Looking for a Loki

Our ore anomalies have disappeared. This makes me sad. Oh well, I'll get over it. A new signature in the home system is a K162 from class 3 w-space. I know this, because my glorious leader knows this. Specifically, Fin's in C3b taking a look around. 'I have not been to C3a yet.' Then I shall head that way myself!

Jumping through our static wormhole and updating my directional scanner sees a tower, Orca industrial command ship, and Loki strategic cruiser. I also see some drones, but without any Sleeper wrecks visible I doubt they are significant. Oh, and there's the canister we mischievously dropped off-grid from a wormhole a few Christmas Eves ago.

The Orca is at the tower, according to a tight d-scan beam, but not the Loki. The strategic cruiser isn't in one of the ten anomalies either. Maybe he's at one of the four signatures. I'll have to hunt his position with scanning probes, which is made somewhat problematic by the system being tiny. I have nowhere to hide from d-scan. Never mind. I decloak, launch and throw probes out of the system, and re-cloak, not waiting for the launcher to reload.

Now to pinpoint the Loki's position. It's not easy, the Loki being high above the ecliptic plane, but I get the ship within a five-degree d-scan beam. I gauge his range at 2·9 AU or so, and start arranging my probes around his position when the Loki disappears. Cloaked or jumped?

Jumped, probably. He's back, and in the same position. If he jumped he will even be polarised, so I make a quick final check of my probes—they look good—and call them in for a scan. The Loki is on a wormhole, probably the static exit to null-sec judging by its weak signature. I warp to get close, and although the wormhole appears in front of me the Loki is gone.

Gone, but not out of the system. The ship is still on d-scan. Now he's gone, which probably means another wormhole. I reload my launcher, relaunch my probes, and scan more roughly. I resolve a wormhole, a K162 from null-sec. That other signature could also be a wormhole, and as it is quite chubby it won't take long to check. Yep, a third connection. I'll ignore that for now and poke through this K162 to look for the Loki.

The K162 takes me to a system in Fountain, where one pilot is in the local channel and a Tengu is on d-scan. And off d-scan. This isn't the strategic cruiser I'm looking for. Back to C3a and across to the other wormhole. Bah, a T405, leading out to class 4 w-space. It would be peculiar if the Loki originated through that connection. Still, either he came this way or went off-line. Or, I suppose, hopped a stargate in Fountain.

I poke the K346 in C3a for information, landing in a system in Branch with two pilots somewhere but no ships in d-scan range. Time to check C4a. Jumping through the T405 and updating d-scan sees nothing, and opening the system map shows just the one planet in range. Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals twelve anomalies, twelve signatures, no ships, and exploring locates a single tower. The Loki has gone, so it's back to normal-mode, scanning for wormholes.

My probes pick up a wormhole. It's not a strong signature, so it won't be a K162 but the static connection. A second wormhole must therefore be a K162, given that C4 w-space doesn't have wandering wormholes, but it's only a dying K162 from class 5 w-space. That it's at the end of its life isn't good for exploration, or for finding activity. Or, indeed, for the health of C4a's static wormhole, a P060 to class 1 w-space.

The static wormhole is also at the end of its life, no doubt opened by the C5 scouts, and perhaps liked by them too, as the connection is also stressed to half mass. That's nice, but that makes it pretty much useless to me. It looks like I've hit a soft dead end, and it's late enough that I'll just turn around and head home. There's one last task to perform, though. With Fin's help, we move a ship from a construction bay to our hangar, ready to be fitted.

Posted in Gaming | 6 Comments »
Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, revelation, scanning, tengu, w-space

Marvel as you ascend in to your planar form

I'm not really here yet, but it would be wise to check the state of the home system. It won't take long. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and see that all is fine. I'm very protective of our ore anomalies. I take care of a bit of business and return a handful of minutes later to be here proper, repeating the blanket scan to see no change. Good. I shall explore.

Resolving our static wormhole and jumping through sends me to a system I last visited a year earlier, when I podded a pilot not in his Imicus scanning frigate, then popped the frigate. That was a curious one. My notes also tell me that the static exit leads to null-sec, which will be amongst the nine anomalies and eight signatures.

Reconnoitring the class 3 w-space system finds the previously noted tower gone, and no ships and no activity to report. I call my probes in to see who else connects to this system. First hit is a wormhole, a chubby one too, but it's only an N968 outbound connection to another C3. I've probably just opened it too, starting the slim window of opportunity available before the discovery scanner kicks in on the other side. I'd best use it.

I recall my probes and jump to C3b. I only scanned one signature in C3a, I'm pretty sure I know where I left off. I may even go back, because there's little to see. Nothing on my directional scanner from the wormhole, a blanket scan reveals eleven anomalies and nine signatures, but no ships, and exploring finds no occupation. Still, I'm here, I may as well scan here.

The static exit to low-sec is expected, and a second wormhole looks good until I warp to it. Just a K162 from null-sec. Pure Blind, by the looks of it, the mix of the Malpais and Cloud Ring nebulae being quite distinctive. A third wormhole waits until last to be found, being a weak signature. That makes it an outbound connection. I'll leave that for the moment and check the exits.

