Looking for a cloaked ship isn't easy

'We have visitors', says my glorious leader. Not obvious ones, perhaps, but a cloaky Tengu strategic cruiser has just jumped past Fin to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. With a new signature in the system I sense a connecting wormhole. But, as a wise capsuleer recently said, sense can be an idiot sometimes. Launching probes to scan, as Fin watches the wormhole, only resolves a relic site.

I reveal all the ignored signatures, check our active sites, and look for a second wormhole. There really isn't one. It seems someone opened their wormhole to our system, had the common indecency to then open our static wormhole, and, not liking what they found, promptly collapsed their connection to us. The Tengu must have come across our K162 independently.

So what do we do? Take a look at C3a, I suppose. Jumping through our static wormhole doesn't see much when updating my directional scanner, just a mobile depot. Launching probes and blanketing the system doesn't find much else, just a second mobile depot, plus fourteen anomalies and four signatures. No occupation. I resolve the location of the two depots, which belong to related pilots, neither of which was in the Tengu, and judging by the lack of signatures I guess the depot owner is after the rocks and gas that were in this system.

Scanning resolves a wormhole that smells like null-sec, plus two K162s, one of which must be the origin of the errant strategic cruiser. Probably not the null-sec connection, but the C2 K162 looks a likely candidate for the home of the cloaky scout. I'll check the null-sec wormholes first, though, and I'm glad I do. The static exit leads to Detorid, my first visit to this region for months, and knocking one more destination off my list. Two more to go.

Back to C3a and across to the C2 K162, seeing a Purifier blip on d-scan whilst I'm in warp. I don't know if the stealth bomber came in or went out, it's pretty hard to tell, so I keep moving and jump to C2a. The wormhole looks clear, d-scan shows me a tower with no ships. I break from the wormhole and cloak. No change. Checking my notes has my last visit around eight months ago, where I drop an Onyx heavy interdictor on to a mining operation. What a glorious day that was. But back to the present, and one of the towers from that day remains, one has gone, and no ships are to be seen. I may as well scan.

The anomalies I ignore, the signatures I identify as gas, a data site, and the static exit to high-sec. 'Do we need anything?', says Fin, considering a shopping trip, until I point out that the wormhole clearly leads to Verge Vendor. 'Hah, even if we did...' I jump through the exit anyway, finding myself in a popular system. Five hundred pilots are here and there, and most must be new. I've found an academy system.

Fin asks me to check the market prices for some goods, which I am happy to do. It's all a bit bleak, though. But an orange pilot enters the system that I identify as belonging to the C2 corporation, which makes me think that maybe I'll see a ship come past, at least. Then again, I'm in an academy system, there are at least three pilots scanning that I can tell of, all looking at a healthy collection of signatures scattered around. I think I have low odds of seeing someone come my way.

My assessment is good, as it turns out. Loitering on the wormhole has no ships turn up even curious as to what a wormhole looks like, and who knows what the C2 pilot's plans are in this system. Not to return home any time soon, apparently. I can only wait for so long. I think it's a good time to call it a night.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, scanning, tengu, w-space

Facing the despair of a C5 chain

No change at home sends me straight through our static wormhole, where I start another day with a clear result from my directional scanner and nothing in the system out of range. Is there also a static exit to null-sec? My notes say yes. Okay. Launching probes and scanning the twelve anomalies and fourteen signatures has my being distracted by a data site, being weak like a K346, but the static wormhole is right next to it, second hit.

I keep going, there may be K162s. There's gas, there almost always is, and a second wormhole crops up, but also from a weak signature. That'll be a sucky outbound connection, as well as the only other wormhole in the system. First up is the K346, with the winged serpent of Oasa shining from the other side, where a few pilots mingle and a handful of extra signatures look tempting. But in a fit of optimism I decide to check the other wormhole in the class 3 system first.

The outbound link to class 5 w-space fills me with a little dread. I can almost sense the endless chain of H296 wormholes, all of them lighting up their K162 as I initiate warp, pinging the signature to occupants of the next system in the chain, negating all of my effort in scouting for activity. Yet through I go, drawn in by reminders of better times when the discovery scanner was but an idealistic vision of someone who wanted to make exploration visible, and didn't know it would also be used for passive evil.

I update d-scan in C5a to see nothing and no one, and although a territorial control unit sits on my overview exploring finds no occupation. My notes say that on my last visit I tried to catch a Viator transport scooping a tower, which doesn't really explain the lack of current occupation but it's nice to know that someone was here at some point. I also know that I am indeed scanning for an H296.

