Abandoned constellation

I've not much time tonight, being delayed by other tasks, so let's see if I can make what I have count. I'm given a head start by my glorious leader being on-line and having done some preliminary scanning. Fin's checked the home system, resolved our static wormhole, and jumped to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system already, and has even found two wormholes in C3a. One is the static exit to high-sec empire space, the other a K162 from class 4 w-space. I'll head her way and play leapfrog.

Lots of drones show up when I update my directional scanner in C3a. A passive scan reveals the anomalies in the system, and a sweep of them with d-scan shows that most of the drones are split between two active anomalies. That's a little unusual, and is suggestive of recent activity, but without wrecks, or indeed ships, I can't bring myself to worry too much about what it means. I have the anomalies bookmarked, so if anyone comes back to claim the drones we can do something about it then.

There's a tower in C3a too, and I'd like to locate it for my notes. On the one hand, such a simple system—three planets, two with one moon, one with four—makes finding the tower straightforward, and I can move on without much delay. On the other hand, because it's so simple I probably don't need to spend the time now to save so little time later, particularly as I may not be in the system again for months, or with the same occupation. But I've done it now, so let's move on.

Fin finishes scanning the system, I jump through the K162 to C4a. A tower is visible on d-scan along with a couple of ships, but the Orca industrial command ship and Arazu recon ship make for an unlikely pairing, so I'm not surprised to find them both unpiloted inside the tower's force field. I may as well scan, as a lack of pilots suggests a possible K162 coming in to this system, the likely candidates for connecting to C4 w-space being both more C4 w-space or a class 5 w-space system.

I only care about the chubby ones of the four anomalies and fourteen signatures, looking for K162s, nicely cutting my search space in half. I find two. A C4 K162 and C5 K162. Yeah, I know my w-space. I end up floating next to the K162 from class 5 w-space, so I go to C5a. A gaping black hole waits for me on the other side of the wormhole, but nothing that d-scan can see. The one planet out of range holds neither occupation nor proximate activity, so I launch probes to look for another K162.

Again, cutting out all but the chubby signatures reduces the twenty-seven signatures nicely, and as they don't take long to identify I wave my probes over all of them. Nothing. Whoever was here must have been and gone, collapsing their static wormhole to give them new options. Well, there's still another C4 system to explore, so I return to C4a, warp to the second K162, and jump to C4b. As is becoming typical for this w-space constellation, d-scan shows me nothing and, this time, there is nothing out of range. At least the black hole has been replaced by a less visually suggestive red giant.

Scanning once more reveals five anomalies and seventeen signatures, and most of the signatures are chubby. But, as I say, chubby is easy to identify and ignore, and ignore them I do, all of them. Another corporation came and went, isolating themselves from what I can only assume to be a pretty undesirable constellation. Well, I don't have to assume it. There's nothing happening. If we had more time, I'd suggest that we too crash our wormhole and start again. But I am already in my pyjamas.

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Tags: arazu, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Automatic for the capsuleer redux

There seems to be a continued trickle of calls for the directional scanner to be made to update automatically, at a set period, so that it doesn't need to be done manually. I can understand that, as it can get a little tedious to keep checking d-scan every five-to-ten seconds to make sure you're not being hunted. But I feel there is some confusion as to what is actually being requested. And as the proposition keeps appearing, I have no qualms updating and re-voicing my opinion about the subject.

I'm not actually against an automatically updating d-scan. I just think there should be limits. If d-scan can be set to ping regularly, then it will only do so when d-scan has focus. Are you interacting with your overview? Fiddling with settings? Checking the market? Looking at fittings? Changing ship velocity? Activating modules? Swapping skills? Seeing how much sec-status you've gained? Checking your wallet? Poking a newbie in chat? Spinning your view in space? If you're doing any of these, then d-scan is not updating.

The reasoning behind this suggested behaviour should be clear. If you are interacting with any other part of the interface, then you are not interacting with d-scan and cannot feasibly be in a position to update it manually. And if you cannot update manually, it won't update automatically.

But, you may ask, what's the point of having d-scan update automatically if you cannot then do something else at the same time? Because, I will answer, then you are not asking for improved functionality, but different functionality. You are not really asking for d-scan to update automatically instead of having to do it yourself, you are asking for an active version of d-scan.

Having an active d-scan would be like having an overview for the whole of the system. It sounds pretty cool, and very useful. It is also far too powerful under certain circumstances. Sure, in high- or low-sec, it may mean little to see a whole bunch of ships at indeterminate ranges coming and going. But in w-space, seeing any ships at all is generally an immediate panic button-hitting alarm that sets off red-alert klaxons. Sometimes you want pilots to forget what may be around whilst they focus on the bait right in front of them.

But you think there is too much clicking? Use hot-keys. Need a hot-key for d-scan? There is one: select the distance box so that the cursor is active there and hit enter. D-scan updates. Can't do anything else when the cursor is active in d-scan? Yeah, that's the point. If you want to use d-scan, you've got to use d-scan. If you get bored of watching it and want to interact with a different part of the interface, well, that's what hunters are relying on.

Like I say, I am not actually opposed to d-scan updating automatically. It can be a pain in its current implementation. But an active version of d-scan is too powerful when compared with the current balance of being covert and being vigilant. If an active d-scan were deployed, vigilance would be significantly increased with no equivalent gain in stealth. Sure, you would still need to be monitoring the results, and a blink-and-you-miss-it scan could still be missed if you blink, but such a change would raise the bar too high for successful ambushes.

