Wii U: Super Mario 3D World

The flagship Super Mario game for Nintendo's Wii U is arguably a year late, released twelve months after the launch of the console, but has it been worth the wait? New suits for Mario, full 3D levels, and simultaneous multi-player action sounds good to me. But I still remember Super Mario Sunshine and how unplayable it was after the shine wore off. The deformed worlds of the Galaxy games didn't quite capture the sheer wonder I felt when playing the first 3D Mario game either. For me, Super Mario 64 is the game to measure up to.

First impressions are good, with the world map copied from Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES, but with free movement around the map and full 3D graphics. It's a nice touch, and much easier to navigate and understand than those of the Galaxy games and Mario Sunshine. The map greatly simplifies level selection and allows the player to jump in to the game with ease. Level design harks back to Mario 64, with simplistic but elegant obstacle courses to complete. No super-deformed worlds or open levels with no firm sense of direction. You go forwards, look for stars, and finish by jumping on a flagpole. This is Mario gaming getting back to the basics.

Introduction of new features is handled well too. Indeed, jumping in to the first level has the camera pan across half the level before homing in on Mario at the start, to give completely new players an idea of where to head, and experienced Mario gamers a sense of what lies ahead. The cat suit is given to the player in the first level of the first world, with no waiting or having to play for hours before seeing it. And once in the suit, there are paw-print clues lying around giving the player hints about what you can do as a cat, even if you haven't watched the attract sequence. It's a good new suit too, letting Mario run up walls and pounce on enemies.

Nintendo's level design is as beautiful as it has ever been. Even from the early Mario games, it has always been possible to play the game running Mario at full pelt, with jumps and moving platforms designed to accommodate this kind of gameplay. Rarely does a leap of faith end badly; more often than not you make the jump. So many other games rely on a wait-and-see approach, but only Mario reliably lets you jump first and wonder later if it was a good idea, because you nearly always stick the landing.

Gameplay focusses on collecting stars, but instead of aiming for just one per level, with perhaps the level being revisited in a different layout for subsequent stars, there are three stars per normal level to be found. Some are obvious, some are hidden, but you even get clues as to where they could be. The display shows the outline of the three stars to be collected, and when you find and collect one it fills in the outline in the appropriate order. The first star in the level fills the first box, the second the second, and the third the third, all according to the spatial relationship of the stars within the level. If you get the first and third star, you know the second is somewhere in-between those two. If you just get one, you know roughyl where to look for the others. It's simple and clever.

The levels vary from standard 3D platform design, to Mario shown in silhouette exploring an apparently 2D level, and forced-scrolling levels that require you to keep moving and not being able to go back. Each world naturally culminates in the boss level and the boss itself, and most of these will be familiar from previous Mario games. There's rarely anything particularly challenging in working out how to complete a level or defeat a boss, the challenge is in doing it. That's the beauty of the game.

Some of the levels can get pretty tricky, mostly because there can be a lot to dodge, or jump on, or jump across, and if you start getting it wrong then the challenges can pile up. Thankfully, help is at hand. Fail on a level enough times and a power-up box appears at the start, opening which gives Mario a special suit that combines the powers of a raccoon suit and an invulnerability star. The raccoon suit lets Mario float after jumping, and the star effect gives him immunity to all enemies, even those not normally able to be defeated, and the power stays with you until the end of the level.

The raccoon-star suit is a great idea. You will occasionally get stuck on a level, but you won't want to be stopped from progressing to later levels. It is just a game, after all. With the raccoon-star suit you can ignore most of the hazards of the level and treat it as an obstacle course. The obstacles in itself can be challenge enough, even with the suit, and there are enough levels that remain difficult that most players will be thankful for this suit at some point. But what makes the idea great is that the suit appears as a power-up box at the start of the level, so you can still choose to try to complete the level normally. The suit is not forced on you, but given as an option to allow progression.

The levels are nearly all fun to play, although some can be frustrating, particularly when some stars are placed behind one-use pipes and locked in to a time-limited challenge. But the frustration passes soon enough, as the game is just good, simple fun. Gone is much of the gimmicky nature of recent 3D Mario games and the gameplay is more reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 3, but rendered in three dimensions. It's exciting, fun, fast, and big. There are hidden areas to uncover, levels to race through, and design to appreciate. Just the little touch of having the dinosaur you just rode on wave goodbye to you gives an indication to the attention to detail that Nintendo have included. It all shows.

