Having a go at a Helios

Two pods are at the tower with the Orca industrial command ship. One has stowed his Retriever mining barge, the other left his behind as a wreck in the ore site, kinda helped along by yours truly. I'm curious to see what they do next. A Buzzard covert operations boat is boarded and manoeuvred out of the force field to launch probes and, presumably, scan the new signature that brought me in to this class 3 w-space system.

Can I do anything about this? I could plant an interceptor on our side of the wormhole, but I consider it highly unlikely that the locals will do anything but register the new wormhole. It would be remarkable if they decided to jump through out of curiosity, knowing that at least a hostile Loki strategic cruiser is at large. But I can grab the next-best ship, and I head home to swap to a Manticore stealth bomber. I can lurk cloaked and still have a chance of catching a cov-ops. Or I could, if scanning a single signature took longer than crossing systems and changing ships. Which it doesn't.

Returning to C3a in the Manticore has probes gone from the system, according to my directional scanner. I loiter for a minute on the K162, just in case a jump comes, but none does. Warping to the tower sees the Buzzard and the Orca pilot now in a Prowler transport, but the third pilot is missing and there's a Bestower hauler on d-scan. What have I missed? Whatever it was, I've definitely missed it, as the Bestower drops in to the tower and all three ships blink off-line one after the other.

I don't think the hauler pilot was doing anything silly. There are three towers in this system, and the hauler's vector in to this tower came from the direction of another, so I really don't think I missed another ambush opportunity. And seeing all three pilots go off-line is good in its way, as I can be confident no one remains in this system. I swap the Manticore back for the Loki and launch probes to scan C3a for more wormholes.

It's mostly gas in this system, plus a bit of Retriever dust, and unsurprisingly there is only the one wormhole, hence the earlier mining, leading out to low-sec. The connection takes me to Aridia, of course, where I am by myself and have five extra signatures to scan. As I scan I look for a decent rat to pop for a gain in security status. I resolve three wormholes and ignore two combat sites before finding one, but that's okay.

My probes have found three K162s, two from class 5 w-space, one from class 3 w-space. One of the C5 K162s is at the end of its life and critically destabilised, but no one seems to want to finish the job. I ignore it in favour of the C3 K162, where jumping through sees nothing on d-scan, perhaps explained by the black hole in the system. A blanket scan reveals five anomalies and eight signatures, exploring finds no occupation, and scanning only resolves an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space. No K162s.

C3c is worth a look, I suppose, and at least it has occupation, if not any ships. A blanket scan reveals five anomalies and six signatures, and a d-scan update has core scanning probes in the system with me now. Someone else is out there. I look for wormholes and resolve three in succession: the static exit to low-sec, a K162 from null-sec, and a second K162 from null-sec. Not the w-space I was looking for. A bit of gas gets ignored and a fourth wormhole is revealed, but that too is just another K162 from null-sec.

The other scout is still scanning, and as he's probably not worth waiting for anyway I'll poke the null-sec systems and head home. Oop, the probes disappear and, yep, a Buzzard is on d-scan. Not worth trying to catch, not in a lumbering ship like my Loki. Not that I don't try to catch a cov-ops when one is right in front of me. Jumping through the first K162 lands me in a system in Omist, where I see nothing of interest until I decide to jump back to C3c. A Helios cov-ops decloaks on the wormhole and jumps. Naturally, I follow, futilely try to lock on to the tiny, agile ship on the other side of the wormhole, and watch it disappear. Really not worth it.

The second K162 in C3c comes in from Fountain, where my motivation drops sharply enough that I don't care to rat or to see where the third null-sec K162 would take me. That's probably for the best, and it's through C3c, across C3b, and back to low-sec, where curiosity tugs at my warp engine, sending me to the healthy C5 K162. Okay, I can spare a few minutes. Seeing a tower and no ships from the other side of the wormhole tempts me to give up, but there must be more to see. I launch probes and blanket the system. Eight anomalies, three signatures, and eleven ships. Yep, more to see. Primarily, I suspect another tower.

Not just one more tower waits to be found in C5b, but at least three more in the system centre alone. In them are a piloted Loki, empty Noctis salvager, and piloted Orca. That's three ships, which my keen mathematical mind is telling me is less than the eleven my probes are showing me. I wonder if they could possibly be around that one planet still out of d-scan range. I warp across and, who could have known, see two more towers and, um, five more ships.

