Finally making some ISK

I'm going to see if being in space for a while can perk me up a little. I can update my skill queue at least, which isn't too shabby considering that it means I'm less than a day away from having all the battleship skills at level V. I would be more thrilled with this milestone if I ever flew battleships, but at least now I can steal black ops ships and marauders of all types, should we encounter any.

And my glorious leader is on-line. Or is she? Saying 'I am pretending' is a little cryptic. Besides, we are all faking it to some degree. But Fin's pretending to be industrious. She does a better job than me at that, I can tell you. Fin's actually in a Hulk exhumer, complete with boosting industrial command ship, stripping rocks of ore in one of the rock fields currently in our system. She may even have been mining for quite a while, as it has been three days since we've had an incoming wormhole.

The trend continues, as I see a bunch of anomalies and just the one signature in the home system. I think it's relatively safe to assume that the static wormhole isn't open, not with Fin's Hulk still intact. And now that there are two of us, it's a good time to make a more active attempt to generate ISK. If only we had the combat anomalies of last week, we could be rolling in blue loot and melted nanoribbons, but circumstances worked against us. Now we have just the handful of anomalies, only one our favoured type.

We can make do with what we've got, and the opportunities that come our way. Maybe our neighbouring system is unoccupied, has no other wormholes, and a glut of our favoured class 3 w-space anomalies. Or maybe it will be full of Penny-hating combat pilots itching to shoot us. Best that we claim all the profit we can in the home system before looking abroad. Fin collects all her ore—I can't quite work out what a Miasmos is in time to find one in the hangar—and we board our paired Tengu strategic cruisers, ready for Sleeper combat.

The favoured anomaly is first, to ease us in to the evening. We know the waves, the triggers, the strategies. It's straightforward, with no surprises, and we warp to the next anomaly. We've not really touched different types, not for a long time, as we've not really needed to. But how hard can it be? Maybe hard enough for the second wave of four battleships to nearly crumple Fin's Tengu? Yes, about that hard.

I struggle to keep Fin afloat but am calm enough to remember to overheat my remote repair module. Fin's Tengu doesn't explode, the Sleeper battleships get whittled down, and once we're back to two-on-two the damage is easily handled. That could have been a harsher learning experience than it was, but thankfully we don't lose yet another ship in embarrassing circumstances, which would have been more embarrassing had it been to Sleepers. And Fin is smart enough to consider a new strategy for the next time.

That next time is not tonight, as moving from the second anomaly to the third also moves us in to the third type of anomaly for the evening. Variety is the spice of life, as they say, which is fine as long it's not going to give us the shits. But this third type of anomaly is perhaps the weakest, and we cope with ease the Sleeper ships thrown at us. The profit is not as good as the other anomalies, of course, but it remains profit. And Aii has appeared to sweep it up, salvaging the mess we've made, so Fin and I concentrate on generating more.

The third anomaly is cleared, on to the fourth, and finally the fifth. The last three anomalies are all the same type and dealt with smoothly, until all that's left of the Sleepers in our home system are a few rock fields and an inactive wormhole. Aii salvages the final wrecks and returns to the tower with about 330 Miskies in loot, and I swap back to my covert Loki strategic cruiser. I am not about to scan, though. I simply warp to a quiet corner of the system to hide and go off-line. There are more rocks to be chomped, and Fin and Aii are happy to resume their productivity.

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Tags: eve online, hulk, loki, miasmos, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Taunted by a Tengu

The static exit does indeed lead out to the Syndicate region. I'm slowly getting to grips with the different colours and nebulae visible through wormholes exiting w-space. All I need to do now is find a way to make that information useful. For the moment, though, feeling smug seems to be enough, so I leave the rather sleepy w-space constellation behind me and see what this null-sec system has to offer. And if this doesn't work, our neighbouring class 3 system has a K162 also from null-sec, giving me a second opportunity to find nothing.

This system holds six extra signatures, which seems a decently positive start. But scanning, despite resolving a wormhole on my first choice of signature, only gives me a single connection to continue exploration, the others being combat and data sites. But that one wormhole is all I'll need, or so I think. Warping to it finds an N432 outbound connection to class 5 w-space, which isn't really what I'm after. Sure, it leads to w-space, and, sure, the C5 will have a static wormhole leading to more w-space, but I still feel deflated.

The dumbscovery scanner will be pinging any active pilot in the C5 system the signature of the K162 already, letting them know that something has changed. I am not going to catch anyone by surprise. The same will be true when I resolve and warp to the system's static wormhole, the K162 being pinged to active pilots in the following system, and so on. I was really hoping to find a K162, casually opened and either forgotten about or not known to be open by a pilot coming on-line after it had been done. Hunting through K162s is still far from ideal, but unfortunately it is my best option.

Still, I scanned and warped to this N432, I may as well poke through to see what's there. There may still be pilots sufficiently ignorant of the discovery scanner, even if the odds are greater that active class 5 inhabitants are more likely to be planning the collapse of this wormhole even as I approach it. I jump through to C5c to see, well, not much. My directional scanner highlights a tower somewhere in the system, but there are no ships to be seen. I think that's a good enough look around for me. I don't want to compound my frustration by scanning and not finding any K162s here too.

Back to null-sec, back again to C3a, and across to the K162 from a different null-sec system. This one comes from Stain, and this time a couple of pilots share the system with me. D-scan shows me towers plus a Raven battleship, Noctis salvager, and Reaper frigate, but even though I suspect that my new appearance has probably halted any ratting that was in progress I don't think there was any occurring to begin with. Flipping overview settings and punching d-scan a second time sees no wrecks, although it does highlight a Tengu strategic cruiser that I'm pretty sure wasn't there a few seconds ago.