The K162 does indeed take me to Pure Blind, where a ghost site in a system empty of pilots is tempting. Tempting enough to spur me in to action. I head home, change the fitting of my Loki strategic cruiser, and return to the null-sec system that remains empty of pilots. Align to the site, cloak, and enter warp. Decloak as I decelerate in to the site, lock on to each container, and scan their contents.

Mobile depot blueprints, ho-hum. I've seen them recently, and the ones I collected haven't sold yet. But, huh, that Ascendancy Alpha blueprint has got to be worth something. I move as quickly as my micro warp drive can push me towards that can, scanning the other two for completeness. An Ascendancy Epsilon blueprint too. This is quite the site.

I'm at the container with the Alpha BP, so it makes sense to hack in to this one first rather than be afflicted by indecision. Hack, hack, hack. Click, clickety click. Randomness and chance work in my favour! A couple of helpful nodes and an easily found core cracks open the can. I grab the Ascendancy Alpha BP and burn towards the one holding the Epsilon.

Rats! My combat instincts kick in and I reflexively activate my cloak. It even works. I've moved sufficiently far from the cracked can but not too close to the intervening rats, and my Loki submerges in space. I cut my speed and turn my ship around to head back to the wormhole, not wanting to stay for the fireworks.

No Ascendancy Epsilon blueprint for me, but Alpha has got to be better, right? 'Um... no', says Fin. I think it's all much of a muchness, examining the details, and at least I got one of them out of the site. The only problem now is getting the BP to market, as we have no convenient route at the moment. Never mind, it can wait for now.

I explore some more, after ditching the blueprint back at our tower and restoring my Loki's fit. There's not much out there. The weak wormhole in C3b is an I182 outbound link to a C2, which holds an active tower protected by less bubbles than an off-line tower in the same system, and wormholes to class 1 w-space and high-sec. High-sec Domain, in fact, but an exit that's seven hops from Amarr, after a few through w-space. It's not great.

The C1 connection from C2a also has occupation but no activity, and just one chubby signature amongst the fourteen present. What are the odds that it's the static wormhole? It's hard to tell when warping to the resolved signature lands me in empty space. Waiting for a minute doesn't change the emptiness of space, and no new signatures appear under my probes, so I must have resolved a dying K162. It happens sometimes, and I don't much care to dive in to weak signatures this late in the evening. Time to head home and rest, happy to have hacked my way in to an interesting container.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Marvel as you ascend in to your planar form
Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Mobile boring unit

I'm about to recall my probes, but my curiosity gets the better of me. What type of static wormhole does this class 5 w-space system hold? It's not a particularly interesting question, admittedly, but there may be a reason why the system is unoccupied. I have time to find out, so call my probes in to scan the eleven signatures. There's just the one wormhole, making it the static connection, and warping across sees it to be a plain H296. A C5/C5 system seems pretty normal, so maybe this one will be occupied soon enough.

I've found the wormhole, it would be churlish not to poke through, at least for a quick look. Ships! No tower! And, sure, core probes that are probably already resolving this K162, but my directional scanner is showing me activity. I can stay a little longer, particularly as it looks like I have options for which activity to miss out on. Two Venture mining frigates can't be with the main fleet of six Dominix battleships and a Legion strategic cruiser, and the Noctis salvage may not be guarded by them, judging by the number of Sleeper wrecks being created.

A Helios covert operations boat warps to the K162, cloaks, thinks twice about cloaking, and reveals himself to make long, lazy orbits of the wormhole. That's cool, I've moved away and cloaked already, and I'm not foolish enough to take a punt at an agile and cloaky cov-ops when there are better targets available. Sure, the better targets are now aware of a wormhole in to this system, and they have a scout watching the wormhole, but I'm pretty sure I sneaked in under their radar.

I'm in the system. Is there anything I can do? I ping d-scan around looking for the ships. The Ventures must be sucking on gas, as they aren't in an ore anomaly. I'd have to scan for them, and launching probes doesn't seem like a good idea for staying unseen. I find the Dominices finishing a site, but without the Legion. Is the strategic cruiser merely providing boosts? His distant position and solitude suggests so, and I hope his is boosting and not guarding the Noctis. What Noctis, Penny? Good question.

The last Sleepers are destroyed in the site, and the battleships recall their probes and sit still. The Noctis is not on d-scan, and apart from Venture comings and goings there really isn't anything to see or report. Perhaps I should simply warp to some of the distant Sleeper battleship wrecks, steal twenty million ISK or so of loot, and be on my way. Ah, but here's some Dominix movement, just as the Noctis reappears on d-scan.

The salvager warps in to nestle amongst his Dominix buddies, which isn't an encouraging sight. Even less encouraging, he drops a dumb mobile tractor unit. Hard to kill, less risk to the defender, and zero fun to shoot. What a silly unit. It doesn't provoke interaction in w-space, it discourages it. As if to prove all this, once the Dominices warp out—not to collapse the K162, thankfully—the Noctis pulls range on the MTU and cloaks. Lazy, slow, inefficient bastard.

I suppose I just have to be patient, wait for the MTU to finish its tedious task, and jump the Noctis as it scoops the unit, releasing the delicious blue loot from within. Really quite patient. More patient than I think I care to be. The MTU really is quite slow, pulling in one wreck at a time. But who's going to stop it? If I had the firepower to kill it quickly I'd be gunning for the fleet, and if I try to do it now I'll get almost no loot and probably shooed by the fleet returning to protect their booty.

