Getting an Epithal

Back in the home system, I repair the damage to my Proteus strategic cruiser after the curious case of the onffline tower. Now to return to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where I'll ignore the Epithal hauler up for grabs by the same tower, what with the Onyx heavy interdictor piloted and available in the system, and instead see where the various wormholes I've resolved will take me.

There are four wormholes in all, and the first is the system's static exit to high-sec, obviously leading to Domain from its golden glow. Lucky me! I'm trying to get our Bustard transport back from high-sec, and this exit could be awfully convenient. I'll check the other wormholes first, before doing anything else rash in this system, like leaving it. Warping around sees that there is also a second high-sec exit, this one a K162 from Heimatar, as well as a K162 from class 4 w-space, and a dying K162 from null-sec.

I ignore the null-sec connection and get the high-sec exits. The K162 takes me to a system in Heimatar fourteen hops to our Bustard, the static exit to Domain being seventeen hops to the transport. That's backwards to what I expected, but my geography isn't great. There's also one orange in the Domain exit, which could be the cloaky Legion strategic cruiser I saw earlier, now guarding the wormhole.

Just in case the Legion is watching, I wait for polarisation to end before heading back. My paranoia makes me think I shouldn't use this route to bring the Bustard home. That, and the shorter distance through the Heimatar wormhole. Then again, I'm not sure I should try to bring it home at all tonight, not when one of the C3 locals starts talking to me in the local channel immediately on my return to the system.

The other pilot is curious about the state of their on-line tower with the off-line force field. I don't see any point in hiding my presence, not when it's blindingly obvious that I'm here, and am happy to reply. My own curiosity even gets me digging through knowledge databases to ascertain the circumstances that have caused this tower's curious behaviour, which I relay to the scout. Even so, I doubt my trivial good deed will be repaid by free passage, so abandon the idea of bringing our Bustard home for another day.

I take my Proteus home, ready to call it a night, except the discovery scanner is showing me a new signature. Stupid discovery scanner, I could be going to sleep entirely oblivious to the changes, but no. I launch probes and scan, resolving the new wormhole, and warping to what turns out to be a K162 from class 4 w-space. I suppose I can spare a few minutes to see what's in the connecting system.

My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole in C4a, and a blanket scan reveals a mere three anomalies, all ore sites, and two signatures. My combat scanning probes also show me one fat ship out by a distant planet. An Orca industrial command ship, most likely. I warp in that general direction, locate the tower, and see the Orca floating inside the force field. Although I expected the ships, I didn't expect to see it piloted.

I have no idea what the Orca is up to, given that he is the only ship in the system, and even less idea when I resolve the other signature and find it to be a gas site. Maybe he is half-way through trying to collapse the wormhole to our system, but if so he's not trying that hard, not having moved since my arrival in to the system. Fine, I'll leave him alone.

Time for sleep, or so I think. Aii comes on-line, and I update him with all the evening's shenanigans, warning him of C3a's potential activity. I also mention the Epithal just crying to be picked up in what is an unintentional tower trap, but what I give as a warning Aii takes as an invitation. He wants that ship. Who am I to deny him?

We can make the grab easier. I go in to C3a ahead of Aii, in my Proteus, and reconnoitre the Epithal at the tower. It's still there, still unpiloted, the tower's force field still down. I manoeuvre myself to give Aii a good beacon to warp to, on the other side of the Epithal to our K162, and close enough that I can provide support if necessary. I hope I don't need to do that, though, as the tower will only get angry with me again.

Now to bring Aii in. He drops to his pod at our tower and warps to our wormhole. Aii jumps to C3a and warps to drop short of my ship. There he is, on top of the Epithal. He boards the ship and, heeding my advice, as if he needed to, spins the Epithal around and aligns straight back out to the K162. As he does, a new contact appears on my overview. It's the Legion.

The new ship's appearance is unexpected, but thankfully also rather distant. The Legion is a few dozen kilometres away, too far to stop Aii, and the strategic cruiser only cloaks again, not chasing my colleague in his stolen ship back to to the wormhole. That lets Aii get home safely, albeit still with a tinge of excitement, and he stows the Epithal in our hangar. Now I really do think it's time to get some rest.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: epithal, eve online, legion, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Slow chase

Maybe I'll go back for that hauler. Now that the tower no longer has a vice-like grip on my strategic cruiser, I could take my pod in to grab the Epithal and claim it for myself. Or maybe I should at least scout this system properly first. My opportunistic assault on the unprotected hangar was suitably brazen, but it is almost certainly luck that let me get away with it unscathed. I launch probes when I am safe again, and perform a blanket scan of this class 3 w-space system.