The Tengu's appearance is almost interesting. I don't think I missed it on the first check of d-scan, which means that one of the two capsuleers in the system must be piloting it. I suppose that makes sense, if the Raven and Noctis aren't in cahoots to make rat iskies. I would ignore the strategic cruiser too and revert to scanning for wormholes, but the ship appears not to be at a tower. My curiosity gets the better of me and, as my presence in the system is already explicit and I don't care to hunt the Tengu tediously with d-scan, I throw my combat scanning probes in the strategic cruiser's general direction to find him.

It takes a couple of scans, done smoothly but without much haste, and the Tengu's position is resolved. I warp to join him, keeping my Loki strategic cruiser cloaked and dropping short, if not too short. I want to be able to pounce if he looks like a genuine target, but keep my distance if it is bait. And I can't really tell. The Tengu is just floating stationary near a planet, piloted but not doing anything. That looks like bait, right up to the point of the ship cloaking.

Maybe it is a more sophisticated kind of bait, where he cannot be found but wants me to drop my cloak to become vulnerable in a bid to find him. A cloaked ship cannot decloak another cloaked ship, but a visible ship can interfere and force a second ship's cloak off-line. I am a little reluctant to lose another ship quite so soon since the others, but I am encouraged by having my colleagues heading my way in pointy ships, and the other pilot in the null-sec system move to a different null-sec system. Now it's just me and the Tengu, which makes it much less likely to be bait. I'll see if I can find it.

I was moving tentatively towards the Tengu when it cloaked, and I think I can replicate that vector, so push my Loki in that direction, drop my cloak, and pulse the micro warp drive. I don't keep the MWD running permanently, as I don't want to overshoot my target, should I find it. I also have to estimate our relative distances, but I am easily distracted and must surely have covered the eighteen-or-so kilometres in separation that we initially started with. And this is assuming the Tengu hasn't moved since cloaking. If he has jinked just a few kilometres, particularly on seeing my Loki, I just won't have a chance of finding him.

I must have gone too far by now, and there's no sign of the Tengu. I tell Fin and Aii that I probably don't have a target when I realise that I bookmarked the Tengu's position when scanning him. That position is kinda rough, in that it will land you within a few kilometres of the point in space, but on a cosmological scale it is like knowing where a single atom is. I decide to make use of it. I set my Loki to align to the bookmark, which flips my ship around—confirming I did indeed burn past the Tengu—and gets me heading towards the Tengu's last known position. If he hasn't moved, this should be enough.

I pulse my MWD again and keep an eye out for a ship decloaking. It takes an embarrassing amount of time, showing just how far I burnt past the right position, before a ship appears. It's the Tengu, it's underneath me, and I've shed its cloak. My sensor booster is active, so I get my targeting systems working as I call for my colleagues to jump and warp to me. The Tengu is locked, I have a warp scrambler hot, and my autocannons start chattering rounds in to the Tengu's shields. And then the Tengu is gone.

The strategic cruiser warps clear moments after I start shooting. My range was good, my weapon systems were operational, the bastard must have fit some warp core stabilisers. And, judging by the comment he throws to us in the local channel, as it looks like he has them fit purely to frustrate other pilots it seems like a dick move. Well, it works, both in frustrating me and making him look like a dick. And that'll be it for me for tonight. I apologise to Fin and Aii for the lack of juicy target, and head home.

Posted in Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, raven, reaper, scanning, tengu, w-space

Trying to ignore distractions

I have no expectations for this evening. I'll just get myself on-line and see what's out there. Of course, that's not to say I won't be disappointed, but with any luck my level of disappointment will be greatly reduced. For example, it's disappointing to find that all but two of our combat anomalies have been stripped from the home w-space system, particularly when we've been trying to clear them for profit ourselves. But with lowered expectations for doing them this evening I can't regret their absence quite so much. I even have a vague sense of optimism that perhaps my colleagues cleared the anomalies of Sleepers when I wasn't around. But probably not.

Just the one signature accompanies our new dearth of anomalies, which means I cannot follow the perps back to their home system to give them another easy target, as the signature will be that of our static wormhole. Where will it take me today? To class 3 w-space, curiously enough. I almost didn't expect that, with my lack of expectation, but maybe I've somewhat overcompensated on that front. Still, it's class 3 w-space with a tower and no ships visible on my directional scanner, so it's a fine line between lowered expectations and disappointment.

Warp out, launch probes, blanket the system. It's messy out there, with thirty anomalies and nineteen signatures. Maybe it's a good kind of messy, the kind with a few K162s from w-space scattered around, particularly as the static wormhole leads to null-sec and will take some fiddling with probes to resolve its weak signature. In fact, there's one now, a signature chubbier than a K346. Of course, it would be a K162 from null-sec. W-space has a sense of humour, after all.

A second K162 actually comes from more w-space, this one from a C4 system, and with the two extra wormholes combined it looks like we won't be able to take advantage of the combat anomalies in this C3 either. But I can explore. Heading backwards through w-space and in to C4a doesn't find much to start with, d-scan showing me a tower and a lone drone, but I take that to be indicative of having another wormhole to uncover. I launch probes to do that.

The sparse system is in contrast to C3a, with a mere one anomaly and three signatures, which, coupled with this being class 4 w-space and almost certain not to have any random outbound connections, makes it straightforward to look for chubby K162s. One is, one isn't, and I ignore the data site for the wormhole from class 5 w-space, leaving this dead system for hopefully one more vibrant. It almost looks it too, if I only mention that there are ships on d-scan with the tower. The type of ships makes me think otherwise.

An Orca industrial command ship and three Archon carriers aren't going to be particularly active by themselves, and the Magnate frigate and Anathema covert operations boat don't look much like capital support ships to me. I'm back to scanning, but still quick scanning, with two anomalies and two signatures. As I jumped through one of them, it leaves just one to check, so I resolve the almost-inevitable wormhole and have my probes recalled before I've even found the tower.

