Past versus present

There's a Hulk visible on my directional scanner. I'd be more excited about seeing the exhumer if I weren't in the home system, and the Hulk didn't bear such a familiar name. Quite why the ship is in space is more of a mystery, as I am the only one on-line at the moment, and we don't tend to leave ships empty inside the force field. But there may be a reason for the ship being out, so rather than tidy up I ignore it, particularly as I don't know who may be watching yet. I simply concentrate on my standard operating procedure of waking up in w-space: launching probes to perform a blanket scan of the system.

Nothing out of the ordinary appears on the blanket scan, although the four signatures provide a second wormhole today. The K162 from class 6 w-space could be ominous, but I've visited enough w-space to know that a C2 could be more deadly than a C6 on any given day. I jump through the wormhole to C6a, where a tower and Venture mining frigate appear on d-scan. That's not scary at all.

My notes from five months ago point towards two towers, one of which should be in range and indeed is, looking to hold the Venture. Even though the frigate is at the tower I warp across to check for a pilot, in case I need to hustle to get probes launched, but the Venture is empty. Never mind, let me check the second tower. But as my notes say it is around the second moon of the seventh planet and the seventh planet only has one moon that will be difficult. This is an easy error to check and correct, though, and warping to the second moon of the eighth planet finds the other tower. There's still no one home.

Scanning C6a reveals seven anomalies and five signatures, and the complete lack of activity makes me suspect I'll find another wormhole. And there it is, amongst the gas, another K162 from class 6 w-space. Jumping through the rather more intimidating C6/C6 connection—living that deep in w-space takes commitment—and updating d-scan sees loads of ships, and loads of towers. What do my notes say? That on our last visit we engaged a fleeing gassing Exequror cruiser, in one of our more strategically interesting hunts. But what about all the towers? Occupation: yes. Thanks, past Penny, that's really helpful.

What to do, what to do. Bouncing around arbitrarily to note the presence or absence of towers sounds reasonable, or maybe I can instead list where there aren't towers. But neither option is particularly appealing, when I see that a couple of planets have a dozen or so towers around planets with many more moons, and I count thirty-four towers in total. I think I'll just list occupation in my notes as 'yes'. I'm sure that will suit future me.

There are ships too, so rather than find the towers I think I'll look for those. I spy a piloted Iteron hauler at one tower, but he's doing nothing; a Scorpion battleship is piloted in another tower; some strategic cruisers are here and there, piloted. It looks like the ships probably all have a capsuleer aboard, but that nothing's happening. I think I'll leave the system alone and head back through the home system to our neighbouring C3a, to see if there is actual activity occurring.

A Tengu strategic cruiser, Orca industrial command ship, and three towers light up d-scan in C3a, but there are no wrecks. Again my notes come to the rescue, telling me that there are 'three towers'. Was I taking lazy pills? The towers aren't even that difficult to locate, which I do, but not before the Tengu disappears from d-scan. There's nowhere to hide either, so he's not shooting Sleepers anyway and has probably gone off-line. That leaves an empty Orca and me, so I'll be scanning again.

I reduce seventeen anomalies and nine signatures to rocks, gas, a pristine exit to low-sec, a less exciting K162 from low-sec, and a weak third wormhole that leads out to class 2 w-space. That last one looks good to me, so onwards I go, spat in to C2a over seven kilometres from the wormhole. That's not a particularly positive sign, so I'm not expecting much more from the Osprey cruiser, Buzzard covert operations boat, or Venture than floating empty inside that tower. Yep, d-scan puts them all together, so I'll ignore them for the moment to warp away and launch probes.

A blanket scan picks up twenty-two anomalies and ten signatures, and, curiously, four ships. Looking for the first tower also gets me close enough to see a second on d-scan, which holds the fourth ship, another Buzzard. All three ships at the first tower are empty, and locating the second tower has an empty red Buzzard to both intrigue and disappoint me. Throwing probes around haphazardly resolves three wormholes, such are my mad skills, and the K162 from high-sec, dying static exit to high-sec, and second static connection to class 4 w-space are all I'm really interested in.

