Getting fuel and waiting for nothing

Last night was an adventure. Tonight starts the same way it started yesterday, with me and the static wormhole. I'll see where it takes me today. Ah, to a clear view from my directional scanner in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, and only one planet sitting out of range. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp across to that planet, not expecting much with four anomalies, four signatures, and no ships under my probes. There is a tower, though, so maybe someone will come on-line whilst I scan.

The static exit to high-sec is found, a data site ignored, and a second wormhole resolved. But warping to the other wormhole sees the K162 from class 5 w-space critically unstable and on the verge of collapse. It may not take the mass of my Loki strategic cruiser passing through, and I don't want to test the connection. It looks like I'm 'exploring' high-sec empire space.

Leaving w-space puts me in the Domain region, and a mere two hops from Amarr. That's probably too convenient to ignore, so without much further consideration I take myself home, swap to an Orca industrial command ship, and take it stuffed full of loot and export materials back through our neighbouring system. Our neighbouring system with a new signature visible, and an Anathema covert operations boat spewing probes as I land on the high-sec exit. Damn, I hate the discovery scanner.

Returning this way in the Orca could be fun, but now is not the time to think about it. Well, actually, I suppose now is the perfect time to start thinking about it, instead of blindly expecting to get home safely. But plans rarely go according to plan, so I'll simply consider the possibility that w-space will not be empty on my return and at least feel prepared. That'll do.

I make it to Amarr, sell what we have to sell, buy more fuel bricks, and head back the way I came. I'm sure I could be buying more than fuel, but I never remember what we could use when a decent exit finally appears. I keep saying I should write this down. Why don't I? Probably because I never expect a decent exit, I suppose. But fuel is nearly always a good option, keeping us running in w-space, and I should probably start to focus on getting the Orca home. I hope that scout in the Anathema is rubbish.

Jumping back to C3a sees no ships waiting for me on the wormhole, which would be a short-sighted place to wait, but a Loki is visible on d-scan. Where is he? Opening the system map and pinging each bookmark has the strategic cruiser on a wormhole. Oh my. Hold on, that's the unstable C5 K162, not our home K162. That a Falcon recon ship has also appeared is neither here nor there if they don't know about or have dismissed our connection already. I send the Orca in to warp, reaching our K162 as core probes fly around the class 3 system, and jump home to what looks like clear space.

It is clear space. The Orca enters warp for our tower, reaching it without incident, where I dump all the fuel bricks in to the tower or storage. And back in my Loki I return to our wormhole. For all the probes I've seen surprisingly little comes through the connection to our home system. Nothing, in fact. I should go back to C3a and take a look at what's happening. So I do, and still see nothing. The critical K162 is gone, no doubt collapsed, and there is no sign of any scouts. That other signature persists, though. I'll scan it.

Hey, it's a wormhole. What a surprise. It also comes from class 5 w-space, and I can't help but think the C5 occupants will be tempted to use the connection close to Amarr for themselves. Instead of making my presence obvious by jumping to C5b, I head back to loiter on the exit to high-sec. If I see any activity I pretty much know where it's headed and can intercept it on a w-space wormhole. And it doesn't take long for the wormhole to crackle. My first catch of the day. Bah, it's the Anathema. I let it go, not having much chance of catching it.

A little more waiting has the wormhole crackle again. Hopefully the cov-ops was making sure the route was clear for a more easily caught and fragile ship, but I wouldn't class this Navy Armageddon battleship as fragile. I'll let this one go too, as a wave of magnanimity passes over me. Unfortunately, the dumb ship warps straight through me, decloaking my Loki sitting some kilometres off the wormhole. Did he see me? I dunno, but I have to presume my cover is blown. My evening of loitering on a wormhole waiting for a ship that may not come is over. Huh, it doesn't sound so bad when I put it like that.

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Tags: anathema, armageddon, eve online, falcon, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Escape through null-sec

I'm waiting near a wormhole. I may be polarised, but I haven't checked yet. I've been more concerned with evading a couple of assault frigates, who worryingly seem to be more than a match for my strategic cruiser. But at least I have a cloaking device. I can watch from a safe distance the Wolf and Enyo buzz around looking for me whilst I consider my options. Well, as I came in through that wormhole, I'm probably heading back through that wormhole. It's not my fault I blew up a couple of their ships and sent a pilot to the cloning vats.

I'm no longer polarised. I barely suffered any effects anyway, thanks to my use of the directional scanner to predict what was going to happen and jumping early to ambush a potential target. And I think the pair in front of me have made a mistake, having both ships on this side of the wormhole. That means they have to give chase when I jump, instead of having someone ready on either side and communicating any change. Still, that works for me, so when I feel ready I move towards the wormhole, break my cloak, and, well, try to jump to the class 2 w-space system.

I've had sammich breaks shorter than this session change. Something is awry with this C2, and it's causing some kind of time dilation. But eventually I make it through the wormhole, and the other side looks clear until I try to move and cloak. The Enyo doesn't really appear and lock me but apparently did so a short time ago. And, again, the pair make a careless mistake, as the Wolf follows behind. I would want to be on this kill too, I suppose, but it has cleared my secondary escape route. I throw a few volleys of autocannon fire in the rough direction of the Enyo, the rounds flying in to empty space, before jumping back through the wormhole to C5a.

By 'secondary escape route' I of course mean the system I was just stuck in. But at least the session change is smooth, and I move way from the wormhole and cloak before the assault frigates can stop me. I'm safe for a bit longer, at least as long as my polarisation timer, but I don't think it's worth risking my Loki through that laggy wormhole again. I'd rather go off-line in this system and have to work my way home another day than make an expensive error in judgment.

If I'm going to stay here, I may as well scan. I am confident this is the home of the assault frigates, and it's quite possible that I am in the start of a short chain of w-space, but if I get probes whizzing around the system I may at least distract the local fauna. Actually, maybe I won't, not with the discovery scanner quite obviously not showing them any new signatures. But if there is a second wormhole I may be able to split their attention.