The Magnate is piloted at the tower, but who cares? I can't see any probes, and without them visible I don't see the frigate moving any time soon, so I warp away to check the wormhole. It comes from more class 5 w-space, so I leave this system for hopefully one better, but come up short. Updating d-scan in C5b reveals six towers, a Falcon recon ship, and a Buzzard cov-ops. My perkiness levels are dropping, cap'n.

The Falcon is annoying, the Buzzard almost impossible to catch, and I have the locations of the six towers listed in my notes from a recent previous visit. I don't think it's doing me any good continuing this journey backwards through w-space, so maybe I should go back to C3a and poke null-sec instead. Maybe I can find a K162 leading back to an actually active system. I jump back to C5a, across to C4a, and to C3a, where the static exit has wobbly visions of the Cloud Ring and Verge Vendor, suggesting it leads to the Syndicate region. But before I can confirm my guess a Buzzard appears on d-scan.

It looks like the Buzzard is local, in the tower, so I warp across to see what it might do. Of course, I've just left a potentially piloted Buzzard and easier-to-catch Magnate behind me, and it's natural to wonder why I'd bother to watch this one. But the ship is a new contact, so the pilot's either been exploring and has returned or is newly on-line with the exciting possibility of being just about to act impetuously.

Nope, it looks like the capsuleer is just here to flip her skills. The cov-ops floats for a minute then blinks out of existence. But I hold for a minute longer. Sure enough, here comes another new contact. With any luck, the first pilot just needed a skill training update, and this one will want to be active. But, no, the Probe frigate copies the more expensive Buzzard, disappearing shortly after warping in to the tower. I think she comes back again and that I missed her warping, but this is a second Probe now at the tower.

This is a pleasant distraction, but still a distraction. And not that pleasant, thinking about it. And as the second Probe blinks off-line a Cheetah cov-ops appears briefly on d-scan, along with some combat scanning probes. Actual activity is almost interesting, except for it coming from a cov-ops, and that it is probably scaring the now-appeared Drake battlecruiser new to the tower in C3a. Damned amateur scouts, caring only for the signatures and not the pilots. They're the radiologists of w-space. It looks like I'll be checking the null-sec connections after all.

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Tags: anathema, archon, buzzard, cheetah, drake, eve online, falcon, magnate, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, probe, scanning, w-space

Music of 2013, part three

I'm lagging behind on this year's music choices again. I blame my lateness in still not being able to differentiate Ghost Outfit and Gauntlet Hair when they're playing. Or that I am finding it difficult to define either. But I've given it a go. Now I can move on to having a crack at the next bunch of albums, which I've been listening to for a while now already.

The simple, happy pop music of Taffy was something of a highlight last year. There's nothing particularly complex about what they do, it's just that they do it well. And not long after their debut Taffy are back with second album Lixiviate. At first blush, it seems like a pure sequel, with the same happy pop music and simple melodies, but it keeps my attention and keeps me bopping my head with every song. Whereas Chrome Hoof, Blitzen Trapper, and Fuck Buttons (below) have all seemed to push out a lukewarm extension of a previous album, to my rapidly dwindling interest, Taffy must be doing something different on their new release. Either that, or they just know how to write a good song. I should probably revisit Caramel Sunset to see how much different the album now sounds when compared to the excellent Lixiviate.

Yuck frontman Daniel Brumberg quits the band after their debut album to go solo and become Hebronix. Yuck's first album is brilliant, and although solo projects don't tend to work my interest in Unreal is piqued with an NME review that suggests krautrock-like tendencies and most of the songs hitting the seven-minute mark. But at first I'm not impressed, although by 'at first' I mean the first few seconds, in a ten-minute song, where Brumberg's voice just seems a little off. Once the song gets going properly the context is easily construed and we get to hear Brumberg flex his musical muscles, which continues throughout the album. The tracks are long but could easily go for longer without feeling strained, and they are crafted exquisitely. Unreal is clearly the work of a musician who knows his theory and applies it well, the result being an affecting album that I will continue to enjoy for a long time.

Gauntlet Hair have a pretty good name, their album must be good. I pick up Stills, and it's okay. There's lots of reverb vocals, some decent background synths, and some nicely constructed songs. None of it really worms its way inside of me, but it's all good or different enough that I never feel like skipping tracks or changing to a different album. Not great, not bad. It's okay.

Getting hold of I Want You to Destroy Me by Ghost Outfit meant ordering directly from the label, but that's probably more an artefact of my still enjoying CDs over digital distribution. I think it was worth it. Although there's nothing particularly outstanding about the songs and music, Ghost Outfit aren't like the standard guitar-based four-piece, seeming like they are experimenting with merging layers of sound rather than making sure every voice has its place. It works well too. And although the minimal Lexicon feels weirdly out of place and breaks up the flow of the album, on the whole I Want You to Destroy Me is well worth a listen.

Despite Fuck Buttons completely overwhelming the acoustics of Koko when I saw them live, destroying any kind of musical fidelity necessary to enjoy the music, second album Tarot Sport remains a highlight for me. So it is that I am a little excited for their new release, Slow Focus. Good reviews are forthcoming, of course, but I think they're based on reputation and expectation rather than merit. Slow Focus sounds like Fuck Buttons, but it does so perhaps a bit too much, like they are trying to be what they think they should be and not what they are. It's as if this third album is a collection of b-sides to Tarot Sport, with the same themes and motifs, but without the polish. Slow Focus is okay, but it's nothing to get excited about.

How did I miss a new album from The Dandy Warhols? Maybe they are too mainstream now for the NME, which would strike me as peculiar considering their continued evolution across their albums. Whatever the reason, I find This Machine was released over a year ago and can't resist picking it up, wondering where the Dandy Warhols will take me this time. And it's kinda where we've been before. There's not really a new direction for This Machine, which isn't bad in and of itself, instead mixing previous experiments in to a more mature sound. The individual tracks are solid, and maintain a coherence to hold the album together as a whole, but perhaps miss the spark that made ...Come Down and Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia such mainstream hits.

