Barely fazing a Falcon

New signatures in the home system today are a touch of gas and a bit of data. Nothing to get excited about, and no other wormholes to go with our static connection. Maybe I can still get a good route to empire space, as I'd like to pimp my new Proteus strategic cruiser a bit more, making it harder to lose. Or, you know, find someone to shoot.

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 system and updating my directional scanner sees a tower, no ships, and some core scanning probes. I'll just be moving from the wormhole, cloaking, and loitering for the moment, in that case. I have time to check my notes, where I see that my last visit was fifteen months ago, when there were two towers. Examining the system map shows nothing is out of d-scan range, so there have been changes.

The system map also shows me plenty of anomalies and few signatures, twenty and four respectively, so whoever is scanning may be aware that our K162 is new, and hopefully won't take long in finding it. Curiously, a Falcon recon ship blips on d-scan, which could be annoying, but as it doesn't stay visible for long there's not much I can do about it.

As I wait, I poke each planet with d-scan in the system map, looking for the new tower. It's not difficult to find. There are seven planets and seven moons, not evenly split, and the tower is around a planet with just the one moon. I'd say I've found it. I'm still waiting on the probes too. How long does it take to scan four signatures?

Damn, a ship appears on-grid with me, but all I see in my distracted state is it greying-out on my overview. I should perhaps pay more attention, but it's difficult when a whole lot of nothing is happening. The Falcon blips on d-scan again too, again too quickly for me to see if he's at the tower. I suppose if it's just a blip, though, it's not at the tower. The recon ship is probably just hopping wormholes.

There's the Falcon again. Or, rather, here's the Falcon, in front of me, on our K162. The recon ship jumps to our home system. Well, this is probably not a smart move, but I prime myself for his return. It's soon, so he's polarised, but he's also covert and able to evade my Proteus easily enough when I decloak and have to wait for my targeting systems to recalibrate.

Okay, time to scout, although I ought to keep the Falcon's presence in mind. I warp to the tower, bookmark a perch, note the corporation. Warp out, launch probes, scan. Data site, wormhole, wormhole. That's an unsurprising result, I suppose, and the static exit to low-sec, obviously to Aridia by the brown stain seeping through, is joined by a K162 from class 4 w-space.

I exit to low-sec. There's no good option for getting to a decent market, not being in Aridia, but maybe there is a route to be found through more wormholes. Two other signatures in the system look promising, and although one is a wormhole it is a dying K162 from class 3 w-space. Back to C3a and, well, maybe I won't poke through to C4a. The locals know I'm here, assuming that's where the Falcon came from, and will either squirrel themselves away or be prepared with a force that could handle me. Either way, there will be nothing I want to bother with. I'll head home for an early night instead.

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

Ships passing by

My glorious leader is in class 2 w-space, judging by the trail of bookmarks she's left in her space-wake. Not that she's talking to me at the moment, probably focussed on some pilots she'd like to shoot. As such, when the K162 from C2a crackles with a jump as I orbit it, wondering if I should join Fin or not, I get myself primed. Fin would at least acknowledge my existence, so whoever is coming through the wormhole is not her.

It's an Ishtar. The heavy assault cruiser has come from C2a to our home system and, what the hell, I can try to persuade him to go back again. If he flees through the wormhole he'll be polarised, and if I have to flee through the wormhole I won't be. It looks like I have a relatively free shot, as long as he doesn't have any friends nearby.

I decloak and try in vain to lock on to the Ishtar as my sensors recalibrate, only to watch the HAC warp away. Still, he could only have gone in one direction, if he's acting rationally, and that is to our static wormhole. My reactions are a little slow, although not as ponderous as my Proteus strategic cruiser aligning for warp, and as I enter warp I am not hopeful of catching the HAC.

Because I don't expect to catch the fleeing target, particularly now that he has seen me, I cloak during warp. Updating my directional scanner sees the ship persist in the system, and reaching the wormhole sees why he isn't jumping, when a colleague of the Ishtar's decloaks in a Falcon recon ship. Damn their ECM.

I am tempted to give the pair a poke anyway, perhaps trying to blast the Falcon down quickly, but circumstances change quickly. On the C2 K162 I had the advantage, because of the Ishtar's jump. On our C247 I have no such advantage granted by the polarisation mechanics, giving the HAC the probable advantage in firepower and the definite advantage in support.

