Ship-spinning of w-space

Reload, repair, restock. The brawl on the wormhole took a minor toll on my strategic cruiser, but ultimately nothing serious. My guns have heat damage but are still functional; my armour is unscratched, thanks to the ancillary shield boosters; and the shield boosters need more charges loaded. I have plenty of nanite paste to repair the heat damage, and enough ammunition to keep me going, but one of the ASBs will stay empty for the moment.

It takes a minute to reload an ASB, and because most w-space engagements tend to last less than that I see little point in carrying more than one reload of the bulky charges. Really, the reload is more for any potential second engagement before getting a chance to restock in our home system, as I'm likely to be victorious or dead before both ASBs are exhausted and another minute of combat has elapsed. I pretty much proved that just now.

But I have a chance to restock. I'm in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, no one from the class 5 system has followed me through the wormhole, and Fin has swept up behind us, leaving no trace. Combat is over and we're close to home. I warp my Loki to the K162, jump through, and head to our tower, where I can can replenish the limited supplies I carry in my hold. Fin does the same, whilst also dropping off the few spoils of victory she looted. We're back to full strength.

Full strength, perhaps, but there is no one left to shoot. Fin takes advantage of the circumstances, which include an exit to high-sec empire space in C3a, to hit the market. That the wormhole is in critical condition doesn't faze her. 'If it collapses, you can scan me the new one.' Sir, yes sir! The Crane transport ship doesn't irritate the wormhole too much, thankfully, leaving it intact hopefully for Fin's return journey. And with a Tengu strategic cruiser new to my directional scanner in C3a, I may be able to keep myself entertained in the meantime.

The Tengu is sitting at the tower in C3a, but with no anomalies in the system I'm not really expecting anything to happen. Even so, with nothing else to do, I watch it for movement. It's an exciting life in w-space. The Tengu does the nothing I'm expecting, as a Drake battlecruiser comes to the tower, swaps to a Heron frigate, and warps towards the exit wormhole to high-sec. It's no strategic cruiser, but the Heron is still a potential target. I follow behind it but drop out of warp near the wormhole not seeing the Heron anywhere.

I don't think the Heron jumped to high-sec, so maybe he cloaked. Or went off-line, as the Tengu is gone and now all that d-scan shows me is a Navy Caracal cruiser. Maybe the Heron is cloaked, as is the Tengu cloaked and out of the tower, and the Caracal will be used as bait to draw me away from the wormhole. I hold on the wormhole to see what nefarious plans the locals have for me. A whole lotta nothing, apparently.

The Heron reappears on d-scan, and the Caracal is gone and the Tengu back. The latter looks like it was a straight ship swap on both occasions, which I missed sitting at the wormhole and not the tower. And as I was on the wormhole, the Heron cannot have been here too, as the frigate can't warp cloaked and I would have seen the ship appear when he started to warp. I think I've been watching more nothing than I first imagined.

A new contact appears, this one in a Nighthawk command ship, which joins the Tengu at the tower and the Heron now back in its Drake. Three combat ships could mean something, right? I leave the unmonitored wormhole unmonitored to see what great plans the locals have been working towards. Ah, I see. Idling. The ship-spinning of w-space. And now Fin is back, having sold loot and bought bargains in low-sec, and with the wormhole still alive to welcome her home. I think it's time to call it a night. There's been no further drama, despite what I made of all the ship changes. Sometimes I think that w-space has made me a little paranoid.

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Tags: caracal, crane, drake, eve online, heron, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Scrapping over a Scorpion

That Orca isn't coming back to finish collapsing the wormhole. I can't think why. Surely it has nothing to do with the pilot having seen my cloaky Loki lurking nearby. Just because industrial command ships are natural prey of strategic cruisers doesn't mean anything. But he's not coming back. It's been a while, longer than polarisation effects last, and the wormhole stays untravelled and pulsating for being below its half-mass state.

I tell a lie. One other ship passed through the wormhole after the Orca. A Buzzard covert operations boat, seemingly scanning this class 3 w-space system, went through, to what I can only assume is his home. Apart from our K162, this is the only other K162 in C3a. I am also assuming that the cov-ops pilot saw the Orca, recognises a half-mass wormhole, and has got a small fleet waiting on the other side for the Orca's next trip. Or a big fleet. As a result, I've been a little reluctant to jump to C5a.

But we're doing nothing, my glorious leader and me. Just watching the Orca, watching the wormhole. We can do more than this, and preferably something not involving the static exit to high-sec. I'm going through the K162. And in C5a all looks clear, at least on the wormhole. My directional scanner is showing me ships, a tower, and maybe some activity. An Occator transport ship may be gooing, but it's the Ferox battlecruiser and two Venture mining frigates that interest me. If only for a few seconds.

Spinning d-scan around sees that the Ventures aren't at the tower, but I can't tell where they are until a broader scan has them gone completely. I think there was activity here, gassing in fact, but it stopped pretty quickly after my arrival. Exploring the system reveals a second tower, which I ignore for now but stops my launching probes, and locating the first tower, with the ships, sees the Occator and Ferox empty, and now a Buzzard and Vagabond heavy assault cruiser both piloted. Presumably they are the Venture pilots swapped ships.

Another Buzzard warps in to the tower, giving three contacts. It seems likely that this cov-ops was watching the wormhole for transits, relaying the information to his gassing colleagues. 'Nah, it is what those ships are supposed to do', says Fin. I know what she means, but it happens sometimes that capsuleers are sensible. Only sometimes, though, as the Buzzard shows by burning upwards out of the tower to launch probes instead of warping to a safe spot. I suppose it's a fairly safe method, but if done consistently this way will become predictable.

I can't do anything about the Buzzard, so watch the Vagabond. The HAC warps from the first tower, towards the second, forcing me to locate that one too, where a second Vagabond sits piloted. That's still three pilots total, I think, it's just that ships are being moved and swapped. So Fin and I start talking tactics, such as they can be called tactics. But I don't think the locals are coming out to fight. If they were, they would already be on the wormhole, or twenty kilometres away from it.

