Indecision in Amarr

Today's static wormhole sits where yesterday's did. I wish I'd realised this before I resolved it, given that there was a bookmark obviously guiding my probes. I'll never get that twenty seconds back. I have to scan anyway, though, as an unexpected signature is a second wormhole, this one from class 2 w-space. Let's see who connects to us, and how good their high-sec exit is.

There's nothing to see from the wormhole in C2a, my directional scanner turning up blank. There's not much more to see on the system map, the discovery scanner only irritatingly pinging three signatures to my ship, although there are twelve anomalies. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan of the system adds two ships to the system, at the far planet, by the looks of it. Warping across sees the Sleipnir command ship and Deimos heavy assault cruiser on d-scan first, then floating unpiloted inside a force field once I locate the tower.

I scan. Gas and a wormhole. The static exit to high-sec goes to Domain, the gold nebula shining through from the other side, but anywhere good in Domain? Yeah, not bad, five hops from Amarr. I think I can afford a small diversion to look at new ships. I make the few hops, dock, and stare at the market for a bit longer than I should without actually doing something. Decisions are hard enough normally without the added detriment of not knowing what I'm doing. Sod it, I'll go back to w-space just as I left it.

A fly-by of the tower in C2a sees no change, so it's back home and in to—nope, a new signature in the home system is interesting. I launch probes and resolve what turns out to be a K162 from class 5 w-space, where maybe caution is advised in jumping through. I go anyway, because the new wormhole is a great sign of activity, and am greeted by, well, not much again. Two mobile depots are in d-scan range. At least there's more space to explore, and if nothing's in it then there is almost certainly another wormhole to find.

Blanketing C5a reveals nine anomalies, eight signatures, and two ships. The system is big enough, with planets in all directions, that I loiter by the wormhole as the scan completes, and only now that I have a rough direction for the ships do I warp away. Getting closer to the source of the signatures and updating d-scan sees a tower, Tengu strategic cruiser, and Epithal hauler. Closer still, both ships are piloted. That feels a bit ominous.

Less ominous is realising that the Tengu is quite idle, the Epithal maybe not so much. I imagine the hauler has gone on his goo round already, but I watch him anyway, just in case. The experience is much like suffering from crippling indecision in a space station, but without the market screen displayed and a greater sense of actual purpose. Either way, nothing much happens.

An Astero frigate blips on d-scan. Quite how I manage to see that with my completely inadequate updates is beyond me, but it was there. Maybe a local scout going back and forth, maybe someone from further up the chain. He appears again a minute or two later, with added second Tengu, although the Tengu warps in to the tower to join the first and the Epithal, the Astero remaining at large. As quickly as he arrives, the Tengu leaves again, dragging the first behind him too. They warp to empty space and drop from d-scan.

I imagine the locals have found targets. I doubt I could get involved without regretting it, but being a spectator can be interesting. I got a good vector from the Tengus' departure, and as the Epithal hasn't budged an inch I call my probes in to look for the wormhole I suspect the strategic cruisers used. Thar she blows, but warping to it sees only a K162 from null-sec. Maybe there are targets out there, maybe they are only ratting. I suspect the latter, but I still don't think it wise to poke my Loki strategic cruiser through to Cobalt Edge to find out.

I loiter by the wormhole for a bit, updating d-scan and seeing an Ishtar heavy assault cruiser new to the system. Maybe I should be back at the tower. Naw, I'm good here, the Ishtar dropping on to the wormhole and jumping to null-sec presumably to join his colleagues. That just leaves me and the Epithal, and the hauler is doing less than I am. There's little point in hanging around any longer.

Back home, and I have time for a quick peek through our static wormhole. D-scan is clear in C3a, with two planets out of range. A blanket scan reveals seven anomalies, nine signatures, and a big ship. It's an Orca, unpiloted and inside a tower's force field. I could scan, I suppose, but that would only take me to another system that would need scanning. My time and spirit have already been whittled down, leaving little left for the evening, so I simply turn my ship around and go home.

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Tags: astero, deimos, epithal, eve online, ishtar, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleipnir, tengu, w-space

Exploring elsewhere

I check the two mobile depots I resolved in the system. Both are owned by the same pilot, not a name I recognise. I leave them alone, partly because there's little point shooting a depot in w-space outside of home, partly because the system is potentially still a little hot. The Stratios cruiser from high-sec is gone, and probably not coming back, even if the ambushing fleet also appears to be gone. You never can tell. I'll be better off exploring elsewhere.

The low-sec exit from this class 3 w-space system may be at the end of its life, but the K162 from high-sec the Stratios used to get here is healthy. I'll go that way. Of course, starting in the system the Stratios came from is unlikely to find me a fresh wormhole, or guarantee that the hostile fleet won't also find the same, but it's a start. A poor start, as it turns out, the system in Genesis holding two extra signatures that are a combat and data site, but there are other ways to hop systems.