It's late, but I can afford a peek in to C4a. This time, I appear almost eight kilometres from the wormhole when entering the system, so my expectations remain low. A puny four anomalies suggests possible occupation, though, but my notes from three months ago suggest otherwise. And my notes win. And although I get as far as launching probes and revealing twelve signatures I'm not scanning any further. I'm getting tired, and exploration so far has been rather underwhelming. I'm heading home.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, exequror, hulk, iteron, mmorpg, orca, osprey, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, tengu, venture, w-space

Wormhole three-way

I'm three rock sites in to scanning the six signatures when a Drake warps in to the local tower. I hope the pilot of the battlecruiser wasn't watching his directional scanner when coming on-line. Maybe he wasn't, as moments after decelerating in the tower the Drake warps directly upwards, stopping a couple of hundred kilometres away and... what the bloody hell? The battlecruiser launches scanning probes.

Well, if the Drake's scanning the pilot may not be watching d-scan so closely, and I may as well keep scanning for the static exit to high-sec. 'It would be funny to drop a bubble on the wormhole', says Fin, waiting on our static connection in our home system. Although the ship we were hoping to make itself vulnerable has gone, a scanning Drake sounds like an amusing new target.

I scan. There aren't many signatures in this class 3 w-space system, and I know over half of them already. Even so, I resolve the high-sec exit moments before the Drake starts moving, and towards the direction of the wormhole. I enter warp to follow behind, seeing the Drake at the B274 connection and crawling towards it. Fin and I both know what could happen next, and the anticipation is already building. Fin, jump and hold. And there goes the Drake. Fin, warp to me.

I decloak my Loki strategic cruiser and get all my systems ready. But could this really be so easy? Yes, sometime it is. The wormhole flares again, seconds later, and the Drake returns. Oh, there's a second ship too, a Tengu. The unexpected appearance of the strategic cruiser registers, but as I have Fin in our killer Legion strategic cruiser the Tengu looks less of a threat and more like a secondary target. Then again, maybe it's just a really bad day for the Drake.

The Drake is targeted and engaged, and not just by me. The Tengu is not his colleague but another opportunistic ambusher, perhaps from high-sec, perhaps not. That his corporation isn't tagged should have tipped me off. Either way, the Drake is really getting beaten up, and more so with Fin joining in too. We all pile on, and the pilot knows his ship is a goner. The capsuleer ejects early, trying to get his pod clear, as a second Drake appears through the high-sec wormhole. It doesn't work.

Whether the pilot thought he could get his pod back to high-sec, or was fumbling with bookmarks to get clear, I don't know. But my sensor-booster Loki gets a positive lock on the pod, and my guns rip it apart in a single volley. His Drake blows up shortly afterwards. But the fight isn't finished. We may have had a common target but we're not allies. We're Loki and Legion versus Tengu and Drake.

Fin becomes the primary target, letting me scoop the corpse and loot the wreck, autocannons chattering away at the other ships. The other Drake gets battered quite nicely, but this isn't really a serious engagement. Little can be when fighting unpolarised on a high-sec wormhole. When the battlecruiser's shields get low he bails out, jumping through the wormhole to safety. The Tengu is targeted next, but by this time Fin has taken a beating and is encouraged to leave by the Scorpion battleship and Vexor cruiser that come through the wormhole.

With Fin gone it's just me fighting for our side, against three of them. Even without capacitor juice being drained, warp scrambled, and jammed, there's little I can do. Any of the ships could jump back to high-sec to avoid obliteration, which is what I do when rendered ineffective. And that's that. Fin and I are in high-sec and safe, Fin docking to repair her armour, and after a short while the other ships all return from w-space, including a Scythe cruiser that sneaked in at some point, and warp clear of the wormhole. They were only here for the opportunistic kill of the Drake.

That was a fun little scrap, and unexpected. It would have been more tense had the brawl occurred on anything but a wormhole connecting to high-sec, but a little penetration testing never hurt anyone. Well, expect for the Drake that polarised itself, and the 150 million ISK of implants I find in his corpse's head. I'm still not sure why he was scanning in a slow, non-covert battlecruiser.

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Tags: drake, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, scythe, tengu, vexor, w-space

Chasing a chsomething Cheetah

What's in our empty system? How about my glorious leader? Nope, she's in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, which is occupied but empty and waits to be scanned. I can help with scanning, so head that way, but halt on the wormhole. 'Hold on, a Tengu has just popped up.' A strategic cruiser innocently heading in to a local anomaly to make some ISK sounds terribly tantalising, and is clearly enough to make both of us effectively idle.

