Refitting to rat

Curiousity sated about the proximity of two wormholes in the Heimatar region, I turn my attention to see what's caused the wormhole to crackle. It's the Helios, the covert operations boat that I saw only briefly on my directional scanner in the class 3 w-space system, now poking through C3a's static exit. That's serendipitous, particularly as my Proteus strategic cruiser, usually not standing a chance of catching a cov-ops, is still under the session-change cloak from jumping, and the Helios seems far from the wormhole.

I should take a shot at the Helios. I go for a target lock, go for a target lock, go for a loc—why is this not working? Ah, damn, in my haste to shed my cloak and start targeting the Helios I have managed not to move at all, holding my cloak and making targeting impossible. I correct my mistake, actually managing to shift my Proteus from its sedentary state and encourage my targeting systems to lock on to the Helios.

During these fabulous moments of inaction, thankfully cloaked from the view of my target, the Helios has been moving slowly back towards the wormhole. Slowly back, so slowly that I can't believe I wasted these valuable seconds. Even so, my Proteus manages to get a positive lock, at which point my blasters start blasting. Just one shot, and it's a biggie, but sadly not quite enough to smash the Helios in to smithereens. With a smidgen of its armour left, the cov-ops jumps back through the wormhole, leaving low-sec for w-space.

I follow the Helios, of course, and it evades me, of course. The cov-ops aligns and warps before I can get a positive lock, the ship not even needing to cloak to avoid my continued attentions. I'd better cloak, though, now being polarised on the wormhole for no good reason. I also have taken a hit to my security status, having engaged the Helios in low-sec, with nothing to show for it.

I should do something about my security status. I don't exactly get out of w-space much, but continued losses will affect my status if they are not balanced by gains, and since swapping my Loki strategic cruiser for the passively tanked Proteus I am not really inclined to go ratting in low- or null-sec. I'm sure the Proteus can take some damage, but it would remain until I got back to our tower to repair the damage, and until then I'd be flying with a gimped ship. That would be bad, particularly if I bumped in to a target, so there's been no ratting for me for a while.

Maybe today I should correct my lack of ratting. The constellation is pretty quiet, I was just going to head home, and there is a null-sec connection I could make use of. Let's do it. I take the Proteus home, swap to my almost-mothballed Loki, and tweak its fitting somewhat. The tank is active but fit with ancillary shield boosters, which need charges to be most effective. I don't care to waste too much ISK in ratting, so swap to a standard shield booster, and an ampilifier, and otherwise keep the fitting the same. This should be fine for basic ratting.

I head out through our static wormhole to C3a, and across to the null-sec K162. I fly cloaked, because my Loki is covertly configured—and interdiction nullified—and I see no point in changing that, particularly as doing so would require docking somewhere in empire space. I'm safer and still capable of popping crappy rats. Let's see what I can find in null-sec.

Exiting w-space puts me in a system in Tenal. A dead-end system, in fact. I don't know if that's good or not, but there's no one here with me, so I find a rat in a rock field and start shooting it. Good, my first battleship of the day. I pop that easily enough and hop a stargate to the adjacent system. Someone else is in that system, so I move on again, where I find myself alone once more. I find a rat, start shooting it, and have a new contact enter the system. D-scan shows me an Ashimmu cruiser as a second contact enters the system. I turn my Loki around and run so that I can cloak.

The ships don't find me before I can hide like a true capsuleer, coincidentally warping to the stargate I just arrived through. A Deimos heavy assault cruiser is on the gate as I land, thankfully warping away as my cloak drops and I panic-jump back the way I came. I appear to be a little rusty at null-sec ratting. I'll keep trying, though. Rather than move on again I try to find the pilot in this system, using combat scanning probes. No ships are visible in the system, so he's clearly cloaked. Either asleep or waiting to pounce. I'll risk ratting and see what happens.

I find two battleships flanked by two cruisers and think I've bitten off more than I chew, until I remember that I made the Loki a better ratter. The shields hold admirably, and my autocannons are chewing through the rats, right up until the Ashimmu and Deimos pair of pilots enter the system. Abort, abort! I warp out of the rock field, the two pilots leave the system, and I warp right back to a bookmark I made before leaving. But the rats have gone. Cowards.

Never mind, system hopping isn't as necessary in gaining security status these days, I believe, so I bypass this system again and head straight back for the dead end I started in. It's still empty, which suits me fine. I find another rat in another rock field, and although this one is using damned annoying ECM at least I can survive the onslaught of him and his friends for long enough to persevere through a few jamming cycles to blow him up.

I have a few minutes, I can keep going. I have decided that this dead end is a good dead-end system to be ratting in, and that the update to my Loki has made it good for ratting. That gives me another option for passing time when a suitable connection presents itself. Earning pocket iskies and gaining security status is occasionally worthwhile.

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Tags: ashimmu, deimos, eve online, helios, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, w-space

Two exits to Heimatar

Scanning the home system sees nothing of immediate interest. One extra signature could herald possible visitors, or it could be another gas cloud wafting through. It's gas. Despite the closed system, our anomalies were stolen yesterday, leaving me little else to do but warp to our static and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to explore.

