Seeing Sansha in w-space

It looks like it's just me and our static wormhole again. Except, what's this? A Sansha anomaly? In w-space? Holy crap, we have a ghost site in our home system! I'm going in. ...after refitting my Loki with explosive shield hardeners. It would be a little embarrassing to lose a strategic cruiser to my first ghost site, after all. And, because of that, I completely over-tank my ship for explosive damage, just in case.

In I go. Four containers, a tower, and a ticking timer. I pick one container and start hacking. I'm glad this isn't my introduction to the hacking mechanic, and that I've tried to learn the nuances of it beyond the simple node-hopping that my skill training and modules allow me to do in high-sec sites. I can merrily skip through this first container and crack it open without too much fuss. I loot merely some research goo.

Time for a second container. This one is a bit tougher to hack in to, enough that I fail on my first attempt. My first and only attempt, it seems, as the container explodes before I can try again. Maybe I have time for a third container. No? No. Come in number 21, your time is up. Sansha rats warp in, somewhat anonymously given that they are not highlighted by my overview, and the remaining containers explode.

The rats prevent me from warping, but are cowards after my own heart. They warp away after a few seconds of scratching my shields, leaving me alone in a pocket of w-space. A pocket of w-space that contained my first experience of a ghost site. The next one will be better. I know that my Loki should be fine with merely adequate explosive resistances, and that I have time to scan the containers for the good booty before picking one to hack.

Now to scan my way out of the home system. I jump to our neighbouring class 3 system to a clear update from my directional scanner, letting me launch probes and blanket the system. Six anomalies, eighteen signatures. There are five drones too, but without any ships to command them they don't interest me. Warping around finds no occupation, although a mobile tractor unit appears on d-scan. It appears on my overview too, once I resolve its position with my combat probes.

An MTU in empty space, in an unoccupied system, with no wrecks around it, surely can't be bait. Can it? I doubt it, so decloak and start shooting. I'm keen to see what sort of punishment they can take before releasing their goods. The answer is: quite a lot. Too much, in fact. It's a hardy bastard. This is less like shooting a Noctis salvager and more like scratching at an Orca industrial command ship. A boring number of autocannon rounds later and the mobile tractor unit finally explodes. Well, it disappears in to the aether, without even some satisfying sparks, leaving nothing behind.

I'm not surprised at getting no loot from the MTU really, and was more interested in understanding what it takes to pop one, for the inevitable time when I am tempted to crack one open whilst a fleet is engaging Sleepers in a separate w-space anomaly. Now I know that I would never try to do that, not with the amount of time it takes. I don't know who thought MTUs would stimulate interaction. They clearly won't. It will even discourage it, as vulnerable salvagers are forgotten in favour of these automatons.

Oh well. Time to scan. Amongst the gas, data, and relic sites is a K162 from high-sec at the end of its life, a healthy K162 from class 4 w-space, and the static exit to low-sec. Can the empire connections bring HR and his shiny new Tengu strategic cruiser home? Poking out either one to check has my appearing in high-sec Everyshore, sixteen hops from our colleague. 'I'll take it.' Mission accomplished.

Checking low-sec too puts me in faction warfare Placid, which doesn't turn HR around from his current journey. Me, I head for deeper w-space, back in to C3a and through the K162 to C4a, where d-scan shows me a tower and no ships. The dumbscovery scanner disappoints me by revealing two anomalies and just the one signature, the wormhole I entered through, meaning that I don't even need to launch probes to know all I need to know about this system.

At least finding the tower has the owner corporation match that of the MTU I destroyed in C3a. It's not much of a mystery solved, but good to know all the same. And that's that. I take myself back out to low-sec to scan the four extra signatures, ignoring two data sites and some gas to find a K162 from class 3 w-space at the end of its life. It's probably worth a quick look through for activity, but all I find is a piloted Tayra inside a tower's force field doing nothing. Instead of risking my route home disappearing, I leave the hauler to its nothing and do some myself, heading home and going off-line.

Posted in Gaming | 9 Comments »
Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tayra, tengu, w-space

Buzzing a Buzzard

If I can't kill a mining barge, I'll vent my frustration by killing our wormhole. I take an Orca through to the class 3 w-space system and back home, the industrial command ship no doubt making a good dent in the wormhole's mass allowance. Next I take out a Widow black ops ship. I think. Traffic control strikes again, and the wait is long enough to encourage me to force a restart of my ship's systems. It will be quicker and less painful.

