Wormhole space morality

I recently received an EVE-mail asking for my opinion on how a capsuleer handled an encounter with another w-space system's occupants. He and his corporation popped a salvager in their home system, and subsequently avoided a fleet considerably bigger than they could muster at the time that was brought in to their system as a response. One of those in the bigger fleet asked why they didn't commit more ships, and accused my correspondent of not providing a 'good fight'. This reaction concerned the capsuleer a little, writing to me that 'since I'm new to w-space can you tell me if I did the 'wormhole morally right' thing here?'

Sure I can! Now, how can I put this. There is no w-space morality.

I know many players like to say that w-space (and low-sec, null-sec, wherever) has the best fights and the best pilots and whatever, but in reality the whole of New Eden is just a conglomerate of different play-styles that occasionally align because of the environmental conditions. In w-space, this tends to be small and limited engagements, which naturally appeals to the player that enjoys small and limited engagements, which in turn gets that kind of player interested in w-space. And although this will tend to bring pilots of similar morality in to the same sec-class of space, it is nothing more than a generalisation.

Not all players in w-space will follow the same morals and rules, and w-space doesn't have a set of moral guidelines to follow. It's more that emergent properties of the mechanics of w-space set the tone for what the players can do. Tower sieges are much less likely, for example, because of the need to configure a staging tower and commit a fleet to a single system for a couple of days of mostly idle time. Because tower sieges are rarely a part of w-space life, w-space life then appeals to the type of player that doesn't want to be involved in that activity in null-sec.

Stalking pilots carefully and striking at opportune moments is a style that is suited well to w-space, because the lack of an automatically populated local channel results in more reliance on cloaky ships hiding from the directional scanner, and so you find it a lot. That's not because it's a rule of w-space, it's merely a result of what is possible in w-space, and nowhere else, because of the differences in each environment.

Ultimately what I'm saying is that if you are in w-space, play how you want to play. That then is the morally right way for you to play. Maybe this results in your not having fun, or the environmental conditions not suiting the way you want to play, or some other circumstances that make you want to leave. It could even be that your style of play frustrates another corporation to the point of hiring mercenaries to evict you. If any of these are the case, then w-space isn't for you.

Or maybe you will stalk and pop any defenceless ship you find with no remorse, take any fight that comes your way that you think you can handle or will have fun in, and hide from any fight you don't want to take for whatever reason. Or maybe you just prefer to harvest gas, mine ores, or collect planet goo whilst shooting the breeze in corporation chat. If you do what you want to do the way you want to do it and, as a result, end up thriving in w-space, then you are playing in the way that is right for you. Who cares what others think, or try to impose on you?

Don't pay too much notice to those who speak in local taunting you. It's smacktalk, nothing more, and solely intended to make you feel guilty. It's not asking for a 'good fight' if it means flying in to three-to-one combat in his favour; what he wants is to blow up some ships with little risk. If you offer him a fair engagement and he rejects it (which they did, and he did), then clearly the pilot isn't actually after a good fight. His reaction is nothing more than someone hoping he can provoke a response, preferably one where you send ships to a needless slaughter.

Of course, there are good and honourable pilots in w-space, just as there are anywhere. But there are also douches. Sometimes they are not easy to spot. Other times, like this, it is fairly obvious. But don't let anyone make you think you're playing EVE Online the wrong way just because you don't do what they want you to do, particularly if what they want you to do clearly works in their favour and against yours. You are out there, engaging what you think can take, sometimes what you can't, and having a blast. Good for you, keep it up! It sounds like you're doing everything right.

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Tags: comment, eve online, mmorpg, w-space

Not getting null-sec artefacts

My Legion needs repairing. Well, a little. In the ambush on the pair of Tengu strategic cruisers, my own strategic cruiser took a little light scratching here and there, and it would be irresponsible to stow it back in the hangar in such condition. That minor damage could be all that matters in the ship's next fight, and we don't want to be wasting time repairing damage from previous fights when scrambling for the next. Rather than refit with repping modules, my glorious leader jumps in to a Guardian logistics ship to repair the Legion. I would say her arrival is a bit of good timing, but perhaps not for Fin, who comes on-line a minute after our successful ambush.

Legion copacetic once more, I dump our plunder, swap back to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, and warp to loiter near the K162 in the home system. The class 4 w-space system on the other side is where we ambushed the Tengus and it seems prudent to monitor any movements before scanning in the opposite direction through the constellation. If they want revenge, I'd rather know about it now than when I'm casually coming home for a sammich. But all seems quiet. That is, until the wormhole crackles and a Slasher frigate disappears from my overview.

To be honest, I didn't see the Slasher appear. I was a little distracted. But what I did see is indicative of the frigate jumping from our home system through the K162, and as he was marked orange it seems reasonable to assume he's local to C4a. That suggests he came from empire space, no doubt through our neighbouring class 3 system, using our static wormhole on his route. So now what do we do? I dunno about me, still remembering the 'never go back' guideline I impose on myself, but Fin jumps her Loki to C4a to see what's happening.

Not much is happening. There are pilots at the tower in C4a, but nothing indicative of reciprocal aggression, and the Slasher is indeed a new contact. I jump in, in case there is further movement, and Fin reports that the Slasher pilot drops to his pod and warps. He doesn't come my way, which is interesting. Maybe he went to the anomaly, the site of the ambush, for some reason. I warp to my perch in the anomaly as Fin continues to monitor the tower. He's not here, but is still visible on my directional scanner. Actually, that's not his pod. It takes me a minute to register it, but what I'm seeing is the pilot's corpse floating somewhere in space.