I've managed to get to the end of all the standard worlds, which unlocks a couple more. The levels get increasingly challenging, and the final level of these is fiendish. I would never have completed it without the raccoon-star suit, and I'm glad that option is available. I believe there is another world to unlock, but I need to revisit earlier worlds to accomplish more before it becomes available. Whilst this sounds like an unenviable chore, what I've found in replaying the earlier levels is that it is genuinely fun to go back. I only played these levels recently, but returning to and running through them again still feels fresh and entertaining. I am really enjoying replaying the game, and that is surely the mark that Super Mario 3D World is perhaps the best Mario game released so far.

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Tags: console, super mario bros, wii u

Watching the ships go by

The pod lingers in the system. He hasn't gone to the exit to low-sec, so probably not a tourist, and only stays long enough for me to get my combat scanning probes working. I keep them working and resolve, of all wormholes, a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space. Is this his home, the pilot of the Anathema covert operations boat I interrupted when salvaging Sleeper wrecks? As the wormhole crackles whilst I consider this, bringing the pod back in to the system, I can only think that, yes, it probably is.

I assume the pilot is now heading out of w-space to buy a replacement ship, but seeing the pod warp to this class 3 system's star says otherwise. It's a bit of a weird manoeuvre too. I follow behind, unsure whether he warped to the zero point or to drop short by a hundred kilometres, and see the pod floating too far for me to engage. That's perhaps for the best, as he may just be trying to make me show myself a second time. I've already seen a Loki strategic cruiser in this system, albeit indirectly using my directional scanner, but I know we're not alone.

Talking of the Loki, I warp back to the wormhole, the pod already having left the system again, to see the Loki decloak and jump to C6a, followed moments later by a Buzzard cov-ops. Was the pod acting as bait? I don't know, but the wormhole crackles to bring the Loki back, and I am really tempted to engage it. He will be polarised, I won't be, and I am often tempted to pit my own Loki against another. But I'm also often too slow in working up the resolve to do so, and this time is no exception.

The Loki warps clear, launches probes. If he scans for and reconnoitres other wormholes maybe we can still catch him. It's probably worth a go, with Aii back and able to supply a second ship, both to watch a second K162 and to add to our firepower. I watch the wormhole to C6a, Aii the one to home. We don't see the Loki, but the K162 in front of me crackles, two pods jumping in to the system, pilots of the Anathema and Buzzard, and warping to the U210 to exit to low-sec. Nothing we can catch.

Now nothing at all. Still nothing we can catch. I am tempted to poke in to C6a, a temptation made stronger by Aii playing the devil on my shoulder. 'Do it.' Okay. I jump in to the pull of a class 6 w-space black hole, almost already feeling the crazy speeds my Loki could reach. But nothing sits on the wormhole, nothing appears on an update of d-scan. It's all a bit disappointing.

I suppose this isn't the pilots' home either, which will sit a further jump back, through another wormhole waiting to be found. Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals nineteen anomalies and twenty-seven signatures, not a result that suggests active occupation. Notes made three months ago say otherwise, but exploring finds that old tower gone. Being a class 6 system, or a black hole system, one may have been too much for them. Or the maybe combination.

As it turns out, it's not too much not for the pods. A new tower has been erected, the owner corporation matching that of the pods' pilots. But not of the Loki. That's got to be important. 'I am curious as to what they are bringing back', says Aii. So am I. We can spot them on the low-sec wormhole and catch them here. That's the plan, anyway, so when the wormhole crackles in front of me with no word from Aii, now moved to the U210, I know it's not the pods returning. I watch as a Proteus decloaks, the strategic cruiser piloted by an AHARM capsuleer.

The presence of an AHARM scout can't be good. I suppose the odds are fair that they'd be connected to any given C6 system, though. And although he's just one pilot, how many more could be behind him? A Taranis jumps past me, from C6a to C3a, and I give Aii a heads-up to watch for it. The interceptor appears on Aii's d-scan and drops off it again, not having gone past him or back past me. There's another wormhole we haven't found yet. There's also an interceptor on the loose.

An alternative option is that a new wormhole has opened up in our home system, and the Taranis originally came from that direction. That would be interesting, and it's worth checking, if only because heading that way would give me a good excuse to go off-line for the night. I jump to C3a, cross the system, jump home. The wormhole's clear, d-scan's clear, the system's clear. My excuse is made better when the wandering AHARM Proteus blips on d-scan in C3a, making it look like an excellent time to feel sleepy. I think I'll call it a night.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, taranis, w-space

Angling for an Anathema

Aii's here. Is anything happening? Not in the home system, mostly because Aii isn't in the home system. He's ready to come back, though, so I launch probes and start to scan a route for him to use. Our system has gas and, ooh, a wormhole. Where does it lead? Well, as it's our static wormhole, it goes to a class 3 w-space system, as usual. But a different 'usual', such are the vagaries of w-space connections, also as usual.

