Not getting in the way of a roam

Time to go exploring! The marauder experiment was... a success maybe? It wasn't a failure, because I cleared the anomaly and brought our pimped Golem back home intact, it just took a while to do. But one is enough for now, and rather than head back with my glorious leader to make more ISK I quite fancy seeing if we can find anything else to shoot. So it is with murderous thoughts that I warp to our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

My directional scanner is clear from the K162 in C3a, a recent visit from only two months ago indicating a lack of occupation and exit to low-sec. Fair enough. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan of the system, and explore to look for any activity or changes. My probes reveal eleven anomalies and eight signatures, and there being no ships makes me assume there is still no occupation. But, paraphrasing slightly, assuming makes you look like a dick occasionally.

A tower has sprung up on the edge of the system. There's no one home, of course, or there would be ships somewhere. And as I locate the tower a new signature pops on the annoying discovery scanner. At least this time the signature is too weak to be a K162, as a subsequent blanket scan shows, so it is either a new site or an outbound wormhole that still offers no hope of catching pilots by surprise. Whichever it is, I can scan casually.

Four wormholes, two data sites, two pockets of gas. It's a nice collection when viewed on futuristic space paper, and I warp around the wormholes to see if the results match the expectation. The U210 exit to low-sec has the little demon of Heimatar visible, a K162 from null-sec comes from the Pure Blind region, a high-sec K162—completing the known-space triumvirate—looks like it comes in from the remote Everyshore, and finally I warp to a second K162 from high-sec, this one opened from Metropolis. It looked better on paper. Futuristic space paper.

I'll hit Pure Blind. Null-sec has better rats to pop whilst scanning, is more likely to be empty of other pilots, and the concentration of wormholes doesn't seem to change between security levels. Sure enough, no other pilots and one extra signature encourages me to rat and scan, but the signature is a data site, resolved before I find a rat I like the look of. Never mind, I shall abandon ratting and see what this data site can offer me instead.

I head home to grab a Buzzard covert operations boat, fitted specifically for hacking, and invite Fin to come along to help nab the spewed loot. It's not much of an invitation, like being invited to help move furniture, without even the suggestion of being offered a drink afterwards, but I offer it anyway. It's accepted too. There's not much else to do, frankly.

In the Buzzard, I head back across C3a to null-sec, jumping through a wormhole now wobbling away at the end of its life. I don't think I would have missed that detail before, so we have a few hours of life left in the connection, which should be plenty of time to hack one data site. I warp to the data site and scan each container in turn, tagging them with a priority based on the contents. We may as well go for the highest value loot first, in case we get interrupted. Now I cloak and wait for Fin.

My glorious leader headed out to high-sec to sell the loot gathered from our Golem experiments, which is a few hundred million ISK. Everyshore was tried, but it's rather remote from any buyers of Sleeper loot, so Fin went to Metropolis instead. On her way back, she sees 'at least two scanners in C3a, based on the number of probes'. Oh, 'and a Sabre'. The presence of the interdictor is interesting, as surely no one would use it to scan, which would make three active pilots.

Where have the pilots in C3a come from? Despite my loathing for the dumbscovery scanner it would be ridiculously pig-headed to ignore it. I'd rather it weren't there, so the information would need to be gathered properly, but I ask Fin how many signatures are in the system. There are the same as earlier. So the scouts are tourists or local. Fin wants to sit and watch for the ships, so rather than wait for her I decloak and start hacking the data cans.

Loot spews around me, I grab what I can, forgetting which type I should be aiming for again, as Fin sees more ship movements. The Sabre is on d-scan again, this time with a Pilgrim recon ship, Loki strategic cruiser, and Falcon recon ship. 'Looks more like a roam.' None pass her way, which has her sitting on the null-sec K162 as advance warning for me, but I bug out anyway when a new contact appears in the system and doesn't pass through. There is only one can left to hack and I marked it as the lowest priority for a reason. I'm okay leaving it.

I tell Fin I'm heading home, so she does the same. Fin gets through our K162 first, checking the system for ships and extra signatures as a precaution. There are none of either. Whatever the ships were doing in C3a they were probably not local—bouncing off the tower in my Buzzard sees no one there—and can't have come this way. I suppose they were bridging between low-sec, perhaps to high-sec. Whatever they were doing, they're gone, we're home, and that makes it fine to call it a night.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, falcon, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, pilgrim, sabre, scanning, w-space

Golem versus Sleepers

I've been busy the past few days, just not in space. Do we still have an on-line tower in w-space? Hey, we do! Totes rad, babe. There's no one in it, of course. Home, sweet home. So with situation normal, I can consider my options. One signature is unaccounted for in the home system, and that turns out to be another pocket of gas to keep our industrialists happy, leaving me with just the static wormhole to... well, I don't have to venture through it. I could keep it closed.

Maybe I can try my idea of taking the Golem marauder in to an anomaly by itself, see how it copes. What could possibly go wrong? That is, apart from having billions of ISK of expensive ship and modules explode around me, performing an experiment whilst no one else is around to save my bacon should it go a bit awry. But the risks are probably minimal. Probably. I dunno, I've not tried this yet.

I think someone else has tried the Golem, though. The marauder has been refit with cruise missile launchers, when I'm sure I left it with torpedo launchers. Cruise missiles seem like the better option overall, as they have vastly improved range over the short-range torpedoes, although whenever I've tried to use cruise missiles I have been disappointed with their rate-of-fire.

Mind you, I don't have the skill to use the Tech II versions of the launchers, and they are generally faster than the basic launchers. It's all a bit cause-and-effect, because the low fire rate stops me wanting to train cruise missiles, but not training the skill stops me getting the advanced launchers. I should probably rectify that, particularly now that a cruise missile Golem could be viable for anomaly work in our home system, solo or otherwise.