Five ships appear underneath my combat scanning probes, which underlines my carelessness with cracking open the hangar. The unpiloted Epithal next to the debris is one of them, and it's at the edge of the system where I find three more towers and the four other ships. A second Epithal and a shuttle are at one of the towers, a rather more intimidating Onyx heavy interdictor and Damnation command ship are at another. I'd better see if the combat ships are piloted over the other two.

Yep, the Onyx and Damnation are both piloted, the command ship curiously outside of the force field. Only just outside of the force field, but that's enough. Enough for what, though? Ah, boosting, I suppose, being a command ship and all, and, to prove it, as a Legion strategic cruiser warps in to the tower the Damnation crawls back inside the force field too. It looks to me like the Damnation was empowering the covert Legion, and that I probably am really lucky to still have my own strategic cruiser in one piece around me.

I really should have scouted properly before shooting the hangar. That I got away with it this time is no excuse. Hopefully I've learnt my lesson, but so rare are the occasions when you see a hangar free to be cracked open that cautionary lessons are forgotten for one reason or another. I'm okay, though, and the local pilots appear to have given up on finding me now that I've hidden myself properly. I wonder what that other Epithal is doing.

I warp across to the other tower to see the shuttle piloted and the Epithal, well, the Epithal is almost certainly piloted, as it is in warp out of the tower as I land in a bubble. The hauler drops off d-scan, as does the Damnation for whatever reason, and although the command ship stays gone the Epithal returns to the tower soon enough. That looks like gooing behaviour, and he could feasibly be going out for another trip.

There goes the Epithal again. Naturally, I can only tell where he's going once he's in warp, which is really frustrating, and the ship is still stupidly designed, I don't care what anyone else claims, but still I try to follow. It's a dumb idea, and it seems I'm full of them tonight.

I reach the customs office in time to see the Epithal there, but not for long. He's already turning and is in warp back to the tower before my Proteus decelerates fully. I don't go back with the hauler, as I don't want to be continually frustrated by the same short-sighted or accidental limitations if I don't have to be, and instead head to what could be the Epithal's next destination. Only could be, though, no guarantees.

Loitering by the customs office and updating d-scan for a couple of minutes convinces me that the Epithal isn't coming out again any time soon. I also realise that I have probes launched and available to me and no location for the system's static exit to high-sec yet. I could probably use that, so call my probes in and start scanning. Gas, static wormhole with a strategic cruiser on it, and three more wormholes. That's an interesting result, but I probably shouldn't do much more before repairing the damage to my armour the tower inflicted.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Slow chase
Tags: damnation, epithal, eve online, legion, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Onffline tower

There are plenty of anomalies building up in the home system. Those are good for making ISK, particularly when there is just the one signature present, which will be our probably closed static wormhole. It's a shame that shooting Sleepers isn't a particularly engaging activity. If it didn't generate ISK I doubt anyone would do it, but it does and so we do. Not me, though, at least not tonight. I'm going exploring.

I am looking to get our Bustard home, the transport stranded in high-sec dock stuffed with fuel and parts for our dreadnought. I don't think there's any great rush in getting it back, but it would be nice. Its return almost depends on getting a good high-sec connection, or maybe just any old high-sec connection, and it would be good to find one of them before we have to settle on a low-sec route. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see what we'll find today.

Updating my directional scanner from our K162 sees two towers and an Epithal hauler. What a silly ship. I'm in the wrong boat to catch it, but as I can't even follow it in to warp reliably, with the 'look at' function broken, I don't really see the point in trying. Even so, I have a look to find out where the Epithal is, because you can still occasionally get lucky.

My notes from three months ago aren't helping today. '4+ towers', they say, with no locations for any of them. Still, they list a static exit to high-sec in this C3, which is a positive sign for the night, as long as I don't find myself in Solitude again. Anyway, the Epithal. To find it, I open the system map and point a tight d-scan beam at nearby planets.

The Epithal isn't at the first tower. The Epithal isn't at the second tower. That's all of the towers in range, isn't it? I think that means the Epithal is out and about, except when I find it on d-scan I also see a mobile depot and ship maintenance array with the hauler. That's weird. There's no force field to go with this d-scan result, which makes it look like there's something to plunder.

I warp across to take a look at the situation, seeing the Epithal unpiloted next to an anchored SMA, both around a force field-less tower. I also see scanning probes on d-scan now, which makes popping the SMA open a rather less attractive proposition. They are only core scanning probes, though, not combat scanning probes that can detect ships, so on the poor assumption that the scout is concentrating on his probe results and not d-scan, I move towards the hangar, decloak, and start shooting.