The wormhole takes me to a class 3 system with two towers and no ships visible on my directional scanner. How about that. Warping my way around the system sees nothing more, a blanket scan revealing fourteen anomalies and a puny three signatures. That's good for Aii, as scanning will be quick. Even better for him is that the exit will lead to high-sec, which my notes tell me, and that wormhole is obvious from the relative strengths of the signatures. Our K162 is the fat one, the high-sec the lean one, the skinny one will be a relic or unwanted data site.

Resolving the wormhole and checking the high-sec exit puts me in the Kor-Azor region, and although the connection is at the end of its life it should remain usable, as Aii is nearby. 'Eight jumps, thank you.' Excellent. And given that the dying wormhole already exhausts our constellation, as Aii makes his way home I start mass-stressing our wormhole to flip it. All goes smoothly, Aii reaching the entrance before it dies, and our wormhole being killed without fuss. Now do we generate ISK, or do we have a second crack at exploration?

Who needs ISK? I resolve our replacement wormhole and jump to a C3 with an Anathema covert operations boat and core scanning probes on d-scan, nothing else. That's an interesting start, particularly as the cov-ops doesn't cloak. I launch probes to scan his position, hoping to kill two birds with one stone by assuming he's sitting on top of a wormhole, but he's just close to a wormhole. The static exit to low-sec is good to resolve, but not what I'm after. I'm close, though. I go for the scanning the ship directly, and get a solid hit. In I go.

There he is—gone. Just as interesting, there are Sleeper wrecks scattered around. Sadly, they are all looted now, but that certainly looked like the light of a salvaging beam coming from the Anathema before it disappeared. It's a shame, in that case, that I was a bit slow in getting here, diverted by the wormhole, particularly as now a Loki strategic cruiser is in the system somewhere, according to d-scan.

The Loki doesn't come in to this cleared site, and the pause at least lets me check my notes. A visit from under two months ago tells me a tower maybe sits over 50 AU away, which would be a good idea to check. Yep, it's there, but there are no ships. That's something, I suppose. Now back to the site, where still nothing happens. Maybe I can scan for the Loki too, but on the assumption that he's being more alert, treat it more like a hunt. So, of course, he drops off d-scan.

Never mind. But what to do now? Ah, I can consider catching the return of the Anathema, back in this despawned site. That's a lovely surprise. Hopefully I can repay it in kind. I'm not quite close enough to the cov-ops for comfort, and thankfully I don't try my luck, as the wreck he's nestled against is salvaged and disappears. Now, how fast is the ship going to move between wrecks? Pretty fast. That's going to be impossible to catch up with me cloaked, so I'd better be smart about this.

I try to keep up as the Anathema zooms to the next wreck, thankfully not too far away. Knowing that as soon as the salvaging cycle completes I'll lose my opportunity I creep closer, deciding that twelve kilometres should be close enough. I decloak and activate my micro warp drive to burn hard towards the Anathema to soak up the sensor recalibration delay. He's not expecting me, and only turns to run once my targeting systems are ready and locked on to him. And now he can't run fast, not with my warp scrambler cutting off his own MWD.

My range is good, my autocannons are working their magic, and the Anathema explodes. The pod escapes, but the kill is good, catching a cov-ops in a despawned site. There's no loot to speak of, but the pilot didn't pause to drop off his torpedo or bomb skill books when he had the chance, and heavy missile and warhead upgrade books go up in smoke too. Never mind, fella, you can learn more about missiles some other time.

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

Speed scanning

I only have time for a short session tonight. This calls for extreme exploration! Speed-scanning, action only. Let's see what I can do. There's nothing for me to do in the home system but leave, so I resolve our static wormhole and go. How's that for a speedy start? You can express your admiration as ISK donations.

A tower and no ships in the neighbouring class 3 w-space system is about as scant a result as the system itself. Two planets, one 50 AU from the other, and two anomalies and five signatures spread thinly between them. The black hole must be getting ever closer.

I locate the tower and start to scan the, uh, seven signatures? And an Astero frigate has appeared near the tower. It looks like the constellation is waking up. I concentrate my probes to look for the Astero's origin, but it's probably not the dying wormhole from null-sec. Maybe the static exit to low-sec. A healthy null-sec K162 is a weak possibility. Finally, a K162 from low-sec, the most likely option.

Determining the origin of the frigate is rather pointless when the Astero is no longer visible, neither are scanning probes, so it's back to general exploration. The healthy connection to null-sec takes me to where four Tengu strategic cruisers are ratting in Cobalt Edge. I leave them to it. The low-sec K162 comes from an active faction warfare system in Black Rise, and the static exit to low-sec a less-active faction warfare system in Black Rise.