Sadly, training that last level of cruise missile skill takes longer than a few minutes, so I need to refit the Golem back to using torpedo launchers. Their short range will necessitate moving around the site a fair bit, given that the waves of Sleepers warp in all over the place. Rather than try to encourage the battleship to move around normally, I think the micro jump drive would be useful. That's why I bought some, after all.

Torpedoes, micro jump drive, bastion module. I think I'm ready. I'm not quite sure what I'm ready for yet, as I've not used either the bastion module or the micro jump drive before, so this will be a learning experience. That's the idea, though, to learn. With that in mind, I warp the Golem to the first anomaly, of the type we're most familiar with. It's not the simplest, but at least I won't trigger a new wave of Sleepers accidentally, and will know where each wave will be coming from.

The first wave of Sleepers is easily dealt with, for the most part. I can use the MJD to get on top of them from the cosmic signature, at which point I engage the bastion module and occasionally pulse my shield booster to keep the Golem healthy. I drop out of bastion mode early, not wanting to be stuck near the start of the one-minute cycle at the end of the wave, but don't realise that the bastion module not only boosts the effects of repair modules but also those of of the ship's weapons. I wondered why my torpedoes were reaching further than normal, just as I wonder why they've stopped doing so.

Back in to bastion mode and the first wave is cleared. The second wave of Sleepers is out of range, but it's a simple matter to use the MJD to jink in one direction and, a little under a minute later, to jink back in to be on top of the Sleepers. Triangles are pretty easy to work out, even if the delay between jumps is a little awkward. Not having locks break when using the MJD is interesting, and lets me jump right back in to the combat. Arf!

More micro-management is needed for the third wave. Frigates come flying in fast, once I've made one jump to get them interested in me, and I'm really glad to see that torpedoes hit the tiny warp-scrambling ships when target-painted, given that my drones don't do much but explode. But more bouncing around with the MJD is required, in and out of bastion mode, each Sleeper wanting to pull range on my Golem and succeeding by being faster than my sluggish marauder. Each bounce takes time, but it is only time and not threat that is increased.

The final wave is cleared. My glorious leader comes on-line. 'I did some testing.' I'm doing some too. We compare notes. Torpedoes aren't great, given how the Sleepers pull range, and although the time required per anomaly looks to be high at least clearing the site is achievable, letting me bring the Golem home. Fin tried torpedoes too and agrees, and she also tried cruise missiles. They have more than enough range, but aren't quite as devastating as torpedoes. The high range also makes the salvaging feature of the marauder a bit useless, as wrecks are made far out of range of the tractor beam modules.

Maybe we can solve the salvage problem with a mobile tractor unit. Plant the Golem in the site, deploy a mobile tractor unit, and launch cruise missiles with abandon. That sounds horribly uninvolving and boring to me. Fin's other plan to 'get a second Golem' sounds much more my style. Let's get ourselves flying even more expensive ships! I like it. Maybe one torpedo boat, one cruise missile boat. I think we need more testing, which will be difficult to do without another marauder. As we talk, I loot and salvage the site I cleared, bringing back around a hundred million ISK. A couple of dozen more of them and the Golem will pay for a companion.

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

Getting home in time

Fin's on-line with a puppet for company. What's happening? 'Nada. Working on some gas, only the static.' Sounds mellow. My glorious leader tells me that the gas site Sleepers are still alive and invites me to kill them. Can do! It gives me a purpose whilst our static wormhole stays closed, letting Fin huff gas safely, so I head to our tower to find a suitable ship. The Sleepers won't be too tough, and a Nighthawk command ship should do nicely.

I warp in to the gas site, lock on to the cruisers idling around, ignoring a well-positioned Fin a couple of hundred kilometres away, and start shooting. And I do an amazing job of completely ignoring what I'm shooting at. Although I'm not under any real threat, I could probably do better than firing missiles at the Sleepers in the slapdash order I happened to target them. For example, popping those that are webbing my Nighthawk and sucking its capacitor juice would probably make this much easier.

There we go. Destroying the last of the Upholder cruisers gets my command ship back up to a good speed, helping to mitigate more of the incoming damage from the remaining four cruisers. No, I wasn't about to explode, but there's no point making circumstances more difficult just because. I finish off the cruisers and warp to the second activated gas site, where some Sleeper frigates wait for me. Combat goes much more smoothly this time, thanks to my paying attention, and because they are only frigates.

Sleepers popped, I swap to a Noctis salvager to clean up. It doesn't take long, and I bring back around fifteen million ISK or so in plunder. Maybe we can buy something extravagant! A frigate, perhaps. Or a micro jump drive. As Fin continues gassing I consider taking our Golem marauder in to an anomaly by itself to see how it fares with its new bastion mode. But despite having a bastion module, and having trained micro jump drive operation to level IV, we have no micro jump drives themselves. Say whaaaaaaat?

I'm going shopping. I warp to our static wormhole, telling Fin that I am opening it, and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. A couple of canisters are visible on my directional scanner but nothing else, so I launch probes, perform a blanket scan of the system, and warp away to explore. The planet out of d-scan range of the wormhole holds two towers, but there are no ships, which my combat scanning probes confirm. They also reveal twelve anomalies and four signatures. My notes say one of them will be an exit to high-sec. How lovely.

Four signatures, three are chubby. One chubster is our K162, the lean signature is the high-sec connection. Two need to be resolved, and both are gas and nothing to be concerned about. Excellent. I resolve the wormhole, bookmark it, and jump through to appear in a system in Kador, nine hops to Amarr. That's pretty good, but I head home first to get an interceptor. It will be faster.

Zoom! I get to Amarr almost before I remember what I'm doing, buy a few micro jump drives—because why buy one when you can buy three?—and head back the way I came. Zoom! In to C3a, where the dickscovery scanner is showing me no new signatures, yet there are scanning probes visible on d-scan. Core scanning probes too, so they won't detect my interceptor, which is just fine by me. I report back to Fin, jump home, and, well, loiter.