The possible engagement is academic, anyway. The Ishtar turns and warps, the Falcon burns away from the wormhole and cloaks. I'd be a fool to try anything now. Still, Fin says hello, and tells me she's been watching some pilots in C2a configuring a new tower. Interestingly, the pair I almost tussled with are not local to the C2. I suppose that places their home system either in C3a or through a wormhole in our neighbouring system.

With this news, I consider checking on the Ishtar, seeing what he's up to on the C2 K162. Except he appears to be in empty space, or, look at that, on our static wormhole. The HAC jumps, the Falcon reappears and follows, and I don't think it will do me any good to join them. I continue my lazy orbits around the wormhole, interrupted only when Fin jumps past me some minutes later.

Perhaps coincidentally, after Fin jumps to C3a, a Helios covert operations boat does the same moments later. Not much of a threat, but activity to be aware of. 'Helios warped', Fin says, noting that d-scan is clear. There's a pause. 'Crow in empty space.' It's a trap! Or the interceptor's on a wormhole. 'Oh, right.' An Atron frigate and Hound stealth bomber appear too, but Fin stops my jumping to join her. At least, not before she's scanned for the Crow.

'The Crow is on a C5 K162', and there are two other wormholes in the system. The K162 crackles with activity. 'Bustard.' The transport belongs to the same corporation as the interceptor, so it naturally gets past. Fin leaves both ships alone too, and nothing is happening where I am. I head the other way, to C2a, to see if there have been any changes or are signs of activity. Nope. All as Fin described when she left it.

The Bustard returns after a while, passing the Crow to C5a again, and dragging the interceptor back with it. That makes C3a quiet, and as quiet as C2a. A couple of ships drop off-line, making it look less likely that anything more will happen. I turn myself around, as does Fin from the other direction, and we head home. After an interesting start the evening never really got going. I didn't even launch scanning probes.

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Tags: atron, bustard, crow, eve online, falcon, helios, hound, ishtar, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Two-day timer

It's all quiet at home. Just me and some gas clouds. And loads of anomalies still. I should probably clear one or two more, to warm up, feel productive, keep the iskies flowing in. It's got to be more interactive and profitable than sucking some gas too. I resolve our static wormhole first, for reference, and warp to the tower to swap to our Golem marauder.

Today's anomaly, same as yesterday's. Drop the mobile tractor unit, shoot Sleepers, salvage wrecks lazily drawn to me, all the while forcing updates from the discovery scanner. Yeah, it's more interactive than sucking gas, what with target switching, but I also highly recommend an unstable capacitor reservoir to keep matters interesting.

As always, I leave the last two wrecks in space, not waiting for the MTU to pull them to my expensive Golem, returning instead in a cheap destroyer to sweep up. That'll do, I think. One is enough for tonight, and it's a profitable one at that, bagging me about 115 Miskies.

Now to explore probably empty w-space. I suppose I should keep my pecker up, what with the unexpected battlecruiser carelessness of yesterday, but I know that such opportunities are considerably rarer than they used to be. Let's see what's out there tonight. I jump through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

A mobile depot is visible on my directional scanner from the K162, nothing else. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan reveals ten anomalies, six signatures, and three ships. Ships, huh? All three are by a distant planet, according to my combat scanning probes, a planet that has a tower, according to my notes. I'm not expecting much, but I warp in that direction.

The tower that was here is now not, hardly a surprise for information almost two years old, but a new one is around a different moon, easily found. Inside the new tower's force field is a Sarum Magnate frigate, Prorator transport, and Dragoon destroyer, none of them piloted. That's cool, I'll scan instead. The system's static exit leads to high-sec, which could be okay.

Scanning resolves gas, the static wormhole, a chubby wormhole, some data, and more gas. The chubby wormhole is a K162 from class 4 w-space, but one at the end of its life. So, naturally, the high-sec exit the C4ers resolved is also wobbly with age. It's not so bad, I suppose, as poking through takes me to Essence, and a boring system anyway.

I check C4a too, through the dying wormhole, where updating d-scan sees absolutely nothing. Opening the system map has a single planet out of range where there may be occupation, but if there is I very much doubt anything is happening. I leave this system alone. Back to C3a and I stab the mobile depot with my blasters, doing no real harm because of the weird two-day reinforcement timer.

