Prodding a Purifier

Bye bye, Drakey. I watched the battlecruiser warp away from the radar site in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, too nervous to engage it because of its buddy in the Loki strategic cruiser. That doesn't stop me following it home, though. What stops me is that the wormhole it used resolves to be the static exit to low-sec and not a K162 from more w-space. An exit to low-sec with a Slasher sitting on it. The frigate warps before I land, so I can't do anything but watch where it heads and focus my probes in that direction.

Of course, my probes will be visible on the Slasher pilot's directional scanner, so I don't think I have any element of surprise. It's good, in that case, that I follow a ship still not heading to my w-space but to a K162 from high-sec empire space. A particularly stressed wormhole too, sitting at half mass and at the end of its life. I'm happy to ignore the connection by itself, and happier when a third wormhole crops up, this time actually linking w-space systems. The K162 from class 3 w-space is looking good right now.

Jumping to C3b has w-space returning to normal, d-scan showing me a tower and no ships, and no stinking empire space tourists cluttering up the system. The tower is the same from seven months earlier, and scanning through two anomalies and eleven signatures for wormholes finds a couple more. The static exit to low-sec is expected, taking me to Verge Vendor briefly, but the T405 wormhole is a nice surprise, being better than the K162 I was hoping for. I keep going down the rabbit hole, in to C4a.

D-scan is clear from the other side of the T405, and my notes from around six months ago remain relevant. I find a tower where I left it, with a Nidhoggur carrier inside the force field pre-oranged for my convenience. Seven signatures on top of the anomalies provide me with three wormholes, and none this time will lead to k-space. The static connection to class 4 w-space I know about, an EOL K162 from class 5 w-space doesn't look great, but the K162 from more class 4 w-space could hold activity.

Three towers, a Vagabond cruiser, and Rattlesnake battleship are all visible on d-scan in C4c, although a lack of wrecks makes the expensive ships look like window dressing. Having both ships in the one tower makes checking for pilots simpler, and it seems that the 'snake is piloted, for loose definitions of the word. Sure, it has a pilot on board, but I wouldn't call listing its way out of the force field 'piloting'. It looks more like the pilot is drunk and has slumped over the controls, sending the 'snake in motion in some arbitrary direction. Then again, as the battleship is well within range of the tower's defences, I'm not sure it really matters.

A quick calculation of the Rattlesnake's velocity means it would take well over half-an-hour of this poor piloting before I could fairly safely try to ambush the ship. To be honest, I've occasionally waited that long for ships to clear sites and throw a salvager at me, but at least I had a show to watch in the meantime. Hello, is that a change of direction? It is. I would think maybe the pilot burped or farted, shifting the controls slightly at the bodily convulsion, but now the 'snake seems to be pointing towards the wormhole to C4a. That it warps a minute later would suggest so. I follow behind.

The Rattlesnake has indeed warped to the wormhole, kinda. The ship lands a hundred kilometres short of the connection, so is not transiting systems to try to make ISK from another corporation's anomalies, which is a shame. Even more so, the 'snake returns to the tower, swaps to a Taranis, and instead sends the interceptor in to C4a. I dunno why either. Well, there's nothing left to do here, and the odds that the Taranis is sitting on the other side of the wormhole waiting for me are slim, so I jump back the way I came to see... a stealth bomber? That's a neat trick.

The Purifier is not just sitting on the wormhole, he's positioned himself to be right in the middle of it. Precise manoeuvring is a good indication that the pilot is awake, but I want to hold a mirror under his nose. I decloak, lock on to the bomber, and start shooting. I get a few rounds off before the Purifier, still disappointingly intact, jumps to C4c. I follow, knowing I'll be polarised but not really caring, only to see the Purifier get lucky and appear far enough away from the wormhole to cloak immediately. I suppose I'd better cloak too.

Watching d-scan from the wormhole shows the Purifier appear, no doubt at the tower, where he swaps first to a Machariel battleship and then a Rapier recon ship. The Rapier then disappears, presumed cloaked, and his colleague in the Taranis returns from wherever he went. The interceptor doesn't linger on the wormhole but heads straight for the tower, and an Anathema covert operations boat appears somewhere. Okay, nothing is going to happen in this system now, not with so many cloaky ships trying not to bump in to each other.

I still have another w-space system to explore. Indeed, there is a potential chain of w-space available to me, through the static connection in C4a to C4b. Or it would be, if I hadn't got my rough bookmarks mixed up. Because of the spatial difference between cosmic signatures and wormhole loci, it is standard practice to bookmark the cosmic signature from the scan results, warp to that, and create a new bookmark for the wormhole locus, deleting the rough and now-useless signature bookmark in the process. It seems I made a mistake in which signature was which.

Warping to the cosmic signature bookmark for the static wormhole in C4a lands me instead next to the dying K162 for C5a. I used the wrong signature identifier for this wormhole and so deleted the wrong rough bookmark. Of course, I can resolve the wormhole again, and I still know its identifier, which will make the process swift. But I think this mistake is a good sign to call it a night instead.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, loki, machariel, mmorpg, nidhoggur, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, rapier, rattlesnake, scanning, slasher, taranis, vagabond, w-space

Someone's always watching

The reds have gone, isolating their system from ours by collapsing the wormhole connection, and hopefully whatever they didn't find through our static wormhole has changed by now. I would say so. A cursory scan of the home system finds nothing changed, letting me warp directly to and jump through the wormhole I scanned earlier, to see on my directional scanner a Drake, salvage drones, Anathema, and lots of canisters. I smell Sleeper combat.

The Anathema covert operations boat is presumably present to hack databases or analyse artefacts, seeing as there are no probes visible but the boat is, and the canisters must be flotsam from Sleeper wrecks caused by the salvage drones. I've not used them, but they are salvage drones after all, not looting drones. But what this means is that I am not looking for a basic anomaly, and I'll need to launch scanning probes. Easily done. That planet out of d-scan range of the ships will do.

