Bait is occasionally eaten

Okay. No wasting time watching inactive, idling industrialists in haulers tonight. Well, not too much, at least. But maybe I won't even find one in the first place, and I certainly won't if I don't leave the home system. Let's see what's out there. Three new signatures at home to start with. Rocks, gas—space, you're boring me—oh, and a second wormhole. Okay then. Our static wormhole to class 3 w-space is joined by a K162 from class 4 w-space.

Jumping to C4a sees two towers, a Bestower hauler, and shuttle on my directional scanner, and despite only having been in this system two months ago my notes are already out of date. Dammit, there may be an inactive, idling industrialist to watch ineffectively for hours! Thankfully, locating the towers is straightforward enough, and indeed there is an idling industrialist in the Bestower. Maybe I can sit here for a little while.

Huh, the shuttle is outside of the tower's force field. Ah, I see. It is given a name and left there as a hilarious token sacrifice to supposed w-space god 'Bob'. How very tedious. I'd consider taking it, if the locals wouldn't then come to some spurious self-affirming realisation that 'Bob' is pleased with them, or some other bullshit. Such is the nature of religion, even faux-religious appeals. I rather put my trust in the abilities and achievements of capsuleers. But whatever. The Bestower's not moving.

I calm myself down by watching the oddly hypnotic shimmering of an active hardener on the hauler, whilst the tower's force field shimmers in the background and the star's light bathes everything in an orange glow. The only way this moment could be made better would be if the Bestower actually warped somewhere so I could shoot him. But maybe he's not moving because the system is known not to be safe, not because of my presence but because of that Buzzard briefly visible on d-scan.

The covert operations boat appears and disappears, not warping to this tower or the second, and probably indicating a second wormhole in this system that I don't know about. A Loki follows the Buzzard, at least on its appearing on d-scan, whose name suggests the strategic cruiser is local to C4a. Again the Buzzard, then an Anathema cov-ops. Am I in the wrong place? Well, obviously, as the Bestower isn't moving under such uncertain conditions, and all the transitions are happening on wormholes.

Still, maybe there is benefit to loitering at the tower, as a Manticore stealth bomber warps in to join the Bestower. Join it in doing nothing, that is, and I am still not following my advice at the start of the evening. But here's Fin, and perhaps now we can do something, like uncovering that Loki. The question is, how? We can't reliably bait one Loki with another, as it may not want to engage one-on-one, particularly not with other pilots seen scouting. But perhaps if we faked collapsing the wormhole we could provoke a reaction.

Throwing a battleship through the wormhole connecting our two systems is not a guarantee of action, but it seems to me like our best option. The scouts may not be watching this wormhole, or updating d-scan at the tower, but in trying to get one or two ships to engage a third we really need a bait ship that looks functional and un-bait-like. We also ideally need a ship that can handle itself, and perhaps a way to bail out if the situation escalates, so Fin prepares a Scorpion battleship fit with ECM jammers for the task. It should look the part, whilst not being entirely useless if jumped.

Here comes my glorious leader. She jumps to C4a, with me sitting in my cloaky Loki in the system already, and takes her merry time jumping back. Fin warps back to our tower to wait for polarisation effects to dissipate, whilst I gauge the reaction. Nothing. Fin makes a second jump in the Scorpion, again trying to look obvious but not too obvious, jumping casual, and still makes it back to our tower with no obvious activity. Do we try again?

Hullo, the Manticore has come to the wormhole and jumps to our home system. 'I think it might be biting', says Fin. If it is, the stealth bomber isn't much of a prize, but it will do. But I'm starting to have concerns. I'm on the wrong side of the wormhole for optimum usefulness, for a start. I ideally need to scout, to see what will be pulled through. But the bait will be taken on the other side of the wormhole, when Fin's polarised and the attackers won't be. I'll need to jump to join the fray, and although I won't be polarised I won't have much option for escape should the engagement go awry.

I'm also stuck. With the Manticore on the other side of the wormhole I can't change my position now. But it is just the stealth bomber for now, and even if the errant Loki joins it we should be able to engage both successfully. So Fin returns to the wormhole for a third jump. In she comes. Back she goes. The wormhole destabilises to half mass, but the Manticore remains hidden. Still, the Loki has reappeared, now visible on d-scan in C4a, and at the tower with the Bestower. I warp there to check on him, but the Loki's gone in seconds. Gone towards the wormhole.

Maybe one more jump will do it, will pull the Loki in to engaging. Except it looks like it won't just be him, and not just him and the Manticore either. A Proteus appears on d-scan in C4a, and a second strategic cruiser, one built like a brick, doesn't look good for our survival. On top of that, another ship, a Prophecy battlecruiser, shows up. I've no longer got a good feeling about this operation. Despite my earlier resolve in the reverse of this situation, I'm pretty sure that I'll probably just run away from all of these ships. We're outnumbered and out-gunned.

I try to discourage Fin from continuing, but she's fearless. 'Just a sec, checking my clone.' That's not making me feel better. 'Okay, going to make a run for it.' The Manticore may be watching Fin at the tower, as the Proteus jumps through the wormhole as Fin enters warp. I can't stop her now. In she comes, and home she goes, followed by the Loki and the Prophecy warping in good time to the wormhole. Fin's already said she'll only call for help if she needs it. Does 'engaged with all three' sound like a call for help?

Do I come? 'No no no.' Yeah, that's not good. But, despite our Scorpion blowing up pretty easily under the combined fire of the three combat ships, Fin's pod gets clear without trouble. 'The Loki was jammed, then the Proteus, but I couldn't get the Prophecy and the damage was too much.' Oh well. It was a good idea, until the situation escalated. But we offered the bait, and our targets took it. I just have this nagging doubt that we did the last part wrong.

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Tags: anathema, bestower, buzzard, eve online, loki, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prophecy, proteus, pvp, scanning, scorpion, w-space

Looking for unescorted haulers

The fleet I was playing with has gone, and they've left me with a dirty wormhole. Are you just going to leave it like this, class 5 w-space pilots? Ah, no. The wormhole flares and a battleship makes a round trip, destabilising the connection to critical levels. That's reassuring, but will they finish it? It looks that way, as a second flare brings in to the system a... Rupture? Okay, the cruiser isn't the ship I was expecting, but on its return it pulls the rest of the wormhole with it, so the Rupture did the job.