What's the point of the two-day timer on the mobile depots anyway? I thought the depot was useful for having a travel fit for your ship, getting through hostile space, and refitting without a station for whatever purpose. Surely then the pilot would scoop the depot back to his hold. Or, if there's no room after the reconfiguration, the ship would be refit and the depot scooped before the pilot goes off-line.

What kind of expedition requires a two-day deployment? If a capsuleer is so careless or cavalier about his assets that he is willing to leave them unattended in hostile space for an extended period they should accept any consequences. I imagine the assets are only 'risked' in this way because the depot implicitly allows it. If the reinforcement timer were a couple of hours, plenty of time to wander space and return, I'm sure pilots would take more care of what is theirs.

Whatever the reason behind the curiously long reinforcement timer, it is what it is, which is longer than wormholes remain stable. Whoever owns this mobile depot is mildly inconvenienced at best, such is the state of w-space currently. Never mind, at least I made some iskies this evening.

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Tags: dragoon, eve online, golem, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, scanning, sleepers, w-space

Bungling in to a battlecruiser

The Viator transport is swapped for a Myrmidon battlecruiser, a fairly sure sign that his planet-goo collecting is finished. The Imicus scanning frigate is swapped for a Nereus hauler, though, which makes me wonder if a new hauler will make itself vulnerable, for small values of vulnerable given the state of industrial ships and the broken tracking tools. Apart from any other circumstance, I've been in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system for around twenty minutes already. Our K162 must surely be known by now, thanks to the discovery scanner.

I'm considering turning my Proteus strategic cruiser around and heading home, trying to be happy with my earlier Sleeper combat as progress for the evening, when the Myrmidon warps out of the tower. The battlecruiser doesn't warp to a planet, the star, or, checking the system map, our K162. Out of curiosity, I poke anomalies in the direction of the Myrmidon's vector with my directional scanner. Huh, he's in one of them, and with his buddy in a Tengu strategic cruiser too. I didn't even notice the Tengu leave.

I warp in to see what's going on in the anomaly. I can't quite believe that the local pilots would be active with a known wormhole opening in to their system, but I also haven't seen any scanning probes yet, despite there being two piloted and at least one active scout boat available. Even so, I drop out of warp to see the Tengu and Myrmidon engaging Sleepers in as normal a fashion as possible.

I aim to drop short of the anomaly, not wanting to hit any Sleepers, their structures, or either of the two ships. It seems the Myrmidon had the same thought, though, and my Proteus almost collides with the battlecruiser. I back off a little, wanting to assess the situation before thinking about striking, before remembering that hitting the Myrmidon is what I'm here to do. Besides, the Tengu is fairly distant, making it unlikely to come immediately to Myrmidon's aid, and the battlecruiser is a better target for my Proteus than the strategic cruiser, particularly when I've not tested it in combat yet. This is an excellent opportunity.

Rather than continue to move away from the Myrmidon, I turn back towards it, decloaking as I do. Engaging more combat ships directly is why I switched to the Proteus, so if I don't do that I'll have wasted plenty of ISK. As soon as my sensor recalibration ends, I start my ambush on the Myrmidon. I gain a positive lock, disrupt the battlecruiser's warp engines, and begin shooting.

The Myrmidon reciprocates my target lock, once his initial shock wears off, and calls his drones back from attacking the Sleepers to start shooting me instead. Right, drones. I launch my own and get them on the battlecruiser, adding to the damage my blasters are inflicting. I don't have to worry about the Tengu either, as he's gone quicker than shields in an armour boat. I perhaps need to be concerned about his returning in a bigger boat, though.

It's looking good for me, bad for the Myrmidon. My armour is being slowly depleted, but the Myrmidon's is pretty much gone, although the Sleepers are now taking umbrage with me, not him. I keep shooting, hoping no one will come to his aid. Anyone? No? Good. The battlecruiser explodes, my Proteus is bloodied. I aim for the pod but it disappears in to warp immediately, leaving me a wreck to loot and shoot. Or just shoot, given that the Sleepers have webbed my ship down to a crawl.