The Widow is back on-line, back on our K162. I try to take it home but end up staring at the wormhole again. Extreme close-up! So, after another forced restart, do I persist with this foolish endeavour? Of course I don't. ...should be my answer. Instead, I try once more, proving the scientific definition that insanity is doing the same action multiple times and expecting different outcomes. In this case, the Widow goes straight out to C3a, and comes straight back. Okay, then.

One more round trip in the Orca will collapse our wormhole, and I'm almost feeling positive about this. Right up until I force yet another restart when trying to make the penultimate jump. But now only one jump remains, and it's the one that will take me home again. If only I could keep my ship on-line long enough for it to even enter the emergency warp from coming on-line. Nope, another restart required. I should have quit earlier.

I'm back and surprisingly not caught and killed yet. I think that's proof that no one's watching this debacle. I take the Orca home and the wormhole, thankfully, dies on schedule. Holy crap, that was a chore. I'd give up and go off-line if all the aggravation weren't motivating me to do something with the new static connection that I just spent so much time trying to spawn. Scan, resolve, jump. Here we go.

Back to normal. My directional scanner shows me a tower and no ships, which at least means there's no one for the dickscovery scanner to startle this time. I dunno what's better, really. But anyway, I launch probes and scan, one anomaly and seven signatures holding a static exit to null-sec that sticks out nicely for being the only weak signature in the system. Are there any K162s? Gas, gas, gas, wormhole, and a Buzzard in the tower. That's bad timing.

I throw my probes out of the system anyway, in case the pilot of the covert operations boat was getting himself a snack whilst coming on-line and not watching d-scan, then realise I only have one more signature to resolve, and it's a chubby one. One scan, identify gas, recall my probes. Now to bounce off the wormholes to see where they lead. The Buzzard won't do anything. Or maybe he'll coincidentally warp right behind me to their static exit.

I hold my position until the Buzzard leaves for null-sec, then decloak my Loki strategic cruiser, burn to the wormhole, and activate my sensor booster. I'm hoping he'll come back soon, polarised, and have terrible reflexes. It's not soon, but the wormhole crackles when the Buzzard would still be polarised. And it's him. Sadly, he has fairly standard reflexes, and my sensor-boosted targeting systems can only manage to be a split-second away from locking on to the cov-ops before he warps clear.

A second Buzzard warps from the tower to the wormhole and jumps, but never mind. Even if he comes back polarised I doubt there's much more I can do that I didn't do to the first Buzzard. I leave the K346 alone and warp across to check the second wormhole. A T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space. It's a poor option in itself, in stark contrast to times before the dumbscovery scanner, but given how the locals know where their K346 is without scanning I'm happy to assume that they are also aware of the T405 and have scouted it already. That at least gives me a reason to call it a night, if the late hour itself doesn't.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Buzzing a Buzzard
Tags: buzzard, eve online, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, widow

Startled by a signature

I hope I have better luck at staying in space tonight. And with the stability of wormholes. I get to test the latter immediately, as scanning our home system sees only the static connection has changed, and I warp to the wormhole to see it in rude health. Already I'm doing better than yesterday. Feeling in good spirits, I jump through to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, update my directional scanner, and get a sinking feeling.

D-scan shows me a Retriever mining barge, floating in space, free of a tower, and my immediate thoughts turn to my recurrent frustrations with the idiotic discovery scanner. How long do I have before the pilot of the barge is made aware of the new signature in this system? How long before he retreats back to wherever he came from until he can be assured that this new signature isn't a wormhole?

I have no idea how long I may have to find the Retriever, but the dumbscovery scanner showing me a single ore site in the system helps. I move from the wormhole, cloak, and warp to the rock field. And I'm too late. Even getting here under a minute from entering the system, without having to ping d-scan around to look for the ship, the mining barge is alerted and gone from the site, leaving behind a handful of looted Sleeper wrecks amongst the rocks, and any sense of outbound wormholes being dangerous dashed against them.

Ever the optimist, I make a perch in the ore site and warp away to locate the Retriever. Maybe he's coming back. There's only one planet with moons outside of d-scan range, and there I find a tower with an Orca industrial command ship, Crane transport, and the Retriever. The mining barge and Orca are piloted, naturally, the Crane empty. Of course, he's not going back. The refinery is loaded, set to run, and the two capsuleers get busy idling.

It wouldn't have been much of a hunt anyway, not with ore sites being moved away from cosmic signatures that need to be scanned by probes to cosmic anomalies that simply appear on the scanner automatically. Frankly, I don't understand either the decision to add the discovery scanner or change the type of ore sites with respect to w-space. Neither makes any sense for the environment.