Posted in Audio | 6 Comments »
Tags: cd, dandy warhols, fuck buttons, gauntlet hair, ghost outfit, hebronix, taffy

Failing to ISK

The goal of making ISK yesterday didn't quite go according to plan. By which I mean we ended up losing another half-a-billion or so. Still, keep our chins up, what? We can have another crack at making some ISK tonight, preferably with better results. And it's a better start at least, with no extra signatures in the home system. It's just me and the wormhole.

Good point. It's just me. And the wormhole. But the 'just me' bit is important. Whilst it's possible to chew through Sleepers by myself it's kinda like folding sheets. It's so much quicker and less frustrating with someone to help. But I can make myself useful for now, because even though our static wormhole may be closed it also may not be, so it's best to scan for it and collapse it to be sure.

I resolve the wormhole, warp to it, and as I'm planning to throw massive ships through at some point I may as well see what I'm letting myself in for first. I jump through in my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, appearing in the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see a tower and no ships when updating my directional scanner. That's all pretty standard.

Checking my notes sees that this is my sixth visit to the system, the fifth having my popping a couple of stealth bombers as they shot an off-line tower. I don't care to see if the off-line tower is still there, not without any bombers around it, but I warp to where the on-line tower was previously and see that it remains. Another feature of the system last time was the number of wormholes coming in and out. Let's see how that compares with today.

A blanket scan reveals sixteen anomalies and twelve signatures, the latter comprising mostly gas pockets, along with a couple of data sites, one relic site, and the single wormhole. That will be the static exit to low-sec, probably unopened, making this C3 a good system for ISK generation too. Well, were it not for the armour-boosting Wolf-Rayet phenomenon making the Sleepers look like beefcakes, and the continuing lack of a companion to help.

C3 anomalies wouldn't take quite so long as C4 anomalies to clear, but I've tried it solo before and it is pretty tedious. Of course, floating idly doing nothing is going to make pretty much no ISK, but it requires less of my attention. Doing nothing is preferable to tedious and repetitive combat. And so, still with the plan to collapse our wormhole when the time comes, I exit C3a to low-sec.

Aridia. I knew it before I jumped through the wormhole, and not because of some innate sense of foreboding, but because I recognised the region's nebula from the other side of the connection. An apparent side effect of learning all the wormhole colours is that I can be disappointed in my destination region just by approaching a wormhole. I mean, prepared.

A few pilots are in the system with me in Aridia, along with four additional signatures. I launch probes to scan, and, as the local population drops to be just me, I warp to a rock field to find a rat to pop. At least these rats will explode relatively easily and give me a boost to my security status, and with the transparent local communication channel I don't have to fear getting unexpectedly interrupted.

Resolving the signatures in the low-sec system gives me data and relics, relics and gas. It's pretty boring. I won't explore further afield, though. I would say it's time to head home, crash our wormhole, and get ready for Sleeper combat. So that's what I do. The first pair of round trips doesn't destabilise the wormhole noticeably, making the second pair of trips straightforward. It takes a little time, but the wormhole collapses on schedule.

I get back in to my Loki, launch probes, and scan and resolve the replacement wormhole that pops up. It's close to the previous wormhole, but not on top of it. Sleeper technology gets lazy sometimes too, it seems. I don't visit the wormhole, though, not this time. Now I wait, and as soon as someone turns up we can rake through the anomalies to make some juicy ISK. But no one comes. Poor Penny.

Number of days without losing a ship: 1

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

Getting back on track

Let's get Fin home. Sure, it would have been simpler had that wormhole not collapsed, and that hostile fleet not thrown a party in her honour in the middle of class 2 w-space, and had my glorious leader not been in an Orca industrial command ship and the hostile fleet most certainly not. Even so, her pod is intact and in high-sec empire space, and I'm feeling more than a little responsible for the loss of another expensive ship and the isolation of my colleague.

The plan was... well, I'm not quite sure why I keep mentioning plans. They never work. So we were meant to isolate out home system and strip Sleepers of their loot for ISK. We almost got that first part done, but failing to complete the first stage of a plan and losing a ship instead could be called something of a farce. Maybe I should stop having plans. I'll have goals instead. That sounds better. My goal is to get Fin back to the home system. And, being a goal, it doesn't matter what the intermediate stages are any more. Nothing can go wrong.

We've only recently collapsed our static wormhole with the intention of keeping the new one closed, but circumstances change. I swap back to a cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, launch probes, and scan for the replacement wormhole. It's easily found in a newly cleaned system, and I'm soon jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. And whilst I'm not here to roam or hunt I can't ignore best practices. I update my directional scanner to see what's in the system.

D-scan shows me a tower and no ships, which sounds about right. Opening the system map has nothing out of d-scan range too, so what I can see is what is visibly out there, which includes a mere eight planets and eight moons. That makes finding the tower straightforward, as does its location being in my notes from thirteen months ago. I have to admire the tenacity of a corporation that persists so long with a black hole in the system. My notes also show the system holds a static exit to high-sec. Perhaps I can redeem myself quickly.

Scanning the five anomalies and eight signatures has my plucking the static exit to high-sec out of the noise straight away, which is nice. A second, chubbier wormhole resolves under my probes as I am in warp, which is also nice, given that I drop next to what turns out to be a dying wormhole. The region on the other side looks like Metropolis, which could be convenient for Fin, if the wormhole lingers long enough. But I may as well continue scanning. The second wormhole is a K162 from class 3 w-space, which could offer a better exit. A bit of gas follows, then a third wormhole, more gas, and a fourth wormhole. Maybe we have options.