That's peculiar. I can understand how pilots occasionally have a need to get back to empire space, and the labyrinthine nature of some w-space constellations can mean forcing a clone activation is the easiest method to do so, but it seems the pilot has only just returned from empire space. Well, whatever his reasons, the appearance of the corpse is met by the other pilots going off-line, leaving this class 4 system quiet and unthreatening. That almost makes it time to explore the constellation in the other direction. First, given that there is only one Sleeper left in the anomaly but plenty of wrecks, I steal some more loot.

Having grabbed another forty-five million ISK in plunder, I head back home, dump the loot, and warp towards our static wormhole to see what else we can find this evening. C3a looks quiet. D-scan is clear from our K162, so I move, cloak, and consult my notes. Or just looking at the system map is enough, as the system is tiny and d-scan encompasses all the planets. There is no one and nothing out there. My notes say otherwise, with two towers being present only two months ago, when Mick and I chased them chasing me. We only bagged an Osprey cruiser that day but it's more than we'll achieve tonight. The corporation has moved, maybe to deeper, more dangerous w-space.

Scanning reveals nine anomalies and fourteen signatures, soon whittled down to gas and wormholes, nine pockets of the former and four of the latter. A K162 from low-sec looks like it leads to Aridia, the second wormhole is also a K162 from low-sec, the third the system's static exit to low-sec, and the last, best hope for more w-space is just a K162 from null-sec. It's all a little underwhelming, but exiting to null-sec drops me in to the Venal region where there are no other pilots and two additional signatures. I shall rat and scan.

The null-sec system offers me a relic site and a second connection, and for once the relic site appeals to me more than the wormhole. I know I didn't much enjoy the relic sites in low-sec recently, seeing them as little more than a distraction, but there is a possibility that a relic site in null-sec could provide some very profitable loot. I would like to find out if this is one of those lucky sites. I head home, through C3a, to swap my Loki for the Buzzard covert operations boat specifically configured for hacking sites, and return to null-sec in optimistic spirits. Fin even joins me to help gather up the loot that will soon be spewed in to space.

Taking a moment to scan all of the artefacts shows that we won't be particularly lucky tonight, but the quality of the salvage in the containers is much better than in low-sec sites, and probably worth our time. This shouldn't take long, either, and all goes relatively well to start with. Hack, loot. Hack, loot. Hack... and nothing. The loot gets thrown around us and, despite our best efforts, not one bit is pulled in to our cargo holds.

We suspect the system dropping to 14% time dilation has something to do with the poor responsiveness. Something big may be happening nearby. Whatever it is, we aren't going to get involved and there seems little point in continuing here only to be frustrated. At least we got a few lumps of coal for our efforts. And as we've had a pretty full evening already, I'm happy to ignore the other wormhole and low-sec systems and simply return home to get some rest.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, guardian, legion, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, slasher, tengu, w-space

Blood for the new blood

Phew, sites are building up again in the home system. We have a good bunch of anomalies we really ought to claim for ourselves sooner rather than later, and a handful of signatures could be interesting. I launch scanning probes to find out, and resolve a new pocket of gas and a second wormhole to accompany our static connection. It's a K162 from class 4 w-space, a class of w-space I'm fairly familiar with. I'll see what it looks like on the other side of the wormhole.

It looks pretty blank. My directional scanner shows me nothing, although I see a cataclysmic variable phenomenon in the background. That does something, but apart from maybe affecting ships' capacitors I'm not quite sure what. If it was important I'd probably remember. And as there's nothing apparent in space it doesn't really matter right now. But I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and explore to see if I should pay attention to the phenomenon.

My probes show me fifteen anomalies, twelves signatures, and seven ships. Ships, you say? What are they, and where? Despite my dismissing my notes on entering the system as being too old, to the point of not mentioning that my last visit was three-and-a-half years ago, the tower that was present then is perhaps still present now. At least, a tower is around the same moon as it was several years ago. It holds the ships too, with a Venture mining frigate, Tayra hauler, Noctis salvager, and Cheetah and Buzzard covert operations boat all inside the force field, only the Noctis piloted.

But that's only five ships. My probes showed me seven. Perhaps that the salvaging ship is piloted is an indication of what and where the other ships are. I repeat the blanket scan whilst warping to the remaining volume of space I've yet to pierce with d-scan. Still seven ships, and the extra two are both Tengus, without a second tower to be seen. There are no Sleeper wrecks visible though, but only for a minute. As I sweep d-scan around the present anomalies I find the two strategic cruisers in one of them, and now with an added wreck of a Sleeper battleship.

The wreck is indicative of the first ship of the first wave of that particular anomaly, which I am intimate with myself. This bodes well for ambushing a Noctis salvaging behind the Tengus, although that the ships have only just started no doubt means I have a bit of a wait in store. Whilst I wait I warp in to the anomaly, confirm the Tengus are indeed engaging in Sleeper combat innocuously enough, and make a perch. I also wonder why they bothered to open their static wormhole.

K162s are dangerous, much more so than outbound connections. Outbound connections will be immediately obvious to any awake pilot when it is pinged by the ridiculous dumbscovery scanner in to their system, whereas a K162, because already known, remains a passive entrance in to a system. I've known this for months. We recently nearly fell victim to this very threat, where a fleet came through a K162 to ambush us when a new connection opened up further down the constellation. Now, as if it were necessary to hammer the point home, a K162 will bring ruin to this ISK-making operation.

And, actually, why wait for the Noctis? HR turns up and has Legion-piloting skills. We could go for the Tengus themselves and get us a proper kill. In order to do that, I should change my ship too. I could fly tackle in my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, but if the connection between our two systems isn't being monitored, and is nicely out of d-scan range of the tower and targets, I could swap in to a covert neuty Legion strategic cruiser and apply more hurt to the Tengus. We could potentially catch both of them.