The less-active system also has three extra signatures that almost beg to be scanned. Two wormholes and a relic site is the result, and apart from checking the other side of the K162 from high-sec—it leads to a high-sec island—I'm only really interested in the w-space connection. The C3 K162 is almost interesting too, as drones say hi to me when I enter the system. Not literally, of course, but they do.

There is no obvious owner of the drones, neither on the wormhole or visible on d-scan, just a tower. Sticking with my plan, I launch probes and whiz through the seven anomalies and ten signatures for extra connections, finding just the one, and a K162 from high-sec at that. The wormhole comes in from Lonetrek, and although it's a pretty convenient system in Lonetrek tonight is not the night for high-sec treks.

And I suppose that's it. Without scanning more empire space systems I have exhausted the wormhole options available. There was a hint of w-space activity in the initial sighting of the Astero, but nothing since then, not even a second look at the frigate. I can't complain, though. Even with only a short session, I've accomplished about as much as an average night in w-space. I feel I should learn something from this.

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

Scanning to nowhere in particular

What excitement can I get involved with tonight? Hopefully not too much, or I might explode. Thankfully, it's a quiet start to the evening, as only a data site appears as a new signature in the home system, leaving me jumping through our static wormhole to explore. A tower with no ships is a pretty normal directional scanner result, and although warping away to launch probes bumps me in to a second tower that's not exactly out of the ordinary either. There are still no ships to be seen.

My last visit to this class 3 w-space system had me losing my Loki strategic cruiser to an obvious bait Procurer mining barge that I simply couldn't resist. There's no opportunity for a similar loss today—revenge, I mean—as the corporation wasn't local to this system. My notes also tell me that the system holds a static exit to high-sec. I don't know if that's worth anything yet.

Along with the slender high-sec wormhole, scanning finds a second, chubbier wormhole, which turns out to be a K162 from low-sec. I suppose it's a second option. I head to the high-sec exit first, as you never know when a route home could be useful, to find the wormhole wobbling at the end of its life. I poke out anyway, bookmarking the other side of the wormhole in Tash-Murkon, returning immediately to C3a to investigate that low-sec connection that's already looking better.

The low-sec system in Kor-Azor has one pilot in the system and five extra signatures. My combat scanning probes reveal one ship and four drones, and my interest is piqued when the pilot disappears from the system but his ship doesn't. Maybe he has been flagged for some reason, presenting me with an opportune if morally dubious kill. Luckily, I don't have to rationalise anything, as the ship is gone from space before I drop out of warp where it was. I'd better scan those signatures.

One data site, four wormholes. I've come to learn not to trust such results without reconnoitring the connections, and tonight's no exception. A K162 from null-sec, an outbound connection to low-sec, a K162 from class 3 w-space, and a dying K162 from null-sec is a motley collection of wormholes, rescued by the sole w-space connection. But what's worse than jumping in to a w-space system and seeing a tower with no ships on d-scan? Also having a black hole lurking in the background, that's what.

Well, the black hole, plus the idiot discovery scanner disappointing me immediately by showing just one other signature in the system. And four anomalies, but who cares. I launch probes, locate the tower, and resolve the other signature. It's not the K162 I'm expecting but a gas site. How boring. Back to low-sec with me and, well, I dunno. The dying K162 from null-sec is dying, the healthy K162 from null-sec has pilots on the other side, and although the K162 from low-sec has faction warfare pilots doing their faction warfare, there are three extra signatures in the system in Metropolis. I'll scan them.

One wormhole accompanies the two combat sites, a K162 from class 3 w-space working for me. Hmm, d-scan in C3c shows me a tower, no ships, and there's a black hole trying to suck me in to it. Didn't I just leave this system? No, not with nothing out of d-scan range, clumping eight anomalies and twenty-one signatures in to a graphical mess on the dumbscovery scanner. All it takes is some good old-fashioned probing to reduce the uncertain red spheres of annoyance in to precise dots of inaccuracy, and I can start poking them for K162s.

Three wormholes. A K162 from class 2 w-space looks good right now, the K162 from class 5 w-space is a nice second place, and I think I can ignore the K162 from low-sec. Believing in C2a doesn't get me anywhere, though. D-scan is clear from the wormhole and a blanket scan reveals anomalies, signatures, but no ships. That's dull. So dull I think I'm going home. There's not much point in continuing to scan to nowhere. A quick look in C5a as I turn around doesn't change my mind either, not with just a tower visible on d-scan. At least I checked.

