Mostly finding wormholes

21st September 2013 – 3.43 pm

Nothing to see here. Move along. And not much to see through our static wormhole, either. The neighbouring class 3 w-space system has the standard tower and lack of ships that is becoming more common, and performing a blanket scan reveals a meagre two anomalies and five signatures. Still, scanning them resolves nothing but wormholes, which is not as bleak as I was expecting. The static exit to low-sec is joined by a K162 also from low-sec, a K162 from null-sec, and a K162 from class 2 w-space. It's a nice selection.

I'll poke the exits first. The U210 leads to Heimatar, where no one is in the system in the middle of nowhere. Heading back to C3a and out through the K162 to low-sec plants me six hops from the other exit, in a more fashionable district of Heimatar, if the eleven pilots in the system are any gauge. It's still not interesting to me, though. The null-sec connection in C3a takes me to a system in Stain, where being alone encourages me to find a rat to pop for a gain in security status, although a lack of other signatures stops me scanning.

And now to continue the exciting w-space adventures of Penny Ibramovic. Updating my directional scanner from the wormhole in C2a has nothing appear, but there's more to see in the system and I warp around to explore after launching probes. My notes have details of occupation that has been replaced by a different corporation, and tells me that I found a wormhole to class 5 w-space the last time I was here. But I came through a wormhole that connects to class 3 w-space today. The veracity of my notes will be straightforward to check, with only two anomalies and four signatures to scan.

All the signatures are wormholes again. This is a rare occasion. The K162 from class 4 w-space looks good, and the other two wormholes are definitely the static connections, leading to class 5 w-space and null-sec, with the link to C3a being a random connection. Popping out to null-sec again puts me in Geminate this time, again alone, so again I rat. How exciting. Once back in C2a I go back in a different sense to C4a.

A Helios covert operations boat and three towers light up d-scan. Be still my beating heart. There's nothing else to see in the system, and the two anomalies and three signatures this time hold no more wormholes, just gas, which I determine even with the Helios being piloted at one of the towers. He's probably asleep anyway, the system being so dull. I'm leaving.

Onwards to C5a, where I expect I'll have plenty more opportunity to scan. D-scan is clear, a magnetar adds some extra light, and one planet out of range holds a tower empty of ships. Seven anomalies and three signatures give me just wormholes for a third time in an evening, letting me enjoy good scanning results even if there is no one left around to witness it. Another K162 from null-sec this time comes from Oasa, but seeing a couple of pilots in the system deters me from ratting. That's okay, as the static wormhole in C5a takes me down a w-space class to a C4 system.

Jumping to C4b is occupied but inactive, just like the others, making me think that I should consider winding the evening down. But as my notes point to a static connection to class 3 w-space I'm tempted to push through to the next system, which is likely to be a dead end. The fifteen anomalies and seven signatures are no impediment either, particularly when the C247 I'm looking for is the same type as our own static connection, so I know just what I'm looking for. And there it is, first choice.

C3b mixes it up a bit by having two towers lacking ships, but the mere three anomalies and three signatures encourages me to see scanning through to the end. I launch probes and resolve, well, two more wormholes, one of them having a weak signature. I'm kinda hoping that I'm looking at a K162 from low-sec and static exit to null-sec, just so I have some resolution, so it's almost a shame to drop out of warp next to a U210. That static exit to low-sec will make the other wormhole an outbound connection to more w-space. Damn.

The second wormhole is an N770 link to class 5 w-space, which itself will link to at least one more w-space system. Actually, space, I didn't want to start exploring down another chain of systems so late in to the evening, although I appreciate the opportunity. And, of course, I can't resist taking a peek through the already-scanned wormhole. Occupied and inactive. Okay, that's game over. Time to go home. From C5b, to C3b, C4b, C5a, C2a, C3a, and home. All quiet, all dull.

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

Aligned for an exit

20th September 2013 – 5.31 pm

Extra signatures in the home system aren't accompanied by foreign ships. Do they lead somewhere? One leads to gas, the other two to wormholes, plus our static connection. That's good so far. Warping around sees a K162 from class 2 w-space, a K162 from class 3 w-space, and a disappointingly dying static wormhole. It's good that I have alternative options this evening. Neither of the two connecting systems by default offers an auxiliary option but an exit from w-space, so I pick the supposedly softer of the two systems and jump to C2a first.

A tower and shuttle appear when I update my directional scanner on the other side of the wormhole, which seems pretty boring. Noting that it is a different tower from seven months ago doesn't spice up the system either, and although the shuttle is no longer visible within a couple of minutes, having the only ship in the system disappear is hardly the kind of activity I'm looking for. But the wreck of a battlecruiser, seen when adjusting d-scan settings, perhaps indicates that the system's security has been compromised and activity levels subdued. Oh well.

Exploring finds a second tower and still no ships, and a blanket scan has one anomaly and seven signatures. The wreck, looted, floats near a customs office. Is it the result of an ambush gone wrong? Or maybe an ambush gone right, given that the pilot belongs to a state academy. I'm not going to find out, I suppose, so I scan. Four wormholes accompany some relics and a bit of gas, giving me a K162 from null-sec, a K162 from high-sec, the static exit to high-sec that's sitting at half mass, and a K162 from more class 2 w-space. That's a good enough result.

Poking through the half-mass high-sec wormhole plonks me in Domain. In Amarr itself, in fact. No wonder the wormhole has been mass-stressed. I think perhaps I could use it myself, but returning to C2a has a Cyclone appear on d-scan, and maybe the system is no longer safe. The battlecruiser turns out to be at a local tower, so I watch him for a bit, not that I know what the lone ship could do in the system. Neither does he, apparently, and the Cyclone remains content with merely floating. I'll see what's through the other wormholes.

The K162 from high-sec also connects with Domain, and is three hops from Amarr. That would normally be enough to see me flying an Orca out to get fuel, but it seems that having a direct connection to Amarr makes logistics feel too easy. Still, I can't help feeling that space is trying to tell me something, something like 'you need to replace that Legion strategic cruiser that got destroyed recently'. Space should tell me its ideas more clearly at the time and not later the next day. Dumb space.

Back to C2a and out to null-sec space, and the Outer Ring region, where I pop a rat but have no further signatures to scan. That's cool, as I have C2b to explore. D-scan is clear back in w-space, and the one planet out of range holds a tower but no ships. It's a messy system too, discouraging me from scanning with another system connecting to our home system ready and waiting to be visited. I can come back here if I need to.

To C2a, where the Cyclone remains inactive, home, and through the K162 to C3b. Again, d-scan is clear and a single planet sits out of range, holding a tower and no ships. A blanket scan of the system reveals eighteen anomalies and ten signatures, and scanning itself has a covert operations boat appear under my probes. Balls to my bad timing. The wormhole it came from, or went to, is an I182 outbound connection to class 2 w-space too, which could have been good to explore. Still, there are three more wormholes in the system, so even though my probes must have been seen there may be opportunity yet.