Three wormholes are resolved from sixteen anomalies and fifteen signatures. One is a dying K162 from null-sec, also from Oasa, seven hops from the C3a exit. The second is a stable K162 from null-sec, leading me in to a system in Tenerifis where no pilots and extra signatures encourage me to rat and scan, but a data and combat site, and lack of decent rats, has me scurrying back to C3a soon enough. Back to C3a and through the only other wormhole, the static connection to more class 5 w-space.

Occupation but no activity on d-scan this time, a tower without ships. I warp out, launch probes, and scan, three anomalies and seven signatures distilled to two wormholes, the inevitable H296 and a dying K162 from class 5 w-space. It's C5 all the way. Ignoring the wormhole at the end of its life, I dive in to C5c, where d-scan is clear, a blanket scan with my probes reveals four anomalies and ten signatures, and I find my second tower lacking ships of the night.

Another three wormholes. The H296 again, an EOL null K162, and, to mix it up a bit, an outbound connection to low-sec. I think I can stand exploring one more system before giving up, after seeing what low-sec has to offer. I appear in a faction warfare system in Devoid, and realise that the wormhole clearly wasn't opened by me given the destroyer wreck sitting on top of it. Onwards, I suppose, and through C5c's H296 to C5e.

Towers and ships. Big and scary ships, and small and scary ships. And not forgetting this K162 now blinking away to any pilots of the scary ships paying attention, both big and small. That's enough for me on this all-or-nothing night, still hating the discovery scanner. Either there is no one to alert and so no one to surprise, or there are pilots to surprise that the discovery scanner is happy to alert. What a pointless mechanic in w-space.

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

Ghost ship and ghost site

Two wormholes in high-sec. Both K162s, both coming from w-space. One is from a class 3 system, the other a class 2 system. Still no hauler returns to jump past me from where he perhaps didn't go in the first place, so I stop waiting ineffectually and go looking for activity elsewhere. First stop C2b, where a Bestower and nothing else on my directional scanner looks like I have almost hit the jackpot!

But is the hauler collecting planet goo, or is he about to hit this wormhole and jump to high-sec, where I can't touch him without Concord wanting to have a quiet word with my wreck? Opening the system map to ping the nearby planets with d-scan simplifies the search, as I see just the one planet in range. And, yes, the Bestower is there. Well, I doubt I'll be quick enough to catch him before he moves on, but I throw my Loki strategic cruiser in to warp towards that customs office and hope for the best.

Nope, no Bestower here, although the hauler remains on d-scan. Did I just miss him and he's warping away? Not according to subsequent d-scan updates, refining which places the ship around one of the moons. I've seen this before, where a hauler is anchoring a new tower, or scooping an old one, so I warp across to see which one it is, and get the answer 'neither'. The Bestower is lacking a pilot, floating aimlessly in empty space. Still, it's target practice, and I bag a couple more expanded cargoholds for my collection.

Draining some epinephrine in to my pod goo, forcing me to calm down a little, a blanket scan of C2a reveals ten anomalies and two signatures—the two static wormholes—and three more ships. Exploring finds the expected tower, with a Thanatos carrier, Exequror cruiser, and Iteron V hauler all unpiloted inside its force field. I scan, because it's easy, and warp to the second static wormhole. It leads to class 3 w-space, specifically a C3 system with a tower, no ships, and a ghost site.

The ghost site is tempting, but not only is is an occupied system, my last experience with a ghost site killed my Loki. I'm pretty sure I know what I did wrong, though, and there isn't much else happening at the moment. Then again, I have another w-space system to check, which I should probably do first, in case I find actual activity. Back to C2a, out to high-sec, and through the K162 to C3b.

A corpse and frigate wreck on d-scan makes it look like I've missed the action here, particularly when there is nothing else to see. Okay, the ghost site in the occupied and unscanned system is calling me. What could possibly go wrong? I head back home, across the high-sec system in Domain, two hops from Amarr, and through C3a, to swap the fitting of my Loki at our tower. I modify it from the last ghost site fitting a little, which along with a minor change to tactics should mean I won't be leaving the site in my pod like last time.

Back I go, with any luck not to my death at the pointy end of other capsuleers' ships. Or Blood Raiders. I cross systems that show no change from previous visits until I hit C3c, and warp to the ghost site. Hmm, maybe I should have moved from the wormhole and warped in to the site cloaked. That may have given me more time than brashly warping in directly. It's done now, let's get on with it.