One planet is in range of my directional scanner from the K162 in C3a, and no activity or occupation is around that planet or this wormhole. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan of the system, and warp away to explore. My probes detect three anomalies, six signatures, and no ships, and, like fifteen months ago, there is no occupation. I'll be scanning for wormholes.

All the signatures bar our K162 are clustered around C3a's star, making scanning nice and simple. One data site, four wormholes. A decent result, depending on the number of w-space connections. The static exit to low-sec leads out to Heimatar, the devil-man nebula making that obvious, a T405 leads to some class 4 w-space, one K162 comes in from class 5 w-space, and another from null-sec k-space. It's a good mix. In case I've just opened the T405, I head through that wormhole first.

D-scan is clear again, this time with all but one planet in range. I launch probes to perform a blanket scan, and warp to the planet out of range. Thirteen anomalies, six signatures, and two ships under my probes, the ships being a Tayra hauler and Heretic interdictor, which d-scan shows me, along with a tower, as I approach the far planet. Locating the tower sees both ships empty, and I'm back to scanning.

Two of the signatures are chubby, one the K162 from C3a, the other gas. This being C4 space, that makes it almost certain that the only wormhole I'll find will be the static connection, and after identifying and ignoring a data site a wormhole appears under my probes. That'll be it, so I ignore the other two signatures and move on, through the H900 to class 5 w-space.

D-scan is clear—of course it is—and the system looks untidy. A blanket scan holds the nineteen anomalies and eighteen signatures the silly discovery scanner shows me, and adds nothing else. No ships, no structures. No wonder the system is a mess. A previous visit to this system found a static wormhole to class 6 w-space, and I don't quite fancy scanning deeper and deeper in to w-space for no reason. I'll head back the way I came.

Or I'll stay here for a while. I recall my probes, update d-scan before jumping out, and see probes. I'm pretty sure they're not mine. I loiter for a minute, whilst trying to work out if it's worth loitering for a minute, and when the probes disappear and nothing comes my way I decide it's not worth it. I could scan for K162s, but I've got one behind me in C3a I can poke through, which requires much less effort.

Back to C4a, C3a, and across to and through the C5 K162, where loads can be seen on d-scan! A billion cans, give or take, plus a tower, but no ships. No bubbles either, which makes the presence of the cans a bit peculiar. Whatever, I warp away from d-scan range of the tower, bumping in to another million cans, and launch probes to perform a blanket scan of the system. Four anomalies, eight signatures, still no ships. That's peculiar too, given that warping back to the side of the system with the tower sees two Legion strategic cruisers on d-scan.

Maybe the Legions have only just arrived, rather than my probes being broken. I start to locate the tower and refresh my probes. Yep, two ships now. The ships are new, and not at the tower. Not in the system any more either. Did they go to C3a? I have no idea. I should poke the signatures for wormholes, as they are likely just crossing this system. Scanning finds one or two wormholes, or four or five. There's a few of them, which will make tracking ships easy. A dying null-sec K162, a dying high-sec K162, a stable high-sec K162, a critically destabilised C5 K162, and a low-sec K162.

The Legions could have come from and gone to almost anywhere. Maybe high-sec, maybe trying to give the critical wormhole a final push. Who knows? I find I'm more interested in the low-sec K162, as it comes from Heimatar, as I'm oddly keen to see the stargate-distance between this and the other one in C3a. I poke out to be in the middle-of-nowhere in Heimatar, then back to C5a and across to the stable high-sec K162 just to get a safety net. I exit to a system in Derelik (my balls), six to Rens, but so what. I'm not running logistics with Legions nebulously around.

Back to C5a, and swing past the critical C5 K162. It's still there. How much of an adventure am I after? Not much, apparently, not tonight, not this late in to the evening. Standard adventure only tonight, please. Back to C3a—no Legions here—and I poke the null-sec exit. I'm still looking for Period Basis, but don't find it in Tenal. It's like there's only one region per region. Back to C3a and across to check the Heimatar exit. I pause at the wormhole, as once again I see scanning probes in the system that aren't mine.

I loiter on the low-sec exit in case a scout heads my way, as it seems like a sensible place to wait. The probes disappear, and after a short pause a Helios covert operations boat blips on d-scan. He didn't come this way, but that's no problem, as I'd never catch him anyway. I take myself out to low-sec Heimatar, see that I'm in a system seven hops from the middle-of-nowhere, and don't feel quite as satisfied as I had expected from finding this out. Weird, that.

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Tags: eve online, helios, heretic, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tayra, w-space

Sucking without support

Back to the current situation, with Devoter, Prowler, and wormholes. What to do? Check the C4 K162, naturally. Aww, naw, let's see what the Devoter heavy interdictor is up to. In to C5d, where the wormhole is clear, d-scan is not. Two towers are visible, as are a Vindicator battleship, Machariel battleship, Eagle heavy assault cruiser, Archon carrier, and enough drones to suggest at least some of the ships are active. Moving from the wormhole, cloaking, and updating d-scan sees even more drones launched. Yep, something's happening, but probably something I daren't interrupt.