The N968 outbound connection to class 3 w-space is good, the static exit to low-sec expected, and a K162 from class 4 w-space is most likely to hold activity. I jump to C4a, hoping that it's a dead end, and see a tower with no ships on d-scan. And it is a dead end, with just one signature in the system, making it easy to ignore the eighteen anomalies and head right back to C3b. The N968 wormhole now has the best chance of catching ships unawares, and jumping to C3c sees a tower, Rorqual capital industrial ship, and nothing out of range. So much for that hope.

Back to C3b and on to C2c, through the clearly active wormhole. Is anyone waiting for me? Nopers. At least, not that I can see. And nothing is visible on d-scan either. Taking a look around the system finds ships, though, with a Cormorant destroyer, Imicus frigate, and Anathema cov-ops somewhere. Not together, and not at a tower, but somewhere. As I consider scanning their location the Imicus warps to the customs office I just happen to be near to, turns around, and warps away again. Well, thanks for giving me an idea of your location, sir.

I warp away from the ships to launch probes, and find two more towers and a piloted Algos destroyer at one of the towers. That's good to know. I warp away again, this time out of range of any towers and ships, but this time see some wrecks on d-scan. Wrecks won't see me, so I launch probes, hide them and hide me, and change my plan. Instead of looking for the ships I'll look for the wrecks, with the plan of catching the ships when they turn up to claim the loot.

As with most plans of mine, this one does not proceed as expected. I 'hunt' the wrecks, get my probes arrange around them, and wait for the ships to arrive, but none do. I scan anyway, expecting to see a relic or data site, but there's nothing there. Just wrecks. And now fewer wrecks, as they start to disintegrate. Do the ships not want this loot? Have I just wasted my time here? I'd shoot them for this, if they had the common decency to warp under my probes. Still, they must be somewhere, so I warp back to where I first saw them to see if they are still there. Kinda.

All that's left of the ships is the Algos, but at least he's out of the tower and in space. Okay, I'll scan for him instead. And as the other site was left to decay I'm expecting to resolve a wormhole, so I don't take much care in scanning. One rough scan, one finer scan, and I've resolved, huh, the ship and a site. Maybe I should have taken more care after all. I warp in to see the destroyer salvaging some Sleeper wrecks, almost finished. I may have a chance of catching him, even though he may be alerted to my presence and ready to warp clear. What the hell, I've come this far, I'm going to have a go.

I get close to the Algos, decloak, activate my sensor booster, and burn towards my target. I go for a positive target lock but, damn, the destroyer warps clear before I can stop him. He must have licked the monolith and got smart. But what with my presence probably known in C3b, and being rather lackadaisical by taking two attempts to scan his position, it's perhaps no surprise that the pilot was ready to get clear. Still, I saw other pilots and almost got to shoot one, which seems like a good result given recent days.

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Tags: algos, anathema, cormorant, cyclone, eve online, imicus, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Overkill Sleeper fleet

19th September 2013 – 5.32 pm

The home system is back to holding me and the static wormhole, at least as long as it takes me to resolve the wormhole and jump through to see what our neighbours are up to. Not much. A tower and complete lack of ships appears on my directional scanner, and a black hole looms in the background. Launching probes and scanning the class 3 w-space system shows what lazy bastards the locals are too, with twenty-two anomalies and fifteen signatures littered around. It's not the worst system I've seen though, and it won't take long to scan.

Before I look for wormholes I want to locate the tower. My notes from four months ago tell me it will be bubbled, not that it matters for my interdiction-nullified Loki strategic cruiser, and although the bubbles remain the tower is now off-line. A new one has been erected, the previous occupants gone. It's not difficult to locate the new tower, giving me a false sense of accomplishment for the evening already, and so I scan.

Two wormholes are plucked from the noise. The static exit to low-sec leads out to the Metropolis region, and I find myself briefly in a system not close to anywhere and without other signatures. The other wormhole in C3a is now dead, apparently. Maybe it's good that I popped out to low-sec first. And so it's back to low-sec, after waiting for polarisation to end, and towards a stargate to hop to a different system, looking for more wormholes.

A couple of signatures one system across in low-sec yield a combat site and a wormhole, an outbound connection to more class 3 w-space. That'll do. D-scan is clear from the K162, though, a tower from nine months ago now off-line. Exploring the system has my bumping in to a tower of some new occupants, but no one's home. No ships are at the tower, no ships appear under my combat probes when performing a blanket scan of the system. All I see is the tower, and nine anomalies and six signatures.

A tower, nine anomalies, six signatures, and a second tower. Rather than assuming there was just the one I actually explore the whole system to avoid surprises later. Good scouting tonight, Penny. Scanning gives me gas, a relic site, more gas, gas again, and the static exit to low-sec. Standard dullness. Out I go, this time to a system in Genesis, also the middle of nowhere, but this time with three extra signatures offering some kind of promise. I resolve a combat site, relic site, and a K162 from class 3 w-space, letting exploration continue in my native environment.

Again I see only a tower on d-scan, the lack of ships not being particularly inspiring, but maybe there is a K162 to find. Or a fleet will turn up a few seconds later. A Guardian logistics ship, two Deimos heavy assault cruisers, three Talos battlecruisers, a Brutix battlecruiser, Augoror cruiser, Legion strategic cruiser, Prophecy battlecruiser, Harbinger battlecruiser, three Oracle battlecruisers, and a Sacrilege heavy assault ship is serious overkill for Sleeper combat, but the fleet is in the single anomaly in the system. Maybe they don't want to waste time.

Warping in sees the fleet smash the Sleepers with the ruthless efficiency of a People's Glorious October Revolution Tractor Factory, but they leave the wrecks behind when warping out. Whilst I can't quite believe a fleet with so many available and active pilots would skimp on the protection for a salvager I have seen similar peculiar decisions made before. I may as well loiter and see what happens, just in case a lone Noctis warps in believing the system is safe and secure.

D-scan is clear again, but no salvager appears. I still haven't explored the system fully, but I am loath to leave my perch in case I miss my opportunity of an ambush. I really would like to know if the fleet is local or not, though, and if they remain in the system, particularly given that I am sitting in the only anomaly. D-scan stays clear, so I risk decloaking in my perch, launching probes, and blanketing the system. And, from their hidden vantage point, my combat scanning probes reveal seven signatures and all of the ships elsewhere in the system.

That makes sense. I wouldn't have thought a decent-sized fleet would be mobilised for a single anomaly, so they are probably pillaging the relic and data sites too, at least for the Sleeper loot and salvage, although judging by the strength of the signatures there are only two of those sites. Still, maybe I won't have to wait long for a salvager to come. And indeed I don't. The only problem is that he's flying a Legion. Well, that, plus the fleet warps in behind the strategic cruiser to keep him company.

I think it's time to call it a night. There's no way I can do anything to disrupt this fleet's operation. I bring my probes in to the system and scan for their wormhole, assuming they are not local, and am not surprised to see that they don't flee. They know what they're doing and would probably welcome the fight. A quick scan resolves a K162 from class 2 w-space that's destabilised to half mass, which must come from their home system, but I'm not going in. It's just informative to know it's there. Instead, I turn around and head home. At least I found some activity this evening.