'They are hoping we do not engage, I think. But they also think it is just you.' So far, yes. We like to hide our numbers, which is why Fin is staying in C3a still. 'Flare.' Is it a Buzzard? 'Waiting out the session cloak. Buzzard.' Okay. It's the same pilot I saw earlier in C3a, returning for... I have no idea why he'd go back. The cov-ops moves away from the wormhole and cloaks, though. And the first Vagabond warps back to the first tower, where he swaps to a Scorpion. Now, boarding a battleship looks like the locals want to get rid of their wormhole. And, sure enough, the Scorpion aligns and warps towards their static connection.

Killing the wormhole would be bad for us, but I saw the Orca's jump which dropped the wormhole's stability. The transition occurred on the Orca's return, which gives the wormhole plenty of mass for the Scorpion to jump out and back, and for us to do the same. Let him return, Fin, encourage them to think it is still just me until the last moment. I drop out of warp near the wormhole to see the Scorpion jump to C3a. Him, I tell Fin. A few seconds pass. 'Him. Then me.' I hear this, and even before the wormhole flares my Loki is decloaked and primed for combat. The Scorpion is coming back polarised, and I'm going to catch him.

The Scorpion doesn't even pause on the wormhole, but decloaks immediately and tries to run. I get a positive lock and disrupt his warp engines as Fin dismisses any remaining notions that it's just me stalking these pilots. Both of our Lokis' autocannons chatter rounds towards the Scorpion, depleting its shields steadily. Here comes that other Vagabond. I see it on d-scan first, as it warps to the wormhole to join the fray. And apparently I have no capacitor juice, the Scorpion having drained me dry within seconds. That can't be good.

My guns keep shooting, and my capacitor replenishes just a little often enough to keep the warp scrambler active, although Fin has the Scorpion held too. Now the Vagabond looses his drones on me, as does the Scorpion, and I'm getting seriously smothered. Being at the centre of this combat is a little unsettling, but I look up to my glorious leader for a reason. I know the many times she's been under heavy fire and continued fighting, and it is her inspiration that keeps me on this side of the wormhole.

Even when jammed by ECM I stay. I think the Scorpion has me jammed, but it's actually the Vagabond's ECM drones. I stick around, wait for the jam to drop, and regain my target lock on the Scorpion. Its shields are gone and is taking armour damage now. We can win this, even as a Naga battlecruiser appears on d-scan. There will be more incoming damage soon, and my Loki is in a bad state. We just need a little more time. Systems to overload, lieutenant. Throw discretion to the wind. Burn both ancillary shield boosters simultaneously! Overheat the autocannons!

The dual ASBs keep me afloat, but just barely. The Naga has appeared and I remain the primary target for all the ships. But the Scorpion's armour is gone, and we're chewing through its structure. Or chomping through it. My ASBs are out of charges, and my drained capacitor cannot feed those hungry repair modules, but there she goes! The Scorpion explodes. I can't help but hang around to aim for the pod, but it flees pretty quickly. My sensor booster is off-line, thanks to a severe lack of capacitor juice, but I don't think having it active would have helped. And now I must go.

I jump back to C3a, still close enough to the wormhole to do so immediately, perhaps partly because of the webs the Vagabond applied to my ship. Shields almost gone, guns smoking, but in one piece and, remarkably, without even any armour bleed. But you should see the other ship. It's kind of a wreck. How's Fin doing? Just fine. She wasn't shot once in the engagement, and when the Scorpion exploded the Vagabond and Naga disappeared pretty promptly. Fin loots and shoots the wreck of the battleship and tidies up the drones left behind, before returning through the wormhole too.

But what a fight that was! It was pretty challenging, and with plenty to absorb. The ASBs definitely did their job, although using both at once was a little desperate. The situation called for it, though. And with some determination, we got the kill. Curiously, the Scorpion had three warp core stabilisers fitted. I can see how it couldn't escape with both Fin and me stopping it, but when I was jammed it could have fled. I suspect it saw my ailing Loki and, because it had four heavy neutralisers keeping me down and Valkyrie II drones shooting me, as well as hoping for repeated successful ECM cycles, the pilot decided to stay to seal my fate. I'm glad he did.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, ferox, loki, mmorpg, naga, occator, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scorpion, vagabond, venture, w-space

Caught unawares

It's just me in space. No, that can't be right. Let me see if someone's through this wormhole the Sleepers kindly left behind. And, you know, I think there is. My directional scanner shows me a tower, an Orca, and some core scanning probes. I shall assume the industrial command ship isn't the active scout, so rather than warp away to the unsurprising sight of an unpiloted Orca in a tower's force field I shall lurk on the wormhole for a minute. Maybe if the scout has seen our K162 pop he'll come and investigate.

I check my notes whilst idling. This is my fifth visit to the class 3 system, the last being seven months earlier. Two towers were in the system back then, and I resolved a static wormhole that exited to high-sec. There's been some change, though. One of the towers definitely isn't where it was, and although the other tower in my notes is out of d-scan range it may be reasonable to assume that's gone too, considering the presence of a newly positioned tower.

Okay, I've orientated myself and the scout hasn't made himself known yet. Indeed, core scanning probes are still whizzing around the system. And as they are core scanning probes, which detect only sites and not ships, I feel comfortable warping away to decloak and launch my own scanning probes. I use the combat type, naturally, launching them in to space and far above the ecliptic plane in order to perform a blanket scan of the system, and returning to loiter on our K162 once done.

A Buzzard covert operations boat appears on d-scan, disappearing a moment later. The probes remain in the system, so I presume the cov-ops pilot was having finger troubles and hasn't left through a different wormhole. Meanwhile, my probes are reporting a lack of anomalies and six signatures scattered around C3a. Any half-decent scout should have noticed a measly five signatures increasing to six mid-scan, so I think my presence is going to be inferred regardless of my actions. And as my combat probes pick up the Buzzard's finger troubles a second time, I may as well scan for the connection the cov-ops has come through.

Sure enough, the signature nearest the fuzzy impression of the Buzzard is a wormhole, a K162 from class 5 w-space. A subsequent blanket scan pretty much confirms there are no more K162s, with no signatures being strong enough to indicate one. The static exit to high-sec will be a mid-strength signature, and it may be worth scanning for if the Buzzard jumps through and returns quickly, polarising himself. And there it is. Good intuition, Penny. But what the hell is this Orca doing on the wormhole with me?!