System scanned, I recall my probes and can now reconnoitre both sides of the wormholes. The third wormhole is a K162 from low-sec, exiting putting me in Placid, a dozen hops from Fin's location. Back to C3a and across to the wobbly high-sec exit, where the system in Metropolis is also a dozen systems from Fin. But this route is all in high-sec space, which is safer, particularly as Fin isn't just coming home. She has seen some minerals stockpiled in a nearby system, bought a hauler, and is going to return in a productive manner. I still have a lot to learn from my glorious leader.

C3a now has someone else's scanning probes whizzing around. That could be unfortunate. An Anathema covert operations boat blips on d-scan, so at least there isn't a cloaky strategic cruiser on the prowl—that I know about—but there could be. I need to stay alert. The last wormhole is a K162 from null-sec, sitting at half mass, and clearly from Perrigen Falls. I'll ignore that, and instead take a look at C3b as Fin starts her journey to the wormhole in Metropolis.

As per class 3 w-space mandates, d-scan shows me a tower and no ships in a system that also has nowhere to hide, and fewer planets and moons than C3a. Six planets, three moons, and my previous visit was only two weeks ago. And as I am getting my bearings, cloaked and at a safe distance, the wormhole crackles behind me. A Cheetah appears, a cov-ops but not the expected Anathema, and warps clear. I don't see where it heads, mostly because the wormhole crackles again to bring a Legion strategic cruiser in to the system.

The Legion also warps from the wormhole, and this time I see its parting vector. The strategic cruiser disappears to empty space, so isn't local. It also has further escorts, at whatever wormhole it next jumps through, with a two more strategic cruisers appearing briefly on d-scan. It looks to me like the Cheetah was scouting the Legion safely home, with the other two ships ready to assist the returning ship should it encounter trouble. That's a wise move. So is tagging their corporation for Fin to be able to identify any other ships planning to come this way.

I won't scan C3b. I don't see the point just yet. It's good to know that traffic may be coming this way, but as long as they don't know about our wormhole we should be okay. What's more important is making sure Fin can get back in to w-space, and back to our tower. I jump to C3a, warp to the high-sec exit, and report that the wormhole still lives. The probes in the system disappear, the Anathema blips on scan again, and the system goes quiet. I hope it's a good quiet.

In comes Fin. I am sitting on our K162, in case the Anathema comes back, and because Fin can probably handle jumping back to high-sec if anything goes wrong on the other side of the system. But all looks good. She warps across to our wormhole, jumps home, and, after a pause, says that she has reached our tower safely. Good. And as there are no probes visible in the system, and almost nothing to scan anyway, I think it's relatively safe to say the Anathema hasn't come this way. After the evening's excitement, I think that means it's time to go off-line after finishing with circumstances going right again. We should do more of that.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Getting back on track
Tags: anathema, cheetah, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Making negative ISK

We could probably use some ISK. For that, I have a cunning plan: isolate our system, shoot Sleepers for profit. It's so simple I don't know why anyone else hasn't thought of it. I'm almost worried about sharing this knowledge in case it gets abused, but that's a risk I'll have to take. First, isolate our system. If there's just the static wormhole you could assume that it hasn't been visited and, therefore, has no K162. But that isn't a guarantee, should some other scout have wandered in, taken a dislike to your system, and collapsed their wormhole. So, ideally, we need to scan, resolve the wormhole, and collapse it.

As with pretty much every plan I've ever made when flying a spaceship, I don't even get past the first step cleanly. The home w-space system holds three signatures, two being new and not the static wormhole. In a dramatic break in tradition, I hope that the signatures are gas but, naturally, they turn out to be wormholes. That complicates isolating our system, but I probably shouldn't overlook the possibility of a free roam. Having a couple of K162s connecting to our system offer better opportunities than outbound wormholes at the moment. I'll see what I can find to keep me amused.

One wormhole is being left alone, the K162 from further class 4 w-space having been destabilised to critical levels. The other is a healthy K162 from class 2 w-space. That sounds more suitable, and it should hold a second wormhole that exits to high-sec, which will be useful for retrieving my battered Loki strategic cruiser. Not that I have a contract for it yet. You know, I suspect I'm not going to see that ship again. Never mind.

Jumping to C2a has an interesting sight on my directional scanner: just a Tengu, not a tower in range of the strategic cruiser. Flicking a switch and updating d-scan sees Sleeper wrecks too, which explains the Tengu's presence, but inspecting each anomaly with d-scan doesn't see him in any of them. That's a shame, and warping across the system doesn't get me out of range of the Tengu, as well as bringing three towers, a second Tengu, and a Vulture command ship in to range. Even if I could get the drop on the Tengu, I should probably see if he has any allies available to help him.

Locating the towers has the other two ships in the same one, both piloted, neither really looking like they are doing anything. The first Tengu is here now as well, having left whatever it was he was doing to float idly too. I'm not convinced I was spotted when entering the system, because there was a fair delay between moving from the wormhole and the Tengu exiting whatever site he was in, but I suppose it's a possibility.

As the Tengu is at the tower, and the wormhole is out of range of the tower, simple logic suggests that I should be able to launch scanning probes out of range of any obviously watching ships. I warp back to the other side of the system, see nothing on d-scan, and launch probes, hiding them above the system's ecliptic plane for now. A blanket scan reveals eleven anomalies, seven signatures, and the three ships, but there's not much I can do at the moment but sit and watch.

The three ships do nothing inside the tower's force field, and for long enough to convince me to scan, at least for the site the Tengu was in. I get a good bearing and range on the Sleeper wrecks, call my probes in, and, after a couple of scans, resolve a data site. Warping to the site sees the wrecks unlooted, the databases not hacked, and a single Sleeper battleship moping around. Either I was spotted, or the Tengu is taking a break. Whatever it is, there's not much I can do here. I may as well take a look through our static wormhole.