Sure enough, the ships aren't in either of the two anomalies, so I am aiming to resolve one of the ten signatures, preferably in a single scan. I aim d-scan towards their rough direction, note the distance as being around 5 AU, which is a little far but manageable, and start narrowing down their position. It doesn't take long to have the battlecruiser sitting down a five degree beam, along with, it appears, a Loki strategic cruiser. That rather puts a dampener on my ambush before I've even scanned.

I may be a match for the Drake, and for the Loki, but perhaps not both together. Unless, I suppose, that Loki is already ambushing the Drake, in which case we can happily both shoot at it and then turn on each other, Grosse Pointe Blank style. But whatever's happening, I won't know unless I get closer. I call my probes in to scan. No Anathema, 70% on the Loki, and a solid hit on the Drake. As for the site, it's apparently not there, which is news to me, them... everybody.

The site is obviously still there, as there are structures and cans and everything a seasoned capsuleer expects in a site. There's something screwy happening with site signatures disappearing, I tells you. More disappointingly, though, the Loki and Drake are both being friendly to each other. They're just tidying up, the Drake looting the cans his messy drones have left untouched, and the Loki is, um, stopping me ambushing the Drake. That's a shame, really, because if he'd stayed away a minute longer then they could have caught a fool in my Loki.

The Loki cloaks, which makes me consider my options again. Has he gone, will he return, how many more of them are there? I don't know any of that, and as a cloaky strategic cruiser is terribly unlikely to be fitted without a warp disruptor I don't have a warm feeling about engaging the seemingly solo Drake. Of course, that could just be another hull breach in this damn Minmatar rust bucket. Even so, I've got close to the only remaining wreck, which the Drake is approaching and setting his drones on, so I really should make a decision.

No decision is a decision, right? The salvage drones salvage the Sleeper wreck, and I sit passively and watch the Drake align out of the non-existent site and warp away to wherever he came from. Maybe it's for the best. And at least I saw which way he warped, so I should be able to resolve the wormhole they are using and see what they get up to next. That means scanning the system. I'd better launch my probes again.

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Tags: anathema, drake, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Holding back

Empty ships and Sleeper explosions yesterday. What today? For a start, a second wormhole in the home system crops up in my scanning results, giving me a class 2 w-space system to explore beyond the K162. And jumping through sees a small fleet on my directional scanner. A peculiar fleet, though, as the two Guardian logistic ships, Damnation command ship, Brutix battlecruiser, and Broadsword heavy interdictor seem a little mismatched.

The fleet certainly isn't out shooting Sleepers, and I don't even bother checking for wrecks, but they seem a little skewed away from damage and towards support to be particularly effective against other ships. But what do I know? The most I can tell at the moment is that they aren't at a tower, or this K162. Sweeping d-scan around has a curious result too, as it looks like the ships are at a nearby planet. But warping there finds nothing.

A second d-scan sweep shows the ships to be between the planet and wormhole to our home system, which cannot be coincidence. Now, I could warp backwards and forwards and eventually, if slowly, find the grid the ships occupy, but that seems remarkably tedious considering I would not engage the ships directly even when I find them, not by myself. Instead, I leave them to their whatever it is they're doing, and warp off to look for occupation and launch scanning probes.

Two towers are elsewhere in the system, with no one home. The system is occupied by reds too, which is a little foreboding. My combat scanning probes also detect six anomalies, three signatures, and the ships I've already seen. As the only signature out by the wormhole home is the wormhole home, I warp back there to see if the fleet is now sitting on it, but they are still in space. Empty space, I now know. That's weird.

I resolve the other two signatures discreetly, which turn out to be a radar site and static exit to high-sec empire space, before turning my probes to find the ships. I'm intrigued. It's not hard to complete quickly, and I recall my probes and am soon in and out of warp to see the ships all piloted, all stationary, and all doing nothing. They aren't even performing manoeuvres, which is pretty much what I expected.

The Brutix warped away as I landed, so I turn my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser towards the high-sec wormhole, getting the exit and looking for the battlecruiser at the same time. There's no Brutix on d-scan in range of the towers, and no Brutix or other reds in the system in Solitude either. Back to C2a, and warping past the towers sees a new Proteus strategic cruiser and Heron frigate, but they're doing about as much as the mystery fleet and I don't care to watch static.

An Abaddon battleship appears on d-scan at the second tower, warps to the first, and then to the fleet. I follow behind and see it be just as active as the support ships, which is simply fascinating. I'm going home. But as I drop out of warp near the wormhole the fleet disappears from d-scan. That's fancy timing. I hold for a minute to see if—the wormhole flares, and a Loki comes through, red, from our home system. A second flare and third, and another Loki and a Proteus return too as an Armageddon appears on d-scan. The battleship drops on top of the wormhole and jumps as a Loki launches scanning probes.

Okay, it all makes sense now. The fleet sent cloaky scouts ahead, all in dangerous strategic cruisers, whilst the support fleet held in a (not particularly) safe spot waiting to be called in to action. Evidently, the scouts found nothing and have returned with the intention of collapsing their static connection, hoping for better luck in a different w-space constellation. Two more Armageddons warp to the wormhole to help with its inevitable collapse, so it looks like I really should leave soon.

I wait for the two ships to jump out and back, making them polarised and limiting the number of ships that can actively follow me, before jumping home. The Proteus gives chase ambivalently, giving me plenty of time to move away from the wormhole and cloak safely, and I sit off the wormhole and watch as it is slowly closed.

It takes a little while, needing three trips with a heavy interdictor to collapse the critically destabilised wormhole, but eventually the connection disappears. Bye bye, reds. Better luck with the next wormhole. And, I suppose, it's bye bye from me too for now. If the reds found no targets, neither will I. I may as well take a break, grab a sammich, and hope for change by the time I return.

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Tags: abaddon, armageddon, broadsword, brutix, damnation, eve online, guardian, heron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Hauling haulers

No one's home, but a bookmark has been left for me. It looks to point towards our static wormhole, which ostensibly should save time. I'll still scan, of course, as new signatures could have cropped up, but if I get the expected number of sites it will be trivial to check that the bookmark remains relevant and warp quickly to the wormhole. So, naturally, nothing is as it seems.