I keep a tentative watch on d-scan as I knock down the hangar's shields. This may take a little while and an off-line tower must surely attract the attention of any half-decent scout. I am in a vulnerable position, being easily found, easily warped-to, and completely open to attack. To prove this, I start getting shot. What? Who is shooting me? My overview shows no aggressors, d-scan remains blank of other ships, but there looked to be gunfire coming my way. That's weird.

There it is again! That was clearly some incoming fire, and my useless shields are taking damage. I pull back and twist my view to see that, oh, the tower's defences are shooting me. There is no force field, but the tower isn't off-line after all. It's on-line, its defences are active, and they are now locked on to me and attacking. I get to witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!

My shields are plinked down by some minor guns, and a bit of armour damage is sustained. I think I'll be fine, just as long as there are no warp disruption batteries. Yeah, like that one that's just locked on to me and is now preventing me from warping away. I would say that I decide to keep shooting the hangar, but I don't have that much of a choice right now. I may as well stay to the death, whether it be its or mine.

I've been wearing down the SMA whilst working out what the bloody hell is happening to me, and the hangar explodes nicely. Well, the explosion is nice, the lack of loot is rather disappointing. The lack of other ships coming to see what I'm doing is the saving grace of my impetuous attack. My next task is to check the range of the warp disruption battery. I leave the Epithal alone and burn away from the tower, in a vector opposite to the defences.

Thankfully, switching my Proteus to have a micro warp drive fit really saves some time, and probably saves my strategic cruiser, pushing the ship to a good speed. I don't have to travel too far to see the warp disruption effect drop, at which point I pick a suitable planet along my vector of travel and warp clear, cloaking as I do. I've cracked open an SMA for no loot, in an active system, without properly scouting it first, getting attacked and pointed by the tower in the process. It's been a bullish start to the evening.

Posted in Gaming | 6 Comments »
Tags: epithal, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Red squares mean null-sec

Undock from Jita, homeward trip planned and mapped, and align to the first stargate. This is all working out rather well, having sold a billion ISK of loot through a fortuitous wormhole, and we'll soon have the Revelation up and running properly. It may even be worth making a second trip for more fuel, given the ease of the route, rather than poking that second wormhole in C3a. Or I may need a backup plan.

I get back to the system in The Citadel and warp to the uh... Warp to the uh... There should be a wormhole leading back to Solitude right about here. Of course, it was sitting at half mass when I found it, but how dare someone else use the wormhole to their benefit and its destruction! Oh well, I suppose I'd better consider my options.

I could take the Bustard back to Solitude through stargates, but I don't much like this option immediately. The transport may be designed to operate in hostile space, but that doesn't guarantee its survival and I'd rather not lose what we've got inside its hold. Checking my region map also reveals that the high-sec area of Solitude, where our neighbouring class 3 w-space system exits to, is essentially just a big high-sec island surrounded by low-sec. It's not a welcoming region.

A second option is to simply dock in high-sec and wait for a better exit to appear on another day. This isn't a great option either, though, as I'll be stuck outside of w-space and without a scanning boat. I wouldn't be able to scout an exit for the Bustard's return, or do much whilst waiting in high-sec. It looks like my best option is to dock, drop to my pod, and head back to Solitude leaving the Bustard stranded outside of w-space.

I should be okay in my pod. It enters warp quickly, and only heading through low-sec will mean a lack of bubbles that would be the main and serious threat to my survival. I take the transport somewhere more convenient within The Citadel, drop to my pod, and set the autopilot. Twenty-six stargate hops. I wonder what I'll see on my mini Odyssey.

The first hop from high- to low-sec is in to Tama, which sounds familiar for the wrong reasons. All is quiet on the other side of the gate, although the gate leading out of Tama has a corpse on it. Not mine, thankfully. Jumping to the next system sees a bit of a scrap happening, however, but if they are fighting each other then they aren't fighting me. I move on.

Back to high-sec, and the next crossing to low-sec, oh, actually takes me in to null-sec Syndicate. That's what those deep-red boxes are on my route. I remember now. Now I'm starting to be concerned for my safety, enough to consider turning around, but I've come this far. I just hope there are no bubbles. Bubbles like the one I warp directly in to when crossing the system to the next stargate. Crap.

Thankfully, despite the wrecks around the stargate itself, no one is monitoring the drag bubble I find myself in. A bit of manoeuvring gets me clear, and I find a suitable planet to bounce off to get a direct route to the stargate. I really hope that I don't jump in to a field of bubbles encompassing the gate. I don't, not this time, but there are several more null-sec hops to negotiate.