That still leaves all of the canisters scattered around what is now empty space, but I honestly don't care about them. They are simply a bit of jetsam, and as they aren't anchored the cans will disintegrate within a couple of hours. Even if they don't, for whatever, reason, I will keep the bookmark to this position so that I can tidy up if needs be. My main concern is how dull our neighbouring class 3 w-space system must be if the C5ers were happy to send basic haulers through it unescorted. Then again, their escorts weren't exactly looking much beyond their prows. Let me take a look.

All looks clear from our K162 in C3a, my directional scanner showing me nothing. Warping out, launching probes, and blanketing the system reveals a healthy twenty-two anomalies and thirteen signatures, and a bit of exploring locates a single tower with no one home. My notes indicate the static wormhole will lead to high-sec, hence, perhaps, the C5ers using the opportunity to haul goods one way or the other. I think it's worth a brief scan over the signatures for further opportunity.

Some rocks and gas are ignored, and a wormhole looks interesting until I warp to it and land in empty space. The signature identifier started with 'XAB', which, according to the auto-complete function of bookmarking, is the same as at least one other dead-on-arrival wormhole. Coincidence, or correlation? I dunno, but there are more rocks and gas pockets to ignore, and a weak wormhole that must be outbound. It is, and leads to class 2 w-space. That'll do nicely. I recall my probes and jump through.

A Drake battlecruiser, Navy Hookbill frigate, and pod appear on d-scan from the wormhole, along with four towers. All the towers are around a single planet, which is convenient for me, particularly as it lets me warp out of d-scan range in such a small system to launch probes. Returning to look for the towers sees the Drake unpiloted at one planet, two empty towers, and it seems that the Hookbill and pod are curiously somewhere in space until Picard reminds me that there are four towers. Right, thanks. There they are, two pilots floating in a force field.

My blanket scan reveals no anomalies, eight signatures, and the three ships, and as it looks like the locals aren't doing anything I may as well look for wormholes. The signatures resolve to be mostly gas, the second static wormhole is obviously present, but the third, weak wormhole could be a nice find. I warp to see a connection to more class 2 w-space and, well, I stop caring about the second static wormhole. I'm going to C2b.

A tower is on d-scan, as is a Wreathe hauler, Iteron hauler, and Magnate frigate, all ships eminently poppable, so I make it my priority to locate the tower. It's straightforward enough, even without my notes to guide me, and a pilot check has a capsuleer in the Iteron but not the other two ships. I think that will do just fine, as long as the one pilot decides to collect planet goo.

As I prepare for a possible chase, I note that the Iteron is orientated directly away from a distant customs office. It's likely that the pilot's been out and come back already, with all the planet goo he wants for today. If that's the case, he really should have the decency to go off-line, frankly. Dumb pilots wasting everyone's time. And as I probably am wasting my time here, and the hour's late, I should head home.

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Tags: drake, eve online, hookbill, iteron, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, rupture, scanning, w-space, wreathe

Making logistics exciting

Fin's back home after a busman's holiday in empire space, and as a gift someone kindly flew a Noctis in to the home system for her to shoot. So she does. That salvager, and whatever fleet went before it, was here hours ago though, so I turn my attention to what's happening now. I launch probes and blanket the system whilst surveying the current bookmarks, warping to the K162 from class 5 w-space that presumably brought the earlier fleet here. And I dunno what's new and what's not, but that ship under my probes isn't one of ours.

The ship doesn't stay unknown for long, and my choice of warping to the K162 becomes relevant, as a Cheetah drops out of warp on the wormhole. Quite why a covert operations boat isn't being covert only interests me in that maybe he can't cloak, if that means he will be suitably vulnerable on the other side of the wormhole. I recall my probes as the Cheetah jumps to C5a, and I follow behind almost on impulse.

Clearly I'm not thinking. Sure, maybe I can grab an easy kill, but probably not, given the agility of the cov-ops. And, almost inevitably, although I get close to gaining a positive target lock on the Cheetah, the cov-ops warps away from the wormhole before I can stop him. And the consequences of my rash actions hit me when I hit my directional scanner, which shows me plenty of ships, including dreadnoughts. Maybe I didn't want to be spotted for a small fish, not when there may be bigger fish to fry. I probably ought to have scouted a little first.

But never mind. What's done is done, and there are no wrecks on d-scan, so it's possible nothing is happening, or was going to either, if this is the system that lost the Noctis to Fin earlier. The only real question is what do I do now, seeing as I've been spotted. Scout, I suppose, at least roughly, using d-scan at the wormhole. I pin most of the ships at a planet holding three of the five towers visible, as a Scorpion battleship warps to the wormhole with me. Are they killing it? Apparently not. The Scorpion micro jumps away from the wormhole as soon as it lands, making me wonder why he didn't just drop short in the first place, and warps back to the tower. That was useful, thanks.

The Cheetah returns to the wormhole now, actually jumping to our home system, no doubt acting as scout or bait. With at least one other active pilot, probably more, I really should have been more circumspect when following it initially. It's not like a Cheetah without a cloak would have been a kill to get excited about. I can't change the past, but I can affect my future, so when a Thorax warps to the wormhole I don't get tempted to engage it. The cruiser is clearly bait. A Baitax. Hah, that's literary genius. I should write it down.

A Scimitar logistics ships warps in and cloaks, the Cheetah returns to this C5 system, and the Thorax starts orbiting the wormhole. I think I should leave before more ships are mobilised and, as the Thorax has foolishly moved too far away to react immediately, now seems like a good opportunity. A better one than I first think too, as I decloak and jump home as a Proteus strategic cruiser drops out of warp on the wormhole.