The Proteus, Legion, and Tengu strategic cruisers, and Guardian logistics ship and Cynabal cruiser are all piloted, split amongst the two towers, but five and three isn't eleven, right? I interrogate my probes and they agree, adjusting their ship estimate to match the reality of eight being in the system. Did three go off-line, or abroad to another system? A quick scan resolves relics and a wormhole, but poking through the static connection to C5c sees only a tower and Imicus frigate, with not enough out of range to convince me anything's happening. And, with that last look around not finding anything to convince me to continue, it is time to call it a night.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, cynabal, eve online, guardian, helios, imicus, legion, loki, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, prowler, scanning, tengu, w-space

First blood for the Ghost

It's time to break-in Ghost of the Bounty, my new Loki strategic cruiser. Of course, it's pretty much identical to my previous Loki, except for the obvious difference of not being a wreck, but I think that difference will give significant performance increases. Scanning the couple of new signatures in the home system gives me a soft start to the evening, a little light activity to get all the rust shaken off—well, not all of it, I want to have my ship intact—and resolving them to both be gas sites has my entering warp to our static wormhole.

Updating my directional scanner from the K162 in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees nothing interesting. Checking my notes shows that my previous visit was a mere ten days earlier, so the three towers present then are probably still here now. It is also the system where I missed catching a Probe frigate in a relic site, so perhaps the locals are active at about this time. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan of the system, and warp towards the towers.

My probes reveal twelve anomalies, twelve signatures, and three ships. The first tower is bare, the second holds a piloted Orca industrial command ship—as d-scan shows the other two ships are Retrievers, is that a hint of other ships mining? Quick quick, warp to the third tower. Also bare. That puts the pair of mining barges almost certainly in an ore site. I open the system map, point d-scan in a tight beam at the sites, and find the one where the Retrievers are.

Warping to the site sees the barges still there, still chomping away at rocks, hopefully oblivious to the new signature in the system and my entrance. But for how much longer? I warp in to get a closer look and prepare my ambush, and my first impression is that the two ships are too far apart to be encapsulated by an Onyx heavy interdictor's warp bubble. But, then, I feel I'm being uncomfortably rushed by the pointless threat of the stupid, stupid discovery scanner shouting out that I'm here.

Bagging one of the mining barges could be enough to sate my bloodlust, particularly when coming across such a sight is becoming so much rarer in w-space. I pick one of the Retrievers, approach, and decloak. I lock on to the barge, disrupt its warp drive, and start shooting. With any luck the two pilots are really absent whilst their holds fill with ore, but switching my attention to the second shows that they are not. The other Retriever is accelerating away from his rock. I could maybe try to stop him, but best to definitely catch one than let two escape. I keep my focus.

The first Retriever isn't going anywhere, and I'm tearing through his armour nicely. Pop goes the mining barge, and although I aim for the pod it's already gone. I go to loot the wreck of what I can carry, but just shoot it to destroy the scordite that I can't, seeing little point in trying to come back to claim it in a bigger ship. I reload my guns, cloak, and warp back to the tower to lurk.

I'm almost kicking myself now. Ambushing the one Retriever and looking at the other showed that they were both easily in range of the Onyx's bubble, which almost certainly could have popped both ships and podded both pilots before the sluggish barges could have manoeuvred away. But warping to the wormhole, jumping, warping to our tower, swapping ships, coming back, getting in to the site, and positioning myself would have taken time that I really don't think the stupid, stupid discovery scanner allows any more.

Yes, I got a kill, but I didn't get the hunt that I appreciate more. And what little satisfaction I got from the kill is negated by the double-guessing of what I should have done and what could have been, all caused not by circumstances of the environment but an artificial and arbitrary time limit. It's first blood for Ghost of the Bounty, but were the discovery scanner sensibly not active in w-space I could have taken home two more trophies.

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

Dying to a ghost

I'm looking for some excitement in space. Or, I dunno, maybe just a way to pass some time. No signature churn in the home system gives me only our static wormhole to resolve, and I'm on my way. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 system and updating my directional scanner sees a tower and Iteron V, which gives me a possible target, one I'd better find before the discovery scanner announces my arrival.

Nope, no easy hauler kill tonight, not with the Iteron missing a pilot. There is also a second tower around another planet with more ships, but again none of them piloted. I launch probes to scan, and, holy crap, do something with your system, people. Thirty-two anomalies is a bit much. Thankfully there are only seven signatures to sort through, which resolve to give me two fat wormholes and two skinny wormholes.

