Mourning the mystery of w-space

2nd January 2014 – 5.46 pm

There may be no one home, but one new signature is here to keep me company. Hello, new signature, would you like to do something? Oh, you're a pocket of gas. You know, I just remembered I need to be somewhere else. Our neighbouring class 3 system, in fact. I'll just be through this wormhole if you need me, okay?

That was a close shave. But I don't think I've come to a more happening system, not judging by the three Orcas, three towers, and out-of-place Buzzard visible on my directional scanner. I wouldn't suppose the industrial command ships are doing anything by themselves, not being real Orcas and so unlikely to be using pack tactics to hunt seals in ice fields, and a single covert operations boat with no scanning probes to be seen doesn't get me much excited.

My last visit to this class 3 w-space system was seven months ago, when I found and listed three towers. Hey, those numbers match the d-scan result! That should save me some time. I know that locating towers isn't exactly a difficult task, but it can take a little time and, quite frankly, when there's nothing to find at them doing so can feel more like busywork. There's always the chance of something turning up later, of course, but those opportunities seem rarer these days. Please make your own criticism of the discovery scanner now.

Opening the system map shows that there has been at least one obvious change. Nothing is out of d-scan range, making it simple to see one of the previous three towers not at the planet it should be, all three now around the same planet. At least the planet has only four moons, making it almost trivial to confirm and update the locations of the towers, just the way I like it.

I would normally warp away from the wormhole to launch probes, but as nothing is out of range, and the idiot scanner is showing just two signatures, I think any attempt at remaining covert is doomed to failure. Clearly our K162 is blinking like a Belisha beacon to the Buzzard pilot, announcing my arrival. Stupid, stupid discovery scanner. I bet soon our technology will be upgraded again so that all wormholes in a system are automatically detected and added to the overview, regardless of range.

Well, I may as well scan that other signature, even finding the Buzzard piloted at one of the towers. I'm doing nothing here, so it makes sense to resolve the exit and look elsewhere for activity. Or it would, if the wormhole to low-sec weren't in its death throes. That's probably why the Buzzard isn't moving. I poke out anyway, if only to get a safety entrance, and see no other signatures in the low-sec system. How dreary.

It's time to collapse our wormhole and start again. And what good timing. As if by magic Aii appears, as I prepare for the first round trip in a big ship. He grabs an Orca, I pilot a Widow black ops ship, and although we don't stress the wormhole in to its half-mass state that's actually good. Two more fat Orcas will finish the operation definitely and safely. A few minutes of being polarised pass, and the second set of paired trips is done. The wormhole collapses.

That was nice and easy, if somewhat unproductive in a way. But we can turn the situation around. We have plenty of gas in the home system and an Aii to suck it all up for profit. Rather than open a new wormhole and hope to find something to do, I suggest we keep it closed and let Aii have his fun. There is a moment of concern when a new signature blinks at me in space, but it's just the idiot discovery scanner getting unduly excited about seeing the new static wormhole. Yes, I know it's there, you can shut up about it. But, no, it can't. I really hate the discovery scanner.

  1. 11 Responses to “Mourning the mystery of w-space”

  2. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sensing some frustration with the discovery scanner?

    By Mortlake on Jan 2, 2014

  3. That's quite astute of you to notice, sir. See if you can notice the motif continue in tomorrow's post too.

    By pjharvey on Jan 2, 2014

  4. I wouldn't have you any other way :p

    By Mortlake on Jan 2, 2014

  5. I am reading your blog for years now and as I finally came back to EvE after a 15 month hiatus decided to "do it" and moved into a C2 wormhole with a friend.
    Sadly it only lasted for 3 days, then the tower was put into reinforce over. Looks like we did something seriously wrong. If only I could figure out what...

    By Trebron Znieh on Jan 2, 2014

  6. Hmm. Simple possibilities I can think of: you had few or no defences around a small tower; you moved in to a system that already had a tower on-line somewhere; you left some shiny ships floating outside of ship maintenance arrays.

    Another possibility is that the C2 had good static wormholes, or maybe a desirable phenomenal effect, and a random corp wandered in and dislodged you to sell the system for profit.

    Okay, a quick read later and it may just be a case of bad luck. Whatever the cause, I'm sorry you got evicted so soon after moving in. It probably wouldn't happen again, though.

    By pjharvey on Jan 2, 2014

  7. Thank you for answering. The attackers are from a lowsec pirate corp. Weird indeed. The tower will come out of reinforce in 8 or 9 hours.
    No Biggie, we have moved our ships out and will start something new.

    By Trebron Znieh on Jan 2, 2014

  8. It's not over yet. Unless they kept a fleet inside the system, they'll need to be ready and return. That means scouting the new static connection and getting the pilots to whatever system it exits to.

    You could try scanning the wormhole first, and killing the scout before he gets there. Or killing him on the way back in, then forcing the wormhole to collapse before anyone else turns up. Or they may just not bother with the effort, particularly if you've moved everything out.

    Maybe keep your own scout in the system, see what happens, and just refuel the tower after a few days of nothing.

    By pjharvey on Jan 2, 2014

  9. Thanks again.
    Very probably they will try to finish what they started. They still have cloaked scouts in the system. We left the fuel in the tower and scouts too, to see what happens (in half an hour).
    They won't get much, that hangar holds stuff for roundabout 200-300 million which we could not get out and we will lose the tower. Not pretty but could be worse.
    I assume that maybe someone sold that wormhole shortly before we moved in and one of the involved parties hired mercs to seal the deal. Or it is a random act of violence as the exit before yesterday led to the home system of the attackers.
    I will tell you how it ended later :)

    By Trebron Znieh on Jan 3, 2014

  10. At 10:00 this morning our tower fell.
    And indeed they wanted the hole for themselves. There is a large Amarr deathstar now.
    So all is well, if we can't protect what we have, they have every right to take it.
    Still...bad luck after only 3 days.

    By Trebron Znieh on Jan 3, 2014

  11. Ah, sorry to hear that. It must have been a desirable system.

    I hope it hasn't put you off w-space life.

    By pjharvey on Jan 3, 2014

  12. No, it has not. In a few days I will sit in another hole :)

    By Trebron Znieh on Jan 3, 2014

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