Back home, across to the C247, and on to C3a, where a tower appears on d-scan with a bunch of ships. There's a fair mix of hull types which, along with a lack of wrecks, almost certainly indicates they aren't all piloted. Locating the tower confirms my suspicion, seeing a capsuleer in the Cheetah covert operations boat only, and with no probes visible I doubt even she is active. I launch probes and scan quickly, the five anomalies and four signatures giving me gas, a static exit to low-sec, and a relic site. The low-sec exit leads to Verge Vendor, where one additional signature resolves to be a data site. It's pretty dull.

I suppose I'll scan C2a properly now, but making my way back to the system has the Tengu visible on d-scan from the wormhole again. I move, cloak, and warp to my perch in the data site only to appear on the edge of a site once more without the strategic cruiser. The one Sleeper battleship has been despatched, but now two of his buddies are here to take revenge. Maybe there is a scout sitting on the wormhole, as his movements are quite coincidental, but the slow exit the first time has me confused.

Ignore the missing Tengu, my glorious leader has arrived. Maybe we should put the initial plan in to action. Collapsing all of the connections isn't much more troublesome than crashing just our own, and at least bouncing between wormholes gives us something to do whilst waiting for polarisation effects to dissipate. Fin tackles the critical K162 first, hopping in to a heavy interdictor fit for the task, and making a return trip. The wormhole lives, which is a shame, but it has lost more mass. We can give it another go shortly.

Now in to the massive ships. As I've just come back from C2a we head towards our static wormhole first. Two big ships go out, two big ships come back. Across to the C2 K162, two big ships go out, one big ship goes back and the wormhole destabilises to half mass. That's not quite what we're expecting, but it's not really unexpected either, and at least it gives us good information. I activate my cloak, orbit the wormhole, and scribble down some maths. It takes a minute, but I think we can do this properly. I jump back, as Fin finishes taking another crack at the C4 K162.

The critical wormhole stays critical after another pass with the HIC. At this point, it may not let a cov-ops through without collapsing, so I think we're okay with leaving it that way. Now for the two wormholes that would be troublesome to leave open. Back to the C247, and out we go and back we come. The wormhole implodes right on schedule. That was the simple one, though. Across to the C2 K162 and out we go. Oops, the wormhole drops to critical levels on my outwards jump. I think that's okay. I did the maths, after all. I reassure Fin, and jump back home. The wormhole dies.

The wormhole dies with Fin, in an Orca industrial command ship, not known for quick warping or focussed scanning, still in C2a. I thought I did the maths! What went wrong? And before I can apologise for not even finding the static exit to high-sec, which would help my glorious leader, Fin gives me a sitrep. 'I have guests.' Maybe there really was a scout sitting on the wormhole to keep the Tengu safe. Or maybe there wasn't. I don't know, because I only saw the two Tengus and a Vulture, which I initially hope Fin will be able to shake off to get safe. Apparently not. Fin's guests are a Purifier stealth bomber, Proteus strategic cruiser, Legion strategic cruiser, Ares interceptor, Arazu recon ship, and Onyx HIC. Where the bloody hell did all those come from?

Wherever the ships came from, they clearly observed our first pair of jumps and were waiting for the second. If my maths had been right they would have been disappointed. But there is the possibility that my maths was right and they sabotaged the calculations by sneaking their own jump through the wormhole. Whatever the case—it was my maths—all I can do is wait for Fin to update me on her status, which ends up with her losing the Orca but getting to high-sec. I could be wrong, but I think losing another expensive ship is not quite what I had in mind for the evening. I feel like a damned jinx right now. I need to get myself together.

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Tags: arazu, ares, cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, purifier, pvp, scanning, tengu, vulture, w-space

Greyer shade of blue

A conversation request so soon after combat? I can only imagine my opponents want to congratulate me on my skill and tenacity. I hope that they also want to give me my Loki back. Strategic cruisers cost a fair amount of ISK to replace, after all. I accept the request, because why wouldn't I, and see a capusleer I am unfamiliar with. Even cross-checking his corporation with that of the pilots who ambushed me doesn't match. But surely this isn't a coincidence.

No coincidence here. Capsuleers rarely want to talk to me normally, and this one is no exception. It seems that I shot a blue. Or, rather, the other fleet shot a blue. Me. I was blue to them, and they want to find out if they are also blue to us. And, naturally, why I would execute such an attack if that is the case. Well, it's all news to me, as the Procurer didn't look blue, the fleet that helped me out of my Loki didn't look blue, and the corporation is about as grey as the Manchester skyline.

Fin comes on-line, and when my glorious leader is brought in to the conversation she's just as in the dark as me. It seems that someone, at some point, struck up some kind of arrangement with another someone. Who did that and with who is left as an exercise to the reader, because none of us know. And it didn't seem to matter either. Although my blue hue may have slowed down the reaction time of the hostile fleet, they certainly didn't mind being hostile towards me. But, hey, if we're blue, can I have my Loki back, please?

My attempt to turn the hostile engagement in to a combat manoeuvre doesn't quite come off, with no immediate agreement to give me my ship back. I just parked it near the mining barge, dudes. Maybe I left the keys in it. Even so, I'd quite like it back. Fin gets to work and negotiates a transfer, which is provisionally agreed upon. The Loki will be taken to high-sec and contracted back to me for a decent sum of ISK. Not as much as a new ship, but a guaranteed quick sale. Well, guaranteed if the fleet actually honours the deal.

I'm a little dubious about the deal. Personally, I think it makes rational sense to accept, as long as they don't want a Loki fit with those specific subsystems, as liquid ISK must be better than having a ship sit in storage. But the static exit to high-sec in the class 3 w-space system is at the end of its life. If they're going to use that connection to dock and contract the Loki back to me the window of opportunity to collect it in a convenient location could be small. It may be just a ruse to get me back out of the home system.