Poking the anomalies with d-scan doesn't find the ships, but expanding the objects it detects sees two large Sleeper wrecks. This isn't wormhole combat I'm seeing, although the wormhole I'm on crackles. A Tengu strategic cruiser appears and warps away, to a planet out of d-scan range and, serendipitously, to one of its moons in a wide enough orbit for me to see the Tengu's exact destination from the wormhole. I may as well follow and see who or what is at the obvious extra tower.

Towers, plural. Three more towers are around this far planet, with only the Tengu at the one I've warped to. A Revelation dreadnought, Astarte command ship, Orca industrial command ship, and Venture mining frigate have also been brought in to d-scan range, and locating the other towers sees the Revelation and Loki strategic cruiser—yeah, I dunno where he came from—are piloted at one, and the Astarte, Orca, Vindicator, Machariel are piloted at the other. Umm.

Clearly the ships are coming and going, or at least coming, with the Archon warping in to the tower as I'm trying to reconcile separate d-scan results from different parts of the system. The only ship that appears to be missing is the Venture. Were the big ships clearing a gas site for the tiny frigate? That would explain the quick comings and goings without many wrecks to show for it. It also shows how prepared the corporation is to send their big ships out, should I try to hunt the Venture. Of course, I'm going to try.

First, I need to verify that the Venture is gassing. Warping back to the inner system sees the Venture still around and not at a tower. That's a positive sign. Second, I need to launch probes in order to be able to scan the Venture's position. This looks awkward, as I can't get out of range of the frigate without putting myself in range of its support fleet. I shall assume that the Venture, vulnerable in space, will be watching d-scan and that the pilots nestled inside a tower's force field are now relaxing. I warp closer to the towers and launch probes, throwing them out of the system and re-activating my cloak without waiting for the launcher to reload. Quick and clean.

Back to the inner system to hunt the Venture. I get a good bearing and range on the frigate with d-scan—five degrees, 3·8 AU—and start arranging my probes. It's looking good, apart from the threat of the fleet. If I get a good scan, maybe I can get in to the gas site, blow the crap out of the Venture, and get out again before the fleet can scramble any support. With that in mind, I align my Proteus roughly towards the Venture's position in space to help it enter warp more quickly.

I scan. Dammit, 97·5% on the Venture, much less on the gas site. That's not good enough. Maybe I should have gone for a tighter probe formation, but I won't dwell on that now. I rearrange my probes on top of the slightly fuzzy result and scan again. 100%. Recall probes and warp. Come on, ship, why aren't you warping? Did I align in the wrong direction? Nope, apparently the warp command didn't register. Goody. This time it does, but what will be waiting for me in the site?

Two scans, with my probes fully visible on d-scan. A missed warp command, delaying my entry in to the site. If I land in a gas cloud by myself I would consider myself lucky at this point, almost expecting to see a couple of strategic cruisers waiting for me. It is with some surprise, therefore, that I drop out of warp a couple of kilometres from the Venture. Complacent, bait, or asleep? As I'm already decloaked by the gas cloud, I am about to find out.

I lock on to the Venture and start shooting, aligning my Proteus back out of the site as a precaution. This causes tracking issues for my blasters, with shots going wide of their mark. Okay, fine, I'll stop my ship, making it easier for me to be caught. At least my blasters are happy with this decision, exploding the Venture easily, and giving me a pod to aim for. Sure, why not? I catch it too, with one more volley of blaster fire needed to crack the pod open.

I scoop, loot, and shoot—and scoot! Straight back to the wormhole with me, because I not only screwed up scanning and warping, but also in making the perch on the way in to the site. It's too close to be warped to. That's fine by me, I should probably be leaving anyway. I enter warp, not stopped by ships big or small, and make it back to the wormhole. I guess the pilot was complacent and asleep, making the assumption that no one would get in to this system unnoticed, given all their activity. I dunno. Either way, two kills and two corpses for me tonight. That's a good result. I should go home whilst my luck holds.

Approaching the wormhole under cloak has an Imicus frigate drop out of warp on top of the connection, jumping to the C5 system on the other side. I don't see much point in trying to catch that, and stop my approach so that I don't give away my position. I use the dead time looking at the kill report. The Venture was pretty standard, but the pod had two hundred million ISK of implants plugged in to it. That's costly. The wormhole in front of me crackles, bringing the Imicus back. I watch it warp clear, then jump out of this system to head home.

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Tags: archon, astarte, eagle, eve online, imicus, loki, machariel, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, revelation, scanning, tengu, venture, vindicator, w-space

Not seeing red

There are reds in the constellation, and they may be a little upset. I've just turned one of their scouts in to a corpse. Of course, they may alternatively be pleased that I taught him the importance of not being seen, in a suitably harsh manner, but even if that's the case it won't stop them from teaching me the same lesson. I'd best keep my eyes open, and it probably would do me good to find the source of the red pilot.