Go ahead, make d-scan update automatically. Every ten seconds will be fine. I'd appreciate that change. But it had better be implemented so that d-scan only udpates when the scanner window has focus. Even moving away from the window to recommence firing at a rat after a reload cycle, whether by using the mouse or keyboard, should pause d-scan for the time the window isn't active. Making d-scan automatic purely to reduce the amount of clicking required to keep it updated could be a positive change. Anything else is asking for too much, and altogether different functionality.

Additional: A couple of comments over at the thread of this post at reddit have raised a similar issue, which I would like to also address here.

The fact that D-scan isn't better than a 1944 circling radar station in its current state I find offensive. Pressing the D-scan button to activate something just for the sake of pressing a button is just dumb.

I understand that d-scan in its current implementation is far from sci-fi spaceship functionality. It's really quite poor. But it needs to be this way.

D-scan was used long before w-space was known, but I doubt it was ever updated continuously on its maximum settings, or that anyone ever asked for it to be always on. It wasn't until wormholes opened that d-scan started being used for constant updates, because it became necessary to do so. But still it was necessary only in w-space. Everywhere else, pilots continued to have the local channel to alert them to changes in the system population, and only after a new pilot was seen did d-scan get used.

This is still the way it is done in k-space. Use local first, use d-scan second. This is not the way it is done in w-space, hopefully for the obvious reason that the local channel isn't populated. So the removal of the local channel from w-space created a new use for d-scan in its old-tech, arguably broken form. But it needs to stay in that old-tech, arguably broken form to maintain the emergent gameplay that has resulted.

I fully expect my argument to polarise players in to two camps: those who hunt in w-space, and those who don't. What other people are asking for, and which I argue is significantly different functionality, would pretty much kill non-consensual w-space PvP, where w-space already sees the lowest levels of PvP activity.

Yes, d-scan is clunky for spaceship technology, and if it were designed from scratch now it would be much different. But the current d-scan implementation, unlike the popular suggested changes to its functionality, allows for hunting and makes w-space dangerous. Let's keep it that way.

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Tags: comment, d-scan, eve online, mmorpg

Scanning empty space results in a route

An early roam today halts before it even gets started. I forgot that I killed our static wormhole once last night, adding an hour or so to the maths for when the next one should appear. I didn't account for that, but the Sleepers built a tolerance in to their technology, so let's see. Nope, warping to the extant bookmarks sees that the wormhole is not dead yet. Okay, abort, abort. I'll return in a little while, as I'm not wasting time watching a wormhole wobble its way to oblivion.

Okay, the wormhole's gone. One good that has come from the connection lingering, and my waking up to see it, is that the replacement has a signature identifier that sticks out amongst the known sites, a vagary of the Great Galactic Reset. The same number of sites remain in the home system, so I resolve the static wormhole directly, and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

I don't appear overly far from the K162 in C3a, which is good. A tower and a Mammoth hauler appear on my directional scanner, also good. And a recent visit, only five months ago, has the situation shaping up quite nicely indeed, except that the system was unoccupied back then and I don't have a location for the tower. But never mind, as spinning d-scan around in the system map shows the tower to be around a planet with a single moon, instead of one of the planets with many moons. Very nice indeed.

Circumstances would be better were the Mammoth actually piloted, but it floats empty inside the tower's force field. I was hoping for a nice and early gooer ambush. Maybe if I hadn't killed our wormhole last night and got in to this system earlier I could have killed a hauler, but idle speculation accomplishes nothing. Launching probes to scan does, though, and I start sifting through the eighteen anomalies and five signatures.

Scanning is easy. Five signatures isn't much to start with, and they are all chubby. Gas, gas, rocks, and static exit to low-sec. Done. The U210 wormhole is super-stable too, so I am probably the first to find it, not that that really means anything. Given the bland, grey colouring seeping through from the other side, it's no surprise to exit to Caldari space, in the Lonetrek region, where the local communication channel shows me some pilots, d-scan some probes. Are they finding anything?

Launching my own probes in to the low-sec system reveals a healthy eight anomalies and nine signatures, which looks promising for empire space. I drill down to each of them, identifying the signatures as rats, ladar, radar, ladar, ladar, ladar, magnetometric, magnetometric. That's quite a stutter the system has. And no wormholes, for those not paying attention. Well, no matter, simple morning scouting is complete. All sites in C3a are resolved and bookmarked, so I'll head home for now, grab a sammich, and come back later for some adventure.

Later comes, and later goes. I find some pilots in w-space, except they are Fin and Aii and turn out not actually to be in w-space. Fin's buying and selling, taking care of business, and Aii is picking up some non-exploded Venture mining frigates to improve our gas-harvesting efficiency. Scouting C3a has the same unpiloted Mammoth as earlier, and no new signatures. I could scan low-sec, but I don't want to be too disappointed in one night.

I still make myself useful. Aii is on his way home and, with a couple of low-sec systems to cross, Fin and I scout the stargates he'll be using. We watch the ships jump in, and then jump out again. The main excitement is seeing a fleet of almost twenty ships, pilots all flagged as suspects, enter the system and warp to the sole station, so you may understand why my attention wanders a little and I nearly miss seeing Aii and Fin warp back to the wormhole from the stargate.

Home and safe, there is chatter of crashing our wormhole to get a better constellation, which is soon forgotten when the Ventures are unpacked and fitted for sucking on the many gas clouds currently in the home system. Ventures, gas, industrialists. It was like they were meant to be together. It all results in good iskies for us all, but I think I'll leave them to it.