I use a stargate, being careful to stay in high-sec, and land in a system with three signatures. Two are combat sites, one a wormhole. It's a K162 from class 2 w-space too, which will offer me another w-space connection from the inside. Let's see what I can find. Jumping to C2a and updating my directional scanner sees only a tower, no ships, but that's no problem, as I was almost certainly going to scan for more wormholes anyway.

C2a is a straightforward system to scan, with only three signatures to go with the nine anomalies. I warp to get out of d-scan range of the tower, only to bump in to a second tower. There are still no ships, though, so I throw caution to the wind and launch probes anyway. I locate the towers for reference, and scan. The second static wormhole is expected, although it feels like a bonus to see it lead to class 1 w-space, and as the other signature is just a data site I have one way to go.

Damn, I appear in C1a a little under seven kilometres from the wormhole. D-scan is clear too. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan anyway, as the constellation may not end here. Fourteen anomalies, twenty-four signatures, and two ships. They must be at that one planet out of d-scan range, almost certainly in a tower. Warping across identifies the ships as a Sigil hauler and Zephyr exploration ship, and locating the tower that also appears on d-scan sees that neither are piloted, although they appear to be fans of The KLF.

A visit to this system from a few years back indicates the static exit will lead to null-sec, which doesn't sound like fun to find. I give it a go anyway, which takes time, even if I manage to ignore half the gas on a single scan result. The rest of the signatures are weak, having my digging down in to relic and data sites, eventually resolving the wormhole I'm looking for. As a reward for my diligence, the system throws me a surprising chubby wormhole as the last signature. Thank you, C1a.

I check the exit to null-sec first, because I'm still looking for a wormhole to Period Basis, but am only taken to Esoteria. I'm also alone, and with three extra signatures I can't resist ratting and scanning. Data, data—new signature!—only relics, and the last signature is a data site too. Never mind, the rat is popped, I have checked the signatures, time to see what that other wormhole in C1a is.

A K162 from class 2 w-space leading in to C1a will do just fine, and jumping in sees two well-stocked towers on d-scan, still no ships. My last visit was a mere four months ago, yet a second tower has popped up since then, and my notes list the static wormholes as C1/HS. The class 1 system I know about, the high-sec exit I don't think I care to find. Still, a blanket scan shows that most of the signatures are pretty strong, so it's probably worth a look for K162s.

My probes pluck a wormhole from the noise on the first scan, a C2 K162 making it look like I'm going to be out here for a bit longer. A second wormhole is an outbound connection to class 1 w-space, which is a curious find in a system already with a class 1 static wormhole. The third wormhole is the exit to high-sec, and a fourth is just a K162 from low-sec. That's the lot, and it is plenty for me.

Poking in to C1b to start with has a clear d-scan result and a messy looking discovery scanner. Nothing sits out of range either, tying up with the messy, unoccupied system stereotype. Back to C2b and in to C2c, where d-scan remains stubbornly clear and the system is messy with anomalies and signatures. One planet sits out of range, where I find occupation that apparently doesn't want to engage the Sleepers or suck gas. What do they do? Not even ghost sites, one sitting in the middle of the system. Well, someone else can have that. It's late and I'm far from home.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sigil, w-space, zephyr

Good bad timing

Nothing has been scanned yet, and there are two new signatures in the home system. I like a mystery! Aww, a blanket scan shows that both signatures are too weak to be K162 wormholes, which probably helps explain why all our anomalies are still around. They're probably just gas sites. Yep, a vast and minor pocket. Maybe there is more mystery next door, so I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

Two bubbles and three mobile depots appear on my directional scanner, and nothing sits out of range. That's a little disappointing, particularly now that a Buzzard covert operations boat is visible on d-scan. I hold my session-change cloak and keep updating d-scan, and still the Buzzard lingers. Maybe I should just throw probes out and see if I can find his position, particularly if the cov-ops is at one of the mobile depots.

Decloak, launch, blanket. The Buzzard has gone. With any luck, he left before he had a chance of seeing my Loki strategic cruiser appear on d-scan. Or maybe it won't matter. My scan reveals nine anomalies and thirteen signatures, but I concentrate on resolving the mobile depots over finding wormholes, in case the Buzzard reappears. I get lucky, with a mobile depot and wormhole on my first result, but the wormhole's only a static exit to low-sec that's at the end of its life.

My probes focus on a second depot, followed by a Stratios cruiser on a wormhole. That's me rumbled, I suppose. With no point hiding my probes, I drill down to the Stratios, resolving the cruiser and the wormhole it's sitting on at the same time, before throwing my probes out of the system just in case the pilot is slow with d-scan. I warp to the Stratios's position, and end up in empty space. That's a bit rum, as the wormhole surely can't have collapsed. No, the cruiser was in warp, just barely, during my last scan.