Someone has been spotted. A name is dropped in the normally quiet local communications channel. Is the jig up for me too? I hang around anyway, with just seven wrecks left to pull in to a ball around the MTU I may still get a shot at the Noctis. Or, you know, not. With three wrecks to go the Noctis decloaks and warps clear, leaving me with an MTU I can't crack in reasonable time and a load of looted wrecks that I can't salvage. Whatever. I get close and in to position anyway. You never know what could happen.

The Noctis appears on d-scan again, as does a Manticore and a pod. That's interesting, more so when the stealth bomber disappears. I don't see the Ventures any more either. Whilst it's a shame I won't get my ambush, at least the other interloper has got himself a kill, despite the fleet's efforts to stay safe. Good show!

D-scan puts the Noctis with the Dominix fleet, dropping another MTU. How dreary. I consider taking a crack at the loot-stuffed MTU in front of me, however unpleasant and potentially unsuccessful the experience. It's something to do. Well, it would be, if an Arbitrator cruiser hadn't just entered the system and warped to be a few kilometres from my cloaked Loki strategic cruiser. Okay, the jig is definitely up.

Hullo. The Manticore makes a return appearance, this time creating a corpse new to the system. That seems to call the Arbitrator away from the despawned and clearly inactive site he's in, and I grab at what little opportunity I'm left with. As soon as the cruiser is in warp, I decloak, gain a positive lock on the MTU, and start shooting. And keep shooting. And shoot a little longer. I have no idea why these are so much tougher than a Noctis.

I keep a watch on d-scan, sure that my appearance in the system will provoke a response, surer still that the fleet will twig what I'm doing. Yet still I shoot the MTU uninterrupted, somehow struggling through its armour and structure until it, well, it doesn't explode as much as stop existing. In place of the MTU is a small container of loot, roughly what I'd get from popping a loot-collecting ship, but, of course, without the salvage to go with it. Or the kill. Or the fun. MTUs are rubbish.

I steal all the surviving loot and make a bee-line for the K162 back to C5a. No one stopped me cracking open the MTU, no one stops me leaving the system the way I came. Thank you, Mr Manticore, for providing an excellent distraction. I suppose I could have caught a Noctis and got more loot, but that's not really your fault, more one of poor design. Still, the eighty million ISK of stolen loot I'm taking home is still eighty million ISK of stolen loot.

Posted in Gaming | 7 Comments »
Tags: arbitrator, dominix, eve online, helios, legion, loki, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, venture, w-space

Stopping at the start of a chain

I have a bit of spare time, I'll have a poke around the w-space constellation to see if anyone is out and about. Of course, I pretty much have to uncover the w-space constellation first, what with wormholes needing to be scanned, unlike stargates, but I'm expecting that. I ignore a new pocket of gas at home, resolve the only wormhole present, and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

One small canister is visible on my directional scanner from our K162, with two planets sitting out of range. Whoever is over there will be quite aware of our K162 soon too, what with the system being almost bare of anything. No anomalies, three signatures. That's it. I'd better find any pilots who may be paying attention before they realise there is anything to pay attention to.

I launch probes and perform a blanket scan, revealing three ships over by one of the planets. I warp that way, updating d-scan as I go to see a tower, Legion strategic cruiser, Kryos hauler, and pod. Locating the tower is straightforward enough, where I see both ships piloted, as well as the pod of course. It's just as easy to see that the ships are idling, though, what with them being in similar alignment to their tower structures.

It looks like I can resolve the other two signatures in the system without the locals realising what I'm doing, if they are even awake, as my probes should stay out of d-scan range of the tower. So that's what I do. One signature is the static exit to low-sec, the other a K162 from class 4 w-space. It's not ours. I've checked. I get the exit—a system in Derelik far from civilised space—and head to C4a.

Two towers and two covert operations boats are in d-scan range of the wormhole, and the two signatures made readily obvious by the discovery scanner has my mourning the loss of mystery in w-space again. I warp, launch probes, and scan. There's little need to be coy in such a bare system. The signature is a gas site, making the system a dead end. I locate the tower and check for pilots, to be thorough, and find both cov-ops empty. Dead end indeed.

Back through C3a and out to low-sec to scan. Or maybe a pause in C3a as a Probe frigate is visible briefly. He may be local, and warping to the tower confirms that he is, with just the Probe and pod now inside the force field. The scanning frigate was probably just investigating our K162 and is unlikely to do much else. Out to low-sec I go, where seven extra signatures wait to be resolved.

Four combat sites, one gas site, and two wormholes, one of them weak. A dying K162 from class 3 w-space is boring, and the N342 outbound connection to class 5 w-space isn't much better. But, whatever, it's more w-space and I ought to try to remain positive. In to C5a, where I appear almost seven kilometres from the wormhole, updating d-scan sees nothing, and exploring has no occupation.