As HR finds the bigger, badder ship-killing Legion I warp home, get to our tower, and swap in to our covert Legion, returning to C4a immediately afterwards. I warp back to my perch in the anomaly, updating d-scan as I pass the tower to see no change in the number of ships and so, presumably, the number of pilots, and land to see the Tengus finishing off the second wave of Sleepers. I think we can let them clear almost all of the anomaly before jumping them, as it will stop the Sleepers from getting in our way too much.

I have a bit of time before springing the ambush. I warp in to take a closer look at the two ships. It's possible that both ships are using local shield repair modules, but more likely that the are sharing shield and capacitor between the two ships for greater efficiency. And, of course, they are transferring shield and capacitor juice, because it's generally a better configuration, and explains why they are staying so close together. That should be fine, if we concentrate our energy neutralisers on one ship and weapons on the other.

Back to my perch, and to watch and wait as the final wave of Sleepers is whittled down. HR is now sitting on the K162 in our home system, ready to come in when needed. Soon, soon. Two Sleeper battleships left, I warp in to the site to get within range. I land a little over ten kilometres from the two Tengus, which is pretty much perfect. I get a bit closer and call HR to jump in to the system and hold. The penultimate battleship explodes, leaving one more and our targets. Warp to me, HR.

I watch d-scan for our new colleague in the Legion, wanting to wait as long as possible before revealing myself. I don't want to spook the Tengus early, but neither do I want them to be spooked by an unknown ship on d-scan and bug out whilst I wait for my decloaking sensor recalibration delay to end. I must be a bit edgy, as I can't wait any longer. I decloak, get my Legion in a reasonable orbit around the Tengus, and, once the recalibration delay ends, lock on to the primary target.

I am to disrupt the warp engines of the primary target, HR the engines of the secondary and energy neutraliser target. I get a positive lock, get my offensive systems hot, and sadly watch as the second Tengu reacts quickly to my appearance, warping clear a moment before HR's Legion drops near to mine. It's a bit of a shame that we lose one target, but at least it makes this combat straightforward. Not only do we have just the one Tengu to completely neutralise and shoot, but he won't be receiving any energy or shield transfers.

The pilot realises his Tengu is dead in the vacuum too. He stops all aggressive acts and, once his aggression timer subsequently drops, ejects from his ship. I don't blame him. In that minute we've already burnt through the Tengu's shields and are hitting it with heavy armour damage. I aim for the pod but, with an alert pilot and without a sensor booster, he flees easily enough. With d-scan remaining clear of any assistance, the Tengu already close to destruction, and a Sleeper ready to finish the job if we don't, we fire the last few shots that sees the Tengu explode.

Loot and shoot, I manage to grab all but a few missiles from the Tengu wreck, and fling both of our Legions back towards the wormhole home. That was a nice kill. Two would have been better, but I am certainly happy with popping one half-billion ISK ship. The fairly shiny Gistum A-type shield transfer module even survived the explosion, which is nice. And HR gets his first w-space kill with us. I hope there will be many more.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tayra, tengu, venture, w-space

Distracted by low-sec relic sites

What's out there today? Cosmic anomalies and signatures in the home system are soon reduced to gas, relics, and a single wormhole, which will be our static connection and my only current opportunity to explore further afield. I'll be going to class 3 w-space, where my directional scanner almost-inevitably shows me a tower and no ships in the system. My notes perk me up a little, as my last visit had Fin and I pop a very expensive Tengu indeed, the strategic cruiser and pod costing its pilot over three billion ISK in in losses.

That was a really good day back then, maybe one of our best. All looks quiet this evening, although the tower in the system is the in the same place and owned by the same corporation. Our buddy from the Tengu is even their point-of-contact. Maybe he warns potential new recruits away from w-space, who knows. No one is around at the moment, so I launch probes to scan the twelve anomalies and eight signatures.

One signature is too many AU outside the reach of the furthest planet to be anything but a wormhole, and so it resolves to be just that. It's too obvious a hiding place, I'm afraid. Then my probes find gas, a second wormhole, more gas, even more gas, a third wormhole, and a data site. The result looks good from the scanning interface, but the connections are pretty poor. One is a dying K162 from high-sec Domain, the static exit to low-sec is healthy, and the third is, huh, empty space. It couldn't have been much closer to the end of its life when I scanned it.

Once more one way to go, and jumping to low-sec takes me to a system in Sinq Laison with one other pilot and four extra signatures. There's hope for this evening yet, ignoring the low-sec pilot and launching probes to scan. Hello, two wormholes appear to be almost on top of each other. I'll believe that when I see it with my own overview, and, sure enough, the first one looks to be an echo, as my Loki strategic cruiser drops out of warp in empty space for the second time this evening.

The second wormhole exists, but barely. The K162 from null-sec is wobbling away at the end of its life and not worth exploring through, which just leaves me two relic sites in low-sec. Maybe I'm fated for a quiet evening again. It's just me and some random Brutor Tribe capsuleer in low-sec, with no one else having passed through, and the relic sites would pass the time. But I won't hack the relics in my Loki, not when I have a Buzzard covert operations boat built precisely for this task back at our tower. Let me get it.

Through still-quiet C3a, home, swap ships, and back out to low-sec. Nothing has changed except the ship I'm flying, and so I warp to the first relic site, cargo scanner fitted, feeling like a boss. Of course, being equipped to see what's in the containers to be hacked only really makes a difference if you act on the results of the scans. When you see that it's pretty much standard salvage items and decide to punish yourself by enduring the hacking mini-game anyway, the scanner loses much of its glitz.

Still, using my hacking Buzzard for the first time is mildly entertaining, when I hit speeds above two kilometres per second between relics and still have the hacking strength and cargo space of the Loki. I don't even risk losing my relatively cheap ship whilst mindlessly clicking on mostly arbitrary nodes, as the other pilot I've so far been sharing the system with disappears. I can hack in peace.