I warp instead to the wormhole I resolved, landing next to a K162 from high-sec. The Stratios dropped from d-scan briefly but now is back. Where? Did he go through a wormhole, is he visiting a mobile depot? More interesting than either of those options, the cruiser is in an anomaly. It looks like we have a high-sec tourist to poke with sticks. I warp in to take a look, sure enough seeing the Stratios engaging Sleepers, but he's also nowhere near the anomaly's cosmic signature and is barrelling along at a rate of knots.

The Stratios will be difficult to catch if he keeps this up. I retreat to a perch and continue to observe his behaviour, seeing the ship pause by one of the Sleeper wrecks. That's slowed him down. Still, he's not guaranteed to stay there, so I have no reliable anchor to warp to to catch him. I'll need to use a cloaky ship, and probably one with a bit more offensive power than my Loki. We have a Legion strategic cruiser that ought to do the job, I just need to go home and get it. I think the ambush is worth a try.

I warp to our K162 and approach it, as I nearly always cautious during system transitions, and update d-scan before jumping home. I immediately cancel my approach. I turn my Loki around and warp back to the perch in the anomaly, not because I think I stand a better chance in my Loki after all, I just want to go back in time to be a spectator, having just seen a small fleet appear in the system. That Stratios is being jumped without my help.

I drop out of warp to see the aftermath, a bunch of red skulls in a Curse recon ship, Arazu recon ship, Cerberus heavy assault cruiser, Keres electronic attack frigate, and Scythe logistics cruiser milling around some wrecks. Not the wreck of the Stratios, though, not as far as I can make out. There is a non-Sleeper wreck, but it looks to be that of a Helios cov-ops that perhaps tried to tackle the Stratios and got popped by the Sleepers. I don't know, I wasn't here.

The red skulls don't hang around for long, clearing the pocket by warping towards the star once the ambush is over. The Stratios pilot mourns the loss of his drones, but I imagine he's happy to keep his ship. Me, I'm glad that my timing was both a little off and good. I could have gone in guns blazing in my Loki and got caught in the crossfire. But that's the w-space environment, and it would have been an experience that way too. Now the system is quiet—after a Proteus strategic cruiser comes and goes. Well, as quiet as it was, which is to say: who knows?

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, cerberus, curse, eve online, helios, keres, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, scythe, stratios, w-space

Aligned and zipping

A new day, a new constellation. Only the one signature in the home system makes my first step straightforward, and I jump through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. My directional scanner is clear from the other side of the wormhole, with two of the system's ten planets in range.

Launching probes and performing a blanket scan reveals nine anomalies and five signatures, but no ships. My notes are relatively old, listing no occupation and a static exit to null-sec. Checking for structures with my probes doesn't find anything beyond an off-line tower on a far planet. My notes remain valid, and I hope there is more than just the static wormhole to find.

Two chubby signatures give me hope for possible K162s, but they're both gas and I have to dive in to the weak signatures to look for the K346. There's the wormhole, with signature identifier ZRZ, and I enter warp off to see the wizard of nullz. Or not, with the bastard wormhole wobbling away at the end of its life.

The night's still young, I can collapse our connection and start again. I go home, grab a massive ship, and shove it through the wormhole. Swapping Orca industrial command ship for Widow black ops ship slams half the wormhole's potential mass, yet the connection remains stable. That's good, as it guarantees two more fat Orca round trips, with wormhole death assured at the end. Job's a good 'un.

Good work, Penny! Your reward is to start all over again, with nothing yet to show for your efforts. Well, once I'm back in my Loki strategic cruiser, that is. I don't fancy scanning in the Orca, and manage to belay the warp command that was taking me outside of our tower's force field to launch probes. In the correct ship, I resolve the replacement static wormhole and jump to—hopefully—a different class 3 system.

I see occupation this time, d-scan showing me a tower within range of the K162, but still no ships. There is more space out there, though, so I warp away to launch probes, performing a blanket scan to reveal nine anomalies and eleven signatures. No ships. At least my notes from just under a year ago give me the tower's location, saving me a little time. The static wormhole also exits to low-sec, which will be a nice, fat signature to resolve.

Are there any other wormholes too? I dunno about that, but a ship appears on a fresh blanket scan. I swap to d-scan and see a Venture mining frigate new to the system, just as I am warping to a far planet to check for a possible second tower. There isn't one, but at least the Venture remains when I return to the tower. He's not actually in the tower, though, which is curious.

Probes join the Venture on d-scan. Perhaps he is looking for gas clouds to suck on. Maybe I can catch him. Hmm, his distance from the tower is under 1 AU. That sounds like it will be really easy to scan his current position, and a kill is a kill, whether there's a gas cloud present or not. I arrange my probes around the planet, make sure I have decent coverage, and scan.