I manage to get my Proteus clear of the anomaly, away from the Sleepers, and back to our K162. I orbit the wormhole and update d-scan, seeing the pod jump in to its own Proteus, at which point I think it best to go home and repair the armour damage mine has sustained. Through the wormhole, to the tower, and a quick refit has my Proteus back to full strength. I return to our static wormhole, staying on the home side for now, and loiter to see if anyone ventures through. No one, which suits me fine. It's time to get some rest, after a decent first combat outing for my new ship, against a rare target in w-space.

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Tags: eve online, imicus, mmorpg, myrmidon, nereus, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, tengu, viator, w-space

Making ISK and missing ships

I'm a masochist at heart, apparently. Returning to the home w-space system may be worthwhile this evening, though, what with all the anomalies that have popped up recently. There are also three signatures, however, and I had better check to see what they are before making any firm plans. One is the static wormhole, unopened since, uh, six minutes ago? Ah, no, two days ago. The copied bookmark renews the timestamp from the original, I see.

The other two signatures are resolved to be gas sites, giving us a closed system. I'm going to shoot some Sleepers. I may as well make some ISK when I'm barely a target and can barely find others, and at least I'll see some explosions. I swap out of my Proteus strategic cruiser and in to a Golem marauder, loaded with cruise missiles and a silly mobile tractor unit, and warp to the first anomaly.

Sleeper sites are straightforward. Anchor the mobile tractor unit for unwarrantedly convenient loot collection in the harshest areas of space, lock on to the Sleepers, and start spewing missiles towards them to create the wrecks for the MTU. A few drones take some damage from the Sleeper frigates, damage I'll no doubt forget to repair, or not care to fiddle about with, but otherwise all the Sleepers are exploded without any drama.

Most of the loot is hauled in to the MTU, which I collect with the Golem and take back to the tower before moving to a second anomaly. Second site, same as the first. More loot collected by the MTU, salvaged by the Golem, except for the last two wrecks. It's not worth the time to wait for the MTU to drag them in, or the risk to the Golem. I scoop the MTU and leave the two wrecks for now, swapping to a cheap and disposable destroyer back at the tower, letting me loot the last wrecks with little risk.

Two anomalies is about all I can take solo for the evening. It passed the time, I suppose, and made us some potential iskies, about 180 million of them. That's not bad. Now, what else can I do? Huff on the gas clouds? I'm not yet that desperate. I'll poke our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, through the static wormhole, in the hopes of jumping someone not paying attention. It can happen.

Updating my directional scanner in C3a gives me some hope, as I see a couple of towers and handful of haulers in the system. My notes from a few months back list just the one tower, but that one remains and looks to hold most of the ships, so I warp across to see who is there. A Buzzard covert operations boat is piloted, but doesn't seem to be looking for our K162 yet, and the Bestower hauler, Epithal hauler, and Viator transport are all empty. Never mind, let's check out the second tower, once I locate it.

I find the second tower as an Imicus frigate warps away from it, leaving behind a Purifier stealth bomber and shuttle, both piloted. A second Viator looks to be missing, as it is on d-scan but not at this tower, and I'm sure it wasn't at the first. I'm more interested in the Imicus currently, in case it's found our K162 and I've been rumbled. I warp back to the wormhole but see no scanning frigate, even though it remains on d-scan. Maybe I should find out where it is.

I warp far out of range of the locals, launch scanning probes, and blanket the system, seeing all but keeping my probes hidden. Warping back to the second tower sees the Imicus gone from d-scan, a Tengu strategic cruiser new to the tower, and the missing Viator back inside the force field. He could have been gooing, and I try to take a close look at his ship in case he goes out again. I don't know why, the interface is still broken, although at least when my view snaps back to my ship I know the transport is aligning to warp. I just can't tell where.

The Viator enters warp, and it is only when he is speeding towards a planet that I can see where to. I can barely keep up with a blockade runner at the best of times, and when he has a head start like this I have no chance. Matters are exacerbated when the new tooltip doesn't show the customs office for the planet the Viator warped to either, and I see no other way of selecting it. I have to switch to a specific overview to be able to warp there. I'd rather be fighting ships than the interface.