A blanket scan of C5a reveals no ships to go with the eight anomalies and eleven signatures. I don't quite fancy chasing shadows right now, not like last night, and this started as a short session. It seems like a good time to end it, before I dive deeper and deeper in to inactive class 5 w-space.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Stopping at the start of a chain
Tags: eve online, kryos, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, scanning, w-space

Scanning for the source

There's not much left in the home system. A couple of ore sites, a crappy anomaly that only the desperate would care to clear by itself, our static wormhole. And one other signature. The system is clean because my glorious leader kicked the Sleepers out of the last good anomaly, but that other signature is new to her. I'm already scanning it.

The signature is a second wormhole, a K162 to class 4 w-space, as I find out when resolving and warping to it. I'll go through, see what could have jumped Fin had she been a little unlucky. Not much, according to my directional scanner, but the scanner doesn't extend far and only one planet is in range. I launch probes, blanket the system—revealing six anomalies, six signatures, and no ships—and explore. A couple of towers are present but, of course, no one's home. The constellation almost certainly extends backwards.

Three signatures are chubby enough to be K162s, the only wormholes to be uncovered in a class 4 w-space system with a known static wormhole, and one of those signatures will be the X844 itself, also fairly chubby. That leaves two signatures, one being gas, the other the K162 I'm expecting. I wasn't quite expecting the bloody pustule of class 6 w-space, but whatever. I jump through to see who's around.

D-scan is clear again, this time with two planets in range. A blanket scan reveals fourteen anomalies, thirteen signatures, and still no ships in the space spreading out in either direction of the wormhole. Exploration finds a tower, but that doesn't matter when no one's in it. 'Where are these people?' says Fin, bored with waiting for me to find them. 'I'm heading downstream', and I'm back to scanning trying to work out who opened these wormholes.

Four possible K162s lie amongst the signatures, although there could be other outbound connections too. Data, relic, and gas sites abound, and amongst them two wormholes. The K162 from class 5 w-space seems a more likely source of activity than the Z142 outbound connection to null-sec, but I poke out to Paragon Soul anyway, because nothing's come through the K162 so far. I'm alone in the null-sec system, so find myself a rat to pop, and scan the two signatures because it's habitual now. The Sansha battleship warps away from my three points of warp disruption in a wake of haxxx, and the signatures are boring sites and not wormholes.

Back to C6a and on to C5a, where d-scan is clear again. Wormholes don't just open themselves, I'm sure. No occupation and no activity either, just sixteen anomalies and seventeen signatures. Okay, I'll scan again. And, damn, I resolve a wormhole just as a Venture appears on it. Well, at least the mining frigate is activity, even if it must be assumed that my probes have been spotted. I get them back in to a blanket scan configuration, out of range of d-scan, but the Venture is gone.

At least I resolved the Venture's position, which lets me warp to the wormhole, a K162 from more class 5 w-space. I lurk by the wormhole for a bit but nothing passes me, updating my probes occasionally, and there's the Venture again, somewhere in the system. He doesn't jump back to C5b but loiters somewhere, presumably one of the gas sites I've already ignored. That's cool, I can call them back.

It's weird that the Venture didn't go backwards, but maybe he was trying to be deceptive by heading in the wrong direction, or smart and avoiding polarisation. Either way, he's probably on to me already. No matter, I can still hunt his position and see what happens, hopefully without being countered myself.

I narrow down the Venture's position in space, the frigate not appearing to be warping around, and gauge his range. 7·25 AU from me is quite far, and will result in some inaccuracy in placing probes, but sitting on the C5b K162 assures me that nothing else jumps through, not yet. Now to scan for the Venture and see if he is paying attention. Perfect scan on the ship, not so much on the site, but this is the good gas and hard to find.

My Loki strategic cruiser is in warp quickly, having aligned it roughly to the site already, but Ventures are quicker. Quicker still when they have a head start. I drop in to the gas site to see gas—what else?—and no Venture. He's gone, from the site and from the system. At least there's no counter-ambush, considering the gas cloud decloaks my Loki, and I got some more hunting practice. But I think that's it for tonight. I won't blindly follow in to C5b, not when someone is expecting me, and not when I have a headache. I'll just go home and lie down.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scanning for the source
Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, venture, w-space

De-escalations

Hmm, do I clear that new anomaly in the home system, or explore for opportunity? Let me scan, resolve, and jump through our static wormhole whilst I ponder my decision. Okay, exploring it is! I have exploring to do too, as my directional scanner can only pick up one planet in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, mostly because the next closest planet is over 50 AU away, the furthest over 140 AU distant. I launch and spread my probes thinly, and perform a muslin scan of the system.

Ten anomalies, seven signatures, no ships. C3a looks pretty bare, although there could be occupation. I warp around to look for towers and find none, leaving me to scan for wormholes. The first comes from a really weak signature, which could be indicative of an exit to null-sec, more so because I realise that all of the signatures are weak. No K162s here, just data and relic sites and expensive gas. And a second wormhole.

The second wormhole is as weak as the first, so on a hunch I warp towards that expecting to land near the K346 exit to null-sec. Nope, this is an outbound connection to class 5 w-space. Well, I've activated it, I ought to jump through it as soon as possible. I ignore C3a's static exit and jump to C5a. Updating d-scan on the other side of the wormhole sees a tower, Iteron hauler, and drone. Locating the tower is easy, being around a planet with one moon, and seeing the hauler unpiloted means I'll be moving on, just as soon as I scan the next wormhole.