New tactic: scan the containers, hack the best one, and leg it. Balls to the explosion and rats, just get what I can and survive. Scanning the containers gives me an easy choice, what with an Ascendancy implant blueprint and Weta mobile depot blueprint in one can. I pick that one. I manoeuvre in to position, set a close orbit so that I'm not a stationary target, and start hacking.

Hack hackity hack. I'm tempted to call it bad hacking, but, really, what is good hacking? There are no visual cues or hints as to what is behind any individual node, so although there may be legitimate tactics in deciding what defences to attack and which to leave, it is blind luck as to whether you find the defences, helpful nodes, or the core itself. The entirely arbitrary nature of the process rankles.

Here come the rats, the Blood Raiders warping in as I still haven't found stumbled haphazardly in to the system core. Despite what happened last time, and partly because now I am maintaining some traversal speed, but mostly because of the potential riches inside the container, I keep hacking. Naturally, I don't succeed this time, the container clearly not wanting to just hand its bounty to some unknown capsuleer, and the site explosion is triggered.

The site explodes, all the containers detonating simultaneously, but luckily my Loki does not. I am barely getting scratched this time, which, given my only modest changes to the ship's fitting, makes me wonder just what I did wrong last time. But I weather the incoming fire, the rats get bored and warp off, at which point their warp disruption effects drop and I too leave the site, soon followed by leaving the system. No loot for me, but I am actually a little excited at just being that close to the expensive BPCs. So excited that I didn't grab an image, obviously. I'll do it next time.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, exequror, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, thanatos, w-space

Seeing an orange and feeling a lemon

Crap, our home sites have been plundered, all without my being able to interrupt or explode anything. That's a damned shame. An unexpected signature isn't even a wormhole leading to the perps either, just a new pocket of gas that I'll ignore and hope someone else has designs on harvesting. Never mind, onwards, ever onwards, and through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

There are just a few bubbles visible on my directional scanner from our K162, and nothing is out of range. No occupation, no activity. I launch probes and scan the seventeen anomalies and twenty signatures, which gives me a fair bit to sift through, and as my notes say that I'm looking for a static exit to null-sec I can't ignore the weak signatures. That's cool, as I ignore four gas sites, resolve a chubby wormhole, and find the weak wormhole next to that. That's some good scanning, Penny.

The K162 I've found is just from low-sec, so I keep scanning the other signatures, hitting data, relics, and gas, until there's just one chubby signature left. Good, it's a wormhole. I ignore the rest of the skinny signatures, recall my probes, and, as I'm sitting next to it, check through the low-sec K162 first. I exit to a faction warfare system in Placid, with one pilot in the system and a few extra signatures should I need them.

Back to C3a and through the K346 to Great Wildlands. Two pilots, more signatures. Also good to know. But what's the third wormhole in C3a? It's a K162 from class 2 w-space, which is nicely saving the best to last. Jumping through even sees occupation and possible activity, with two towers on d-scan along with two Tengu strategic cruisers and an Iteron V hauler. There are no wrecks, though, so I don't feel too bad at appearing less than one kilometre from the wormhole.

My last visit to this C2 had my podding a Hound stealth bomber on the static exit to high-sec. Good days. What about today? There's an extra tower, for a start. The tower in my notes holds a Tengu and the Iteron, both piloted, and the new tower has the other Tengu, also piloted. That bodes well for potential activity, and before they get any ideas I warp away from them to launch probes, in case I need them. That only gets me closer to two more towers and three more ships, but scoping the ships finds no pilots, so I launch probes out here anyway.

A blanket scan of C2a reveals seven anomalies, seven signatures, and five ships. That doesn't seem right, not having counted three in the inner system and three on the edge. I head back to watch the Iteron in case it moves, but the hauler turns out to be the ship that's now missing. Great, there was no activity until I stopped looking for it. But, hey, maybe it's gone to high-sec and I can catch that coming back polarised! That must be more likely than it having gone off-line. I scan quickly, looking for the wormhole the Iteron almost certainly used, getting one as the first hit.

I drop out of warp next to a K162 from Domain, which could be relevant, but I keep scanning, looking for the B274 that also could have been used. That's the second wormhole I resolve, an exit to high-sec Lonetrek, but one wobbling away at the end of its life. I imagine the Domain exit is more likely to be active, so I head back that way to loiter. In fact, I'll jump through to get myself a decent exit and see what's happening in the system.