I get home, and move away from the wormhole and cloak without incident. The Thorax follows me, as does, well, that's awesome, a Mammoth. These guys really know how to bait a capsuleer, throwing a hauler through a wormhole. If only it had been an Iteron, it would have looked like a worm too. Well, shitsticks, there is the Iteron, but not coming through the wormhole but warping to it, presumably from the direction of our static connection and, before that, empire space. Bait and distraction, keeping me from spotting and interrupting their logistics operation.

The hauler jumps to C5a but the other ships don't leave. I don't think they care that much to find my little Loki, which suggests they are bringing more ships in. Maybe another hauler. The C5 pilots are patiently sitting on their K162, but I have a bookmark to our static connection, and as d-scan looks clear I think I know a better place to wait. I warp to the other wormhole in our system, which is indeed looking clear of ships, and wonder if a second hauler will come through without escort, if the fleet really doesn't think I may know about this wormhole.

Some ships changes occur, most of which I monitor using d-scan, one of which occurs on my overview. The Mammoth warps to be seventy kilometres away from our static wormhole, perhaps trying to tempt me in to unnecessarily revealing myself. Thanks, Baittoth, but I'm not about to be caught so far from a wormhole with a known hostile fleet on standby. I hold and wait, wait and hold. Eventually, the wormhole flares. But do I get what I want?

I hold my cloak until I can see the ship. And it's a hauler, another Iteron! I decloak, activate my sensor booster, and endure the seemingly interminable seconds before sensor recalibration completes. Now I can lock on to the Iteron and, balls, watch it warp clear. I think I was too slow, but it seems instead that I was too far. I didn't realise the hauler was over ten kilometres from me, the limit of my warp scrambler, so even if I got a positive lock I wasn't in a position to prevent the hauler warping. That's my mistake, and a bit of a shame. And, naturally, here comes the response. Too late, of course. They apparently didn't consider the possibility that I'd try something here.

I cloak and, importantly, manoeuvre from my current position, even pushing away from the wormhole. I imagine that was my last chance of catching a ship without being thoroughly threatened myself, so I'm left merely monitoring circumstances. Two Drakes have warped to the wormhole and started looking for me, probably guided by the Mammoth pilot who was probably acting partly as a spotter. The battlecruisers have no chance of finding me, though. One even drops a canister, probably as some kind of decloaking trap, but it seems a little pointless now.

One of the Drakes deploys drones as a Stiletto joins the pair on the wormhole. The interceptor makes the fleet look pretty serious in their intention to actually catch me, and I consider simply hiding and going off-line, but it's not a couple of minutes until the wormhole flares again. A third hauler jumps in to the system, warps to the C5 K162, and gets home safely, at which point the Drakes and Stiletto follow, and all ships drop off d-scan. All that's left are a bunch of canisters scattered around the K162. I think I can take an educated guess and say that no more ships are coming this way.

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Tags: cheetah, drake, eve online, iteron, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, scimitar, scorpion, stiletto, thorax, w-space

Elroy Skimms and Van Ketris can skip this post

Ah, movement. I missed the hauler warping around collecting planet goo, and now maybe I can miss catching the Abaddon doing whatever it's gone to do. The battleship's pretty easy to trace, particularly once his drones appear on my directional scanner, as that almost certainly places him in an anomaly, engaging Sleepers. Sure enough, there he is.

Sadly, the Abaddon's not sitting still in the anomaly but is moving around, not making him a straightforward target to drop on top of. I would be happy to tackle him in my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, but I fear that without some energy neutralisers fit I probably wouldn't be able to overcome the battleship's defences. And rather than attempt and fail, I would prefer to wait for what must be the inevitable appearance of a salvager and a much more likely outcome of a successful ambush.

So I sit and watch. I also notice that the Abaddon isn't just moving to mitigate some of the incoming damage but appears to be aligned back towards his tower. Whether this is because of the imminent completion of combat or a precaution I can't tell, but it confirms that I would probably have little luck in dropping a non-covert ship on top of him. So I sit and watch, as the site is cleared and the battleship warps back to his tower. Well, nearly.

The Abaddon warps to a safe spot first, presumably so he can avoid the warp bubbles, which makes no sense to me, but there you go. Will we see a salvager now? Not immediately. Ah, but there we go, the battleship is stowed and out comes... a Harbinger? That's weird. This pilot is weird. Why does he want the battlecruiser, particularly one obviously fit with guns and not tractor beams and salvagers? Apparently so he can shoot Sleepers in a different boat, as he warps away from the tower and towards a second anomaly.

I follow behind the Harbinger, watch as it struggles against the first wave of Sleepers, and gets swapped back for the Abaddon to clear the site. Hurry it up, sir, I could be doing other activities. Okay, the second site is clear, now the Noctis? No, not the Harbinger, please. Okay, the Harbinger, and a third site. And, again, the battlecruiser pokes the initial wave and the battleship is brought out for the finishing blows. This seems like an awkward strategy to me, but let's see if it pays off, Cotton.

The combat really has taken quite a while, as has watching it. By my reckoning, the wrecks in the first site will start disintegrating soon. Does the pilot realise this? Elory Skimms suggests that I should send the pilot a mail to let him know, saying 'it would be the courteous thing to do'. But Skimms is an idiot. We've got the local channel in w-space, you know. It's just that I may have forgotten how it works.

Okay, the third site is clear, the pilot warps back to the tower. Now it's time to salvage. Isn't it? Why are you back in the Harbinger? Does he really just want to watch the Sleepers burn? I continue watching and waiting and, what's this, a Noctis sighting! Not only is the salvager pulled from a hangar, but it warps directly from the tower towards the first site. No bouncing off the weird safe spot now, maybe because those first wrecks aren't long for space.

Thankfully, the wrecks in the first site are still intact, which at least won't fuel the pilot's suspicion that something is up. I sit in my perch and watch what he does, happy to see the Noctis mostly stationary, only moving towards wrecks, which bodes well for an ambush. Actually, that's weird too. Noctes have a long reach with tractor beams, he shouldn't need to move. But whatever, I think I'm fine with waiting until the second site to spring my ambush.