The first site is cleared and, yep, it's just salvage. My scanner was right, who'd have thought? Moving on to the second site and scanning again, because why not, shows that one of the relics has a blueprint copy of something-or-other, maybe a rig that no one fits to their ships. I make a note, grab the data containers as they spew from that relic, and otherwise stick to the materials and parts containers for the others. Again, it's just salvage parts that are worth anything, although I manage to snag the BPC for my troubles.

Two sites cleared, maybe fifteen million ISK made. It's not much of a gain, and it wasn't terribly engaging to hack open the relics. But it was a distraction and has kept me busy for long enough to convince me that nothing else is going to happen tonight. That is, unless C3a or our home system has changed whilst I've been in low-sec. Nope. C3a is still empty of ships and contains the same signatures as earlier, and the home system is just as I left it. Time for a sammich, I would say.

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

I brake for H900s

I'll have another go at not dying tonight. It didn't seem so difficult yesterday, against the odds, so I am optimistic about keeping my ship intact. And tonight I don't so much start by scanning the home system as scan the corporate bookmarks, which tells me that a colleague unluckier than me got to resolve the new relic site we have, leaving me the chubbier and easier-to-scan static wormhole. I can do that, and warp to and jump through the connection to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

Two Thanatos carriers, a Tengu strategic cruiser, Ares interceptor, and Hound stealth bomber is quite the mix of ships to see on my directional scanner from our K162 in C3a. But there are also two towers and a distinct lack of wrecks, so I suspect there are no active ships and probably no pilots. My notes have my last visit to the system being twenty-one months ago, when I found a static exit to null-sec, and although assuming the tower in the same place has my warping to a bare moon, a little pinging of d-scan sees the tower moved one moon across.

My assumption that the tower would be in the same place was based on the two carriers visible, the capital ships unable to use any wormholes in or out of the system and so essentially trapped here. Warping to the new, or moved, tower finds no pilots, and identifies the local corporation as having only seven capsuleers in its organisation. I can't shake the feeling that this may be meaningful. As I consider the implications, I look to warp away to launch probes, but the tower is placed wisely in the small system, giving me nowhere to hide.

I use an ore anomaly as a relatively safe if not covert location to launch probes. No one will suspect me of being here. Performing a blanket scan reveals the meaning of the small local corporation with two big ships: they aren't particularly active, not with twenty-four anomalies and seven signatures littering the system. If they're not active, the chances of their turning up whilst I'm here are low. I'll scan.

Hello, chubby wormhole. The first signature gives me a good sign, but then it's just data site, relic site, relic site, relic site; all fake null-sec wormholes. Okay, here's the K346, but I'll check the chubster first. It's a K162 from class 3 w-space, which has got to be worth a look, but after I've bounced off the static wormhole and got the null-sec exit bookmarked.

The K346 takes me out to a system in Delve, a system being empty of pilots, letting me warp to a rock field to pop a rat. Not being empty of extra signatures, I launch probes to scan at the same time. So much for checking the potentially interesting C3 K162. A Blood Cardinal explodes to my Loki strategic cruiser's autocannons, the signatures are resolved to be a combat site, a second combat site, and, well, a third combat site. To C3b with me.

D-scan is clear from the other side of the wormhole in the second class 3 system of the evening, and my notes from four months ago suggest there is a tower and static exit to low-sec to find. More interestingly, opening the system map shows me this wormhole is almost 6 AU from the nearest planet. And if that is actually more interesting, I don't think that bodes well for what I'm going to find here.

Before I explore I get the basics done first. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan, revealing eighteen anomalies and six signatures, no ships. There is also no tower where I expect it to be, and no replacement elsewhere. Scanning for K162s finds gas first, then a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space, the U210 static exit, a K162 from low-sec, and a relic site. It's not a great result, but I'll work with what I've got.

The static exit leads to a nondescript system in The Forge. There are extra signatures, but I don't care to scan them. The K162 in C3b comes from a faction warfare system in The Citadel, one that I am happy to ignore even without the lack of any additional signatures. That leaves me the T405 wormhole, the outbound link being unexciting in itself, because of the ill-conceived discovery scanner. But I'll take a look anyway.

D-scan shows me nothing, and my notes won't tell me much seeing that they inform me my last visit was three years ago. I've been out here a long, long time. And I think it's time to head back home this evening too. C4a is unoccupied and inactive, and despite their age my notes will be reliable about their being a static connection to class 5 w-space.

The H900 is a damned weak signature, weaker than Simon Quinlank's lemon drink. Were there the possibility of surprising someone by finding the outbound wormhole I would look for it. With the dumbscovery scanner removing that possibility I am not going to bother. I go home and, as my final act of the evening, help crash our wormhole to let Aii harvest gas in isolated peace.

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Tags: ares, eve online, hound, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, thanatos, w-space

Just another day in w-space

I am back for more. More what? Sleeper slaughter, perhaps. My glorious leader is on-line, sucking gas out of our system, and that's about it. She's kept our static wormhole closed, but the half-mass K162 from class 4 w-space still appears to be here and looks to be as healthy as earlier. I poke my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser through to take a look and nothing seems to have changed. I launch probes and scan anyway, in case one signature died to be sneakily replaced by a new K162, but there's nothing but gas amongst the chubby signatures. I think we should make more ISK.

This session should proceed somewhat quicker than earlier. We got our eye in with our first foray in to the black hole system, and we have a better idea of how to mitigate its effects. On top of that, our new recruit is on-line and available to salvage behind us. Even better, despite his name being somewhat unremarkable besides being difficult to remember, his initials are HR. We have an HR department! I'm sure he's happy about this realisation.