My first guess for the red home system is the class 5 w-space system connecting in to us, making that the obvious next destination for me to scout. Having dropped the loot from the popped scout at our tower, I take my Proteus strategic cruiser to the K162 and jump through. Updating my directional scanner in C5a sees a tower, Tristan frigate, and Dominix battleship. Nothing too threatening, I suppose, if those are actually the reds. I should find out.

Before I can warp away from the wormhole to launch probes and locate the tower, a Devoter appears on d-scan. The heavy interdictor isn't at the tower and doesn't drop on to this wormhole before disappearing again, which is curious. There could be a second tower or, more likely, another couple of wormholes in the system, maybe an exit to empire space. Now that the HIC has gone, I can take a look around.

Performing a blanket scan of C5a reveals seven anomalies, seven signatures, and the two ships I originally saw. Locating the tower finds no pilots, and no red corporation. I'd best loiter by the wormhole to our home system whilst I scan. It's a big system too, requiring a planet-by-planet sweep with my probes, which may mean the Prowler transport that decloaks on the wormhole and jumps to our home maybe didn't see them.

There's little point in pursuing the covert, agile transport, and I keep scanning. I note that he, too, is not red, though, so I could be scanning in the wrong direction. Never mind, I resolve a wormhole anyway, a K162 from class 4 w-space. A second wormhole appears under my probes, a K162 from further class 5 w-space. Finally, a third wormhole, probably the source of the Devoter, given that it appears on the scan results. Warping across sees another C5 K162, if not the HIC.

I also find the source of the red pilot: our home system. I get a mail from the capsuleer's new clone and realise that he contacted our corporation a week or so ago about the possibility of sharing our system. I politely declined, setting his standing to red purely for identification purposes, and, having forgotten all this already, apparently have now appended a rather firmer full stop to the exchange. He sees it as normal w-space behaviour, I know there aren't reds stalking me. It's all good.

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Tags: devoter, dominix, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, prowler, scanning, tristan, w-space

From blue to red

I hope w-space is going to be more active tonight than it has been recently. A cursory glance at the home system as I come on-line suggests that, yep, shit's been going down. Select anomalies are missing from our system, damned thieves, and extra signatures almost certainly point to extra wormholes. I'd best get scanning them, so that I can wreak my revenge on the perps who stole our Sleeper ISK.

Of course, my revenge may be sneaking in to their system and finding a tower that has not seen any active ships for hours, but at least I'm in space and the revenge will be a dish served cold. I just need to find the right connection, and the two extra signatures are two extra wormholes. One comes in from class 5 w-space, the other from class 4 w-space. The C4 may be the simpler system to scout, with less chance of multiple, forking wormholes, and I go there first.

Jumping to C4a and updating my directional scanner sees two towers and no ships. My revenge may be working already. There are also only two anomalies and three signatures, so checking for K162s will be quick and simple. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan in preparation, at which point my combat probes detect a ship. I warp to the inner system to see if I've found a miner or a third tower, and, of course, it's a third tower.

The ship is a Crane transport, naturally inside the tower's force field. It's piloted but most definitely idle, and I call my probes in to scan the two other signatures. They're both K162s, one from a C5, one from a C3. Continuing my theme of trying to make sensible choices, the C3 could be a dead end, prompting my jumping to C3b to see a tower and no ships on d-scan. It looks dull, but again my combat probes pick up a ship on a blanket scan, along with four anomalies and six signatures.

This time, the ship is a fat, empty Rorqual at a second tower, easily ignored. Well, kinda. This tower wasn't around three weeks ago, so that looks like some quick work. I also see from my notes that the static wormhole exits to high-sec, which could be worth finding. I start scanning, resolving the high-sec exit and four other wormholes. I haven't even fully explored my options up to this point, and new forks are appearing.

The high-sec exit takes me to Genesis, six hops to Dodixie, with no oranges in the system, no other signatures. The other wormholes call to me, and I jump back to C3b and warp around, spotting a Taranis interceptor—definitely not a Bestower—on d-scan as I do. There's also a Cheetah covert operations boat in the system as I land near a K162 from high-sec. Activity is around, I just don't know where.

I get a better idea of where the activity is when the Cheetah drops on to the high-sec K162 as I warp away. Sadly, the Cheetah is blue to us, probably meaning I perhaps shouldn't shoot him, even if he is just a light-blue. It's more of a grey, really. Ah well, I'll ignore this direction, as I have more wormholes to explore elsewhere. Back to C4a and across to the C5 K162, where I pause as the same Cheetah appears from nowhere and jumps to C5b ahead of me.

Maybe that's the blues' home, or leads to it. Or they are just scouting that way. Whatever the situation, I doubt it's worth my time following behind him, and I abandon this arm of the constellation completely. That's cool, I still have a K162 at home, and our static wormhole to explore through. I turn my Proteus strategic cruiser around, warp across C4a, and jump home, aiming for the K162 to C5a.

I pause in our system after jumping. D-scan shows me an Anathema cov-ops with scanning probes, the ship persisting through a couple of updates. I open the system map, narrow d-scan's beam, and interrogate the known wormholes. The Anathema is on our static connection, still visible. In that case, I'll go that way too. I warp across, drop short as usual, and see the Anathema floating near the wormhole, the cov-ops highlighted in a brilliant red.