That was easy. I resolve the Venture's position to 100% on a single scan, and hurriedly get my probes back out of the system, hidden from d-scan, as I warp to the mining frigate. Now, let's see how cautious the pilot is being. Pretty cautious, it seems, as the Venture is aligned to the planet, or one of its moons, and even if he isn't moving very fast it's better than my Loki can achieve cloaked.

The Venture may be aligned and ready to warp, but that doesn't mean he's paying attention. Seeing that my Loki isn't going to get closer, I drop my cloak to see if I can catch the pilot distracted by scanning. I activate my sensor booster as the sensor recalibration delay from decloaking wears off, and aim for a positive target lock, burning towards the Venture to get within warp scrambler range. Nope, he's alert enough, warping clear before my target lock completes.

On reflection, I suppose I could have got closer, bouncing of the moon he was aligned too and getting ahead of the Venture. I doubt I could have given the frigate a bump significant enough to prevent him warping clear, but it would have given me a better opportunity. As it is, the Venture disappears from the system before returning with two friends, one another scanning boat that cloaks, the other a pod that sits quite obviously on a wormhole. I'm not going to be suckered in to an ambush today, so leave the now-prepared pilots alone, instead heading home to go off-line.

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Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, venture, w-space, widow

Hearing of a hacking Heron

More anomalies have popped up in the home system, but another K162 today too, this one from class 4 w-space. My glorious leader is around, somewhere, I'm not sure where, although it's obvious she has scanned her way through our neighbouring class 3 w-space system and out to empire space. There's no bookmark for the other side of that K162, though, so I jump through to touch the system.

A black hole is pretty obvious, and my directional scanner shows me a tower in the system, but I can't see any ships. I warp away, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan, revealing seventeen anomalies, ten signatures, and still no ships. And here's Fin, telling me that the K162 has been around for hours, her having come on-line some time ago to scan. Now she mentions it, all the signatures look stale as well. I give them a poke anyway but there's nothing of interest.

I leave the inactive C4 system alone and cross our home system to jump to C3a, where Fin has launched probes to scan for the new exit. The previously found static wormhole to low-sec has died of old age. Whilst she looks for the new U210, there are a couple of K162s from null-sec that may be worth visiting. One isn't, the wormhole from Venal now at the end of its life, but the other remains healthy and takes me to a system in Malpais. There are no signatures to scan, but no pilots in the system either, letting me find and pop a rat to pass the time.

C3a's new static wormhole is found. I warp to Fin and see a wormhole shimmering with the nebulae of the four main high-sec regions, which I think means Sinq Laison is on the other side. I exit w-space to find out, and am indeed in a system in Sinq Laison, with four other signatures to scan to boot. I scan the signatures, finding two wormholes, a combat site, and a data site, resolving and bookmarking the latter in case it comes in handy. Low-sec exploration sites get the occasional visitors.

Both wormholes in the low-sec system have class 3 w-space on the other side, one an X702 outbound connection at the end of its life, the other a K162. That's the way I like my options. I jump to C3b, update d-scan, and check the system map. There's not much to see. D-scan is clear and there is only one anomaly and three signatures in the system. I launch probes and blanket the system anyway as I check my notes, seeing that this is my eleventh visit. That seems like a lot.

There have been changes since my last visit. The blanket scan adds a ship to the anomaly and signatures, and looking for it finds a tower that wasn't around six months ago. Mind you, occupation was almost guaranteed, considering how few sites there are. I get close enough to the tower to see the ship is an Iteron hauler, but that has changed to a shuttle that is no longer in the tower by the time I get to the right moon. Well, that's a sign of activity, I suppose, but maybe of finished activity.

I warp to the low-sec exit, knowing I'm much too late to see the fast-accelerating shuttle if it came this way, and Fin hits low-sec from C3a, but also no doubt too late to see if the shuttle passed through. Still, the pilot bringing back a bigger ship is our best hope for activity at the moment. That, and scanning. I check out the signatures in C3b, the one possible K162 actually being a K162, but only from null-sec, the winged sprite indicating Feythabolis being the originating region. Let's hope the shuttle returns.

Some pilots pass through low-sec, so Fin tells me, but they do just pass through. What do we do normally do when we've stalled? 'Eat chocolate', she says, which sounds like a good plan. But the plan goes awry when a new pilot enters the low-sec system, launching probes to scan. I point Fin to the bookmark I made of the data site, in case the pilot is looking for that and not wormholes, but keep myself in C3b in case an extra pilot in the same corporation as Fin spooks him. 'The Heron is in the site.'

I urge Fin to kill the frigate. After a pause, she tells me she got it. Excellent. The pilot was probably distracted by hacking. It was either his first site of the evening or he's careful about stashing loot, as his wreck is empty of anything but surviving modules. It's good that we don't do this for the ISK. And that looks like it for tonight. The C3b pilot hasn't come back and I don't care to wait much longer, and although as I head home another pilot starts scanning in low-sec, all I see is a Stratios cruiser blip on d-scan as he hops a stargate.