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

Ambush, baited, isolated, escape, and getting home too

Having made my way safely to empire space and docked, I'm ready to hit the sack. But now seems like a better time to find my way home than tomorrow, if only because of the random connection from class 3 w-space in to our system. Having home connect to two systems that will exit w-space seems like a better opportunity than the one we will only have for definite tomorrow. It's worth a look at least.

Of course, I say 'find my way home', what I mean is 'have someone else find me a way home'. Getting to a specific w-space system only really works from the inside out. So it is that I wake up Constance, Cthulhu-like in her ancient slumber. I can only wonder at home many games of minesweeper she's played since the last time I've needed her.

The first task for Constance is to swing past our tower. Mick tells her that prior to my earlier ambush, the corporation whose salvager I popped lost a stealth bomber to our defences. Good tower, have another biscuit. She finds the wreck, still floating full of loot, and grabs all that is inside for a few million ISK of additional profit from that little incursion.

That done, I think we can also get Constance updated. She's running a basic probe launcher, albeit with Sisters probes loaded, but we can do better than that. A bit of a refit later and she's got a Sisters expanded launcher on her Buzzard covert operations boat, thanks to the plunder we've recovered in recent months. That should help. Now to scan the exits.

Thank goodness, my probe formation is saved for Constance too. That saves a bit of fiddling around. And through the K162 to C3b first, where we can pretty much ignore any ships and just look for exits. Constance is not trained or fit to engage other pilots, so even if a miner is chomping on rocks there is nothing that can be done. Thankfully, the system is occupied but empty, so there is no regret at having missed anything.

C3b holds five wormholes amongst the gas. Two K162s from null-sec probably won't be helpful, the static exit to low-sec is expected, a K162 from low-sec could be an option, and, well, we can ignore the K162 from class 5 w-space for now. The U210 leads out to Placid, far from the Derelik exit I ended up using, and the low-sec K162 in C3b comes from Kor-Azor, further from Derelik than the Placid connection.

Checking the null-sec wormholes, just for completion, gives connections in Providence and Wicked Creek, the latter pretty much the other side of the galaxy from me. Never mind, back to C3b with Constance, in to and across the home system, and through our static wormhole to C3a. Another exit waits to be found, this time in a system empty of both occupation and activity. At least the threat level remains low.

Scanning takes until the penultimate signature before resolving the static exit to low-sec that, by colour, looks to lead to Metropolis. The final signature is a second wormhole, but weak, a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space and itself at least two more systems from another exit. As it is already late, the last task for Constance is to bookmark the other side of the exit from C3a, after which she returns home to hide once more.

Now back in control, I see how I feel about making the journey back home. Do I fancy a trek through stargates, or can I tolerate a night outside of w-space, docked in a station? Oh, the route's not as bad as I expect. Although the wormholes are all rather distant from the one in Derelik, I made almost a dozen hops to get close to Rens before giving up and docking early, and that's got me half-way to the entrance in Metropolis.

I may as well go home. This kind of closeness doesn't happen often when using wormholes. It's really been that kind of night, though. Despite getting isolated from home, most circumstances have gone my way. It's really quite a nice feeling, I highly recommend it. All that's left for me to do is pass through the security of high-sec, hop to low-sec, cross one w-space system, and jump home. That, and make a last visit to the site of the Noctis ambush that started this evening, where I scoop the abandoned drones to keep our system tidy.

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Tags: buzzard, constance sokolov, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

High-sec is closer than you think

Stuck in class 5 w-space. The wormhole home collapsed. Pilots looking to hunt me. It's looking to be an interesting evening. On my side, I have scanning probes already launched, whereas I don't see any from the home fleet on my directional scanner. That should give me a head start on resolving the new static wormhole when it appears. And that will be it, the new signature popping on to my scanning interface. Here I go!

Bah, in my rush to resolve the signature with enough time to jump through and get clear before the locals, I bodge one of the scans and have to take a step backwards. It's no bother, though, and I'm soon back on track. I identify the wormhole, resolve it, and am in warp in seconds. Unusually for me, I am aiming to drop as close to the wormhole as possible, wanting to jump immediately rather than approach under cloak. I'm feeling some kind of urgency from the hostile fleet. That I end up on a K162 from null-sec instead of a static connection to class 4 w-space is a little confusing.

I falter for a second. I'm not quite sure what to do. When I made that false move with the scanning I must have picked the wrong signature on the step back, which just happened to turn out to be another wormhole. I kinda didn't ignore all but the new signature in the system just in case there was a second wormhole, I just never expected to find one. That's obvious as indicated by my having recalled my probes already.