I'm alone in the next system, which is good. Even if there are bubbles there are no pilots to take advantage of them. The following system has no pilots either, and it is only when I hit the null-sec border with low-sec that I see any more capsuleers. Sadly, it is the border system, which is probably a hot-bed of activity for trying to catch naive pilots like myself.

Even worse, the stargate I need to use to get to the relative safety of low-sec floats in the middle of empty space, nowhere near a planet, and far out of directional scanner range. I can't check to see if there are bubbles on the gate, or ships, and I can't approach it from an unexpected vector. I suppose I'll just have to suck it and see. I warp to the stargate, and am pleasantly relieved to have my pod drop on top of it, no bubbles, no one else around. I hop to low-sec.

I can't quite believe I made it through that pocket of null-sec. I'm glad I didn't try it in the Bustard. Now it's just a few more hops through low-sec, to high-sec, and back through the wormhole to C3a and home. Fin's been busy whilst I've been travelling, scanning and exploring wormholes in neighbouring systems to our exit, hoping to get a connection to the stranded Bustard, but with no luck. Never mind. We have our little cache ready to be picked up, just not today, and at least our potential ISK got converted to actual ISK.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: bustard, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, w-space

Finding a happy route through high-sec

We're back to one wormhole tonight, plus a pocket of gas I still don't care about. Suck it, gas. I resolve our static wormhole and jump through it to explore. Updating my directional scanner in the class 3 w-space system shows me two towers floating somewhere, but no ships to go with them, and a useless territorial control unit. I bet that's been abandoned by now.

I warp away from the wormhole and bump in to a third tower. This one doesn't have any ships floating inside its force field either, so I bounce to the nearest planet, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system. Whilst the probes probe, I check my notes. My last visit was six months ago, when there were only two towers, and the static exit leads to high-sec. That could offer opportunity for logistics.

My blanket scan completes and I get a reading on the eighteen anomalies and eight signatures. It's not terribly interesting. A bit of warping around locates all three towers. The two that were here before remain, one of them nekkid of defences. I should try to squeeze our Revelation dreadnought in to the system to shoot the tower. Or maybe I should scan the high-sec exit and finally get my arse in gear to buy the rest of the guns for the Revelation first.

The third tower is easily located, and belongs to a different corporation to the other two. They seem to be living in harmony so far, but what do I know. What I do know is that there are still no ships in the system, so I call my probes in to scan the signatures. I get the usual gas and data sites, plus the exit to high-sec. And another wormhole, one that's so skinny it has my scooping it from the space dirt. I bet that's an outbound connection to class 5 w-space.

I ignore the unexpected wormhole for the moment. Now that I have logistics in mind it's best to run with it, as it doesn't happen often. I warp to the exit and jump through, appearing in, bollocks, Solitude. I have a whole bunch of jumps to get anywhere approaching civilisation, and that's navigating a fair distance through low-sec. I don't quite fancy doing that in a transport ship, no matter how hardened they are now.

There's no good route from Solitude to a market hub using stargates, but there are three other signatures in the system. What are the odds that one of them will give me a better route? Almost zero, perhaps, but that's still not zero. I launch probes and scan, resolving data, relics, and a wormhole. A K162 with colours that look Forgey to me, and an information panel that says it comes from high-sec. The wormhole is even pulsating from being mass stressed, halved but not critical, as if it goes somewhere useful. Back of the net!

I jump through, knowing that The Forge is still a big region, and appear in a system in The Citadel instead. I keep making that mistake, but it's not a bad mistake to make today, not when Jita, the market centre of New Eden, is only six hops away. This is too good an opportunity to pass up, particularly with loot piling up in our hangar and our fuel still inexplicably being depleted at a constant rate. I turn my scouting boat around and head home.

Back in the home system I swap to a Bustard transport ship, somewhat more robust and capacious than I remember it being, and shove all our loot quite easily in to its corporate hangar. I make a bee line for high-sec, then high-sec again through another wormhole, and, setting my destination as Jita, let my autopilot guide me. Not for long, though, as I remember that I need to find specific buyers of Sleeper loot. There's one two jumps away, still in high-sec. He'll do.