There are five signatures. How many are wormholes? Gas, hello wormhole!, gas, gas, and, of course, the static wormhole I'm currently avoiding. The second wormhole is both awkward and welcoming, being a K162 from null-sec k-space that's been critically destabilised. It's an exit, and I have an entrance back home in another system, but the entrance is in high-sec empire space and I haven't had particularly good luck traversing the boundaries of different sec-spaces. The wormhole is also likely to collapse, which could mean no one would be able to follow me, or I wouldn't be able to come back. Either, really.

I pop back to the C2 wormhole to see my two new friends still loitering there. That makes the null-sec wormhole my best option, and warping across and getting in to jump range has no ships buzzing around. I decloak and jump. Thrown smoothly in to a system in Cache, I move and cloak without problem, thirty-four hops from the high-sec system that leads back home. I'm sure I've been in worse positions.

The Enyo joins me in null-sec briefly, checking to see that my ship blipping on d-scan was a jump in this direction, quite obvious thanks to us both appearing in the populated local comms channel, before ignoring me and going home. Okay, it's time to rat and scan. Oh, there are no other signatures in this system, so I'll just rat and move on. I set my autopilot for the high-sec system, as I may as well head in the right direction whilst trying to scan for a wormhole short-cut. There's no point getting further away.

One hop across there are still no signatures to resolve, and I abandon my plan to rat without scanning. The journey is far enough already, I don't need to lengthen it artificially. Another hop gives one signature that resolves to be a data site. Hop, three signatures, no wormholes. Hop, relics. Hop, huh. 214 pilots in the system. One signature, too. Be good, signature. Nope, no wormhole. But so many supercarriers picked up by my combat probes. I've got to take a look at these.

This is not a sight I see every day, and it's quite impressive. More so when they start activating their jump drives to traverse light years without using stargates or wormholes. And as they move on so do I, but using mundane technology to get to a merely adjacent system. A Condor frigate is above the stargate, which is curious, but I wisely hold my session change cloak as a small cruiser fleet warps on to the gate, joined by the Condor, and they move on.

Four signatures still don't give me a wormhole, and it looks like I'll be hopping stargates all the way to high-sec. That seems okay, except for the transition from null-sec to low-sec. A mere thirteen pilots are in the barrier system, but I bet some of them are pirates stalking the gate. Well, I have combat probes, I can take an accurate look at what's there without having to get close. I cluster my probes around the stargate and scan. A handful of ships and some drones. It doesn't seem so bad, and as I have a good scan result I choose to warp at range to one of the ships.

That's definitely a good result. Warping at range to the ship puts me only twenty kilometres from the stargate, and far from the drag bubbles positioned to pull ships far from jump range of the gate. Of course, the bubbles wouldn't have affected my interdiction-nullified Loki anyway, which makes null-sec travel safer, as I see when a frigate gets dragged in to the bubbles and routinely popped by a waiting pirate. Me, I coast towards the stargate and jump to low-sec.

Twenty-one more hops and I can get almost home, with only a one-system low-sec island to navigate. Part of me wants to adjust my autopilot to avoid low-sec now, as it would be careless, and almost inevitable, to be caught in a gate camp between high-sec systems after having worked my way from null-sec to here. But I'm feeling confident, and a bit lazy. It's late, and I don't fancy whatever wild diversion the autopilot would take me on to avoid that one system, so I press on. And, a bit anticlimactically, it's fine.

I pass through the island and back to high-sec without incident, and hop, hop, hop through high-sec stargates simply enough, until I find myself once again directed by a bookmark to a wormhole. It's the K162 to C3a, our neighbouring system, which is as quiet as I left it earlier. It's been quite a journey for me to get back here, and quite an adventure tonight. Some exploration, small skirmishes, and actual threat, but the only explosions coming from other ships. That's the way I like it.

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Tags: condor, enyo, eve online, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space, wolf

Strange behaviour

What's shaking in the constellation? Well, the K162 from class 4 w-space has mysteriously disappeared from our system, perhaps having something to do with my popping and podding a pilot from there for having the temerity to try to haul planet goo safely through our home. That's okay really, as I doubt we'd catch them unawares again, and all they've really done is make our system that bit safer. Our own wormhole is still there and healthy, and although there is no change in activity levels in the neighbouring class 3 system there is one difference: their static wormhole has died.

Resolving the replacement exit to high-sec is a simple matter, particularly as it is the only new signature in the system. Let's just hope the wormhole takes me somewhere interesting, which generally means a system with more wormholes when considering high-sec empire space. And, indeed, the system in the Essence region holds an extra signature, one that resolves to be another wormhole, this one a K162 from class 2 w-space. That's a good result, because the C2 system will hold a connection to more w-space too. I'm going in.

My directional scanner shows me a tower and ships, although neither the Rorqual capital industrial ship or Cheetah covert operations boat are particularly inspiring. One will be unpiloted, or never moved from the tower, and the other almost impossible to catch, even if that is piloted. And it is, but, still, I don't care, for the stated reason. There are no probes visible either, so I doubt the Cheetah is even active, which convinces me to ignore him and do my own scanning.

Wormhole, wormhole, gas, gas. I have an outbound connection to class 3 w-space and a K162 from class 5 w-space, which looks good to me. And, in a break from habit, I am heading to the more dangerous w-space first, given the increased likelihood of finding activity through a K162. I think I find it too. Well, almost. I enter C5a and, whilst cloaked on the wormhole, a Hound sits on the wormhole. That's a bit weird, a stealth bomber not being stealthy. The Hound jumps to C2a, I hold my position.

I don't follow the Hound. The wormhole crackle for my entrance must have been spotted, and stealth bombers are almost as hard to catch as cov-ops boats. That he jumped should indicate something. I just don't know what. I keep holding, expecting one or more ships to arrive behind the Hound, with there being five towers and some ships on d-scan, until my session change cloak drops. And then I activate my module cloak. But another ship appears, just not the one I was expecting. The Orca industrial command ship drops unexpectedly on top of the wormhole, and I start shooting it.