A red Anathema looking all vulnerable on our static wormhole. What could possibly go wrong in ambushing it? I plan to find out. I approach the cov-ops to get in to the optimal range of my blasters—probably, I don't really know what that is, and don't waste time looking right now—decloak, and start locking on to the tiny ship. I get a positive lock, disrupt its warp engines, and start shooting.

Shooting stops rather abruptly, my blasters ripping the ship apart in three volleys, and I follow up by getting a positive lock on the sleepy pod too. One more volley cracks that open, and I can see why the pilot wasn't responsive: there was a corpse inside. I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck, happy to have even a minor kill. I should probably work out where the red pilot came from, but before I do that I'll drop off the loot at our tower. Cov-ops cloaks are bulky.

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Tags: anathema, cheetah, crane, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, rorqual, scanning, taranis, w-space

Nothing and no one

It's a new day in w-space. Technically, at least. In reality, there doesn't seem to be any change since yesterday, beyond the assumed churn of our static wormhole. No anomalous action with Sleepers to start the night, I simply scan the wormhole and, hah, the wormhole's even in the same place as yesterday. New day, my arse. Let's hope the neighbouring class 3 system is different. I jump through to find out.

Updating my directional scanner from our K162 in what is indeed a different C3a sees two towers and four ships in range. Wanting to determine the status of the Venture mining frigate, Flycatcher interdictor, Maller cruiser, and Ishkur assault frigate, I have to resort to manually sweeping d-scan around to look for the tower, as my Dbase is being a D. I'll sort it out in a minute. The Venture is at one tower, the other three ships at the second tower.

Reconnoitring the towers finds no pilots to go with the ships, letting me slow down a bit. Bloody discovery scanner and the false pressure it imposes on entering a new system. I can now check my notes, working out the new input method to go with the software update, and enter the details for today's visit. Now to scan. The four anomalies are all ore sites, and the four signatures are fat and quick to resolve. Wormhole, wormhole, wormhole. Lovely.

The static exit to low-sec looks like it leads to The Citadel, if only because I keep thinking those colours look The Forge; a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space could be nifty; and a K162 from null-sec could lead to more wormholes. I get the exits first, seeing two extra signatures in a system in null-sec Esoteria, and seeing that the low-sec exit in The Citadel is seven hops from Jita and has three extra signatures. Before I scan further, I'll check out that T405.

C4a has a tower with no ships visible on d-scan, and only one planet in range. Warp, launch, blanket. There's not much to see. Two anomalies, four signatures, no ships. The tower is in my notes, as is the static wormhole type. It leads to class 3 w-space, which makes it nice and chunky, easy to scan. As random outbound wormholes are as good as non-existent in C4 space I'm only looking for the C247 and K162s, and K162s are chunky too. Normally, knowing that could save time. I suppose it does kinda here too, letting me ignore the skinny signature that would take several scans to identify, but dropping from three signatures to two isn't a big saving.

Gas and the static wormhole. Moving in to C3b, d-scan shows me nothing from the K162, and that all the signatures and the sole anomaly are all in range I doubt anything is happening. Still, there are seven signatures, which could hold further connections, so I launch probes to scan and warp away to explore. A tower from sixteen months ago is still here but with no one home, and scanning reveals plenty more wormholes to investigate.

A K162 from low-sec obviously comes in from Kor-Azor. There are K162s from class 3 w-space, class 2 w-space, and another from class 3 w-space. And the static exit to null-sec leads to Perrigen Falls, but who cares about that. There's also a data site, which is less interesting than the static wormhole. I'm all about the w-space. In to C2a, where a tower and lack of ships on d-scan has my performing a quick scout of the system without scanning, and returning to C3b when I find nothing.

From C3b to C3c, and a tower, no ships, and one drone on d-scan. You're not fooling me, drone. This is also boring, so back to C3b and across to C3d, where updating d-scan sees a tower and no ships. Why am I not surprised. At least the occupation here is new since five months ago, which is almost interesting, and the same notes point to a null-sec exit. Huh, they did for C3c too. And C3b had a null-sec exit. Three null-terminated w-space systems? I should take the hint. There's nothing and no one out here. I think I'll join them.

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Tags: eve online, flycatcher, ishkur, maller, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, venture, w-space

ISK and a Venture

Let's see what's changed. Our anomalies are still here, a few new ones have turned up, and although our sites have gone they have been replaced by a similar number of signatures. Maybe the gas has just migrated, like sponges, but only one signature is a gas site. The others are data, relics, and a wormhole. That will be our static connection to class 3 w-space. I'm smart like that.

All looks clear. It would be remiss of me not to profit from this island of isolation, and before visiting the wormhole I warp to our tower, swap to the Golem marauder, and warp to an anomaly. Look out, Sleepers, here I come! I launch the silly mobile tractor unit, ruining the salvaging experience for an entire generation, and activate my launchers against the nefarious watchdogs left by the indigenous population.