Jumping through the K162 lands me a mere two hops to Amarr. That's a short journey for any hauler to make, and for it to return quickly. There are no orange pilots in the local communication channel, but I think I can wait a few minutes. That is, until I remember that the Iteron pilot belonged to a state corporation and didn't get painted when I marked the C2a corporation. That's going to make him harder to spot. In fact, do I even remember the name? Maybe, maybe not.

I may as well scan the two other signatures in the high-sec system, whilst trying to remember and identify the Iteron pilot who may or may not have come this way, hoping that he'll jump through the wormhole and save me some precious mental effort. Whether I successfully remember the name or not, no Iteron jumps past me, and I've resolved two wormholes. I would say my time will be better spent reconnoitring them than sitting here, given the circumstances.

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

Scouts passing by

Do new signatures in the home system mean new opportunity? Only if I want to dig up some space relics in space, or huff on space gas in space. Which I don't. So it's through our static wormhole with me, where my directional scanner shows me the unlikely pairing of a Nidhoggur carrier and Buzzard covert operations boat. There's a tower in range too, which is where I expect both boats to be, even before I check to see that, nope, there are no wrecks in the system.

It's my eighth visit to this class 3 w-space system, the last being around sixteen months ago. There was no occupation then, and the locals having moved in and built their carrier seems to have been done in a suitable timeframe. Rather quicker than we are managing with our dreadnought, anyway. I wonder what's happening with that. Anyway, I start to find the tower manually, as combat scanning probes appear on d-scan. I suppose our K162 is not a surprise any more. I may as well warp out and launch my own probes.

A blanket scan reveals fourteen anomalies and eleven signatures, so do I scan them or wait for the Buzzard to find our wormhole and make his move? Well, scanning won't take long, most of the signatures being chubsters, so I call in my probes and resolve three wormholes amongst the gas. That's probably why the Buzzard doesn't come our way. Then again, it may not even be the Buzzard scanning, not with additional wormholes in the system. Oh, he's gone from d-scan. Maybe he is active.

Reconnoitring the wormholes finds an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space that's a bit lame, the expected U210 exit to low-sec—where I pause to get the exit, in Aridia, where there are extra signatures if I need them—and a K162 from class 4 w-space. The K162 offers perhaps the best chance for finding activity, depending on how fresh it is. I jump through to find out.

A tower, no ships, and one anomaly and sixteen signatures to poke for more K162s. I don't find any, just gas masquerading as opportunity, so it's back to C3a and on to C3b. D-scan shows me a tower and Ishtar heavy assault cruiser in the system, but no wrecks and, a few seconds later, no Ishtar. Scanning reveals three anomalies and seven signatures, and exploring finds a second tower with no other ships and no sign of the HAC. Just the static exit to low-sec is pulled from the signatures, leading to a busy faction warfare system in The Bleak Lands.

I ignore the single extra signature in the faction warfare system to return to Aridia, where an orange in the system catches my interest. Where's he from? I dunno, but I'm pretty sure he's heading to w-space, given that the pilot appears in a Helios cov-ops and jumps past me to C3a. It's not worth chasing that in my Loki strategic cruiser, so launch probes and scan. Two wormholes are resolved, and two crappy wormholes. Both are outbound connections, paradoxically worse than K162s, one to class 2 w-space, one to class 3 w-space. I don't think I'm finding anything today, but I can still look.

C2a is uninspiring, with a tower and no ships visible on d-scan. Trying C3c instead isn't much better, indeed looking bleaker on entry, with a clear d-scan result, a black hole looming below, and only one planet out of range. Is it worth checking that? Not to find a tower lacking ships, no. All is quiet, and I can't be bothered to scan for further outbound wormholes. I turn around and head home, realising a bit late that the Helios that passed me is probably from C4a. I poke my prow through the K162 to see if he's up to anything, but there isn't even sign of the cov-ops. Okay, never mind. It looks like it's time to head off-line.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, helios, ishtar, loki, mmorpg, nidhoggur, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Called in by HR

I'm heading off-line. I got a salvager kill, saw the rest of the fleet crash their wormhole, and hit a dead end in low-sec. That looks like it for me. But HR has braved the stargates in the faction warfare systems of The Bleak Lands and uncovered another wormhole leading back to class 3 w-space, in which a Tengu strategic cruiser looks to be engaging Sleepers. I'm almost tempted to return but am feeling somewhat lazy. HR goes it alone.