There is just the one signature in the system, but it doesn't correspond to the bookmark. Our static wormhole has been opened, collapsed, and replaced, one way or another. But no matter. I have probes out and I was going to resolve the wormhole anyway, so it's not like this is a major chore that will have me rage-quitting. An empty neighbouring system won't either, as that's pretty normal. Plus, the class 3 w-space system only looks empty from the K162. There is more space beyond the range of my directional scanner.

Launching combat scanning probes, blanketing the system, and warping to where a tower should be has my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser ending up still in empty space. How can my notes from seventeen months ago be wrong? It's mind-boggling. Still, along with eleven anomalies and seven signatures are four ships, so I warp across to another distant planet optimistic about finding occupation. And I do, I think. Or not. What? There are three Bestower haulers and an Imicus frigate out here, but I can't see a tower. And not just a lack of force field, or hangars, but switching views sees nothing but planets, moons, and the ships floating freely.

Warping to a particular moon finds the ships, all empty of pilots. I can pilot them all, so there's little point in destroying them just for the fireworks, but it would be prudent to scan for other wormholes before I try to take them home, in case someone else is watching too. The odds are pretty slim, but I'd rather not end up as a humorous tale of coincidence in some other capsuleer's journal. Scan, scan, scan. Gas, gas, wormhole, rocks, gas, gas. Okay, it's just me and the static exit to low-sec, which I'll assume to be closed. Let's grab some new ships.

I could fly to and from our system a few times, or I could be smarter. I have Orca powers, and the industrial command ship can carry ships in its own hangar. Making one trip should be better than four, particularly with polarisation concerns when making multiple jumps through a wormhole. I dump my Loki at our tower, grab the Orca, and head back to C3a to scoop everything in one fell swoop, just as my glorious leader comes on-line. That's good, as she can make up for my embarrassing ignorance.

The Orca's hangar isn't as big as I imagined. Or Bestowers are bigger than I think. I throw one of the haulers in to the Orca and try for a second, but it won't fit. I really should learn my ships at some point. But all is not lost. Fin can help bring the ships home, which will reduce time lost to polarisation delays, and I can still squeeze the Imicus next to the Bestower, reducing the total number of trips by one anyway. It's not quite as smooth as I'd hoped, but we recover some plain industrial ships and a crappy scanning frigate for... some purpose. Explosions may have been better.

Okay, now what? 'Should I put an Orca through the wormhole?' We may as well. Anomalies are starting to build up in the home system again, and the last time we waited a couple of days to clear them ourselves they were stolen before we could. But not the Orca. I should jump a Widow through first, to prove the wormhole's mass. And the return trip by the black ops ship drops the connection to half mass. One more jump by each of us should kill the wormhole, which, after one more delay for polarisation effects, it does. Now for the explosions.

Starting a little later than usual means I am comfortable only clearing a couple of anomalies, but any ISK we can generate helps. All goes smoothly too, Sleepers blowing up all over the place and our two Tengu strategic cruisers barely getting their shields scratched. Salvaging the wrecks brings home rather more than we average too. Three hundred million ISK of loot is a good result for clearing a couple of sites of Sleepers. That should help me feel less guilty about spending so much time looking for other ships to shoot.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, imicus, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Forgoing further exploration for fuel

One site and the static wormhole does not equal four signatures. There's something fishy here. Oh, nope. It's just some new gas pockets. That explains the smell. Problem solved, I warp to the wormhole and see what our neighbours are up to. A clear result from my directional scanner suggests nothing much is happening at all, and with a single moon out of d-scan range, and even then only just, I'm not holding out hope for occupation. But, after launching scanning probes and blanketing the system, I end up warping directly to a tower.

That wormhole is in a nifty place in the system, given that there is nowhere else that offers a position to hide from the tower. I should probably save it for later incursions, but given the capricious nature of both w-space connections and capsuleer activity I doubt such a bookmark would offer any real benefit. There's no one home at the moment to take by surprise, for example. Still, I can label the bookmark and see if I remember to store it somewhere it won't get deleted. And now, I scan.

The few signatures in this class 3 w-space system offer a couple of wormholes, a lovely K162 from class 2 w-space giving me a better direction to continue than through the conventional static exit to low-sec. And in C2a d-scan shows me two Badger haulers, a Raven battleship, and two towers. My notes don't let me warp to either tower quickly, in case the haulers are about to collect planet goo, as my previous visit a year ago had just one tower in a different position. I'll just spin d-scan around for a bit, as that normally works.

One tower holds no ships, which makes it easier to decide to warp to the other, where I can see nothing is piloted. Oh well, back to scanning. A lack of anomalies may be why no one local is on-line, but seven signatures give me gas, some other sites I suppose, and two more wormholes. That's a bonus. The first is the second static link, which takes me to a high-sec system in The Citadel that's pretty much close to everything, which is neat, and the second is an outbound connection to more class 2 w-space. Also neat.

Pressing on to C2b has an Orca industrial command ship, Anathema covert operations boat, and tower on d-scan, with just one planet in range. I guess the tower's around that. Locating the tower sees the Anathema piloted, but there's nothing else in the system, not even scanning probes. You know what? It's quiet and we have a good connection to high-sec. I think I'll go to Jita in an Orca.

I abandon exploration to go home, swap my scanning boat for the massive Orca, and try to remember what it is I keep asking Fin or Aii to get me whenever I'm too lazy to hit the market myself. I should probably keep a list of what I need. I'm not sure why I don't already, as I write everything else down. Anyway, we can always use more fuel pellets for the tower, even if trying to check how much we have finds a bunch of blueprints for the blocks. Maybe Fin's making it now. I dunno. I'll buy some more anyway.

