Cloaks work better when active
5th July 2013 – 5.58 pmSo tired. I'm almost asleep in my pod, and I've only just come on-line. Hmm, I wonder what happens if you engage autopilot in w-space? Oh, okay, probes are launched and thrown in to a blanket-scanning configuration. It really looks like Sleeper technology learns from the pilot's behaviour. I think I'll just leave my Loki strategic cruiser to indulge itself this evening.
One new signature is just some new rocks, so we're static wormhole-ho! Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system is a mixed bag, depending on what you pay attention to. The directional scanner is clear, but the passive scanner revealing a mere three anomalies suggests occupation, which my notes from six weeks ago would agree with. Then again, notes versus d-scan says that the tower should be in range, so the corporation has moved on. It's useful to keep notes, but a w-space system can never really be considered 'settled'.
Scanning C3a has seven signatures to resolve, the first being a wormhole. It's the static exit to low-sec, and that it's in pristine condition probably means there are no K162s to find. But after some rocks there's a second wormhole, chubby enough to be a K162. That's probably because it's our K162, the one I opened from the other side, and hardly a surprise to find. And with a magnetometric site, more rocks, some gas, and a radar site, there really aren't any more wormholes in the system. I suppose I'm going to low-sec.
The busy faction warfare system in The Bleak Lands is fairly bustling with pilots, but anything above nobody in the local channel looks positively busy when exiting w-space. Ignoring the sixteen locals to scan has one extra signature resolve to be another wormhole, and a K162 from class 1 w-space at that. I can squeeze my Loki through there and maybe surprise someone, so in I go.
And surprise someone I may. A Tristan frigate and salvage drones are visible on d-scan along with Sleeper wrecks, although there is also a tower and a lack of anomalies. I may have arrived a little too late, or just as a ladar or gravimetric site is being cleared of sentries. But with nowhere to hide to launch probes in this small system it may not matter. I'll give it a go, though, and warp off to the most distant planet just because it makes me feel further away from d-scan.
If only I had realised I'd not moved from the wormhole and activated my cloak before warping, I perhaps would have remembered to do it when engaging the drives. But, no, I am oblivious to my Loki being bloody obvious to d-scan for my entire passage across the system, right up to when I try to decloak to launch probes and realise I don't need to. Oh well, I launch probes anyway and get them out of the system, now cloaking and wandering back towards the centre of the system to look for the Tristan.
The frigate's back at the tower and decidedly looking like he's not leaving the force field again any time soon, thank you very much. He may have been casual enough with d-scan to miss a brief window when I was launching probes, but not the extended warping of my Loki. I'll chalk this one up to carelessness on my part, and maybe blame my ship just in case anyone still thinks it's running on autopilot.
Frigate is swapped for frigate, Tristan to Probe, and the pilot warps away from the tower. Well, I have probes out, I may as well see how quickly I can locate him. First scan sees I am looking around the right planet, second gets the Probe to 62%, and the final scan has nothing. He's cloaked or warped, and as the Probe is back at the tower I'm going to suppose he warped this way. I'm also going to suppose he has well and truly deduced my presence, so I scan the two unidentified signatures in the system. Both gas. Okay, there's no more w-space and I'm clearly too tired to be competent. I'll see myself out.
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