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Tags: eve online, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, venture, w-space

How the Penny maps

Every now and again a comment is made about how I make my maps. As they are not screen-grabs and aren't part of the EVE Online's mechanics it's not immediately obvious how I do it. The simple answer is that I use a basic Paint application to create each map. But the simple answer glosses over much of the nuance that goes in to the process, which I hope to now correct.

Before I get to Paint, I first must decide I want to draw a map of the w-space constellation. This decision occurs either because the constellation is extensive, interesting, or illustrative. That is, the map is big, there is something uncommon about it, or both combined illuminate the narrative. A simple home-to-C3a-to-low-sec constellation is neither out of the ordinary nor difficult to imagine. A winding route through multiple systems with their own forking wormholes, however, helps illuminate how bookmarks must be created descriptively, why we use system identifiers, and how long getting from point A to point B can take.

Once decided that I want to draw a map, I sketch it in to my notepad. This is for two inter-related reasons. First, I normally realise I want a map when I am still part-way through scanning, and second, I hand-draw each map. I will recognise that the constellation is interesting when I have a handful of systems uncovered and still have more wormholes left unexplored. And because each map is hand-drawn I can't reasonably pause each time a new connection is discovered to take time to add to an image. At least, not the way I draw my maps.

I've seen some tool-generated maps. They serve their purpose well, but not mine. I try to tell stories about adventures, and although I believe appropriate images can help the story I also don't want to interrupt the flow of the text, which is why I restrict the vertical size of each image. This includes the map. As much as possible, I optimise the constellation image with vertical height in mind. This is not the only restraint I have on my maps, though.

I draw my maps such that:

• vertical height is optimised
• wormhole direction is indicated
• static connections lead directly out to the right of the system, where possible
• spacing, arrow lengths, and system sizes are regular, where possible

Each restraint is not always possible to follow, so I break my own rules where necessary. But I try to maintain the restraints to make the maps easy to read, which I like to think I achieve with my self-imposed guidelines, though they have only been implied up until now.

The preliminary sketch is as important to the finished map as my scribbled notes are to a finished post. In both cases, any self-imposed guidelines can be ignored for the purposes of detailing information quickly and accurately. The sketched map still needs to show wormhole directions and, ideally, static connections, but there is no great need to limit vertical space in my notebook. Accuracy is important, though, because once the bookmarks are deleted then all I have to create the map is the sketch and my notes. They'd both better be right.

My sketch begins from the home system. As I've already said, the sketch will generally being part-way through a constellation, so the initial few systems I can normally draw from memory. Even so, bookmarks are useful. Each wormhole is bookmarked in such a way to show system information and wormhole direction, and experience and my w-space notes will inform me of which connections are static. But even once finished, I will often check my sketch as I travel backwards on my way home, pausing in each system to ensure I have the right number of connections, pointing in the right direction, to the right class of system. I still catch the occasional error this way.

I transfer the sketch to Paint only after I have drafted the story the constellation is attached to. This is partly because the sketch will be half-way through the notes for the story, but mostly because without a story I don't need a map. But it is normally drawn immediately after the story is drafted, because I need to link the text file with the image file in some way. I don't write directly in to Wordpress, and neither do I have the means to upload image files to my server, not that I would want to fiddle around with that at the time. When I write, I write. Images are added later, even after the editing process, when I no longer need to feel creative.

The actual map creation process is pretty basic. The first map took more time and effort, as it the first, and created from scratch. It also became a template, of sorts. I drew the boxes for the systems, defined the arrow lengths and arrowhead sizes, and decided on a typeface for the text. Once that first map was completed, all I had to do for the next was to copy the file, and make liberal use of copy-and-paste. With this method, I just need to move the boxes around and link them with the same arrows, adding specific system text either once the constellation is complete or at the point all the links become confusing without it.

Normally, creating the constellation map from the sketch is fairly straightforward. This may be because I have got the hang of doing so, and craft my sketch already following my guidelines. But more likely is because the constellation, whilst not always strictly linear, does not meander too much. Random connections terminate quickly, or don't lead to more random connections or K162s. Other times, the map will overlap horrendously if I don't either increase its vertical height by adding extra levels of systems, or extend arrows linking systems to give more horizontal space. I consider a longer arrow preferable to a 'fatter' map.

Sometimes I need to be clever. I'll look at a map, drawn faithfully from my sketch, and realise I can compress it without breaking my guidelines or losing information. I love those moments. I flip a diagonal arrow, drop a chain there, extend this arrow, and I can lose twenty vertical pixels from the image. Now I feel like I am creating something, not just recreating it. It's not always possible, but being able to visualise such an improvement is pleasing to my sense of the aesthetic.

This post would be incomplete without an example. And so, for the first time, I offer a peak at my actual notes.

Judging from the sketch's position in my notes, I probably reached C3b when I realised I may be creating a map. Little did I know it would expand by so much, nor what a mess I'd get in to. I even ran out of room to get C1a's static exit to high-sec properly on the page. Also witness my terrible handwriting. I really do scrawl when writing my notes. They're just for me.

I have the finished image created from that sketched constellation map. Three versions, in fact, which is unusual. The first was more-or-less what was sketched. The second came after one of those revelatory moments when I saw how to compress it beautifully. The third came, curiously enough, when comparing sketch to image for this post, and saw how to better reflect a couple of static connections, breaking one guideline in favour of another.

But I'm not going to include the final version, or any of the images, in this post. Not yet, anyway. It's no coincidence that I chose a map that already overlaps. If you're interested in how I make my maps, maybe take a few minutes to decipher the image and try to decide how you would draw it according to my guidelines. And if you have some time to spare, I'd be keen to see what you come up with.