The first site is cleared of Sleepers with little fuss and all looks to be going smoothly, right up until Fin disappears off-line as the last of the Sleeper battleships explodes. Well, we may as well get HR in here to salvage whilst we wait for Fin to return. And she does return, letting us leave our Noctis to be vulnerable by himself as we blast through warp towards the next anomaly.

A second anomaly is cleared, and moving on to the third is making me feel more comfortable about Sleeper combat in black hole systems. I know our Golem marauder can have trouble getting in to torpedo range of some Sleepers in class 3 w-space, and its bulk doesn't lend itself to the speed boost offered by black holes, but zooming around in a pair of Tengu strategic cruisers actually isn't that bad. Although I still prefer the boosts to shield and capacitor offered by the pulsar phenomenon in our own system, I don't think I'll discount black hole systems immediately in the future.

As HR warps in behind us to sweep up the third site's worth of wrecks, and Fin and I head towards the fourth anomaly, the latency we experienced earlier returns. It's been spluttering here and there, but in this site it finally gets too much for me. I was procrastinating about moving on after the third anomaly, Fin convincing me that we were on a roll, and I don't think I have the patience to persevere after this. I call the operation as nearing completion, and we concentrate on finishing cleanly. It's just a bit of lag, after all. It's not the end of the world.

Those extra ships on d-scan, though, the ones not in our fleet, they could be the end of the world. 'Flee.' I give the command, perhaps understated a little, and already I'm throwing our Tengus towards the wormhole home, having initiated a squad warp. But HR needs to know and leave too, as he isn't with us and doesn't benefit from the fleet commands. The problem, however, is that no new signatures have appeared in the system. I don't much care for the discovery scanner, and really don't like how it makes this kind of operation a good deal safer. ...under the specific circumstances of being in a closed system. This system isn't closed.

We have an open wormhole, and that wormhole leads to our home system. That means, unfortunately, that the new wormhole must have opened in or beyond our home system, and that the fleet came from that direction. This is unfortunate because it means we could be running directly towards the fleet. I enter warp as a Legion strategic cruiser drops in to the anomaly near our Tengus—or perhaps decloaks as primary tackle—and I worry that Fin's been caught, as she is not beside me in warp.

I'm more worrying about whether the fleet has left a ship or two on the wormhole or not. I land by myself, and jump home immediately. Still no ships are visible on my overview, so all looks clear. Perhaps the fleet wasn't sure whether we came from this direction or further back, or were simply confident at catching us. I can understand that, and it was only my persistence with updating d-scan that saw the threat in time to get us clear. Well, to get me clear, as I'm still not sure who else is coming back.

HR says he warped when I gave the warning, so I hold on the wormhole for a few seconds, given that it looks clear. A crackle indicates a ship transit, the fleet interface changes to show a green tick of integrity—whoever just entered the system is a squad member—and I give a new squad-warp command. It's Fin. She got away from the Legion in time and with no one following. Our twin Tengus warp clear from the wormhole and in to our tower. That saves a billion ISK in potential losses. Now how about our Noctis?

HR is a few seconds behind us. Sadly, so is the hostile fleet, who have already jumped back to our home system their Dominix and Scorpion battleship, Loki strategic cruiser, and Guardian logistics ship. I see them, drones out, waiting for our Noctis, as I warp a Falcon recon ship to the K162 in a bid to provide some kind of support. But HR is in trouble. He's jumped in to the mess of ships and drones and only sees one way out, which is back to the C4. But I counted five ships on d-scan, which means their Legion is waiting for HR to try to escape that way.

Sure enough, our Noctis, still stuffed with loot, almost making me regret telling HR not to make repeat trips to our tower to dump the loot between anomalies, jumps back in to the waiting sights of the hostile fleet's Legion. Still, the loss of some potential ISK that we collected, and a single Noctis, isn't so bad. We got our Tengus home, after all. 'Ha ha!' It sounds like our new pilot is embracing the inevitably of his death in good spirits. Or maybe not. 'I've burnt away from the Legion!' Ah, good show!

But just as I am marvelling at the keen piloting skills of our Noctis pilot, another, less-encouraging thought occurs to me. The K162 was mass-stressed before we started using it. The fleet has thrown a pair of battleships through the wormhole both ways, plus a few more smaller ships. How much more can it take? I check my information screens and realise the bad news: the wormhole is critically unstable and on the verge of collapse. It may implode with the next jump.

I ask Fin to get a Buzzard covert operations boat to the wormhole and in to C4a immediately, so that if the fleet feels a little aggrieved at catching nothing and tries to isolate our salvager we can get him out of that system again. But before she can react, the wormhole crackles, returning the Legion to the rest of the fleet. And, as one, they align and warp away.

The wormhole survives, even closer to imploding now, but I think that's why the fleet is leaving. There's not much they can do safely with their current ships. On hearing this, HR checks his polarisation timer, sees that it has expired, and, with my updates, returns to the wormhole and jumps home safely. Only just safely, though. The wormhole collapses behind his Noctis, but he warps away to our tower unmolested. Perhaps it was good for him not to have made more trips to dump the loot after all.

Both Tengus safe, Noctis safe, and three hundred million ISK in loot recovered safely. And a bit of excitement at dodging pointy ships in a black hole system and on a wormhole that's close to collapsing. All that's left to do is scan the wormhole the fleet used, which Fin does, and monitor further movements. A couple of pilots reship to stealth bombers and come and go, presumably hoping to catch the Noctis's return, but once they realise the K162 has gone they disappear home. A few massive ships drag their wormhole to implosion as they go, leaving us alone again, pretty much making it sleep o'clock at the end of an unexpectedly exciting evening.