Okay, do I continue to mope—quite reasonably, I feel—or scan out to low-sec and look for K162s? It's a tough decision, so I take the third option. I head home, grab a Noctis salvage from our tower, and return to C3a to salvage the ore site Sleeper wrecks. It's out of d-scan range of the tower, so the local pilot won't be any the wiser, but they are just ore site Sleeper wrecks. I gain some pocket ISK, nothing substantial.

Salvaging gets me doing something, though, and I go with the momentum, swapping back to my Loki strategic cruiser to scan C3a for its exit wormhole. Five anomalies and twelve signatures are in the system, nine of the signatures far enough from the tower to be resolved without my probes being visible to the two pilots who, let's be honest, aren't even watching d-scan at this point. Five gas sites, three data sites, and a wormhole.

The two signatures near the tower are both chubby and, given that the Retriever ran at the sight of our K162 appearing, are probably two more gas sites. I ignore them. I ignore the exit to low-sec too, with it wobbling away at the end of its life. Hasn't this just been a frustrating start to the evening. The locals won't come out again, and I can't go out myself.

Posted in Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tags: crane, eve online, loki, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, w-space

Can't crash, won't crash

It's still just me in the home w-space system. I'll have to make my own entertainment. My plan to resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 system goes awry, though. Making it part step one of the plan is pretty good for us, but I drop out of warp next to a dying wormhole. Who did that? Bastards. I suppose I'll just have to smother it and finish the job.

Or I could wait and watch the wormhole die of natural causes. There's clearly no corresponding connection in the home system, nothing an earlier scout would have used to come through to get here and open our static wormhole. Did they forcefully collapse their own connection, or has that one only recently died of old age itself? If the latter, our own wormhole shouldn't be long for this galaxy. If the former, I could be waiting a couple of hours or more.

I'm not waiting for the wormhole to die. I'm here for adventure, so I'll have myself an adventure. I warp back to our tower, grab an Orca industrial command ship from a hangar, and warp back to the static wormhole to begin mass-stressing it. I jump out, update my directional scanner to see a tower and no ships, and the wormhole lives long enough to bring me back home. First round trip complete.

As I wait for my polarisation to dissipate, I check my notes on the class 3 system we connect to, however briefly. A previous visit from nineteen months ago doesn't tell me much, but it does point out that the system holds a static exit to null-sec k-space. That may explain why whoever came through here took a dislike to the termination of the w-space constellation.

Polarisation effects gone, it's time for another pass through the wormhole, this time in a Widow black ops ship. The wormhole shrinks to its half-mass state, which means I complete the collapse by repeating the two round trips, in reverse order. Another wave of polarisation ends, I take the Widow out, and I think I come back. I'm not sure, not with this 'socket closed' error disconnecting me from space.

The socket was closed, the wormhole was not. I return to space to be in the home system, in the Widow. I swap back to the Orca, ensure I'm not polarised, and jump through the wormhole for the final round trip. I think. That is, I think I jump through the wormhole, I'm not entirely sure. Traffic control is holding me up for some reason. Will I be allowed home before the wormhole collapses? I dunno, not when the socket closes again.

I rush to get my systems back on-line, which involves wondering which system I'm in on my return. Home. That's comforting, at least. How about the wormhole? Still there, and now in a critical state. I think I have traffic control to blame for that, as I have no idea if the mass-adding pulse of the Orca's micro warp drive was taken in to account on the final, fated jump. Probably not.

I'll be bollocked if I try to kill a critically destabilised wormhole safely this evening. I'm getting frustrated enough just jumping through a wormhole normally. On top of that, if my ship isn't stable enough to jump through a wormhole, what will it be like roaming for targets? It's irritating but, having had the marvellous experience of not quite collapsing a wormhole and resetting my ship's systems several times, I think I'll just cut my losses and go off-line.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, widow

Only going out so far

An early roam has just the static wormhole at home. Jumping next door doesn't see much more, with my directional scanner clear from the K162 in class 3 w-space. My notes from eleven months ago indicate a tower could be somewhere, and that I'll be looking for an exit to null-sec from here. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp away to find the tower.

Eight anomalies, four signatures, no ships. There is a tower but it's different from the one I saw before, and as no one is home I'll be scanning. Identifying two data sites and resolving the wormhole isn't as quick as it could be, given the weak strengths of all the signatures, but I am soon jumping out to Malpais, where I find myself alone, which is good, but with no other signatures in the system, which isn't.

Never mind. Pop a rat and move on, hopping a stargate to get to an adjacent system. It seems the better option than crashing our wormhole, particularly as I'm ideally looking for K162s. The stargate flings me through space and in to a mess of bubbles on the next stargate, which is a little daunting. The bubbles are meaningless at the moment, though, partly because of my interdiction nullifier subsystem, partly because there is no one in the system waiting to catch those trapped. I warp out to find a rat but still don't launch probes, given the continued lack of signatures.