I know I have the MJDs in my hold, and getting them home was my primary aim, but I'm keen to see who's scanning and if they'll come through our wormhole. If it's a scary ship I should be able to evade it, and if it isn't so scary my Malediction has a really good chance at catching it. I'm hoping for my doing the catching, not being the caught. So I sit near the wormhole and wait. And keep on waiting. And wait for longer than it should take for a scout to resolve four signatures, three of them big and easy.

Maybe the scout in C3a has gone to Amarr too. More's the pity, and I can't sit here all day. But just as I am about to give up the wormhole crackles, and I get myself alert and ready. Is it a strategic cruiser? Covert operations boat? Basic scanning frigate? Ah, excellent, a Cheetah! The cov-ops will be tricky to catch, but a worthwhile target, and I'm in the right boat to catch him. I pounce on my target and aim for a positive lock, but he's fleeing, jumping back the way he came. That's fine by me, and I follow.

I decloak as soon as I appear in C3a, and there's no wait for the Cheetah. He knows he's polarised, unable to jump through this wormhole again, and is aiming to get away as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for him, it's not as quick as a sensor-boosted interceptor with a micro warp drive. I gain a positive lock, scramble his warp engines, and pulse my MWD to get close. The warp scrambler shuts off the Cheetah's MWD, preventing the cov-ops from burning away, and my Malediction has no trouble staying with its target under normal engines.

Rockets spew from my launchers towards the trapped Cheetah, desperately trying to pull range but with no means to escape my clutches. I have time to check d-scan for additional contacts, but it's just the two of us. The Cheetah's shields drop, his armour is pulverised, and it seems that both of us are thinking about my catching the pilot's pod. As the cov-ops plunges in to structure damage the pilot ejects. I aim for the pod as my Malediction continues shooting the abandoned ship, but his escape plan works. The pod warps clear, the Cheetah explodes.

I loot and shoot the wreck of the Cheetah, and turn and burn back towards our K162, jumping home and warping to our tower. That was a nice kill. It's been a while since I even waited for a cov-ops in my Malediction, which generally came to nought anyway, and the improvements to warp speed made for a serendipitous coincidence of timing this evening. That the Cheetah had a warp core stabiliser fit just makes the kill sweeter. And all the waiting makes it time to go off-line. I'll refit the Golem another day. I swap back to my scanning boat and head to a corner of the system, wondering if the Cheetah pilot tried to run by relying on that warp core stabiliser instead of his cloak.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, malediction, mmorpg, nighthawk, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, sleepers, w-space

Flying escort

There are a couple of cruiser wrecks out there someone, in this class 5 w-space system. The Gila and Osprey got destroyed by forces unknown, and I'm keen to find out if the wrecks were looted by their buddy, who survived in a Ferox battlecruiser. An anomaly is roughly in line to where the wrecks appear on my directional scanner, but that really is only roughly in line. Warping to the anomaly sees no wrecks. But calling in my scanning probes, hidden high above the ecliptic plane for a while now, finds no other sites anywhere near the wrecks, not even a wormhole.

What just happened? It doesn't look like the ships took on Sleepers far above their class, not unless I overlooked not having wrecks on my overview, and it couldn't have been a scrap on a wormhole if there is no wormhole. I suppose it could have been a weird duel between a Gila and Osprey, but if that's the case why warp to a safe spot to have it after sitting at the system's star for ten minutes? I dunno, it's all a bit peculiar. Luckily, I can happily ignore it, as my glorious leader is returning from high-sec empire space to w-space, and is a little concerned about attracting company.

Fin is coming home in an Orca industrial command ship, not renowned for its combat capabilities, and has warped to the entrance to a class 2 w-space system to see a Retribution assault frigate apparently escorting a Mammoth hauler. Fin's not quite sure what to do next. That's okay, I'm just one system away, so return from C5a to C2a and warp to the exit to high-sec to sit on the other side of where the ships are collecting. Now Fin can try to get home. I can try to scare away anyone that tries to give chase, and the worst that will happen is that she'll be forced to jump back to high-sec, which is hardly a big deal.

In she comes. The Orca isn't obviously followed, and I watch as it aligns and warps away to the next wormhole, the one leading home. I sit and wait on the high-sec wormhole. It would be good to know if anyone comes through, I will have time to reach Fin if she is engaged on the next wormhole, and I'd actually like to see if I can catch that Mammoth. Fin jumps home, sees a clear wormhole, and warps towards our tower, just as the high-sec wormhole crackles with a transit.

I hold my cloak, not wanting to startle a pilot that could return to high-sec immediately, and hear a second crackle coming from the wormhole. I assume that the Mammoth has followed its escort, but I assume wrong. The Mammoth indeed appears, and I decloak to attempt my ambush. I don't care about the Retribution, as I will be able to weather whatever attack it can muster, and either destroy that too or evade it in high-sec. But the second ship is not the Retribution. It's a second hauler, an Iteron V. That's a surprise. But it's probably a bigger surprise for them to see my Loki strategic cruiser.

The recalibration delay from being cloaked expires and I target the Mammoth first, the Iteron second. The delay lets the Mammoth warp free, but the Iteron isn't so lucky. I disrupt its warp engines and start shooting, fully expecting it to return through the connection to high-sec, watching it turn towards the wormhole as its shields are evaporated. But the hauler doesn't jump, not even when its armour is depleted. Maybe it is hoping that the newly arrived Retribution, with added Talos battlecruiser support, will shoo me away. Not today, and definitely not on the security of a high-sec exit.

The Iteron V explodes, jettisoning a pod in to space. The ten-second session change timer, my sensor booster, and the ability of autocannons to rip open a pod in one volley combine nicely to create a new corpse for my collection. The Retribution has pulled an Elwood and scarpered back to high-sec, but the Talos has locked on to my Loki and started shooting. Whatever, dude.

