Dying wormholes

It's been a while since my last mid-afternoon excursion. Do many people come out to play this early? There's no one obvious in the home system, not with the only signature churn being our static wormhole, leaving me the new connection to resolve and jump through to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. A tower and Probe are both visible on my directional scanner from the K162, but without scanning probes visible I doubt the frigate is up to much.

I check my notes. It's my fourth visit to this system, the last being nine months ago, with the occupation looking to be the same as before and a static exit to low-sec waiting to be found. I warp across to confirm both that the tower is in the same place and the Probe is empty, and having done so warp to the edge of the system to launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system.

Nine anomalies don't hold a ghost site, and five signatures won't take long to sift through. Wormhole, gas, wormhole, relics, and our K162. The U210 leads to a system in Khanid, where there are no pilots and no signatures to tempt me to stay, and checking the other wormhole in C3a only finds a K162 from null-sec. Oh well, no continued connection to w-space, but maybe I can find more wormholes in null-sec.

Exiting w-space through the K162 lands me in Wicked Creek, where being alone has my sending my Loki strategic cruiser to a nearby rock field looking for rats to pop, launching scanning probes as I align and accelerate. Two extra signatures are worth looking at, until I identify them as both combat sites. At least I find some rats, even if they are only cruisers. I'm sure they all count towards increasing my security status in their own little way.

Today I'll hop a stargate, given the obvious lack of activity in the null-sec system and my starmap showing me a decent circular route I can take. Through the first stargate and I'm still alone, with one signature to scan. I find some rats and pop them, and move on when the signature resolves to be another combat site. Through the second stargate, still no other pilots, and this time I have four signatures to poke with probes. Maybe I'll have some luck in finding wormholes

Hey, here's a wormhole, and on resolving the first signature too. But, aww, it's a dying wormhole leading out to class 5 w-space. C5 chains can take a bit of time to navigate, so despite the promise it could offer the threat of imminent collapse is enough to put me off exploring through it. That's a shame, because the second signature is a second wormhole, a dying connection to class 3 w-space. A third wormhole perks me up, right until I drop out of warp next to a link from null-sec to low-sec. Who cares if it's healthy?

Four out of four. A fourth wormhole. I'm no longer too excited, given the other results, and good job too. I land next to a second EOL N342 outbound connection to class 5 w-space. There's nothing to see here. Still, class 5 w-space chains can be daunting, but class 3 systems will terminate to k-space. I poke my prow through to C3b, but only to see the standard d-scan result of a tower and no ships. I suppose there could be K162s to find, leading backwards, but I'm not looking for them with a dying wormhole being my route home. Not even a Cheetah covert operations boat blipping on d-scan will keep me here.

Back to null-sec, through a third stargate to take me back to the exit system from C3a. I could pop another rat or two, but without scanning as a distraction I don't think I'll bother. I warp to the wormhole to C3a, return to w-space, and see no change in either local activity or cosmic signatures. I know there are pilots awake somewhere, as Mick has found some to play with, just not here. But that's okay. I've had a little jaunt around null-sec, gained some security status, and made it home in one piece.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Dying wormholes
Tags: cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, scanning, w-space

Looking for wrecks

Pop, pop, pop. High-sec rats are easy. So easy, in fact, that I launch probes to scan the one extra signature in this system to keep myself entertained between target acquisition and cycling my autocannons. It's a wormhole. I may go there, I may not, particularly as a capsuleer tagged in orange appears in the local communications channel. And he's gone again, in a period so brief that he could only have poked through the wormhole from the class 2 w-space system I crossed to get to high-sec.

Someone behind me can check out the activity in the constellation connected to our home system. I'll see where this wormhole I've found leads to. It's an outbound connection to class 3 w-space, and I have no idea whether it's been open for a while and anyone in the w-space system is aware of it already, or I've just opened it and the discovery scanner is about to do that job. I'll jump through anyway and see what I can find.

Entering C3b sees the rather standard sight of a tower with no ships on my directional scanner. So far, so normal. But switching overview settings to look for wrecks, which uncovers the occasional curiosity, reveals Sleeper wrecks everywhere. Not just one or two, like some gas site Sleepers have been popped and left to rot, but dozens. Have they been abandoned? Who would do that, unless they didn't realise the potential value of the salvage?

I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system, showing lots of anomalies and signatures but no ships. This is peculiar. My notes point me towards two towers, one in range and one not. Both remain, which is something, I suppose, but it doesn't explain the Sleeper wrecks. Well, the least I can do is look for the wrecks, see if I can find them, but the likelihood is that I won't, not without a ship as a beacon to what is probably a despawned site.

Ah, two Cormorant destroyers appear on d-scan as I return to the inner system to look for the wrecks. Okay then, that gives me the ship I need to scan where the wrecks are, as well as a proper target of my hunt. A Thrasher destroyer appears too, suggesting three sites' worth of wrecks. I have my sights on a Cormorant, though. I narrow down its location using d-scan, getting the destroyer in a five-degree beam, and determining its range at around 6·25 AU.