Posted in Creative, Gaming | 10 Comments »
Tags: blog, eve online, writing

Quiet night of scanning

Sites have been sucked, or left to dissipate. None of my bookmarks remain current, giving me a blank slate for the night, but that doesn't stop a proliferation of sites since I last scanned the home system. Eight signatures await the attention of my probes, and as I'm in the home system it is prudent to resolve and bookmark them all. Gas, gas, gas, artefacts, rocks, databases, more databases. Plenty of Sleepers, no capsuleers. Oh well.

Jumping through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system has nothing visible on my directional scanner, letting me launch probes and perform a blanket scan without anyone seeing. Being in an occupied but inactive system achieves much the same, though. A tower sits somewhere across the system, with a single ship floating empty in its force field, the Oracle battlecruiser unlikely to be doing anything alone here anyway. And a previous visit to this system means I know I'm looking for a static exit to null-sec. It sounds dull already.

Sifting through the twelve anomalies and six signatures doesn't give me any more wormholes beyond our K162 and the K346, so I may as well see where the exit takes me. Jumping to null-sec puts me in a system in a little-known region called Esoteria. You probably haven't heard of it. A couple of Tengus have, though, and are ratting away. Or were. The hipsters scoot back to their tower when I appear in the system. I won't catch the strategic cruisers, I don't care. I go home to collapse our static wormhole.

An Orca industrial command ship and Widow blacks op ship combined stress our wormhole to its half-mass state, which is pretty much by design. I reverse the order of the jumps for the second half, so that the more massive ship over-stresses the connection on my final return, which goes smoothly just as my glorious leader comes on-line. It's as if the first half of the evening hasn't happened. Shh, don't tell her.

I scan the home system again and pluck the replacement static wormhole out of the noise easily enough, having only recently scanned all the new sites, and jump to C3a. It's going to be one of those nights, d-scan showing me a tower with no ships. No one's present currently, but the locals must be busy bees, what with a blanket scan not picking up any anomalies. 'Why can't they be busy now, when we are here to kill them?' says Fin. Because they've got no anomalies, I'm guessing.

There are no anomalies, but ten signatures is plenty. I suppose they don't like sucking gas either. There's even more than one wormhole, two chubby and one skinny, which will be an outbound link. The chubby static exit to low-sec takes me out to Dead End in Genesis, where I resist the temptation to lick the monolith this time, and I return to C3a to examine the second chubby wormhole. It's a K162 from class 2 w-space. That's got to be worth a look. Hmm, a tower and no ships. Nope, maybe it isn't.

Back to C3a and on to the skinny wormhole, an outbound connection to class 5 w-space. That will give me as much w-space to explore as I can stand, which may not be much considering I've already scanned and isolated ourselves from one constellation tonight. But in I go, to a clear d-scan result. The lack of anything on d-scan can be attributed to the K162 appearing within range of only a moonless planet. The next closest planet is 35 AU away and also moonless, and it is twice that distance across the system. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp away to explore.

Eleven anomalies, nine signatures. No ships, no occupation. Maybe I should have persevered in C2a, as Fin scans there and finds a handful of K162s, but I have at least a static connection to find, and apparently a second wormhole too. Neither is chubby enough to be a K162, but I'm guessing one will lead to k-space, such is the nature of class 5 w-space, and indeed I end up with an exit to low-sec and the system's static connection to class 4 w-space. C4s are good, and continue the constellation, so in I go. And I see ships! Big ships! Big ships that are almost certainly unpiloted!

Yep, the Chimera carrier and Rorqual capital industrial ship are unpiloted inside the tower's force field, as are the Raven battleship and Onyx heavy interdictor. Still. Ships. A second tower is missing since my last visit, when we podded a Drake battlecruiser's capsuleer in our home system, after having collapsed their K162 to us, which I can only assume was the catalyst for their moving out of w-space. That leaves me little to do but scan. The first of seven signatures is a K162 from class 5 w-space that's at the end of its life, the second the system's static connection to more class 4 w-space. That'll do, as it's getting late. I recall my probes and jump to the last system I'll be exploring tonight.

How normal. A tower with no ships appears on d-scan, and there's not much space out of range. Well, there is, obviously, just not within the bounds of this solar system. The only notable aspect of this C4 is that despite this being my fourth visit to the system, the last was made almost three years ago. I've been in w-space for a long time now. And I've been in w-space for long enough tonight. I break my session cloak only to turn my boat right around, jumping back to C4a on my way to the home system. It's all quiet tonight.

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Tags: chimera, drake, eve online, mmorpg, onyx, oracle, orca, penny ibramovic, raven, rorqual, scanning, tengu, w-space, widow

Trading a hauler for a transport

The gooer's gone, but not in his hauler. That's gone in a different way, blown to smithereens. That the pilot is now cloaked in a covert operations boat or off-line is of no consequence to me, particularly with plenty more w-space to explore. I could go backwards, with another outbound link in our neighbouring class 3 system available, but I came to this C4 through a separate outbound connection, which gives me at least the static wormhole to find that will lead to w-space. I'll continue here, launching probes to scan.

The few signatures resolve to give me a static wormhole to more class 4 w-space. Neat. There'll be more w-space beyond that system, which is good, because C4b is unoccupied and empty, holding eleven anomalies and fourteen signatures. I get my probes working for me, and pluck a K162 from class 3 w-space, one from class 5 w-space, and the static connection to class 5 w-space from the minor mess. The C3 is likely a dead end, so is my first choice to investigate.