I saunter across to the corpse and wreck on the other side of the wormhole as I return fire to the Talos. These battlecruisers are designed to be powerful but brittle, and I would like to test its defences. It does seem a bit squishy. I scoop the corpse, loot some expanded cargoholds—leaving behind the Minmatar fuel blocks that we can't use, and sadly seeing that some customs gantries didn't survive the Iteron's explosion—as the Talos, now lacking any shields, leaves the system for high-sec. That's fair enough. I'm fine, by the way. Just a minor scratch to my shields, sitting pretty at 98% strength.

I shoot the wreck, reload my guns, and move away from the wormhole to reactivate my cloak. That was fun! Any kill on a high-sec wormhole is a good kill, a podding doubly so. And it's good to see that some haulers still need to make fitting choices that effect their survivability. Flying with an escort was a good idea, but perhaps not quite so smoothly executed this time. 'They were making the same calculations as me in the Orca', says Fin. Perhaps they though the escort would follow its charge. 'They were just short a pence.' Ah, they didn't have a Penny on the wormhole. I get it.

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Tags: eve online, ferox, gila, iteron, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, orca, osprey, penny ibramovic, pvp, retribution, talos, w-space

Telexplosions

Calling International Rescue! It's time to bring my glorious leader home. But there's been a signature explosion in the home system. Is it lots of gas? Or maybe wormholes offering more routes for an isolated Fin? That's pretty optimistic of me, I must be in a good mood. I'll scan and see what I can find. It's just one pocket of gas, which will keep our industrialists happy, and three extra wormholes on top of our static connection. If this doesn't provide a good entrance for Fin I'd be amazed.

A K162 from class 2 w-space is a good sight to see in a class 4 system when trying to bring a colleague home, as the C2's other static wormhole will connect to high-sec. That can be Plan A. The second wormhole is a K162 from class 4 w-space, which will not connect anywhere but backwards to more w-space, making it an undesirable connection for all but exploration. That it is at the end of its life almost entirely suppresses my interest in it. Our static wormhole leads to class 3 w-space as usual. C3a will exit w-space directly, but it could be to null-sec space, even if the odds are in favour of a low-sec exit. The last wormhole is a K162 from class 5 w-space, and even though it may have additional K162s from empire space in the system beyond, unlike the C4 K162, it is also at the end of its life. Plan A, then.

Jumping to C2a and updating my directional scanner sees nothing but a tower, which is probably a good result for tonight's primary operation. My notes from a previous visit, only two months ago, have four towers listed, and that's probably still right, considering how only one planet is in d-scan range of the wormhole. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan of the system, and warp around to check on the towers in turn.

My probes reveal three anomalies, twelve signatures, and two ships. Three of the four towers remain in the same locations, one is now off-line, one is new, keeping the tally at four. The two ships are empty and boring, an Ibis frigate and a shuttle, so I scan. The signatures are mostly gas, with one relic site to slow me down, and three wormholes. One is the exit to high-sec, as expected. I jump out to be in the Heimatar region, and relay the system to Fin. 'Twenty-six jumps', she says, 'not bad'. But it isn't great, certainly when having to make the journey in a sluggish Orca industrial command ship. Maybe I can do better.

The other two wormholes in C2a are both K162s, one to more class 2 w-space, the other to a C5. It's hard to gauge which system is the next best option. C2b will definitely link to low-sec and may have other connections. C5b is not guaranteed to have any other wormholes but class 5 w-space seems to have regular random connections to k-space. I'll try C2b, if only because Fin is already heading for Heimatar and I may find a soft target.

Updating d-scan in C2b gets me excited, as I see an Iteron V hauler, Procurer mining barge, and Talos battlecruiser in the system, as well as a tower. But they can't all be there, can they? And they can't all be there and unpiloted, surely. But they are all there, and are all empty of pilots. The only positive aspect of there being no pilots is that there is no one around to see my ship decide to stop communicating to itself, crashing me off-line and dropping my cloak as I land outside the tower.

Okay, I'm back, and I'm scanning. Eight anomalies and four signatures give way to a data and relic site each, and a dying exit to low-sec Kor-Azor. It's not much of an option. Back I go to C2a and in to C5b, where a black hole looms ominously in the background and only a moonless planet sits out of d-scan range. I launch probes to poke this unoccupied and inactive system for K162s, discarding the seven anomalies and sifting through the nine signatures.

I resolve a wormhole, getting the 100% result just as an Osprey jumps though. Not quite expecting this, I fumble desperately to get my probes out of d-scan range of the cruiser, taking long enough for a Ferox battlecruiser to be on d-scan with the Osprey once I've got my wits about myself. A Gila faction cruiser joins whatever party is getting started, and even though I have to assume at least the first pilot saw my probes I warp across to the wormhole to see if there's any chance that I could crash the fun.

Landing at a K162 from null-sec has me too late to see the combat ships, but an Anathema appears near the wormhole, the covert operations boat moving away to launch probes before it cloaks. What about the others? I can see no Sleeper wrecks on d-scan, but that doesn't surprise me. Even gas site Sleeper ships are pretty tough in class 5 w-space, and the ships that came would probably struggle against them. But that still leaves the question of what they are up to.

Sweeping d-scan around the system locates the Osprey, Ferox, and Gila, and they appear to be at the star. I suppose it's possible they are loitering there whilst the Anathema finds them a site to plunder, not that I think they'll manage it, but it seems odd to leave the relative safety of the wormhole to sit at the star. I warp in to take a look, and the Osprey is supplying both the Ferox and Gila with either shield or capacitor energy, all ships motionless. I dunno, that's not going to be enough in this system, chaps. Not that I know what you're planning to do.