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Tags: augoror, brutix, deimos, eve online, guardian, harbinger, legion, loki, mmorpg, oracle, penny ibramovic, prophecy, sacrilege, scanning, talos, w-space

Scanning only takes me so far

18th September 2013 – 5.58 pm

Do a couple of new signatures in the home system imply I have company? Maybe, as they are both incoming wormholes, one from class 3 w-space and one from class 5 w-space. I don't see many C3 K162s in our system, and is it may well lead to a dead end—or, at least, merely an exit to low-sec—I think I'll look that way before going backwards up a potentially long chain of w-space. So, of course, C3b is unoccupied and inactive, strongly indicating I have another K162 to find here too.

No matter, I can scan. Being in w-space, scanning is what I do. The system is scruffy, a natural condition for its being unoccupied, with twenty-one anomalies and sixteen signatures to sift through. There's so much gas I think I can take my helmet off, as well as the almost-obligatory static exit to low-sec and the second wormhole I expected. The U210 leads to a system in Khanid, one pilot in the system, no other signatures, and the K162 in C3b comes from class 4 w-space. Maybe this won't be a short leg of the constellation after all.

A tower and some handy combat ships that are mostly used against other capsuleers are visible on my directional scanner in this magnetar system. In fact, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking on many of the ships individually, less so with the increased damage from the local phenomenon, so I'm not particularly thrilled to see three Sleeper wrecks in the system. Then again, none of the wrecks are in any of the three anomalies present and neither are the ships, which all look to be coincident on d-scan with the tower. Maybe I can stay and take a look around.

Only a Cheetah covert operations boat is piloted out of the dozen ships at the tower, which makes this system look much less imposing. Even the magic trick of the Cheetah turning in to a Helios cov-ops doesn't faze me now, and with no other changes I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system. Ten signatures are scattered around but I'm not sure it's worth scanning. The Helios pilot may be paying partial attention and whoever abandoned the Sleeper wrecks has either been scared in to collapsing their wormhole or going off-line, or is patiently waiting to trap someone in an ambush. I think I'll go back and look for activity in another direction.

To C3b, back to the home system, and through the other K162 to C5a. Two towers and a black hole catch my attention, but not as much as the Iteron. I want to see if that hauler is piloted and active, and even though my notes from five months ago don't guide me to the towers finding them is easy. So easy, in fact, that I waste almost no time in finding the hauler floating empty in a force field, letting me get back to some exciting scanning action.

Six signatures give me two wormholes, a pair of K162s from null-sec. One comes in from the Fade region, the other Wicked Creek. It's all very interesting, but pilots in both systems deter me from doing much more than bookmarking the other side of the wormhole and returning to w-space. I still have our neighbouring class 3 system to explore, though, so I'm not abandoning exploration options just yet.

A Drake battlecruiser and Stabber cruiser look like more manageable targets, even if there is a tower and no wrecks on d-scan. And it's my seventh visit to this system, the last being a couple of months ago when we popped an Orca industrial command ship and Skiff in a mining site. They were high-sec tourists, though, and despite having a tower location in my notes I have a feeling there were two towers before. I'd better check that before doing anything rash.

Yep, a second tower is on the edge of the system, where we ambushed the miners before, and as it holds no ships I launch probes out here before heading back to reconnoitre the first tower. The ships are empty, damn them. And damn them harder for having a messy thirty-five anomalies in the system. Eight signatures isn't so bad, even if the only wormhole is the static exit to high-sec, but I still activate all of the anomalies before I leave the system.

Ohide, it's Penny! I think that's what the pilots in the system in the Devoid region would say if they'd ever heard of me, but until I achieve notoriety I'll stick with scanning the two extra signatures my probes reveal. The K162 from class 2 w-space at the end of its life doesn't tempt me, but the healthy R943 outbound connection to class 2 w-space certainly does. D-scan is clear on the other side of the wormhole, letting me launch probes, and a blanket scan gives nineteen anomalies, ten signatures, and no ships. That's a shame, but there will be a wormhole to more w-space to find.

Exploring C2a as I arrange my probes has a tower appear on d-scan, along with a Viator transport ship. A new ship in the system indicates activity, so I keep my probes hidden and locate the tower as a matter of priority. A matter of slightly lower priority once I realise that I changed my scanning filter to ignore all the ships basking in the safety of high-sec, but, still, I'm finding that tower. And it turns out that the Viator is piloted anyway, new to the system or not. Now, do I scan, or do I sit and watch the ship.

I sit and watch the ship, of course. That's more a matter of the lateness of the evening than not wanting to spook him with probes. Even should I resolve the next static wormhole I won't have time to do much more than drop on top of a planet gooer, so I simply give Mr Viator five minutes to do something or I'm out of here. So, naturally, I'm out of here five minutes later. But it's five minutes spent winding down and not moving probes around the system map ignoring pockets of gas. Then again, some nights that's all space has to offer.

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Tags: cheetah, drake, eve online, helios, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, stabber, viator, w-space

New Eden wormhole colours

17th September 2013 – 5.01 pm

Ever since copious amounts of dust spontaneously appeared in the galaxy one day, generally colourful nebulae have given each of New Eden's regions a distinctive look. And because wormholes act as tunnels between systems, allowing light through from the destination, it has been thought possible to identify what region of New Eden any wormhole leads to just by analysing the colours bleeding through. All that's required is a definitive collection of the wormhole colours and patterns of New Eden regions.

'All that's required' is an understatement. From conception to creation, my collection of w-space wormhole colours took about four months to gather, and even then it was around half-complete. It took another eighteen months before I was able to stumble across the full gamut of wormhole colours. Because of this, I have been reluctant to compile a collection of all of the New Eden wormhole colours. Until one day, when I said, 'what the hell, why not'. True story.

With a daily k-space connection via the class 3 w-space system through our static wormhole, I could get at least one wormhole colour a day, plus whatever random connections that would connect in to the system, and any others I could find in the extended constellation. Of course, the one-a-day would soon include collisions, and when I realised there are sixty-four regions of New Eden I nearly fainted. I'm pretty sure I hadn't even heard of a couple of them before. But I had started by that point. I'd just soldier on.

Before the colours are presented, there are some factors to take in to account.

Wormholes not only allow light through from the destination system but also reflect those of the current system. The outer-ring of the wormhole can thus mislead or misrepresent what is on the other side. I have tried to collect the clearest possible representation of the destination region's colours, but bear in mind that you will need to discount part of what you're seeing, either in my images or that of the wormhole you are examining.

Wormholes also act as lenses: the images seen through the wormhole are upside-down representations of how the nebulae actually look in space.

The nebulae in the destination region are not the same everywhere in the region. The nebulae can be in that region, or be in an adjacent region. Those of an adjacent region can increase or diminish in size in relation to the proximity of the system to the bordering region. This can affect the prominence of the colours seen in the wormhole.

Some regions have similar borders with other regions, resulting in having similar nebulae visible in the region and thus in wormholes leading to that region. Don't blame me if two wormholes look alike but lead to different regions.