I'm lurking on the C5 K162 when the Orca jumps from C3a to the class 5 system beyond, and it rather takes me unawares. I am one scan away from resolving the high-sec connection and clearly not paying that much attention to my surroundings. Like a deer in the headlights I kinda freeze, not following the Orca but performing that one last scan for the wormhole. As it turns out, I don't need to chase it. The wormhole flares a second time, the Orca reappears, having destabilised the connection to its half-mass state, and starts aligning away. The Orca wasn't heading home to C5a. The jump came from inside the system!

This is a golden opportunity. I don't know if my cloaky Loki has enough firepower to pop an Orca solo, but the whale is polarised and fully at my mercy. I'd be an idiot not to try! I try to lock on to the aligning Orca, whilst closing the distance between us, repeatedly wondering why my controls aren't responding. Press more buttons! Pull more levers! Dammit, of course, I'm still cloaked. Deactivate the cloak, cadet! Prepare all offensive systems! Lock. Lock. Dammit, lock!

But, no, my pitiful situational awareness and the recalibration delay from decloaking thwarts me. The Orca warps clear. But, of course, not before getting a good look at the Loki now sitting decloaked on the wormhole it was trying to collapse. How embarrassing. And here's my glorious leader to hear about the one that got away. Hey, Fin, it was this big! I dunno, maybe I should have realised sooner what was happening. Or I could have been smarter and waited for a subsequent jump, so that I could prepare myself a little better.

Still, never mind. I watch as the Buzzard appears on the K162 and jumps to C5a, presumably going home through a wormhole less stable than he left it. Maybe there'll soon be a strategic cruiser fleet on the other side of the K162, waiting for the Orca. Or for me. And even though I doubt the Orca will be making another trip, Fin joins me in C3a just in case it does. My glorious leader finds the local tower, confirms the Orca is still there and piloted—the one time I don't check, it's piloted and active—but not moving. I sit on the C5 K162 and watch as nothing passes me. After a while, we realise we're both staring at the equivalent of empty space. We should do something.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Null-sec hub

Nom nom nom, 100 M ISK brains are good eating. Now back in w-space, a few hours after the pair of gooing hauler ambushes, what's new? A load of fuel bricks brought in from Amarr, that's what, thanks to my glorious leader taking advantage of that high-sec connection in the class 2 w-space system connecting to our home. Fin also saw a Tengu strategic cruiser in C2a when passing through, so maybe that's worth watching for a bit.

I pop to C2a, warp to the tower where the Tengu sits, piloted by a new contact, but it turns out not worth watching after all. Well, unless you really appreciate Caldari engineering, in which case having time to examine the Tengu from every angle as it idles inside the tower's force field is time well spent. Me, I think I'd rather be exploring, and it occurs to me that we haven't taken anything more than a cursory look at the class 3 system through our static wormhole.

Jumping to C3a sees a black hole, five salvage drones on my directional scanner, and four anomalies from a passive scan of the system, none of which hold the drones or any wrecks. A lack of occupation is unsurprising, given both the black hole and static exit to null-sec, the wormhole being easily identified from the thirteen signatures thanks to its weak strength, and, I suppose, by virtue of it being the only wormhole in the system. I'll check where it leads.

Exiting w-space sends me to a system in the Outer Ring region, where two ratting pilots scutter back to the safety of a tower's force field before Fin can ask 'how far to an ORE station?' Um, I dunno. Oh, I can search the market for a Retriever blueprint to find out. There's one eight hops away, and the other is thirteen. My search also answers Fin's next question, by letting her know that it probably isn't profitable to buy one of the ORE blueprints ourselves.

The ratting Naga battlecruiser and Tengu can be safely ignored, as they clearly are more scared of me than I am of them, so I launch probes and scan the five additional signatures revealed. I resolve one wormhole from the noise of drones, a magnetometric site, and two radar sites, but the disappointment continues when I drop out of warp next to a K162 from more null-sec space. But I don't have anywhere else to go, so I poke my prow through to a system in The Kalevala Expanse, where I am alone with my thoughts to rat and scan.

One anomaly and eight signatures gives me plenty to sift through as I take on a couple of drone battleships and their frigate entourage. The K162 from class 1 w-space I resolve is at the end of its life, and not terribly appealing. But the two outbound connections to class 3 w-space and three outbound connections to class 5 w-space kinda make up for that one dying wormhole. So much space, so little time. But I can't leave without at least a superficial look through each wormhole.

I land last at the wormhole leading to C3c, so enter there first. A tower and Badger are visible on d-scan, and locating the hauler sees it piloted. But the odds are low that the ship will do something just as I turn up in his sys—oh, there he goes. The Badger aligns out of the tower and warps to a distant planet, with a Penny right behind him. Well, not right behind him, as it turns out, as the Badger merely warped to a second tower and not the customs office I aimed for.

A Drake is on d-scan with the Badger at the second tower, but warping there sees the battlecruiser lacking a capsuleer. Wondering what the Badger will do now has the predictable answer of 'nothing'. I'll leave him to it. I have other systems to explore. I jump back to null-sec and check the other wormhole to class 3 w-space, where five more drones are abandoned in space. ECM drones this time, but still left to fend for themselves, poor little blighters.

The only interesting aspect of this system, occupied but inactive, and with its own static exit to null-sec, is our previous visit. We happened upon a cluster of Drakes tussling with Sleepers in what looked like a training operation, picked the weakest of the herd, and slaughtered him whilst the others scattered. But that was then. Now there is only an empty industrial ship in a tower, which I ignore in favour of the still-more wormholes back in null-sec.

Out of curiosity, I have to chance the dying K162 from class 1 w-space. Popping in sees a tower and Prorator on d-scan, and a lucky warp to a moon locates the tower quickly enough for me to find the transport empty and return to null-sec without the wormhole collapsing. Now for the class 5 systems. C5a is occupied, with a couple of towers and far too many hangars appearing on d-scan, and my notes from four months ago simply stating 'three towers, C4 static'. That's good enough to copy, particularly as the only visible ships are a Manticore stealth bomber and Buzzard covert operations boat. I'm not catching them. Moving on.