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Tags: buzzard, dominix, eve online, falcon, guardian, legion, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scorpion, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Black Hole Sleepers

An early start has me hopeful of catching a careless pilot off-guard and producing explosions. With any luck, that careless pilot won't even be me. The bookmarks I can see look stale, so that one extra signature in the home system may not be a wormhole. But it is, a K162 from class 4 w-space, and potentially interesting, given that it is sitting in its half-mass state.

No, it really isn't interesting. Jumping to C4a has my appearing over six kilometres from the wormhole, a general indication of no recent activity; updating my directional scanner sees no towers or ships; and there's a black hole looming ominously in the distance. My notes from a little over a year ago suggest that there is occupation, itself pretty dull, being five blue towers, but that has gone too. No one else has moved in, which isn't a surprise for a black hole system, leaving me to scan the twenty-six anomalies and sixteen signatures for wormholes.

Being class 4 w-space, therefore almost never holding random outbound connections, if ever, and having coming through the static connection, the only wormholes I will find will be K162s. That makes checking for other connections nice and easy. Filter out all but the chubby signatures and wave probes in their rough positions. Nope, no K162s here, the system is a dead end. Whoever came this way must have killed their connection, unimpressed with the black hole.

Then again, whoever came this way must have used the wormhole to our home system a fair bit, stressed as it is to half mass, so maybe we have a good connection to empire space currently. I can check that. Curiously, though, our static wormhole is in good health, unstressed by ship transits, which suggests that the movements through the half-mass wormhole didn't continue this way. And our system looks intact. That's a bit weird. I dunno what's happened, but I don't think it really matters either. Onwards to C3a.

Still nothing. This time I appear in the system eight kilometres from the wormhole, so even though there is a tower visible on d-scan it is no surprise to see a lack of ships to go with it. A visit from a month ago has the tower probably in the same place, so I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system. A healthy sixteen anomalies could be good for making ISK, if the only wormhole amongst the seven signatures is the static exit to null-sec. But, balls, warping to the tower only now sees the black hole in this system too.

Never mind the black hole, the first wormhole I find has a chubby signature, so it's a K162 and not the null-sec connection. The second feels like the K346, but a third wormhole spells the end of the ISK dream in this C3. But we can still make some profit, as Fin starts collapsing our static wormhole to give us the anomalies in C4a to clear of Sleepers. It's still a black hole system, but probably less of an inconvenience than in this system. At least the C4 anomalies would put us both in Tengu strategic cruisers, needing to salvage separately, rather than struggle to get a sluggish Golem marauder in range of Sleepers in C3 anomalies, cursed by the torpedo range reduction of the black hole.

I reconnoitre the connections as Fin pushes big ships through our wormhole. One K162 comes from class 3 w-space, the other from class 2 w-space. Both are at the end of their natural lifetimes. That's no guarantee of safety, though, and even though the wormholes are wobbly I can't resist poking through to C2a to prove how dangerous relying on an EOL wormhole can be. Not particularly dangerous, as it turns out. There are two towers and some ships in C2a, but finding them doesn't find any pilots. I turn around and leave for C3a whilst I still can.

Back home and Fin finishes crashing our wormhole. Now for some Sleeper action in a black hole class 4 w-space system. It all looks the same on a repeat visit, and we warp to the first anomaly. The reduced flight time of our missiles is a little frustrating, but the increased speed of our ships lets us get in to range without too much wasted time. What's a bit worse is the latency we're experiencing with our ship systems. Seeing my launchers cycle without any missiles firing, only for ten volleys to launch at once is a little frustrating.

We press on through the first anomaly and in to a second, but the latency issues get too much for an already less-than-engrossing activity to be tolerable. I give up once the second anomaly is cleared of Sleepers, and we ditch our Tengus for Noctis salvagers, heading back only to loot and salvage the wrecks we made. A little over two hundred million ISK of loot is stashed in our tower, which is a decent result, even if it's a shame that technical issues stop us making more. But that's better than other pilots stopping us, I suppose. Maybe we can do more later.

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

Not even an Epithal

New sites and new signatures are in the home system. The signatures are more pockets of gas, apparently already resolved and bookmarked, and another will be our static wormhole. But that leaves another unaccounted for, so what is it? No, not a white hole, but a K162 from class 5 w-space, which I find out by consulting the corporate bookmarks. Our new recruit has been on-line earlier and has scanned a little bit, which is handy. Warping to the K162 finds it in rude health too, so it may be worth seeing what's on the other side, even if it was opened hours ago.

Two towers, a Dominix battleship, and an Epithal hauler are visible on my directional scanner in C5a, and a magnetar phenomenon is visible in the background of space. Notes, why don't you tell me about the towers. Only one tower from a visit two months ago, you say? Well, who am I to believe: my notes, or d-scan? My notes are pretty reliable; after all, I make them myself. But I have to find some way to resolve this issue.

D-scan says both towers are in the same direction, and where the one tower was previously, so assuming it's not completely lying to me I warp that way. I trust my notes and land near the moon holding the tower I'm expecting to see, which would give me one more to find, but, no, both towers are new. The old one is gone. Sorry, notes, but d-scan wins this round.

Locating the new towers is straightforward enough, and I update my notes to reflect the changes, as I drop outside the tower with the two ships, both piloted. I prefer the look of the Epithal to the Dominix, even if the hauler can be tricked out to thoroughly frustrate the very pilots that give value to industrial activities in dangerous space. Maybe the damage amplification caused by the magnetar can offset the Epithal's evasive capabilities.

Of course, I am jumping the gun a little. Whilst it is reasonable to expect a planet gooing hauler to collect planet goo, he may have already made his rounds. Naturally, that doesn't stop me watching and waiting, and I even remember—on about my third reminder—to orientate myself with the wormhole back home, in case a trip to empire space is attempted. But the Epithal blinks off-line, making these more minutes wasted.