Getting to high-sec has a bit of a hitch, as entering C2a sees a Dominix battleship new to d-scan. Typical, really. Still, I'm here in an Orca, I may as well make a break for the high-sec wormhole and hope I go unnoticed. It's the journey back that will be more interesting. And it kind of is. Jita is fine, and I buy enough fuel blocks to fill the Orca, plus a few sundries that I remember. But heading home has my passing the wreck of a Providence freighter off a stargate, so someone is having a bad day.

My actual journey home is fine, though. I reach the high-sec entrance to C2a and jump in to w-space, where no one waits for me. Of course, it would be more prudent to lurk near the wormhole linking w-space systems, so that I can't escape back to the security of empire space when ambushed. But, then, which wormhole would I use? There are links to class 3 and class 2 w-space here, so making the wrong choice could be bad. I suppose that's why we stick cloaky scouts near the entrance and watch the direction of warp.

But no one's here today, not that I notice. I warp across C2a, jump to C3a, and cross that system to reach home and our tower safely enough. I restock the tower with fuel—well, I restock our stockpile, as I topped up the tower before I left for Jita—and swap back in to a slightly more agile ship. But I'm not going anywhere else. A bit of scanning and a trip to high-sec makes me tingle with a feeling of productivity. I think I'll call it a successful evening and go off-line.

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Tags: anathema, badger, dominix, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, providence, raven, scanning, w-space

Terror of w-space

Hello, I have an invitation to join a fleet, from party unknown. What the hell, I accept, mysterious stranger. I make sure my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser is pointed in some arbitrary direction and moving at full speed before I do, on the unlikely chance that the fleet is in the home system, the even more unlikely chance that the pilots know me, and that they are about to drop ships on top of my location. Nope, it's a mistake, I'm sure, as the fleet isn't in the system and the other pilots are talking about piratical deeds. It doesn't take long for the Classy Gentlemans Corporation to twig that I'm not meant to be in their fleet, even if I shouldn't have been there in the first place, so once again flying solo it's on to business.

Nothing new at home sends me quickly to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where the typical tower with no visible ships appears on my directional scanner from the other side of the wormhole. My sixth visit to the system, I soon confirm the tower as being in the same spot as three months earlier, and I know I'm looking for a standard exit to low-sec empire space. And I am looking for it, with no one in this system. My scanning probes whiz around the eight anomalies and eleven signatures, picking up gas, more gas, and, well, the important signatures are the two wormholes. One is the pristine static connection to low-sec, and the other is less interesting, somehow, being a K162 from null-sec.

Heading to low-sec puts me in a system in Metropolis. Dullopolis, more like. Scanning finds one extra signature, which is a wormhole, but a sucky wormhole. Some connections suck more than others, and this is a K162 from null-sec leading in to low-sec, so it sucks pretty hard. Still, I guess I'm going to null-sec, so I suck it up and, actually, no. I'm going home, to collapse our static connection. A couple of big ships later and core scanning probes appear on d-scan in C3a, but there's not much I care to do about them at the moment, and I trust our newly unhealthy wormhole to deter intruders at this point. It seems to work, as I Orca the wormhole to death and verb the English language in to submission simultaneously.

Starting afresh, jumping to the new C3a has nothing appear on d-scan, which could be worse than before if it weren't for the two planets sitting out of range. A blanket scan reveals a ship somewhere too, but it turns out to be a Thanatos carrier, unpiloted of course, inside a tower's force field. I keep scanning my way further from the home system, and pluck a wormhole from the four anomalies and twenty signatures present. It's chubby too, so not the expected static exit to high-sec, and warping its way plants me next to an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space. I'm tempted to ignore the rest of the C3a and move onwards, so that's what I do.

C3b is the same deal as C3a. Clear d-scan, two planets out of range. The only change is that lack of a carrier sitting inside the distant tower, and a reduction in the number of signatures to sift through. Three wormholes crop up in the scanning results, one weak enough to be an outbound link again. The static exit to low-sec leads to Domain, I don't care to see where the K162 from high-sec was opened from, and the weak wormhole is a lovely connection to class 2 w-space. I'll go that way.

The class 2 system has a tower and ships visible on d-scan for a change, but all four are logistics ships—a Basilisk, Oneiros, and two Scimitars—so unless the pilots intend to bore Sleepers to death I doubt anything is happening. A blanket scan reveals thirteen anomalies, seventeen signatures, and just those four ships, and as they all turn out to be unsurprisingly empty I'm back to looking for wormholes. I find the standard two for class 2 w-space, with connections to another C2 and a low-sec system giving me an easy choice, even if the exit weren't at the end of its life.

A tower and no ships in C2b feels like a step backwards, but there's a continuous amount of pilots, I suppose. A visit from two months earlier informs me of the location of two towers and the static connections to class 3 w-space and high-sec empire space, but a third tower crops up too. I think maybe I missed it on my last visit, where I spooked a couple of Drake battlecruisers out of a radar site, who then came back and baited me in to an ambush I was thankfully prepared for. There's no one home today, so I launch probes, resolve both wormholes from the seven signatures, and poke my nose in to C3b if only because I've come this far.

Probes and a pod is a weird combination to see on d-scan, particularly with no tower to accompany them. Immediately curious, I launch my combat scanning probes to look for the pod, but he's not staying still. Giving up on chasing such a small target I revert to performing a blanket scan of the system, which reveals too many anomalies and signatures to care about scanning deeper. There are two ships somewhere, though, so expecting to find a tower and the pod I warp across the system instead to see a lack of tower and an Imicus. What's more peculiar is that the frigate is lacking a pilot, and, judging by its name, the same pilot who's currently warping around in his pod.

I'm not shooting an empty ship, despite my growing need for explosions. There doesn't seem much point, for a start. More importantly, the pilot may return to it, which would make the ship a rather more valid target than an empty one, even if still just a frigate. The pod disappears from my probes, perhaps thwarting my intentions, but I give him a minute and he returns.