Re-launching my probes and scanning for the new static connection may be a bad idea. The locals should clearly get there before me now. And my intent to drop on top of the wormhole I scanned has worked, my Loki strategic cruiser's cloak having dropped and making it visible in the system to the directional scanner. I think I should just jump through and call this a success.

And it is a success. I've escaped the interests of fleet and exited class 5 w-space in one jump. The alternative would be diving down a w-space chain starting with class 4 w-space, and those have a tendency not to end too quickly. The only problem is that I'm in the Geminate region of null-sec, rather far from any kind of institutionalised security. Out of the frying pan and in to another frying pan.

There are pilots in this null-sec system and no signatures, so my choice to move on is easy to make. The first hop lands me in a system with four signatures. Scanning for convenient wormholes is a good way to lose significant amounts of time and sanity, but this is the first system. It's worth a shot. I launch probes and see what the signatures are. Two combat sites, one wormhole with a frigate on it, and—hold on, what was that third one again?

Resolving the wormhole first resolves what turns out to be a Venture. I warp directly to the frigate, expecting to reach the wormhole. My lack of hope in catching the agile frigate unawares is encapsulated by my staying in the system map to resolve the final signature whilst in warp. It's a data site. And the Venture is still sitting near the wormhole when I drop next to it, recalling my probes as I do.

Nice to meet you, Mr Venture. Let me introduce you to my autocannons. I gain a positive lock and my guns rip the mining frigate apart in one volley. It's quite a satisfying explosion, and only in part because it looks like Superman's starship. And, would you look at that, we're in null-sec. I aim for the pod, catch it, and not for the first time have my puny knowledge about guns let me down. Four volleys miss cracking the pod open when one normally does the job, and pilot wakes up to jump back through the wormhole to low-sec. Damn.

Hold on. Low-sec? Yes, Penny. Low-sec. This evening just gets better. I loot and shoot the wreck of the Venture, and jump through the wormhole to appear in the Derelik region. That was easy, and I got a kill out of it. The pilot of pod I didn't want to let escape is here somewhere, but only for a few second. He leaves the system, making me alone. Nice, I can find a rat to pop whilst I get my bearings. And how about that, I'm just one hop from high-sec. I make the hop, and a handful more to get to a slightly more central location, and dock to catch my breath. Running away doesn't get much easier.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, venture, w-space

Curiosity isolates the Penny

Okay, that was a nice ambush, Penny. The home system is safe. Let's scan, find out what we've got today. Clearly there's one other wormhole, but I also find gas, a relic site, and a third wormhole to accompany our static connection. It's initially surprising to find the third wormhole, given how a fleet has just been engaging Sleepers in our system, but that's probably why the fleet only cleared one anomaly before stopping. The wormhole must have opened after they started, soon after I came on-line.

On the one hand, it's good that the wormhole opened. It stopped the fleet in their tracks and saved our anomalies. On the other hand, it limited the amount of loot I was able to steal from the fleet's unescorted salvager. Quite why the Noctis was unescorted when the fleet suspected new activity remains curious, but I'm not complaining.

Checking the two wormholes finds K162s from class 5 and class 3 w-space. The fleet is almost certainly from the class 5 system. For a start, the wormhole from C3b will not be its static connection but a random link, and it's unlikely that a corporation in C3 space would be quite so prepared to take advantage of class 4 w-space anomalies. The C5 K162, in contrast, would be the static wormhole for the system and lead to their natural farming grounds. Moreover, there is a Badger hauler on the K162 from C5a, one allied to the fleet. That's got to be a clue.

What is the Badger doing? Where is it going? Is he making a run to empire space, heading through our static wormhole, braving my Loki strategic cruiser on the loose? That's doubtful. Even though nothing has obviously followed the hauler in to our home, few corporations are so careless to send a vulnerable ship through a system known to be hostile. The Badger warps away, though. Not to another wormhole, but the anomaly of the recent ambush.

I'm almost insulted. I follow behind the Badger and see it moving so slowly towards the remaining Sleeper wrecks, tentatively poking at them with a salvaging beam, that the fleet can only think I am a complete idiot with no impulse control. At least send a better-tanked Noctis, maybe a fast destroyer. Better still, a battlecruiser. Any of those would make it look like you actually want the loot. The only way throwing a basic hauler behind a successful ambush could look any more like bait is if they were to send me a mail telling me to please not attack their sole remaining ship they can use to make any ISK in w-space.