The Tengu is caught and tackled by HR in his own strategic cruiser, but the Tengu's tank cannot be broken by the covertly configured boat. HR has to let it go. That's a shame, if almost inevitable, and that would be the end of the night, were it not for the Tengu's return after its retreat. The pilot is apparently undeterred by HR's attack, and seeing my colleague's ship disappear he goes back to continue shooting Sleepers.

This looks to good to be true, frankly. I have a rule never to go back, a rule that was made after more than one experience of actually going back for a second shot and finding the ships reconfigured to explicitly counter a second attack. HR doesn't have such a rule—at least, not yet—and the short turnaround of the Tengu makes it look like the pilot is merely naive. Perhaps even in need of education.

Of course, attacking a second time in the same ship won't let HR prevail, so he's heading back to our system to swap to our ship-killer Legion strategic cruiser. That should do the trick. Even so, and even with my hard-learnt rule, I can't let HR go back alone. It's not that I don't want my colleague to get the kill solo, I actually want to be there to provide support.

I come back on-line, in the home system, in my Loki strategic cruiser. If HR is getting the Legion then my Loki should be support enough, so rather than waste time with ship selection I point myself directly towards our static wormhole, and from there out to low-sec. HR guides me through the couple of stargates to the system where he found the other wormhole, and I warp to the K162 and jump through to C3b.

The wormhole is at the end of its life, but I won't worry about that just yet. I'm here before HR, so I update my directional scanner as my session change cloak holds, seeing a tower, Prorator transport, and Tengu in the system, plus a whole load of Sleeper wrecks. Refining my search, the Prorator appears to be at the tower, the Tengu at large. Sadly, the site the Tengu is in seems to have despawned. I check with HR and, yes, he has the site bookmarked.

As I have a little time, I locate the tower and, well, now the Tengu is there. The pilot drops to a Buzzard covert operations boat, down to his pod, and back to the Tengu. HR has entered the system and is in the despawned site, where he first engaged the Tengu. Let's hope he goes back again. But no, the Tengu pilot swaps back to the Buzzard, warps, cloaks. The local launches probes and presumably scans, maybe wondering where HR came from.

I go back to check on the dying exit to low-sec. It's possible the local pilot thinks it will collapse of natural causes soon and is preparing to scan for its replacement, which makes it kinda weird when the Buzzard appears uncloaked next to the exit. Sure, he could be checking it, but why decloak to do so? Whatever the reason, he warps clear again, unmolested by myself partly because I don't believe I could catch the agile ship, partly because I want him back in the site in the Tengu.

The Buzzard relaunches probes. Does that mean he just scanned his system's own static wormhole, despite it being at the end of its life and so opened hours ago? It's possible the wormhole was opened by someone else passing through, but I'm more inclined to believe the pilot doesn't quite know what he's doing, and is on a learning experience. 'I gathered that once he stayed in the site when I failed to kill him', says HR. There's hope yet. At least, there is until the probes disappear, the Buzzard with them.

Three sites' worth of wrecks are left behind, but if the other two are like the one HR is lurking in then the wrecks are all looted, if not actually salvaged. It looks like the pilot is content to let the Sleeper wrecks rot in space, perhaps not realising the lucrative potential in salvaging them. We wait a few more minutes, in case the pilot's being more cautious than we give him credit for, then decide to call it a night. We leave through the wormhole whilst we still can, empty handed but having given the ambush a second shot.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, tengu, w-space

After the ambush

I'm out of the pocket seconds after the successful ambush. I don't feel a particular need to be in any great rush, though, not with my reduced-range directional scanner still showing no one coming to help. Regardless, it is good practice to clear the pocket and get out of harm's way, even if no one is coming. Reverting d-scan to its full range shows that the Tengu strategic cruisers and Drake battlecruiser remain in the system, just not doing anything apparently. Whatever, dudes.

An Anathema covert operations boat has found our K162, which I find out by returning to it myself, with it being the only relatively neutral space for me at the moment. Or it was. But fair enough. The other ships don't come across to investigate, and still no new Sleeper wrecks are being created. Given that there is no tower visible on d-scan, the fleet is almost certainly not local and sitting on their K162, waiting for the Noctis that's not coming home.

The ships leave, Drake and one Tengu first, followed by the Anathema, then the other two Tengus a minute later. I'm alone, just me and my new buddy and his 140 Miskie corpse head. I'd rather I hadn't had to rush the hunt so much, but this time it was more prompted by the Noctis salvager being active in a despawned site as much as it was the discovery scanner potentially pinging our K162 to the ships in the fleet. And I got an actual hunt for the first time in a while. Good times.