Looking through a wormhole is like peering through a tunnel: you don't see all that's on the other side. From one angle, a regional nebula may be prominently in the middle of the wormhole. From another, it could be on the edge. For this reason, I have collected two images of each regional connection, to give a better representation of what you may see. Even so, I recommend spinning your view around the wormhole too, so that whatever colours are present become more obvious.

The nebulae found around New Eden can be distinctive, but some are fairly similar. Coupled with the above factors, it can be difficult to determine exactly what you are looking at. I have personally captured each pair of images in this collection and confirmed the destination system, immediately tagging the images afterwards. They still may be difficult to discern from another region's images. There's not much I can do about that.

For some reason, wormhole colours captured from empire space are more vivid than those viewed from w-space. Maybe there's space dust accumulated by the lack of activity. Bear this in mind, for both the images I present and the wormholes you find. Edit: since Rubicon, the dust in w-space has been swept away, and all the wormholes look much shinier now. I am in the process of updating this collection to get the best quality images as I find them.

Finally, I have no idea of the benefit of knowing what region a wormhole will take you to. You could just jump through and find out, particularly as regions are big and knowing a wormhole leads to The Forge won't tell you how close you are to Jita. Just use the information to amaze your friends. When being asked where the wormhole goes, instead of saying 'it goes up to low-sec', you can casually drop the destination region like it's no big deal.

To collate the information, I have created a table containing the name of each New Eden region, and each region name will soft-link to its related wormhole image. I have included the w-space class colours, as well as the connecting w-space wormhole colours, for completeness. And I say 'completeness' in a fairly loose sense, at least to start with. Additionally, every image has a bigger version of the image linked behind it. Further images will be added as I collect them.

In creating this guide, I have used the excellent resource showing the visible nebulae in EVE Online on the EVE Travel blog to help identify what I'm looking at.

Regional table list:

New Eden regions
Aridia	Black Rise	The Bleak Lands	Branch
Cache	Catch	The Citadel	Cloud Ring
Cobalt Edge	Curse	Deklein	Delve
Derelik	Detorid	Devoid	Domain
Esoteria	Essence	Etherium Reach	Everyshore
Fade	Feythabolis	The Forge	Fountain
Geminate	Genesis	Great Wildlands	Heimatar
Immensea	Impass	Insmother	Kador
The Kalevala Expanse	Khanid	Kor-Azor	Lonetrek
Malpais	Metropolis	Molden Heath	Oasa
Omist	Outer Passage	Outer Ring	Paragon Soul
Period Basis	Perrigen Falls	Placid	Providence
Pure Blind	Querious	Scalding Pass	Sinq Laison
Solitude	The Spire	Stain	Syndicate
Tash-Murkon	Tenal	Tenerifis	Tribute
Vale of the Silent	Venal	Verge Vendor	Wicked Creek

W-space table list:

W-space colours
Class 1	Class 2	Class 3	Class 4
Class 5	Class 6	Wormhole colour matrix

Wormhole colours of New Eden

Aridia

That's Aridia, right there. It's browner than the gold of Domain.

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Black Rise

The Cloud Ring is hiding amongst the greyness of Lonetrek, and in the distance is a touch of Verge Vendor.

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The Bleak Lands

Domain is in close proximity to The Bleak Lands, so is prominent in the wormhole colouring, and there is the slightest red hint of Metropolis in the other direction.

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Branch

Like Deklein, but not quite as empty. You can get a neat grey ring appear in certain camera positions.

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Cache

There's a hint of what looks like The Kalevala Expanse there.

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Catch

Catch obviously has its own nebula prominently visible through a wormhole to the region, as well as the slightest hints of both Immensea and Scalding Pass in the opposite direction.

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The Citadel

Even with hints of other colours, it's grey. It's Caldari space. Specifically, overtones of Lonetrek, jazzed up a little by Verge Vendor and Metropolis.

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Cloud Ring

Sure, there's a bit of Verge Vendor visible, but the Cloud Ring region is the only region to be surrounded by the Cloud Ring, which is clearly reflected by the continuous loop seen when spinning the wormhole around.

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Cobalt Edge

There is something going on there that distinguishes Cobalt Edge from Deklein, Fade, et al. You have to look for it, though.

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Curse

That looks like a mix of Catch and Scalding Pass.

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Deklein

Do you get the feeling that sometimes space is too dark and empty? If so, don't look through a wormhole to Deklein.

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Delve

One part Kor-Azor, one part Stain; keep them separated.

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Derelik

Domain and Metropolis can both be seen, like a wormhole to Devoid, but with Domain a bit fainter.

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Detorid

The distinctive turquoise of Immensea in one direction and a dull blob of Scalding Pass in the other, both relatively faint.

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Devoid

Domain and Metropolis, like a wormhole to Derelik, but with Domain looking closer.

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Domain

It's gold, Jerry. Gold!

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Esoteria

A tiny bit of a Stain, and the general cosmic background radiation of null-sec.

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Essence

Verge Vendor is prominent, Lonetrek much less so, through a wormhole to Essence.

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Etherium Reach

That's a good view of The Kalevala Expanse, if a bit distorted, with a side order of Malpais.

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Everyshore

Verge Vendor, Domain, and a touch of Metropolis. The lack of the hint of Lonetrek differentiates Everyshore from the similar Sinq Laison region.

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Fade

As if all the colours faded, but still not quite as full of nothingness as Deklein.

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Feythabolis

A winged sprite version of the Immensea nebula can be seen through a wormhole to Feythabolis.

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The Forge

The Forge almost looks vibrant for Caldari space. I put that down to finding this wormhole linking two New Eden regions together, rather than coming to The Forge from w-space. But there is a spot of red from Metropolis in there.

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Fountain

Aridia from a distance, that's a good sight.

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Geminate

Metropolis is trying to photobomb the prominent nebula of The Kalevala Expanse.

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Genesis

Two golden-browns of Aridia and Domain are offset by the green of Verge Vendor, all seen through a wormhole to Genesis.

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Great Wildlands

The Kalevala Expanse and Scalding Pass are in the same general direction through a wormhole to Great Wildlands.

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Heimatar

Look at the little devil! Grr! Heimatar is easy to recognise when you spot him.

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Immensea

Immensea's own nebula is obviously visible, which creates a lovely turquoise ring from a certain angle, along with a fairly prominent Scalding Pass and a dash of Catch in opposition.

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Impass

A wormhole to Impass has the turquoise of Immensea and a blob of Stain.

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Insmother

A big chunk of Scalding Pass, a smaller view of The Kalevala Expanse, and an added turquoise dash of Immensea gives a good view through a wormhole to Insmother.

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Kador

It's close to Domain.

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The Kalevala Expanse

A wormhole to The Kalevala Expanse is worth three images. First, the clearest view of The Kalevala Expanse's own nebula. Second, a good look at nearby Malpais. Third, both of them through the same wormhole. Pretty neat.

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Khanid

Kor-Azor one way, Stain the other. It's similar to a wormhole leading to null-sec Querious but with a much more prominent view of Kor-Azor.