I arrange my probes around the Cormorant's estimated position as Fin stumbles through the constellation, trying to quickly work out the bookmarks and my directions. I am not being particularly coherent at the moment, given that I am under pressure to get an accurate scan of the Cormorant before it finishes salvaging all the wrecks and leaves. I have its position, though, so I'm going for a scan whilst I can. I'm a little nervous about all these unscanned signatures potentially confusing my scan result, so select and ignore them all. It probably won't matter, not if the site has already despawned.

I call in my probes and get a perfect result. The Cormorant's location is resolved. I recall my probes and warp to its position—ah, in a site, data or relic, I don't see which as I automatically dismiss the dialogue box. Ignoring the signatures still probably didn't make a difference, as the site would have been weaker than the ship anyway. And here is the Cormorant, only a few kilometres away from my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, nicely oblivious to my presence, thanks to my cloaky Loki not warping too close to any structures that would disrupt being cloaky.

The Cormorant is even moving towards my cloaked ship. Pinch me, I must be dreaming. Or I could just decloak, activate my sensor booster, and spring my ambush. I gain a positive lock and start shooting, as the Cormorant turns to leave. So do I, my instinct telling me to align out of the site in case of trouble, and I see a Coercer frigate in the system now too, but I'm probably being over-cautious. I turn back towards my target when I see the destroyer jettisoning some cargo, shortly before exploding in a small shower of flames.

I have to admit that I'm a little flustered. What do I do now? Go for the pod, or grab an image? I grab the image, then go for the pod, which gets me a memento of the kill and lets the pod escape. He was pretty quick, I bet he would have got clear anyway. But I am still fumbling a little, particularly as trying to loot the wreck of the destroyer fails, some rat loot needlessly picked up yesterday filling my hold somewhat. I discard it, and take a look in the jet-can. Ah, Sleeper loot and salvage. The Cormorant pilot didn't want to see it perish in the explosion. Thank you for your consideration, sir.

Having looted all I can, I shoot the Cormorant wreck and warp to my perch, cloaking as I do, letting me relax again. That was surprisingly intense, perhaps because of my recent failures. But it was a good hunt, and nicely executed. I got myself a kill and bagged around sixty million ISK in loot. There are some wrecks left too, and the databanks wait to be hacked, but there's nothing worth getting killed over. This system can only be treated as hostile. Sure enough, a minute or so after my kill a Broadsword heavy interdictor appears on d-scan, followed by a Proteus and Legion strategic cruiser, and Megathron battleship.

The obvious place for the small fleet to be is on the wormhole I entered through, and pointing d-scan on a narrow beam towards the K162 from high-sec indeed sees the four ships loitering with intent. It's not much of a threat, not on a high-sec wormhole, even with a bubble up and drones out. Of course, I manage to make it more of a threat by warping to drop short of the wormhole. My standard procedure is normally safer, letting me assess the system's situation via d-scan whilst remaining cloaked, but it seems like a bad idea when pilots are obviously out looking for you. I may be warping in to a small cloud of drones, instead of dropping on top of the locus of a wormhole that can take me immediately out to the safety of high-sec.

Thankfully, the fleet is not as well coordinated as it could be. Sure, they're on the wormhole, the HIC has its warp bubble inflated, and the drones are making their ships bigger, but they are on the wrong side of the wormhole. They must know which site I ambushed their pilot in, and it would make sense that to catch someone making a simple mistake they should place their ships in-line between the wormhole and that site. It's just good that they don't, or I'd be kicking myself for making another stupid mistake that I could easily have avoided. I'll learn one day. For now, I merely approach the wormhole unmolested and jump to high-sec, where I sit safely cloaked at a distance and watch as the fleet starts mass-stressing the wormhole.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: broadsword, coercer, cormorant, eve online, legion, loki, megathron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, thrasher, w-space

Scanning but not counting

Gas, anomalies, one other signature. Ah, w-space life. That signature will be our static wormhole to class 3 w-space, and I'll do what I usually do and ignore the gas in favour of the wormhole. Someone else can suck it, I'm sure. It's almost as if I'm keen to go out exploring again, like I've learnt from my mistakes. Well, we'll see.

Jumping to today's neighbouring system doesn't see much beyond the K162, my directional scanner returning blank. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan adds six anomalies and six signatures to my information, with no ships appearing under my combat probes. No ships doesn't mean no occupation, though, and the low number of signatures implies someone is active in this system. I warp away from the wormhole to see what that one planet out of d-scan range holds, and here's the tower. Good to know.

Occupied, inactive, and with a static exit to low-sec. I infer the destination of the static wormhole by all six signatures being relatively strong on the blanket scan, meaning there can't be an exit to either null-sec or high-sec, and call in my probes to actually find it. Scanning is fast when all the signatures are chubby, and I soon have two gas sites ignored and three wormholes resolved.