I slow down, take a look around. This class 3 w-space system turns out to be unoccupied, and as the fleet was on d-scan near the Noctis I think I know where to look for their K162 amongst the seven signatures. I'm also pretty sure I won't jump through it. But there is merit in resolving its location, of course. Before I do, a Drake named 'Close WH' appears on d-scan, and I'm unsure whether the name reflects the ship's purpose or is a message to me.

A Scorpion battleship with the same name appears in the system, as I scan where the Drake was. That's good, as the battleship gives my combat probes an even fatter target than the Drake or K162, and I resolve and warp to the wormhole within seconds. The fleet come from class 5 w-space, and they are well on their way to collapsing their wormhole to this system. The connection is in a critically destabilised state as I reach it, and gone seconds later as the Scorpion jumps back through. That's good, I have an empty system to myself.

It's time to scan for the low-sec exit and look for more wormholes. Unsurprisingly, what with the fleet engaging Sleepers in C3a, there are no other connections beyond the exit wormhole, but before I explore further I head back home to dump my loot and corpse. I can't carry any more, not with a bulky prototype cloaking device in my hold, and, ever the optimist, I am looking to find more loot in other ships. Besides that, though, I currently can't actually recall all my probes.

Cargo sorted, I return to C3a and exit through the U210 to a system in The Bleak Lands. It's a pretty boring system, though, engaged in faction warfare and with a single extra signature that resolves to be a combat site. I turn around and head back to w-space, but what to do now? It's perhaps a bit late to think about collapsing our static wormhole and do something afterwards. And even though HR turns up, keen to stargate-hop and find his own targets, I am feeling too tired to join him. I think I'll just go off-line. Our schedules will align again soon enough.

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Tags: anathema, drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, tengu, w-space

Lesser-spotted Noctis sighting

Let's see what kind of trouble I can get myself in to today. Nothing at home, just our new static wormhole and a relic site. How about next door? Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system and updating my directional scanner looks both good and bad: a Noctis salvager, Drake battlecruiser, and Sleeper wrecks, all without a tower in sight. I have activity, but also a possible escort, as well as a good chance that the site the Noctis is in has already become unscannable.

I move quickly, bookmarking all of the anomalies in the system, but sweeping d-scan over each shows no sign of the Noctis or wrecks. The site has despawned, I won't find the Noctis without scanning the ship's position directly with combat probes. And how long do I have before the discovery scanner pings our K162 to the pilots? It's a concern, but you don't admit defeat without even trying. I warp to a distant planet to drop off d-scan of the two ships, launch combat probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system.

The blanket scan has two objectives in this case. First, it gets my probes active and out of d-scan range of the two ships effectively. Second, it shows me what else is in the system that maybe d-scan's limited range can't show me. What my probes show me that d-scan doesn't is a total of five ships in the system. Unpiloted ships in a tower, or colleagues of the two active ships I've already seen? I'm going to throw caution to the wind and disregard those other ships, not even warping around to see what they are, and hunt the Noctis. This type of opportunity happens too rarely these days for me to ignore it.

A rough hunt seems like a good idea to start with, just getting a general position for the Noctis and letting my probes do the work. But I'm better than that, and the Noctis has a large signature for me to work with. I reckon I can get him with a single scan, just by taking a little care. Be quick, but be smooth. I narrow down the Noctis's position using d-scan, until I have the ship in a five-degree beam. Adjusting d-scan's range get estimates the ship's distance at 4·3 AU. I can work with that.

I get my probes aligned and at roughly the right distance, and make one last check. They've shifted a bit and need a small adjustment. With that done, it's worth checking d-scan more broadly as I align my ship in the approximate direction of the Noctis, to check the general system situation. The Drake is still there, and now I see the other three ships: three Tengu strategic cruisers. Luckily, they are not with the Noctis and no more wrecks are being created. I would say it looks like they are waiting on a wormhole. It still looks potentially awkward for me.

No more wrecks are being created, and those that remain are disappearing fast. The Noctis is an efficient beast, I'd better move. I scan. Perfect. 100% hit on the Noctis and, as predicted, no site. I throw my probes out of the system instead of recalling them, as I may need them again soon, and send my Loki strategic cruiser in to warp towards the Noctis. I drop out of warp near to the salvager, in almost empty space. Just one wreck remains, and is the Noctis now aligning to leave? No, the velocity differential is the result of my residual speed from warp deceleration.