Fin goes to check. Well, Fin goes to check the state of the high-sec exit, but inadvertently manages to see if the hostile fleet is waiting for me. And they pretty much are. A Legion decloaks on our side of our static wormhole, the strategic cruiser not jumping itself but moving to nuzzle up to the locus, clearly waiting for someone to come back. That someone would be Fin, who has attracted plenty of attention from the rest of the fleet on the other side of the wormhole. I'm not getting a fuzzy feeling about this.

The wormhole crackles. The Legion hasn't gone; other ships are coming in. A Loki (not mine), two Proteus strategic cruisers, an Ishtar heavy assault cruiser, Broadsword heavy interdictor, and a Falcon recon ship—really? You need to inflict ECM on an opponent on top of all that force?—all appear around the wormhole. And there's Fin, in a bit of empty space, cloaking, jinking, and, so she says, warping. That's a relief.

A pair of the ships cruise out towards Fin's last known location, as I watch cloaked from a distance. She's not there, of course, so their attempts to bump her fail. But clearly our wormhole is not safe at the moment, and even when the fleet has left, and no movement is seen for quite a while, it still doesn't feel safe. Curiously, the pilots don't use the exit in C3a to contract the Loki back to me, which would be one way to lure us back out of our home system. Instead, we just float in space, shooting the breeze solar wind, before going off-line for the night. Tomorrow is another day.

Posted in Gaming | 6 Comments »
Tags: broadsword, eve online, falcon, ishtar, legion, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, w-space

Obvious bait is still not easy to ignore

What delights will there be in w-space this evening? Nothing at home, the gas even having drifted away, and jumping to the neighbouring class 3 system sees the standard tower and no ships on my directional scanner. It's an uninspiring start, but, then, it usually is. This is why I scan. Warping out, launching probes, and performing a blanket scan of the system gets me underway, my probes revealing five anomalies and five signatures. And one ship?

The ship isn't visible on d-scan from my position on the edge of the system, and is gone when I return to the inner system to loiter outside the local tower. Maybe it was just passing through, as a previous visit lets me know there is an exit to high-sec to be found. I'll scan for that, as well as likely K162s. There's one, and, as I am in warp to the first wormhole, I scan a second one, this wormhole with a Helios covert operations boat coincident with it.

I drop out of warp next to an uninteresting K162 from null-sec, and bounce across to where the Helios was, landing near a K162 from class 5 w-space that's sitting at half mass. Given the obvious ship transits that have occurred, it's a shame that my probes have almost certainly been spotted by a scout. It doesn't seem to affect the Helios's spirit, as the ship decloaks twenty kilometres from the destabilised wormhole to launch probes. Quite why he's doing that I can't say, as I am assuming he's come from the C5 and, if that's the case, has already scanned this C3.

But maybe the Helios is a tourist, recalled his probes on finding this wormhole, and wants to scan for further connections. I dunno. But if he's scanning, and knows someone else is around, I may as well continue. And it's all wormholes. The third signature is the static exit to high-sec, looking like it goes to Tash-Murkon and definitely wobbling on its last legs, the fourth a K162 from class 4 w-space and also at the end of its life. In-between scanning and warping around a Navitas frigate blips on d-scan.

The only healthy wormholes are our own and the connection from null-sec, and the active system probably knows I'm here. This isn't a great system to be in, but I'll make the most of what I've got. It's possible the C5 wormhole is still being used, and probably where the Navitas went or came from, so I head that way to loiter. But I also still wonder if the Helios came from there or is a tourist, and if I am best served waiting for him by this K162. Obviously not, if he has been here and didn't like what he saw. Even more obviously not when he blips on d-scan elsewhere.

Our own K162 is a better place to watch for the Helios, so I warp in that direction. I don't really expect to see the cov-ops, given how long it takes to warp and how little time it takes to jump through a wormhole. But there he is, near our K162, as I drop out of warp. I think he found the null-sec K162 and went there first before coming this way. Now he's jumping through to our home system, which seems almost promising. We have nothing of interest to see or find, and the Helios may come right back, polarised, in to my waiting cloaky Loki strategic cruiser.

Of course, the Helios is still a cov-ops and difficult to catch, but it remains my best target. At least for as long as it takes for me to update d-scan and see a Procurer now in the system. The mining barge is easily found by d-scan, in an ore site, and smells distinctly like bait. But I'll take it. Of course I'll take it. Bait is meant to be alluring. It's the dessert tray, chocolate cake wafted in front of you after a big meal when you know you shouldn't indulge any more. Just one slice, just the mining barge. What harm can it do?

I ignore the Helios and warp to the ore site, making a perch for convenience, and watch the Procurer bounce off one rock to get closer to another. Plagioclase. That should be a clue, on top of scanning probes whizzing around the system minutes previously obviously giving away the presence of scouts. But still I warp in closer, fully intent on poking the Procurer. D-scan looks clear, naturally, as the barge starts chomping on rocks like that's what it's here for. If only I didn't encounter the occasionally oblivious capsuleer who really does mine like this.

I approach and set a generous orbit around the Procurer, aiming to stay only just in warp scrambler range for an easy escape. Then change my mind and get closer so my guns will do more damage, if only to give historians a point to debate in the future. Now to spring the ambush—whichever way it's going to go. I decloak, lock on to the Procurer and start shooting. Now let's—yep, it's a trap. The Procurer returns my target lock, activates its own warp scrambler and web, and looses ECM drones. I knew I should have been more wary. But no ships decloak around me, so let's see what I can do about my situation.

I align my Loki back to my perch, but the web is slowing me down significantly and I can't activate my micro warp drive. Had I just a kilometre to cover escape may have been possible. But I don't. What I need to do is remove the source of the warp scrambler, and I overheat my guns in an attempt to do that. A hostile Loki has appeared on d-scan now, although not in the rock field yet, so I have a slim chance of surviving this. Very slim. Naturally, a bait Procurer is going to be fit differently from a mining Procurer, so even though I evaporate the barge's shields and rake through most of its armour, it is still intact when the first of the ambush fleet arrives.