My notes from a year ago indicate that the next system will be C5 space too, and with fifteen anomalies but only three signatures my progress will be quick. One signature is a relic site, the other the H296. On to C5b I go, where d-scan shows me five towers and a bunch of ships. They include some big ships. Two Moros dreadnoughts, one Naglfar dreadnought, and a Nidhoggur and Chimera carrier each. Those are escalating ships.

I switch my overview settings and update d-scan. Yep, Sleeper wrecks all over the place. But, damn, this new K162 will be pushed to the scanners of every active pilot soon, assuming they are paying attention. Well, sooner than soon, as there are core scanning probes visible on d-scan now, so the pilots are taking system security seriously. Those massive ships will be able to crash this wormhole with ease too, if they choose to do that.

Loitering on the wormhole for now is probably the best idea, until I get an idea what the locals are going to do. That doesn't mean I can't do anything, though. I bookmark all of the anomalies and look for the wrecks, finding them in one of the sites, along with the Iteron, curiously enough. That's got to be bait, surely. Or perhaps the hauler is collecting planet goo. The anomaly with the Sleeper wrecks is nearly in line with a planet, and I can't differentiate between one and the other.

It makes more sense for the Iteron to be at the customs office around the planet than in the anomaly doing something to Sleeper wrecks. Even though that doesn't stop the ship being bait, because the wormhole is yet to be visibly visited by the locals I think I can at least take a look at the customs office. So I do, where I see no Iteron. Maybe he's moved on, but swinging d-scan around suggests the Iteron really is in the anomaly. That is a bit weird, weird enough for me to leave it alone.

Returning to the wormhole sees no change in the status of the wormhole or the ships in the system. Maybe I can afford at least a look at the Iteron in the anomaly. Or it would, if the Iteron were there, or ever were there. I warp in to see a lack of hauler and a prevalence of Sleepers, clearly escalated in force in reaction to the appearance of capital ships at some point. There's no way the Iteron would survive here, so I have no idea quite what I detected on d-scan.

Back to the wormhole and I loiter. Updating d-scan sees the Iteron back at a tower, and a Zephyr exploration boat now new, probably collecting the Sleeper loot the locals don't want to lose. Massive ships are swapped for less massive ships too, battleships being prepared probably to collapse this unwanted wormhole. That makes sense, because even if a capital ship could kill the wormhole quickly it would be risky to do so without scouting the connecting system first.

A minute passes and the first battleship drops on to the wormhole. As the Scorpion decelerates from warp I take my cue to leave, decloaking my Loki strategic cruiser and jumping back to C5a. That actually turns out to be an interesting choice, as seeing a strategic cruiser jump through the wormhole apparently gives the locals pause for thought. If I'm there, who else is around? A small fleet of strategic cruisers, perhaps, waiting to ambush them? It certainly seems to stop any immediate attempt to destabilise the wormhole.

A Buzzard from C5b decloaks and launches probes in C5a, no doubt wanting to take a good look around. That's cool, there's not much I can do about the covert operations boat anyway. There's also not much I can do about the slow and inevitable death of this wormhole, so I turn around and head homewards. There are, however, only three signatures in C5a, and by the time I make my way back to the K162 to C3a the Buzzard has also found it and warped here. He's moving fast, though, so I won't intercept him on this side of the wormhole.

I watch the cov-ops jump to C3a and try to time my own following jump so that he doesn't see me on his overview, and may mistake the wormhole activation for his own. I don't think it works, as the Buzzard doesn't pause on the wormhole to launch probes, like he did in the previous system, but aligns and warps away immediately. I watch this wormhole, Fin watches our static wormhole in an interdictor, and unfortunately it's me who sees the Buzzard next. The scout decides seeing my Loki is seeing enough, not bothering to scan any further, and heads back the way he came. I don't give chase, as I couldn't catch him the first time, deciding instead that I've seen enough for tonight too.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on De-escalations
Tags: buzzard, chimera, eve online, iteron, loki, mmorpg, moros, naglfar, nidhoggur, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scorpion, w-space, zephyr

Not everything comes to she who waits

Sleepers can get bent this evening. Well, the few in our one remaining combat anomaly and those that don't really count in the couple of ore sites. I wouldn't even venture in there normally, so ignoring them tonight is simplicity itself. I scan for our static wormhole, warp that way, and jump to tonight's neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Two towers and loads of ships appear on my directional scanner in C3a, so many ships that it looks suspiciously like none are piloted.

No assumptions. First, find the towers. All but two ships are at one tower, all empty, as are the other two at the second tower. Two more towers are also brought in to range by warping to the first two, along with a smattering of new ships. The third and fourth towers are straightforward to find, with only one new planet in range and that planet having two moons, and I soon confirm that there still aren't any piloted ships visible in the system. There's no one to monitor, so I launch probes and scan.

Seventeen anomalies and eight signatures offer two chubby wormholes, the static exit to low-sec and a K162 from class 2 w-space. A third wormhole is not a K162 but an N968 outbound connection to class 3 w-space, so the really weak wormhole that I intended to leave hopefully unopened for the moment is probably already active. I warp across to take a look and see the bloody pustule of an outbound connection to deadly class 6 w-space.