Movement. The energy chain stops, the Ferox moves, the Gila a few seconds later. The Gila enters warp first, followed by the Ferox, leaving the Osprey by itself. Hey, the Osprey is by itself! Thanks, brain, maybe you can think about that a bit quicker next time. I register the situation with reactions slower than Martin Blank staring in to a microwave of plastic explosives, only realising that I could probably rip apart the Osprey just as it starts to accelerate in to alignment for warp. And it's gone.

Maybe it's time to hunt the three ships. Or maybe I can just enjoy the show, albeit from a distance. I ping d-scan to see the Gila no more, a pod in its place. The pod of the ex-Gila pilot warps back to the star, swiftly followed by the pod of the ex-Osprey pilot. Somehow, the Ferox lives. The pods are sitting still, and although they are agile little buggers they may be sufficiently shell-shocked to not react in time to my appearance. If only there weren't a hundred kilometres from me.

I close the distance between me and the two pods anyway, just in case I can catch one, but they warp before I can get anywhere near them. Never mind. I see a Scythe cruiser on d-scan now, still probably not enough repping power to save the ships, even if it were here earlier, and I warp to the null-sec wormhole to see what's going on. The pods leave before I get there, the Ferox warps to the wormhole and exits as I land, and the Scythe is elsewhere in the system for the moment.

I wait and watch, and see the Scythe warp to the wormhole. I think he'll just jump back out, probably the last I'll see of this small fleet, but the cruiser just sits there. This may be my best opportunity for a bit of excitement now, so I decloak, approach the cruiser, and, well, he jumps back to null-sec just as my target lock completes. I didn't expect much else from the engagement, to be honest. Rather than follow, maybe I can work out what the ships were doing here.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, ferox, gila, ibis, iteron, mmorpg, orca, osprey, penny ibramovic, procurer, pvp, scanning, scythe, talos, w-space

Not through null-sec

The wormhole is collapsed, it's time to make some ISK. Or, at least, it would be time to make some ISK had the wormhole not stubbornly collapsed with Fin on the wrong side of it. That's with Fin on the wrong side of the wormhole, after only just now returning to w-space from a short stint of being in empire space. And she just happens to be on the wrong side of the wormhole in our Orca industrial command ship that we only recently brought in to the home system. The timing for this error is impeccable.

My desire to make ISK from Sleepers is greatly reduced. With three pilots zooming around exploding ships the anomalies are cleared nice and quickly, and although we have done plenty of sites with just two pilots it just won't feel as snappy as I had expected. Plus I'm a little deflated from kicking my glorious leader out of the home system minutes after her return. I think we should scan a new entrance for her to come back through, and even more scanning this late in the evening is not appealing to me.

Fin has other ideas. The sites may be slow with two pilots, but we can at least clear one whilst she gets the Orca out to high-sec, the way she came in, and to Amarr, which is nearby. That will take a little while, because Orcas are slow, and then Fin will stuff the hold full of fuel and other supplies to make best use of this accidental trip to high-sec. So to continue that theme, we can make best use of our spare time by shooting a few Sleepers before scanning the entrance. I can't say no to that.

At least HR's Tengu-piloting skills are pretty good now. He's had a while to train, and he grabs one of the Sleeper strategic cruisers we have available and settles in to it nicely. Even so, I treat him like a newbie when it comes to warping in to the anomaly. I know he's helped us before, but that was in a Nighthawk command ship and with extra help, and rather than assume he knows what to do I spell it all out explicitly. Better to do that than have anything more go wrong this evening.

All goes well. The Sleeper ships are destroyed without a problem, and I return in a Noctis salvager to sweep up all the loot. It's not a good haul, though. The salvage is pretty useless, and as we clear just the one site we don't get to play with the averages. But never mind, we still bag around seventy million ISK of potential profit, which is better than nothing. Now to swap back to my scanning Loki strategic cruiser and find Fin a way home. Again.

Our new static wormhole leads to another class 3 w-space system with a tower and no ships lighting up my directional scanner. I hope this exploration remains as simple, I'm tired. But, no, my notes from a previous visit indicate the system holds a static exit to null-sec space, which definitely doesn't give Fin a good route to bring home an Orca full of supplies. Then again, I suppose it is pretty simple to realise there is no good exit and give up now, before even launching probes.

'Any other exits?' Oh, right. I'm not quite thinking straight. There could be other wormholes, K162s leading in from low- or even high-sec empire space that could easily get Fin home. I should scan, so launch probes and start sifting through all the gas in the system. I resolve what's obviously the static exit to null-sec fairly early, but it isn't until the final signature that I find a second wormhole. The first leads to Fountain, which isn't going to help us, and the second is, oh, a K162 also from null-sec, this one a link to Perrigen Falls.

This doesn't have to be the end. The null-sec systems could have additional wormholes in them, with a slight possibility of finding a connection to empire space. And even though it's more likely to find a w-space connection, those systems beyond may also hold K162s from empire space. But that way madness lies, as I know from experience. Just because scanning can find good wormhole connections doesn't mean you should rely on finding them for every journey. Sometimes stargates are the best option. So rather than bang my head against a wall, I abandon tonight's rescue mission for sleep instead. We can try again tomorrow.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Not through null-sec
Tags: eve online, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Another new whale

HR's been, scanned, and gone idle. Let me see what he's uncovered. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system spies a tower and some ships on my directional scanner. The two shuttles aren't interesting, but the Drake battlecruiser and Noctis salvager are, at least until I check for wrecks and find nothing. My last visit to this system points me straight towards a tower that remains from fourteen months ago, and, sure enough, all the ships are there, and all the ships are empty.

One planet out of range holds nothing of interest, and so because HR has already scanned I launch probes and scan again anyway. Time has passed, w-space can change, and all I'm looking for is K162s. Chubby signatures only need be checked. And there's nothing new. Excellent. That leaves HR's findings of the static exit to low-sec, the other side of which he's bookmarked already, and an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space that it seems like he hasn't jumped through. Let me do that for him.