I don't know why I'm warping to the customs office, as the Viator should be long gone by the time I can tell he's warped here and I can find the right object to warp to. It's something to do, I suppose. I'm almost rewarded too, landing near the customs office to see the Viator still here, but it looks like he's moving. He is, just not far. The transport backs away from the customs office and cloaks. He doesn't return to the tower, though, at least not immediately. I can't really do much but watch at the tower for his return, although I don't know why I'm persisting, not when I can't watch the ship align and can barely manage to warp to where he goes. I should probably admit I've had my fun and head home.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, epithal, eve online, golem, imicus, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, purifier, scanning, sleepers, tengu, viator, w-space

Prodding a Prorator

I abandon my wormhole vigil, get back in my Proteus, and jump back through the wormhole to our neighbouring class 3 system. The covert operations boat didn't bother to come to me, so maybe I need to go to him. Wherever he is. And I'm not sure what I can do to the cov-ops in my strategic cruiser anyway. Either way, I'm pretty sure the first step is to scan this system for wormholes.

C3a looks clear, just the tower visible on my directional scanner. I warp to the distant planet, half-checking to make sure the tower from a previous visit actually has been dismantled, but mostly to find a quiet place to launch probes. Nothing's out here, letting me get my probes in to space and performing a blanket scan of the system. Still the five anomalies and six signatures, still lacking ships.

Resolving the signatures reveals two wormholes, two gas sites, one data site. The static exit to low-sec looks like it leads to Aridia, from the golden-brown stain seeping through from the other side, and the other wormhole is only a K162 from high-sec, the Sinq Laison region if I had to guess. Maybe that makes the Cheetah a tourist, one curious enough to poke around a class 3 system, but not to delve deeper in to w-space. I won't see him again.

Jumping to high-sec puts me in a system in Sinq Laison with no oranges and, more importantly, no other signatures. No problem, as the low-sec system probably holds better opportunities, and I return to C3a long enough to cross to the U210 and jump through. The system in Aridia has two pilots somewhere, and three extra signatures. Two are combat sites, one a wormhole. Huh, it's a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space.

Deadly w-space or not, I'm going in. And hello, Mr Prorator, sitting on the wormhole in C6a. My ship recognition synapses do a double-take between Procurer and Prorator, trying to work out how obviously bait this ship is. It's not the mining barge but the transport ship, but it still looks very much like bait.

Updating d-scan should give me a better idea of what will happen if I engage this curiously stationary industrial ship. Well, look at that. Towers on towers on towers, and so many ships scattered amongst them, from capitals down to interceptors. Whether the Prorator is bait or not, this cannot be considered a friendly system. Still, it makes my options clear. I'm leaving, and if I'm leaving I may as well poke the bait on my way out.

I decloak, moving my Proteus towards the wormhole, even though I'm already in jump range, and target the Prorator. I get a positive lock and start shooting, the first live firing in my new ship, wearing down the shields of the transport. Sure enough, not only does the Prorator jump through the wormhole, a Hound decloaks nearby. That's fine, as I'm already following the transport to low-sec.

I don't give chase, merely follow. As soon as I am back in low-sec I am moving, cloaking, jinking. The Prorator doesn't show itself immediately, holding its session-change cloak like good bait should, and it's not long before the wormhole crackles with another transit. Two ships appear, the Hound and a Crow interceptor.

Now I'm wondering if I can successfully engage an interceptor in this Proteus. Maybe. The Hound shouldn't be a problem either. I have a brief pause where I think I shouldn't have run so quickly, perhaps taken on the Hound, but then remember all the other ships potentially available in the C6 system. Maybe they aren't coming to chase shadows, but if their tackle caught a Proteus I imagine I'd be swamped by strategic cruisers within seconds. I made the right choice.

I warp away as the Crow starts burning tight orbits around the wormhole. He's unlikely to find me, now that I've pulled some range, but there's no point taking the risk. I warp back to C3a's K162 and make my own orbits, watching the local communication channel for changes. The three C6 pilots go back to their system, I go back to mine, reflecting on what a neat early warning system they have.

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Tags: crow, eve online, hound, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, proteus, pvp, scanning, w-space

Detonating a ghost site

There is a ghost site in the home system that I somehow overlooked yesterday. It sticks out quite plainly in yesterday's stack of bookmarks, and checking the discovery scanner shows that it remains today. That's something, I suppose. I could clear the site, or try to, but even when I get something decent it doesn't seem like much of an achievement or worthwhile. Still, better I do it than some passing explorer, and it's not like there is much greater excitement left in w-space.