The minor diversion is made, all our blue loot is sold, and I'm heading to Jita to sell the salvage and whatever plunder we've accumulated recently. It's an uneventful trip, and after a bit too much clicking we have a plumped-up wallet, ready to be depleted again. I make a head start on that, buying a couple more very big guns indeed, a siege module, and filling all the empty space with tower fuel. Well, not all the empty space, that would make warping awkward, but the Bustard's cargo hold and hangar. Time to head home.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Finding a happy route through high-sec
Tags: bustard, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Going forwards

Back through dangerous w-space, to deadly w-space, and home. The deadliest w-space of all. Neat dramatic tension and everything, but nothing's actually happening. The wormholes connecting in to our home system are totally quiet, and I got bored scanning my way backwards through inactive systems. I've come home to go forwards through our static wormhole to the class 3 system.

My glorious leader has beat me to C3a. She sneaked on-line as I was stuck in empty systems and pressed ahead, so as I am following in her wake this should be easy. I jump through to our neighbouring system and update my directional scanner, seeing a tower but no ships, and check my notes. A static exit to null-sec lies amongst the two anomalies and three signatures, and the tower from my last visit shouldn't be in range, so the one I see is new.

Fin links a null-sec system and mentions seeing three interceptors when she jumped in but nothing now. Never mind, we rarely catch anything in null-sec anyway. I warp to the tower, which Fin directs me to, and loiter, hoping to spot a local come on-line, as I wait for the shared bookmark folder to update. I don't suppose I have much more to do, unless Fin finds more wormholes in null-sec. And if the bookmark folder ever does update.

Ah, Fin hasn't actually scanned this system, which means she hasn't resolved the null-sec exit, and didn't see the Stilettos in a different system. The null-sec system she linked is actually the name of the local corporation, which, now that she mentions it, doesn't match the pattern of null-sec system names. I find this out when I spot scanning probes on d-scan and Fin says that they do not belong to some unidentified pilot, but are hers.

I'm feeling sufficiently dumb that I let my glorious leader go ahead and start scanning without my help. I'd only get in the way. Fin resolves a wormhole that doesn't lead to null-sec, and even though the K162 from class 2 w-space is at the end of its life I think it's worth a poke. If I find some careless capsuleer I could maybe redeem my recent silliness. Or I could get isolated by a dying wormhole and Fin won't have to put up with me for the rest of the night. It's win-win.

D-scan is clear on the other side of the wormhole, in C2a. Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals four anomalies, three signatures, and two drones. No ships, no interest. But a call of 'Tengu, Venture in C3a' is interesting, so I recall my probes and return to that system. Fin notices the ships as she's warping to the static wormhole in the system, dropping out of d-scan range of them as she does. I warp to the tower to get eyes back on the strategic cruiser and mining frigate.

There is only the Venture at the tower when I get there, soon joined by a Buzzard covert operations boat. The Buzzard becomes a Viator transport, making me hope in vain that the 'look at' function is fixed, but that will only matter if the transport goes anywhere. The Venture drops to a Buzzard, another Buzzard appears piloted by a third capsuleer, and the Viator becomes an Orca industrial command ship. It's all go, at least for swapping boats.

One Buzzard warps away, but I don't see probes being launched. He comes back, perhaps from the customs office that is currently in reinforced mode, and will be for the next few hours. A bit of waiting has the same Buzzard leave the tower again, this time warping to the C2 K162, dropping from d-scan either from cloaking or leaving the system. If the cov-ops is checking out the wormholes maybe it will be worth planting an interdictor on ours. Then again, the Buzzard doesn't come back with any alacrity.

The other two capsuleers aren't anywhere near as keen as their colleague to do anything. I suspect they are waiting for their refinery to stop processing the ore they've dumped in to it, which has another thirty minutes remaining. Even then, they may just transfer the minerals to a different hangar and take the refinery off-line, and it's already late enough for me to not want to hang around to watch nothing. The Buzzard finally returns from C2a, but that just adds to the nothing that is already happening. Fin and I decide that we've had enough, particularly as the active Buzzard stops being active, and head home to get some rest.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Going forwards
Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, stiletto, venture, viator, w-space

Checking my behind

It's just me to start the evening. I think. No colleagues are on-line yet, but two new signatures in the home system could indicate the possibility of company. I should check them, so launch probes and scan. They are both wormholes, which, along with our static wormhole, offers me early opportunity. The first wormhole is a K162 from class 6 w-space, deadly w-space. That's cool, as they only connect to class 4 w-space, so they're probably bigger cowards than me. I next warp to and bookmark our static wormhole, before visiting the other K162 in our home, this one from class 2 w-space.

I should check the K162s before heading through our static wormhole, to try to make sure that if I find anything happening in front of me I won't be taken by surprise by what's behind. C2a first, as it will give me an exit to high-sec that I may need to use if circumstances go pear-shaped. All looks fairly normal when updating my directional scanner in class 2 w-space. A tower, three Orca industrial command ships, a Guardian logistics ship, and a flight of ECM drones are somewhere, probably all at the tower, I suppose. I doubt the mix of ships and drones are up to anything. The discovery scanner is only showing me two signatures too. I won't be long in this system.