The first fat wormhole is the static exit to low-sec, leading to Sinq Laison. The second chubster is just another route to low-sec, through a K162, sticking me with a pair of poor-choice outbound connections. Rather than reconnoitre them first and make my choice as to which I'd prefer to explore through, the plainly idiotic discovery scanner forces me to rush through each as I warp to them, trying to make the most of the short time I have before the locals can react to the new signature being passively pinged to their interface.

The first outbound wormhole is a V301 to class 1 w-space, where all looks clear on d-scan on jumping through, and opening the system map shows there to be nothing out of range. Okay, I can relax a bit and slow down again, alleviating the artificial stress added by the artificial need to rush caused by the stupid discovery scanner for no real purpose. And being able to survey C1a properly sees a ghost site sitting amongst the anomalies.

I launch probes and poke at the thirteen signatures in the system to look for K162s, see how safe it will be to attempt the ghost site. The static wormhole leads to null-sec and, although there is another wormhole out there, in weighing my options I think that being ambushed in a ghost site may well be the most exciting event of the night. I'm gonna do it.

I head home, refit my Loki strategic cruiser for the ghost site, and return through C3a to C1a, seeing no change in either system. Let's do this. I warp in to the site, scan each can, and pick the least-worse of them to hack first. First can, hacked and looted. Second can, hacked and looted. Can I manage a third? I get to it, start hacking, and in warp Angel rats. There's no explosion yet, so I keep on hacking as the rats start pecking away at my shields. But hold on, this is more than pecking.

My shields are dropping quite fast, seemingly taking more damage than in the ghost sites in our home system. Of course, our pulsar helps boost my Loki's shields there, and in previous instances I've been moving instead of sitting still hacking. Sadly, by the time I realise all of this, my shields have dropped dangerously low, which is just the right time for the Angels to detonate the site. The resulting explosion evaporates what little shields I have left, and rips through my relatively unprotected armour. As the rats warp clear, I am left sitting in my pod in empty space, next to the wreck of my Loki.

That wasn't quite the excitement I was after, so I suppose I should be careful what I wish for. I should also use this experience to moderate my behaviour for future ghost sites, so that this mishap doesn't mishappen again. Still, never mind. Mistakes happen. I take my pod home, come back to my poor ex-Loki in a destroyer to loot and salvage what remains, and now I suppose I should spend the rest of the evening getting a new ship.

The low-sec K162 in C3a comes in from Placid, a mere thirteen hops from Jita, which is easily traversed in a Crane transport. I sell as much loot as I could carry on my way out here, buy a new Loki and all the fittings, less what I salvaged, and somehow manage to have our wallet show a net gain. It's not great that I've had to blow a wad of ISK on a replacement ship, but good that our wallet continues to move upwards.

A return to Placid has my blasting past assault frigates in faction warfare space, and it's only when I get to the wormhole to C3a that I remember we still can't assemble strategic cruisers in w-space, just re-jig the subassemblies. Never mind, the low-sec system is quiet and has a station, I can put my new ship together there. So I do, leaving the new Loki in dock as I take the Crane home, before returning for the maiden voyage of Ghost of the Bounty. It's a short voyage, just across C3a to the home system, as I'm tired and just want to sleep, but it's successful. May we fly many more together.

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

Is anybody out there?

All looks clear, but I need to check the new signature in the home system because a couple of old sites are gone. Yesterday's wormhole remains in the same place, and so unopened, making it no surprise that the new signature is not also a wormhole but more gas waiting to be sucked. I'll leave the huffing to others, and open our wormhole.

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system gives a nice, reassuring result from updating my directional scanner. Seeing a tower with no ships is almost comforting. I launch probes and blanket the system, revealing nine anomalies, twelve signatures, and no ships, and locate the tower manually, given that my notes, despite being three months old, are out of date.

Poking the signatures for wormholes finds just the one. I'll be heading to low-sec, I suppose. Specifically, low-sec Metropolis, where two extra signatures in the system has my launching probes again. They're both wormholes, nifty. The first is a B449 connection, connecting low- to high-sec, the destination region looking to also be Metropolis. It might be interesting, but the second wormhole is a C3 K162, and w-space trumps an empire connection.

Entering C3b and updating d-scan sees a tower and Osprey cruiser in the system, plus a mobile depot somewhere. Again recent notes don't help me much, the tower having moved from six weeks earlier, but towers aren't difficult to find and I'm soon watching a piloted Osprey do nothing inside the safety of an active force field. I could watch her for a bit, or I could scan whilst she's not paying attention.