A K162 from class 2 w-space looks attractive; a K162 from null-sec wobbling away at the end of its life less so, although I can tell from the A-shaped Malpais nebula that it comes from Perrigen Falls; and the static exit to low-sec looks like it leads to the Derelik region, if I'm judging the colours right. Exiting w-space for low-sec indeed lands me in a system in Derelik, where a lone pilot is ratting in a Cyclone battlecruiser and some extra signatures wait for me if I need them.

Back to C3a and across to further w-space, jumping through the K162 to C2a. Two mobile depots appear on d-scan but nothing else, and the discovery scanner blinks one anomaly and a lack of mystery that are the two standard signatures in class 2 w-space. I'm sitting on one, the system's first static connection to class 3 w-space, making the other the system's second static connection, which in this case will be an exit to high-sec.

C2 is pretty bare, but the mobile depots could be an indication of activity. The system's sole anomaly sits out of d-scan range, so with some level of optimism I warp to the anomaly to see if any pilots are there, having launched probes to try to give myself some early warning. Four ships are in the system! But not in the anomaly, where there are only Sleepers quietly milling around, waiting for their masters to rise.

The four ships in the system are all visible on d-scan, along with two towers that were also out of range from the wormhole. The towers are even listed in my notes from twelve months ago, and as there are now five ships on d-scan I hurry my Loki strategic cruiser to the towers to see if I can catch some activity. Not really, not when I apparently can't interpret simple scanning results. There... are... five... ships! Five empty ships, floating inside one of the towers' force fields.

I'll scan the high-sec wormhole. Done. The wormhole is pulsating a little, sitting below half mass but otherwise healthy, and exiting takes me to a system in Kador where it's just me and a miner in his Mackinaw exhumer. Okay, Penny, remember that this is high-sec. Rather than look for the miner I'll just poke in to one of the handful of anomalies and pop a few minor rats. It'll pass some time.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: cyclone, eve online, loki, mackinaw, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

It's difficult to make a mess of simple scanning

I've got to stop making stupid mistakes. It's kinda expensive, and a bit stupid. Scanning the anomalies and single signature in the home system seems pretty safe to start with, and as my glorious leader has kindly bought and assembled a new Loki strategic cruiser for me there is no impediment to my continued w-space adventures. She's even named the new ship. I should probably be better at being as awesome as Fin too.

Take her out, number one. Aye, cap'n! Mmm, smooth. She's built like a rusted girder but handles like a rafter. Scanning the sole signature naturally resolves our static wormhole, and I warp to it and jump through to see where it takes me today. Nowhere special, it seems. My directional scanner shows me a mobile depot labelled 'empty' and nothing else, and my notes from three months ago list no occupation and don't even mention the class of static wormhole.

Maybe I couldn't have been bothered to resolve the static wormhole on my last visit to this class 3 w-space system, but today it seems I will have to. A blanket scan of the system highlights the lack of occupation, with a messy twenty-one anomalies and eleven signatures returned. There are no ships under my combat probes and the bunched structures around a distant planet are all off-line towers and defences. There's nothing to see here.

I can already guess that the static wormhole will be a K346, given the sustained lack of occupation. A chubby wormhole amongst the gas sites could indicate a low-sec exit, but diving down through the weak data and relic sites picks up a second wormhole. That's it for wormholes. The weak one is indeed a K346 to null-sec k-space with The Kalevala Expanse nebula shimmering through, but exit w-space takes me instead to nearby Etherium reach. One pilot in the null-sec system, four signatures. I may be back.

Returning to C3a and warping to the chubbier wormhole sees a K162 from class 5 w-space. It looks harmless enough from here, so I jump through. It still looks harmless enough, with the wormhole clear and d-scan showing me nothing. A blanket scan reveals thirteen anomalies, four signatures, and no ships. My notes suggest occupation from four months ago should be in range, which it isn't, and my overview settings are fine this time. One of the two planets out of d-scan range holds three towers, though.

Only one signature in C5a is chubby, making K162-spotting easy, and it is a wormhole, naturally leading back to more class 5 w-space. Deeper in to w-space I go, where a Broadsword heavy interdictor and Loki appear on d-scan in C5b, but they are probably both floating at the tower also visible. D-scan indicates this is probably the case, so I warp away, launch probes, and blanket the system as I locate the moon with the tower.

Thirteen anomalies, nine signatures, the two ships d-scan has shown me. They are both floating unpiloted inside the tower's force field, which lets me continue scanning probably undetected. Wormhole, a K162 from null-sec. Wormhole, a K162 from null-sec. Did I stutter? Wormhole, a K162 from class 2 w-space, but at the end of its life. That's it for wormholes in C5b, and that's probably it for me too. A relaxing evening of not being an idiot.