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Kor-Azor

Looking through to Kor-Azor sees a highly distinctive green nebula with a solid orange/black region, which makes a complete ring when the camera is rotated around the wormhole. Stain is in the other direction, but you really don't need that detail to identify this type of wormhole.

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Lonetrek

Lonetrek's bland greyness is the epitome of Caldari space.

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Malpais

The Malpais nebula is like a lightning bolt when seen directly. Or a light-grey Italy kicking The Kalevala Expanse orange ball of Sicily.

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Metropolis

Metropolis, or Molden Heath? I dunno. I think Metropolis has those two distinct bright spots next to each other that Molden Heath lacks. It's hard to tell, as this image is taken outside of w-space and so is naturally brighter than the one for the similar region.

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Molden Heath

Molden Heath or Metropolis? I dunno. Does it lack those two bright spots to be seen through a wormhole to Metropolis? Perhaps.

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Oasa

The Oasa-wormhole view of the Malpais nebula is either a backwards 'S' or a winged serpent, depending on your imagination. So a winged serpent.

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Omist

You can see the nebula of Immensea through a wormhole to Omist, but more on its side than when looking through a wormhole to Feythabolis.

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Outer Passage

Look at the dancing man! It's a Malpais nebula hopped up on goofballs.

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Outer Ring

The Cloud Ring is very obviously present when looking through a wormhole to the Outer Ring. Of course, you can only see the whole of the Cloud Ring when viewing it from outside of its own region, because inside the Cloud Ring it's too dark to read the ring itself surrounds you. Bear that in mind when you see the Cloud Ring through a wormhole.

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Paragon Soul

A slight Stain and some cosmic background radiation is all you get on your way to Paragon Soul.

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Perrigen Falls

Another different view of the Malpais nebula for Perrigen Falls wormholes.

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Placid

Verge Vendor and Cloud Ring mix it up through a wormhole to Placid.

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Providence

A colourful combination of the Domain and Catch nebulae makes a wormhole to Providence look quite unlike most other null-sec connections.

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Pure Blind

Both Lonetrek and Cloud Ring are prominently visible through a wormhole to Pure Blind, and in the same direction too. It's difficult to split the two apart.

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Querious

There's a big Stain through this wormhole and a little Kor-Azor, like a wormhole to Khanid with a tiny version of Kor-Azor.

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Scalding Pass

Scalding Pass has its own nebula. You must be close if it makes a solid ring around the wormhole from certain angles.

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Sinq Laison

There's plenty happening through a wormhole to Sinq Laison. Most obvious is Verge Vendor, followed by a touch of Domain, a hint of Metropolis, and if you squint just right you can make out the slightest trace of Lonetrek.

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Solitude

Kor-Azor and a small version of the Cloud Ring are visible in one direction, Aridia the other.

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The Spire

Through a wormhole to The Spire, the nebulae for Malpais and The Kalevala Expanse are both visible together. The nebulae are also somewhat smaller than similar views of the pair, as well as Malpais showing us another side of itself.

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Stain

Stain may get bigger than that.

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Syndicate

Verge Vendor and Cloud Ring together at last. Both nebulae appear in the same space, making it distinct from low-sec Placid.

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Tash-Murkon

Being close to Domain and Stain makes a wormhole to Tash-Murkon quite straightforward to determine, but there's a touch of Kor-Azor too if you need it.

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Tenal

The distinctive yellow-green colouring of the Jove nebula can be seen, and the cosmic background radiation is quite prominent.

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Tenerifis

Immensea is prominently visible, and there's a tiny bit of Stain opposite.

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Tribute

Spinning the camera around the wormhole gets a solid blue ring of the Lonetrek nebula when it leads to Tribute, with Jove in the background. That's neat.

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Vale of the Silent

A hint of the yellow-green colouring of the Jove nebula, and the cosmic background radiation is faint.

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Venal

The distinctive yellow-green colouring of the Jove nebula is fairly strong, and the cosmic background radiation is visible but not as prominent as for wormholes to Tenal.

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Verge Vendor

With the green and oranges more mixed than those of Kor-Azor, wormholes to Verge Vendor have an overall greener hue from one direction and more of a mixed orange/black ring the other, making the two regions just as recognisable whilst keeping both destinations distinctive.

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Wicked Creek

That's Scalding Pass visible through a wormhole to Wicked Creek.

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Wormhole colours of w-space

The wormhole colours are distinctive for being less nuanced, their nebulae created before the Great Revamp of New Eden. They should be easy to recognise as not leading to other regions of New Eden, and so their relative class easily discerned.

Class 1 w-space

Predominantly blue and black, but with a distinct cow-lick of green coming from the top of the wormhole from certain angles. Watch out for this, particularly because of the mass restrictions of wormholes leading to class 1 w-space.

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Class 2 w-space

Blue-and-black, like class 1 w-space, but without the solid lick of green. It's more of a general hint of greenness.

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Class 3 w-space

As grey as Lonetrek but without Lonetrek's character. Poor class 3 w-space.

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Class 4 w-space

The orange and green colouring makes class 4 w-space the most distinctive of the w-space colours.

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Class 5 w-space

Black and orange makes class 5 w-space recognisable, particularly as the patterns look w-spacey.

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Class 6 w-space

Similar colouring to some New Eden regions, but perhaps more vividly red.

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Wormhole colour matrix

Because of the limited number of classes of w-space, in particular relative to New Eden regions, and the way w-space systems link to each other, I have been able to collect a comprehensive guide of w-space wormhole colours. In this matrix, with bigger images linked behind each thumbnail, both the source and destination system colours are mapped for every combination of system classes.

	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6

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Posted in Gaming | 12 Comments »
Tags: eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, null-sec, w-space

Just poking around

16th September 2013 – 5.42 pm

It's just the static wormhole that's new at home, and our neighbouring class 3 w-space system doesn't seem much more appealing, not with only a tower and shuttle visible on my directional scanner. I initiate warp to a distant planet so that I can launch probes only to see a Falcon recon ship appear on d-scan. Belay that command, cadet! Hold position. Okay, the Falcon's gone, dunno where. Let's launch probes.

Okay, let's not launch probes, not as I've bumped in to a second tower on the edge of the system, this one appearing on d-scan with two Orca industrial command ships, a Tengu strategic cruiser, and Iteron hauler. Locating the tower sees one Orca and the Tengu piloted, making this a poor place to be launching probes from, and I warp back to the inner system to locate the first tower. The shuttle is floating empty inside the force field, and now d-scan is showing me probes.

No matter, they are core probes, so won't detect my ship, and with no obvious pilot around this is the best place to decloak without being spotted. A blanket scan of the system reveals two anomalies and nine signatures, holding lots of gas and a pair of wormholes. One feels weaker than the other, which is indicative of the static exit to high-sec I'm expecting to find, so I warp that way to get the unexciting connection reconnoitred first.

Well, it's a wormhole connecting with high-sec, but it's a K162. My intuition is a little off today, it seems. I'll still check it, now that I'm here, and I jump through to appear in a system in Devoid, where an Incursion is currently taking place. There are no other signatures in the system, though, so my interest wanes immediately and I return to C3a. Warping to the static wormhole finds the connection to The Forge at the end of its life and of not much use, just as the local Tengu blips on to d-scan. Where was he going?