Now what, Penny? Scan backwards in this C5, looking for K162s with an idle Dominix in the system, or head forwards through our static wormhole? Forwards, I think. So I leave the battleship behind, cross the home system, and jump to the class 3 w-space system beyond. A tower and no ships on d-scan is hardly a new experience, neither is having nowhere to hide in a small system. I launch probes at the wormhole, perform a blanket scan, and warp away to locate the tower.

Oh, zooming out of the system map a little more, in order to arrange my probes at their maximum range, reveals that handy, moonless planet some 76 AU away. That's probably a convenient place outside of d-scan range of any tower where I could launch probes. But never mind, it's done now, and there probably wasn't anyone watching anyway. My probes show me five anomalies, nine signatures, and no ships, and my notes feel better about themselves by pointing me directly towards the tower that was here ten months ago. Good notes, have a biscuit.

Scanning finds gas, data, data, gas, gas, gas, a wormhole, and some more gas. It's a pretty standard result, and checking the wormhole has my jumping to a high-sec system in Devoid. High-sec, but with an Incursion in progress. No, I don't want to join another comms channel, thank you. I quite enjoy the quiet of w-space, where few dare to speak in the local channels, so being thrown in to one that is spat on top of my private channels, sharing none of the settings of those channels, is a little irritating. But it's also easily ignored.

There are plenty of signatures in this high-sec system. Maybe they are Incursion-related, but maybe they aren't. I'll only find out by scanning, so I launch probes and take a look. Combat site, combat site, combat site, combat site, combat site, and the K162 I'm sitting on. I think they actually are Incursion-related, like the majority of the thirty-one anomalies also present. So now what? System hop and scan again, go back to loiter with intent in C5a, or give up early?

I don't care to find K162s in high-sec right now, so system hopping is unattractive. Giving up early is quite tempting, but seems like quitting. No one likes a quitter. So I head back through C3a, across the home system, and take another look in C5a. I update d-scan from the wormhole, see the same Dominix alone in one of the two towers, and jump straight back through the wormhole to our home system, where I find a quiet corner to hide in and go off-line, still not a quitter.

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

Stealthy bombers

Why did we recruit another pilot? It seemed like a good idea at the time, adding to our numbers, making us more capable, but now I've got to find him an entrance and then show him the ropes. Then again, I think he'll be kept occupied if I just show him the drinks cabinet. But an entrance should be easy enough too, with just gas and the static wormhole in the home system. I resolve the connection and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see where I am led.

A tower sits on my directional scanner along with, ooh, a Phantasm cruiser. I haven't seen many of them, and maybe none in w-space, but there are no wrecks so I doubt the Phantasm is a valid target at the moment. My notes lead me to the tower, in the same location as from a previous visit eleven months ago, where I see the cruiser is indeed missing a capsuleer. Fair enough. I warp away, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system.

My probes reveal four anomalies and six signatures. Gas, wormhole, gas—and he's my glorious leader. If there's just the one wormhole we may be able to convert the present anomalies in to ISK. So, of course, the next signature is a second wormhole. And there's a third. Never mind. I've resolved the static exit to low-sec, a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space, and a K162 also from class 4 w-space. The K162 even has an added Purifier stealth bomber.

The Purifier cloaks and warps as I land near the K162. I don't see his exit vector. I turn my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser around and head towards the low-sec exit, seeing nothing jump when I get there, but I suppose I am rather slower than a stealth bomber. Poking out to low-sec puts me in a faction warfare system in Black Rise, with no oranges in the system. There are core probes, though, but those don't interest me.

I turn back to C3a and warp and jump through the K162 to C4b, where nothing waiting decloaks and d-scan is clear. I take a look around, finding nothing and no one, so launch probes to scan. Again there are four anomalies and six signatures, giving me gas, gas, and an unsurprising wormhole. Curious to see where it comes from I send my Loki in warp towards it whilst I continue scanning, but just as I accelerate away from where I was loitering, the wormhole to C3a crackles, signalling a ship's transit. That's bad timing.

My probes get thrown out of the system in a measure to keep my presence unknown, and I drop out of warp next to a K162 from class 2 w-space in time to see a Manticore jump through ahead of me. The stealth bomber is allied to the Purifier, but alone for the moment, and as it looks like I've found their route, and I am nowhere near close enough to the wormhole to even try to ambush the Manticore, I give it a minute before following to C2a.

D-scan shows me a tower but no ships, but the stealth bombers may well be cloaked elsewhere. Actually, that's pretty likely, particularly as locating the tower shows that this still isn't their home system. Exploring finds no more towers and still no pilots, so I launch probes once more to scan the meagre two anomalies and three signatures. I can only assume that the signatures will all be wormholes: the Y683 I used, the accompanying static exit to high-sec, and a K162. But, no, the third signature is a pocket of gas.

That's peculiar. Where are the stealth bombers from? I resolve the high-sec wormhole and check the exit, appearing in Domain with no oranges and facing a small trek to Amarr. I ignore it and turn around, heading back through C2a and C4b in to C3a, leaving the only other connection as the T405 to C4a. I suppose the other ships could have come from there, even if it's unlikely, so in I go to find out.

Nope, they're not from here either. D-scan is clear from the wormhole, and exploring finds a tower and empty shuttle, still not part of the same corporation as the bombers. This is weird. But whatever, I may as well scan. I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system in a perfect example of why I take such measures. My probes, nicely hidden out of d-scan range above the ecliptic plane, show me nine anomalies, five signatures, and now two ships.