I pop a rat and start to move on, but cancel warp in one direction to head in another. I don't think I've seen an outpost before. If I have, it is long enough ago to have forgotten about it. I swing past it just to see one of these stations, the culmination of a lot of industrialist activity. I'm impressed. Moving on, the next system across keeps me alone in null-sec but with three signatures this time. I can scan whilst I rat.

A result of three resolved wormholes looks pretty neat, until I warp to each and find three outbound connections, two to class 5 w-space and one to class 3 w-space. I suppose I won't be surprising anyone tonight. Thanks, discovery scanner. That's sarcasm, by the way. Suck a dick. Still, maybe there is something to find in one of these systems. I don't know what, but I won't know if I don't check. I tackle the question through the wormhole to C3b first.

D-scan shows me a tower with no ships, and my probes resolve three wormholes from the eleven anomalies and ten signatures. I can't resist poking through the exit to low-sec, taking me to the Derelik region, where I then can't resist finding a clone soldier rat to pop for a gain in security status. The second wormhole in C3b is dead-on-arrival, and the third a T405 connection to class 4 w-space. Still no K162s.

I press ahead, because that's what I do, but my positive attitude is fading, and hits a general low when I appear over six kilometres from the wormhole in C4a. A tower is visible on d-scan but no ships, and although my notes say there is a static wormhole to class 3 to be found I don't think I care for more outbound connections. I've found enough already, and they are simply unlikely to lead to activity I can surprise. What's the point?

I head back to and through C3b to Malpais where I have as much interest in the two C5 wormholes as I do in the subject of 13th century arable farming. Exploring either may be enlightening and lead to adventure, but I could just get some sleep. I warp to a rock field to pop one last rat for the night, recovering some more security status after my recent peccadilloes in low-sec and making back some of the ISK I should never have given to that Imicus pilot yesterday, and head home.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Only going out so far
Tags: eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Taking a guilt-trip to low-sec

Leaving our static wormhole behind, I see a pretty standard tower lacking ships on my directional scanner in the neighbouring class 3 system. Warping in what I hope is the opposite direction in order to launch probes flings me in to a second tower, but as this one is also without ships I launch probes anyway and start scanning. Five anomalies, seven signatures; three wormholes, one gas, relic, and data site each. My exploration options are a K162 from class 5 w-space that's at the end of its life, a static exit to low-sec that, huh, has a Navy Vexor cruiser warping to it.

Where did he come from? His approaching vector makes it look like he just warped from the EOL C5 K162, which I suppose is interesting. Wondering if any other ships will come this way, or if the Vexor will come back, I lurk on the U210 for now. The wait gives me a chance to reference the lensed nebulae in the wormhole with my table of images, determining that the other side is in the Sinq Laison region. And that's about as interesting as my waiting gets. I float and wait, wait and float, and get bored enough to poke my prow through the wormhole.

Sinq Laison it is. Everything looks normal, with no ships on the wormhole, which I suppose is a result of there being no one else in the system with me. As I'm here, I may as well scan the two other signatures, which turn out to both be wormholes. I'll call the K162 from deadly class 6 w-space Plan B, because obviously it's more my scene through the K162 to C3b.

A tower, a Heron, and a mobile depot. I start from scratch looking for them, as my last visit to this system a couple of months back had no occupation, but finding towers is pretty straightforward. Finding frigates is equally straightforward when they are floating unpiloted in the tower you've just found, which just leaves the mobile depot somewhere in the system. That it has a two-day period of reinforced mode makes it somewhat pointless to actively look for them outside of a system you're staying in, making them another object designed without w-space in mind, so I'll just scan for wormholes.

The thirty-two anomalies and fourteen signatures are indicative of a system only recently occupied, and from them I get an unexciting K162 from low-sec and rather more interesting K162 from class 4 w-space. Recalling my probes and jumping to C4a sees a tower with two Orca industrial command ships and a Cheetah covert operations boat on d-scan, which rather dulls my excitement, even when I find the Cheetah piloted. I suppose I could watch a Cheetah do nothing, or maybe watch him warp away and disappear with almost no chance of my catching him, or I can head back the way I came.

Head back it is. In to C3b, out to low-sec, and I get close to the C6 K162 when I see a Venture mining frigate and mobile depot in the system in Sinq Laison. Are they together, the Venture refitting for low-sec mining? I launch probes and resolve the depot's position, understanding that I won't find the ship there when the Venture leaves the system, and warp to see the depot has already been attacked. It only has five hours left before becoming vulnerable, but that's still a bit too long for me to care about in one session.

