Eve Online: Combat and death
Spacefaring is risky, especially when you venture into systems not patrolled by police: when you bump into someone hostile, your ship might be blown to pieces, but there is always an escape pod to save your hide… unless your opponent is a human Player Killer with the bad habit to "pod" his enemies, i.e. to shoot and destroy their escape pod.
In the first case, all you need is a simple insurance for your ship; for the latter an interesting solution permits you to retain your character: a clone. It's important to keep your clone up to date, since its "memory" will hold up to a certain amount of skill points.
Combat itself involves using your equipment at the right time and keeping your ship at optimal distance for your opponent, depending on the weapon you use. The game calculates the odds of hitting the target with complex formulas that take into account many spatial factors. On the other hand, the laws of physics have been somewhat bent, so you will not see collisions, nor there will be any gravitational attraction between objects in space.