The first site is cleared, no problems, no interruptions, and no one really cares about shooting Sleepers any more. It's all the same. How about discussing just how bad Oblivion is? Obviously, I can't fit all that's wrong with it in to a journal entry of any kind of sensible length, so I'll just mention how way that the Moon is shattered, supposedly destroying our tidal systems

The problem is that the Moon is visually shown to just be broken apart. Yeah, it's a bit of a nuisance, I suppose, but not only does it spice up our eons-old view from the ground, the mass is still up there, reasonably close together. It will cause the same tides. At least in the equally bad remake of The Time Machine the Moon was shown to be falling out of its orbit. That's something to be rightfully concerned about.

I drag home a quarter-of-a-billion ISK in loot, a decent haul from two sites, and swap back to my Proteus strategic cruiser to go exploring. I think I've earned some more free time. Jumping to C3a and updating d-scan even looks rewarding, with a tower and a whole bunch of ships visible. If only I didn't feel forced time pressure from the discovery scanner to locate them, look for pilots, and assess the circumstances. Still, ships!

Adjusting d-scan sees no wrecks, but surely something is afoot at the Circle-K with battlecruisers, battleships, and strategic cruisers all visible in the system. I can't get to the tower quickly from using my notes, even though they were updated a mere seven months ago, but there being five planets and seven moons lets me warp to the new one with some sense of urgency still present. I don't see any pilots, sadly, but a new ship not at the tower is brought in to range, a Venture mining frigate. How lovely.

Is the Venture perhaps in an ore site? I should be so lucky. He's probably huffing gas, though, which means getting probes out and hunting his location with practiced precision. I warp to our K162, as good a place as any not to be caught unawares, and definitely out of d-scan range of the Venture in this small system, and launch probes, throwing them out of the system immediately. Back to the tower, where I can at least be assured of seeing the Venture on d-scan, if not being particularly close to it. Now to hunt the Venture.

I get a good bearing in the mining frigate fairly quickly, which is good. Determining my range to the target is pretty straightforward, also good. My probes even seem to be in the right place, rather coincidentally, which is excellent. I align my Proteus in the rough direction of the Venture, to help speed my ship in to warp, and call my probes in to scan.

I scan poorly. Worse still, trying to document my shoddy scan makes the positional arrows disappear on the probes! I get them back through panicky button presses, reposition them over the fuzzy Venture signature, and scan a second time. Amazingly, the Venture is still in the gas site, now brought in to focus, and I send my Proteus in to warp and recall my probes, hoping they are still yet to be seen.

I hit the button to recall my probes a second time, the scanning interface enjoying watching me sweat, apparently, and they finally disappear from space and d-scan. I even drop in to the gas cloud a couple of kilometres from the Venture, who is either not watching d-scan or asleep. I aim for a positive target lock, get one, and blast the ship in to smouldering pieces. Aiming for the ejected pod even catches that, so I suspect turning the capsuleer in to a corpse won't be noticed for a while.

I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck of the Venture and its inattentive pilot. I can't say this has been my finest hunt, but you never know what you're getting until you engage in some way, and this one definitely provided some minutes of excitement and tension. A quick scan of C3a once I've calmed down only finds more gas, some data and relics, and a dying exit to low-sec that I don't care to use. I've made loads of ISK and podded a gasser, that'll do me.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on ISK and a Venture
Tags: eve online, golem, mmorpg, oblivion, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, sleepers, venture, w-space

Less coming back than going out

I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the home system. I'm watching out for the nefarious threat of a shady Helios, the covert operations boat entering our home yesterday and maybe not leaving. I dunno, I wasn't paying full attention and, filthy casual that I am, went off-line to get some rest shortly afterwards. I'm glad Fin wasn't around to witness that utter lack of professionalism.

My scan doesn't reveal anything out of the ordinary to start with, but I won't head out to shoot some Sleepers just in case. It would be embarrassing to lose a marauder to a Helios, and if anyone could it would be me. That leaves me only our static wormhole to explore through, so I explore through it, where my directional scanner shows me a tower and some ships. They all look suitably tame too, being a Tayra and Mammoth hauler, Mastodon transport, and Heron frigate.

I locate the tower and warp to it, keeping my cloak active this time, where I see a stunning lack of pilots. Nice ships, shame nothing's going to happen to them. Still, this is just one system, I can probably find others. I warp away, launch probes, and start sifting through the twelve anomalies and twenty signatures. This may take me a few minutes.

The system is mostly full of gas, which is curiously common for what should be space, along with a bit of data, some relics, and a couple of wormholes. The static exit to low-sec looks to lead out to Black Rise, the colours being fairly distinctive, and it looks like I'm heading that way, with the other wormhole being a dying K162 from null-sec. I poke through the K162 anyway, still looking for Period Basis, but I am already sure I'll find myself in Outer Ring. Yep, those colours are distinctive too.