Fin confirms the new contact is at the tower local to C3a, and I sit cloaked on our static wormhole waiting for orders. But the three of us are doing as much as any other. 'He's doing a good job of just sitting there', but then, so are we. So good, in fact, that we wait long enough for the pilot to swap the Tengu for a Cheetah, warp the covert operations boat out of the tower, and launch probes as a preliminary action to scanning.

We could swap ships ourselves in the hopes of catching the Cheetah, but there's no guarantee that he'll jump through our wormhole. And when he finds our wormhole he may be less inclined to do anything else. Let's just kill the connection and start again. Fin comes home and warps towards our tower, but as I turn to follow the wormhole flares again. That was quick. The Cheetah appears, moves back to the wormhole, and returns to his class 3 home. I may not be in the right ship for catching him, but I'm giving chase.

I jump to C3a and see no one on the wormhole. I think that's a positive sign, so decloak, get my sensor booster active, and focus. There he is, and under ten kilometres from my Loki. I go for a positive target lock, warp scrambler hot, but the Cheetah warps clear. I definitely startled him, as he pooped a probe instead of activating his cloaking device. I can chuckle about that, because I've soiled myself in a similar fashion before.

The Cheetah is clear but still on my directional scanner, where he launches more probes in an 'I meant to do that' way, but the show's over. The wormhole flares behind me as Fin drops an Orca industrial ship through, and we return together, our wormhole now already at half mass. One more paired trip collapses the connection nicely, and we're back to a fresh start. There are no new anomalies yet, so we are scanning, and the new wormhole is resolved and ready for exploring through.

D-scan shows me a tower, Rokh battleship, and Hulk exhumer. My notes tell me where the tower was six months ago, and a tight d-scan beam suggests it hasn't moved and that both ships are probably there. I warp across to confirm the tower's position and to check for pilots, seeing the Rokh piloted, the Hulk empty, and the corporation pre-oranged for my convenience. It appears we're not on speaking terms with our new neighbours.

Warping out and launching probes lets me perform a blanket scan, finding four anomalies, six signatures, and the two known ships, giving me nothing unexpected. All we appear to have done by collapsing our wormhole is find a less active system, albeit one where the local pilot doesn't know we're here. Not yet, anyway. And, as I think that, the Rokh goes off-line, making it rather less likely that he'll know we were here.

Oh, he's back. The Rokh may have just experienced a glitch, but now he's back and doing just as much nothing as before. As are Fin and I, it seems. We compare how much nothing we're each doing, and Fin, sitting cloaked on the home side of our wormhole, is probably doing more nothing than me, at least until the Rokh goes off-line again, this time intentionally. He doesn't come back. It looks like I'll be scanning those six signatures.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, hulk, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, rokh, scanning, tengu, w-space

How to scan the Penny Ibramovic way: Odyssey edition

Scanning in EVE Online: Odyssey is easy. There's no need for a guide. Launch probes, point them at a signature already shown to you by the discovery scanner, and press a button. But in case you need more detail, I'll take you through the steps.

This is not a definitive guide to scanning, and certainly does not help with hunting pilots sitting safely in sites. There will be no video tutorial because I don't have the software available to do that, although I am trusting the steps will be descriptive enough to preclude needing video. I simply aim to show the basics of how I scan a system, with the reasons why. Before I start, there are terms that ought to be introduced and basic methods to be explained, so that the pictures will make sense.

When launched, a scanning probe can be said to be represented by a sphere and a box. The sphere of the probe is its range, represented by a distance in AU that is the radius of the sphere. The box sits at the centre of the sphere and allows the probe to be moved in space.

Adjusting the range of probes can be achieved either by dragging the sphere of a probe inwards or outwards, or highlighting the probe in the scanning interface and using the context menu to adjust the range. Dragging the sphere will be more convenient, as doing so for one probe automatically and simultaneously adjusts the range of all probes.

There are arrows pointing outwards from the box in both directions along each of the three axes. Dragging the probe by an arrow allows free movement of the probe in space only along that axis of movement. The probe's box has six planes. Dragging the probe by a plane allows free movement of the probe along that plane in space.

