It's not quite that bad anymore
Yeah, I haven't played since probably 2011. I felt like I had a pretty good handle on things, worked myself up to a Drake battlecruiser, was doing pretty well killing NPC pirates--even battleships. One day I decided to head down to low-sec space (a 0.4 system, I think), because I heard the NPCs were worth more ISK and dropped better loot. I located an NPC pirate battleship lurking near an asteroid field, engaged it in combat, and was holding my own pretty well...then some jerk warped in behind me, destroyed my ship in about 5 seconds with I don't even know what, killed my pod, and then warped out.
That's when I realized that I had a LOT to learn, moreso than I ever thought. I never got into some of the really technical aspects of the game--scanning down wormholes, etc. That was something I always wanted to learn, but I stopped playing before I got to that point. I feel that I had a decent grasp on the combat mechanics of the game, at least when fighting NPCs, but that's about it. And I know that was just scratching the surface.