Maybe it's a little presumptuous to engage the Orca on this side of the wormhole, given that it's almost certain to jump to the C2 system, but as it decloaked me on landing I didn't see a reason why I should pretend I'm not there. My Loki strategic cruiser's autocannons send volley after volley in to the Orca, and the Orca sits on the wormhole and takes it. That's weird too. But I'm not going to stop shooting, so I keep my guns chattering as the Orca's shields get vaporised.

I see ship changes on d-scan. A Nemesis stealth bomber and Enyo assault frigate are being prepared, by the looks of it, just as the Orca wakes up, now taking significant armour damage, and jumps to C2a. I suppose I could follow but that seems like a foolish move. The Orca could jump right back and polarise himself, but also me, and the last situation I want to be in is polarised in an unscouted system on top of an Orca. And if he doesn't jump back it's possible I'll just have a small swarm of ships coming after me anyway, giving my only choice of jumping back with one chance of evading them whilst polarised. I don't like the sound of that either.

As much as I don't like it, my best option is to cloak on the wormhole and jink, letting the Orca go free. And as I hide my Loki the Enyo drops on to the wormhole. I suppose he knows I haven't jumped to C2a, given that his Orca colleague can report as much, and so he starts making orbits around the connection in an effort to find me. Needless to say, it doesn't work. After a while the Enyo warps away, but to empty space and not a tower. That's weird, right? And anyway, where's the Orca? Maybe it was actually exporting goods and not collapsing the wormhole. That's a shame.

A shuttle comes through the wormhole from C5a, neither the Hound nor Orca pilot though, and I let the tiny craft go without revealing myself. He seems local, warping towards a tower I can see on d-scan, at which point I also notice a Mammoth hauler new to d-scan. That's interesting. But the hauler poses the same problem as the Orca, in that he could jump in both directions and polarise himself, potentially in a direct bid to polarise me. But if I jump now, maybe I can get sufficiently ahead of him not to be polarised on the way back. I'll do that.

I return to C2a, where I see no Orca much to my lack of surprise. After a little wait the wormhole crackles and, sure enough, the Mammoth comes through. This is bait, right? They know a Loki is here, so the Mammoth is going to 'flee' back to C5a and drag me with it, where I'll be ambushed. So why, in that case, is he not jumping back when I get a positive lock and start shooting? You know, this system feels like flying in treacle for some reason, and maybe that's affecting his timing. Or maybe Mammoths are just really flimsy, I get a good bump, and my guns rip his ship to shreds. I think it's that.

I really think it's not system conditions that caught the Mammoth when both the pod flees and I see the wreck loaded with ores and gas. He actually was exporting materials through a known-dangerous wormhole. Super weird. But maybe it wasn't without an escort, as the Hound makes a reappearance whilst the pod skitters away from the Mammoth wreck. I like that, as stealth bombers are pretty flimsy too.

I return the Hound's target lock and start shooting, easily tearing through its shields and armour. The wormhole crackles, but the Hound stays. In fact, the Hound stays long enough to explode, and for me to catch and crack open the pod. Maybe there are negative system conditions after all.

Ah, no, the wormhole crackle was to announce the arrival of the Enyo, not the departure of the Hound. More's the pity for the Hound. His fifty million ISK ship and hundred million ISK head may have liked to escape my clutches. Much like I would like to escape the Enyo's. It's just a frigate, I think, I can have a crack at the Enyo too. We reciprocate target locks and warp disruption effects, as I scoot across to collect my new corpse, but the warp scrambler and web of the Enyo are slowing me down. On top of that, not only are my guns failing to track the ship, after only one successful volley, but his guns are chewing right through my shields. I may be in trouble.

I abandon the idea of scooping the corpse, to my disappointment, and decide an intact Loki is worth more than a minor trophy. I jump back through the wormhole to C5a and jink away from the wormhole to evade the Enyo's further attentions. Now to wait, at least for any polarisation effects to wear off, which shouldn't be long, thanks to my planning. I still think it's a little embarrassing to be chased to cloaking by an assault frigate, but I don't really know much about them.

And now there are two assault frigates, a Wolf joining the Enyo, as I notice a Damnation command ship on d-scan somewhere. The Damnation will be providing hefty armour bonuses to the armour-based frigates, in a class 5 w-space system with an armour-boosting wolf rayet phenomenon plainly visible. And here I am, in an unfashionable shield-based Loki. You know, I'm not entirely sure I'm going to get out of this system in one piece.

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Tags: cheetah, damnation, eny, eve online, hound, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, nemesis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, rorqual, scanning, w-space, wolf

Settling for a bit of high-sec

I doubt there is much more to see for the moment. I'm supposing that as the occupants of the class 4 w-space system connecting in to us were hauling planet goo through our home then our own neighbouring class 3 system is quiet. It's best to check, though. Besides, a w-space system can wake up at any time.

Jumping through our static wormhole to C3a sees a tower and Ibis frigate on my directional scanner, and a black hole pulsating away in space. I bet that made aligning a hauler for warp a lot of fun. I don't expect my notes from twenty months ago to be relevant for locating the tower, but as they list the system as having a static exit to high-sec it explains why the C4a pilot was keen to export his goods.

Launching probes to scan sees eleven anomalies and seven signatures, as well as a single ship that is the Ibis, which I find when I find the tower. The frigate is, naturally, empty inside the force field. So C3a is quiet by the looks of it. What do the signatures hold? I sift through them whilst sitting on our K162, although I am not expecting the podded C4 pilot to return this way any more than for the locals to wake up.