Five anomalies and ten signatures appear on a blanket scan of the system, and looking more closely at the Osprey sees no weapons or gas harvesters on the ship. That pretty much guarantees the pilot isn't going to do anything soon, so I sift through the signatures looking for wormholes, finding none. I think I can ignore this system and the Osprey, and head back to low-sec to see where the wormhole to high-sec takes me. To Metropolis, of course, fifteen hops from the other system.

I may as well scan the one extra signature in the high-sec system whilst I'm here and get tonight over with. But let's not be so hasty, Penny. That signature is another wormhole, a K162 from class 2 w-space at that, which looks like an opportunity to find activity. Perking up a little I jump through the connection to C2a, update d-scan, and see multiple towers and multiple ships.

Five towers are dotted around the system, along with a Legion strategic cruiser, Maelstrom battleship, Astero frigate, and Epithal hauler. I narrow d-scan's beam to look for the towers, but when I find them I don't find the ships. That should mean they are out in space, but returning d-scan to a broader beam only finds all but the Maelstrom gone. I think I almost found some activity.

I warp to the one planet sitting outside d-scan range, wondering if the ships have simply moved, but instead four more towers and a bunch of different ships reveal themselves to d-scan. I locate the tower with the squishy industrial ships first, and finding them all to be unpiloted I take a look at the towers holding combat ships.

A Navy Scorpion battleship is unpiloted at one tower, a Tengu strategic cruiser piloted at another, but that doesn't mean much. I'm still missing three ships. I'm not quite sure what a Legion, Astero, and Epithal would be doing to bring them together as a fleet, and it seems that I'm not going to find out tonight either. Maybe they just went off-line at roughly the same time, which seems like as good an explanation as any, particularly given that I'm tired and don't feel like scanning. Mystery solved to my satisfaction, I'm going home.

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Tags: astero, epithal, eve online, legion, maelstrom, mmorpg, osprey, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, tengu, w-space

Ghosts and Sleepers

'Heads up, new signature on scan.' I see we have a ghost site in our system, as Fin alerts me to a potential new wormhole. As my glorious leader already has probes out I keep myself hidden as she scans. 'Data site', we can relax, our system remains isolated. I would say that gives us a good opportunity to steal in to the ghost site and see what we can nab from the silly empire rats.

We both head to our tower to refit our Loki strategic cruisers to better survive the ghost site, swapping for explosive shield hardeners, and adding a relic analyser and cargo scanner. I brief Fin on what to expect in the site, so that we don't dilly-dally whilst the timer ticks down—as if I know what I'm doing. 'Okay, ready to go.'

I warp the pair of us in to the ghost site and lock on to all of the containers, scanning each in turn to look for the good loot. It's not here, it's just covert research tools in every can. Well, never mind, it's still worth something, I suppose. I point Fin towards one can and take my Loki towards another, and we start hacking.

Clickety-click, the pressure of the countdown of indeterminate length and the frustratingly arbitrary nature of node choice has the first can explode to my enthusiastic pace of not giving a shit. That's cool, and I move on to a second can, where I perform a little better and manage to access its contents. I grab a whopping ten million iskies of research goo moments before Angel rats come in to finish the exploding.

That wasn't particularly profitable, but at least it was profitable for us and not others, and both our ships survive the explosion and rat appearance. It was also a better-handled ghost site than the first, given that I actually scanned the containers to look for the good loot. Now it's back to the tower, revert our ships' fittings, and work out what to do next. We could open our static wormhole and go roaming, or we could clear the couple of good anomalies we have and make some real profit.

Anomalies it is. There's no guarantee of finding activity through our wormhole, and it is generally wise to make ISK when the opportunity is there. We swap boats instead of fittings this time, with my even offering the Golem marauder to Fin, but Fin's so polite she declines, preferring the mobility of the Tengu strategic cruiser, and lets me use it again. I stick to torpedoes too, just to be awkward. Let's see how well I can bounce around with the micro jump drive after a while of no practice.

In to the first anomaly and the lack of practice with the MJD shows. My first bounce, required to meet the second wave of Sleepers, is horrendous. Thankfully I have Fin to back me up, and I recover well for the third wave, partially redeeming myself. The anomaly is cleared otherwise smoothly. In to the second and it's all coming back to me. The first jump forwards, to get in to range of the first wave, sends me crashing in to a structure, but after that my use of the MJD is almost impeccable.