Warping back to the K162 from high-sec has the wormhole crackling soon enough, the Tengu returning from the Devoid region polarised. Polarised, but not engaged. I don't know the Tengu's fit, and although I can easily evade the ship I really don't think it's worth revealing myself just to waste some ammunition. But this is interesting. A minute after the Tengu has warped away the Orca drops on to the wormhole and jumps to high-sec. Are they collapsing the wormhole and about to give me a polarised Orca to play with? Because that I would waste ammunition on.

Nope, the Orca doesn't come back. I even wait the few minutes for polarisation to dissipate, in case the pilot is being suitably cautious, but there is no sign of the whale. Curious, I poke back out to high-sec, where there is no Orca, no oranges, and a six-hop route to the trade hub of Amarr. I suppose he's running logistics and not about to trap himself on a high-sec wormhole.

Out of reasonable options, I think it's a good time to collapse our static connection and try again. A few fat ships stress the wormhole in the right ways, and I'm not interrupted as the connection collapses on schedule. I start again, scanning, resolving, jumping, and having d-scan show me a tower with no ships this time. That's no improvement. Twelve anomalies and eight signatures are whittled down to a pair of wormholes, the static exit to low-sec leading to a system in Solitude with a few extra signatures, the other not being the outbound connection my malfunctioning intuition expected but a still-good K162 from class 4 w-space.

Jumping to C4a gives me a warm sensation of anticipation, as d-scan shows me a Retriever mining barge, Orca, and Drake battlecruiser, but that is soon subdued when I realise there are no anomalies in the whole system. The ships are probably empty at either of the two towers also visible. Well, it turns out that the Retriever is piloted, but what's he going to do? I'm assuming nothing, so scan the one other signature in this bare system. It's a wormhole, naturally, leading back to a class 5 system. Maybe something is happening there.

A tower, two pods, and a Helios covert operations boat aren't going to provide much entertainment in C5a, and although a second tower elsewhere holds a Covetor mining barge and Heron frigate the ships are empty. Performing a blanket scan reveals an untidy system too, the thirty anomalies somehow putting me off scanning the manageable seven signatures. The few in low-sec look more attractive right now. It will be quick and simple to check them, and may lead me to a system holding a soft kill. Or I'll resolve gas, a relic site, and a wormhole at the end of its life. Well it was quick. And now it's game over for tonight.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Just poking around
Tags: covetor, drake, eve online, falcon, helios, heron, iteron, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, tengu, w-space

Wallowing in the aftermath

15th September 2013 – 3.52 pm

Reload, cloak, and jink. The two stealth bombers have been reduced to wrecks, the wrecks to space dust, and one pod to a scooped corpse. The siege of the off-line tower has been defeated. Not that I really cared one way or the other, I just wanted some explosions and popping the two ships was quicker than waiting for the tower to go. Now to see what the pilot in his pod will do, and if that other Manticore will make a reappearance.

I loiter by a canister jettisoned by one of the destroyed ships near the tower. Close enough to engage a ship that comes for it, but not quite so close as to be committed to engaging it. I don't think there is much else threatening in the system, but I'd rather not be surprised by it. And as the pod of the Manticore returns to the off-line tower I have to wonder if there is another ship I'm not aware of.

The pod moves to nestle right next to the tower, some thirty kilometres from my position near where the stealth bombers were, and makes lazy if tight orbits. I get the feeling he wants me to reveal my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser again. Whether that's to bait me for another ship, or to make sure I'm not near this can, I don't know. I'm not going to do it, though. I have almost no chance of catching the pod before it warps away, so there is little to gain in revealing myself to it. Besides, he's not the boss of me.

A couple of minutes of tower circling has the pod warp away, to space below one of the planets. I imagine he's warped to a wormhole. I watch my directional scanner to see if he disappears, instead noticing a Rapier recon ship in the system, followed by a pair of Imperial Navy Slicer frigates. They're not with the pod, and in the opposite direction, but they convince me to hold my cloak a little longer.

The system could be getting hot. Maybe I should collapse our wormhole. Or not. The Rapier disappeared, which I presumed meant it had cloaked, but now the Slicers are gone too. Maybe they've left the system. I should take a look around. Launching probes will let me drop on top of that pod too, which still lingers on d-scan. An initial blanket scan of the system reveals, bleh, thirty-nine anomalies and thankfully a more manageable twelve signatures. But no ship. The pod has gone. Okay, I'll scan.

I cluster my probes where the pod was and, quelle surprise, I resolve a wormhole. Warping in that direction plonks me next to the system's static exit to low-sec, as I scan where the Rapier roughly was. Yup, there's a second wormhole. This one is a K162 from null-sec, which makes sense. I suppose the null-seccers poked their nose in to the w-space system to look for any obvious prey and, finding none, went back to roaming their normal environment. Still, if I hadn't found the stealth bombers I imagine those ships would have.

Finally, loitering on the low-sec wormhole, waiting for potential ships to return, I check my notes for this w-space system. It's my fifth visit, the last being just under three weeks ago, and it looks like an active tower then is one that the bombers were shooting. The on-line tower now in the system is new. And the ships under my combat probes, returned to a blanket-scanning configuration and occasionally pinged, is a Loki somewhere in the system and a Hound stealth bomber perhaps at the new tower. I should find that.

Locating the tower is straightforward, although the Hound is gone when I get there. But the tower's owner corporation doesn't match that of the stealth bombers I popped. So where are they from, and why would they want to shoot that off-line tower? I don't think I'll find out, and as there are scanning probes in the system—not mine, they are out of range of d-scan—I should concentrate on what's happening now. I warp back to loiter on the low-sec wormhole and wait. And keep on waiting.

The probes go, the Loki jumps past me to low-sec. Did he come from null-sec too? I consider scanning and, thinking the Loki isn't coming back, am about to call my probes in to do that when the wormhole crackles to return the Loki to this class 3 system. Only knowing of one other wormhole, I warp to the null-sec K162 to see if the Loki passes me there, but he blips on to d-scan and not on my overview. I have another wormhole to find, so I bring my probes in to find it.

This time I scan thoroughly, ignoring gas and data to resolve just one more wormhole. It's a K162 from class 4 w-space that's at the end of its life. Well, either the Loki came from here or through our home system, and I'm not going through the EOL connection to find out. The evening is winding down, it seems, making this a good time to rat in null-sec and have a look in low-sec.

The null-sec K162 takes me to Oasa, where whoever was passing through before passed through quite successfully, leaving me alone to pop a drone battleship and ignore a combat site as the only other signature in the system. Back in to and across C3a sends me to a low-sec system in Kor-Azor, with no oranges but a handful of criminals in the system, plus some core scanning probes. Maybe it's worth checking that one extra signature, just as pretty much every pilot in the system gets flagged as a criminal.