Back to C3a, out to a faction warfare system in low-sec Black Rise, where there are some stinkin' pirates, some loyal citizens who will be proudly rewarded for their efforts, and three extra signatures. I leave the fighters to fight, and scan. Wormhole, combat site, wormhole. Reconnoitring the wormholes finds a K162 from class 3 w-space and an N944 outbound link to more low-sec. Let's call the N944 Plan B.

In to C3b, where d-scan shows me three towers, a Thanatos carrier and Imicus frigate, and some core scanning probes. It could be the Imicus scanning from inside a tower's force field, so I check my notes to hopefully get me to it quicker. My notes should be relevant too, my last visit only being six weeks ago, although they only list two towers. The new tower is by itself and holds the Imicus, killing two birds with one stone by letting me update my notes and finding the frigate piloted. He may not be the one scanning, though, as I saw a Helios blip on d-scan as I was in warp.

That Helios has to have come from somewhere. I should take a look around. There are no planets out of range of the towers where I could launch probes covertly, but an anomaly is. I warp across, making an off-grid bookmark as I decelerate, and return to that to sneakily get my probes in to space. Genius, Penny! Now, if only I could scan the ten anomalies, six signatures, and one ship using the same principles I would be a w-space ninja.

Um, one ship? The Imicus has gone, it seems. Out of the system or off-line, I have no idea, but I don't suppose it matters. I loiter on the exit to low-sec whilst scanning, though, in case he returns. One wormhole and lots of gas. The wormhole is a K162 from class 4 w-space, which has got to be worth a look. Indeed, occupation has found its way here since two years ago, although I can't say the locals do much. Forty bloody anomalies! Get it together, people.

Thankfully, C4a only holds eight signatures, which is not much of a scanning chore, and an initial blanket scan identifies only two potential wormholes. One is gas, one is indeed a wormhole, a K162 from class 2 w-space. Further backwards I go, in to a system where d-scan is clear and I appear over six kilometres from the wormhole's locus. Never mind those negative indicators, though. I launch probes and blanket the system. Seven anomalies, six signatures, no ships. Okay, that's a firmer indicator of no activity.

Not quite giving up yet, I scout C2a for occupation and scan for wormholes. A tower from three months ago has been torn down and replaced by a new one, and scanning resolves two wormholes. A K162 from high-sec Heimatar—Devil Man!—joins the static exit to, I'm guessing, Genesis. Well, I guess Khanid, but exited to Genesis, so I'm using the power of retroactive continuity to appear right. That doesn't make the system any more interesting, unfortunately, and I'm not scanning further. I turn around and head home, through systems that are depressingly emptier than when I found them, to go off-line.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Less coming back than going out
Tags: eve online, helios, heron, imicus, mammoth, mastodon, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tayra, thanatos, w-space

Followed home

Back home from our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, dump the meagre loot from the successful Epithal ambush, and warp away to a safe spot to go off-line for the night. At least, that's my intention, until I spot a Helios bearing our neighbours' name on my directional scanner. Maybe I should add insult to injury and try to catch the covert operations boat.

Maybe I should, but it's late, I'm tired, and I don't even know if the Helios remains in our system. His blip on d-scan could have been from him through our static wormhole back to his home. Still, if he saw me return and thinks I'm retiring for the night maybe he'll do something a little careless, like try to collapse the connection between us.

Hmm, killing the wormhole doesn't make too much sense, really. If I'm not going to bother them again, why collapse it? If I am still a threat, why send their Orca industrial command ship my way? Still, I warp towards our static wormhole just in case, and get a good indication that the Helios is here. I think seeing the cov-ops decloak thirty kilometres from the wormhole to launch probes is hard to argue against.

So the scout is in our system, where there are no other wormholes, and he'll want to head home at some point. I think I can spare a few minutes lying in wait whilst he scans, just not in my Proteus. I don't stand a chance catching the Helios in my strategic cruiser, but we have better ships in our tower. I warp across, swap to a Flycatcher interdictor, and warp back to the wormhole, immediately jumping to C3a.

I have no idea if the Helios saw my Proteus enter the tower, the Flycatcher leave, or the same ship under its probes or when I jumped to his home system. Either way, he has to come back through this wormhole at some point or be isolated. I can wait and listen for the wormhole to crackle, not needing to pay too much attention, relying on the interdictor's fast locking time and interdiction sphere launcher to help snare the cov-ops.

I muck around on a second screen as I listen for the wormhole to register a jump, regularly checking d-scan in case some unwanted attention comes my way, but nothing. Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. If the Helios pilot is smart, he'll wait until I get bored, then cross-jump with me as I return home. If he times it right, I'll not stand a chance at catching him, and only risk polarising myself if I even try.

Wait, wait, wait. It clearly doesn't take this long to scan the few signatures in our system, particularly in a dedicated scanning boat, so either I was spotted and the pilot's being cautious, I somehow missed the Helios returning whilst I swapped boats, or he's not planning to come back. Or a new connection has recently opened and he's heading backwards even deeper in to w-space. You never can tell.

Maybe the pilot is considering trying to jump and run. I hope so, as I'm considering getting some sleep, always a good state of mind to be in when loitering on a wormhole in w-space. I think that makes it time to give up and go home, regardless of the location of the Helios. With any luck, the cov-ops pilot will notice and go home himself, leaving us alone.