My beautiful manoeuvring and Fin's agility in the Tengu gets the second anomaly cleared in no time, and that's the pair of decent sites completed in the home system. Time to sweep up. We have a Noctis salvager and site each, and between us we rake in about 180 Miskies, which is somewhat better than the ghost site. One day, though, we'll find something important in one of those sites, and we'll strike it rich.

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Tags: eve online, golem, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Stabilising the warp core

Warp core stabilisers have drawbacks, almost certainly to prevent their widespread adoption, which would make many engagements much less of a risk for those involved. These drawbacks are decreased targeting range and decreased scan resolution, i.e. increased locking time. Increased locking time will be significant in minor skirmishes, when the engagement can be decided by a few shots either way. A delayed positive lock denies you some early shots and can almost doom you in the engagement before it starts. Decreased targeting range is significant too, denying sniping as a valid tactic, preventing a reply to sniping ships, and forcing a ship to get closer to brawlers.

The drawbacks to fitting warp core stabilisers are significant. They clearly affect how many combat ships are seen fitted with them. However, there are no negative effects for non-combat ships, which is where I believe the real problem with warp core stabilisers arises. The obvious example is with industrial ships, most notably haulers, where targeting range and locking speed are simply not a factor in the ship's role. The only drawback to fitting a warp core stabiliser is that it uses up a fitting slot, but when that slot is not being used for anything else this is also no longer a drawback.

Personally, I see the problem exemplified with the redesigned Tech I haulers that have specialised cargo bays. Whereas previously the low fitting slots forced a compromise on either increasing cargo capacity or adding warp core strength. If you wanted both you would need to train and pay for a deep space transport. But now, if you just want to haul planet goo (or minerals, ore, or ammunition), you can do so with a dedicated bay whose capacity is not modified by modules. Those low fitting slots no longer compromise your fitting, warp core stabilisers have no drawbacks to their use.

There is another class of non-combat ship where the lack of drawbacks for fitting warp core stabilisers is having a negative effect, and these can be seen in faction warfare. The plexing frigates may be combat ships in design, but they have been repurposed to avoid combat entirely. They do not engage other ships, or even intend to engage or be engaged by other ships. For this reason, I think it is no great leap to suggest that these plexers are not combat ships.

The same issues with T1 haulers with specialised bays are true of the non-combat plexers. Any drawbacks designed in to warp core stabilisers have no effect on the ship they are being fitted to, because they are non-combat ships, and so not affected by combat drawbacks, and the fitting slots being used are not diminishing the capability of the ship's primary purpose.

The frustration surrounding the warp core stabiliser is not to do with the module itself, but in its abuse. Clearly the module is not overpowered, as no one ever suggests its use in the same way they do as, for example, the damage control unit. This is because there are significant drawbacks to fitting even one that will have a noticeable affect in just about every combat situation, against rats or other players. The abuse comes when the warp core stabiliser can be used without such a negative effect. Exploitation without penalty.

It seems that to prevent continued frustration with the warp core stabiliser there needs to be a drawback added to the module that will significantly affect its fitting to any non-combat ship. Perhaps decreasing the agility, increasing the inertia of the ship, so that it takes longer to align for warp, giving an aggressor more of an opportunity to rake through the target's defences. But this may not matter given the low fitting slots used for warp core stabilisers are shared with armour defences, and the mid fitting slots for shield defences remain free.

Perhaps fitting warp core stabilisers could lower the resistances of a ship's shields, or reduce the absolute shield HP. Any shield tank would then be compromised, at best only a little above the default levels with the mid-slots dedicated to shield modules, and the armour cannot be augmented without affecting how many warp core stabilisers can be fitted. Or do both, and combine a shield penalty with an agility penalty.

Other, less controversial modules have corresponding penalties to compensate for enhancing certain attribute of a ship. As is the crux of this post, even warp core stabilisers do, effective enough to prevent any serious adoption on combat ships. It is straightforward to consider that stabilising a warp core could effect a ship's manoeuvrability, and manipulating such fields could harm the integrity of the shields. But these are just suggestions, a means to provoke thought and discussion. What should be apparent, though, is that warp core stabilisers on non-combat ships need adjustment.

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Tags: comment, eve online, mmorpg

Going for goo

Moving on from the low-sec relic site, in which sits merely the looted wreck of a Heron frigate, I head towards the K162 from class 1 w-space looking for another soft target. I doubt I'll find it in C1a, though. Appearing in the system over seven kilometres from the wormhole, with a tower and no ships visible on my direction scanner, is not an encouraging sight. Launching probes and scanning the eleven anomalies and thirteen signatures for more wormholes doesn't find any either. Fair enough, there's another wormhole in low-sec to try.