I poke the null-sec systems before I head back, just because I can. The first takes me to a system in Detorid with no one around. I can't resist looking for a rat to pop, particularly as there are no other signatures in the system to suck me in to more scanning. I find a couple of battleships flanked by frigates, and pop the escort and the highest-ranking battleship to show some minor achievement for the night. The other null-sec K162 in C5b comes from Fountain, but I bore easily. I refrain from ratting any more and simply head home after a quiet night.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on It's difficult to make a mess of simple scanning
Tags: broadsword, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Cupidity leads to stupidity

I come on-line to interrupt some mining. Not by shooting any ships, although I could have done, but by my glorious leader stopping her rock-chomping to open our wormhole and go exploring. I follow behind Fin, sort of. I stop at the wormhole, distracted by the shimmering colours and a general feeling of malaise. Besides, it's generally best to have one scout explore a system before committing more pilots. Right?

There's nothing visible to the directional scanner from the wormhole, the static exit leads to null-sec, and the inner system holds a tower with a piloted Enyo inside its force field. The Enyo is an assault frigate, which uses small guns. Is there a wolf-rayet phenomenon in our neighbouring class 3 system, by any chance? 'Yes.' The capsuleer's not doing anything that would take advantage of the boost to his weapons, though, so we may as well scan.

By 'we', I still mean 'Fin'. I actually jump to C3a now, at least, and as Fin doesn't take long to resolve the K346 I'm soon in warp to the exit to null-sec. I could probably take a look through that, and would if my cloaked travel to the wormhole wasn't so slow that Fin resolves and warps to a K162 from class 2 w-space before I get there. C2a sounds like a better option than null-sec, so with Fin continuing to scan I leap-frog her through the wormhole.

I appear in J111011, a binary system. Ha ha ha! No, there's just one star, and only two signatures too. A blanket scan of the system doesn't find any ships, and although exploring locates a tower C2a looks pretty dull. I probably should have gone to null-sec. But there'll be a high-sec wormhole to accompany the connection to class 3 w-space, and scanning a single signature is hardly a chore, so I call my probes in to the system.

Damn, my first scan identifies the wormhole and an industrial ship on top of it. That's bad timing. I throw my probes out of the system to hide them again, and update d-scan. The ship is an Iteron V hauler, and it doesn't look like it's coming to the tower, where I am loitering. I alert Fin, on the fair assumption that the Iteron will be going towards the only other wormhole in the system, and send my Loki strategic cruiser that way too.

I drop out of warp too late to see the Iteron jump, and Fin is quiet on the other side of the wormhole. Just in case my colleague hasn't made it to the wormhole yet, I jump through. And there's the Iteron, shedding its session change cloak late and, naturally, heading back the way it came. Knowing I'm making a mistake, I return back with it, polarising my ship.

The wormhole is clear, d-scan is clear. The Iteron waits, holding its session change cloak again. I keep watching d-scan. If any ships appear I'll really need to run, as the wormhole won't help me now. But no ships appear, nothing except the Iteron. The hauler turns, I gain a positive lock, as does Fin, and we start shooting. Still space looks clear, and although the hauler takes a bit of abuse it's not going anywhere.

As if by magic, two Proteus strategic cruisers appear, almost on top of the wormhole. Right, cloaked ships, why did I forget about them? I curse myself for becoming polarised for a simple hauler, particularly as there was no need to do so, and try to keep my head. I aim away from the two ships and try to burn clear, but one has already got a web on me. And now a warp scramble effect. I'm really not going anywhere.

Well, if I'm not getting out of here with my ship, neither is the Iteron pilot. I check the wormhole behind me—two minutes, Turkish—and keep pounding the Iteron. It explodes. I catch the pod and crack that open too. I ignore the wreck and corpse and consider what to do now. Burn my ancillary shield boosters and do what I can to the two Pr—fuck me, they're even using ECM drones. I can do nothing but rue my stupidity.

My shield boosters run out of charges. A Hurricane battlecruiser turns up to make this more humiliating, and a Helios covert operations boat appears because why not? Bye bye, yet-another Loki. I didn't deserve you. At least I get my pod clear, and manage to weather the sarcasm of one of the pilots suggesting Loki for Iteron was a good trade, knowing already that I'm about to find out it was purely bait, as empty as the pilot's head. I'm not convinced there's much more in mine.

Posted in Gaming | 6 Comments »
Tags: enyo, eve online, helios, hurricane, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Sleepers, thousands of them

Fin's sleeping. Sleepering. Shooting Sleepers. She nearly wasn't, having been isolated in empire space yesterday, and thanks me for the convenient route back home through a wormhole two systems from Amarr. It was my pleasure, I suppose. And with a closed system and a bunch of anomalies it looks like a good opportunity to join my glorious leader in killing some Sleepers for ISK.

Of course, Fin is in the Golem marauder, being thoroughly sensible and taking the most solo-capable ship in to the home system's anomalies, putting me in a Tengu strategic cruiser for tonight. That's fine by me, as it all contributes to the destruction, and I get to zoom around spewing missiles instead of sitting still and spewing missiles.

Zoom zoom, pew pew! I warp in to the first anomaly to join Fin, immediately acting all un-Golem-like. I'm fast, agile, and my capacitor is stable. It's a curiously familiar experience, despite having restricted myself to the Golem for a while now. Fin has also brought in some specialised cruise missiles, now that we've shifted away from torpedoes, which really hit the Sleepers hard. This is a rampage.