I jump back through the wormhole, having seen and caught nothing, and hold my session-change cloak. Not a soul. Not on the wormhole, not in space, not even any tell-tale scanning probes or additional signatures. Fair enough. I warp to our tower, swap back to my Proteus, and, well, head back to the wormhole for a final couple of minutes. I hope to see the Helios leave, but still see nothing. Oh well, I'll just keep it in mind that we have a possible scout in the home system, though I doubt he'll be up to much mischief by himself.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Followed home
Tags: eve online, flycatcher, helios, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, w-space

Brute force and strategy

Decloaked outside an active tower, jammed, and being plinked by a gun. It's not a great situation to be in, particularly where there are two piloted ships inside the force field of the tower, but at least my warp engines aren't disrupted. Not yet, anyway. I have to get clear before that happens, so spin my view around, pick an arbitrary moon, and align for warp. Thankfully, my warp engines engage, and I get clear of the moderately angry tower and entirely disinterested pilots.

I make sure I re-activate my cloak in warp, dropped because of finger trouble, and it's good that I do. The arbitrary moon I warped to is the one I left a minute ago. I land outside another active tower, inside one of the warp bubbles scattered around. I'm not having the best of evenings, really. At least my cloak holds and the bubble does little but delay me a little. For a second time in as many minutes, I manoeuvre out of the bubble and warp to the tower with the piloted ships, making sure I don't touch the cloak button this time.

I'm tempted to call it a night, but I suppose I ought to scan before going home. The locals aren't likely to do anything after my appearance, if they were paying attention, but as we've had this neighbouring class 3 w-space system two days in a row I may as well update the bookmarks of the sites here, in case lightning strikes thrice. It won't take long, with most of the gas already noted from yesterday, and I bookmark another gas site and three new wormholes.

As I resolve the last signature the Kryos hauler is swapped for an Epithal hauler. Well, that's interesting. It's quite possible the pilot and his buddy were paying zero attention fifteen minutes ago when my Proteus strategic cruiser appeared for their amusement, and even though there are wormholes a-plenty in the system the capsuleer may still think his Epithal is safe in collecting planet goo. He's got a point.

I'm not going to give up on the gooer without even trying, though. The 'look at' function has been fixed, so a ship can be watched as it aligns, and although I am not in my modified Loki strategic cruiser and its obscene amount of warp disruption, I have a plan for how to make my Proteus work for me. I've only been pondering it since the ship swap a couple of minutes ago, but it's good to be prepared, particularly when the Epithal starts accelerating.

I see in which direction the Epithal is headed and start accelerating my Proteus towards the same customs office. As soon as the Epithal warps, I initiate the warp command. Let's see if my plan works. The first step is not to drop short. I have tended to warp to the customs office at ten kilometres, so that I can hold my cloak. This lets me ensure my target has come the way I think and give me a moment to assess the situation. It can also leave me out of warp disruption range, though, and, in this case, the Proteus's blasters demand closer range. Today, I aim to land on top of the customs office and the Epithal.

I drop out of warp snuggling the customs office. The Epithal is here, of course. Where else would it be? Now to get the rest of the plan working. The Epithal is already reacting, turning to warp back to his tower. Having been decloaked by proximity, I target the Epithal and get a positive lock with little delay, and attempt to disrupt his warp engines. Of course, this isn't going to work against a poorly designed ship, but I've got to try. I also throw my web on the Epithal. Not the best idea generally, because if he's already accelerating this can slingshot the ship in to warp. But I cut the web after the first cycle. His top speed is diminished then re-established, hopefully extending his time-to-warp.

Even as I adversely manipulate the Epithal's speed, my blasters are raking through the hauler's shields, as are my drones, launched as soon as I was able to, all in an effort to get maximum damage inflicted on the Epithal in the shortest time. It works. All of it. I drop on top of the ship, slow it from warping away, and throw enough damage its way to destroy the silly hauler.

I aim for the pod too, but an alert pilot can easily evade a slow-locking Proteus. I loot and shoot the wreck, reload my guns, and warp clear, thankfully not seeing the Taranis interceptor coming from the tower to help his chum. The victim, now safely back in the force field, says that I missed out on, I dunno, something. A more expensive kill, I suppose. That's true, and it would have been more fulfilling to pop something worth more than a couple of million ISK, but I see that as an inherent issue with the hauler redesign. It really shouldn't take so much planning and effort to pop such a basic ship, frankly.

I'll take the moral victory here. I caught and destroyed an Epithal fit with three warp core stabilisers, after having been uncloaked outside the tower some twenty minutes earlier. That satisfies me for the night. I almost don't bother checking the wormholes I resolved, but I think twice and decide to do so after all. I may as well open more connections in to this system, if only out of spite. I warp around to a K162 from null-sec, the static exit to low-sec, and an outbound link to class 1 w-space. That's worth a look, but the occupied system is inactive and the hour draws on. It's time to go home.

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Tags: epithal, eve online, kryos, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, taranis, w-space