Back to null-sec and in to C5b, where just capital ships and a tower appear on d-scan. That is, if you can call two Revelation and two Moros dreadnoughts, a Nidhoggur, Archon, and Thanatos carrier, and an Orca industrial command ship 'just' capital ships. That's a lot of firepower and ISK concentrated in to one tower. It's also probably a lot of unpiloted ISK, and certainly too much ship for me to consider engaging solo. I've finished here too. Back to null-sec and through the last wormhole, to C5c, where d-scan is clear but only showing me, huh, the innermost and outmost planets.

Neat wormhole placement aside, C5c is the simplest to explore, thanks to notes from around a week ago remaining applicable. Fancy that. The tower is where I left it, and although it has a Tengu piloted and moving inside the force field, the ship, named 'DM boost' is looping lazy circles around a hangar. The ship is boosting with warfare links obviously active, but it's not boosting anyone in this class 5 system. I think someone's had a little too much to drink, happily continuing the operation after everyone else has gone off-line. Still, I've got to give him credit, as he's only occasionally bumping in to another structure. That's some good piloting.

Well, that's it for space for tonight. Lots of it, and not much in it. I think that's by definition, so I can't be too disheartened by my explorations. Still, it's a shame that there were too many wormholes to explore in depth, and what was at the surface was uninteresting. But before I head home, I can afford one last look at that semi-active Badger in C3c. Yep, he's still playing some weird game of Pong between the two towers in the system. I watch him warp from one to the other, and see by d-scan that he returns to the first as I head back out of the system through the wormhole. And further back I go, to Outer Ring, C3a, and home.

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Tags: archon, badger, buzzard, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, moros, naga, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, prorator, revelation, scanning, tengu, thanatos, w-space

Bringing back the brains

All I want is my sammich. Why must you tease me so? I warp away from the tower, after watching a Bestower appear, go off-line, a second appear and go off-line, only to get as far as the wormhole home when the hauler makes a reappearance on my directional scanner. I look at the wormhole, at d-scan, at the wormhole, and consider just jumping home and ignoring the temptation. But it's not called a temptation for nothing. I turn my cloaky Loki around and warp back to the tower, hoping that this time the pilot will head out to collect planet goo.

Fat chance. I drop out of warp outside the tower's force field to watch the Bestower, and I watch the Bestower go off-line. Maybe the pilot of the Badger I caught earlier really has warned members of his alliance about the roaming Loki. If I'm not getting any scraps in this C2 I'm definitely getting my sammich. Back to the wormhole with me.

And straight back to the tower. This time, it's not the false allure of the same Bestower but a new contact in a pod, albeit at the same tower. A new pilot could mean a pilot ignorant of circumstances, and being in a pod makes him likely to soon choose a ship from his hangar. I drop out of warp outside the tower's force field to watch the pod, and I watch the pod do nothing. 'Soon' is relative, after all. I'm hungry, I'm going home for my sammich.

Dammit, one last update of d-scan as I approach the wormhole home has the pod replaced by a Wreathe. Great timing, capsuleer, plucking a hauler from your hangar just as I warp away. I really can't ignore that either. A new pilot jumping in to a hauler is as sure a sign of planet goo collection as anything. But if the pilot follows standard behaviour patterns, the boarding of the ship will be followed almost immediately by the first choice of destination. I imagine I am already lagging behind the hauler.

Rather than warp back to the tower I take a punt at the pilot's first choice of customs office, that of the closest one to his tower. I warp directly there, hoping to at least see the Wreathe, but the hauler remains on d-scan and not my overview. A quick point of d-scan at the tower confirms the hauler is out and about, but I have no idea where. I aim d-scan at each planet, checking the customs offices in turn, and locate his current position. Thinking I won't catch him there I warp to what I hope is the next stop on his route.

I actually get to where I think I'm ahead of the hauler whilst the Wreathe is still at the previous customs office. That's good, as it means he's moving slowly, but my guess is bad. The Wreathe moves on and not my way. But he is taking his time at each customs office, so I take another chance and warp to where he is now, hoping to see where he goes next if I don't actually get a chance to catch him directly this time. But I'm seconds too slow, the hauler dropping off my tight d-scan beam as the planet looms large ahead of me. I need to locate him again.

At least this next attempt should be good. As I've noted before, if he warps before I can stop him I should be more agile than the industrial ship, and get to where he's going with plenty of time to catch him at the subsequent stop. If he happens to be warping back to his tower, then I'd have lost him whatever happens. And if he doesn't get away, well, I've got him. So with this in mind, I decloak when dropping out of warp to finally see the Wreathe in front of me. I don't need to hide any more.

I get my sensor booster active as my Loki decloaks, and my guns and warp scrambler hot. I burn towards the Wreathe and gain a target lock, which simultaneously disrupts his warp engines and gets my autocannons chattering. The Wreathe positively falls apart, as only Minmatar ships can, and, as a special reward, I snare the ejected pod. And once my Loki slows down a little, my guns manage to track the tiny object in space, cracking it open after a few failed attempts, to reveal the corpsicle inside.

It's just me again. I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck, bagging yet another expanded cargohold for my collection. And now I can get that damned sammich at last. As I can also enjoy it with my new corpse buddy and his hundred million ISK brain, I would say that this tea party was worth the wait.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, w-space, wreathe

Expanding further

I come on-line for an exploratory poke around w-space to see my glorious leader and the poppet in the home system. I sense great mining is afoot. But nope, 'we have a C2, with a high-sec to Kador'. That's the only K162 in the home system, and the second static connection in the class 2 system is its sole signature, apparently. Our neighbouring class 3 system, through our own static wormhole, is left unscanned for now, as it contains an exit to null-sec that no one can really be interested in.

I'm curious about the C2. Fin's been there and scanned, but I always like to see for myself. I jump through the K162, update my directional scanner, and see three towers, a Badger hauler, Magnate frigate, Impel transport, Impairor frigate, and two shuttles scattered around the system. Fin ignored looking for the towers to instead use the high-sec exit to export loot and import, um, useful materials I suppose. That's cool, because two of the towers are around planets with a single moon each, and the only tower around a planet with multiple moons holds no ships. And it's the ships I'm interested in.