Notes from a visit to C3b one month ago point me to a tower where no one's home, and inform me the static wormhole leads to high-sec. I could poke the system for K162s, but not with more systems behind me. I jump back to C4b and explore through the K162 to C5c. Even if it may be another dead-end system, the K162 has the potential for activity. On the other side of the wormhole my directional scanner shows me a tower, Loki strategic cruiser, Noctis salvager, and too many drones. I don't suppose anything is happening in this system either.

The drones are in space—perhaps in an anomaly, I don't care to check—and the two ships are inside the tower's force field. The Loki is piloted and doing about as much as the empty Noctis. I'll leave the capsuleer to his navel contemplation and push deeper in to the constellation, back through C4b and in to C5b. D-scan is clear from the K162, so I follow my standard operating procedure and launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp away from the wormhole to explore the planets out of range.

Five anomalies, twelve signatures, two towers, one ship. The Anathema cov-ops is piloted at one of the towers, but goes off-line moments after I find her. This gives me an inactive system to scan, and I resolve a weak wormhole that leads to a class 3 w-space system. It's good enough, and probably heralds the end of this arm of the constellation, so I jump through to see what I can find out here. A tower, no ships, and a black hole. Nothing is out of d-scan range either, so with that other wormhole all the way back in C3a I declare exploration to be over in this direction.

C5b to C4b to C4a through a wormhole now at the end of its life. Bouncing off the tower sees the Buzzard back and now joined by a colleague in a Cheetah cov-ops, but I ignore them and return to C3a. Warping to the outbound link to C5a has me scratching my head for a minute, as I hear the familiar pulsing that comes from a mass-stressed wormhole. I'm sure the connection was fine when I reconnoitred it earlier, and I was probably the first pilot to visit it. How come it's now sitting at half mass?

The obvious answer becomes clear when a Helios cov-ops appears and jumps to C5a, followed by a flare and Orca industrial command ship coming in to C3a and jumping straight back to C5a. The wormhole was found by an active corporation and is being collapsed. On the one hand, it looks like I'm too late to crash any party. On the other hand, a corporation vigilant enough to find a wormhole that didn't even bring any visitors, and active enough to keep themselves isolated, is perhaps a corporation I wouldn't catch vulnerable.

I sit and watch the wormhole, now in a critically destabilised state, out of curiosity, but the C5ers don't return to finish the job. That's curious, but not as curious as the Iteron visible on d-scan. C3a was empty of ships earlier, so is this hauler local? And gooing? Maybe, and I've been too keen to watch a wormhole collapse I can't even affect to keep d-scan updated. The Iteron's out of the tower already and, by the looks of it, bouncing between customs offices. Never mind, it gives me my second chase of the night.

Be quick, my Loki, for we are one step behind. But my strategic cruiser stays behind the Iteron, and when I try to get ahead I merely end up missing the hauler entirely. The last I see of the pilot is him back at the tower, swapped to a Proteus strategic cruiser, and disappearing after warping away. I suppose the odds of me catching an efficient planet gooer are slight, but I probably could have been paying better attention to my surroundings. I fly past the C5 wormhole again, seeing it still there and sickly, and turn my Loki back towards our K162 to head home for the night. Or not.

A Viator has appeared on d-scan, which I catch on a routine final check before approaching the wormhole to jump. I turn my Loki around and warp to the tower, but this pilot is as quick as the Iteron. He knows what he's doing, and isn't hanging around. I'm kinda at a greater disadvantage with the Viator than the Iteron, as the transport ship is much more agile than the basic hauler. But I may have one advantage, given that I think I spotted the pattern the Iteron pilot was flying. Considering the short time between pilot sightings, the two may be related and follow similar patterns.

The Iteron looked to go from the outermost to innermost planet, methodically, perhaps trying to subvert the expectations of most ambushers. I'll assume the Viator will do the same and, rather than try to chase the transport, catch it with cunning. I plant my Loki around a planet half-way along his course and wait for the target to come to me. Ah, but if only it were quite as simple as that. I reach my customs office of choice but, because of the size of the office, range of my warp scrambler, and likely approach vector of the Viator, I know I can't stay where I am and have the transport land in my lap.

I manoeuvre my Loki around the office, careful to maintain my cloak, so that I am closer to where the Viator will drop out of warp. If I'm right, that is. I flick d-scan around and find the Viator at the fourth planet. I'm on the third. The transport should be coming my way next, which I can keep tabs on using d-scan pointed at the other planet. And, luckily for me, the Viator isn't warping cloaked, which will give me a visual indicator as the ship decelerates out of warp. I'll use that time to soak up the recalibration delay caused by decloaking.

D-scan is punched at regular intervals. He's there, there, there—here. I see the Viator drop out of warp having come from the other planet, and my manoeuvring has paid off. I still need to get closer to get in range of my warp scrambler, but it looks to be only a few kilometres instead of over ten, and I start moving before the Viator even has the chance to react. I drop my cloak, activate my micro warp drive, and burn towards the transport, getting my sensor booster on-line once I am moving fast. I gain a positive target lock, and my scram activates before he can turn and flee.