Needless to say, I don't go for the Badger. I still think about trying to shoot it on the wormhole, where I could have an escape route, but even that could be dodgy. I don't know what they have waiting for me, and popping an inexpensive ship probably isn't worth expending charges for my ancillary shield booster. Still, if I can get on the other side of the wormhole, it's clear, and I can catch the Badger polarised when I'm not it may be a bit of fun.

I warp to the C5 K162 as the Badger does whatever, and poke through to see what's up. Oh, hi guys. Is that your Badger in our system? Two Proteus strategic cruisers, a Devoter heavy interdictor, Harbinger battlecruiser, Navy Issue Armageddon battleship, and Retribution attack frigate are all waiting for me to bite on the bait. Instead, I've come to them willingly. Good one, Penny. Still, better to know than remain ignorant.

Luckily, I'm far enough from the wormhole to cloak immediately, and far enough from the ships that my jink takes me away from the rushing Retribution in time to complete my warp through the Devoter's now-inflated warp bubble to a distant moon. Updating my directional scanner sees more ships and five towers around, which I don't really care to find right now. I'm more interested in what's happening at the wormhole, and hopefully getting back home.

I return to loiter a safe distance from the wormhole, where ship movements occur. Some ships go out, some ships come back, including the Badger. When battleships start to get thrown through the wormhole for only a few seconds at a time I realise that they are killing the connection, perhaps to try to flush me out, probably just because they have no more use for it. I would normally try to sneak through at some point, but the appearance of a Crow interceptor makes the situation rather more dangerous for me.

Better safe in this C5 than a corpse in the home system. I warp away, out of d-scan range of the fleet and towers, and launch probes. It's possible there is another way out of here, although I realise that if there was another wormhole here the pilots may not have been comfortable heading to our system to engage Sleepers in the first place. The two anomalies and three signatures don't give me a warm feeling about sneaking out the back door either. And, with probes launched, I return to see the wormhole for the last time. My way home is gone. Oh well. At least I was right about this being the fleet's home system.

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Tags: armageddon, badger, crow, devoter, eve online, harbinger, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, retribution, scanning, w-space

Hit the space warping

No one's around, but I have signatures aplenty in the home system. Launching probes and blanketing the system to see what they could be finds out that my initial statement is a bit misleading. No colleagues are around, but I do have company. Three ships are in our system. Once again, going off-line in a quiet corner of home and keeping my probes hidden as standard may pay off.

Warping to the centre of our system and updating my directional scanner identifies the ship types: two Tengu strategic cruisers, one Purifier stealth bomber. That's a curious mix, but as there are Sleeper wrecks visible I think I know what the Tengus have been up to. It looks like one anomaly has been cleared, and only one anomaly's worth of Sleepers, judging by the number and type of wreck. But the ships are gone, invisible to my probes too. Was I spotted coming on-line?

I have the wrecks in front of me now. Updating d-scan confirms that the only wrecks within range are those in this site. As I update d-scan, update my probes, I wonder what spooked these ships, wonder what the Purifier was doing. I don't have much time to contemplate these questions, as a fat ship appears under my probes. That'll be the Noctis salvager coming in to claim the profit from these wrecks.

Does the Noctis have an escort? Maybe the Purifier, maybe more. Maybe none. Ah, two more ships appear under my probes, but out of range of d-scan. The Tengu and Purifier perhaps. Gone again. Cloaked? I could be in trouble if I tackle this Noctis. Still, this aggression will not stand, man. Plus our wallet is healthy, I can take the potential loss.

I warp in to get closer to the Noctis, approaching cautiously. I want to get close enough to stop him warping away, but not so close that I could get tangled up in a reciprocal warp scramble effect. But I'm going for it. I decloak, activate my sensor booster. Lock, point, shoot. No one else decloaks with me. So far, so good.

The Noctis launches drones, a mixture of combat and ECM, but they float ineffectually near his ship for a while, the salvager clearly not yet having a positive lock on my Loki. Still, I overheat my guns, getting the strategic cruiser working harder, to mitigate the eventual risk of being subject to a lucky jam and my lock dropping.

Now the salvager is locked on to my ship, after a relative age, and the drones surge in my direction. It shouldn't do much good, he's already taking structure damage. I like to think that this delay is karma for his relying on warp core stabilisers, but who knows. I'll find out soon, as the last the salvager's hull is stripped away and the Noctis explodes.

Slow to lock, but definitely alert. The pod warps clear of his disintegrating ship, which looks like a good idea to me too. Except there's still no one else around, no escort threatening me. I take advantage of this and move in to loot and shoot the wreck, scoop the drones. There's not much to recover, with only one site being cleared. It's still a 120 Miskie Noctis loss to the corporation, though. And it turns out that it was a cloaking device hindering his locking time, not warp core stabilisers. That's cool. Now to get clear.