The first site is cleared of wrecks and we both warp to the second, albeit with different intentions. I wait a little while longer, watching the Noctis scoop more loot in to its hold, before warping close and lining up my target. All looks good, even with the Noctis burning towards some wrecks. His speed suggests reheat, not micro warp drive, and I can make up the distance between us with my Loki's micro warp drive whilst sensors spend seconds recalibrating. In I go.

Decloak, burn, lock. My warp scrambler grabs the Noctis and my autocannons rip it apart. I aim for the ejected pod but it warps clear pretty easily. I don't mind, as I have the wreck to loot and shoot, and, as it turns out, to analyse. Along with the forty million ISK of Sleeper loot and salvager, I recover a warp core stabiliser, with space dust indicating a second was obliterated in the explosion. So that's why the Noctis was moving to the wrecks, because the reduced targeting range imposed by the stabilisers severely hampered the Noctis's ability. And two of them weren't even enough against my three points of warp disruption.

Ambush successful, I reload my guns, cloak, and warp to the tower to see the pod sitting forlornly in the force field. No immediate ship change generally suggests the pilot isn't coming back out, and there is a third site of wrecks left to salvage. The site sits out of d-scan range of the tower as well. Hold on, I may be getting an idea. I warp back to our wormhole, jump home, and head to the tower to swap my Loki for a salvaging Cormorant destroyer.

Returning to C3a has nothing on d-scan, so I bounce off my perch in the third anomaly to the wrecks, and go wild looting and salvaging in my destroyer. The wrecks are white again, letting me use my tractor beams at will, significantly reducing the time required to salvage all of the wrecks. This turns out to be good, because as I am working on the penultimate wreck and moving towards the last the pilot reappears. I see him on d-scan first, and then the Drake—differently piloted, as it turns out—drops out of warp thirty kilometres from me. Battlecruiser versus destroyer won't go well for a destroyer fitted with weapons, so my destroyer's salvagers are going to fare rather worse against the Drake, so I bug out quickly.

Well, I don't bug out entirely. I head to the second site, on the assumption that the Drake is there to salvage and will pick apart that last wreck, which should give me time to steal the few wrecks left in the ambush site. Had I known I'd be back in a salvager I'd have left the Noctis wreck intact, but never mind. I loot and salvage the few wrecks remaining, seeing the Drake disappear from d-scan within seconds. And he left that final wreck. I may have mentioned this before, but that's weird.

I have no idea why the Drake came this way if he didn't intend to salvage, and I can only assume that he bugged out because he thinks my Cormorant is actually a second pilot. Whatever the reason, he left that wreck behind. I'm gonna nab it. And I do, with no sign of the Drake returning. Now it's time to go home, not even caring to see what he does next. I got the explosion I wanted, along with forty million ISK in flotsam and another sixty-five million ISK in plunder. I have to say, it was almost worth the wait.

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Tags: abaddon, cormorant, drake, eve online, harbinger, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Bumbling behind a Bestower

All looks clear. What do my probes say, with their greater reach? All looks clear, although there are two extra signatures in the home system. Go get 'em, boys! It's just rocks and gas in equal measure, so home defence can stand down. But let's see if can provoke some external defences, hopefully too late to stop me. I warp to our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

My directional scanner shows me a Cheetah, tower, and some bubbles, but there are no probes to indicate the covert operations boat is active. My last visit to the system was eight months ago, and d-scan suggests the tower is in the same location as before, so I warp in the opposite direction to launch probes pre-emptively. The tower is in the same place, with the Cheetah piloted inside its force field, and my blanket scan reveals five anomalies and six signatures. Shall I ignore the pilot and scan? I think it's probably best to. He's not moving, and I'll be quick.

In fact, only one signature has my probes within d-scan range of the tower. Two, I suppose, if you count our K162, which sits maybe a couple of hundred kilometres inside d-scan's limit, but I don't need to resolve that. Not this time. I'm getting pretty reliable at bookmarking the way home. Okay, scanning finds rocks, rocks, a wormhole, a magnetometric site, and a second wormhole, which means it's bye bye Cheetah, as I have somewhere to explore.

Popping out to low-sec first, through C3a's static wormhole, puts me in a rather uninteresting faction warfare system in Metropolis. It's pretty dull, and sends me right back to C3a and warping to the second wormhole. Sadly, the K162 from class 5 w-space is wobbling away at the end of its life. I suppose I'll be scanning low-sec after all. But before I do, I bounce off the tower, partly to check on the Cheetah but mostly to stave off potential polarisation effects. And it's good that I hit the tower, because the Cheetah is now a Bestower.

Swapping boats for a hauler is almost a sure sign that the pilot will be heading out to collect planet goo. It takes him a little while to work up the resolve to do so, maybe downing a few shots helped, and when he does he warps to empty space. That's weird, until I realise that he's warped to safe spot configured to avoid the warp bubbles placed around the tower, and then it becomes weirder. But whatever, I'll catch you in the inner system.

Seeing the Bestower drop off d-scan indicates he's warped to another planet, so I push my pre-aligned Loki strategic cruiser towards an arbitrary customs office and hope to get lucky. Of course, I don't, so I'll have to give chase the hard way, by spinning d-scan around on a tight beam and trying to catch up with the hauler. I spy the Bestower at one planet, but am too slow to see him there. His next destination is revealed within a few seconds of d-scan use, but again I cannot get there before he's left.

The next destination is muddled by having two planets close together, and I manage to pick the wrong one. Well, probably the wrong one, or maybe the Bestower warped before I got there. He's off d-scan now, but having only visited a few planets I have a hunch he's dumping his cargo at the tower and will be back. I warp to an unvisited customs office and wait for his return, but it turns out I chose poorly. The Bestower's back in the inner system but not on my overview, so I am back to chasing him. Chasing and missing, just like before.

He's gone again. Maybe the hauler's got another full load, and maybe not. I wait a minute longer than his previous disappearance before deciding to check on him at the tower. Sure enough, the piloted ship is floating passively inside the force field, apparently finished collecting all the goo he intends too, having successfully, if perhaps ignorantly, evaded my attentions. I'm pretty sure he's not going back out, if only because the pilot's now in an Abaddon battleship. And he's back to doing nothing. As am I.