Only one box is shown normally. This is the box of a virtual probe sitting in the centre of all the probes currently launched. The virtual probe is used to manipulate what I will call the probe cluster. Moving the virtual probe moves the cluster as one, simply by grabbing the virtual probe and moving it as if it were a single probe.

Individual probe boxes can be revealed by use of the shift or alt keys, which are then used to manipulate single probes instead of the cluster. Shift-dragging a probe will move that individual probe without moving the others. Shift-dragging also works to adjust the range of an individual probe by dragging that probe by its sphere.

Alt-dragging a probe will adjust the separation of all the probes in the cluster in relation to the virtual centre of the cluster, so that if the probe you are dragging is moved towards/from this virtual centre then all the other probes will be moved towards/from the centre by a relative amount. Note that adjusting a probe's range now automatically maintains the separation of the probe cluster without requiring a modifier key to be depressed.

The other movement to be concerned with is zooming in and out of the system map. I use the mouse-wheel for convenience. Zooming in lets you align probes around signatures more accurately, as well as alter the ranges and separation of probes with greater precision.

Note that the view in the system map starts around your ship and any rotation of the display will have its vertex around that point in space. The vertex can, thankfully, be changed by selecting another object on the map, whether it be a planet, bookmark, probe, or even a signature. Select a probe by double-clicking on its box in the system map or identifier in the scanning interface, a planet or bookmark by double-clicking on its icon in the system map, and a signature by double-clicking on its dot in the system map or identifier in the scanning interface. Any of these actions will centre the display on that object in space, in all three axes.

To start scanning, first we need to launch probes. The launch and arrangement of probes will be as per my Odyssey edition guide to performing a blanket scan of a w-space system, because that's how I like them.

A larger version of each image is linked behind the standard images in this post.

1. Launch probes.



2. Recall the lower of the two central probes.



Because it's out of position.

Hold shift to reveal the positions of the individual probes, and right-click on the box of the probe to be recalled. Select the 'recover probe' option to remove it from the cluster and return the probe to your ship's cargo.

3. Align the remaining central probe to be on the same horizontal plane as the satellite probes.



Because it's out of position.



Hold shift to reveal the positions of the individual probes, and use shift-drag to move the central probe downwards to flatten the formation. It's best to shift-drag the probe by the arrow, so that the probe can only be moved in the vertical axis.

If you don't care about having a flat probe pattern, feel free to skip the previous two steps.

4. Adjust the separation of the probe cluster.



Because they're out of position.

With the spread formation now looking like an actual spread formation, the separation of the probes can be adjusted properly. I find I get best results with the satellite probe boxes brought to be a little within the half-range line of the central probe.

Press alt to highlight the satellite probe boxes, and alt-drag one of them towards the centre of the probe cluster to get the required probe separation.

5. Reduce the range of only the central probe by one step.



Grab the central probe's sphere, and shift-drag it down one step in range.





This step isn't strictly required for getting good scanning results, but it really helps the scanning process.

Grabbing a probe's sphere and adjusting its range adjusts the range of all probes, and adjusting the range of probes also changes the actual separation of the probe cluster to maintain its relative separation. Because of this, depending on which probe sphere you grab, and in which direction you drag it, there can be a positive or negative feedback effect.

You can drag a sphere so that your movement coincides with the automatic separation adjustment, such that both movements accelerate the overall adjustment in a positive feedback effect. This can cause you to overshoot your desired change in range.

You can drag a sphere so that your movement is opposite to the automatic separation adjustment, in a negative feedback effect, such that it takes around twice as much movement to change the probe range by the desired amount.

Needless to say, if you are expecting the positive effect and get the negative, or vice versa, then your smooth range change transition becomes a slow and frustrating effort or rapid shrinking to nothingness. The lack of visual feedback of the range value on the probes themselves does not help.

However, because the central probe is at the centre of the cluster, its separation relative to the movement of the other probes remains neutral. Thus if you adjust the range of the central probe you get neither a positive nor negative feedback effect, and can be guaranteed a reliable movement-to-range adjustment process each time.