Out to low-sec, across the system, and through the K162 to class 3 w-space. This time d-scan is clear and there is only one planet out of range. Circumstances look bleaker in C3b than in C1a. Undeterred, I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp to that distant planet, where I find no tower and so no occupation. My probes confirm a lack of activity too, with three anomalies, six signatures, and no ships. But the wormhole to low-sec has been opened by someone, and if no one lives here there is almost certainly another wormhole leading backwards.

Scanning resolves a wormhole, although the signature identifier suggests the connection is OLD. It's worse than that, it's not actually a K162 but a T405, an outbound connection to class 4 w-space. And, curiously, there are no other wormholes. Only two outbound connections in an unoccupied system is unusual, but it's possible that occupation further back, who scouted this way, collapsed their wormhole to this system once they were finished with it. The circumstances aren't worth lingering on.

Despite it not being a K162, I still jump through the T405. After all, you never can be sure what you'll find until you look. And this time there is a tower and ships on d-scan, nice and squishy industrial ships too, with a Procurer mining barge, Venture mining frigate, Iteron V hauler, and Helios covert operations boat. D-scan suggests all the ships are at the tower, which I find despite my notes being out-of-date, and all but the Iteron V are piloted.

There is an ore site in the system, there are piloted mining ships, and the ore refinery at the tower is running. It seems a little too quick for the miners to have retreated from the ore site, come to a complete halt inside their tower's force field, and been able to feed and start the refinery all in the time after the discovery scanner pinged the new K162 to their scanning interfaces. I probably can't blame it for not finding active miners this time. I still will, though, because it's still an extraordinarily short-sighted idea to implement the discovery scanner in w-space, where new signatures shouldn't be trivial to detect.

Of course, the T405 could have been open for a while and, as it comes in from an unoccupied system, the locals of this class 4 w-space system may have relaxed about the wormhole being in their system. Well, the former is likely, the latter is pushing it. It's much more relaxing to collapse any unwanted wormhole than just to assume no one's going to come through it, but whatever. My hopes that the wormhole is going unnoticed are raised when a new contact in a second Iteron V warps in to the tower.

The Iteron comes in to the tower from an exaggerated angle, suggestive of a pilot coming on-line and not returning from a wormhole. I would say it's worth watching him for a bit. The miners, either finished naturally or spooked back in to the tower by the discovery scanner, may have all wandered off to be in no position to tell the new arrival about possible threats. And although the first ship to move is the Procurer, not the new Iteron, all it does is blink off-line. He may not have even noticed his colleague newly appeared.

Now it's the Iteron's turn to move, perhaps only to a canister to start with, but afterwards aligning out of the tower. It's easy to tell that the long, thin ship is aligning towards a distant planet, one with a customs office in orbit, and it's a fair assumption that the pilot is about to collect some planet goo. I'd like a piece of that action, so head towards the same customs office in my Loki strategic cruiser.

We arrive at the customs office about the same time, but my Loki decelerates more quickly than the Iteron. I decloak my ship, approach the hauler, and wait for it to fully drop out of warp before blowing the living crap out of it, releasing more pent-up angst about not seeing nearly enough of these cargo-expanded fragile haulers warping around collecting planet goo these days. They die so easily, albeit without an explosion this time, which is a shame partly because I don't get a nice picture to share, and partly because my Pavlovian response to aim for the ejected pod doesn't kick in quite so quickly.

I aim for the pod anyway, once I see it, but I am too late. Off he goes, back to the tower. Never mind. I loot the wreck of a few more expanded cargoholds for my collection, then shoot it to destroy the bacteria and biomass that I can't carry, having the goods suffer the same fate as the proteins and biofuels that didn't survive the Iteron's destruction. Reload, cloak, and return to the tower. In fact, I'll return home. It's probably best to end now because, despite my reservations, this has turned out to be a rather satisfying evening.

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Tags: eve online, helios, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, procurer, pvp, scanning, venture, w-space

Another Heron hacked

New gas and a relic site don't interest me at home, and neither does a tower and lack of ships in our neighbouring system. Neither result really surprises me, though. It's far from common to come on-line at the same time a fleet is raiding our home system, and outbound connections rarely provide opportunities any more. I mostly use our class 3 w-space neighbour as a bridge to look for further wormholes. Today is no exception, so I warp out, launch probes, and start scanning the three anomalies and eight signatures.