My last visit to this class 2 system was about two months ago, when I found three towers. Two should be out of range of d-scan from the wormhole, though, so my notes seem to stack up. I warp to the tower with the Orcas and Guardian—all unpiloted—then further afield to confirm the other towers remain, bumping in to four more empty Orcas at one of them. I suppose I'll scan.

Resolving the static exit to high-sec is pretty easy, as is seeing that it leads to Heimatar and is at the end of its life. The devil-man is as obvious as the wobbling. I poke out anyway, bookmark the other side, and return to w-space and our home system. In to C6a next, where d-scan is clear and there is a whole lot of space between me and the other planets.

I launch probes and try to blanket the system, just about managing to do so, revealing nine anomalies, nine signatures, and no ships. My notes from a year ago to the day say 'yes' to occupation but not where it is. Switching the filter on my combat probes to show structures gives me a good idea of where the occupation may be, and I warp all the way to the centre of the system to see three towers on d-scan. They're straightforward to find for reference, one being around a planet with a single moon, the other two around a planet with two moons.

There's no one home, of course, so I poke the signatures for possible K162s. I identify relics, gas, relics, gas, relics—I'm sensing a pattern—relics, more relics, and the final signature is the K162 I'm looking for. Well, maybe not the one I'm looking for, but a K162 all the same, and it comes from class 5 w-space. I recall my probes and jump through.

Another clear d-scan result welcomes me in to a fair-sized system, a blanket scan still not showing me any ships, just six anomalies and six signatures. They also show me no structures whatsoever. I bet there's a K162. I ignore the non-chubby signatures to make scanning quicker, leaving me with three to poke. One is the V753 I'm sitting on, the second is gas, and the third a wormhole. It's a K162 leading back in to more deadly w-space.

I don't think I'm going back any further than C6b, not after taking a little look around. I don't mind the C6ness of the system, or the prospect of any K162 coming in from more deadly or dangerous w-space. It's more that the last time I was here was under a month ago, and my notes again list occupation but not where it is. I must have got bored and turned around, and past Penny is pretty smart. I see the ten anomalies and sixteen signatures, stop caring about scanning backwards through inactive space, and turn my ship around.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Checking my behind
Tags: eve online, guardian, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Showing some willing

One site down, a dozen to go. I didn't even clear the site myself, new recruit Matha did, in a Drake battlecruiser, of all ships. That's commitment. We should probably work out some way to pay her. 'A shuttle a month', says Fin later, which seems reasonable enough. Rather than shoot more Sleepers I'd like to find it there are any other capsuleers to engage. Or, failing that, a good route to empire space would be useful, for various logistical needs. I resolve our static wormhole, the only signature different in the home system since yesterday, and jump through.

My directional scanner doesn't give me much hope of finding activity when updated on our K162, showing me absolutely nothing, and although the discovery scanner's scant offerings implies activity, there aren't many places to look for it in a mere three anomalies and three signatures. Launching scanning probes and blanketing the system adds a single ship to the cosmic signatures, which is something. What is it, and where is it? My previous visit to this class 3 w-space system was only a month ago, and it's a fair assumption that the tower I noted then is still present today. I warp across to the moon from my notes to find the tower as expected, and inside its force field a piloted Tristan frigate.

The frigate is not much, but it's a piloted ship. An unmoving, inactive, piloted ship. I'll scan whilst it remains that way, poking the two unknown signatures to resolve a gas site and the static exit to low-sec. Unsurprisingly, the Tristan doesn't move in the minute it takes me to resolve the two signatures, so I warp to the wormhole to see where it takes me. Nowhere, as it turns out.

The static exit leads to Metropolis, judging by the rich red colours bleeding through from empire space, but the wormhole is at the end of its life and mostly useless. I poke through anyway, as you never know when you may need an entrance back to your w-space constellation, but I am out of w-space only long enough to bookmark the K162.

Now what shall we do? 'Want to roll it?', asks Matha, suggesting we collapse our wormhole. Yeah, let's. I jump home and do some maths. Matha can't fly our normal wormhole-collapsing ships but can contribute, it just means a bit of fiddling with numbers. I think we can do it, and start crushing the wormhole with hugs. It almost works, but the wormhole wants one more hug. I grab a heavy interdictor from our hangar, ignoring the Onyx when I remember we have a Devoter specifically for this task, and make one last round trip. The wormhole collapses.