Autocannons chatter as the Viator turns from me, but he's not going anywhere. I slow to a normal thrust and settle in to a nice vector where my guns do optimal damage, chewing through the armour, shields, hull. The Viator goes pop, the pod goes in to warp. That was a nice trade, losing an Iteron to catch a Viator. I don't think it's a valid strategy in general, though. I loot and shoot the wreck, watch the pilot back at the tower board a Helios cov-ops and disappear, and I head home to go off-line two gooer kills richer for the night. And, despite the extensive map, both were within two jumps from home.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, cheetah, eve online, helios, iteron, loki, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, viator, w-space

From Buzzard to Bestower

It's all quiet at home, just the way I like it. ...but boring, I'm going out. No new sites makes resolving the static wormhole child's play, and I'm warping to it in seconds, jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system looking for other pilots to play with. No one's around, though, with only a tower visible on my directional scanner from the wormhole.

A tower with no ships in class 3 w-space is pretty normal, really. But my last visit, five months ago, had a second tower, and as there is nothing out of d-scan range there has clearly been some change in the system. Ah, I see. Warping to where the second tower was finds a few incapacitated defences still floating in space, so I'm supposing there was some kind of hostile takeover of the system at some point.

Invasion or not, there's nothing happening now, so I launch probes and scan. The first of the twelve signatures resolves to be a wormhole, as is the second, denying me a future whingeing session about the first also being the last. It's a weak signature too, making it an outbound link and not a K162. The third signature is also a wormhole, but as it's our K162 it's kinda cheating to count it. The fourth signature is a legitimate wormhole, though, and now I finally hit the sites. Well, one site. Then it's another wormhole, sites, a sixth wormhole—another weakling outbound connection—more sites, and, blimey, the final signature is a wormhole too. I've hit pay dirt.

Warping around the wormholes gives me quite the spectrum of space. The system holds a K162 from high-sec, a static exit to low-sec, and a K162 from null-sec, and there are outbound connections to class 1, class 4, and class 5 w-space. What to do with myself, and where to go first? I pop out to high-sec first, getting me a safety net in case of trouble, this one in Hulm, a 1·0 sec system in the Heimatar region, five hops to the Rens market hub. But I care not for shopping, not with plenty of w-space behind me to explore.

Back to C3a and onwards to C1a, where a tower and no ships greet me via d-scan, and a black hole by virtue of it being a vast gaping hole in space. Despite there being only one planet in range from the wormhole, and exploring finding two more towers, the system is inactive. I could scan, but as there probably is only a static connection to k-space hidden here my time is perhaps better spent diving in to the class 4 and 5 w-space systems that will guarantee further w-space exploration.

In to C4a next, and four drones are on d-scan, nothing else. No tower, ships, wrecks. One planet sits out of range, where a tower, Buzzard covert operations boat, and Mammoth hauler are all detected by d-scan, but by the time I locate the tower to see the Mammoth empty the Buzzard has disappeared. Has he gone towards the wormhole? Who knows. Warping in that direction doesn't see him, but a Bestower hauler is now somewhere in the system.

I frantically sweep d-scan around the planets, looking for the Bestower at customs offices, and see him at the fourth planet. Go, go, go! Of course, I'm too late, as it takes time to warp even a short distance, but I should be quicker than the hauler and maybe I can get close enough to get the jump on him. I just need to be quick with d-scan. Sixth planet's customs office, go! Missed again. I could keep this up but I fear I'm not going to win this way. Instead, I'll see if I can pick an unvisited customs office and wait for the Bestower to come to me.

I thought I was better than this at waiting patiently, but the Bestower being vulnerable somewhere has me sitting at an empty customs office for only as long as it takes for me to locate the hauler's current destination. Eschewing my considered plan and knowing that I may well be crossing the Bestower in warp, I surge towards the hauler anyway. This time, I get lucky. The hauler remains at the customs office I saw on d-scan, and I think I've got him. If he warps now I will see where he goes and be able to catch him. If he doesn't warp, well, I've got him. The only way I'll not catch him is if the pilot is already aligning back towards his tower, in which case I'll miss him whatever happens.

Feeling I have my prey already, I decloak when decelerating, activating my sensor booster as I do. Once out of warp the target lock is good, I burn the couple of kilometres I need to close to get my warp scrambler active, and the Bestower's as good as dead. I rip open the ship to get to the pod inside, but my prize warps away before I can stop him. That's okay, I made another pretty explosion. I loot and shoot the wreck, reload my guns and cloak, and warp back towards the tower.

The dispossessed pilot's back in the force field and in the Buzzard—presumably back in the Buzzard. I would guess that the Buzzard's disappearance was the pilot swapping ships and warping away to collect planet goo between subsequent d-scans whilst I was locating the tower. Now he warps away again, definitely in the Buzzard this time, and disappears. That's cool. I have more w-space to explore.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, eve online, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Mapping makes a map

A-roaming I will go, after checking what's at home. There's nothing different that probes can detect, but my directional scanner is showing me core probes in the system. As there is still only our static wormhole as a route in or out, I loiter there whilst waiting for the scout to make himself known. I could jump ahead and go roaming as planned, but I don't know if the scout is lurking around our tower or on the wormhole, and I'd rather not give away my position quite so readily, particularly as the scout's presence means there is activity somewhere, even if only here.

The scout is taking his merry time scanning our system. We only have a few measly gas harvesting sites, which don't take long to identify. Ah, the probes finally disappear. But have they been recalled or are they scanning a volume of space out of d-scan range? Yep, that second one. The probes return to d-scan within a minute, without a scout passing through the wormhole. Not only that, but a bit more waiting has the probes perhaps die, or perhaps be close enough to death to be recalled, as an Anathema appears on d-scan and launches a new set. I've written a guide to scanning, by the way.