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Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, tengu, w-space

Messing with a Magnate

How's the home system looking tonight? Pretty normal. No ghost sites, a bit of gas, the static wormhole. That's about it. I resolve the wormhole, jump through to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, and update my directional scanner. A tower and no ships. This evening is just stuffed full of normal, it seems.

Launching probes and performing a blanket scan of the system reveals fourteen anomalies and eleven signatures, but only four of those signatures are chubby. That means only four possible K162s. Crap, one of them is our K162, so there are three chances. Two, if the static exit leads to low-sec. Rather than considering the options I scan to ascertain the reality.

Gas, gas, skinny wormhole that I find by accident, and the last chubster is a wormhole. Static exit to null-sec and a K162, or low-sec exit and outbound wormhole. Which is it? It's a K162, good. It comes from class 2 w-space too, which is also good. Even better, because the K346 is at the end of its life, and I don't fancy my ship facing the strain of staying on-line as I attempt to crash our static wormhole.

Jumping to C2a sees two towers and no ships on d-scan this time. I'm not sure that's an improvement. I warp out, launch probes, and continue scanning. Ten anomalies and five signatures give me a touch of gas and three wormholes, a K162 from low-sec, a K162 from null-sec, and the second static connection out to high-sec. Oh well.

I exit to low-sec, appearing in the Kor-Azor region, and scan the two extra signatures. One is a combat site with a busy Harbinger battlecruiser included, the other a wormhole, another K162 from class 2 w-space. That'll do nicely. Jumping in even sees a Magnate and probes on d-scan, the frigate apparently being cavalier about scanning in w-space. Maybe I can educate him.

My probes converge on the Magnate quickly. I'm in warp to his position, expecting to see the frigate burning hard in an arbitrary direction, trying to keep safe. But no, he's just floating there. I decloak, activate my sensor booster, and approach as I attempt to gain a positive target lock. Not this time, he disappears. But that just means he's cloaked in his spot, not warped away. I was on an approach vector, so spur my Loki strategic cruiser to continue in the same direction, pulsing my micro warp drive, and our ships collide.

A second chance at locking on to the Magnate, a second failure. This time the frigate warps, obviously alert to the threat. Minor excitement over, I check my probes returned to their blanket scanning configuration. Twenty anomalies, four signatures, and a tower with a piloted and idling Procurer mining barge. I ignore him and scan. Wormhole, wormhole, wormhole. The Magnate's still scanning as I warp between a K162 from class 2 w-space, an outbound C2 connection, and an outbound connection to class 3 w-space. Time is running low, but I have time to poke each system.

I end up next to the wormhole to C3b, so I jump to C3b. There is a tower on d-scan, and a pair of ships visible, but they are an Archon and Chimera carrier. There's nothing happening here. Back to C2b and across to, well, nowhere just yet. The Magnate is fifty kilometres from the wormhole when I return to the system, but as that's about forty kilometres too far for me to reasonably catch him, and the frigate warps off as I watch, I resume my original plan and warp to the wormhole to C2c.

Hold on, the Magnate is back on d-scan. Pulling up the system map and interrogating the wormholes with d-scan shows the ship to be near the low-sec exit. I'll head that way instead and, given that the Magnate is no longer on d-scan, assume that he jumped out of the system. That probably means he's reconnoitring the exit and is coming back. I decloak, get myself ready, and wait for the inevitable wormhole crackle.

There it is, the tell-tale sign of a ship transit. The Magnate doesn't appear immediately, not panicking, but also realising he's polarised and facing a Loki waiting for him. He makes his move. I make mine. The agile ship wins again, warping clear before I can stop him. Okay, moving on. Jumping to C2c sees ships! And a tower. But ships! Two Venture mining frigates, two Scorpion battleships, a Devoter heavy interdictor, and, bloody hell, a real-life sighting of a Phoenix dreadnought.

Everything looks to be at the tower in the system, and checking for pilots finds none. Well, that was fun. System scouted, back to C2b. On to C2d, where a tower is in its more natural state of holding no ships. That's this system scouted too. Back to C2b, the Magnate now gone, and out to low-sec, where I remember I could use a skill book. It's a short diversion to high-sec and back, ignoring a Myrmidon battlecruiser on a stargate, and in to C2a. Poking the null-sec K162 sends me to a system in Esoteria, where I end the evening popping a rat for pleasure. Now home to sleep.

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Tags: archon, chimera, devoter, eve online, harbinger, loki, magnate, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, phoenix, procurer, pvp, scanning, scorpion, venture, w-space