Hey, let's do some more sites. It only seems fair, with Matha prepared to earn some ISK. We should show some willing. I grab our Golem marauder, which should be able to mow through the Sleeper battleships whilst Matha's Drake handles the smaller ships, and warp us in to the first site. All goes smoothly, at least it does for me. Launch the silly mobile tractor unit, enter bastion mode, and shoot every red-crossed ship on my overview. Matha's Drake has range issues, though.

I understand the frustrations of spending half of your time just trying to get involved in the fight, even when not fighting other capsuleers, so rather than continue with the same type of anomaly that we normally favour I send us to one that Matha prefers. To be honest, it swings the balance the other way a bit, as my Golem is nowhere near as effective in this type of anomaly, but at least we're both being a bit rubbish now.

The second site is cleared without fuss. Slowly, but without fuss. No one comes to interrupt us and the Sleepers are all destroyed with no losses to us, as it should be. Most of the wrecks are looted and salvaged, thanks to the silly MTU, leaving just a couple in each site that I can't be bothered to wait for. It takes less time to sweep them up in a destroyer afterwards anyway. All in all, we make a couple of hundred million ISK for the night, which isn't a bad haul.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Showing some willing
Tags: devoter, drake, eve online, golem, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tristan, w-space

Blink and you miss it

The class 3 w-space system has been subdued. The Venture mining frigate we nearly caught returns to the tower, the pilot stutters, and goes off-line. It's time to scan properly. There are four anomalies and twelve signatures, two of which we know about. One is our K162, the other the gas site the Venture was in. That leaves more gas—and presumably better gas than was in the barren site—data, and relics, with just a single wormhole.

The static exit to low-sec is at the end of its life too, making it rather less than useful. Still, we have people, which makes crashing our wormhole easier. Fin grabs an Orca industrial command ship and pushes it through the wormhole, and, once my polarisation ends, I do the same with a Widow black ops ship. Matha holds watch in C3a. A second pass by each of us collapses the connection smoothly, all of us returned to the home system, giving us a short wait for a replacement wormhole to spawn for us to explore through.

In to the different neighbouring system, and punching my directional scanner sees a tower and Mastodon transport. A previous visit of five months ago doesn't help with finding the tower, as the one in my notes is out of range, but locating the one d-scan shows me is straightforward enough. I drop out of warp outside of the force field to see the transport empty. Crossing the system finds the listed tower torn down too, giving us an inactive system.

We scan. Well, they scan. I'm being lazy, masking it by watching the tower, the one with the unpiloted ship. It remains unpiloted. A static exit to low-sec is resolved, obviously leading to Aridia, and Matha heads that way. A K162 from null-sec is next, looking like it comes from Outer Ring, which jumping through confirms. There are pilots in the null-sec system but no other signatures. I return to C3a and loitering outside the tower.

Fin's gone to another low-sec system through a second K162 in C3a, where she finds more wormholes, two C3 K162s. I head her way, Fin going to C3c, me C3b. D-scan shows me three towers but no ships, my interest levels dropping again. There are only three anomalies and three signatures, though, which have got to be worth a poke. I warp away from the towers, launch scanning probes, and blanket the system. Heading back to the centre of the system to locate the three towers pulls a fourth in to range, as well as a Legion. I've no idea where that strategic cruiser is, though.

The Legion is not at the fourth tower. A Magnate frigate has appeared too. Maybe they are at one of the first three towers. Not the first, not the second—the Magnate disappears from d-scan—but the Legion is at the third. Piloted, of course. If the Legion is planning to do anything I hope it is soon, as it is already late in to the evening, and although the ship moves it is only to a hangar, where the strategic cruiser is swapped for a Retribution. That doesn't look promising.

One assault frigate is swapped for a second, this time the Vengeance accelerating in to warp towards the low-sec exit. I've no idea where he's going, or for how long, but it's safe to assume he'll come back to this w-space system at some point. I loiter on the wormhole in C3b, Fin heads home to get an interceptor, spying the Vengeance pilot and his Magnate colleague in the low-sec system as she does. Perhaps I need to scan for his position in low-sec.

I take my Proteus strategic cruiser out of w-space and assess the situation. There aren't many signatures in the system, and as Fin has already scanned I doubt I will need to scan for the Vengeance's position. Where does that put him? Not in an easily found anomaly, but somewhere in the system, as he persists on d-scan. I point a narrow beam at the rock belts and there he is, bouncing between them. Ratting, I presume. But, totally in retrospect, he's almost certainly trolling for a fight.