A minute longer and he appears near the Imicus, but, at 170 km, a little too far to re-board his ship. He's also a little far to engage, until I realise that I still have combat scanning probes available to use and that he certainly is above the 150 km range required for warp engine use. I also know exactly where the pod is, making scanning him a trivial exercise.

I bring my probes in from their blanket scanning configuration, cluster them at minimum range around the planet the pod, the Imicus, and myself are all sitting on, and scan. Sure enough, I resolve the pod's position. A quick warp later and I'm decloaking and brutally executing a capsuleer who maybe just got lost in w-space and didn't know how to get back to his ship.

Maybe he just needed to be told that if he couldn't warp to his ship directly then bookmarking its location and warping to the bookmark works wonders, in the same way as it does for wormholes. But I don't find this out, because so much scanning can addles one's mind, and I shot first and didn't even ask questions later. One of these days I may be amiable and helpful. Just not today.

Of course, much like a god, a corpse has no need for a starship, so I warp back to the Imicus and blow that up too, looting what little can be found in the wreck before also destroying the wreck. I'm a real terror of w-space.

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Tags: basilisk, eve online, imicus, loki, mmorpg, oneiros, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scimitar, thanatos, w-space

Not getting involved

I'm back and looking for more than a simple scanning frigate. I won't find that at home, but I was planning to roam the current constellation and probe for new connections, so that's okay. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees no change, and a blanket scan reveals anomalies, signatures, pretty much what was here before. The numbers match my earlier counts so I am confident nothing new has appeared, which is really why I make a note of such numbers. This leaves me one direction to go, and I exit through the static wormhole to low-sec empire space.

A pilot tagged in orange is in the local communication channel in the low-sec system, but what shade of orange is that? I can't tell if the corporation lives in the C3 behind me or the C5 starting a new arm of the constellation from low-sec, or deeper. No ships register on my directional scanner from C3a's K162, and warping to the N432 wormhole has no change on d-scan. The pilot may be getting drunk in a station, so I ignore him for now and continue my roam in to C5a.

Hello, Stiletto interceptor on the K162 in C5a. What to do, what to do. Engage or evade? An update of d-scan sees a Scorpion battleship and Hurricane battlecruiser new to the system, but they aren't on the wormhole yet. Okay, I'll evade if I can, and engage if caught. Move, cloak, jink. No reaction from the Stiletto, which is unexpected, but it gets me safe. I'm curious to see what he's doing here, particularly as the pilot isn't tagged as a corporation in the known constellation, so I loiter at a safe distance for a minute.

The wormhole flares and a pod enters C5a from low-sec. The Stiletto stirs but misses stopping Mr Orange from warping clear. So the interceptor is awake, and I stood no chance of catching the pilot returning home. Both are good to know. A Tornado battlecruiser soon warps to the wormhole to join the Stiletto, after which the wormhole flares and a Prowler enters the system. He cloaks, either unfazed by the pilots or, more likely, a colleague of them, and that's the last I see of the transport. I doubt the combat ships are acting as escorts, though, as they stay on the wormhole.

I'm keeping d-scan updated as I sit cloaked near the wormhole, and notice a Hound stealth bomber blip on and off the return. It's not a bombing run that's planned, though, as instead three local battlecruisers—a Drake, Brutix, and Hurricane—warp to the wormhole and engage the ships there. Well, the Drake does, the other two jump immediately to low-sec. Maybe they are watching d-scan more intently than me, perhaps because they don't have eyes directly on the wormhole, and know what's coming.

The Drake is left alone for a second, as the Tornado and Stiletto jump to low-sec, no doubt giving chase to the other ships, but only for a second. Two Talos and one Naga battlecruiser all drop on top of the wormhole and give the Drake a fight, forcing the last of the three locals to jump to low-sec as a third Talos and a Proteus strategic cruiser turn up a little late. It must be quite a scrap out there. And back they come, several of the ships now flagged for criminal activities. Fancy that.

The Drake makes a break for it, his buddies dead or fled in low-sec, and naturally doesn't make it with an interceptor on his case. The Drake pops, the pilot ejecting moments early to help him get his pod clear. You know, as interesting as this is to watch, I'm thinking I need a new constellation. All I need to do is get past that Stiletto. That should be easy, right? Maybe. All but the interceptor warp off in a direction suggestive of a new wormhole, and the Stiletto jumps to low-sec. That's actually good.

I approach the wormhole, hoping the interceptor returns early, as that will make him polarised and allow me to exit without being chased. And the Stiletto does come back early. I get ready to jump, just as I realise I could actually engage the Stiletto now, as I could exit without being followed if it went badly, but it's too late. The Stiletto warps off just as I decloak, joining his colleagues, no doubt happy with the Drake kill and not seeing anything on the other side of the wormhole. That works for me too.

I return to low-sec, move away from the clear wormhole, and warp back homewards. Two oranges are in local and, in a fit of feeling uncharacteristically helpful, update them about the situation in C5a. They probably won't believe me, but that's okay. I've given them the information, what they do with it is up to them. I return to w-space, warp across C3a, and get home, where I start to isolate myself from all these shenanigans by throwing big ships through our static connection.

A few jumps later and our wormhole is gone. A new one pops up like a Weeble, and I warp to it and jump through to look for targets more appropriate for a Penny. D-scan is clear from the K162, and my notes point me in a direction opposite to where ships appear on a blanket scan. The tower from eleven months ago has been replaced by another on the other side of the system, but the ships my combat probes detected are all empty and inside the tower. I sift through the fifteen anomalies and twelve signatures to continue my search, and come up with two wormholes.

The static exit to low-sec is ignored in favour of the N968 to more class 3 w-space, and jumping in to C3b looks like I've found something I could shoot at. A Bestower hauler and Skiff mining barge appear on d-scan, along with a couple of towers. All I need is for them to be piloted. And sweeping d-scan around to locate the towers and seeing both of them and the Skiff but not the Bestower makes me think I actually do have a piloted target, one collecting planet goo. Trying to catch gooing in progress is not that easy, though.