Specifically, I'm interested in the hauler and transport, so warp to where the Badger sits first. Dropping outside the tower lets me see the hauler is piloted, but I don't see it for long. Barely before I'm reorientated, and without a chance to get in range to take a closer look, the Badger is warping out of the tower. At least I'm close enough to see where the Badger goes, and it's towards the nearest customs office. Good-oh!

I follow behind the Badger, but my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser feels clumsy in giving chase, the apparent time to enter warp exacerbated by my current sense of urgency. I warp to the customs office in time to see the Badger here, but do I have time to catch it now? I don't know, and I don't want to spook it, not yet. The hauler is moving again, so I hold my position, and my cloak, and simply watch the ship align towards the fourth planet and warp again. This time I'm right behind it.

It's all over rather quickly. I decloak, gain a positive lock, and start shooting. The Badger is ripped apart, throwing the pod in to the vacuum of space, which, despite my best efforts, escapes. I loot and shoot the wreck, gaining another valuable expanded cargohold, and—did the pod not warp back to its tower? It certainly didn't head in the right direction. I was already turning to shadow the pod as I looted the wreck, so rather than warp to the tower I head to the customs office in that direction.

I can't say I'm expecting much from this chase. A pod is notoriously difficult to catch without a warp bubble, and I'm a few seconds behind the fleeing capsuleer anyway. And as I approach the distant planet d-scan is showing me another tower along with the pod, so it's quite likely the pilot simply fled to the safety of a different force field. So it is with some surprise that I land next to the customs office to see the pod waiting for me. Hello, pod.

I may have mentioned that a pod is difficult to catch, so I didn't gimp myself unnecessarily. I remain uncloaked with my sensor booster active, and warped to land on top of the customs office, rather than being cloaked and dropping short. Systems hot, I make another, better grab for the pod, but despite the pilot being a little careless in sitting still for so long he is at least awake to my continued threat, and disappears again. ...to another customs office, it seems.

I surge my Loki in to warp again, and reach the next destination on the pod's whistle stop tour of the system's customs offices just in time to see it disappear in warp in a direction I am not quick enough to discern. It's a bit peculiar, but perhaps the pilot was using an overview configured to show customs offices, and used that instead of fumbling with bookmarks to get away from me. And now that he's bounced off a couple of customs offices to get clear of me he returns to actual safety, as I find him back in the first tower's force field.

My fun may not quite be over, though. The pilot swaps to a Bestower, but it's no surprise that a second attempt at collecting planet goo is not being attempted. The Bestower warps out of the tower to the high-sec exit, leaving w-space once there. I can lurk on the wormhole. Why not? If he returns too soon I can pop the polarised hauler, although I doubt that will happen. And looking at my atlas, knowing from Fin where the wormhole leads, seeing that the system in Kador is a dead end and many hops from a significant market system makes me think any wait I have will be long and unfruitful.

I think it's time for a sammich. Except a Tengu has appeared on d-scan. I look for the strategic cruiser with a tight d-scan beam, only for the ship to come to me. The Tengu drops out of warp on the wormhole and jumps to high-sec too. Well, that's probably that. I can get my sammich now. Or not, not with a new Bestower somewhere in the system. The hauler is at the tower I've yet to locate, but picking the first moon turns out to be a good choice. The Bestower is there, piloted, with a second Badger, also piloted. Lunch can wait a little longer.

Doop, doop, doop. The Bestower goes off-line and is replaced by a different contact in a different Bestower. Maybe there will be some movement now, by the new pilot ignorant of my recent shenanigans. No? Nothing? No, nothing. This pilot also goes off-line after idling in the tower for a few minutes. Okay, my desire for a sammich has been unsatisfied for long enough. I'm going home for a break.

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Tags: badger, bestower, eve online, impairor, impel, loki, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Between a wreck and a planet

'Just scanned home and bookmarked the wormhole. I'm killing Sleepers in the gravimetric site.' So my glorious leader welcomes me on-line. 'And someone cleared all of our anomalies.' All of them? 'All of them.' Those pig-dogs, tidying up our system like that! I suppose we have little to do apart from look elsewhere for entertainment. After all, Fin's finished with her minor Sleeper patrol, even having looted and salvaged the wrecks, so there's nothing more to do in that gravimetric site. She even beats me to our static wormhole, and jumps ahead of me by a few seconds.

So it is that I hear 'Drakes! Wrecks!' moments before updating my directional scanner in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see them for myself. Three Drake battlecruisers, a Scythe cruiser, and drones and wrecks too, with no sight of a tower. A passive scan reveals seven anomalies, but before I can get too concerned with where the ships are engaging Sleepers I need to move away from the wormhole. With almost a kilometre for my Loki strategic cruiser to cover before it can become cloaky again I am worried I may scare our prey off too soon.

Fin's moved and cloaked, and ships and drones remain on d-scan. I follow her lead, feeling terribly visible for a few seconds, and update d-scan repeatedly once my cloak is active again. The ships don't disappear, and drones are coming out again. I think we have some ships to hunt. They're easy to find too, indeed being in one of the standard anomalies. I warp to the anomaly to assess the circumstances, creating a perch on my way in.

The Drakes are getting dirty with the Sleepers, but the Scythe is some distance from his colleagues. And judging from the blue beam emanating from the cruiser, the Scythe is transferring shield energy to the Drakes, no doubt helping the battlecruisers if they sustain too much incoming damage from the Sleepers. Maybe keeping the logistics ship separate from the Sleepers is helping to spare it. I can't quite tell how far away it is, but it's far enough to potentially cause us a problem.

With the Scythe boosting the Drakes' shields, even if one at a time, we will have a much harder time trying to break the battlecruisers' already significant capability. Of course, if we pop the Scythe first then the Drakes become normal Drakes again. But that's why its separation from the fleet is an issue. We don't want to engage the Drakes without shooing away the Scythe, but if we can't get to the Scythe easily then we may just be banging our heads against impenetrable shields. Luckily, it looks like the Scythe has wandered in to a convenient position.