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

Watching d-scan

Oh boy, gas! That extra signature in the home system is really getting me excited. I want to see if I can tempt people to suck it. Maybe our neighbours? Maybe not. My directional scanner is clear from the K162 in the class 3 w-space system, and my notes only point me towards a non-existent tower. I suspect the static exit to null-sec has helped move the locals on. Never mind. I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system, revealing five anomalies and eighteen signatures. Good anomalies too, anomalies Fin and I could burn through if she were here. But I'm alone, so I suppose I'll be scanning for wormholes.

A second blanket scan, taken as a precaution after the little time taken to warp around the system, has a population explosion. Ships and drones are everywhere now, which serves as a good reminder of how quickly w-space can change. Warping to the farthest planet finds the suspected fleet, and as there is an anomaly out here and no other signatures it is trivial to find them engaging Sleepers. A Rokh battleship, Abaddon battleship, Legion strategic cruiser, and Drake battlecruiser makes me wish Fin were here for a different reason. But I'm alone, so I suppose I'll be waiting for their salvager.

The fleet isn't sweeping up as it fights, but neither does a salvager appear directly behind the ships as they clear the first anomaly and move on. That's no real indication that the salvager will be escorted later, I suppose, but it does mean I'll have to wait a little while longer. Then again, if I play this right, and the fleet clears all five anomalies, there could be a lot of booty to rip from a wreck. And the fleet is making light enough work of the Sleepers that this shouldn't take too long.

A second anomaly is cleared and the fleet warps to a third. But on the second wave of the third anomaly all the ships warp away, disappearing from d-scan moments later. What's happened? My cloak is intact, I recalled my probes safely at the distant first anomaly, and d-scan looks clear to me. That's both weird and disappointing. The don't seem to be coming back either, so something's spooked them. Perhaps their home system has been compromised by a new wormhole, and not this C3, which was easier for them to spot than me. Who knows?

I keep updating d-scan and after a short while an Anathema covert operations boat appears, looking to be allied with the fleet. But did he jump in to the system or out of it? Was he keeping his probes hidden and has counted the extra signature of our K162, or is he here to look for something? There were no probes before, and there remain no probes now. I am none the wiser.

There's a Cheetah cov-ops on d-scan now, unaffiliated with the fleet from my assumption of his ship name. Maybe that is the ship the fleet saw, when it entered the system, spoiling my evening's entertainment? Maybe. Core probes are launched and start looking around C3a quite obviously. I keep hidden, remaining reliant on d-scan only.

Both cleared sites will be lacking signatures now, making them impossible to find. I am sorely tempted to bring a destroyer in to the system to salvage quietly, knowing the core probes won't see me and hoping no one is watching d-scan. But that would be foolish. The fleet knows where the anomalies are, and could have their own scout watching. Then again, maybe they've given up on the meagre loot available, as a Scorpion battleship blips on d-scan briefly. Are they collapsing their wormhole?

A Proteus strategic cruiser makes an appearance on d-scan, followed by a couple of Nemesis stealth bombers. Perhaps a salvager will be coming in to the system after all, backed by some cloaky firepower. ...no? Nothing? The Scorpion comes and goes again, dunno why, as does a second Proteus, named 'Red October', so presumably covertly fitted. The Cheetah and Anathema choose this time to make a second appearance too, all ships blipping on d-scan in quick succession. Neither Nemesis shows itself, though.

I've no idea what's happening. Did the ships go back to their respective systems, or find the other corporation's wormhole and are scouting? Or did they find our K162 as well? You know, floating in a perch in the second anomaly is probably not the smartest place for me to be. Watching the only connection I know of would be better, I imagine. I relocate, continuing to watch d-scan for clues.

A whole lot of nothing appears for a while. Ping, ping, ping. Nothing. Finally, a third Proteus blips on d-scan, but nothing passes through our K162. What does that mean? That I should give up? I've spent too long watching d-scan and doing nothing myself? Probably, but I'm not good with advice. Ping, ping, ping. Back to nothing. How about getting that destroyer now, Penny? Do you think a Proteus is watching? Maybe! Three of them appear on d-scan at once, dropping right off again, pretty much suggestive of a command to leave the system.

There is and goes the Cheetah that ruined my ambush, bastardo. And a second time. Is it safe now? I'm going to say yes, if only to break the monotony of updating d-scan almost continuously for the past eighty minutes. But that's what it's there for, frankly. Had d-scan been automatic, this would have been boring, completely lacking in tension. And if you're paying attention, it's actually pretty easy to see covert ship transitions, as they are visible for at least two updates of d-scan.

Anyway, yes, I'm going to make an adventure out of the evening, even if it kills me. The wrecks will decay in another thirty minutes or so, but leaving it to the last few minutes seems like a bad idea. The fleet will have their timing right too, and if anyone will want to snatch up the loot before it dies it will be them. Best to steal it when it looks like it has been abandoned and there's no pressing need to make sure it's still there. So with d-scan looking clear I jump home, swap to a Cormorant, and head back to C3a to be a tiny bit reckless.

I have a bit of an advantage in that the first cleared anomaly is so far out of d-scan range of what are probably two active wormholes. Someone would actively have to be out here and watching. That's not to say they're not, I suppose, and as the wrecks don't belong to me and I can't use tractor beams, so will have to pilot between each wreck manually, I will be vulnerable for longer. Or maybe not. The wrecks are white, not yellow, for reasons I am not about to question, so out of curiosity I activate a tractor beam on one. It works. Excellent.

Easy-mode salvaging is engaged. I'm still only in a destroyer and have to work with a tractor beam range of twenty kilometres, but I whiz through looting and salvaging the wrecks and move on. Of course, I could dump the first site's loot in our tower before attempting to salvage the second, but where's the fun in that? Straight to the other cleared anomaly with me, and I dive prow-first in to the wrecks. Loot loot, salvage salvage. Done. I get clear with my ship intact and about a hundred million ISK of clear profit in my hold.