Wormhole, gas, relics, data, gas, data. That's it, so the only wormhole will lead out to high-sec, which I may as well check. The connection is healthy and leads to Domain, a mere five hops to Amarr. That's pretty convenient. Maybe I should take those precious metals out to sell. Then again, I hear there is a pirate stalking the w-space constellation. It may not be safe.

The K162 is the only signature in the high-sec system, which puts an end to exploration. Well, almost. High-sec is pretty safe, so it's worth hopping a stargate or two to check other systems for wormholes. I pick a direction and activate the stargate, appearing in another high-sec system, but one with two signatures to resolve. One is a combat site, the other a wormhole. It's a K162 from class 1 w-space too, which could have something soft inside to shoot.

Jumping to C1a sees two towers, no ships, and nothing out of range of d-scan, which is a little disappointing. The lack of any activity could simply mean I am looking for another wormhole amongst the three signatures, but not this time. It's just gas, gas, and the wormhole I used to get here. Okay, back to high-sec with me and on to another system. Three more signatures in the next system across give me nothing but a combat site and two data sites, but I suppose I could spare a few minutes to grab some crappy loot. Why not?

I dock, refit my Loki strategic cruiser to add a data analyser, and go back to space to clickity-click on some boxes until some loot spews all over the space. Collecting the space spores in the two sites bags me a couple of ancillary armour repairer blueprint copies, three encryptors, and a bunch of junk. I suppose that's not so bad. But back to dock, revert my ship's fitting, and a return to exploration. I have one more system in the small ring of space that I chose to work through.

The remaining system has two signatures to scan, and both turn out to be combat sites. I consider poking in to one to see what's happening, but the acceleration gate doesn't like my Loki and refuses access. Fair enough, it's probably saving me from a bit of tedious shooting anyway, so I can get home for a sammich sooner. And going home has the high-sec wormhole of C3a now at the end of its life. That could be positive, as I can take long enough eating my sammich to give it time to die of natural causes, and come back with some new space to explore.

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

Bringing home the planet goo

I'll aim for less scanning and more explosions today. That doesn't sound too hard, does it? Space may even agree with me, sending a second signature in to the home system for me to resolve as a second wormhole, a K162 from class 4 w-space. There could even be a pilot or two sitting in that other system as I recall my probes, pondering the collection of planet goo. I'm going in to take a look.

Nope, it's a tower with only a Helios covert operations boat. How ordinary. Then again, passing my directional scanner over each planet, trying to find the tower, sees the Helios outside of the force field. But where? It looks like he's at a planet, and still not cloaking, which seems like a curious choice. But he notices the error of his ways by the time I've warped to say hello with my autocannons, as the Helios has disappeared entirely.

Back to nothing. I locate the tower and perform a blanket scan of the system, wondering if the six anomalies and puny three signatures possibly hold a K162 heading further backwards. I dunno, but a ship is under my combat probes, and d-scan says it's not the Helios but a Navy Issue Scorpion. The battleship warps in to the local tower, and now I wonder if he is newly on-line or has come from the wormhole that joins to our system.

Should I go home and prepare a ship-killer Legion strategic cruiser to catch this Scorpion, on the assumption that he'll be looking to plunder our sites? No, because the Scorpion is swapped for an Anathema cov-ops. Then back to the Scorpion, dropping down to a pod, and getting back in the Anathema. I have no idea what that was about, unless it was to distract me. This pilot kept attention away from the wormhole, through which a Mammoth hauler has just jumped and warped to the tower. Damn you.

There is the hauler I could have caught, now nestled safely inside the tower's force field. And, job done, the Anathema goes off-line. Having said that, the Mammoth moves again, quite obviously to the wormhole that sits near the tower and quite high above the ecliptic plane. I align my Loki strategic cruiser to mimic the Mammoth, and warp a second behind him.

Because this looks too easy, I ignore my normal discretion and aim to land directly on top of the wormhole, getting there in time to see the Mammoth jump to our home system. Yep, this looks too easy. I follow through the wormhole, already intending to shed my session change cloak immediately to get my sensor booster active, only to see the Mammoth beating me to it. Maybe he's trying to get away as quickly as he can. It's not going to work.

Haulers are generally big and slow, making catching them a simple matter. Holding on to them can be tricky, depending on how they are fitted, but this doesn't seem to matter with Mammoths. The natural state of a Mammoth seems to be precariously balanced between that of being intact and being a wreck. I just have to give it a nudge in a certain way—autocannons are good for this, but other weapon systems will work just as well—and I upset the balance, throwing a capsuleer's pod in to space.

I nab the pod too, the pilot perhaps a little flustered about being caught, or maybe trying to flee through the wormhole he's sitting on whilst under the effects of the enforced session change timer of losing one's ship. Still, the execution is not swift. In trying to bump the Mammoth out of alignment my micro warp drive has given my Loki a surge of speed, throwing my guns' tracking out of whack. A call to all stop sorts that out, and one threatening volley is followed by the final blow, cracking open the pod to get to the corpse within.

Scoop the corpse, and loot but don't shoot the wreck. No one's around, all looks clear, and the wreck is stuffed with precious metals, planet goo being taken out to empire space to sell. I'm having that. I pop to our tower, board a Bustard transport, and make a swift trip to the wormhole to claim the rest of the loot safely. Okay, that was more explosion for less scanning, and an ideal start to the day's adventures. I even made some potential ISK out of the ambush. All I have to do is get it to market, and how hard can that be?

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Tags: anathema, bustard, eve online, helios, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scorpion, w-space

Should have gone to null-sec

I have time to pop a planet gooer. The only problem is that I have to find one first, and I'm not sure I have enough time to do that. But I'll try. Two extra signatures in the home system are just mapped gas sites, so I point my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to our static wormhole and beyond. Naturally, the neighbouring class 3 w-space system has my directional scanner show me a tower and no ships—and, no, that assembly array named 'Bestower' isn't fooling me—so my planet gooer is in another system.