The C6 wormhole isn't so bad, but the N968 is more likely to be a dead end and an easy arm of the constellation to disregard. I poke through the N968 and update d-scan to see a tower and no ships, like most other C3 systems, with six anomalies and six signatures in the system. As suspected, this is a dead end, the only wormhole being the static exit to low-sec. It obviously leads to Tash-Murkon, not that I care to check, what with the connection being at the end of its life. I just turn around and head back to C3a.

From C3a to C2a, exploring through a K162 before the other outbound wormhole, and I see a Prorator transport and probes on d-scan, along with nine towers. The towers not only make locating the Prorator difficult, but they all lack hangars. A quick adjustment to d-scan and, yep, this is a silo system, set up to process reactions, and there's a tower around every moon. I doubt the system sees much action. Then again, the Prorator's disappeared already.

One planet sits out of d-scan range of the wormhole. I take a chance and warp to its customs office, but there's no Prorator here. Or he's warped back, or in mid-warp and cloaked. Or not in the system. There are two more towers out here, though, one of which looks to be the mother tower, as it actually has hangars and holds four empty Gnosis battlecruisers. A blanket scan shows five ships, however, and the other ship isn't the Prorator. D-scan shows me instead a Legion strategic cruiser. I'm guessing the five anomalies and seven signatures are hiding a K162 from me.

Warping back to the wormhole to C3a, the only place I can expect to see non-local movement until I scan, sees the Legion. Briefly, anyway, as the ship cloaks. The Legion then decloaks, moves to the wormhole and jumps, returning within a couple of minutes, polarised. It's almost tempting to engage the ship, but I know he can cloak and it seems pointless revealing my presence to a ship that would simply avoid me. I settle for waiting to see if I can detect his leaving through another wormhole. I think I do, but only after a Malediction interceptor crosses the system.

I think I'm alone alone now. There doesn't seem to be anyone around. I call my probes in to the system and scan. Gas, wormhole, wormhole, wormhole. The first is a D382, an outbound link to another C2. I doubt this is the source of the ships. The second won't be the source but surely is the destination, the static exit to high-sec. The third could be, a C5 K162, or it could be the fourth, a C2 K162. Both are as likely. Before I decide where to look, I'll get the safety net of the high-sec exit.

Leaving C2a puts me in The Forge, seven hops to Jita. I'd say that makes this connection rather wanted. There are no familiar faces in the local channel at the moment, so I return to C2a and consider my options. I think I'll stick to the B274 for now, particularly as d-scan showed me an Imicus and probes in the high-sec system. Wait and loiter, loiter and wait. The wormhole crackles. Come to me, my little scanning frigate. But now, it's the Prorator, returned once more.

Pragmatism kicks in once more, and I stay hidden as the agile blockade runner cloaks within a second of appearing and, presumably, warps clear. I can't even tell which wormhole it's going to. So it's welcoming, in that case, to see a Bestower first on d-scan and now dropping on to the wormhole. This is a much easier ship to catch, and its vector gives me a clear indication that it has come from the C2 K162 in the system. Now I have much more information.

The hauler jumps to high-sec and I'm alone once more. I warp to the C2 K162 and, actually, don't quite jump yet. There are other ships around, scouting or just moving, and it doesn't seem prudent to fly face first in to any of them just yet. I would probably have better luck waiting in high-sec, timing my jump back to w-space so that I can lurk under the recalibration delay-free session-change cloak, and hope to get a cheap kill on a squishy ship.

I return to high-sec to put my plan in to action. Of course, I could be waiting a while, even if Jita is only seven hops away. I note the name of the Bestower pilot, align the local channel so that when it updates the pilot's name will be visibly highlighted in orange, and settle down for a wait. And keep waiting. And wait a bit longer. I can be quite patient, up to and beyond the point where it could be seen as reasonable. It's only a Bestower, after all.

Okay, I've waited for so long I'm now in to sunk-time territory, convincing myself that if I leave now the waiting will have been for nothing so I'd better stay. Thankfully, I know that's a dumb reason to stay, so it only takes another five minutes before abandoning the Bestower, and the evening, and returning to w-space with little to show for my time but some unexplored systems on my mental map of the constellation.

Well, that, and the scanning probes I see in the home system. I convince myself to watch for the owner, partly because I want to make sure he leaves, and partly because our system is so bare that it shouldn't take long. Longer than it should, as it turns out, but not waiting-for-a-non-returning-Bestower long. It's a Cheetah. He jumps. I jump. I try to target him, but the covert operation boat's already in warp. Well, there's my brief moment of excitement. Back home I go, to head off-line.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: bestower, cheetah, eve online, gnosis, imicus, legion, malediction, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, scanning, w-space

Sleepers and scanning

Home looks much the same as it did yesterday, albeit with a new anomaly. I'll clear that for luck, and for ISK. Oh, and the static wormhole I resolved and bookmarked yesterday apparently has been relocated to elsewhere in the system. Maybe we weren't as isolated yesterday as we thought we were when we engaged Sleepers. Or some pilots came through our system shortly after we finished. That second explanation makes us seem more professional, so let's go with that.