Updating d-scan in C3b reveals an uninspiring tower and lack of ships, and a blanket scan doesn't find much more, with no anomalies and only three signatures. Scanning will be quick, at least, and I soon resolve the static exit to high-sec and, as befits an otherwise empty system, a second wormhole. Checking the high-sec wormhole first dumps me The Citadel, a mere five hops from Jita, which seems too good to pass up. But, then, so is a K162 these days. I'll take a look at that before going shopping.

The K162 in C3b is just a wormhole from null-sec. No one is around and there is one extra signature in the system in Great Wildlands, so I find a rat to pop whilst I resolve what turns out to be a wormhole, but a wormhole with a weak signature and so an outbound connection. I wish I could get excited about potentially surprising some unsuspecting capsuleers, but those days are gone, and once the rat I've found explodes I head back home to make use of the connection to high-sec empire space.

I don't take my Loki strategic cruiser out to high-sec today, nor do I drop to my pod. Today I take an interceptor. I've heard they are fun to fly, and I am a fan of fun as well as efficiency. To C3a, across to C3b, and out to high-sec before I've caught my breath. Yep, these are fast. In high-sec I hop, hop, hop systems almost faster than I can type hop, hop, hop, until I hit the stargate in to Jita. Apparently the system is closed. Closed?! knock knock knock It's Penny. knock knock knock It's Penny. knock knock knock It's Penny. Okay, I'm in.

Ah, over two thousand capsuleers are in Jita currently, making it a little busy. I won't be long, though. Dock, buy yet another replacement Orca, empty my Malediction's cargo, and stow the interceptor in to the industrial command ship's hangar. I remember my previous mistake, and don't want to make a potentially ill-fated second journey today too. That is, as long as I get back safely. All looked quiet when I left, but it did the last time I this trip, and I still ran in to a stealth bomber.

Back to space, and a much slower set of hops to return to the wormhole in to C3b. I get there without issue, although there are 'probes in C3a'. HR has woken up and is kindly scouting my way in. He saw an Imicus in the system adjacent to ours, which shouldn't be a threat to my Orca, so I urge him to kill it. Unfortunately, he only saw the Imicus on d-scan, and 'I'm in an Anathema'. But the covert operations boat has guns, right? 'Want me to go back and look for it?' Sure, do the w-space thing we've got going, the whole Not-Us-Shoot-It deal.

But the Imicus is gone from C3a. There are probes in C3b, however. It seems that HR and the Imicus cross-jumped, until he sees that the probes are a different type. There are two scouts out, apparently. It doesn't bother me, at least not in getting the Orca home successfully, but I swap back to my Loki and go out again to help HR look for the scanning ships, as a newly on-line Fin starts making her way home after a short break in high-sec.

A new signature in C3a is probably the source of the scouts, and resolving it finds the expected wormhole, a K162 from class 4 w-space. Whether the scouts came from that system or further back almost demands knowing, but the ridiculously simplistic discovery scanner ruins any sense of adventure almost as soon as I jump in to C4a. There are no signatures apart from the one I'm sitting on, so no other wormholes. I don't know why I bother trying to act like a competent, covert scout, when half the work is done for me with no input. How boring.

Assuming the frigates came out this way we also assume they will come back this way, so HR sits on one side of the wormhole and me the other. But even if they are coming back this way there is no telling when, and once Fin makes it home with no further sign of another ship it's perhaps time to give up the wait. We have pilots, we have anomalies, we should make some profit. HR and I head home, and Fin and I throw big ships back-and-forth through our wormhole until it collapses. Done.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Another new whale
Tags: anathema, drake, eve online, imicus, loki, malediction, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning

Die, discovery scanner, die

Aww, man. It's just me at home. Who am I going to play with? I'll see if the neighbours are available. Some ships are visible on my directional scanner in the class 3 system through our static wormhole, so maybe the neighbours are available. But changing my overview settings sees no wrecks, and two towers are in range, so nothing is certain yet. Notes made a year ago point me towards one tower, with at least the other one being new. Obviously.

The previous tower remains where it was, the new one being around the same planet, and I soon see that of the Viator transport, Scorpion battleship, Probe frigate, Blackbird recon ship, and Armageddon battleship, only the Viator is piloted, and that ship is so idle it thinks its part of the tower. So be it. I ignore the six ships under my combat probes, and begin to scan the eighteen anomalies and six signatures.

Uh, six ships? There were only five on d-scan when I entered the system, and only five at this tower. What's the other one? A new contact in a Cormorant is now visible on d-scan. What's he up to, and where? It looks like the destroyer is around an outer planet, and actually at the planet itself. That should make him easy to find, but I'll have to go over there for myself to see what he's doing.

I warp across and don't see the Cormorant at the planet, but d-scan locates him at a moon. And it is only when I enter warp to that moon that I realise my overview tab is still switched from my standard view, as I was checking for ships only, so that all the warp bubbles surrounding the towers wouldn't clutter my d-scan results. I switch back as I warp and, lo and behold, there's a third tower out here. A third tower whose force field I could find my Loki slamming in to shortly.

Thankfully, my strategic cruiser drops out of warp a healthy distance from decloaking on the tower's force field, the Cormorant I see nestled safely inside, unpiloted. The mystery of the Cormorant solved, I return to watch the Viator and start scanning. The Viator goes off-line, I resolve one wormhole. At least, it was one wormhole, but the really dumb discovery scanner pings two more signatures on to my scanning interface just as I finish.

How's this for ruining the mystery of w-space? I resolve one of the signatures and warp to what turns out to be a K162 from a class 2 system in time to see a Cheetah covert operations boat decloak and move away from the wormhole. This is ridiculous, and entirely against the nature of the unknown that founded w-space. But apparently my feelings count for nothing, so I work with what I've got. I watch the Cheetah disappear, resolve the second wormhole, and warp across to another C2 K162, this one without an accompanying scout.