Locating the tower for reference sees that we don't much care for the locals. They are pre-oranged, which is good to know. And although I don't know why our alliance doesn't like their alliance, I have a personal gripe against the locals. Despite there being nothing out of d-scan range from the wormhole, and the handful of planets nearby, the occupying corporation has managed to plant their tower at the edge of the system, leaving the opposite edge out of range. That's simple carelessness, and I ought to shoot any of the locals to teach them a lesson. But as there aren't any around at the moment I launch probes to scan.

Thirteen anomalies and six signatures hold two wormholes, but the static exit to low-sec is accompanied only by a K162 from null-sec k-space. Never mind, I can check the low-sec system, maybe there are more wormholes there. Or maybe not, not with no extra signatures in the system in The Forge. But there are no other pilots either, which makes me think it will be safe to hop through a stargate to another system and try again. In fact, I'll pop a rat and hop across, trying to maximise my time in low-sec.

The next system across has some pilots, a couple of signatures, and lots of probes. And those signatures bloom to three once I launch probes, which could be promising. Gas is dull, a wormhole is neat, and more gas is as dull as the first gas. And I'm revising my estimation of that wormhole once I drop out of warp next to it. It's another K162 from null-sec. Moving on through the next stargate drops me in to a system with one signature, a wormhole, and would you look at that. It's a K162 from null-sec. The galaxy is trying to tell me something. Something about not finding a planet gooer this evening, I suspect.

One more hop puts me in a low-sec system connecting to high-sec, and naturally containing pirates. There are none on the low-sec stargate, which is fine by me, so I turn around and head back the way I came. Maybe I should check that K162 in C3a after all. Or C3a itself, as an orange is in the local communication channel of C3a's exit system, apparently in a Legion strategic cruiser. He leaves the system, not through the wormhole I'm back sitting on, so let me see if anything's changed in w-space.

A Buzzard covert operations boat floats in C3a's tower, but only for a minute before going off-line, and that's all the change I can see. And although I am tempted to wait for the Legion to return, I didn't see it and so have no idea if it is a passive brick or energy-hungry laser death machine. It would be bad for me if I guessed one and bumped in to the other, and that's if it actually intends to return. I'll stick to my plan and hit null-sec.

I jump through the K162 to appear alone in a system in Impass, where I find a rat battleship flanked by two frigates in a rock field and one signature that resolves to be a wormhole. It's an outbound connection to class 5 w-space too, potentially offering much more than I can reasonably scan in my remaining time. I probably should have come this way in the first place. I'll see what I can do anyway, and start with an occupied but inactive C5a, the Broadsword heavy interdictor and Viator transport floating empty inside a tower's force field.

The class 5 system is messy, stuffed with twenty-three anomalies and fifteen signatures. I think I get lucky by resolving a wormhole with the first signature, even if it's the static connection to deadly class 6 w-space, but a second, third, fourth, and fifth wormhole make me realise I could almost have accelerated an asteroid to near-light speeds in any one direction and had it pass through a wormhole to another system.

I scan, resolve, warp. A K162 from class 2 w-space, outbound wormhole to null-sec, a K162 from more class 5 w-space, a K162 from more class 6 w-space. You know, I think that will do. I recall my probes, some signatures remaining unidentified—I really should have come this way earlier—and point my Loki towards a wormhole. Let's see what I can do with what time I have left. The C2 K162 seems like a good place to start.

C2a has a tower and no ships visible on d-scan from the wormhole, which is a good enough piece of scouting under the circumstances. Back to C5a and on through the K162 to C5b, where only probes are on d-scan. One planet sits out of range, so it seems reasonable to warp across to look for occupation, but as I find none and I have more wormholes already scanned I don't think it's worth my time looking for K162s. Back to C5a and, let's see, what's left? Forwards to a potentially unexplored class 6 w-space system, or backwards to a potentially active and expectant class 6 w-space system. Let's see if someone's waiting for me.

Jumping through the C6 K162 has d-scan clear, with my notes from four months ago indicating the presence of two towers out of range. Checking the locations has the first tower present with a whole bunch of ships floating teasingly empty inside its force field, and the second tower gone but a replacement anchored one moon across, again with ships but no pilots. Okay, this system is scouted and one more remains. In to C5a, across to C6a. I see a tower and ships, all industrial, all but the Obelisk freighter a potential target. But I am thrown in to the system over seven kilometres from the wormhole.

My hunch proves correct again, as locating the tower using d-scan sees the ships coincident with it, and warping there finds them all lacking pilots. Okay, that's game over for tonight, no gooers found. And heading home has a Buzzard in C5a, one stationary enough to make me think it was his probes I saw in C6b, and that not scanning in that direction was probably a good choice. But that's all I see on my way home, making it another quiet night of scanning.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Should have gone to null-sec
Tags: broadsword, buzzard, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, obelisk, penny ibramovic, scanning, viator, w-space

Towers are tough

It's still just me and the static wormhole in our home system. Sweet peace and quiet. I'm bored. I resolve the connection and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, looking for some entertainment. And although I see a couple of ships and two flights of drones on my directional scanner I don't expect the drones belong to either the Buzzard covert operations boat or the Viator transport. I locate the also-visible tower, new to the system in the three weeks since my last visit, to see both ships present and empty, but not the drones. Who cares, they're only Gallente sympathisers.

What I do notice about the tower, obviously freshly installed, is the complete lack of defences. There aren't even any shield hardeners installed, which is an oversight. And as the tower is small, I quite fancy a crack at it. I'd better look for wormholes first, though, as I don't want to be caught doing something so obviously futile. I may look silly, and we can't have that. So I launch probes and sift through the nine anomalies and six signatures.

Relics, data, wormhole, relics, and, thwarting my tower assault plans, a second wormhole. The static exit to low-sec I already know about, and not only does the second wormhole turn out to be a crappy, half-mass, at-the-end-of-its-life K162 from high-sec empire space, but the U210 is pristine when I warp to it. The K162 probably poses no real threat, and the low-sec exit wasn't open. Never mind, I can reconnoitre the low-sec exit and judge my safety still.