I guess that was a successful gate camp I witnessed indirectly. It turns out to be more interesting than the EOL K162 from class 3 w-space too, particularly with the post-camp commentary. And although the wormhole is unlikely to die in the few seconds it will take to poke through—I'm not Mick—it's late enough that if it does happen I don't want to be facing a long trip home. I'll just leave it and head home. Still, explosions followed by plenty of waiting and watching is a rare experience. It's EVE Online in reverse.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Wallowing in the aftermath
Tags: eve online, hound, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, rapier, scanning, slicer, w-space

Sneaking up on a stealth bomber siege

14th September 2013 – 3.04 pm

There's nothing to do at home, so thank goodness for wormholes. And hello stealth bombers! Two of them, a Purifier and Manticore, are visible on my directional scanner in our neighbouring system, with nothing else in sight; no tower, no wrecks. What could they be doing? Moving away from the wormhole and cloaking, I spin d-scan around to locate the pair, unsurprisingly not finding them in one of the anomalies present. The bombers appear to be around a planet, which should make them easy enough to find, even if I have no idea what they are up to.

Warping to the planet sees a customs office but no ships, although they remain on d-scan. And now I've got close enough to see an on-line tower, as well as a second Manticore, so there is occupation in the system. Checking the moons with d-scan finds the two of them, and warping cautiously to their location sees what they are up to: shooting an off-line tower. I suppose that makes sense, trying to get rid of the detritus in the system clogging up space, and being able to scoop the defences once they are no longer anchored to the tower. And stealth bombers provide a lot of firepower in a small package.

The other aspect of stealth bombers, despite their ability to project damage, is that they are really fragile. I like this, because it makes them easy targets in general, and more particularly when they are floating stationary performing a monotonous task and probably not paying too much attention to their surroundings. Even better, the three of them are huddled around a jet-can, probably containing more ammunition to feed their siege launchers, which gives me a precise marker to warp to.

Sadly, one of the Manticores warps away, cloaking as he goes, but two remain, and I probably couldn't catch three anyway. I would say this is looking good for a quick ambush. I warp towards the canister, dropping only a little short, and the situation still looks good. The two stealth bombers are stationary, nothing else is on d-scan, and this looks like a standard tower siege.

I start my approach towards the bombers, and when close enough to both for my warp scrambler to be effective I decloak, activate my sensor booster, and get my weapons systems hot. The recalibration delay wears off and I get a solid target lock on the Purifier, the ship closer to mine, holding him in place with the scrambler and loosing autocannon fire his way whilst simultaneously locking the Manticore. The Purifier melts under my guns and explodes, and now it's time to be smart.

I'm learning from my recent encounter with the four Iterons, and not saving the warp scrambler for the ejected pod. But I'm not ignoring the pod either. I know that my autocannons, in good circumstances, can crack open a pod with a single volley, so if I can get a lock that would let the scrambler take effect then it would also let my guns fire at least one round. I take advantage of this knowledge to switch my scrambler to the Manticore, stopping him warping away, whilst locking on to the Purifier pilot's pod. I get it, my guns fire, and the pod becomes a corpse.

One ship down, one pod down, and I still have the Manticore scrambled and in range. I turn my attention to him, and although the bomber tries to pull range I am in control of the engagement. I keep the Manticore within warp scrambler range as my guns work their magic, ripping apart the second stealth bomber and ejecting another pod in to space. This one, now fully awake, manages to escape my further attentions.

I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wrecks of the two ships. Crunching through the brain finds 140 Miskies of dead implants too, which is a good result. I leave the canister intact, though. I don't care to look inside, or to try to destroy it, just in case another ship wants to come to salvage what they can. I may just wait around for a bit to see if they do that.

That was a pleasant little ambush. Quite why the pilots didn't ignore all the signatures in the system and keep an eye on the incredibly dumb discovery scanner for new wormholes popping up is beyond me. I'm glad there remain some people who don't understand how to use it, but I'd still rather the discovery scanner disappear from w-space. I don't want to rely on finding ignorant pilots to ambush, as it rather takes the fun out of the hunt.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, w-space

Harrying a herd of haulers

13th September 2013 – 5.12 pm

Less nonsense, more sense, please. High hopes for a Penny, but let's see what I can pull off tonight. A new signature in the home system smells like more gas for Aii, and it is, so I send myself through our static wormhole to take a look around. There's not much to see. My directional scanner is clear, and launching probes, blanketing the system, and exploring reveals sixteen anomalies, five signatures, and a lack of occupation. I'm guessing the system holds a static exit to null-sec, but only for as long as it takes me to check my notes, at which point I know it does. So be it. I'll scan.

What's this? Four Iteron haulers appear on a final d-scan check prior to pulling probes in to the system. They can't be local, so whilst I wonder the who, why, and where, I keep myself and my probes hidden until the ships all drop out of the system. Now I know I have a purpose, which is to find the K162 the haulers are using. But are they hauling between null-sec and w-space, or is a K162 allowing null-sec pilots haul to empire space?

A few signatures don't take long to resolve, and the weak null-sec wormhole signature is easy to recognise. That leaves me with a bit of gas and two chubby wormholes, a K162 from low-sec and a K162 from class 4 w-space. I ignore the null-sec connection and head towards C4a, supposing that to be the more likely source of the Iterons. Now I want to know whether they went out or came back.

Came back. Jumping to the class 4 system sees the four ships on d-scan, along with a tower. That could mean I'm too late to catch them, as four Iteron Vs can take an awful lot to and from empire space. But maybe it instead means that the locals don't have the skill to pilot an Orca industrial command ship. Or, more likely, the depth of wallet to risk losing one.

I swing d-scan around looking for the tower, finding it and only three Iterons there. So they are still active, with one apparently collecting planet goo. If I'm quick, maybe I can catch him. I warp to the tower with the fourth hauler returned, but one sitting outside the force field. I can't say why, it's a bit of a weird manoeuvre, but as I watch the ship outside of the tower aligns and warps away. I try to see where the Iteron is going but two planets are in almost perfect alignment from here. I pick one and hope for the best.

I picked well, but clicked poorly. I land at the customs office I wasn't aiming for, and don't see the Iteron with me. Turning around and heading where I intended to be almost catches up with the hauler, but he's now a hundred kilometres from the customs office—which is weird, but whatever—and turning back towards his tower. I guess I'll follow, hoping for more movement. I kind of get it, but nothing that makes the ships vulnerable. They just get in to a huddle around some pooped-out jet-cans.

It could be that the Iterons' huddle was their way of psyching themselves up for a repeat trip to empire space. A short wait sees movement from the ships, all at once, as they align and warp out of the tower. As soon as I got to the tower earlier I determined the relative position of the wormhole, and as soon as the Iterons started aligning towards it I pointed my Loki in the same direction. You can only see the signs if you know what you're looking for, and now my strategic cruiser is about to ambush some vulnerable ships.

I know what I'm doing. There has been no sign of any other ship, the four Iterons are all repeating a journey they've already made. I don't think I'm taking any chances in either warping to drop directly on top of the wormhole, instead of approaching cautiously, or in dropping my cloak whilst still in warp. I can soak up the recalibration delay before I reach the wormhole, and so what if they check d-scan and see a Loki in space? What are they going to do, turn around mid-warp?