I have a choice. I think I'll go back to the first K162 and see what the Cheetah's left behind it. Three towers and core scanning probes, apparently. Now more, and a Claw. Now less, and without the Claw. C2a seems to have some activity happening, so I'll join the fun and scan, what little there is to scan. Six anomalies and three signatures won't take long to sift through, and it makes me wonder if the Cheetah left a buddy scanning two other signatures or if the scouts are unallied.

The Claw interceptor isn't in the system any more. He was just passing through. Two unknown signatures resolve to be two wormholes, a static exit to high-sec Sinq Laison joined by a K162 from class 5 w-space. I suppose the C5a inhabitants like the high-sec connection. Maybe I can check to see which way the Claw went, either high-sec or dangerous w-space, and jump to C5a. Hullo, there's no Claw to be seen, but a Hurricane is sitting on the wormhole.

Do I engage the battlecruiser? I'm on the back foot, as I'm covertly configured and a jump to escape would make me polarised, but at least I have an escape route. Updating d-scan to give me an idea of what backup the Hurricane could call upon has me wavering, seeing seven dreadnoughts, six strategic cruisers, a handful of miscellaneous combat ships, and a bunch of industrial ships. I think I'll go with not engaging, my decision helped along nicely by the Hurricane warping away a second later.

The movement of the battlecruiser at least lets me jump back to C2a safely. I loiter, though, curious to see what the locals will do next. The wormhole crackles, and through it comes a Dominix battleship, jumping straight back to destabilise the wormhole to its half-mass state. I think that gives a good indication of their intentions. I watch a couple more ship movements just to make sure, then leave them to it, taking myself back to C3a. The Viator is back, along with a new contact in an Anathema cov-ops and probes spewed everywhere. I should probably check C2b before someone else beats me to it.

D-scan shows me a Mammoth hauler, Talos battlecruiser, and Hawk assault frigate in C2b, as well as, dammit, nine towers. The towers thankfully aren't too spread out, the system not having an abundance of moons, and I can bounce around to see the Talos and Hawk piloted, the Mammoth empty. A Tengu strategic cruiser is on scan somewhere, which turns in to a Buzzard cov-ops and disappears. Probably a ship swap. Out of curiosity I check the outer planets, finding one tower at one, two at the other, and core probes launched.

It seems I have three cov-ops scouting and one transport idling. Fie on tonight's supposed activity, I say. I'm not feeling motivated tonight, not after seeing how the discovery scanner can so simply dismiss the skill involved in scouting unknown space. I'm going home, an early night for Penny. But, just to irritate me, the idiot scanner shows me a new signature at home. I ought to resolve it, I suppose, although ignoring it would be suitable too.

When I start to resolve the new signature I see my probes cluster around a bookmark. An oddly labelled bookmark, at that, where 'home' points out of the system. That makes no sense initially, but then I realise what's happened, and tell our colleagues to at least try to recognise their sister system when they connect to us. At least this wormhole is probably benign. Still, mild panic over, it's time to go off-line.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: anathema, armageddon, blackbird, buzzard, cheetah, claw, cormorant, dominix, eve online, hawk, hurricane, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, scanning, scorpion, talos, tengu, viator, w-space

Mourning the mystery of w-space

There may be no one home, but one new signature is here to keep me company. Hello, new signature, would you like to do something? Oh, you're a pocket of gas. You know, I just remembered I need to be somewhere else. Our neighbouring class 3 system, in fact. I'll just be through this wormhole if you need me, okay?

That was a close shave. But I don't think I've come to a more happening system, not judging by the three Orcas, three towers, and out-of-place Buzzard visible on my directional scanner. I wouldn't suppose the industrial command ships are doing anything by themselves, not being real Orcas and so unlikely to be using pack tactics to hunt seals in ice fields, and a single covert operations boat with no scanning probes to be seen doesn't get me much excited.

My last visit to this class 3 w-space system was seven months ago, when I found and listed three towers. Hey, those numbers match the d-scan result! That should save me some time. I know that locating towers isn't exactly a difficult task, but it can take a little time and, quite frankly, when there's nothing to find at them doing so can feel more like busywork. There's always the chance of something turning up later, of course, but those opportunities seem rarer these days. Please make your own criticism of the discovery scanner now.

Opening the system map shows that there has been at least one obvious change. Nothing is out of d-scan range, making it simple to see one of the previous three towers not at the planet it should be, all three now around the same planet. At least the planet has only four moons, making it almost trivial to confirm and update the locations of the towers, just the way I like it.

I would normally warp away from the wormhole to launch probes, but as nothing is out of range, and the idiot scanner is showing just two signatures, I think any attempt at remaining covert is doomed to failure. Clearly our K162 is blinking like a Belisha beacon to the Buzzard pilot, announcing my arrival. Stupid, stupid discovery scanner. I bet soon our technology will be upgraded again so that all wormholes in a system are automatically detected and added to the overview, regardless of range.

Well, I may as well scan that other signature, even finding the Buzzard piloted at one of the towers. I'm doing nothing here, so it makes sense to resolve the exit and look elsewhere for activity. Or it would, if the wormhole to low-sec weren't in its death throes. That's probably why the Buzzard isn't moving. I poke out anyway, if only to get a safety entrance, and see no other signatures in the low-sec system. How dreary.

It's time to collapse our wormhole and start again. And what good timing. As if by magic Aii appears, as I prepare for the first round trip in a big ship. He grabs an Orca, I pilot a Widow black ops ship, and although we don't stress the wormhole in to its half-mass state that's actually good. Two more fat Orcas will finish the operation definitely and safely. A few minutes of being polarised pass, and the second set of paired trips is done. The wormhole collapses.