Well, it's now or never. I decloak, activate my micro warp drive to surge forwards, and get my sensor booster working. Targeting the Noctis gets a positive lock, letting my warp scrambler and autocannons get busy. I consider aligning back out of the site, just in case the salvager's colleagues come to her aid, and even though I failed to make a perch on the way in the wormhole is a good retreat. But, no, instead I reduce d-scan's range gate to 1 AU and keep it updated. Any ship detection will be early warning of a ship approaching, and I can maintain an optimal distance from the salvager.

Nothing gets within d-scan range so far, and the shields of the Noctis are dropping precipitously. My autocannons rake through the armour and chip away at the hull, still no Tengus are coming my way. The Noctis has even given up running, letting me get some solid hits and cause it to explode. Well, sorta. The salvager merely turns in to a wreck without any fireball, which is a bit disappointing. I aim for the ejected pod anyway as I loot quick quick, and I get it. That's a bonus!

Cracking open the pod only has my spending a little longer in the pocket as I scoop the corpse, the pilot probably having given up on running because of the failure of the two warp core stabilisers in saving her ship. It works for me, though. What doesn't work for me is losing the good salvage in the lack-of-explosion, as well as there being zero Sleeper loot, no doubt a stupid mobile tractor unit once again denying me the spoils of a successful hunt and ambush. But this is not the time. I shoot the wreck as I turn my Loki around, accelerating to get the hell out of here.

Posted in Gaming | 7 Comments »
Tags: drake, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Opening a wormhole for it to be closed

Nope, nothing. Lurking by the K162 in our home system, which took back to class 5 w-space a few bits of metal that resembled a Noctis salvager and a thief in a Venture frigate, doesn't spit anything back at me. Not even a scout comes through to see what I'm up to. I'd say that makes it time to look through our static wormhole for more activity to interrupt, albeit with a mind as to what's behind me. At least it doesn't seem too threatening at the moment.

Now there's timing. I experience a cross-jump, appearing in our neighbouring class 3 system as a Buzzard covert operations boat jumps to our home system. Yes, I still hate the discovery scanner for making newly spawned wormholes so bleeding obvious. There's not much I can do about the scout, even if I thought I had a chance at catching him, so I just ride out the session change cloak, updating my directional scanner and checking my notes as I do.

A tower is unsurprisingly in the system, along with some more ships. Two Scorpion battleships, a Typhoon battleship, Drake battlecruiser, Brutix battlecruiser, Buzzard cov-ops, and Tayra hauler are all somewhere, and with no wrecks to be seen I can't make much of a guess as to how many pilots there may be. Ah, at least one more, seeing that the Typhoon drops on to the wormhole with me. I'm okay, I've moved and activated my module cloak, but I'm not sure I can say the same for our wormhole.

In come the other two battleships, both Scorpions following behind the Typhoon through the wormhole. I get the feeling they don't want this connection in their system and want to get rid of it, particularly when all three ships jump back seconds after leaving, warping away from the wormhole to a nearby planet. Well, they're polarised, I have some time to take a look at their tower.

I take a bit too close a look at the tower, dropping five kilometres from the force field. That could have been embarrassing. I see that only the battleships are piloted, so there are four capsuleers on-line that I know of, including the Buzzard, which for me only really means that their collapsing our wormhole will take a bit of time if they are only going to be using battleships.

The three ships warp out of the tower again, and with nothing better to do and no pilots left at the tower I follow behind to watch what happens. Our wormhole shrinks slightly when the Typhoon jumps out, causing the Scorpions pause. Maybe they are doing some maths. And although the wormhole definitely won't collapse with this pass, I should probably go back myself, definitely within the next five minutes.

Five minutes gives me time to look around the system a bit better, my curiosity extending beyond this one planet that's within d-scan range. Nothing else? That was informative. Okay, let's go home and watch the collapse from the other side. I would be tempted to interfere, try to throw off their calculations, if I didn't know they had a scout on the other side no doubt watching for such shenanigans and other threats.

I return to the wormhole to see the battleships warp away, no doubt polarised, making it simple to jump home. I pulse my micro warp drive going through the wormhole, bulking up my Loki strategic cruiser by a probably negligible amount, the anarchist that I am. Strangely, doing so kinda works, as the wormhole drops to being critically destabilised by my jump. I'm not sure I particularly wanted that to happen, though.