D-scan puts the Bestower at the sixth planet, but if I warp there I'll be too late, so I head to the fifth. No, this isn't the hauler's next destination, and I use d-scan again to find the ship is around the first planet now. I still won't catch the ship from here, so pulse d-scan until the Bestower disappears, and as quickly as possible locate its new destination. Third planet. Initiate warp, best speed. I make good time, arriving at the customs office to see the Bestower there, but with engines flaring as the hauler prepares to enter warp. Now I've got it, as I can see directly where the Bestower goes. Back to the first planet? I'm right behind you.

I have plenty of time now. I decloak, burn towards the Bestower, and get all my offensive systems working. I even get close enough to nudge the hauler a little, not that I, oh. I think I did need to bump the Bestower a little harder. Despite my three-point warp scrambler being active on the hauler, it warps clear with little fuss.

Oh well, if someone takes the precaution to fit so many warp core stabilisers to his ship there's not much I can do. I follow the Bestower back to one of the towers, where the Skiff joins it and both pilots swap to scanning boats, but I'm not staying. They know I'm here, there's nowhere to hide in the system, and I don't fancy scanning or collapsing any more anyway. I'm going home to get some rest, after a pretty interesting evening.

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Tags: bestower, brutix, drake, eve online, hound, hurricane, mmorpg, naga, penny ibramovic, proteus, prowler, pvp, scanning, scorpion, skiff, stiletto, talos, tornado, w-space

When all you find is a frigate

I'm looking for some action. An extra signature at home is just some gas in a ladar site, so there's no action there, not without my industrious colleagues on-line. I'd best resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. It doesn't look any better from the K162, though, as my directional scanner is clear of ships and towers. I launch probes and blanket the system as I check my notes, and realise the tower from almost a year ago probably isn't here any more, not if it lacked strontium and we blew it up. You'd think I'd remember that.

A new tower has cropped up since my last visit, which I find by warping around, but a lack of ships gives me nothing to watch. I'll scan whilst the locals are out. Pushing probes around finds only the static exit to low-sec of interest, the grey colours seeping through suggestive of Caldari space not lying to me, as jumping out lands me in Lonetrek. The system could be interesting, I dunno, but I pretty much ignore the concept of stargates and launch probes to scan for more wormholes.

Four extra signatures turn out to be two ladar sites, some Gurista rats, and a neat weak wormhole. Will that be a connection to class 5 w-space? The N432 and black-orange colours say yes, yes it is. Returning to w-space and punching d-scan sees a tower, plus a shuttle, Brutix battlecruiser, and Dominix battleship in the system, and it's not surprising to find all the ships unpiloted in a rather spiky tower. But I entered the system through an outbound connection, so I have at least a static wormhole to find, and I scan again.

The first of fifteen signatures resolves to be a wormhole, which is soon joined by a second, third, and fourth. Class 5 w-space tends to be connected, and with k-space wormholes too, so the mix I've found doesn't feel unusual. Out of the H296 static connection to more class 5 w-space, K162 from deadly class 6 w-space, dying K162 from a C5, and outbound wormhole to low-sec, I will check the C6 system first. Brave and daring Penny.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole in C6a, perhaps explained by there being just the one planet in range and over 100 AU to the farthest planet. Exploring the system finds one uninteresting tower at the seventh planet, and a more interesting one at the eighth, where ten ships tease me on d-scan before I see the combat and industrial hulls all float empty inside the force field. A quick scan finds another wormhole, leading back through a K162 to class 5 w-space, and I jump through to see how deep this constellation runs.

Two drones and two bubbles are on d-scan in C5d, but as the view is clear otherwise I doubt anything is happening. Ah, anything is indeed doubtfully happening, as opening the system map shows that nothing sits out of d-scan range. Another poke for K162s finds the wormhole I'm looking for, continuing with C5 w-space, and I jump to C5e to appear over five kilometres from the connection's cosmic signature. Maybe I've reached the end of the constellation now.

A tower with no ships is not a fitting sight at the end of scanning so deep, so it's good that warping away to launch probes sees one. A Probe frigate, that is, on d-scan. The Probe cloaks or warps, which is a shame, but it's activity, which is good, particularly as core probes now litter the system. I launch probes too and take a look around, loitering on the wormhole back to C5d as the Probe scans, hoping the frigate comes my way.

I resolve a K162 from null-sec amongst the two anomalies and eight signatures, which could be where the Probe came from, but this leaves me with a dilemma. The two wormholes are out of d-scan range of each other, and I don't know the Probe pilot's motivations. If he came from null-sec is he just poking around this w-space system with the intention of heading straight back, or will he be keen to delve deeper in to w-space? Which wormhole do I wait on, considering warp times will make it almost impossible to catch up with the ship if I make the wrong choice?

The black hole in this C5 makes my decision more important. Not only does it increase my time to align and enter warp, so that making the wrong choice will be even more costly, but it will make the Probe easier to catch for the same reason if I make the right choice. I just don't know where to sit. I decide to sit where I can see the probes of the Probe. If they disappear, I at least know he's moving. And I get lucky too, as the pilot makes a mistake, or just a change, and decloaks to launch a new set of probes. He doesn't stay on d-scan long enough to have warped so he must be cloaked within d-scan range again. Now I can watch d-scan for his probes and ship.

The probes disappear and the Probe doesn't decloak. Checking the null-sec K162 shows the scanning probes have been moved, which seems like a curious choice, if the pilot came from this direction, but that's fine. I watch them using d-scan, as my own probes, in a blanket-scanning configuration, can continue watching for the ship. His probes disappear again, and this time the Probe appears under my probes. It's difficult to determine which way he's warping, given the coarse results of the maximum range combat probes, but when the frigate appears on d-scan I know he's coming my way. Good.

I watch the Probe drop out of warp near the K162, pause, and approach the wormhole. I don't give the game away yet, not when he can immediately jump clear with no consequences, and wait as the Probe exits to null-sec. I hold for a couple of seconds, to give the pilot time to think he's not being followed, and then follow. I appear on the other side of the wormhole with the Probe visible and ready to be ambushed, but the ship disappears. Cloaked, I think, before realising that the transparent local channel no longer bears the pilot's name. He's gone back through the wormhole.