All the signatures in the system are pretty chubby, making scanning quick and easy. Gas is ignored, three wormholes resolved. It looks like I have options, but the U210 isn't one of them, the static exit to low-sec empire space being at the end of its life. A K162 from high-sec is healthy but relatively dull, leaving just a K162 from low-sec to finish a disappointing collection of wormholes. Never mind, I'll see what I can do with what I've been given.

Poking out to high-sec first, getting a safety route home, puts me in Metropolis with one other signature that can be checked if I get suitably bored elsewhere. Pure curiosity takes me through the dying wormhole to Exit in Genesis, another visit close to New Eden. It's a shame I can't stay. Now back to C3a and out of the low-sec K162, the reflected nebula on approach looking the same as a wormhole from yesterday, recognisable as Essence. Faction warfare Essence too. I ignore the trio of pilots in the system and launch probes to scan the three additional signatures.

Scanning bags me a K162 from class 1 w-space, a relic site, and a K162 from class 3 w-space. That's a decent result, but before returning to w-space is that a Heron I see hacking? Yes, yes it is. Warping to the relic site in low-sec has the frigate poking one of the containers, a little too far away for me to engage immediately. Not only that, but the other containers are spread widely apart, and if I am to hope to catch the Heron I'll need to get fairly close, which could be difficult to do crawling whilst cloaked.

I'll still give this ambush a crack, if only to remind pilots that low-sec can be dangerous. I pick a container arbitrarily and start moving towards it, hoping to get there before the Heron so that I can be in position for when he starts hacking. But the frigate is moving again, at a rate of knots too, when I'm still forty kilometres from the container. I doubt I'll reach the container before the Heron has cracked it, looted, and moved on again. I won't give up just yet, though.

The Heron's hacking beam activates on the container I'm heading towards, which should mean the pilot is suitably distracted. I can't tell for how long this will last, so should strike sooner rather than later. I decloak, get my micro warp drive burning, and activate my sensor booster. I get a positive lock on the Heron and start shooting when I am realistically too far away to get any decent hits. But the Heron is small and flimsy, I don't really need a good hit to rip it apart.

Miss, graze, hit. A glancing blow from my Loki strategic cruiser's autocannons is all that's needed to rend the armour and hull of the Heron, ejecting the pilot's pod in to space. I let the pod leave, remembering that I'm not in w-space, and my now-coasting MWD pulls me naturally in to looting range of the wreck. I grab what loot I can, although most is destroyed in the explosion, and move away, reload my guns, and cloak. It's not much, but that's okay. It's a decent opportunistic kill to start the evening.

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Tags: eve online, heron, loki, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Rock-man kung fu

Where is everyone? Not in our home system. And I only see two bubbles in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Hoping there is more lying out of range of my directional scanner, I launch probes and blanket the system. The three anomalies and seven signatures I pretty much expect, with only the quantities varying, but the one ship gives me something to find.

The ship is a Heron frigate, sadly inside the force field of a tower, and more sadly empty of a capsuleer. I'd better scan if I want to find someone. Three of the seven signatures are chubby: one is our K162; a second will be the static exit to low-sec; will the third be a pocket of gas? Thankfully not, it's another wormhole. Maybe I can have adventure tonight after all.

I hit the U210 first, to get the exit system. Khanid today, with a few extra signatures should I need them. I hope I don't, as I have this excellent second wormhole in C3a to explore through. Or maybe I'll scan low-sec after all, given that the other wormhole is a dying K162 from class 3 w-space. Although being isolated is far from the end of the world, a wormhole at the end of its life is generally a fair indicator that there is also a lack of capsuleer life behind it.

The signatures in low-sec don't get me excited either. Just a combat site and a relic site. I try another system, hopping a stargate, where one signature entices me by resolving to be a wormhole. A wormhole that comes from another low-sec system, of all places. But still a wormhole, I suppose, and I jump through anyway, in to a faction warfare system in Essence that I really don't care for.

Back through to Khanid low-sec, and activating another stargate. A bunch of pilots are in the system, presumably mingling about somewhere, some trying to find the others, and the others trying not to be found by the some, and one extra signature prompts me to launch probes. They are soon recalled, as the signature resolves to be a combat site. Okay, now what do I do?

I may as well try to make the best of what I've got, which is a relic site in the exit system. It's something positive to do, at least. And sometimes I don't care to risk my over-expensive Loki strategic cruiser when a cheaper ship is just as effective, this being one of those times. I head home through w-space, stow my Loki at our tower, and bring out my hacking Buzzard covert operations boat. Just the ticket.