I swap one strategic cruiser for another, from my new scanning Proteus to my Loki, reconfiguring it for the ghost site. I know it's survived others, so better use this than risk my new ship needlessly. Now it's a simple matter of warping in, scanning each canister, and trying to hack in to the best one. In this case, the 'best one' is barely worth even exploding, as it has a small chunk of pyerite along with some covert research tools. Looking more closely, the canister is clearly a reconditioned Ibis. The other three cans are all considerably worse in content.

I'm here, I may as well grab what I can. I move to the container with pyerite and start 'hacking', otherwise known as random button mashing. The attempt fails. How peculiar that a random activity has random results. The canister explodes with the failure, and I somewhat reluctantly move to the third-worst canister. I feel I should try to get some reward for my time, however minimal. Thankfully, before I get too uninvolved in more button mashing the rats turn up to chase me away.

I get away cleanly from the rats, the whole ghost site detonating soon afterwards. I think they just wanted an excuse to get rid of the crap they stored here, probably for tax purposes. Whatever, it's time to explore. I swap back to my Proteus, warp to our static wormhole, and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

Updating my directional scanner from the K162 sees a tower, no ships, but a clutch of scanning probes. I think I'll just move from the wormhole, cloak, and loiter with intent. With any luck, the scout will come my way and I can try to catch him. Whilst I wait I check my notes, which tell me this is my fifth visit to the system, the last being about fourteen months ago. The tower listed should be out of range, although the one nearby is easy enough to locate without leaving the wormhole, what with it being around a planet with just one moon.

The core scanning probes disappear. Five anomalies and six signatures shouldn't take long to scan anyway. Now to see if the scout comes my way. It doesn't look like it. A bit of waiting has no ships taking a peek through our wormhole, but a little bit more does see a Cheetah covert operations boat appear on d-scan, before disappearing again. That's suggestive of a wormhole jump.

The scout is in a cov-ops. That's good to know. It's a ship that I have little chance of catching in my Proteus, but that he has gone through a wormhole should give me a little time before he's ready to come this way. I take advantage of this time to jump home, warp to our tower, and swap to a Flycatcher interdictor. The fast locking time and interdiction sphere launcher should give me my best chance of catching the Cheetah. If it comes my way, that is.

I drop the Flycatcher on to our wormhole and wait. I kinda hope the Cheetah takes at least a couple more minutes before coming this way, as I'm still currently polarised and won't be able to pursue him back to C3a. Thankfully, he does, and longer. Much longer, in fact. I'm no longer polarised, and no longer thinking that the Cheetah's actually going to come this way. I should probably go back to scouting and maybe find out why.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, flycatcher, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Claiming another Gecko

I can continue the test flight of my new ship. Or help my glorious leader pop Sleepers in a closed home system. That seems a much better opportunity than pretty much any other w-space activity at the moment, rather depressingly. So, surprisingly, I can't be arsed to do anything but float in space for a bit. Still, there aren't many Sleepers left to explode, and once they're gone I find that old habits die hard. I warp to our static wormhole and jump through.

My directional scanner shows me a whole bunch of drones off in space somewhere in the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, with no ships and no tower in range. Switching filters shows there aren't any wrecks either, and with the drones not coincident with any of the ten anomalies I suspect they are floating abandoned on a wormhole. That's not terribly interesting in itself, but one of the drones is a Gecko. I think I'd like to find and claim that before anyone else does.

I launch probes and perform a blanket scan as Fin jumps in behind me. I ask her to look for occupation, given that I'll probably make myself vulnerable collecting the Gecko, and my blanket scan reveals two ships out by a far planet. That's a positive sign for occupation, and Fin heads out in that direction. 'Four ships', she says, an Armageddon battleship, Scythe cruiser, Taranis interceptor, and Venture mining frigate. That's peculiar, with only two ships on my blanket scan. Or I didn't scroll down the results. 'All empty at the tower.' Yeah, I didn't scroll.