Still, as the covert operations boat is on d-scan it means he's not on the wormhole. I no longer have to wonder if I'll be spotted jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, so rather than wait for the scout to finish and come past me I ignore him and finally press on. Not that C3a looks any different to when I scouted it earlier. I don't even know if the Anathema is from here or further afield, and maybe even empire space, so I continue forwards through a connection to class 2 w-space.

C2a remains unoccupied, with no one currently settling the system, and the static connection to more class 2 w-space that was dying earlier is dead now, giving me a fresh wormhole to scan for. The replacement connection is nice and obvious amongst the stale signatures, and I barely have to pause in C2a before I'm jumping in to C2b, where d-scan is clear, one planet is in range, and the others are over 40 AU away. I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp away to explore.

Erk. Forty anomalies and twenty-three signatures appearing on my blanket scan make the system look positively unoccupied before d-scan confirms it. So... static connections to class 5 w-space and null-sec k-space? Let's see. There's one wormhole, with a really weak signature. Now gas, rocks, magnetometric sites. A second wormhole also has a weak signature, so neither's a K162. And that's it. Well, would you look at that. An N062 wormhole to class 5 w-space and an E545 to null-sec. Yeah, I'm pretty awesome.

Not caring for null-sec I head to C5a, where a tower appears on d-scan but no ships. I'll be scanning again. Three anomalies and a more manageable eleven signatures give me a D364 wormhole to class 2 w-space early enough for me to assume it's the static connection, and I recall my probes and keep going forwards, jumping through the wormhole and in to C2c. I see a vague sign of activity too, but don't let the mining drones fool you, I know this man is a diabetic there are no ships on d-scan. Only a tower or four.

A previous visit indicates class 1 w-space and high-sec static connections, which makes me want to ignore locating the towers and simply scan hopefully to a system with actual pilots. But opening the system map shows there to be only four moons in range, with seven planets in total. I've found the towers, sir. And I may as well check that sole planet out of range, with its two moons. Yep, two more towers. The system is saturated. But who cares? It could somehow have two towers crammed around each moon and it still wouldn't change the fact that I don't own a car there are no ships.

I launch probes and scan. There's the high-sec wormhole, and that will be the connection to C1 w-space. The extra wormhole to more class 2 w-space is a nice surprise too. Hitting C1 first has a tower but, what a surprise, no ships. I've stopped caring about this system already. And about scanning too, come to think of it. There is probably only a connection to k-space to find here, and I have enough of them already. I drop back to C2c and poke my nose in to C2d, but again I see only a tower and distinct lack of ships on d-scan. It's time to catch some shut-eye. I head home with a fistful of bookmarks, and little else to show for the evening but a cool map. At least the home system finally looks clear of that damned Anathema.

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

Starting by scanning a stub

I'm off for an early stroll through the constellation, maybe murder someone who crosses my path and carry their corpse back with me to perform unspeakable acts of tea-partying with it. Nothing sinister, you understand. Have I mentioned before how plans never seem to get past the first step? Well, I stall before even that point today. I again forget that I collapsed our static wormhole mid-evening yesterday, which means its replacement lingers a little longer than it takes for me to sleep, eat, and kickstart a Minmatar ship.

I'll read for a bit. Collapsing the wormhole sounds too much like effort, and the neighbouring system wasn't exciting enough for me to risk isolation by seeing if anyone's awake and active. And there she goes. It takes a little while before I hear the sucking sound of a wormhole imploding, no doubt created by my sensors unless the theory of aether was right all along, and I draw my attention away from my very important researching of cats on the internet to scan for its replacement.

Resolving the wormhole and jumping to the new class 3 w-space system has my directional scanner show me a tower with ships. I'm almost excited already by this unusual occurrence. The Tengu strategic cruiser and Hurricane battlecruiser could feasibly be shooting Sleepers, even if the Flycatcher interdictor won't be, but as there are no wrecks I'm happy to simply entertain the possibility of imminent activity for the moment. As it turns out, there are no Sleeper wrecks because there are no pilots in those ships, all three floating empty in the tower's force field.

I warp out, launch scanning probes, and blanket the system. Eight anomalies and twelve signatures are no barrier to continued exploration, and amongst the usual sites the static exit to low-sec empire space pops up as nicely as a static exit to low-sec empire space can. A K162 from null-sec is made duller for being at the end of its life, and most interesting by far is the outbound connection to class 2 w-space. I have myself a proper constellation forming.

Jumping to C2a has nothing appear on d-scan from the wormhole, the tower that was present fifteen months ago torn down cleanly, and a single planet with moons sitting out of d-scan range doesn't hold newer occupation. I'm back to scanning, looking for the class 2 w-space and low-sec static connections, but specifically the former. Two wormholes are resolved, and knowing the propensity of class 2 w-space systems to reach out and grab other systems I keep going. But, in this instance, there are no more wormholes to find. Never mind. Onwards!

No, backwards! The wormhole to further w-space does indeed lead to a second C2, and I would like to press on, but the connection is at the end of its life and not really suitable for exploration. The exit to low-sec is healthy, as it was in C3a, but I don't care to scan low-sec for further wormholes right now. I think I'd prefer a sammich, mostly because waiting for our own connection to die took a bit longer than my glossing over perhaps hinted at. But I'm content with this little expedition. I have some space to roam later, hopefully along with a new connection to class 2 w-space.

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Tags: eve online, flycatcher, hurricane, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Going for gassing in a black hole system

Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has an active scout, but still I scan overtly. I don't think it's a problem if I'm spotted. I can pretty much assume the scout knows I'm here anyway, what with him boarding the Imicus scanning frigate after I destroyed his Venture mining frigate in a successful ladar-site ambush. I already resolved a K162 wormhole coming from low-sec kinda by accident when looking for the Venture, and the ladar site that I purposefully found, which leaves me two anomalies and seven signatures to sift through.