The new signature in the system is more interesting, though. I resolve the relic site to bookmark its location, knowing how that kind of site attracts attention, and finally run out of excuses not to jump to C6a. Updating d-scan on the other side of the wormhole sees two towers, no ships. It looks about the same as four months ago, so I'm happy to say C6a is scouted. Back to low-sec, and what else can I do but find a rat to shoot? A battleship rat, no less. The only circumstance that will stop me popping this fellow is, hello, a new contact jumping in to the system.

D-scan is my friend. I keep shooting the rat in the rock field, and when d-scan shows me the new contact is in an Imicus frigate I don't stop until it pops. And the Imicus remains in the system. In the relic site, perhaps? I can't see his ship on d-scan, even if I can see the pilot in the local channel. Maybe he's cloaked, waiting for me to leave. I dunno, man. I don't think I have anything better to do. And that kinda gives me time and makes me re-evaluate my space life choices.

Okay, there are core probes in the system now. The Imicus is scanning. I doubt he's looking for wormholes, so that relic site is the most likely destination for the frigate. I warp my Loki strategic cruiser across in preparation and watch d-scan for the probes. There they go. And here comes the Imicus, dropping out of warp close enough for me to catch. I'd prefer to catch him hacking, though, as he'll be more off-guard. So I wait and watch as he scans each container and moves towards his first choice. I shadow him and, when all looks good, decloak to strike.

Naturally, the basic frigate crumples under my autocannon fire, leaving a pod to warp away and me to loot, well, basic modules and nothing of value. That makes me feel a bit guilty, particularly as this pilot probably learnt nothing. In a fit of altruism, I apologise in the local channel, check the kill report, and donate some ISK for a replacement ship before jumping back to C3a. Back to C3a where a pair of Dominix battleships are on d-scan, along with some Sleeper wrecks.

I would rue my time spent chasing a crappy empty frigate in low-sec, were it not for the fact that the Dominices disappear within seconds of my entering the system, and finding and warping to the anomaly sees the Sleeper wrecks looted. They must have been alert to potential threats of the system, and made their ISK on-the-fly. Good for them, I suppose. And as I don't have to hunt them, I can accept this conversation request from the Imicus pilot.

Why did I shoot you? Because I can. You were in low-sec, that makes you a target. I didn't take in to account your Sisters core scanning probes when reimbursing you? Well, la-di-da, Mr Ungrateful. I throw some more ISK his way, regretting the first payment already so why not regret it a bit more, and vow to never again feel guilty for engaging a valid target. If you want the greater rewards available outside of high-sec, you have to accept that with them comes risk, even if it's risk from douche pilots like me, flying a far more expensive ship, who just happen to be bored.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Taking a guilt-trip to low-sec
Tags: cheetah, dominix, eve online, heron, imicus, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, venture, vexor, w-space

Bagging a Buzzard

Our home system has had a soft reset. All known signatures have gone, replaced with two new ones plus our static wormhole. A bit of gas is only to be expected, and although a second wormhole could be welcome the dying K162 from class 3 w-space is not. I head forwards, also to class 3 w-space, to a black hole system with nothing within range of my directional scanner.

Launching probes and performing a blanket scan of the system reveals eleven anomalies, ten signatures, and no ships. As exploring finds no occupation, probably owing to the static exit to null-sec as much as the black hole, I warp back to our K162 to sit and sift through the signatures, the wormhole being the only place I currently know where a ship could pass by. The weak wormhole is probably the K346, but are there any others? Probably, if the ship under my probes is any indication.

I would throw my probes out of the system in an attempt to hide them from the ship, but I feel it's somewhat too late for that. I just keep scanning. Three more wormholes become apparent, one a K162 from high-sec, another a K162 from class 4 w-space, and the last a K162 from low-sec. I have my pick of k-space connections, and I wonder if the ship I saw is a tourist or a scout from that w-space system. It's a bit difficult to tell when there is no further sighting of it.

Hold on. I am about to leave C3a when a final blanket scan, kinda hoping to see the ship again, sees the ship again. Still it remains out of d-scan range, but this time I am able to warp close enough to see that it is a Buzzard, the covert operations boat not being terribly covert right now. I could try to find him with d-scan, but I suspect it will take too long, and as I have probes out I may as well just try to scan his position.