I sit near the wormhole and watch for the next jump, hoping that the C3 locals will actually collapse the wormhole and give me a new one to explore through. But, of course, them leaving the wormhole in its half-mass state and coming back to see it critical probably makes them nervous to jump battleships through, and perhaps is even seen as mission accomplished for them.

I could finish the wormhole off myself, I suppose, but I still have potential hostiles behind me in C5a. Even if its doubtful that they are still awake, I don't like the idea of them watching the wormhole, hoping I successfully collapse it and catching me in empty space. Or of them seeing me leave and collapsing it themselves. Anyway, the C3 pilots started this, they should have the decency to finish it. Ah well. No kill, no exploration. This evening's been a bust.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Opening a wormhole for it to be closed
Tags: brutix, buzzard, drake, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scorpion, tayra, typhoon, w-space

Gas-site salvaging

Aii's sucked up some gas nice and efficiently. I would like to think that the new signature in the home system is space's reward to him, a replenishing of the gas, but not when a blanket scan of the home system reveals two ships and five drones. I rather suspect that we have visitors coming through a new wormhole. Indeed, warping closer to the ships and updating my directional scanner sees a Venture mining frigate and an Ishtar heavy assault cruiser, one in each of our two remaining gas sites. Thieves!

The frigate is taking our gas, the HAC popping the Sleepers that are trying to stop them. I doubt I can help the Sleepers with the HAC, not in my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, and I won't be able to swap ships without them detecting my presence on d-scan. The Venture, however, I can do something about. Or can I? The Venture is generally fragile and easy to pop, but when I warp to the gas site the frigate's in I see him huffing on the move, orbiting the cloud at a rate of knots.

Trying to manoeuvre my Loki in to a position where I can catch the Venture will be difficult, partly because I am slower cloaked than the Venture is, and partly because getting too close to the gas cloud will decloak my ship. I doubt I can keep my distance from the cloud whilst getting close to the Venture. The other option is to warp close to the Venture from a tactical position, but the pilot is either flying smart of flying lucky. His movement isn't putting his ship in a neat line between the cloud and any of the planets in the system.

Luckily, a new target appears, one that is bigger, more expensive, and easier to catch. The Ishtar finished popping Sleepers and left the system, and, just as I am scratching my head trying to work out how to get close to the Venture, a Noctis salvager appears on d-scan. Unless the Noctis is being particularly smart, I will be able to catch that. I just need to be quick about it, as the salvagers are awfully efficient at what they do.

I warp to the other gas site, making a perch on my way in. A bad perch, as it turns out, but never mind, it will just add a few seconds to the ambush. I bookmark a wreck the Noctis is almost on top of, note that the ship doesn't appear to be moving, and warp away to bounce off a nearby planet. Returning to the site to drop a little short of the wreck puts me in an excellent position, already within warp scrambler range of the salvager, who although now moving looks to be only heading towards a distant wreck.

There's no time to waste. I decloak, get a positive lock, and start shooting the warp-scrambled Noctis. I pulse my micro warp drive and give the salvager a bit of a bump, just because I can, disengaging the drive to back off a bit as the Noctis is nudged off course. My autocannon rounds are already clawing through the ship's armour, and as the Noctis dips in to structure damage I turn and pulse my MWD for ramming speed a second time. I don't quite get the trajectory right, but that's okay because the Noctis is deep in to structure damage. And there he goes.

Literally, there he goes. My target lock drops not because I rip away the final shreds of the Noctis's hull, but because the git has filled his low fitting slots with warp core stabilisers. I was under no threat of retaliation so didn't bother overheating my guns, but maybe overheating is a habit I need to get in to more. It would have spelt the end of the Nocts in this case, that's for sure.

My target's gone but I try to make the best of the situation. I warp to the first gas site, the one with the Venture sucking on gas, hoping that the communication between the two pilots will be slow or muddled, or the frigate won't react to a distant threat, but knowing that I'm already too late to catch the fleeing ship. Dropping in to the now-empty site instead has me calling in my probes from their blanket configuration to see if I can find the ships' wormhole, but they are both gone from the system. I didn't really have much chance of resolving and warping to the wormhole in time to finish off the Noctis anyway.

I scan regardless, because I need to. Our static wormhole is there as usual, and is joined by a K162 from class 5 w-space. This time, I'm not going to look through the K162. I doubt much will happen in that system now, and if it does it certainly won't be anything positive for me. I'll just loiter on this side of the wormhole for a bit, make sure nothing tries to sneak through, then explore my other option.

Posted in Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tags: eve online, ishtar, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, venture, w-space