Trying not to be too obvious, Fin takes her Crow in to C3b and loiters on the wormhole. I decide I should be with her, or I risk getting polarised if a chase occurs. That works, because Matha comes across in her Buzzard covert operations boat to keep an eye in low-sec. My main concern is the location of the Magnate, as the obvious place for him would be on the K162, watching for activity.

We wait. The Vengeance doesn't come to us. Perhaps we should go to him. Matha goes looking, soon finding the Vengeance but getting decloaked in the process. The assault frigate aims for her Buzzard, which Matha doesn't much care for. 'I had to bail, let's see what he does.' As she says this, the wormhole crackles. Here we go.

The Vengeance appears in front of us and Fin pounces, systems hot. She snares our target and stops it warping clear, but before my targeting systems can get a positive lock the ship disappears. There was no flare on the wormhole, no crackle of a transit, neither is there a wreck or pod. I take the only reasonable course of action and jump to low-sec, where I see the Vengeance warp clear before I can stop him.

That was odd. Some weird latency got us a bit nonplussed. It was as if the Vengeance disappeared from existence. But never mind, we gave the pilot a bit of a scare, I imagine. Perhaps Matha could have snared the Vengeance in a rock field, but I doubt her Buzzard would have held up for long. Anyway, it's time to get some rest, and we head home. Despite having two targets and catching neither, at least we found two targets. With a bit more practice and experience we'll become something of a menace.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Blink and you miss it
Tags: buzzard, crow, eve online, legion, magnate, mastodon, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, retribution, scanning, vengeance, w-space, widow

Fly-by in a gas site

A new day, a new signature. It's a new gas site, how mundane. I'll check next door for more interesting circumstances instead. Huh, the static wormhole is sitting in the same spot as yesterday, and here's me fiddling with scanning probes. Never mind, I've found it now, let's jump through and see what's happening.

Updating my directional scanner on our K162 in the class 3 w-space system sees two towers and a Magnate. No probes, so I suppose the frigate is idling at one of the towers. It would definitely be a bit weird if he were idling at both. Now there's a Viator transport too. It's not in space but at one of the towers, the one with the Magnate. I'll see what he's doing.

Both ships are piloted, both are members of a two-capsuleer corporation. Maybe they're having a shareholders meeting. Or they could be moving in, as I hear the sounds of defences being brought on-line. Dunno how, we're in space. Whatever, the defences are being installed sensibly, without the Viator leaving the force field.

Just as I'm thinking nothing will happen the Viator moves to a hangar. Bah, he only swaps to an Anathema covert operations boat and warps out of the tower. I see where he goes, but only once he's gone, my external camera still broken and unable to track a ship aligning for warp. I don't see probes being launched, so I'm guessing the cov-ops exited to empire space. I'm wrong, though.

The Anathema returns to the tower, still no probes visible. I suppose he could be hiding them, I know some pilots can do that, but I don't think he's planning to scan, not when the Anathema is swapped for a Venture mining frigate. I think I should launch probes whilst the pilot is distracted from watching d-scan. With nowhere out of d-scan range, I warp to the planet, launch probes and throw them out of the system, and recloak my Proteus strategic cruiser without waiting for the launcher to reload. I hope that was quick enough.

Back to the tower, and the Venture is gone. Gone from the tower, not from the system, and it looks to be where the Anathema warped to. Not a wormhole, then. I warp to the planet I suspect to be nearest to the Venture and start narrowing down his position using d-scan. It's a bit tricky to get the Venture in a five-degree beam, but a bit of perseverance manages it. The range is easier to gauge, and seems to be pretty much 3 AU.

I arrange my combat scanning probes around where the Venture should be, calling new recruit Matha to warp to me as I do. Her Buzzard cov-ops doesn't have weapons, but it does have tackle and will be quicker to lock on to the Venture. The Buzzard will come in handy. We are ready. I call my probes in to scan and get a perfect hit. Recall the probes, send us in to warp to the Venture, and recall my probes a second time. Dumb button.

I punch d-scan as we're in warp, and keep on punching it. I may have anger issues, but the Venture remains, remains, and is still in the gas site when we drop out of warp within a few kilometres of its unmoving hull. Our ships decloak as one, Matha's Buzzard getting a lock on the Venture and my Proteus taking its sweet time. The Venture moves, I'm still waiting for a positive lock, the Venture warps.

It was close, and good practice with the hunt, but without much of a result. The tiny ship took too long to lock for me, the Proteus lacking mid slots for a sensor booster, and Matha says she'll buy a faction scrambler the next time she's near a decent hub in empire space. Let's hope we can find more targets to make that future purchase worthwhile.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: anathema, buzzard, eve online, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, venture, viator, w-space