The Sleepers fall quickly, our favoured anomalies gone before we even settle in to a groove. We have more anomalies, those that don't offer as much ISK and are perhaps a little more fiddly to deal with, but ISK is ISK and who cares if we don't know what ships trigger new waves? That's half the fun.

A swarm of frigates greets us in the first, mostly unfamiliar anomaly. They're easy to deal with, even if the Golem's cruise missiles are more suited to dealing with beefier targets. Fin tries to take the Argos guns out, hopefully putting her weapons to better use, but they seem to be awkward to hit. Still, I'm absorbing their damage without noticing, and so is Fin when they switch to her. The guns can stay.

The second wave comes in, and Fin says the trigger for the third wave is a cruiser. That's easy enough to check, and doing so means popping the battleships first. If we're wrong, we're only left with a cruiser extra in the next wave, not a battleship, so that will work out too. Fin's right, of course, so the last wave comes in as the final cruiser falls. A few more Sleepers down and the site is clear.

We move to another anomaly and continue our rampage through the home system anomalies. I don't think we should continue much longer, though. It's not so much that these other anomalies don't generate as much income, but more the way the frigates all burn towards and swarm around the Golem, providing little bookmarkable wrecks as potential guidance beacons for anyone wanting to question our Golem's structural integrity. It's maybe better if we had it sat far away from anything.

The last of the Sleepers are popped and we retire to our tower to swap combat boats for Noctis salvagers. All goes smoothly, no one interrupts us, but another side-effect of the non-favoured anomalies arises. The many frigates become many frigate wrecks, all of which take time to salvage. More, larger ships are a definite advantage in salvaging too. All the wrecks are soon looted and salvaged, though, and we bring back close to 400 Miskies for the evening.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: eve online, golem, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu

Replacing the Manticore

There's nothing to report on coming on-line. Gas, anomalies, the static wormhole. I resolve the wormhole and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system hoping to find more, but only the black hole is obvious from the K162. My directional scanner is clear. It's a big system, though, so I launch probes and perform a blanket scan. Six anomalies, nine signatures, and a bunch of drones. No ships, so the drones are either abandoned or in a bubble around a tower.

My notes tell me where the tower should be, and as the location is in range of our K162 and d-scan shows me nothing it looks like the tower is gone. Except I see that my overview remains in PvP mode from yesterday, set to not show me anything inconsequential, only threats that are likely to kill me. I switch back to my standard overview and, lo and behold, a tower and drones blink in to view.

So there's a tower and drones on d-scan. There are still no ships. I warp to where the tower is and, well, it's not exactly here. A tower is, but it is off-line and all but a couple of incapacitated defences float nearby. Still, the new tower is around the same planet and is straightforward enough to find, where the drones aren't in a bubble trap after all. It doesn't matter, I'm not going to look for them. I will look for wormholes, however, and scanning bags me five of them.

A K162 from low-sec is at the end of its life and uninteresting, a K162 from null-sec is healthy and possibly Plan B, the third is the static exit to high-sec and leading to Kador, the fourth a dying K162 from class 2 w-space, and the last is a K162 from high-sec Domain. It's a fairly standard spread of connections, nothing particularly inspiring, but the link from Domain takes me to a system only two hops from Amarr. This is a good opportunity to replace the stealth bomber I lost.

Or I could pop some rats in a basic anomaly whilst scanning the two extra signatures in the system. Pop pop pop. No fancy rats appear, but I resolve a pair of wormholes. Still, responsibility kicks in and I decide I really should get a replacement Manticore, so I take my Loki strategic cruiser home, dump it at our tower, and return to high-sec in my pod. Hop, hop to Amarr, buy a ship and fittings, and take the stealth bomber back towards w-space.

I pause in the exit system, knowing that I could roam effectively in my new Manticore through the pair of wormholes I have scanned here. I won't be able to scan further back, but a quick look won't hurt. The first wormhole is a K162 from class 2 w-space, which I return to and jump through after seeing the second, a K162 from null-sec with the upside-down 'A' of Malpais that signifies the Perrigen Falls region.

Taking my Manticore to class 2 w-space and updating d-scan shows traces of activity, some drones and two combat scanning probes. I move from the wormhole and cloak, loitering to see if the probes start moving around. They do, but it takes a while to see any change. At least someone is active. I hold on the wormhole, waiting for the scout to finish scanning, and when the probes disappear I wait for a ship to come past me. With any luck, he'll jump out to reconnoitre the exit and return polarised to me. And he'll be in a tricked-out frigate. With a head full of expensive implants. And be carrying a pony.

Just as I think no one is coming my way a pod appears on d-scan. The pod unsurprisingly drops on to the wormhole and leaves w-space for high-sec. Well, we're close to Amarr, maybe he's gone to get his own stealth bomber. I hear all the cool kids are doing that now. Or maybe he's gone to get a new hauler, which he'll stuff full of capital parts. And a pony. With sparkles in my eyes I continue to loiter on the wormhole, waiting for the pilot's return, but after a while I realise he probably isn't, and that I'm essentially doing nothing.