I warp back towards the tower, cloaked once more, expecting to find an industrial ship, given the chubby size of the new signature. And it is. A Mammoth hauler now sits piloted inside the tower's force field. A newly on-line hauler has got to be worth watching for a few minutes, hoping that he hears the call of the planet goo.

He doesn't hear the call immediately. Nor belatedly. That makes watching the hauler worth it only if you appreciate the design aesthetic of the Minmatar ships. I kinda do, in that I'm continually surprised that they don't vent more gasses, or have girders fly of at the slightest manoeuvre. But that still doesn't really make it worth watching in and of itself. I think it's time to call it a night.

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Tags: eve online, loki, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, phantasm, purifier, scanning, w-space

Null-sec connections

A new signature in the home system resolves to be merely a pocket of gas, maintaining our string of days without an incoming wormhole. But as we cleared all of our combat anomalies yesterday we have little reason to stay at home, and certainly not to suck on gas, which means opening our static wormhole to see what we can find elsewhere.

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees a tower on my directional scanner, along with a Helios covert operations boat but no probes, and a Vexor Navy Issue cruiser but no wrecks. Opening the system map and locating the planet holding the tower makes it look like there's nowhere out of range to hide from it, so on the assumption that no one but me has found this wormhole yet I push away, launch probes, and cloak, sending my probes in to their blanket-scanning configuration far above the ecliptic plane.

Now hidden, both probes and me, I locate the tower properly, whilst performing a scan of the system. Four anomalies, four signatures, the two ships, and the tower is in a different location from three months earlier. The new tower is straightforward enough to find, where I see that not only are both ships empty of capsuleers but, given a fresh look at the system map, there is a planet sitting out of d-scan range from here. It's good that no one is watching after all, or I'd have felt a bit silly giving away my presence for no reason. Not that the discovery scanner wouldn't have already done that, but let's not overly dwell on it.

As is generally the case in systems otherwise bare of signatures, what's left for me to find is wormholes. The static exit to low-sec is joined by a K162 from class 5 w-space and a dying K162 from null-sec. Exiting to low-sec places me in a faction warfare system in Essence, where a couple of signatures wait for me should I need them. Let's hope not. Back to C3a to check the null-sec region, but I've already visited Stain recently, and that the wormhole is at the end of its life is enough to convince me not to stay. Now for more w-space.

I warp to the other K162 in C3a but don't quite manage to jump through, not when I see core scanning probes in the current system. They're new, there aren't many signatures, and I'd prefer to stalk the new contact than be stalked by him. Where better to wait than on the temptation that is our recently opened K162, particularly as the null-sec K162 has now collapsed—lucky me—so wait I do. The probes go, but no ship comes past me.

A Helios covert operations boat appears on d-scan, but trying to place him at one of the other wormholes fails. Not so when pointing d-scan at the tower. The Helios is local. I warp across to see what the pilot will do but, perhaps predictably for an insecure system, she floats idly for a few minutes before going off-line. No alternative capsuleer replaces her either, so I continue with my plan and head to C5a.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole in C5a, and it takes me a little too long to realise why it's taking me a little too long to warp away from the wormhole: the system holds a black hole. Great. I bet no one lives here. Sure enough, my probes reveal thirty-two anomalies and eleven signatures, but no ships and no occupation. Still, at least K162s are chubby and easy to resolve, so scanning backwards should be a doddle.

There's a wormhole, but sadly it's just a K162 from null-sec. Thankfully that's not all, as I resolve two, no three, more wormholes. The first is a hilarious Z142 outbound connection to null-sec, with the dancing man of Malpais indicating a link to Outer Passage. The second wormhole is an equally hilarious Z142, leading to an empty system in Immensea where I pop a rat whilst it remains empty. To round off a disappointing system, the third wormhole in C5a is another K162 from null-sec.

Okay, null-sec, let's see what you can do for me. I jump through the K162 to appear in a system in Paragon Soul, which gives me a new image for my collection. That bit of progress keeps me engaged a little longer, and I scan the two extra signatures to resolve a combat site and a wormhole. It's a weak wormhole, though, and naturally is an outbound connection. As much as they lead to nothing these days, it's worth a look, so I jump to C3b with minimal expectations.

D-scan is clear, exploring finds a tower with no ships, and scanning, well, scanning reveals a ship somewhere. But it's a brief glimpse of w-space possibility, and not a local pilot being active in the system. A subsequent blanket scan is back to anomalies and signatures only. Even so, a ship passing through may make another journey, if they still don't know about the dumbscovery scanner or care to count the signatures in each system, so I start poking for K162s.

One wormhole appears amongst the gas, and it's not a K162 from null-sec. This one comes from low-sec, which is still not quite w-space. But that's okay, as there is a w-space K162 to be found, from class 5 w-space, just like in C3a. And just like in C3a, there is a null-sec K162 to be found, and scanning is rounded off with the static exit to low-sec. I get the feeling I'm not really going anywhere tonight. Even checking the null-sec systems and finding a stray Procurer seems too good to be true, so I ignore it to check C5b from C3b.

In a similar fashion to earlier, in the previous C3, I pause on my return to w-space. This time a Tengu strategic cruiser is on d-scan, but there are no wrecks and he's gone again soon enough, and bouncing off the tower doesn't see the new contact. So it's in to C5b, where two towers and a bunch of ships light up d-scan, none looking particularly welcoming. The Moros dreadnoughts and Archon carrier probably won't be doing anything, neither will the Legion strategic cruiser and Eos command ship in a C5, which just leaves a handful of scanning frigates and cov-ops boats, which I often don't care to chase even if they happen to be piloted and active. I'm ready to call it a night. There's not much w-space to roam, and what I've found is uninspiring.

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Tags: archon, eos, eve online, helios, legion, mmorpg, moros, penny ibramovic, procurer, scanning, tengu, vexor, w-space