Scan, scan, damn. One scan away from resolving the Buzzard and he disappears, presumably cloaked. I got a rough position, though, and warping to that sees an off-line tower with a cargo container next to it. Maybe the pilot was poking his nose in to the can to see what it held. Even if he was, he's gone now. I'll take a look through the wormholes. Or not. The Buzzard is back, somewhere, and this time I do use d-scan. The cov-ops boat looks to be on the C4 K162. Maybe I will take a look at that wormhole.

The Buzzard's here, and on the K162. An idea that he's sitting there as bait tickles the back of my mind for just long enough for sense to swat it away. It's a Buzzard. On a wormhole. Even if it is trying to be bait, I can pop it too quickly to care, and the wormhole gives me at least two attempts to evade any chance of being caught. Silly paranoia. I'll show you. I approach, decloak, and engage the tiny ship.

My target disappears. But there is no jump through the wormhole. Instead, the Buzzard has exploded. Well, popped, really. I aim for the pod, get a positive lock, and rip it open with my autocannons. Yep, pretty easy. Weirdly easy. Even so, job's a good 'un. A really good one. The Buzzard was worth about a hundred million ISK, but the capsuleer has just lost some low grade virtue implants to my necrotic appetite, costing around five hundred million ISK to replace. Yum!

I think I can explore the wormholes now. The K162 from low-sec comes in from Aunenen, which rings an ominous bell. I leave the pilots to their piracy and look through the K162 from high-sec, appearing in a system in Metropolis that looks pretty boring. I dunno, there's no pleasing me sometimes. The null-sec K162 takes me to Venal, where there are extra signatures but also other pilots. Okay, that leaves me with the class 4 w-space system to explore. Let's do it.

Jumping to C4a and updating d-scan sees a tower and no ships. I haven't killed their scout, though, not judging by the owner corporation. Scanning has two possible K162s amongst the thirteen anomalies and four signatures, and I get one. The wormhole takes me to class 5 w-space, where d-scan is clear and exploring finds no occupation. Scanning finds more K162s, one from deadly class 6 w-space and two from null-sec. 'Deadly' is just a name, but I'm still checking null-sec first.

The first K162 takes me to a system in Venal, with one other pilot, no other signatures. The other to Providence, where there are plenty of pilots, one saying 'red' in the local communication channel moments after I appear in the system. Surely he doesn't mean me, friend of all capsuleers, does he? Just in case, I jump straight back to w-space, happy anyway because of finally getting my image of a wormhole to Providence.

A peak in C6a sees a tower and no ships on d-scan, which seems like sufficient scouting for—let's see, what excuse can I use—it getting so late in the evening. I head back the way I came. In to C5a, to C4a, and pausing on the wormhole to C3a as the connection crackles with a transit. An Eris interdictor appears and enters warp. Towards C6a, I suppose. The pilot belongs to the same corporation as the Buzzard I podded earlier, so I guess he came from back that way. That's probably good to know, but maybe not so important when I'm heading home to sleep.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Bagging a Buzzard
Tags: buzzard, eris, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Backwards to null-sec relics

Just the one signature to check in the home system, and it's not the static wormhole. My glorious leader scanned and resolved the replacement wormhole last night, after we collapsed the first, and that bookmark still seems valid. This other signature is also a wormhole, as it turns out, a K162 from class 5 w-space, giving me an alternative direction to explore this evening. I think I'll do that, as any capsuleer knows that K162s are the wormholes holding activity these days.

My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole in C5a, and a red giant burns far in the background. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan of the system reveals nine anomalies, fourteen signatures, and precisely no ships, which doesn't give me hope for finding activity. A lack of occupation, though, makes me think that I'll find another K162. And I do, a K162 leading back to more class 5 w-space. Obviously. I don't think there are any more, right until I resolve the final signature, which also gives me a K162 from null-sec. But, unless I'm somehow mistaken, that's not w-space.

In to C5b, and d-scan is clear again. Another blanket scan shows me eight anomalies, fourteen signatures, and still no ships. Haven't I just been here? No sign of occupation makes me think so, but my declining sanity insists I did actually jump through a wormhole to another system, so I get down to scanning. There's the wormhole I'm expecting, but this one leads out to null-sec and doesn't help with exploring w-space. I've travelled backwards in to a dead chain opened by some tourist. What a dick.

I poke through the K162 to null-sec to appear in a system in Curse, and although there are other signatures to resolve there are also other pilots. I'm pretty sure I have the luxury of avoiding them, so head back to w-space, across C5b to C5a, and out of the first null-sec K162 to Feythabolis. This time it's just me in the system, with one other signature, so I launch probes to scan as I warp to a rock field to rat. I could gain a bit of security status, given my recent indiscretions in low-sec.