Maybe something else is happening in this class 2 system. I've not had a look around yet. I leave my position to explore, locating a tower on a distant planet, with an Omen cruiser, Drake battlecruiser, and Buzzard covert operations boat inside its force field, the Drake and Buzzard piloted. The two capsuleers are doing about as much as I was, and I realise how much time I've consumed. I should probably have been more active. Maybe I should have brought a scanning-capable ship along after all. I head back to high-sec and, seeing no oranges in the local channel, decide to head home.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Replacing the Manticore
Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, loki, manticore, mmorpg, omen, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Hail Mary on a marauder

We retreat. Mick and HR head back through the wormhole to the home system, and I am in a tactical spot some distance from the wormhole in this class 4 w-space system. Hostile ships mill around the wormhole in the distance but they don't follow my colleagues through; they are happy to dictate where any further engagement happens, forcing us to come to them and, potentially, polarising ourselves should we try to flee. I suppose it's a balancing factor: those who most want to fight must put themselves in a dangerous position.

I am ready to come home and warp to be in jump range of the wormhole, but Mick would like a second crack at the ships. He and HR talk about ships that we have that could upset our opponents, pondering choices and selections. Personally, now that I think about it, I'm more interested by the Golem marauder that's still on the field. Although not particularly vulnerable, some hundred kilometres from the wormhole, oblique to my position, given that anyone coming in to the system has to get past the combat ships slowly circling the wormhole, that he remains in the same position surely isn't a good idea.

I take a look at the relative position of the wormhole, Golem, and distant planets. He's not directly in line with any of the planets and the wormhole, but he's not far off either. I think I could get my Manticore stealth bomber in a decent position to provide a warp-in point for my colleagues, and in little time. Our ships wouldn't be able to get to the Golem quickly normally, but by positioning a ship in the fleet sufficiently beyond the target, a fleet-warp command can be initiated, aimed to drop short of the distant fleet member and on top of the target.

Hearing about the Golem remaining on the field and understanding its value, both to the owners and in ISK terms, has us making it our primary target. Essentially, if we kill any target it will be the Golem. I bounce off a distant planet from the wormhole and start manoeuvring my Manticore to provide the fleet a warp reference. It doesn't take long. The Golem just sits there, motionless. On top of that, the combat ships warp away from the wormhole, the pilots swapping to battleships.

The locals aren't escalating the conflict, they are killing the wormhole instead. A Dominix, Raven, and Armageddon are all employed in pushing mass through the connection, which limits the time we have available to make our move. It could also limit what ships we can bring through, particularly when the wormhole drops to its half-mass state. But once the Raven warps away the wormhole looks clear on both sides, the Golem still refuses to move, and we have two Dominix battleships of our own we're ready to bring in.

Our fleet moves. They warp to the wormhole, jump, and warp to drop short of my position. It's right about now that I realise requiring the ships to warp a hundred kilometres and calling for them to warp a hundred kilometres short of my position can actually be different objectives. It seemed so clear in my head, but I've screwed up. Our Dominices make the warp and only advance fifty kilometres. I'm really not that smart sometimes.

Thankfully, our battleships cross the remaining distance with some speed, and I get my Manticore burning towards the Golem to make sure it won't warp away before they get close. He's caught. I paint the target and start lobbing torpedoes his way, as our Dominices catch up after my error and apply their own, significant damage and electronic warfare. The Golem realises he's in danger and enters bastion mode, hoping to keep his marauder afloat for long enough for help to arrive.

Help arrives. The same ships as before, but this time we're ignoring them for the Golem. The marauder's shields are dropping, our firepower is strong. The Golem still fights, targeting my Manticore to try to get rid of me. It works, as the first hit shreds my shields for the second time this evening. Also for the second time this evening, I bodge my exit strategy, clearly not having thought about it in advance, and aim the wrong way to start with. This time, unlike the previous occasion, I am not able to rectify this mistake quickly enough. A second volley of cruise missiles hits me, and my Manticore explodes.

I would say my ship died this time because I am closer to the Golem, so his missiles get to me sooner. I think it's more accurate to say that I was lucky the first time that the Golem was so far away. Never the less, now is not the time to sit like a lemon. I warp my pod away, and bounce back to the wormhole, jumping home immediately. My part in the combat is over for now. I regret losing my ship, wanting to have done more, but I just hit a reload cycle and was being forced to warp away anyway. Given the current state of the fight, I probably did as much as I could. Except provide a better warp-in.

The Golem was intact but really suffering when I left it. It's taken even more damage now, but the hostiles have realised that they aren't going to fight our ships off the high-value target, and finally bring in their ECM support instead. It's a frustrating but understandable tactic, and it works. The Golem drops from bastion mode, aligns out, and when a successful jam hits both Dominices at the same time the marauder warps clear. '28% hull structure', says the Golem pilot in the local channel, 'I was shitting myself'. I would have been too.