I leave w-space to appear in a system in the Sinq Laison region. There are three other pilots in the system and no obvious scanning probes looking for wormholes, which is a good sign. I could probably go for the tower now. Or after I've scanned for more wormholes, because exploring would be more fun than sitting still for hours. But the two additional signatures in the system only resolve to be a combat and relic site, which doesn't offer much opportunity.

Then again, I am now by myself in a low-sec system with a station, a relic site, and a relic analyser in my hold. I could grab myself some crappy loot for a bit of clicking around an interface. I'll do that, as long as the system stays empty. Which, of course, it doesn't. I don't even get the analyser fitted before someone else enters the system, but as he then docks to the same station as me I think I can mostly ignore him.

I leave dock, warp to the relic site, and start cracking open the first can. It doesn't present any problems, although I cloak after doing so, waiting for a couple of new pilots to get bored of looking for me and move through the system. Lather, rinse, repeat, all the cans are opened, loot scattered everywhere, and I manage to pull some of it in to my Loki strategic cruiser. Well, I say 'loot', as none of it is worth terribly much, but it's almost better than nothing. Let's see if shooting the tower is a more entertaining use of my time.

I head home, swap the Loki for a Talos battlecruiser [Edit: or it could be an Oracle; if only there were some definitive, perhaps pictorial evidence to verify this], and jump to the C3 to see what damage I can do. Pew pew! Lasers fire and slam in to the small tower, doing maximum damage with no consequences to my ship. And after a few minutes I have the tower's shields down to 98%, at which point I give up my conquest of the system. I'm still not sure if the relic site or this tower assault was a bigger waste of my time. Or what I'm going to do next. Kill our wormhole, I suppose.

A couple of big ships destabilise the static connection, and a couple more collapse it completely, leaving me a new constellation to uncover. Resolving the replacement wormhole and jumping through sees nothing on d-scan and a territorial control unit on my overview. That's probably a good place to start looking for a tower, so I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp to the TCU. Nope, no tower here, just a TCU with bubbles forming an arrow. I dunno why, because there isn't a tower in that direction either.

Unoccupied and inactive, I'm back to scanning, looking for K162s. Specifically, our K162. I forgot to bookmark it. But with the handy beacon on the system map letting me know precisely where to scan I find my way back home and can get on with looking for other connections amongst the thirty-one anomalies and seven signatures. There's just the one, the static exit to low-sec. I should probably stop here, but my curiosity gets the better of me and I exit to a system in Khanid, with three extra signatures to resolve. Relics, a combat site, and more relics. Yep, I should have given up. But now I know, and I'm going home.

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

Having a second crack on a high-sec wormhole

A quick check of the constellation on my return is disappointing. I had hoped that the dying static wormhole to class 1 w-space would be replaced by something fresh, only to turn up at the connection to the class 4 system holding it to see that wormhole now in its death throes. All I manage to do is pop a couple of rats in low-sec Aridia, on my way out of and back through the constellation, before taking another break. And, now on my second return, I'm going to refresh our system.

Some massive ships thrown haphazardly through our static wormhole coincidentally have enough combined mass to collapse it, and even leaves me in our home system. What luck! Bye bye, wormhole, let's hope your replacement is kinder to me. I get back in my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, resolve the new static connection, and jump through to the unexplored class 3 w-space system. And I can see ships. Ships that should be cloaked, but still ships.

The Nemesis and Manticore stealth bombers, and Cheetah covert operations boat are unlikely to be active if they can be seen, so I suspect they are sitting at the tower also visible on my directional scanner. A visit from four months ago directs my attention towards a certain planet, where the tower seems to remain, and rather than head there first to check for a lack of pilots I warp in the other direction to drop out of d-scan range and launch probes. That doesn't work, though.

So I can't get out of d-scan range of the tower. So what? It's not like anyone's watching, and I simply launch probes and perform a blanket scan, as I warp across to the same tower I saw on my last visit. Hello, a capsuleer is present after all, the Nemesis piloted, but I still don't think he's paying attention. That's good too, because with any luck he doesn't see my Loki decloak as its systems crash and I force a reboot. Dumb rust bucket.

Either the pilot knows I'm here or he's asleep at the controls, it means I'm scanning through the ten anomalies and ten signatures to look for actual activity. And what a bounty of wormholes, five of them resolved in total. That looks good on futuristic space paper, but what about in practice? An N968 outbound link to class 3 w-space, a K162 from high-sec, a K162 from class 2 w-space, a K162 from class 6 w-space, and the static exit to high-sec. Okay, yes, that's pretty good.

I'll get the high-sec exits before delving deeper, just for safety's sake. No, belay that warping, cadet! I'll check out what that new Mammoth hauler is doing on d-scan. He's at the tower, but not for long. I drop out of warp outside the force field just in time to see the Mammoth warp away, but at least I see which way he warps. He's gone to space and not a customs office, and thanks to my scanning I know he's headed towards the static exit to high-sec. I'll pootle behind him.

I can't catch the Mammoth in high-sec, not without Concord forcing me to buy another new Loki, but if the hauler comes back too soon the ship will be polarised, and I can trap him on a high-sec wormhole. That's always fun. Waiting for a ship to possibly return isn't, but if he doesn't come back polarised the Mammoth will have an easy escape route, so I probably won't wait for too long. Probably. I note the time and mark the minutes, and the time passes when the Mammoth's polarisation effects would no longer be an issue. Hmm.

In my experience, Mammoths break pretty easily. All I need to do is catch the pilot off-guard and get a couple of shots in and I could still get a kill, hence why I wait a couple of minutes longer than I really ought. But the wormhole crackles, and it is probably the Mammoth. I can't decloak immediately, though, as I want the ship to initiate warp, adding the extra step of cancelling warp to the process of fleeing back through a wormhole. A flustered pilot may take a few seconds working that out. So I hold my cloak until—there!—the Mammoth appears.