Not needing to hide my intentions, I scan systematically, starting from the outer planet and working inwards. That coincidentally has my scanning the planet holding the local tower first, under which I find a wormhole with a weak signature. As the static exit leads to low-sec, and a weak signature means the connection is outbound, it looks like I have more w-space to explore already. I like that. I also like the other two wormholes I resolve, amongst the general collection of sites.

I don't know why this pilot was sucking gas in such a connected system, but maybe he thought the agility and increased warp core strength of the Venture would keep him safe. I wonder what he thinks about that now. Personally, I think the ship means little compared to the vigilance of the pilot, and it's the vigilance that's the hardest aspect to maintain. It only takes a few 'it hasn't happened so far' instances of constant vigilance to skew a pilot in to complacency. I know, because I'm guilty of it too.

Anyway, I'm ignoring the Imicus, which probably won't put itself in to a position of much threat for now, and instead inspect the wormholes. The K162 from low-sec I know about, the static exit to low-sec is no surprise, and a K162 from null-sec is hardly interesting in itself. That weak wormhole, though, is an outbound connection to class 5 w-space, and very much worth exploring through.

Jumping in to C5a has me first notice the black hole gaping away beneath me, before I update d-scan to see a tower, Sabre interdictor, Iteron hauler, Drake battlecruiser, and pod somewhere in the system. My notes give my last visit as being five months earlier, and as opening the system map shows nothing to be out of range it all looks to be unchanged from then. I warp to the tower to see three pilots, the Sabre being the empty ship, and I slow down to watch the Iteron to see if he'll do anything.

The hauler doesn't budge an inch, and I think about heading home, not really wanting to be so obvious in scanning for wormholes in such a small system. But as I ponder my next move the pod boards a second Drake, and the Iteron pilot swaps to a third. Now there's movement. One Drake warps out of the tower, one moves slowly out of the force field, and the third swaps to a Venture. This all looks rather positive. The first Drake returns shortly, and I note his vector of flight as coming from a little above the fourth planet. That may be important, particularly as he swaps ships to be in a second Venture.

Knowing that ships are gassing, and having a rough idea of where they are gassing, means little if I can't scan the site. But just because all of the system was in range of the wormhole it doesn't mean the whole system is in range of the tower. Thankfully, the locals have taken the short-sighted step of planting their tower on the edge of the system, out of d-scan range of a planet on the other side of the system. Before the pilots steel themselves to suck gas, I beat a hasty path to that far planet, launch probes where no one can see me, and return to the tower to watch for further movement. And I do it all just in time.

All three ships are at the tower as I warp back, so I am confident my probe launch went unnoticed, but not for long. The two Ventures warp away, towards but above the fourth planet, leaving the Drake behind. That's fine by me. I have more gassers to hunt. I warp behind the ships, on the assumption that the fourth planet will be closest to the pair, and start looking for them with d-scan once I am in position. The range is good, at maybe 1·25 AU or so from the planet, and knowing the rough vector lets me narrow down their position more quickly than having to guess completely. I'm almost ready to scan.

I align my ship roughly towards the Ventures to help propel me in to warp more quickly. This normally shaves a few seconds off the flight time, which isn't so much of a concern really, except in a system with a black hole. The effects of a class 5 w-space black hole will be quite pronounced too, so the penalty to ship agility could cost me a significant amount of time. Pre-aligning for warp could make the difference between catching the Ventures or having them escape, particularly as the black hole will be affecting their ability to quickly retreat too.

Now I scan, and talk about a perfect result. The ladar site and ships are fully resolved, smack-dab in the middle of my probes. If I could take time to admire the result I would, but time is of the essence. I recall my probes, throw my ship in to warp towards the Ventures, and bookmark their positions for reference. And the ambush is looking good too, as both ships are still in the ladar site as I enter it. But, bah, not for long. It seems that my probes were spotted, as almost before I've decloaked and got my sensor booster active one of the Ventures has warped away. The second, however, is not so quick.

Not so quick, but quick enough. My targeting systems recalibrate themselves and I aim for the remaining Venture, but a split-second before I can stop him he too warps away, back to the tower. I'm still impressed, though. A combination of excellent scanning, good situational awareness, and a strong black hole almost cost a vigilant pilot his Venture. But not quite.

I warp back to the tower, cloaking once clear of the gas cloud, and monitor the pilots briefly. The Drake left behind swaps to a Helios covert operations boat and heads out to scan the system, and one of the Venture pilots breaks out a Tengu strategic cruiser, perhaps to scare me. It's time to go home anyway. These pilots know about me, the pilots in the system behind us know about me, there's not much more to be done. Well, except ponder what the Punisher is doing at the wormhole to C5a in C3a.

Jumping to C3a sees the frigate near the wormhole, but even though thirty kilometres may be 'near' in cosmological terms it isn't close enough for my warp scrambler to stop him warping away. And he's not the Venture/Imicus pilot I've tussled with, which makes me wonder if he's bait. Maybe, probably not, but he's burning away from the wormhole to be further out of range, so I merely move and cloak. And, no, he's not bait, as one look at my Loki has the Punisher scurrying away to his tower. I don't know what he was doing, but it doesn't matter. With a corpse, wrecks, and a near miss, it's been a most entertaining evening indeed.

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Tags: drake, eve online, helios, imicus, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, punisher, sabre, scanning, tengu, venture, w-space