That was nice and easy, if somewhat unproductive in a way. But we can turn the situation around. We have plenty of gas in the home system and an Aii to suck it all up for profit. Rather than open a new wormhole and hope to find something to do, I suggest we keep it closed and let Aii have his fun. There is a moment of concern when a new signature blinks at me in space, but it's just the idiot discovery scanner getting unduly excited about seeing the new static wormhole. Yes, I know it's there, you can shut up about it. But, no, it can't. I really hate the discovery scanner.

Posted in Gaming | 11 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, widow

Bagging a barge

I've been away for a few days, returning to w-space with a sense of expectation about potential changes. What's up, space? Gas sites are in the home system and our neighbouring class 3 system has been poked but not scanned by HR, who is on-line. It's not much different from normal, really. 'Only two signatures aside from the K162', says HR about C3a. I can't resist finding out what they are, hoping the extra one is a K162, so warp to the wormhole and jump through.

He's not wrong. The stupid scanner is showing me three signatures, as well as two ore sites, as well as my useful directional scanner revealing a tower and no ships after a manual update. It's not the tower that HR has found, though, which means I have a bit of scouting to do. The second tower is further to the edge of the system, also lacking ships or pilots, so I launch probes and blanket the system before warping back to locate the first tower.

Finding a tower isn't difficult. I note the owner corporation of this one as I did the other, and scan both the signatures in the system. They are both wormholes. The first is the static exit to low-sec, warp-bubbled. Badly warp-bubbled. The bubble doesn't overlap the wormhole, and neither does it lie in-between the wormhole and any other cosmic signature or celestial body. Maybe the wormhole quietly slinked to one side when the anchoring pilot warped away, snickering to itself.

Poking out to low-sec sees twenty-five pilots in the system, none orange, and some more signatures I could scan. Maybe later. The other wormhole in C3a is a bit poor, not quite the K162 I was after, as it only comes from null-sec Esoteria. But a system in Esoteria with a pilot in a Loki strategic cruiser that leaves seconds after I arrive. That leaves me free to rat and scan. Or just to rat, as there are no additional signatures. I pop a rat battleship and head back through C3a to see what the handful of extra signatures in low-sec hold.

In low-sec, I resolve two wormholes, and a combat, data and relic site each. The K162 from class 3 w-space is enticing, as would be the K162 from class 1 w-space were it not wobbling away at the end of its life. But what's the worst that can happen? I jump through to C1a to find out, punching d-scan when back in w-space and seeing a ship without a tower. A mining barge, even. But, sadly, a mining barge and corpse, along with a canister named to indicate a capsuleer's frustration about getting trapped in w-space.

The Retriever is not to be found by pointing d-scan at the ore sites, neither is the corpse, so maybe the pilot really was trapped in here for years. I suspect that's an exaggeration, though. And now a Buzzard covert operations boat appears on d-scan, near a planet too. I warp across to the planet, but not in time to see the Buzzard, just what he leaves behind. A jet-can, presumably holding a relevant bookmark, if the cov-ops pilot's message in the local comms channel is any indication.

But that would suggest the Retriever is only recently lost, and maybe chatting to the Buzzard. I don't think so, the corpse is a bit of a giveaway. Maybe the Buzzard doesn't have corpses on his overview, and so also not visible on d-scan. Still, I loiter at the cannister with a desire to intercept whoever comes to collect the contents, but when a couple of minutes passes by I'm pretty sure the corpse is not about to reanimate. I think I'll scan for the ship.

Warping out of d-scan range of the mining barge puts me in to d-scan range of a tower, plus the Buzzard seen recently and a Drake battlecruiser. I ignore them as being boring, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan just to get my bearings. Just the three ships, and presumably if any others are around and cloaked they will be near the canister or point in space where the bookmark was made. It's obvious which ship is the Retriever, and a couple of scans resolves the barge. I warp in to take a look, completely unsurprised at what I find.

It's an abandoned mining barge with its corpsified pilot next to it. I check with HR but he can't fly a Retriever, so can't come to claim it. I can, but would rather not suffer the poetic consequences of coming back in my pod to a ship obviously fit without a probe launcher, only to have the dying wormhole cough its last and leave me to biomass myself back to known space. Thankfully, I realise this before I do anything, and HR kindly brings his scanning boat in to C1a in case of the worst.

The worst doesn't happen, and it is straightforward enough to claim the Retriever as my own, scoop the corpse of its previous owner, and return to and across low-sec to our arm of the w-space constellation. Nice, free ship. But what about that C3 K162 in low-sec? It leads to a system that's not terribly interesting from the system map, being tiny. Four planets, five moons, one tower with no ships, and 5 AU in one direction, 3 AU in the other. But the ten anomalies and eleven signatures resolve to give four wormholes, only one of which is skinny and therefore a crappy outbound connection.

Two of the K162s are sitting at half-mass, indicating plenty of ships having passed through. They intrigue me. Jumping through the first finds a black hole class 5 w-space system, with my combat scanner probes indicating ships somewhere, but only unpiloted ships floating in one of two towers. Back to C3b and on to the other half-mass wormhole, taking me to a class 2 system holding again unpiloted ships, in a tower surrounded by lots of warp bubbles. The last K162 in C3b is boringly healthy and takes me to class 4 w-space, and although d-scan is clear exploring finds combat scanning probes and an empty tower. It's too late in the evening to care about a potential scouting cov-ops, so I leave this system alone.

One more wormhole. I don't have much hope for finding activity through an outbound connection, and my low expectations pay off when I drop out of warp next to an I182 link to class 2 w-space that's at the end of its life. I'm not touching that. I turn my Loki around and start to head home when a ship blips on d-scan. The Sacrilege heavy assault cruiser blinks off d-scan again without any indication as to its direction. Most likely it was moving between C2a and C5a, probably making use of a good connection to empire space, but I have no idea whether it was coming or going. There's not much I can do about a transient ship anyway. It's probably a good time to call it a night, being content with merely bagging a mining barge I'm never going to use.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, retriever, sacrilege, scanning, w-space