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Tags: eve online, heron, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, stratios, w-space

Not bothering with a bubble

My glorious leader has been busy scanning. Our static wormhole is bookmarked, as is a K162 from class 2 w-space, along with a class 3 system behind that C2 and a high-sec exit. However, there are no bookmarks for C3a, the neighbouring system through our static wormhole, so I head that way to take a first look. There's not much to see, though, my directional scanner showing me only a mobile depot somewhere in space.

Launching probes and performing a blanket scan sees little else, with no ships to suggest activity. Indeed, there's no occupation either, leaving me with six anomalies and eight signatures to sift through. The signatures are a bunch of weaklings too, almost making this a chore. My notes, from around two weeks ago, indicate there being a static exit to null-sec, so I'll have to drill down to resolve those weak signatures to find the K346 out of here.

Relics, gas, data, relics, a thankfully chubby wormhole, and the obvious K346. Scanning complete, I recall my probes and head towards the K162, but it's only another null-sec connection, this one coming in to w-space instead of leading out. The region beyond the K162 is quite obviously Cloud Ring, with the cloud ring itself making a stripe across the wormhole instead of a ring. Checking the K346 sees the dancing man of Malpais, so that exit will take me to Outer Passage.

I go to Cloud Ring first, where there are a handful of pilots, a whole load of rat wrecks, and a Noctis salvager somewhere. There's also visibility in the local communication channel, so even though the locals are friendly they quickly squirrel up. I don't blame them. They can get back to ratting, though, as there are no other signatures in the system beyond the wormhole I'm sitting on, so I lose interest and head back to w-space.

Across C3a and a brief diversion to the mobile depot that I took time to resolve the position of. I shoot it until it enters reinforced mode, which doesn't take much, but the 48h period of reinforced mode makes a mockery of wormhole dynamics, the owner almost certainly being able to return and claim his loot without threat. Our static wormhole will only connect to this C3 for sixteen hours, and I'm not isolating myself from home just to mildly inconvenience someone else.

Onwards, through the K346 to Outer Passage, where a dozen pilots are in the system, none in range of d-scan, and one extra signature isn't enough to convince me to scan. Back to C3a and home. Now what? Across to C2a to follow behind Fin, I suppose, where she's not wrong about it being a farm system. Towers are everywhere, my notes listing 'at least twenty-five'. I don't care to count them today, either.

It seems like the C2a occupants have a good policy of not leaving ships floating empty inside force fields, and although it doesn't look like Tarunik Redshirt is home for today's visit there are a few ships dotted around. As I find some, others appear, looking to be brought in through the high-sec connection. I suppose it's possible we could potentially surprise an industrial ship coming in, but so far it looks to be an Anomalous Existence operation to bring in combat ships.

I like Mick's style for suggesting we bubble the high-sec wormhole and force a fight, although I think it would be more a matter of bubbling the wormhole and dying to a superior fleet. As we consider this, Fin spies a Sacrilege heavy assault cruiser on the connection to our home system. I don't know what this means. Maybe that I actually quite fancy a quiet night in for a change. The HAC warps away, Fin jumps home to test the waters—the wormhole is clear, d-scan is clear—so I follow and put the plan in to effect. A quiet night in it is.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, sacrilege, w-space

Scouting to strategic cruisers

Man, even our two ore sites have gone. What kind of despicable pilot would activate them just because they can, denying others their utility perhaps only because they can't make use of them themselves? I dunno, bunch of savages in w-space. At least two new anomalies have popped up to take their place, not that there's much I can do about them at the moment. There's just our static wormhole to go with them too, giving me the one direction to go.

In to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system and I update my directional scanner to see a tower and a ship. It's a carrier, the Thanatos unlikely to be piloted, let alone doing anything. I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan, revealing ten anomalies, seven signatures, and that one ship. I'll scan my way out of this system as I did with home. Data site, weak wormhole—not the static exit to low-sec—gas, wormhole, gas, wormhole.

The U210 to Metropolis is joined by a K162 from low-sec The Forge. What's the outbound connection? Hey, it goes to class 1 w-space. I like the looks of that, so ignore the low-sec exits and enter C1a. D-scan is clear on the other side of the wormhole, and a blanket scan reveals five anomalies and twenty-one signatures, no ships. There's occupation, though, on a distant planet, as well as a black hole that I'm only just noticing. That's a bit of a drag.

Scanning C1a finds lots of gas, a bit of data, and two wormholes. The first is the static exit to low-sec, the other disappointingly empty space, wagging a vacuous finger at me for apparently taking so long to scan that the wormhole collapsed of old age. Whatever, space can suck it. I head to low-sec, ending up in a system in Placid engaged in faction warfare, but with a few extra signatures. I check them, resolving two wormholes and ignoring a combat and gas site each, and giving me a choice between a pair of C3 K162s. Which to choose?