The signature resolves to be a relic site, which won't take me back to w-space but may be worth clearing for some juicy loot. I pop the rat I find and take myself homewards to grab a hacking covert operations boat, fit for the task. As I do, Aii comes on-line. I give him a sitrep, and he asks if he can come along to help clear up the spewing loot. Of course, but it's pretty boring. I try to make that clear, as he'll just be watching my Buzzard float next to a relic and then try to grab small packages of coal as they float away, but Aii remains keen. Okay then.

I return to null-sec, warp to the relic site, and scan each of the containers. It's just salvage. Not good salvage either, just some standard parts that have probably shaken off a Minmatar cruiser in normal flight. Still, I'm here, I may as well hack the containers and grab what I can. So that's what I do. I crack the cans, loot flies around my Buzzard and Aii's strategic cruiser, and we catch what we can.

The system remains empty as we clear the site, bagging about twenty million ISK in loot, which I don't think is enough to want to call it 'bagging'. But I learn on the way back that this is Aii's first time seeing the new hacking mechanics, and he is pretty stoked to have experienced it at last. That's good, and in that case I'm glad he was around to come along. One day we'll even find some good loot in one of them. Not in that site, and not tonight either. That's all I've got in me for tonight, so I leave Aii with our static wormhole to explore through, and go off-line.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Crashing and Sleepering

Back down to one wormhole at home. That should help us decide what to do with our evening a bit more easily. And, obviously, I should check the state of our tower, because I don't do it often enough and occasionally I worry that I'll come on-line to nothing. I warp in, pull out the dipstick, and see that everything is healthy and full of fuel. I think I have my colleagues to thank for their diligence. Now to poke the static wormhole and see what we have next door.

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space and updating my directional scanner sees the normal sight of a tower lacking ships. What a surprise. Well, it's a slight surprise, considering that there was no occupation in this system three months ago. As a blanket scan reveals sixteen anomalies and fourteen signatures, the new corporation either moved in recently or haven't quite settled in yet.

I warp around to locate the tower whilst my glorious leader scans, her skills clearly outshining mine. I am still checking moons with d-scan when Fin lands on the U210. 'Everything else is just gas.' The static exit to low-sec leads to a system in Sinq Laison with extra signatures to scan for wormholes, which would be better if the exit weren't wobbling away at the end of its life.

'We should probably go for Sleepers to keep someone from repeating last week', says Fin. 'Bastards.' That sounds like a good idea. We've got in to a decent groove with the bland-but-profitable activity of clearing anomalies in the home system, spurred by the bastion module allowing us—okay, me—to use a Golem marauder instead of a Tengu strategic cruiser. I wouldn't say the ship is better, just different. You need to mix circumstances up a bit occasionally.

Fin comes back from low-sec, I tag the tower I finally find, and we both head home to grab some chunkier ships to start the wormhole's collapse. Nothing happens whilst we wait for polarisation effects to dissipate, which are terribly exciting times, and the wormhole implodes on schedule and with both of us in the home system. Now for some Sleepers.

Again we fly the Golem and Tengu, again I am in the Golem. When will I learn to share? Once I've got the hang of bouncing the marauder around under the influence of a micro jump drive, perhaps. But today I'm also keen to try out the new torpedoes that Aii imported. We've been using basic ammunition in the Golem so far, because our stock of expensive torpedoes was limited to what we might use in stealth bombers. Considering we barely fly them these days, there isn't much in the hangar.

Now we have a healthy stock of some Caldari Navy torpedoes, and I load up the Golem to see what difference it makes. A nice difference, that's what. I am slamming the Sleeper battleships harder than ever, and it feels good. If only I weren't also apparently taking more damage. I don't think the Sleepers like me. I wish I could find out why, but I tend to shoot first and forget about asking questions later when distracted by the explosions.

The first anomaly is cleared, followed by a second and third, and still I'm working on getting the angles right for the MJD. At least when flying in tandem with Fin I can aim to get the bounce very wrong indeed and end up warping to a wreck. The turnaround is even quicker than waiting for the MJD to cool down. That's my excuse.

With the three profitable anomalies cleared of Sleeper ships, we take out our salvagers to tackle the second step of realising that profit, clearing the anomalies of Sleeper wrecks, bringing back over three hundred million ISK in loot. The final step is getting that loot safely to market, but that's for another day.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Crashing and Sleepering
Tags: eve online, golem, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Finally fighting

Maybe the opportunity for a scrap isn't quite over. Two of the small fleet the occupants of a class 2 w-space system placed on the wormhole connecting our two systems have warped clear, but one stays. The Cyclone battlecruiser remains on the wormhole for now, and I see on my directional scanner the two ships that warped clear being swapped for a Manticore stealth bomber and Onyx heavy interdictor. Perhaps they are merely changing their tactics. If so, we really should give them some kind of fight.

