can probably handle level 4 missions fine. Assault, which was the mission I was on seems to be a mid-level difficulty mission. Sadly, I won’t find out for a while. I’m going to take a break from Eve and go find a game that is more to my taste. Eve is beautiful, but the lack of ethics in the game makes life difficult for carebears like me.