C3b before C3c, and I spy a tower and Tengu in the system. There's not much to scan either, a mere eight anomalies and three signatures present, and I can do that after I check on the strategic cruiser. Hey, it's piloted. Idling, though. I'm not waiting around like I did last night, and I'm not bothering to scan either. A blanket scan shows that only one of the three signatures is chubby, and that will be the U210, which I came through. Back to low-sec with me and across and in to C3c.

Bah, 7·6 km from the wormhole on entry is not a positive sign. A tower is visible on d-scan, the lack of ships not much of a surprise, and I'm ready to turn around and return to low-sec. I perform a blanket scan anyway, checking for ships and revealing none, but having launched probes I am tempted to use them properly. I sift through the eleven anomalies and ten signatures, focussing on the handful of chubsters, and pluck out some wormholes.

The first connection is an N968 leading to more class 3 w-space, but I haven't just opened it, given that it is wobbling away at the end of its life. A second wormhole is K162 from class 4 w-space, healthy. The third is a second outbound connection, also EOL, this one a T405 to class 4 w-space. I'll poke the K162 and call it a night.

Jumping to C4a and updating d-scan sees a tower and two ships, but the Typhoon battleship doesn't look to be creating Sleeper wrecks and the Astero frigate has no probes obviously whizzing around space. There are, however, customs offices in reinforced mode scattered around the planets. The shortest timer is a few hours from now, so even if the locals plan to come out and replace some structures I won't be waiting around.

I am about to leave when a Loki strategic cruiser appears on d-scan. I don't think it's mine. And I'm actually on my way to bouncing off a distant planet before leaving, too late in seeing the Loki to cancel warp, heading out this way expecting to see nothing but instead finding a second tower. There are no other ships out here, though, so I return to the first tower to see what the Loki's doing. He's idling in the local tower with his Tengu colleague. How interesting.

The pair of strategic cruisers are joined by a third, this one a Proteus, which decloaks near the Loki. Presumably the Proteus is back from scouting. Was I spotted on my way in? Well, I'm not currently being baited by a tanked hauler with the cloaky Proteus nearby, so maybe not. I'm not in the mood for that either, so with the strategic cruisers idling, it looks like it's time to go home.

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Tags: astero, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, tengu, thanatos, typhoon, w-space

Losing my eyeline

Maybe I'll just have a quick poke around tonight. Nothing fancy or extended. Well, I definitely won't be shooting Sleepers, seeing that all our anomalies have been stolen, bastards. Perhaps one of the handful of new signatures will lead to the culprits. I dunno about that, but we've certainly had some visitors today, with two K162s from class 2 w-space and a K162 from class 5 w-space connecting to us.

I'll visit the systems in the order I found them, probably just poking my nose in for a superficial scouting. In to C2a first. My directional scanner shows me a tower and no ships, and the discovery scanner reveals, cripes, thirty-one anomalies and thirteen signatures. Do your own sites, arseholes. Is anything else out there? It's a pretty big system, end-to-end, but a waste of time in crossing it. Nothing more to see.

A blanket scan doesn't find any ships and there are no more on-line towers, leaving me to locate the active one for my notes and decide that I've finished here. I don't care to scan for the static exit to high-sec. If I get podded, so be it. Living w-space life on the edge tonight. No, hold on, one more activity before I leave: activate all the anomalies. Being a big system, giving all the warp commands, even when cancelled, kills my capacitor a couple of times. I hope the locals appreciate what I've done for them.

Home, and on to C2b, where d-scan shows me a tower and no ships again, but the system holds a more sensible eight anomalies and five signatures. You may keep them. I'm gracious that way. The tower is easy enough to locate, being around a planet with a single moon, despite other choices available. Just the one planet lurks outside of d-scan range, but warping over there finds nothing else of interest. I could launch probes and scan, but I think I'll just move on.

Or maybe I'll hang around, when finally warping to the tower in C2b pulls me in to range of not only a second and third tower, but also a whole bunch of ships. I forgot that a couple of planets in the middle of the system were slightly out of range. D-scan now shows me a Viator transport, Thrasher destroyer, Noctis salvage, Purifier stealth bomber, Magnate frigate, Bestower hauler, Basilisk logistics ship, Atron frigate, and Anathema covert operations boat. That's some coincidence that one tower was only just in range of the wormhole and holds none of the ships.

Finding the ships sees the Magnate and Bestower at one tower, the hauler piloted, and the rest of the ships at the other tower, all empty. Maybe I can watch the Bestower for a bit. Or maybe I can warp away and launch probes, in case the Bestower moves to a wormhole I don't yet know about. Okay, I launch probes, warp back to the tower to watch the Bestower, then warp to the actual tower where the Bestower is and not the one with no ships. Either way, I start watching an idle hauler.