I decloak, activate my sensor booster, and ignore the recalibrating going on in the background as I try to get a positive lock on the Mammoth. It doesn't happen. Whether I was too slow or the Mammoth is optimised for agility I can't say. He warps away, leaving me staring at a wormhole. Oh well, I guess that's that. I warp across the K162 from class 2 w-space and jump through, where d-scan shows me loads of ships! I've forgotten about that Mammoth already.

Lots of ships, but no wrecks and one tower. One tower where all the twenty-three ships float unpiloted. I'm not wasting any more time here, so head back to C3a and across to C3b, through the N968, where I see a tower with no ships. It's disappointing, but not misleading. It's also boring, and getting late, although I notice that this is the system with the Wormhole Engineers container wishing the locals a Merry Christmas. Not these locals, I suppose, as we kinda blew up their tower that Christmas Eve, but it's a nice memento to come across occasionally.

Back to C3b and, well, maybe not to the C6 K162, as the Mammoth is gone from d-scan again. Back to high-sec? I think it's worth loitering by that wormhole again, if only because I have a couple of factors working in my favour. First, the pilot has evaded me there once already, so he'll probably be cocky about doing it again. Second, I can be quicker. I don't need to reveal my ship now, but as soon as the wormhole crackles I can assume it's the Mammoth and decloak immediately, soaking up the recalibration delay. If it's the Mammoth, he'll assume he can get clear and try to warp. If it's not, I can make a judgment call and bail out through the wormhole if necessary.

I sit and wait. The wormhole crackles. I decloak, get my sensor booster active, and watch for a ship appearing. It's the Mammoth. I go to target the hauler and accidentally catch the wormhole instead, but despite this blunder I still get a positive lock on the Mammoth and swap my guns and warp scrambler across to him in time. And, sure enough, the Minmatar ship crumbles under a little bit of autocannon fire. I burn towards him in the hopes of bumping the ship away from the wormhole, but I only end up flying through the explosion.

The pilot must be disorientated, as aiming for the pod catches it, and one more autocannon volley cracks it open for a new corpse to scoop. Ah, that was lovely. I loot and shoot the wreck, not bagging anything to speak of, but the corpse has quite a few relatively inexpensive implants in it to push up cost of the pilot's loss. And I see that the Mammoth had no warp core or agility stabilisers fitted. I was just a bit rubbish the first time, obviously. And I'm feeling good about killing another hauler on a high-sec wormhole. So good, in fact, that I'm going to ignore that C6 K162 and just head home for the night to get some rest.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Having a second crack on a high-sec wormhole
Tags: cheetah, eve online, loki, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Crossing Aridia

I have time for a short poke around the constellation. If I'm lucky, there will be a planet gooer in our neighbouring system which I can pop and come straight back home, satisfied with a brief stint in space. But what are the odds? Home looks bare, and I'm relying on our static wormhole to take me somewhere promising, so even though two towers appear on my directional scanner in the class 3 system it's a shame that there are no ships to go with them.

My notes suggest this system is even occupied by blues, which would be disappointing. But that was two years ago, apparently, as I unintentionally skip back a visit by stunningly managing to mis-type the system's J-number in to my notes. The actual previous visit was a year earlier—apparently me and this system get together on a once-a-summer basis—where my notes say nothing about blues living here. So what is it, notes? Have the blues-turned-grey gone one-eighty on me and are now red, or what?

The locals are still grey. Or the new locals are grey. I don't really know, but our corporations have no obvious animosity between us. And if they don't bring out a hauler or salvager there won't be by the end of the day either. I'll scan. The eight anomalies and five signatures hold no surprises, just a wormhole, two data sites, and a relic site. The wormhole will be the static connection exiting to low-sec, and I may as well see where in Aridia it takes me.

Meh, who cares which system in Aridia I've appeared in, it's all a big vacuum. Still, no one else is around, unsurprisingly, so I launch probes to scan as I point my ship towards a rock field to look for a rat. I pop a cruiser, and resolve a drone site and a wormhole, which I guess to be another unfortunate class 3 system with a static low-sec exit. Yep, called it. But maybe this C3 has capsuleers inside waiting for death to pay them a visit rather than experiencing the purgatory equivalent that is Aridia.

Nope, it's just another class 3 w-space system. Well, less than that, as there isn't even any occupation, despite my hopes that a clear d-scan result from the wormhole meant my entrance was just luckily out of range of anyone. But even though my notes suggest two towers anchored somewhere they are both now off-line, the owners looking to have been evicted at some point in the last two months. That's a shame, but with the static wormhole opened it probably means I have a K162 to find. Let me do that.

Ten anomalies, seven signatures. It's a bit gassy, but one wormhole crops up. The T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space is a good find, but doesn't explain the opened U210 like the K162 I find last. Well, I assume that's a K162, and not as interesting as the T405, as I dive down the rabbit hole to see where it takes me: an occupied but inactive C4a. Okay then.

A blanket scan of the system reveals six anomalies, five signatures, and no ships, with exploring finding two towers on different edges of the system owned by different small corporations. And actual scanning resolves two more wormholes. Sadly, the K162 from more class 4 w-space is at the end of its life, and the static connection to class 1 w-space would be much more enticing if it weren't also dying. But if the C4b pilots opened the wormhole to C1a, and the C4 K162 is still around, there should be enough life left in this P060 to poke my nose through and catch someone being careless. Besides, if the wormhole does collapse of old age, getting home from a class 1 system is hardly going to be a chore.

Hello! A tower is visible on d-scan, and so is a Hulk exhumer, Drake battlecruiser, and two Bestower haulers. Any of them make viable targets in this system, so I start swinging d-scan around looking for the tower and hoping that not all of the ships are there. But, of course, they are. I warp across looking for pilots and again am disappointed, seeing four empty ships float inside the tower's force field. And there's nothing in the system outside d-scan's range. Okay, that's my quick look over, both in this C1 and the w-space constellation. I can come back later for more exploration, but right now I'm off home for a sammich.