As for our ships, Mick gets clear, HR doesn't. We lose a Dominix to the fleet, on top of the Manticore, and the Ishtar in the earlier engagement. Whilst we made mistakes, I think we did pretty well. After all, we don't know what mistakes the other fleet think they did, and I would consider leaving the Golem where it was to be their biggest one. Yes, we lost a couple of ships, but our plan was to throw a Hail Mary at the marauder. The excitement, no doubt on both sides, was well worth our time and ISK.

Posted in Gaming | 17 Comments »
Tags: armageddon, dominix, eve online, golem, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, raven, w-space

Back-and-forth with bait

I'm feeling more positive after yesterday's playful encounter. What's up for tonight? A ship in our home system, for a start, which my combat scanning probes inform me of. Warping across from my safe spot lets me see the Golem marauder on my directional scanner, and switching overviews and repeating the scan sees a Sleeper wreck. Just the one wreck, mind you, and now no longer a Golem.

Did I scare the marauder off, or was his ship just not up to the job? I can't believe the latter option, not with only the first Sleeper in the anomaly popped. I find the anomaly, make a perch, and wait a while, pondering the situation. He's back, so say my probes, but d-scan is showing me a Noctis salvager. That's curious. I update my probes and the ship is still somewhere, but the Noctis is gone. Cloaked? No, probably near his wormhole, as it is the salvager my probes are detecting, not the return of the Golem that I assumed.

The Noctis leaves our system. If the pilot's not going to continue here, I'll scan for his wormhole. Calling my probes in to the system is the perfect time for the pilot to return, of course, this time in a Tengu strategic cruiser. I scramble to get my probes out of the system again, no doubt too slowly, but the Tengu persists on d-scan. He's not in the anomaly, or any site, but he does seem to be on our previously scanned static connection. I warp across to take a look.

Well, a pilot called 'Yummy Worm' in a Tengu some seventy kilometres from the wormhole. 'Could be some kind of bait', says a newly arrived HR. Call me suspicious, but I think he's right. I go back to scanning for the apparently new wormhole, resolving it quickly and warping across to see a K162 from class 4 w-space. I don't quite fancy jumping through this one, because if the Tengu is bait then his support fleet will be right on the other side. So what to do?

It's a bit of a stalemate, until Mick arrives. He's always up for a scrap, and knows much more about ships than I ever will. He encourages us to swap ships and I have no hesitation jumping in to a Manticore stealth bomber to see what we can do. My decision to reveal myself on d-scan, indirectly showing the Tengu my intention, is perhaps a bit rash, but at the very least it could spark a reaction. It does. The Tengu aligns away from our wormhole and back to his, warping and jumping as Mick and HR appear at our tower to also swap for much pointier ships.

My Manticore should be safe against whatever is waiting, so I drop my cloak, burn to the K162, and follow a few seconds behind. The wormhole is clear. A Noctis is on d-scan, along with a tower. No Tengu, no support. 'So it was not bait.' Maybe. Maybe not. There's a lot more space outside d-scan range of the wormhole, and as HR joins me in the system I decide to go on a reconnoitre.

Four more towers are in the inner system, one with an empty Charon freighter, another with the Tengu and an also-piloted Cerberus heavy assault cruiser, presumably the support for the bait. One more tower is further distant but with no more ships. The Tengu and Cerberus do nothing, and if it is just them then better timing by us could have got us a couple of kills. But who knows who is watching in w-space?

HR has a new contact at the tower with the Noctis, which warps to the furthest tower. I follow him as the Tengu heads HR's way, and I see the Proteus strategic cruiser get swapped for a Falcon recon ship and warp to a nearby moon lacking a tower. That's initially odd, but it allows the despised ECM boat to cloak and warp elsewhere whilst keeping its vector unknown. Still, there aren't many locations it could be heading, not with HR calling the Tengu being in warp to the wormhole.

Maybe the Tengu was bait after all, and is continuing to be bait, now with greater support. But we feel we're in a better position too, particularly if I hold back in my Manticore and ambush the Falcon as soon as it appears. I make some tactical bookmarks at the wormhole, on the assumption that the Falcon will appear at its optimal range, as Mick jumps from home to engage the Tengu directly.

Mick's Ishtar HAC and the Tengu trade blows for a short while, before the Cerberus makes an appearance on d-scan. I see it so I call it, still waiting for the Falcon to decloak. Still no Falcon, but a Golem is incoming. A Golem? Who would have expected that? The marauder warps from a different direction, plants himself a healthy distance from any direct threat, and starts firing. 'Hit the Cerberus, with everything', says Mick. Roger that.

I warp my Manticore in close—too close, I must have given the wrong order—and HR follows suit, but it's too late. Mick admits that he wasn't able to control the range as he wanted, and his Ishtar explodes. HR flees, I fumble with decisions again, taking my Manticore in a stupid direction before being more sensible, suffering a single volley of cruise missile fire from the Golem as a consequence. My shields are stripped, but I get my Manticore safe. And where was the Falcon? It not appearing is almost as annoying as one appearing.