I think this Bestower really is idle. I'm almost certainly wasting my time watching it. I'll make a quick scan for wormholes, then hit the C5. Aww, dammit, my first scan picks up two wormholes and an industrial ship. I ignored all known ships from the results, so this one is new to the system, will be piloted, and has probably seen my probes. That's bad timing.

Updating d-scan sees the Mammoth hauler, and a finer d-scan puts him at the third tower. Did he just come back from high-sec, or is he newly on-line? I can't tell, but I watch him do nothing instead of the Bestower. Okay, back to scanning. I started, so I'll finish, and put the kibosh on the Mammoth wanting to do anything. Two wormholes and, bloody hell, a new ship, a second Bestower! Bad timing. He warps to the tower with the Mammoth, although it looks like he actually replaces the Mammoth. One blinks off-line as the other appears, and the pilots look to be related.

More industrial ships appear from nowhere. An Epithal hauler first, followed by a second Epithal. Well, if they're going to be like that, I'll pop home for a minute. I'm not letting another ship get away from me because of some stupid design. A quick refit and I'm back watching a hauler do nothing, whether it's a Bestower, Epithal, or Epithal, Bestower. Whatever. One of the Epithals finally starts to move, and I lose my eyeline as soon as it does, 'look at' not being an entirely descriptive action this time. That's frustrating.

I see where the Epithal goes, but late, and it takes me valuable seconds to get in to warp to follow. I'm aiming for the customs office, hoping the Epithal went there too, not quite sure if there is also a tower out by that planet. I'm a little disorientated. But there he is, scooping goo from the customs office, if a little far from me at the moment. I'll take what I can get, though, and decloak, activate my sensor booster, and burn towards my target.

The Epithal's already turning by the time my Loki strategic cruiser appears, and in the few seconds it takes for my recalibration delay from decloaking to dissipate the hauler is accelerating in to warp. I don't even manage to get a positive lock. I'm just left floating in empty space. I could have caught him if I hadn't lost tracking when he initiated warp. I hope that was a glitch and not changed behaviour, or I'll never catch another gooer. Well, whatever, the Epithal returns to his tower and goes off-line. I'll cut my losses and do the same, particularly as this was meant to be a quick session. It's not been a terribly successful evening.

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Tags: anathema, atron, basilisk, bestower, epithal, eve online, loki, magnate, mammoth, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, scanning, thrasher, viator, w-space

Night of the class 2 system

There's not much to report at home. Probably. That one new signature could be a wormhole, but it feels like gas. I burp some probes in to space and scan, resolving myself a second wormhole. Okay, then, let's take a look. Well, that will be our static wormhole, making this a poor guess, but one easily remedied. A second warp takes me to the K162, and a little jump sends me to class 2 w-space.

Updating my directional scanner in C2a sees a tower and ships, but with no wrecks also visible I doubt the two marauders are up to much, and are likely idling with their Curse recon ship buddy. I warp to distant planets that my notes from six months ago have holding towers, and launch probes on finding them gone. A blanket scan reveals little, just eleven anomalies and three signatures, plus the three ships I know about.

Locating the towers finds the Golem piloted and most certainly idle, the Vargur piloted and idle but maybe less so than the Golem, and the Curse empty. I can scan the signatures quickly before anyone notices. Gas and the static exit to high-sec, with the Vargur blinking off-line as I recall my probes. Fair enough, I'll go somewhere else.

Exiting C2a to high-sec puts me in a system in Metropolis, nowhere convenient. I launch probes to scan the three extra signatures, trying to give myself something to do to soak up the wormhole polarisation time. It's good to be safe sometimes, even if I doubt anyone is waiting for me. Combat site, relics, and a wormhole. That's good, because it didn't take me anywhere near five minutes to scan.

The wormhole in high-sec is an R943 connection, leading to class 2 w-space. That's pretty neat. I jump through and update d-scan, but appearing 6·8 km from the locus on entry doesn't get my hopes up. One lone drone. Is there anything else out there? I imagine so, as the system is vast and only one planet is currently in d-scan range. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and wait for the results before warping off to explore.

Four anomalies, seventeen signatures, no ships. One planet has a load of structures around it, and heading that way finds a tower, but obviously no one is home. I scan. One, two, three wormholes and two gas sites around the first planet. Four gas sites and one data site on the next. That leaves five more gas sites and a data site at the other three planets. The wormholes are a static exit to high-sec Metropolis in pristine condition, a K162 from class 2 w-space, and a neat-looking static wormhole to class 1 w-space. I'll go there.