It's not the Scythe's fault. He's sitting above the Drakes, which normally makes a ship difficult to warp to. But taking a good look at the site shows that the Scythe is now sitting quite neatly between one of the newly created Sleeper wrecks and a nearby planet. I tell Fin to hold in our perch whilst I take a punt at dropping on top of the cruiser. I bookmark the wreck and bounce off the planet to warp back at a not-even-estimated range to the Scythe. It's a good complete guess. Better than good, really. I drop out of warp ten kilometres from the Scythe, close enough to ambush him whenever we please.

But let's not jump the ships immediately. The third wave of the anomaly has appeared, which includes annoying frigates and a couple of battleships. Let's let the fleet take out the frigates and one battleship before pouncing, so that if the Sleepers take a disliking to us we're more likely to survive. Once the Sleepers are whittled down, Fin can warp in to engage the Drakes, keeping one close, whilst I take care of the Scythe. What a good plan. Nothing can go wrong.

We watch the combat progress, and I have a little chuckle to myself as I see the Scythe not being far enough away to avoid the attentions of the frigates. They come buzzing up to annoy the cruiser, as the Drakes send their drones this way to pop the tiny Sleeper ships. Uh, oh. Right. 'This way', as in, towards me too. I even got closer to the Scythe than the ten kilometres, to avoid any rounding errors with range and ensure my warp scrambler activates immediately. The Sleeper frigates don't just buzz around the Scythe, they buzz around and bump in to me. Oops.

Fin, engage the Drakes. My cover is blown, and there's no way I can activate my cloak and pretend no one saw me. Even less chance of doing that when I am actually recognised and addressed in the local communication channel. But I'm already locked on to the Scythe and stripping its shields. I doubt this will take too long, as I'm assuming the Scythe has no local repairs running, or offensive systems either, but it's still no hauler.

I look behind me to see Fin bravely brawling with all three battlecruisers, and try to ignore the obviously distraction tactics being employed by Firstly, one of the pilots. I have to admit that he's either a genuine reader of my journal or does some impressively quick research. But I need to get this Scythe down, so that the remote repairs disappear and I can help my glorious leader against the combat ships. And there she goes. The Scythe pops, the pod flees quickly, and I bounce off our perch to join Fin, shaking off the Drakes' drones and reloading my guns as I do.

Fin plus Sleepers minus logistics equals damage. The Drakes know the jig is up, the two that can flee fleeing once their Scythe is down, but Fin is keeping a tight hold on the third. His shields are gone and is taking armour damage by the time I'm close enough to add my guns, probably having caught the ire of the two Sleeper battleships as well, and, as we're all getting chummy in local, he admits that it's time to melt. And melt he does, the Drake's armour and hull dropping quickly and easily to our combined fire.

I aim for the pod of the pilot ejected from the wrecked Drake, and I get a positive lock too. Quite why he manages to warp away is a mystery, until I realise that I still haven't turned off the function to automatically return a set number of target locks. I have to admit, I like the more obvious feedback as to when I'm being targeted, but in this case, as others, it has let a target slip away. I got my offensive systems hot so that they would activate immediately on a positive lock, but because I had automatically returned the lock of the Sleeper battleship my commands were translated to activating my warp scrambler and guns on the current active target, which is the battleship. Silly Penny. It's time to change that.

Even without the pods we get two good kills. Fin was brave as buttons to warp in amongst the three Drakes and hold them at bay as I popped the logistics, and I am pleased that I identified the threat of the Scythe and was able to manoeuvre my Loki in to position to enable us to strike simultaneously. It was rather more interesting than a straight duck hunt. The other Drakes have retreated and aren't coming back, so I loot and shoot the wreck, grabbing the loot from a nearby Sleeper wreck too. I looted the Scythe as I was aligning back to the perch, and don't care to make another trip to destroy its wreck. Once safely out of the anomaly and cloaked, we can relax a little.

Pilot Firstly hangs around to chat for a bit, but is scared away when Fin's scanning resolves the K162 from class 5 w-space he's sitting on. They fleet came through there from null-sec—Firstly trying to expand his colleagues' horizons, a plan that we may have mangled by our ambush—and although I gave my word that we wouldn't engage him if he wanted to stay I can't blame him from leaving the system. I warp to Fin at range and manage to land on top of the wormhole, decloaking and no doubt looking a mite threatening. But I gave my word, that was merely an accident. I just get curious as to wormholes in space.

There's nothing else interesting in the system. The static exit to low-sec leads to a system in Black Rise, which Firstly's scout in a Tengu strategic cruiser investigates before Fin gets there. There is no occupation and we've killed the activity. I doubt there is much happening in the class 5 system either, what with the null-sec pilots passing through it safely. I think we're finished for the night. But that's okay. We've had a short but satisfying hunt, with some variation over our normal targets, and not forgetting our standard need to improvise a little. And we had a nice chat afterwards, with tea and scones. Well, Fin and I had tea and scones. They're a w-space staple, after all. Maybe Firstly can remember that for the next time.

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Tags: drake, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scythe, tengu, w-space

Chasing cov-ops

A pair of bookmarks bookending our static wormhole wait for me, but they are a day stale. What's new? Just the replacement wormhole, so scanning says. I could take this opportunity of a bit of quiet time to deal with correspondence, but there may be other pilots to shoot nearby. 'There's always people to pew', says Elroy Skimms, trying to agree with me but, really, just jinxing my evening. And so I jump to a neighbouring class 3 w-space system that's occupied but inactive. Thanks, Skimms.

I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system. Three anomalies and six signatures isn't much, and I identify gas, gas, rocks, Fin, a weak-arse wormhole, more gas, and a chubby wormhole. The wormholes could be a static exit to null-sec and a K162, or an exit to low-sec and a random outbound connection. I'm leaning towards the former as being more likely, so head to the chubby wormhole first, hoping to and indeed landing next to a K162. This one comes from class 5 w-space.

Hullo, a final check of my directional scanner shows that there are core probes in C3a now. Has a scout entered from the null-sec exit, or this C5 K162? Well, obviously the K162, but not because the directional properties of opening wormholes. The null-sec connection could have been opened earlier, letting people come through its K162 too. I am sure the scout has come through from C5a because my blanket scan picked up six signatures, and, along with our own K162, I ended up identifying seven. This wormhole is new.