Posted in Gaming | 12 Comments »
Tags: cerberus, charon, eve online, falcon, golem, ishtar, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, tengu, w-space

Ever get the feeling you're being watched?

You never can tell who's watching you in w-space. The scout in an Anathema covert operations boat of this class 3 w-space system has moved back in to the force field of his tower, after being decloaked by a colleague in a shuttle, and wisely, considering I was watching. Another minute and I would have got myself in to a position to have taken a potshot at him. The Anathema may be safe, the ten-or-so other pilots may be just floating inside the tower with him, but this Tayra hauler is curiously inching towards the edge of the force field.

Taking a closer look at the Tayra sees its vector taking the ship towards an anchored defence. Quite why he's headed that way I can't say, but the defence gives me a good beacon to warp to. At least, as long as the Tayra continues his path. I don't know if he will, but best to get in to position and be disappointed than have to react quickly and miss the opportunity. I bookmark the appropriate defence and bounce off a nearby moon to get myself nice and close.

The Tayra keeps coming. Now I'm back to my earlier question of how long it will take the tower to lock on to my Loki strategic cruiser. Or, more to the point, how long do I have before I get my ship destroyed just for a simple hauler kill? I think I can risk a short period decloaked near the tower. If the Tayra is fit for hauling its defences should be weak. If it looks like the Tayra is well-tanked I will warp clear.

Here he comes. Outside of the force field now, but I let the Tayra keep coming. The closer the better, for my weapons, for my tactics, and for lessening his chance of escape. Now seems like a good time. I decloak and align my Loki away from the tower, towards a moon, and activate my sensor booster. Once the recalibration finishes I gain a positive lock on the Tayra, disrupt its warp drives, and start shooting.

The shields drop quickly, as does the armour, and as it looks squishy I hang around long enough to see the hauler explode. But no longer. As soon as the explosion comes I am in warp, ignoring the ejected pod, however tempting it may be to try to catch. I get clear and cloak, and realise I have some scratches to my shields. It seems it took about ten seconds for the small gun batteries to lock on to my Loki, but thankfully the warp scrambling batteries take longer, as expected.

I go back to the tower to admire the wreck I created. The Executioner frigate comes out of the force field to take a look too, after making rather fast orbits around the tower up to this point, but I don't think he's admiring the wreck. I see from the kill report that the Tayra was carrying some more defensive batteries, four of them, and three survived the explosion. The frigate can't carry them, neither can the Anathema that comes to take a look, so the wreck remains partially looted.

The locals aren't going to leave the wreck that way, not judging by the way a Raven battleship, Navy Drake battlecruiser, and Caracal cruiser all lurk precipitously close to the edge of the force field, like they are protecting an asset. Their presence is explained when another pilot prepares a Bestower hauler and starts chugging towards the wreck. They are going to collect what's theirs. And I'm going to let them. Or, at least, I'm not going to get foolishly caught for nothing.

'Why don't you bomb it?' Mick has the best ideas, and reminds us that we have other ships in our hangar. Fin's available and at our tower, but she has to hurry. The Bestower is almost looting the wreck as I ask her to get a Manticore to my position. Well, not quite my position. I bounce off a moon to get in to optimal bomb-launch range, in time for Fin to have entered the system. She warps to me, as I manoeuvre out of her way to avoid getting decloaked, and we praise the warp acceleration changes that get her in to position so quickly.

The Tayra wreck is looted and the Bestower is already turned back towards the force field, its multiple-ship escort also out of the force field ready to engage anyone rash enough to try to catch their second hauler with a strategic cruiser. I think it is safe to say they were not expecting a stealth bomber to appear, not by the way Fin decloaks, launches a bomb and a volley of torpedoes, and warps clear without hassle.

I watch all of this from my vantage point, particularly enjoying the bit where the Bestower explodes with the bomb's detonation. I'm not the only one who enjoys the show. A capsuleer unaffiliated with us or the locals pipes up in the local channel, just to show how entertaining this is. You never can tell who's watching you in w-space.

The three batteries that were collected by the Bestower are now reduced to two in the wreck of the Bestower. What will the locals do about them? They will prepare a Noctis salvager to collect them, apparently. That makes sense. It has the capacity, and can be fit to survive one bomb, maybe two. If we can't kill the ship, what can we do? 'Shall I torpedo the wreck?' I consider this for a second. Sure, why not.

The Manticore has no recalibration delay, so can target on decloaking. Fin aligns her Manticore ready for warp, decloaks, unloads a volley of torpedoes at the wreck, and gets clear. The wreck is gone, taking the remaining defences with it. The locals may not be happy with that result, but at least it provides a resolution. We also found it rather amusing. For a pair of hauler kills, this has been a most entertaining evening.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: anathema, bestower, caracal, drake, eve online, executioner, loki, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, raven, tayra, w-space