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Tags: bestower, drake, eve online, hulk, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Names are confusing, ship and pilot

Gas has floated out of the home system to be replaced by what I assume are new and almost entirely similar pockets of gas. But assumptions are about as reliable as a Gallente's word, and one of the signatures resolves to be a second wormhole. Where does it come from? I don't think I'll ever know, not when I land in empty space where the wormhole is meant to be. Get bent, dead wormhole, I'll explore through our static connection instead.

A tower, loads of bubbles, and a lack of ships in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has my launching probes pretty quickly. Scanning will be quick too, with only two anomalies and three signatures. Either that, or because I almost warp in to a defence around the tower, despite my interdiction-nullified cloaky Loki strategic cruiser avoiding all the bubbles easily enough. Without any decloaking canisters scattered around, I almost would have preferred to find myself on the edge of one of the bubbles, but I manage to manoeuvre away from the defence and force field whilst maintaining my cloak.

After my little excitement I get another minor jolt, as the directional scanner is now showing me probes where before there were none. They aren't my probes either, as I know how to hide mine until I'm ready to use them. Still, I can scan quickly, and as there is a scout I think I'll loiter on our K162 as I resolve the couple of unidentified signatures. They're both wormholes, naturally, and one has an Imicus appear under my probes as I resolve it.

The scanning frigate's probes are still visible, assuming they are his I am seeing, so he hasn't left this system. I warp to the wormhole I just resolved to find a K162 from class 4 w-space and no frigate, but did he warp from here or to here? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't found our K162 yet so it is seems sensible to head back that way again. Now the probes disappear, and their disappearance brings a Buzzard on d-scan. Were they the covert operations boat's probes after all, and the Imicus has already gone?

With the Buzzard comes a new signature, painfully obvious to anyone with eyes, and right after I've recalled my probes. But still I see it. I miss the mystery there used to be in w-space. I can't rue the changes now, as the Imicus is visible on d-scan, and a hundred kilometres from our K162. Okay, I think he's found it. He's seen the new signature too, as he launches probes and cloaks. This looks like a race, so I relaunch my probes and resolve the new signature, warping to the static wormhole as I do.

Once more I end up in empty space. It must have died and the new wormhole is its replacement, which a little scanning and another warp confirms. I snuggle up to the U210 and wait for the inevitable appearance of the Imicus, but when he obliges me with his presence the frigate is again a hundred kilometres away. Still, it's a pattern, and I suspect I can abuse that. He even speaks in local, to who I don't know, and what I can't tell, and I ignore that to check the vector of the Imicus. It looks like he warped from the C4 K162. That's good information.

I warp to the C4 K162, dropping a hundred kilometres short, aiming to bounce back to the U210 at a similar range and attempt to decloak the Imicus. All goes well until I update d-scan as I turn around. The Imicus is visible. Is he burning to the wormhole our bouncing himself? Bouncing, because the frigate appears almost on top of me. I decloak as the ship decelerates, hoping to soak up the recalibration delay, and activate my offensive systems. But even my sensor-booster Loki isn't quick enough to lock on to the Imicus before it warps clear, back to the low-sec exit, damn him.

The Imicus has escaped my clutches, but I know where he's going. I warp back to the U210 too and, seeing nothing, exit to low-sec. But in low-sec I don't see the pilot's name in the local communication channel. Did he drop short in w-space and cloak? That would be quick thinking. As I consider my options, not particularly wanting to polarise myself right now, a new Imicus appears near the wormhole. Well, I was chasing one, so this will do. I go for a positive lock, but he jumps to C3a before I can do much about it. And, again, I'm not keen on polarising myself, particularly as this Imicus could probably just return to low-sec to get safe. I guess I'll just wait here.

A minute passes and the wormhole crackles. What is w-space bringing me? An Impairor! I target, lock, and shoot the ship, which explodes a little too easily for it to be the hauler or transport I obviously got this rookie frigate confused with, and I feel a bit stupid having shot it. The ejected pod nudges my Loki in defiance as I rifle through the wreckage, despairing at my loss of security status for a civilian gun and mining laser. The pod warps away, I urge myself to learn the ship names a little better, and, with no other transits, finally jump back to w-space.

The wormhole is clear in C3 but there are probes on d-scan. Are they from the low-sec Imicus? I consider loitering on our K162 again, but as I move from the wormhole the Buzzard decloaks and jumps to low-sec. A Buzzard whose pilot has a very familiar name. He's the goit who spoke in local comms earlier. Holy shitsnacks, I really need to start paying better attention. Reviewing my logs sees that the Imicus I chased in w-space is the same one I saw in low-sec—there aren't two—and that I could have tried to catch him polarised on the U210. I'm a damned fool.

The wormhole crackles again, but it's not the Buzzard. Another Impairor comes through, the pilot having been gifted a new one from docking in station, and warps to the C4 K162, presumably jumping when he drops from d-scan. The Buzzard decloaks on the wormhole too, warping to the local tower. That makes sense. I follow behind the Impairor, out of curiosity more than anything, and enter C4a, where a little exploring finds the Imicus floating inside a tower's force field with colleagues. The pilot of the Impairor is now in a Drake battlecruiser, and the Typhoon and Raven battleship, and Cormorant destroyer, are all piloted.

I don't think it matters that I've finally found the source of the earlier activity, not now that I've blown my opportunity on chasing an Imicus and popping a crappy Impairor in the constellation. I really mucked up pilots' names this evening, and I deserve my lack of success because of it. I sit and watch the ships in the tower in C4a for a little while, but once it's pretty obvious they are not about to do anything I turn my ship around and head home.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Names are confusing, ship and pilot
Tags: buzzard, cormorant, drake, eve online, imicus, impairor, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, raven, scanning, typhoon, w-space