First, the anomaly. It's straightforward enough. Swap to the Golem marauder in our tower, warp it in to the anomaly, and start shooting Sleepers, dropping in to bastion mode and launching a silly mobile tractor unit to collect loot as I go. The Sleepers are popped, all but the two final wrecks are swept up, and I come back for those in a salvaging destroyer. More loot for us, less for any intruders looking to steal from us.

Now through the wormhole. Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system looks like any other, with a tower visible on my directional scanner but no ships. The discovery scanner shows there to be almost nothing in the system too, with no anomalies and just the three signatures, one of which is our K162. I'll just scan and move on, in that case. Or I would, but a blanket scan with combat probes reveals a ship on the edge of the system.

The blanket scan remains a valuable tool. Of course, in this case, where there are no anomalies and perhaps no sites, any ship is unlikely to be active, but it's best to stay covert for as long as possible. Naturally, the lone ship is in a second tower, a little out of d-scan range of the wormhole, and lacks a capsuleer. It's good to check. Now I scan, resolving two wormholes. There really is nothing to do in this system but leave it.

One wormhole in C3a is its static exit to low-sec, the U210 looking very much like it leads to Aridia. I'll find out soon enough, as the second wormhole is a tiny, wobbling K162 from class 2 w-space—at the end of its life and critically destabilised. I don't quite fancy that. Back to the U210 and out to low-sec, which is indeed Aridia. But I'm in a system in Aridia that holds a couple of other signatures. I launch probes to scan them.

One signature is a weak wormhole, the other gas. Just an outbound connection, then. In this case, an X702, so I'm heading straight back to class 3 w-space. Circumstances don't look good from the wormhole, not when I appear 7·5 km from the locus after jumping, that being a general sign of prolonged inactivity. A blanket scan reveals five anomalies, twelves signatures, and an unsurprising lack of ships, and exploring locates a tower on the edge of the system. I hope there's a K162 to find.

Scanning resolves a wormhole, but just the one, and as I came through an outbound connection this wormhole will be the system's static exit. Back to low-sec with me, this time in to a system in Solitude, ruining the one other pilot's enjoyment of it with my appearance. Five extra signatures may mean I'm not here for long, though, and scanning finds two wormholes along with a relics and two combat sites. The K162 from class 1 w-space is nice, and K162 from more low-sec not so nice.

In to C1a and, dammit, I'm 7·8 km from the wormhole's locus. D-scan shows me a tower with no ships, the discovery scanner a mere two signatures. There's no need to beat around the bush, so I launch probes on the wormhole, resolve the other signature—a wormhole, of course—and follow that by scanning the tower's location. No one's around to see me do it, after all. I warp to the tower, tag the owner corporation, and check the wormhole I've resolved. It's a K162 from class 4 w-space. Let's see if it holds more opportunity.

Nope, nothing to see here. Well, a tower, but few w-space systems don't have one of them. Three anomalies, seven signatures, no ships. I should probably just stop here and head home, but I'm a curious devil. I poke the signatures with my probes and resolve one, two, three wormholes. The first is a dying K162 from class 4 w-space, the second a K162 from class 2 w-space, the third a K162 from class 3 w-space. Yeah, considering the late hour, I should have stopped here.

The C3 may well be a dead end, so I pop through that K162 first. D-scan is clear, one planet sits out of range, and a quick warp to and fro confirms a lack of occupation. There's almost certainly a K162 to find, but I'm not looking. Back to C4a and in to C2b, where finally I see more ships. Inactive ships, without doubt, given they are four Orca industrial command ships and a Cormorant destroyer, although perhaps that Astero frigate that appears between d-scan updates could be up to something.

Two towers are in the system along with ships, and warping to find the little ships piloted, the big ships empty, pulls four more Orcas, a Hound stealth bomber, and a third tower in to range. The other ships are all empty, and despite the Astero and Cormorant being piloted by dirty reds, I can't work up too much excitement for pilots idling inside a force field this deep in to the evening. I scrambled my way here perhaps a little too late. Time for sleep. I turn myself around and make the seven anticlimactic jumps home.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Sleepers and scanning
Tags: astero, cormorant, eve online, golem, hound, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, w-space

Staying home for Sleepers

Damn, some of our sites have been plundered. We've had too many visitors lately, some of them were bound to stay a while. Thank goodness none have stayed forever, I don't have a giant electrifying ball of evil. There is another signature in home system too, which I kinda hope isn't yet another wormhole, but for the sake of finding activity I almost kinda do. I launch probes and scan.

It's not a wormhole, it's gas. I have decided: that's a good result. I'll take the opportunity of a closed system to sweep through one of our remaining anomalies, collecting the loot for ourselves. In to the tower, swap to the Golem marauder, and out to a decent anomaly. Pew pew! What sound do cruise missiles make? Ah, here's my glorious leader, perhaps she knows.

Fin boards a Tengu strategic cruiser to help with shooting Sleepers, adding heavy missile noises to cruise missile noises. Whatever the noises may be, they combine to make the sound of efficiency. The marauder cuts through the larger ships well enough, but adding the cruiser-sized weapons just rips all the ships apart. 'Whole lot o' painting goin' on', says Fin. There sure is.