I give chase back to C5e, but the moment's hesitation in null-sec has cost me. I see the Probe, affected by the black hole, aligning away from the wormhole and get my offensive systems hot, but he evades me a split-second before I get a positive lock on his ship. I initiate warp to the K162 back to C5d and jump, seeing no sign of the Probe in the system, even after pausing for long enough for the session change cloak to fade. I don't have the local channel to help me now, and it seems the Probe didn't come this way.

Jumping back to C5e sees the Probe once again launching scanning probes. I have to wonder why, and I'm also wondering where he's come from if not null-sec or here. But more than that I'm wondering what I'm doing. I messed up the ambush on the null-sec wormhole and have spent more than enough time trying to catch nothing more than a crappy scanning frigate. I should be aiming higher, or at least not expending so much effort trying to make trophies out of minnows. I'm going home. The constellation should still be around later, and there's another arm left to roam for worthwhile activity.

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Tags: brutix, dominix, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, pvp, scanning, w-space

Tower prod

Huh, only three signatures. One of them's our K162 home too, making this class 3 w-space system pretty bare. It's barer since I popped a salvaging destroyer and podded a bystander, but I'm moving on from that. The two other signatures will help, being the typical static exit to low-sec, and a K162 from more class 3 w-space. I'll stick with w-space for now, and jump to C3b, where again I am greeted with seeing a tower and some ships on my directional scanner.

My notes from seven months ago suggest there are two towers in the system, one being out of range, and they are right. The tower in range holds the four ships d-scan shows me, but the Typhoon battleship, Orca industrial command ship, Bestower hauler, and Imicus frigate are all empty of capsuleers. Warping across the system directly to the second tower sees a Buzzard covert operations boat piloted but floating inert inside the force field, and as there is no sign of probes in space I think I can say there is no activity occurring.

Scanning C3b reveals five anomalies and ten signatures, and digging in to those signatures resolves three wormholes. There's the static exit to low-sec again, a K162 from null-sec, and the better option of a K162 from class 4 w-space. Continuing my w-space exploration, I jump to C4a and see another tower and more ships on d-scan. It's busy tonight. Locating the tower finds the ships, which is no surprise given the lack of anomalies a passive scan detects, and two pilots. The tower is also pretty poorly defended.

A couple of shield hardeners protect the tower, which in a class 4 w-space system with a damage-enhancing magnetar phenomenon doesn't seem like a good idea. Well, not by themselves. It's better than nothing, but not by much. A Tengu strategic cruiser and Orca are piloted, with a second Tengu, a Scorpion battleship, Noctis salvager, Probe frigate, and Helios cov-ops floating empty, but as the owner corporation comprises four capsuleers I suppose they couldn't all be controlled at the same time. This doesn't seem like a particularly settled situation.

As I watch, the Tengu is stowed in a hangar, followed by the other ships, until just the Helios and a shuttle are left floating free. And now some defences are brought on-line. I see, the corporation has probably only just moved in to the system and is configuring their newly anchored tower. As a wise wallaby maybe once said, moving day can be a very dangerous day.

Then again, if the pilots have brought everything in with an Orca trip or two, including the ships, maybe I've missed everything. It's worth watching and waiting, though. And here's Fin. I update my glorious leader on the evening's events so far, including the, hullo, it's a small tower lacking serious defences in a C4 magnetar system. Is it worth poking the new tower, given there's an Orca and Tengu in the hangar? 'Maybe, if they have no strontium'. Do you want to come and shoot it? 'Ok.' I was kinda joking, but Fin's pretty awesome.

I want to see what happens when Fin starts a solo assault on a tower, so I loiter outside the tower for a while longer, and watch as both ships warp away, neither towards the wormhole to C3b. The Helios is launching probes somewhere, and core probes at that, and the shuttle is in empty space. I think I'll look for him. The core probes won't detect me, the tower has no active defences, and there's no one to see me, so I simply decloak outside the tower, launch combat scanning probes, and aim for the shuttle.

A couple of scans resolves the shuttle's position and I'm on my way. I drop out of warp with the shuttle sitting near a secure can, apparently none-the-wiser to my scanning, and not particularly alert. I decloak, pop the tiny craft, and pod the pilot back to a clone vat, taking a moment to plink some autocannon rounds off the canister before deciding that I'm never going to crack that open. One down.

The Helios continues scanning as Fin jumps in to the system in an Armageddon battleship. I don't know what he's scanning for, as I kept my probes out after resolving the shuttle and, having performed a subsequent blanket scan, can see only two signatures in the whole system. I think his attention will be diverted from scanning soon enough anyway. Fin warps to the tower and starts shooting. The shields apparently sit at 60% strength, so the tower really hasn't been here long. 'Mr Helios is here.'

What will the local pilot do? 'He's an old pilot, so probably has the skill to waste me', says Fin. Not in an Iteron he won't, but it seems the hauler has been brought out of the hanger because of what's in its hold: more shield hardeners and some EWAR defences. That will slow Fin down. We try to get some colleagues interested, but they haven't scanned an exit from their w-space system yet, and it will probably take too long to get anything worked out. It's not like we're serious about this siege anyway.

The Iteron is put away and a Tengu brought out. To play? Maybe, as a new contact appears and boards a second Tengu. I turned my cloaky Loki strategic around on the sight of the first Tengu, heading home to get a rather more threatening ship, but it will take a couple of minutes. Fin retreats to the wormhole as a precaution, probably wisely. 'The force field is like a high-sec wormhole', she says, noting how the locals won't have far to retreat to be effectively immune from attack. But we're not quite finished yet.