I have to wonder if anyone was watching. And if they were, did either side they think they'd be jumped by strategic cruisers or stealth bombers if they dared to stop me? It would be funny if both sides were waiting for a salvager but, when it came, didn't want to commit their ships to fight an unknown force. But in reality I doubt anyone was in the system any more, and I'm unlikely ever to find out. And although I didn't get a salvager kill, I suppose I got perfect loot from the sites instead of what may have survived an exploding ship. All in all, it's been quite the interesting evening in w-space.

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Tags: abaddon, anathema, cheetah, cormorant, drake, eve online, legion, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, proteus, rokh, scanning, scorpion, w-space

Reconnoitring a red system

I'm back for more mayhem and explosions. What are the odds that I can achieve that, though? The neighbouring class 3 w-space system is occupied by a five-capsuleer corporation and had no other connections but its exit to low-sec, and the wormhole in the low-sec system had a single connection to more class 3 w-space in which I destroyed a cruiser earlier. Unless something has changed, maybe I am returning to a stale constellation. I won't know until I check.

Jumping to C3a has my directional scanner appearing as blank as before, and warping to the tower finds as much change as a blanket scan of the system, which is none. Exiting to low-sec has no new signatures spawned, and C3b has a similar number of ships as before, but now the bare tower is not so bare and the third tower is gone, much as suspected. I hope the view one planet across is worth all the effort. But that's about it for changes.

Nothing is happening, and I'm not about to force anything to happen. At least, not beyond collapsing our wormhole to get a fresh connection to a different system. I head home, get the big ships moving, and ponder my navel as I wait for polarisation effects to dissipate. The process seems to take longer than usual tonight, I can't say why, but at least it goes smoothly. The wormhole dies on schedule, with me in the home system, and no one trying to stop me getting back to the tower. I'd call that a success.

Ok, next wormhole, please. And the replacement C3a is dreary, with a tower and Orca industrial command ship visible on d-scan from our K162. Having notes from eight months ago, and considering the Orca to be unpiloted, I warp to the edge of the system, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan. Warping to where my notes say the tower is finds the Orca empty as expected, leaving me sifting through the twelve anomalies and nine signatures. Rocks, gas, rocks, whatever. The usual. And just the static exit to low-sec again.

Leaving w-space puts me in Access in the Genesis region, a few hops from New Eden itself. I've been before, though, and don't feel a need to make the pilgrimage today. I stick with my standard operating procedure in a system devoid of other pilots, and rat and scan. My probes reveal three additional signatures, resolved to be a magnetometric site, radar site, and wormhole, as bouncing around the rock fields finds a couple of cruisers for target practice.

The wormhole in low-sec is a K162 from class 3 w-space, and almost probably not the one I came through this time. I jump through to make sure. A salvage drone is on d-scan, which is new, but there are no ships and no wrecks, so I think the critter's just been abandoned. Poor fella. But I don't actually care about him, and ignore him the instant the results come back from a blanket scan. In the system are eight anomalies, sixteen signatures, and a tower in the same place as nine months ago, but no activity.

Looking for wormholes in C3b finds one, and just one, but it's a potentially nifty K162 from class 2 w-space. Jumping through even has ships appear on d-scan, with an Orca, Iteron hauler, Harbinger battlecruiser, Naga battlecruiser, Armageddon battleship, and Arazu recon ship. But despite more salvage drones visible there are still no wrecks to be seen, and seven towers and their associated hangars are hard to ignore. Maybe I should find them.

Reds! How almost exciting. Finding one tower has the Naga and Arazu piloted by capsuleers hostile to our corporation. Still, with a not-blue-shoot-it policy, which is occasionally violated for certain blues, red is just another shade of not-blue, but I suppose it adds a certain tension to exploration. Four more towers are empty of ships, and I leave them unvisited, leaving a tower holding the Orca and Harbinger, another holding the Armageddon, and the last the Iteron, all ships piloted. All piloted, but none active.

At least locating the towers has taken long enough for two more ships to appear. The Helios covert operations boat isn't terribly interesting, but the Badger hauler may be on-line to collect planet goo. If only I knew which tower it was at, with all seven split across three planets, I could try to stalk it. I warp to one tower but the Badger has moved, warp to the inner system to see if it's at a customs office but can't find it, and return to poke around the towers to still not catch a sight of it. Whatever it is, or was, it may as well be a d-scan glitch.

I think I'm going home. There are too many towers and ships spread amongst them for me to keep track of movements of any individual one, and should they all mobilise I wouldn't stand a chance of engaging them by myself. I get as far as the wormhole before a final check of d-scan sees two new haulers, both Bestowers, but despite yo-yoing back to see if they want to collect goo I am either watching one Bestower do nothing or experiencing the same frustration as I did with the Badger. I was right to turn my ship around in the first place. I'd like to close the evening by popping a planet gooer, but it's not going to happen.

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Tags: arazu, armageddon, badger, bestower, eve online, harbinger, helios, iteron, mmorpg, naga, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Ruining a repping

I have time for a quick scoot through the w-space constellation, once I've uncovered it. But the home system needs a little attention first, as a research job has finished and needs updating. I can do that, I think. A quick scan shows no unexpected signatures, so it's safe to warp in to our force field and take care of business. And although it's been a while, and I need a few tries to figure out the interface, the necessary blueprint is put back in for further material efficiency research. Job done, I head to our static wormhole and beyond.

The neighbouring class 3 system looks clear from the K162, according to my directional scanner, with two planets sitting out of range. I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp around exploring, uncovering a tower with no one home, and ten anomalies and eleven signatures. As the local corporation only comprises five capsuleers I don't suppose the odds are high that I'll be seeing any of them soon, so I sift through the signatures for wormholes.