Returning to low-sec sees a Maller cruiser in the system, hopefully just passing through. I warp to the relic site and remain cloaked, waiting, as the Maller shouldn't take long to leave. It gives me time to admire the rock formation dude do his kung fu. Rather more time than I anticipate, in fact, as a Caracal cruiser enters the system and he and the Maller start chatting to each other.

See, this is why we don't have the local channel in w-space, it just makes for awkward encounters. Neither pilot wants to say goodbye to the other, probably. Thankfully they do, eventually, and I finally get around to decloaking my Buzzard and scanning the containers scattered around. Nothing special, obviously, but there is ISK waiting to be realised.

I crack the first container as the Maller, like syphilis, makes an unwanted return. Well, he's probably just ratting, and even if he wanted to take a crack at me it's unlikely he's taken the time to scan this relic site, probably not even being fitted to do so. I keep going, hacking and cracking, stuffing my hold, and finishing as the Maller leaves. It was all rather anticlimactic, much like earning 17 Miskies from the relic site. But it'll do for a casual run.

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Tags: buzzard, caracal, eve online, heron, loki, low-sec, maller, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Stopping short

A standard start to the evening sees no one around, new gas for my colleagues when they appear, and a fresh static wormhole for me to explore beyond. I suppose I should do that, for it is what I do. It's a standard first jump too, as updating my directional scanner in the neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees a tower and no ships. There's nowhere to hide either, the system being rather small, so rather than try to hide from nobody I launch probes on the wormhole and perform a blanket scan.

A mere three anomalies and six signatures are revealed by my scan, and my notes tell me I'll be looking through the weakest of them to find an exit to null-sec. Hopefully there will be something else to find. The static wormhole is found, and one of the fat signatures resolves to be a wormhole too, which is nice. ...which could be nice. I need to remind myself that not all wormholes are created equally, and my caveat pays off when I drop out of warp next to a K162 from class 4 w-space that has been mass-stressed to critical levels.

Maybe I could sneak in to C4a and still make it back, but I'm not really in the mood to take the risk of being isolated. I'll just see where the K346 takes me. Null-sec, how novel. Curse, specifically, and alone, just the way I like it. One extra signature keeps me in the system and encourages me to find a rat whilst I launch probes. Of course, scanning a single signature is not only somewhat quicker than ratting, but somewhat quicker than warping to a rock field. I learn that the signature is a data site on my first scan, recall my probes, and belay my ratting.

That's the straightforward constellation explored, but I think I can afford to extend it tonight. I hop a stargate to an adjacent system, where I share the system with another pilot, one signature, and a ghost site amongst the anomalies. I wonder, is that other pilot hacking the ghost site? It is 70 AU distant, so hidden from d-scan, and it's got to be worth a look. Nope, no ship to be seen out here. And I don't think I'll try my luck either, even if the other pilot doesn't seem active.

Checking the signature in the system shows that it is weak, and thankfully in this case not a wormhole but a combat site. A weak signature for a wormhole makes it an outbound connection, and those have not been my friends for finding activity for a while now. Still, there's little point in rueing something I haven't come across, and I can try hopping to another system to find wormholes. Two pilots this time, and three signatures. Three weak signatures, though. I check them anyway, identifying another combat and data site each, and resolving a wormhole. Whoopee.

The wormhole is an N432 outbound link to class 5 w-space. Be still my beating heart. No more do I feel the pull of exploring a chain of C5 systems, wondering what I may find in any of them, but regret the lost opportunity that once came from finding a fresh wormhole. But you never know what you'll find if you don't look, so I head in anyway. It doesn't look promising, though, not when appearing over seven kilometres from the wormhole in C5a. Oh, there's a black hole too.

A blanket scan of the system reveals twenty-seven anomalies and seventeen signatures, which looks bad for locating occupation, but one ship is a surprise. What is it, and where? I dunno, Penny, it's gone on the second blanket scan. Exploring finds no occupation, which actually makes the ship's appearance almost interesting. K162s are easy to find, and a quick poke finds one. Or it doesn't, as that wormhole says H296. A second go at finding a K162 succeeds, but only at finding one coming from null-sec.

Exiting through the K162 puts me in a system in Delve with a handful of other pilots, perhaps one of them being the curious sort who opened the wormhole to C5a. I won't ask, though, as I am shy around people. I just take myself back through the wormhole to w-space and, in fact, straight back out again, through the other null-sec connection on my way home, ignoring the wormhole to C5b. Maybe another day I will regain my curiosity. But not today.

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