D-scan is clear from the K162 in C1a, with not much out of range. I look anyway, combat scanning probes picking up eight anomalies and five signatures, still no ships, even with a tower at the far planet. I poke the signatures for wormholes, not expecting much and not getting much. The static exit to low-sec is expected, and a C2 K162 is less attractive than the one behind me, given that this one is at the end of its life. Back I go.

I return to C2b and move on to C2c, d-scan showing me three towers, a Mackinaw exhumer, Retriever mining barge, and Basilisk logistics ship. Space is also showing me a couple of reinforced structures, customs offices, I'm guessing. If the mining ships did that, I'm not sure I want to tussle with them. I doubt I'll get that opportunity anyway, as neither ship is in either ore site.

My notes from eight months ago give me the locations of the three towers, which is handy, but list the static connections as going to class 4 w-space and high-sec, yet I came from class 2 w-space. That discrepancy is easy to check, particularly as only the Retriever is piloted, and the barge is floating next to an operating refinery. No one is paying attention. Scan, scan, and class 4 w-space and high-sec it is. My notes are good.

Time is marching on. I can poke through to C4a anyway, just to have a look. A tower, no ships, not much of anything. Three anomalies, two signatures, and I'm sitting on one of them. How can I resist scanning it? I can't. Huh, it's the night of class 2 w-space, which is where C4a's static wormhole leads. Of course, I take a look, where d-scan shows me a tower but no ships. I'll list occupation as 'yes' and head back.

C4a to C2c, where the Retriever remains idle, to C2b and out to high-sec. Crossing high-sec puts me at C2a's K162, where I check my log and, yes, I think my polarisation timer has expired. I continue back the way I came, with a Tengu strategic cruiser and Curse now in C2a, but still no wrecks, and I easily ignore them to jump home. It's been a fair old night of scanning, enough to make me curl up in a corner of the system without even checking through our static wormhole. I'm sure it will be there tomorrow.

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Tags: basilisk, cures, eve online, golem, mackinaw, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, tengu, vargur, w-space

Taking on a Talos

Hello, there's a Talos on the wormhole home. The battlecruiser isn't really blocking my way, as I'm sure I can evade a single ship on a wormhole, but what else do the pilots of this class 5 w-space system have around? I've been at a distant tower, watching a hauler do nothing for a little while, and trying to monitor other changes using my directional scanner, but it seems this Talos slipped my attention. If the battlecruiser did, what else did?

'Raven, new in C3a', says my glorious leader, spotting the battleship in our neighbouring class 3 system, through the static wormhole on the other side of our home system. 'Heading your way.' That is, Fin is heading my way. The Raven is local to C3a and idling inside the tower. Fin is coming to see what we can do about the Talos. Shoot it, I reckon.

What ships should we use? What assumptions should we make? We should assume it's not alone, and that it will almost certainly jump through the wormhole at some point if we get the advantage. We have plenty of ship choice at our tower, but maybe we're better just to engage in our cloaky Loki strategic cruisers, so that we can evade whatever else will appear when we engage. As for wormhole transits, we should avoid becoming polarised. That should be possible, with us currently either side of this wormhole. One can chase, one can sit and wait.

Our plan, such as it is, seems good enough to try. Good enough to encourage Fin to bring a Legion strategic cruiser to the party instead. That would make evasion more awkward, but give us a much more potent ship in the fray. Here she comes, the wormhole crackling to indicate her jump, and I wait for the Legion to start shooting the Talos before revealing my own ship.

Fin has the Talos locked and disrupted, so I can safely decloak and soak up the recalibration delay without fear of the battlecruiser warping clear. I gain a positive lock on our target and open fire, waiting for the wormhole crackle that signals the Talos's exit. Nothing yet, though. There's no retaliation either. I don't mean that help doesn't arrive, but that the Talos doesn't shoot back.

The battlecruiser explodes with a little encouragement, and I grab the pod and prevent it from fleeing. We have a few seconds before it could escape through the wormhole, so as soon as I see missiles launching towards the pod from Fin's Legion I help crack it open with my autocannons. And all is quiet. That was curiously straightforward.

I loot what I can from the wreck and shoot what we can't carry, before heading home. I jump first, checking the other side of the wormhole for a potential ambush, but all is clear. Fin comes back unmolested too. It seems we simply caught the Talos snoozing on a wormhole. That's not a great place to wander away from the controls, more so when you have seven hundred million ISK of implants in your clone's head.

'Do you want to see if our other neighbours are also feeling foolish?' Sure, why not. We warp across to our static wormhole, Fin jumping ahead of me. 'It doesn't look promising', with the locals still sitting quietly inside the force field of their tower. I circle our K162 as Fin checks through the high-sec exit. 'No oranges.' Even a newly arrived Mammoth doesn't do anything, coming on-line apparently to idle with his colleagues. We give him a few minutes, but there's no change. That's okay, we got a mildly interesting kill with the Talos, which makes for a good evening.

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Tags: eve online, legion, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, talos, w-space