Gas, a radar site, rocks, rocks, gas, wormhole, radar site, radar site, gas, and a final wicked red-headed step-child of w-space that is another radar site. Just the single wormhole makes it the inevitable static exit to low-sec empire space, and naturally it takes me to Aridia. What a cliché. Scanning the low-sec system has two extra signatures. I wonder if either has another unfortunate corporation connecting to Aridia? The Blood Raiders in one site look local, and although the second signature is a wormhole it doesn't bring capsuleers here but possibly takes me to them. It's an X702 outbound connection to class 3 w-space.

A K162 implies activity, but also that the wormhole is known to be open. An outbound connection may lead to nothing, but if it leads to pilots they may not be aware of the connection. Jumping from low-sec to C3b has nothing appear on d-scan but several planets out of range, and a blanket scan gives me a rather interesting result. The three anomalies and five signatures suggest some level of occupation, but it's the twenty-odd ships that catch my attention. Surely they can't all be piloted or active. I need to find them to find out, so head in their direction.

Three towers are split across a couple of planets, with an Orca industrial command ship in one of two towers around one planet, and all of the other ships at the third tower. Let me check them first. And despite the number of ships only one looks to be piloted, an Osprey cruiser, but even then it takes me a little while to interpret what I'm seeing. All of the empty ships are floating inside the bare tower, whilst the Osprey is outside and throwing shield energy towards the tower itself. Now isn't that interesting. How can I catch him?

The Osprey is booking it and on an eccentric orbit, not being overly casual about his being vulnerable, so moving under cloak towards him would be futile. I'll try to predict his orbit and get in to position, which may be aided by bouncing off a far planet to try to intercept the cruiser on the other side of the tower. It's worth a go, and the complete lack of defences on the tower and near-lack of other active pilots—the Orca warps to this tower and back to the other, not being swapped for another ship—makes an attempted ambush almost risk-free.

I pick a suitable moon on the other side of the tower, warp to it and bounce back, and float in wait for the Osprey. It looks like the cruiser is coming my way, but I'll have a short wait and now the Orca is back. That could be bad news, what with the plethora of ships, including battlecruisers and strategic cruisers, ready to be boarded to counter my ambush. But that would rely on the pilots being aware and ready to respond quickly, and as the Orca dumps a Noctis salvager in to the tower I'm guessing the pair are generally distracted by their tasks in hand.

There's no time to consider the Orca, though. The Osprey is now under twenty kilometres from me and closing, bringing it in to warp scramble range. I shift my focus to the cruiser and move towards him, trying to gauge when to drop my cloak. I don't think the timing is too critical, not with a potential six seconds of recalibration delay that can be soaked up by micro warp drive-burning towards the Osprey, but I don't want to make a silly mistake. As the Osprey continues to edge closer, with my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser just inside its orbit, I wait until it is inside my warp scrambler's range before springing the ambush.

Decloak, burn, and get every system hot. The Osprey doesn't react before I can gain a positive lock, at which point my scrambler is preventing his warp drives from kicking in. My autocannons start knocking down the Osprey's shields as I pay a little attention to d-scan and more attention to my overview, but no new ships are boarded to come to the Osprey's aid. And, for a ship designed to repair others, naturally the cruiser can't withstand a little abuse without outside help. The ship explodes.

The pilot is at least alert enough to get his pod clear, sensibly warping to a distant planet rather than feebly attempting to go straight back to the tower's force field. I'm left alone to loot and shoot the wreck, and to target the tower briefly to see how ailing it is. The tower's shields sit at about 70% strength, which isn't bad. I would say that this is a new installation rather than one that's been assaulted, hence all the ships being brought across. And talking of ships, I notice the Orca pilot is now sitting in a Hurricane battlecruiser in this bare tower.

I don't much care about the Hurricane. I've reloaded my guns, peeked at the tower's health, and so re-activate my cloak to hide once more, moving off in an arbitrary direction. In fact, I shall move away in a less arbitrary direction and head for the wormhole. The pod pilot is now in a scanning boat and both pilots are aware of my presence. I can't do much more here, and what few signatures there are probably only hold another exit to low-sec. I've had some fun, got a kill, so I may as well head home for a celebratory sammich. I can always come back later.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Ruining a repping
Tags: eve online, hurricane, loki, mmorpg, noctis, orca, osprey, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Cloaks work better when active

So tired. I'm almost asleep in my pod, and I've only just come on-line. Hmm, I wonder what happens if you engage autopilot in w-space? Oh, okay, probes are launched and thrown in to a blanket-scanning configuration. It really looks like Sleeper technology learns from the pilot's behaviour. I think I'll just leave my Loki strategic cruiser to indulge itself this evening.

One new signature is just some new rocks, so we're static wormhole-ho! Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system is a mixed bag, depending on what you pay attention to. The directional scanner is clear, but the passive scanner revealing a mere three anomalies suggests occupation, which my notes from six weeks ago would agree with. Then again, notes versus d-scan says that the tower should be in range, so the corporation has moved on. It's useful to keep notes, but a w-space system can never really be considered 'settled'.

Scanning C3a has seven signatures to resolve, the first being a wormhole. It's the static exit to low-sec, and that it's in pristine condition probably means there are no K162s to find. But after some rocks there's a second wormhole, chubby enough to be a K162. That's probably because it's our K162, the one I opened from the other side, and hardly a surprise to find. And with a magnetometric site, more rocks, some gas, and a radar site, there really aren't any more wormholes in the system. I suppose I'm going to low-sec.

The busy faction warfare system in The Bleak Lands is fairly bustling with pilots, but anything above nobody in the local channel looks positively busy when exiting w-space. Ignoring the sixteen locals to scan has one extra signature resolve to be another wormhole, and a K162 from class 1 w-space at that. I can squeeze my Loki through there and maybe surprise someone, so in I go.

And surprise someone I may. A Tristan frigate and salvage drones are visible on d-scan along with Sleeper wrecks, although there is also a tower and a lack of anomalies. I may have arrived a little too late, or just as a ladar or gravimetric site is being cleared of sentries. But with nowhere to hide to launch probes in this small system it may not matter. I'll give it a go, though, and warp off to the most distant planet just because it makes me feel further away from d-scan.