I've got the Gecko scanned, along with the other drones. They're all together, and not on a wormhole. At least, not any more. Maybe they were and the wormhole collapsed, or it could have been an anomaly or other site that has since despawned. Either way, I am left with a small cloud of drones, one of which is still fairly costly. I approach it, drop my cloak, and scoop the Gecko. Done. Re-activate my cloak and jink. Are the Caldari Navy Wasp drones worth scooping too? 'Yah'. Okay then, I turn around and grab them as well. The rest are basic drones, and I ignore them.

Now to scan properly. Three gas sites, one data site, three wormholes. A K162 from null-sec is sitting at critical mass, a second K162 comes from high-sec Heimatar, and the static exit to high-sec looks like it goes to Sinq Laison. It does, but a system in Sinq Laison with no other signatures. Now that I have the exit, I can risk the critical wormhole, in case I finally find myself in Period Basis. No, not this time.

I'm in Branch, thankfully still sat next to a critical wormhole, sharing the system with four other pilots. D-scan shows me a Navy Vexor cruiser and Ishtar heavy assault cruiser, along with dozens of rat wrecks. It looks like both ships squirrel up, though, and there are no other signatures, so I head back to C3a. Fin's gone to Heimatar, found two signatures, and resolved two wormholes. She's headed to C2a, leaving me a class 1 w-space system to explore.

Out to high-sec and across to the wormhole, which isn't the K162 I'm expecting but an outbound connection. Oh well, all of w-space is rubbish, so what's the difference. I jump through to see what I can find, which is a tower and lack of ships on d-scan. My notes for C1a tell me of the high-sec wormhole, which seems about right, but they are wrong about the tower's location. Never mind, my notes can't be right all the time, particularly when the gap between visits is thirty months or so.

Warp, launch, blanket. Nine anomalies and thirteen signatures to sift through, nicely whittled down by identifying eight gas sites and one wormhole on my first scan. I like my skills. That leaves a second wormhole, some relics, and one more gas pocket to find, before warping to the connections. The first is an exit to high-sec that looks Forgey, and also like a static connection. Oh, right, I entered through an outbound wormhole. The high-sec nature and my expectations confused me. It doesn't take much.

The second wormhole is a K162, but just another high-sec connection, this time obviously from Lonetrek. I poke out to get the exit, in case it's useful, and do the same for C1a's static wormhole. That leads to The Citadel, not The Forge, but that's okay. It even turns out to be a minor shortcut for Fin, who has given up on exploring for the evening and is hopping stargates to collect a ship from space dock. I think that's my achievement for the night, that and the additional Gecko I claimed from the system. Let's go home.

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Tags: armageddon, eve online, ishtar, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, scythe, taranis, venture, vexor, w-space

Poking around high-sec

There are no oranges in the high-sec exit from our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Whoever was here earlier has gone... somewhere else. Maybe he's returned home. Jumping through the wormhole to check gives me some minor excitement, as I find the drones that I now remember where left scattered on the wormhole long before I exited. They aren't actually ships waiting for me. Besides, I'm on a high-sec wormhole, how much danger can I be in?

Updating my directional scanner, once the drones are identified and ignored, sees the Maelstrom battleship still in the system. The Gnosis battlecruiser has gone, and not to an anomaly on the edge of the system. Just gone. There are no new signatures in the system, and none were in the exit system either. I was, however, paying mild attention on my way back from Dodixie, and a system one hop down had a signature. That looks like my best option for the moment, so I exit w-space again and hop a stargate.

I launch probes and scan the lone signature, easily identifying a combat site before I can get interested. But I'm out and active now, I should go with the momentum. I check my star map, pick an adjacent system, and hop through another stargate. No signatures. Hop. Nope. Hop, hop. Still nothing. There are slim pickings in Gallente space this evening.

Another stargate hopped and this time I see a result. A good result. A suspiciously good result, although I have deliberately aimed for dead-end systems, hoping most pilots won't have a need to come this way. There was nothing in the first dead end, but this one has a dozen signatures to scan. Let's do it.

Oh, balls. This is an academy system, the signatures all training sites. Well, eight of them are, all resolved when barely waving my probes in their direction. That's not to say there aren't other, more specific signatures in the system. I'm sure I've exited a wormhole in to an academy system before. Still, the other signatures being three combat sites and one data site kinda hints that I won't be resolving any wormholes.