Just to show my reasoning is awesome, a Buzzard appears well over a hundred kilometres from the K162 I'm sitting on and warps away. Quite why he decloaks to warp, and stays visible, I can't say. Maybe the pilot is still in training to fit the covert operations cloak that can be fitted to his covert operations boat. It makes him easier to catch, though. Not by much, admittedly, and I still need to get close to him, but still easier.

The Buzzard didn't head to our K162, which is a shame for Fin in her Flycatcher interdictor waiting on the other side, and by the time I reach the K346 exit to null-sec in C3a I can't tell if the cov-ops has cloaked or jumped. I get a better idea of what the pilot did when the wormhole flares a minute later, bringing the Buzzard back to w-space and warping off a moment later. He's still not going to our K162, which makes me think he hasn't scanned it, somehow resolving the much weaker null-sec connection only. But back to the C5 K162 we both go.

I drop out of warp to see the Buzzard stationary near the wormhole, for long enough for me to get close and consider either engaging or waiting to see if different ships will be brought in to the system. I suppose not, if he saw my combat scanning probes, but before I can call Fin in to drop on top of the cov-ops the Buzzard jumps to C5a. I don't follow. The cov-ops will be agile enough to evade me, and there is still a chance a better target will come our way. I pause for a couple of minutes, to make the sure the Buzzard is clear of the wormhole, and then, well, still do nothing, as the K162 flares once, then twice.

The Buzzard is back, and he's brought a friend in a Helios cov-ops with him. Both ships warp away, I think both towards the null-sec wormhole, and I am again too slow to see either of them leave the system. This time, though, I get Fin in to the system and sitting on the K346, in case the ships return. The plan is made more awkward when we realise neither ship actually left. The Helios is seen on d-scan in C3a, and when I finally check C5a for activity I see the Buzzard is somewhere in that system. At least we know that now.

There is still movement to be considered. Fin's not doing much good on the null-sec wormhole, but planting her Flycatcher on the C5 K162 could be useful. As she does, I look for the Buzzard. He disappears, so I launch probes and scan for another K162. I find a couple, the K162 from more class 5 w-space almost being inevitable, but its dying state not really making me believe the Buzzard came from that way. The second is a K162 from null-sec, which doesn't look any better, but given the pilot's interest in the other null-sec system it seems more likely. A third wormhole, a C140 exit to low-sec, is just an annoying complication.

Checking the null-sec K162 in C5a lands me in a system in the Stain region, with no sign of the Buzzard, Helios, or any other pilots. And core probes are visible in C3a again, Fin spying a Buzzard on d-scan briefly, named differently from the previous cov-ops. We have new contacts, and from a source unknown. When some combat probes also appear we think it best Fin heads home, which she does for long enough to swap to a cloaky ship. But, as it turns out, adding more invisible ships to a system doesn't really help with hunting. All the probes disappear without any ships replacing them, leaving us staring at empty d-scan results. There may be a handful of ships in the system, but none are wanting to be found. I don't think we can do anything else here.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, helios, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Music of 2013, part one

I had two-thirds of this initial review written by March, and I thought I was going to get a good jump on my posting of music I'm listening to this year. Then I got kicked out of my groove, like a needle skipping on a record, and ended up listening to the same bits again, and again, and again, but without writing about them. That's okay, though, as I really like what I've been listening to, for the most part. Still, I knew I ought to finish part one of 2013's music review so that I could move on to part two, so here it is.

I've liked The Joy Formidable for a while, although their debut album proper of last year wasn't quite as thrilling as the earlier A Balloon Called Moaning. Never the less, seeing the band play the tiny KCLSU venue late last year revived my interest in them, and I can't help but buy second album Wolf's Law. It's okay. I think The Joy Formidable are growing in a different direction to me, either finding their calling or being influenced by the huge venues and the bands they are supporting in those venues. The songs have traces of the older tracks, but the feel is grander, anthemic, instead of an intimate reflection. Although this is a generalisation, and there are songs to enjoy on Wolf's Law, the final song sounds like it was written to be played in arenas. And best of luck to The Joy Formidable, for they deserve to be heard by a wider audience. This type of rock is just not for me.

Seeing Toy live, speculatively, left me feeling a little underwhelmed at the supposedly psych-rock band. Not that I really know what psych-rock is meant to describe, but Toy felt a bit, well, normal. But I was craving some new music to listen to, and they weren't bad as such, so I pick up their eponymous debut album. And it's pretty good, maybe a bit better than that even. Guitars drone and hum along for the most part, working up to catchy riffs for extended outros, and there is enough character to each song to differentiate them and keep the album flowing. The vocals fall a little flat, not really having the shape that the music almost demands, but they aren't distracting most of the time. So despite the first live experience of Toy, Toy the album has me engaged, and perhaps enough to encourage me to go to another gig of theirs in the future.

Is the 'difficult second album' still a concept? It was often mentioned about bands back in the day, mostly after a strong debut, but I doubt it would be applied to Unknown Mortal Orchestra's second album. Whilst I enjoyed the somewhat psychedelic offerings on the first album, it was a little shallow in its ideas, taking a hook and not doing much with it. But II shows early maturity for the band, where a more mellow approach to songs creates a depth both within tracks and across the album, putting hooks and riffs on top of a foundation that forms songs which feel much more complete. II expands Unknown Mortal Orchestra's music as much as it extends, resulting in a second album that is not at all difficult to appreciate.

Sometimes a review turns my head, but unconvincingly. Occasionally, almost rarely, I will actually do some research and find snippets of songs to listen to in order to see if I will like the band, rather than speculatively buy the album. This is what I did with Grouper, where the review made the album sound interesting but perhaps not what I was looking for. So I hit iTMS and listened to what was available for The Man Who Died in His Boat. And I wasn't sure that I liked the rather bleak, minimalist sounds, to the point where I discouraged myself from buying the album. And then I bought it. I really do occasionally get a need to look for new music, and just wanted anything that I could listen to. The good part is that I actually really like the album. Yes, it's slow, quiet, kinda depressing, but I get it. Maybe not on a conscious level, where I could analyse the music, but I can put the album on, sit back, and let it wash over me with an understanding that I don't have to explain why I like it. I don't think I can recommend The Man Who Died in His Boat, if only because I don't know why I like it so much, but I do. I love it.