If only I had realised I'd not moved from the wormhole and activated my cloak before warping, I perhaps would have remembered to do it when engaging the drives. But, no, I am oblivious to my Loki being bloody obvious to d-scan for my entire passage across the system, right up to when I try to decloak to launch probes and realise I don't need to. Oh well, I launch probes anyway and get them out of the system, now cloaking and wandering back towards the centre of the system to look for the Tristan.

The frigate's back at the tower and decidedly looking like he's not leaving the force field again any time soon, thank you very much. He may have been casual enough with d-scan to miss a brief window when I was launching probes, but not the extended warping of my Loki. I'll chalk this one up to carelessness on my part, and maybe blame my ship just in case anyone still thinks it's running on autopilot.

Frigate is swapped for frigate, Tristan to Probe, and the pilot warps away from the tower. Well, I have probes out, I may as well see how quickly I can locate him. First scan sees I am looking around the right planet, second gets the Probe to 62%, and the final scan has nothing. He's cloaked or warped, and as the Probe is back at the tower I'm going to suppose he warped this way. I'm also going to suppose he has well and truly deduced my presence, so I scan the two unidentified signatures in the system. Both gas. Okay, there's no more w-space and I'm clearly too tired to be competent. I'll see myself out.

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

Keep the unknown unknown: disable the discovery scanner in w-space

Also posted on the EVE Online forums.

I was minding my own business, floating in space, when a new signature pops up in the system. Neat, huh? No, not at all. I'm not in empire space looking to grab some loot from a site, but in w-space where the signature is almost certainly a newly spawned wormhole. Without any input or action on my part, I now know of a new connection in the system, likely to bring at least a scout, maybe a fleet, and can act accordingly. The discovery scanner makes it all possible. And the discovery scanner must die.

I have already argued that an automated directional scanner would change the fundamental nature of w-space for the worse, as it would introduce an asymmetric shift in safety towards those less-inclined to PvP interactions. Now instead of an automated d-scanner, we have been given something more powerful. The discovery scanner may not show when pilots are in the system, and new signatures may not be wormholes, but what it does is give strong evidence of a new wormhole opening before anyone has even jumped in to the system. And this warning doesn't even require a single mouse-click to be effective.

But more clicks don't make the game better, right? So the argument went for the directional scanner, so the argument is made for the discovery scanner. No, more clicks don't make the game better. Yes, not needing to mash the mouse button would be preferable to constant clicking. But that's how the directional scanner works, and that's how it was designed to work. The decision to gain intelligence with every update or to take a rest and trust in general inactivity is the choice every pilot makes, solo or in a fleet, in w-space. The same was true with scouts having to continually update their scanning probes.

The fundamental nature of w-space is the unknown. The space is unknown, the wormholes are unknown, the pilots in the system are unknown. If you wanted to know something about the system you had to uncover it, either through careful monitoring of the directional scanner or through the use of scanning probes. Now the discovery scanner shows you every signature, every site in the system within seconds of entering, and any new signature the moment it spawns. Even with probes launched and inactive, new signatures will be added to the scanning interface. Now there are fewer unknowns.

Fewer unknowns makes for less threat. Fleets engaging Sleepers in a fully scanned and secured system can now take a passive approach to safety. Just watch the scanning interface for new signatures and retreat if any spawn. There's no need to update the directional scanner, and the discovery scanner is already dynamic. You can't sneak up on even mildly experienced pilots through a new wormhole. And if the wormhole is old, well, mildly experienced pilots aren't likely to run sites in an insecure system.

The best a w-space hunter can hope for is activity through a carelessly opened K162, or pilots who aren't paying attention to the most obvious signs of intrusion. That's not only slim pickings, but picking on only the weakest, ill-prepared pilots in space. The level of threat you bring, and the feeling of being in threat, is drastically reduced when the discovery scanner acts as a beacon to any active pilot indicating that someone is coming.

I can see the reasoning behind the introduction of the discovery scanner, even if I don't agree with it. CCP wants scanning and exploration to be an obvious route for new players, but didn't see how capsuleers could stumble in to it. Clearly showing all of the 'hidden' sites in a system is to pique the interest of capsuleers in to finding out how to uncover them properly. But the same information is useless and irritating for pilots who, for example, know about and are uninterested in scanning being presented with useless information on every jump, which for haulers and roamers is frequent.

I don't agree with this approach because the discovery scanner doesn't mesh with the game's usual philosophy. It is a nice idea for brand new capsuleers who don't know about exploration, but after the first couple of weeks, the discovery scanner becomes either too powerful or too annoying. Given that all CCP had to do was create a newbie mission that gave you a scanning frigate, launcher, and probes and got you to resolve a mission signature, much as they do to introduce other avenues of interest in New Eden, the omnipresent discovery scanner is a bizarre choice to go with.

This is not to mention that the discovery scanner is the antithesis to the very idea of exploration. There is never any need to launch probes to see if there are any signatures in the system. New signatures automatically appear in the scanning interface, and on the HUD in space, and around the planet where they are closest to. Perhaps this is of relative unimportance for the site runners in empire space, but the notion of w-space being unexplored and unknown has been completely undermined.

Simply travelling through w-space now shows you what having to launch probes used to. Not only is a wormhole opening immediately obvious to any pilot paying attention, without even needing to update d-scan to check for a cloaked ship entering the system, but merely keeping track of the number of signatures in each connected system lets you check at a glance whether any particular system needs re-scanning for new connections. You don't even need to launch a probe to do so. It is intelligence without input.

If there is ever a feature that needs to be rolled-back, I think this is it. The game is wrongly simplified because of the discovery scanner, and w-space has been neutered, when the intention was to reveal the exploration option to those unaware of it. There are better ways to accomplish this goal. As for a solution: disable the discovery scanner for w-space. Tie it in to empire hardware, if there needs to be a reason. This keeps w-space unknown, more so for those entering from empire space, and further distinguishes w-space from null-sec, all without negating the benefits the discovery scanner has brought for pilots who weren't aware of exploration.

Posted in Gaming | 23 Comments »
Tags: comment, eve online, mmorpg