I drop on to the wormhole with three of the Iterons, one appearing a little behind me, ready to start shooting. The question now is how many I can stop, and I'm almost crippled by choice. But I get a grip and start targeting each ship, the first that I get a positive lock on becoming my first victim. I only have one warp scrambler, though, so I hope these ships are flimsy. Pop! Yep, that's pretty easy.

I aim for the pod of the ejected pilot, knowing that these are often more expensive than the ships, and perhaps make a mistake doing so. I reserved the scram for the pod instead of putting it on another hauler, which gives enough time for an Iteron to flee as I watch the pod warp safely away. Balls, a second Iteron escapes too. But the last one, late to the party, hasn't had time to turn just yet, and he's got my full attention. Pop!

Again the pod flees, which is a shame, but I ripped apart two of the ships on their own static wormhole, and I caught them carrying ore out of their system. Well, not quite out of their system, but the ships weren't empty. Not much of the expensive ore survives the explosions, but there's enough to make it worthwhile collecting, so I don't shoot the wrecks just yet. I also don't leave the system immediately to get my own transport. I want to see what the locals will do next.

If it looks like I'm gone, will someone risk collecting what remains in the wrecks? I think I could loiter for a while for a chance of another kill, so I stick by the wormhole and update d-scan regularly. Two Iterons, two pods. Nothing changes, nothing comes to the wormhole. Okay, I'll do it myself. I jump back to C3a, after a long enough pause that I doubt any of the pilots was intently watching d-scan for the transit, and head home. I pluck a Bustard transport from our hangar, go back through C3a to C4a, and loot both wrecks still sitting full on the wormhole.

An Imicus frigate is visible in the system as I snag the loot. That's almost interesting, as it shows the pilots may still be active, but I pay it little mind as I head home to dump the ore. Instead, I get back in my Loki and take myself through the low-sec K162 in C3a low-sec, curious to see where it comes from. I appear in a system in Domain, a dead-end low-sec island, six hops to Amarr. I can see why the C4 pilots were keen to use the wormhole. But it's late now, so I'm not even going to scan the few extra signatures in the system.

I return to w-space and take one last look at the pilots in C4a. Loitering outside the tower, hoping for the Imicus to go looking for my wormhole, sees one of the pilots board a Slasher frigate and warp to the wormhole, and the other two pods go off-line. I go to the wormhole myself, hoping for the Slasher to jump back polarised, but he's gone. And if he's gone to Amarr he may be a while in coming back.

I give the Slasher pilot a few minutes but decide I'm not waiting all night, so jump to C3a only to see the Slasher and a Rifter on d-scan, dropping on the wormhole moments later. They jump to their home C4 and I stay right where I am. Maybe I can engage the frigates successfully, but maybe I can't, and I don't want to find this out after willingly polarising myself. That's okay, it's time to go home for the night anyway. I destroyed two ships, it's been a good evening.

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Tags: bustard, eve online, imicus, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, rifter, scanning, slasher, w-space

Ineffective against an Imicus

12th September 2013 – 5.41 pm

We really ought to try to make some iskies tonight. Throwing two strategic cruisers hard against a bait battlecruiser was kinda thrilling but it can't be done too often. Having the class 2 w-space occupants collapse their wormhole connecting to our home system will help, as will having a bunch of anomalies available to us. At least, it would, if the bastards had the common courtesy of finishing the job.

Whilst Aii watches battleships being thrown through the K162 I hit our neighbouring class 3 system to see what the prospects are like abroad. Ripping through our anomalies would give us profit, but their sustainability is limited. A class 3 system rich with anomalies could be replenished by another suitable static wormhole the next day, or sooner if we force the connection shut. This one, however, is a bit rubbish.

There are almost no anomalies in the system, and without any ships it's lacking in maintaining my interest. But I can still scan, at least to check for data or relic sites, and for wormholes to see how secure the system is. Nope, just gas, a dying static connection to low-sec, and a K162 from null-sec that makes this is rather poor system for making ISK. To prove it, a Helios covert operations boat jumps past me to null-sec, obviously unimpressed himself.

I'm heading home. Aii's half-way to killing our wormhole already, now that we're not going to be doing anything in C3a, and we should isolate ourselves properly for security. That means getting rid of that C2 K162 in the home system too. The pilots left it sitting at critical levels, and although that won't let many ships through you don't need many ships to wreak devastation on a Sleeper fleet.

Maybe the C2ers are intentionally seeing if we believe a critical wormhole is a safe wormhole, hoping to surprise us. But I think it's more likely, believe it or not, that they simply don't know about collapsing wormholes with a heavy interdictor. I do, and I'm going to get rid of that gaping hole in our security. Of course, this may be foolish, throwing a ship in to their system, but we're not doing anything whilst that wormhole's still there.

I warp to the wormhole, activate three warp disruption field generators, and watch my ship's mass drop to about 500 t. Out I go, hoping that no one's watching, or at least their static exit to high-sec remains, and find nothing but the warp bubble waiting for me. Good enough. Even better, the wormhole lives. I decloak, activate the over-sized afterburner, increasing my ship's mass to around 65,000 t, and jump back. The wormhole dies. Success!

Now to kill our static wormhole, as it looks like we need the HIC for that too. I warp across, getting ready for the final push, only to see an Imicus sitting on the wormhole. This is why we need to make sure our connection is secure, otherwise any prick in a frigate can bother us. But maybe we can trap him and try to catch his ship on the fresh connection. I jump out light, come back heavy, and the damned wormhole stays where it is.

The Imicus must be rather nonplussed by what's happening. He hasn't cloaked, and indeed launches probes when I return. I inflate the HIC's bubble and target the frigate, keeping him from getting away. But this ship is fit only for killing wormholes, there is nothing I can use to kill ships. I call for Aii to swap to something fast and get to the wormhole, but he's been distracted. By the time his interceptor appears, the Imicus has burned far enough away to break my target lock, and cloaks.

The frigate's still stuck here for now, as we don't have any other route out of here. We can watch and wait, but trying to stop a single Imicus seems like a poor use of our time. Once my polarisation effects dissipate I make another round trip through the wormhole in the HIC, but still it lives, and I realise I am now polarised again and won't be able to give chase to the Imicus. I don't think he realises this, through.

To try to speed up matters, Aii and I swap ships on the wormhole, and I take the interceptor back to our tower to swap it for my scanning Loki strategic cruiser. Once Aii kills the wormhole I'll resolve the new one and try to catch the Imicus there. Or, at least, that's the plan, but as I warp away and Aii jumps out, the Imicus sneaks through the wormhole himself. The only consolation is that Aii's jump kills the connection.

It looks like we are safe to make some ISK from Sleepers. If only it hadn't taken almost all of the evening to reach this point we could recover the cost of one of our destroyed ships. As it is, we have time to blast through one anomaly, and loot and salvage the wrecks, for a profit of ninety million ISK. That's not bad, but we can do better. Still, having so far felt rather dumb and ineffective, it's a positive end to the evening.

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Tags: crow, eve online, flycatcher, helios, imicus, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, w-space