Opening track of Images du Futur, second album by Suuns, feels tense, with the droning chopping guitars and the chords never really resolving. Indeed, it takes until 2020 kicks in before you feel comfortable with the direction of the music, even with the drooping guitar playing in a different time signature to the relaxed bass and drums. It's a great start to the album. And where Zeroes QC felt energetic and vigorous Images du Futur feels laid back and mellow, but somehow without losing the same overall vibe. Minor Work's muted bassline seemingly drifting in to being from nowhere, Edie's Dream's playing more with off-beat guitar melodies, and the title track's being an atmospheric interlude demonstrate an overall coherence to the album not often found on many others. And the way that Bambi, although released prior to the debut album, slots seamlessly in to place in their second album is a testament to how Suuns can progress their music whilst maintaining a distinctive style. Images du Futur is an impressive album, and one that won't be out of place in most music collections.

The folksy piano of Open the Door is quite a departure from the feedback and screaming that began Leave Home. I skipped the previous album from The Men, though, so maybe their music has gone in a different direction. But the distorted guitars are back in second track Half Angel Half Light, and their punkish roots really start to show in Without a Face. But whether they are showing their more melodic side in The Seeds or bashing out lo-fi noise like Electric, The Men sound great. They clearly understand the genres they span, even fusing them occasionally, like with Bird Song, and play with confidence and style. The Men have pulled together a decent mix of songs to create an interesting album that's well worth listening to.

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Tags: cd, grouper, suuns, the joy formidable, the men, toy, unknown mortal orchestra

Missing ships

There is more to be explored. The K162 from class 2 w-space has been killed, unlike the Scorpion battleship that was killing it, but that still leaves a K162 from class 5 w-space and our static wormhole. Or, rather, our static wormhole. Glorious leader Fin has already been in to C5a and found little more than an unpiloted space potato. And now she goes to our neighbouring class 3 system to poke around. 'Seven towers, one force field sounds like the makings of a popular video. And it's a Wolf-Rayet system, yay.'

The class of phenomenon in C3a diminishes our Sleeper-fighting capabilities, hence Fin's lack of enthusiasm. I leave her to explore the system rather than stomping all over her spirit as usual, which coincidentally gives me an excuse to see the class 5 system for myself. Sure enough, a tower with an empty Dominix battleship is all C5a obviously holds, and scanning doesn't find any more wormholes leading backwards. Fin knows what she's doing. She's also found a wormhole in C3a, so now I have reason to go forwards and leapfrog past her.

I go to C3a and warp to Fin hoping for more w-space but land next to a K162 from null-sec. I think I'd rather check beyond the static exit to low-sec, so I do. I leave w-space behind, try to keep it in my autocannons this time, and simply scan the system in Kor-Azor for more wormholes. Three additional signatures are resolved to be rocks, Ruins, and a wormhole. Specifically, a K162 from class 1 w-space. That'll do nicely.

My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole in C1a, and exploring finds nothing and no one. There may well be another wormhole or two to find. Scanning the chubbiest of the twenty-three signatures resolves only one K162, from class 5 w-space, through which two towers, three unimportant-looking ships, and loads of drones that obviously don't belong to the two rookie frigates or shuttle appear on d-scan. For all the mess, it looks a bit dull. I suspect there is another K162 from class 5 w-space to find, if it's still around. I imagine the mass-restrictive C1 wormhole would frustrate most C5 corporations, and cause many to collapse their wormholes to look for a better chain.

Before I scan I explore. One tower is naked and empty of ships. The other is, oh, in reinforced mode. That explains the naked tower too, which I suppose is a staging tower for the siegers. The drones are nowhere obvious but, really, who cares about those Gallente sympathisers. There's nothing more to see, so I launch probes and scan. One anomaly, twelve signatures, and, as if by magic, a Loki appears when I call my probes in from their blanket configuration that had them hidden in the outreaches of space.

The strategic cruiser is in the bare tower, which doesn't bode well for me. He will be part of the invading fleet and perhaps think my probes indicate a local trying to escape, or at least be active in a way that should be suppressed. Or maybe he's just updating his skill queue. The Loki turns in to an Orca, which is a pretty benign act, at least according to d-scan. I don't monitor the ship directly as I've warped to a wormhole, a fairly uninteresting K162 from high-sec. It's my probes that tell me the Orca is not at the tower but on its own wormhole.

The second wormhole, which had the industrial command ship sitting on it, is the C5 K162 as predicted, and being collapsed also as predicted. What I don't know, and can't predict quite so readily, is whether the Loki went off-line or is cloaked and watching the same wormhole. Still, I like a little uncertainty now and again. Maybe he can help me pop that Orca too, when it returns, as I don't think I can destroy one particularly quickly by myself. The Bustard from a few days back took me long enough that I almost needed a break for food, and that was just a transport ship.

My combat scanning probes may have feared the Orca pilot enough not to continue with his operation to collapse the wormhole anyway. The polarisation time passes, and more, and there isn't a subsequent jump. For the second time in an evening it looks like we almost catch a solo pilot attempting to kill a wormhole. And, also for the second time, we fail to catch them in the act. I say 'we', because Fin swings by my way to share in the glory of not blowing up an Orca. Either the pilot has given up, or a strategic cruiser fleet is waiting for me to see what's taking the pilot so long. 'That almost never happens', says Fin, not-so reassuringly.

It makes me feel bad to head back through C1a, across the low-sec system, in to C3a, and through the K162 to C5b that Fin found after I abandoned her, to return to stalking a Hoarder that was sitting piloted in a tower's force field. Fin reasons that doing so will be 'less dangerous to our wallet and closer to home when it does nothing' than poking through the wormhole looking for the Orca, and she's right, of course. But even though the hauler is still in the tower, its orientation is altered. The ship left the safety of the force field and returned during the time Fin came to help me stare at a wormhole, missing the potential kill. I can only apologise. Well, that and watch the ship a little longer. But, of course, it does nothing. Silly Penny. Time for bed.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, hoarder, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space