The first site is cleared, on to the second. That's weird, there look to be the usual ships in the site but not in the normal position. And, in fact, they're not the usual ships. 'This is from when I died', says Fin, remembering when she interrupted some intruders recently, sacrificing her Loki strategic cruiser to get rid of them. It seems these two Sleepers have been milling around ever since. No longer.

Two sites cleared, it's back to our tower and out in a Cormorant destroyer to sweep up the few wrecks I didn't entrust to the silly mobile tractor unit. Almost all of the loot and salvage is already back at the tower, collected by the Golem, and we risk almost nothing in picking up the rest. All told, we make about 150 Miskies from the not-quite-two sites. 'Do you want to do any of the others?' Umm.

I suppose we can do more. This is hardly my favourite activity, less so in the less-efficient anomalies, but it is necessary and I have good company. Back in to the Golem, back out of the force field to face more Sleepers. I'm tasked with taking out some guns, which are tougher than they look, or have a smaller signature than I expect, so I stop shooting them when the last frigate in the first wave of Sleepers pops and a new wave with bigger ships appears.

All the ships seem tougher in this anomaly than the other. I don't know why. I thought this would be relatively quick, but the combat is dragging on a little. We plough on all the same, clearing the first site and sweeping up all but a few of the wrecks with the MTU before moving to a second. It's more of the same, dropping guns as Fin handles frigates, then working our way through different ends of the ship-size spectrum.

I think that's enough for me. It's getting late, and I don't fancy clearing the last anomaly just for the sake of doing so. We bring out salvaging destroyers to claim the last little bits of loot, and I warn Fin about the guns in the site otherwise cleared of Sleepers but not yet despawned. 'Oh, oops.' She's okay, though, and we add to our earlier tally with an extra 200 Miskies of loot. I'll go back to exploration tomorrow.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Staying home for Sleepers
Tags: cormorant, eve online, golem, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Music of 2014, part one

Or maybe 'Music of 2013, part four'. I'm keen to get some more new music and so look through the backlog of bands that I've been interested in for a while, picking up some albums that I didn't get around to buying in the latter part of 2013. But my reviews aren't really concerned about release dates, even if I tend to focus on buying new music, so here is my latest batch of albums I'm listening to.

Continually gaining positive press, I am at first curious about Speedy Ortiz and then somewhat reluctant to fall for what could be hype. A wanting for new music pushes me to at least see if perhaps the band could live up to the attention, and a short burst convinces me that maybe they can. I pick up debut album Major Arcana. Speedy Ortiz seem to be part of an 90s alternative revival, which sounds good to me. Initial play-throughs don't stir up much enthusiasm, but after a few listens the nuances of the songs start seeping in to my unconscious. Speedy Ortiz are either influenced by bands from the 90s—such as Helium and Sleater-Kinney—or just have an uncanny knack for recreating the style. Either way, it makes for an interesting album that bears repeated listens.

Not an album but a collection of EPs, A Sea of Split Peas seems like a good way to introduce myself to Courtney Barnett. It's rather good, too. The music lilts along nicely, mostly perky, with Barnett's vocals lazily drawling over the top creating a folky feel. She makes singing sound effortless yet an effort at the same time, which is a neat skill. The lyrics are interesting, and certainly quirky, but aren't so peculiar to distract attention from the song as a whole. A Sea of Split Peas is a rather enjoyable collection.

I saw Empty Pools support Menomena at Cargo last year, and they endeared themselves to me, although I couldn't quite put my finger on why. Reaching around to sate my lust for new music coincided with the release of their album Saturn Reruns, giving me a good second opportunity to check them out. And I like it. At first blush, there doesn't seem to be much particularly outstanding about the album, but it also never fades, or ever feeling like too much. The songs are all quite pleasant to listen to, the band clearly play their instruments well and with variation, and the vocals are lovely. A slow-burner perhaps, but Saturn Reruns is a solid debut.

Swearin' is another band playing seemingly 90s-influenced indie guitar music, and on Surfing Strange they do so somewhat successfully. The heavy fuzz and vocals with a strong rhotic accent make me reminisce about my early steps in to alternative music, and are backed-up by a decent collection of songs that have distinct character. Even so, whilst the songs are good enough and there is much to distinguish them from each other, nothing really meshes with me. Surfing Strange is nicely average, an album that I can listen to passively but not really a record I'd choose to put on.

The first album from Yuck was rather good, and continues to get played, its apparent simplicity belying a solid compositional core to the songs. The loss of Yuck's singer/songwriter Daniel Blumberg could have been a problem, but the band bounce back and produce second offering Glow and Behold. Sadly, the album only really shows how reliant Yuck were on Blumberg. His solo project as Hebronix demonstrates Blumberg's acumen for creating simple-sounding but intricate songs, which clearly formed the core of Yuck's first album and is now obviously missing from the second. The band try to replicate their own style but each time come up short, sounding too much like they are only trying to replicate their style. Glow and Behold sounds like Yuck but misses the mark. For anyone wanting the second Yuck album, I would recommend Hebronix instead.

Posted in Audio | Comments Off on Music of 2014, part one
Tags: cd, courtney barnett, empty pools, speedy ortiz, swearin, yuck