Moving on. Hop, hop, and three signatures outside of an academy system. Probes are launched and focussed around the signatures, the first resolving to be a weak wormhole, which is almost a good result. The other two are a combat and data site each, so the outbound wormhole will have to do. I warp across to see where I'm going, and, bloody hell, it's a V283 connection to null-sec.

The wormhole doesn't go to w-space, but it's stable and an option, and as high-sec isn't giving me much to do I shall exercise this option. I jump through the wormhole in to a system in the Delve region, where no one else is around and there are two extra signatures. I can rat and scan. Actually, no, I can scan, but my new ship isn't really a ratting boat. That's not a problem, I suppose, as long as I find other legitimate targets.

Scanning the null-sec system only uncovers yet another combat site and some relics. Exploring just isn't working for me tonight, and there doesn't seem to be much point in pressing it. Hopefully there will be more wormhole activity tomorrow. Still, it has been a fine first flight of my Proteus strategic cruiser, and I even get back through the wormhole and stargates in time to scout Fin home through w-space, getting our new Golem marauder back safely.

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Tags: eve online, gnosis, golem, maelstrom, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Turning to the dark side

Let's see if I can maintain interest in w-space a little longer. Perhaps I am just being curmudgeonly, and there are still plenty of opportunities for action and excitement. Like in the home system, where our anomalies are once more building up. Shooting Sleepers is excellent fun, am I right? At least we haven't had any rampaging intruders for a while, and their fun fun fun mobile tractor units.

Two new signatures replace the old, almost literally. The previous gas sites have wafted out of the system, two new ones have formed. I ignore them and head through our static wormhole, where my directional scanner shows me a tower and two ships in the neighbouring class 3 system. The Maelstrom battleship and Gnosis battlecruiser are even joined on d-scan by drones, but a lack of wrecks makes me wonder if I'm actually interrupting anything.

Waving d-scan around with rather more focus than 'waving' suggests has both ships coincident with the tower, the drones elsewhere. Warping in that direction finds the pair piloted and idle, the Maelstrom more obviously idle than the Gnosis. No problem, I warp away, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system. It's pretty much as it looks. Two anomalies, five signatures, and the ships and drones d-scan has already shown me.

The static exit to high-sec is obvious from its mid-strength signature, the others all being quite chubby. All the signatures are in d-scan range of the piloted ships, but I really don't think they are watching for probes. If they are, they'll have noticed our K162 pop on the discovery scanner. Either way, I have nothing to lose by scanning.

Two gas sites, two wormholes. Hey, I've found some of the drones too, floating abandoned around the high-sec exit to Verge Vendor. The other wormhole has no drones and is a wobbly K162 from class 5 w-space, the connection at the end of its life. To high-sec, then, where an orange pilot is in the local communication channel. Checking his information shows him to be local to C3a.

Has the orange pilot been chased out by the C5a menace, the drones left behind on the wormhole orphans of combat? Is he a scout monitoring the wormhole for movements? Or maybe he's just chilling in a station. Either way, there's not much I can do to him in high-sec. So what can I do? Hit the market, I suppose. Not here, though. I am close to Dodixie. Hive of scum and villainy it may be, but it will have better prices.

Hop hoppity hop through stargates and in to Dodixie, where I dock and make the decision to buy a new ship, a decision I failed to make a short while ago. I'm not terribly spontaneous, it seems, but if I'm getting bored then the least I can do is spend some ISK and try to inject some spice in to my time in space. There's nothing quite like flying yet another too-expensive ship that I don't yet know how to pilot in to obvious bait that gets me killed.

I feel dirty. I've finally turned to the dark side. But the decreasing options available to me call for drastic measures, and I have to try something. I put together my new ship, cribbed from elsewhere with few tweaks by myself, and leave my Loki strategic cruiser behind as I take my new strategic cruiser out in to space. Damn, but this is an ugly ship. It even flies backwards. At least I won't feel too sad if it explodes.

I take the Proteus back through the stargates to the exit system. I could drop the new ship at our tower and return for my Loki, but I'm not sure what would benefit me most. Having the Loki stay in dock in empire space would be convenient if I get podded, giving me a ship ready to fly back to w-space. But if I only lose my ship and not my pod, I would prefer the Loki to be at our tower. I dunno. Let's see what's happening in w-space before deciding.

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Tags: eve online, gnosis, loki, maelstrom, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space