I return in a Legion strategic cruiser, but still covertly configured. We need to lure the Tengus out of the tower far enough to trap one, and we can't do that if they know what they're facing. And now that one of the Tengus has disappeared again, and I pose a credible threat to the other, Fin warps her Armageddon back to the tower, with me behind her. 'I am going to keep shooting him, if it achieves nothing else but disrupting his plan.'

And keep shooting she does. '50% shields.' The Tengu responds by moving Fin's way. Align back to the wormhole, Fin, maybe we can draw him further from the force field. But the Tengu isn't stupid. He comes out of the force field enough to start shooting Fin but isn't so cocky as to get close. If this is as good as it gets, it will have to do. I decloak my Legion, lock on to the Tengu, and let it feel the full force of my offensive modules. I even have a web fitted, which slows the Tengu's retreat, but retreat it does, nestling back inside the force field before we can deal any significant damage to it. Our Armageddon's another matter, though.

The battleship took a hammering, partly because of the magnetar phenomenon, partly because it is fit for maximum damage output at the expense of defence. But Fin warps clear as the Tengu's lock drops. And that's it for us for tonight. We tested the tower's defences and were shooed, now it's time to go home, repair the battleship, and go off-line. At least we provoked a reaction and had a little fun. I hope the other pilot saw it that way too.

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Tags: armageddon, bestower, eve online, helios, imicus, iteron, legion, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, probe, pvp, scanning, scorpion, tengu, typhoon, w-space

One-handed scanning comes with Odyssey

Great news if you get really excited by scanning—or you really don't and just want to get more drunk—and are frustrated by having to use the mouse and the modifier keys. The scanning system is getting another overhaul in Odyssey, and this time you only need one hand to scan a whole system. Swig back a drink, eat a sammich, or simply rest your chin on your spare hand in the quintessential boredom pose. It will soon all be possible.

The first obvious change is in the launching of probes. They all come out of your launcher at once, and in to a predefined pattern. A initial perceived drawback is that emptying the launcher forces it to reload. Personally, I always liked launching half of the ten probes in my launcher and having the option to cloak immediately or reload if I have the time, giving me two opportunities to launch probes and cloak without having to spend ages to reload. But the time it takes to launch five probes and cloak, with added latency effects, is similar to the new multi-launch and reload, so the change is positive in getting everything done at once. Launch probes! Done.

The probe formations are interesting. At the moment, neither of the two formations fits my preferred style, although one can be modified with some battling with the interface, and I could perhaps get used to the other. But these formations are likely to be changed before Odyssey, and we are apparently going to get user-defined formations too, including an option to launch a different number of probes. This looks like a positive change, particularly as switching between formations is possible at any point, which effectively resets their positions. Get one probe out of place? Switch formations back and forth and they are neat again.

Starting to scan, now it gets interesting. Only one probe box is visible, the central one, because all the probes are intrinsically linked together by default. Move the central probe, all the probes move together. Change the range of a probe, all the probe ranges change. No more modifier keys required. Moreover, changing the range of the probes also maintains their relative positions! Shrink probes to a lower range and all the probes are drawn closer together. Increase the range of the probes and they are all pulled further apart. The formation never changes.

So what does it take to scan signatures? Launch probes, position probes, scan. Pick a signature, move all the probes on to that signature by dragging the central box only, reduce the range of all probes by dragging a single probe sphere, scan. Repeat until the signature is resolve. Repeat for each signature you want to resolve. And you only need one hand. It's pretty simple. And very boring. I don't like it.

I understand that scanning isn't for everyone, and that the changes are to make the process simpler. I am not about to argue that just because I had to learn the old way then everyone should. I can recognise that there can be positive changes, like the introduction of the alt-dragging mode, and that going back a step doesn't help anyone. And I don't think my skill training should not be made obsolete. I fully appreciate that scanning is busywork of sorts, another form of PvE for w-space, akin to mission-running. And I enjoy it. But I have two issues with the simplification of the new interface.

First, simplifying the scanning interface so that a whole system can be resolved using one hand is a neat idea, but leaving one hand completely idle disengages me from the process. I'm no longer some leet hacker deftly working through some security systems that bizarrely have a graphical interface. The one-handed scanning interface in Odyssey makes me more feel like I'm playing Minesweeper. I'm just mindlessly passing the time to get to an inevitable result, until some work that's actually important comes along.

Second, the new interface feels far too close to being able to scan all signatures with a single button press. Not that I honestly think this will ever happen, you understand. But drawing back the curtain so far shows more clearly how completely possible it would be to automate the whole process. I already stated in my guide to Apocrypha scanning that the process is algorithmic, which is only to be expected in a computer-generated environment, and that it would be trivial to create a script to scan whole systems. Odyssey takes this concept a leap forwards.

As changing the range of probes also maintains their relative positions, all we need now is a button to let us centre probes on a selected signature to really show us how much we're wasting our time not letting the computer do the whole scanning process. After all, the computer can do that quicker and more accurately than we can. Then all we'd need to do is scan, reduce range, select signature and centre probes, scan. Reduce range, select signature and centre probes, scan. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Players would soon be asking for an autoscan button, arguing the autopilot achieves the same result for travelling between systems, so why not also let the computer handle scanning?

Admittedly, nothing about the scanning system in Odyssey changes the fundamentals. The scanning essentially unchanged since Apocrypha can be completely automated just as it can in Odyssey. But getting us those few steps forwards only highlights how much we are wasting our time in scanning instead of letting the computer do it all. Curiously enough, forcing the player to do more makes them more inclined to do it. The current system engages me, makes me feel skilled. The new system makes me feel like I'm just going through the motions. It will become tedious for becoming simpler.

Finally, there is a difference between scanning a system's signatures and scanning to hunt a ship. Odyssey scanning makes scanning a system really easy, and makes hunting ships really awkward. Having all probes always linked, moving all of them together, even moving them all if you change the range of a single probe, and needing to hold shift every time a single probe needs to be moved, makes hunting with d-scan fiddly. Hopefully this is something that will be addressed before Odyssey arrives, or w-space life will become terribly frustrating.

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Tags: comment, eve online, mmorpg, scanning