The Onyx drops on to the wormhole, perhaps swapped from the armour-based Devoter HIC to take advantage of the shield-boosting pulsar phenomenon in our home system, and cloaks. That's curious. It's when the Cyclone warps away that it looks like we've moved from overt engagement to trap being laid. But the Cyclone returns. Perhaps as bait. Either way, the numbers are still good. Let's do something.

I think we can still be smart. We can act a bit dumb, and prepare battleships that will actually put up a fight, and throw them through the wormhole as if we're trying to crash it. Fin and Aii like the idea, and with a decisive plan in mind they grab a battleship each and quickly refit them with what we have in our hangar. It may not be the best plan, but we can make some decent scrapping battleships.

Fin and Aii are ready. I'm ready. Here goes. I approach the Cyclone, the only obvious ship on the wormhole, and call for the two battleships to jump and engage. Here they come, and as the wormhole crackles the Onyx decloaks and jumps to our home system. No doubt he wants to catch them going back, but that really depends on what the Cyclone does. The battlecruiser engages Aii's Raven, but perhaps doesn't fully expect Aii to engage back. Fin's Dominix appears and joins the fray, and I shed the cloak of my Loki strategic cruiser to complete the attack.

The Cyclone doesn't—or can't—jump through the wormhole, and under the combined fire of our ships melts pretty quickly, his dual-ancillary shield boosters not up to the job of repairing quite so much incoming damage at once. The Cyclone pops, the pod flees. And that's about it. The Manticore doesn't appear, the Onyx is reluctant to jump back. I don't blame them. If only we'd considered this option sooner, we'd have had more targets and more of a fight. Indeed, maybe if I'd stayed hidden, instead of globbing on the Cyclone, the Onyx or Manticore may have made an appearance. But who knows?

We have a small talk amongst ourselves about what to do with the Onyx. We could just let him come back. After all, we did kinda mash their Cyclone a bit too convincingly, not giving them the fight they probably wanted. Then again, they had the polarisation advantage, us bringing the fight to them meaning they could use wormhole mechanics to evade us, so we almost had to negate that by some means. It worked. Maybe we could try to catch the Onyx too. Do we really need to be polite about this? I'm the wrong person to ask. Fin jumps back home and, as she does, I cloak to make it look like I went too. Sure enough, the Onyx cross-jumps again, returning to this C2 in a bid to avoid us.

The HIC cloaks when it sees Aii, and I decloak and try to catch the Onyx, not quickly enough. I saw where he was, though, so ask Aii for his drones, which he gives me, and take my expanded Loki towards the Onyx's last known position. There he is. I decloak the HIC and call for Fin to return as I start the lock cycle. But I don't finish it. The Onyx was aligned to the tower and manages to enter warp before I can stop him, my confidence in catching him slowing my attempt enough to thwart my actually catching him.

C2 local ships are seen on d-scan to be swapped for cloaky strategic cruisers and a Falcon recon ship. 'That Falcon is just...'. Annoying. Yeah. They may not come for us again, but probably will if we don't leave. So we leave. That's probably it. But it would be a shame not to grab the loot from the site that remains almost-cleared. So as I watch the wormhole, Fin and Aii get back in to Sleeper ships and continue where they left off.

An Anathema cov-ops is still in our system, and the pilots may be looking for revenge, so I stay sharp on the wormhole connecting our two systems. The site is cleared without interruption, which we don't really expect. The salvaging could be interesting. Aii goes out in a Noctis salvager, Fin shadows him in an escort, as I continue watching C2a for activity. All looks good, right until the last wreck is salvaged. The Anathema decloaks next to my colleagues in the site, whilst a Thorax cruiser drops on to the wormhole with me, but Fin and Aii warp clear without the Anathema being in time to stop them.

That could have been interesting, until we remember the Falcon and its ECM the other fleet has cloaked somewhere. I can't blame them for wanting to use it, though. And although we didn't really have much of a fight, at least we didn't ignore the other fleet, and we were able to do something. The encounter also shows us how we can improve, notably by fitting some PvP battlecruisers and battleships that can be made ready in seconds instead of minutes. We can easily afford to throw such boats in to engagements, and it would do us good to do so, win or lose. Hopefully we can give better fights in the future.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Finally fighting
Tags: anathema, cyclone, dominix, eve online, falcon, loki, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, raven, thorax, w-space