Not only am I now held in place by multiple ships, the ECM drones have finally dropped my target lock. I can't even get a crappy kill for my troubles. I'd better save what I can, so burn my ancillary shield boosters to try to keep my Loki afloat whilst the ill-conceived aggression flag prevents me from abandoning ship. I don't think it's going to work, not even with the boosters overheated, when my Loki, taking structure damage, begins to repair its shields at an increased rate. This isn't good.

I'm not keeping my ship intact as much as the fleet is. They've stopped shooting my crippled Loki, that's why I am able to repair it. There is no ransom demand yet, but I'm more thinking that this lull is actually to bring a ship with a bubble in to position. Assuming they want my pod, and as my aggression flag has now dropped, I deny them that, even if it gives them my Loki. It is already lost. I eject, and warp clear. I keep my clone, and my skill points, but my poor Loki, lost to bait that couldn't have been more obvious if the Procurer had been named 'maggot'. I'm shipless. Now what?

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: eve online, helios, loki, mmorpg, navitas, penny ibramovic, procurer, pvp, scanning, w-space

Ships stumbling together

My glorious leader is trying to drum up some interest in w-space by taking an industrial ship through several systems to make use of an exit to high-sec. It's a bold move, Cotton. Let's see how it pays off. I, on the other hand, have merely found that route to high-sec, a couple of scouts in covert operations boats, and a handful of pilots idling in tower force fields. It's not been a particularly interesting evening.

Whether it is the apparent dearth of activity or simply my normal desire to cause explosions, a Buzzard sitting on a wormhole looks like a thoroughly legitimate target. I think it's the mix of the lack of activity, my desire to explode ships, and pretty much any ship's being a legitimate target in w-space. And I find this covert operations boat when I've given up for the night and jump between class 3 w-space systems on my way home. There he is, a few klicks from the wormhole, just sitting there.

A target's a target, using impeccable logic, otherwise known as tautology, so I shed my session change cloak to take my best shot. I gain a positive lock, set my autocannons to 'do your worst, my death-dealing chums', and surprisingly catch the cov-ops off-guard. Not only that, but when the Buzzard explodes and ejects its pod in to space I catch that too. It takes a while to lock on to the pod as well, which I only realise when I am moving to scoop the corpse is owing to my forgetting to turn on the sensor booster.

What I also notice when moving to scoop the corpse is the Myrmidon battlecruiser warping to the wormhole. I wonder what he's doing here, and whether I should engage whilst scooping and looting my plunder. What he's doing here, it seems, is leaving. The Myrmidon jumps to C3b, where I just came from, leaving me to grab the corpse and loot the wreck. I then give chase, expecting to be too slow anyway, and then realising on jumping back that it's probably best I was too slow. I am now polarised, after all.

Somehow I've podded a pilot and managed through indecision not to get in to trouble. I need to be more careful. But now that I'm safe I take another look around, seeing the Myrmidon on my directional scanner but with nothing else to go with it. The tower is far out of range, the Myrmidon didn't look to be local anyway, and no one has followed the battlecruiser through the wormhole. What's going on?

I trace the Myrmidon using d-scan to the nearest planet, where I follow him to see the ship sitting stationary and having warped here from the wormhole to drop short by a hundred kilometres. That's awfully bait-like behaviour, but nothing warped to the wormhole after the Myrmidon, nor followed behind me, so if it is bait it is most peculiar bait. Even so, it is floating in space nowhere near having a wormhole for a convenient exit. If I engage, one of us is exploding.

I'd rather the explosion be the Myrmidon, and as Fin is returning from failing to excite potential ambushers—and something about hauling ore—I can perhaps afford to wait for a little support. I take the time Fin takes to get home and swap for a more suitable ship to get closer to the Myrmidon. It takes a little while to close the gap whilst flying cloaked, but I get within warp scrambler range without the battlecruiser budging an inch. It's all a bit suspicious.

If this battlecruiser isn't bait, why was finding it so easy? The pilot could have made a safe spot, or be moving in an arbitrary direction as fast as his engines can thrust him. Or both. It's circumstances like this that potentially make real bait so easy to take. Sometimes capsuleers really are so oblivious to their surroundings or established practices. Then again, I suppose that includes the baited. I'm about to find out.

Fin has made it back to this system, and I've called for her to warp to my position. I may as well engage the Myrmidon now and hopefully give Fin a chance to evade should I get in to trouble. But, nope, the Myrmidon sits there and takes my initial abuse, apparently on top of whatever abuse it has already taken. Targeting the ship sees that it has almost no armour left already. That's the result of either a shoddy manufacturer or some previous combat. And as Fin drops in to inflict more damage, and the capsuleer starts pleading for some kind of mercy, I suspect this battlecruiser has recently fled some Sleepers.

It's the Myrmidon pilot's first foray in to w-space, so he says. I almost feel bad for blowing up his ship. And it does explode, quite nicely too. I do actually feel bad about locking on to the pod and shooting it on reflex, just as the pilot is explaining his situation, but thankfully the first volley misses and I am able to deactivate my guns before I creak it open. As much as I like my corpse collection, I'm not entirely heartless. I offer our new pod buddy the high-sec exit we've found, but he prefers to take the clone express. I admire his resolve.

He seemed nice. His corpse can sit at the tea party table, and not in the pile with most of the others. Fin even sends him a little note of encouragement. I hope he doesn't see it as condescending. And even though podding a player new to w-space isn't exactly an ideal hunt, we are here to keep w-space dangerous for whoever happens to be around. And if we can't make it dangerous for whoever we find, that should be because those we find are making it dangerous for us. As it should be.

Posted in Gaming | 7 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space