The only problem with attempting to adjust the central probe's range is in grabbing the right sphere amongst the mess of the satellite probe spheres all overlapping each other. But by reducing the range of only the central probe by one step, the central probe's sphere becomes much more obvious, and range adjustments can be made with confidence and fluidity.

6. Adjust the range of the probes for the initial scan.



As signatures appear within 4 AU of celestial objects, and to have some overlap of multiple probes on each signature, the quickest scanning method is to have the initial probe range set to 8 AU on the satellite probes. This gives a central probe range of 4 AU.

Note how even dropping down from the 32 AU/64 AU range of the blanket scanning arrangement to the 4 AU/8 AU range of the focussed scanning arrangement is straightforward when adjusting the range of the central probe, and how easy it is to discern the central probe's sphere when it is reduced a step from the satellite probes.

My thanks go to my colleague Kename Fin for this tip.

7. Pick a signature of interest.



Any signature, it probably doesn't matter.

8. Rotate the view to the horizontal.



From here we can adjust the position of the probes so that they are on the same vertical plane as the signature. It is important to do this probe movement first, as in CCP's wisdom your view cannot be rotated fully to ninety degrees so that you are looking directly down and instead are restricted to a slightly oblique point-of-view. As such, adjusting the horizontal probe position before the vertical can then introduce a new horizontal error because you are not looking directly down the vertical axis of the probes.

Note that the view rotates around your last selected position, which is your ship's position on the system map by default. Try scanning and rotating the view without selecting a probe or signature at some point to learn a lesson in frustration. Otherwise, remember to re-centre your view by double-clicking on the signature, either in the system map or scanning interface. Alternatively, double-clicking on the probe box will centre the view there.

9. Move the probe cluster to be vertically aligned with the signature.



Grab the virtual probe box and drag the cluster up or down.

10. Rotate the view to the vertical.



11. Move the probe cluster to be horizontally aligned with the signature.



Grab the virtual probe box and drag the cluster until the centre of the box sits on top of the signature.

12. Scan.



You can use this time to bookmark resolved signatures, double-click on probes or signatures to reset your view, or update d-scan to see who else is in the system with you.

13. Get the refined signature position.



The second scan will give a better result than the first, although it may not seem like it if you are scanning a particularly weak signature like a data or relic site.

Once you have resolved the signature enough to see the site type it can either be safely ignored if you are not interested in that type or fully resolved if you are. Let's assume that we are interested in resolving the site.

Now we repeat the procedure, to refine the result further.

14. Rotate the view to the horizontal.



15. Reduce the range of the probe cluster by one step.



Grab the central probe sphere and smoothly drag it inwards by one step.

To get a better scan result on the signature we need to increase the strength of the probes, which means reducing their range. Always reduce the range of the probes one step at a time. Any greater reduction is a tempting way to save time but could result in not quite covering the signature's actual position with the probes and it being fuzzier than before, taking an unnecessary extra stage to correct for the supposed time-saving step. It will probably help to zoom the view in a little at this point.

16. Move the probe cluster to be vertically aligned with the signature.



17. Rotate the view to the vertical.
18. Move the probe cluster to be horizontally aligned with the signature.



19. Scan.



20. Repeat the process until the signature becomes a solid green result.











If you can't get a 100% result with the probe cluster at 0·5 AU/1 AU range, and you need to drop all probes to the 0·5 AU range, you will need to grab a satellite probe's sphere to accomplish this. No problem. Do that, scan, and when increasing the probe cluster's range to the reset position simply drop the central probe's range by one step once more before continuing.

Now bookmark, warp to, or ignore the resolved signature, whatever you like.

It would be silly to resolve a site to 100% and not bother or forget to bookmark it. I indicate the type of site by a leading initial, followed by the three letters that form the first part of the signature identifier, followed by the complete name of the site that is given automatically. Other naming conventions work just as well.

Note that bookmarking a site bookmarks its cosmic signature, whose placement will differ based on the type and variation of site. Never bookmark a wormhole solely from the scanning interface as the cosmic signature can be several kilometres from the wormhole itself. Use the scanning interface result only as a rough guide for wormholes, and always visit the wormhole to get a precise location to bookmark.

If you forget to bookmark the signature, don't worry. Sites and wormholes remain resolved to 100% until a session change occurs, so subsequent scans in a different volume of space don't negate the result. However, be aware that ships and drones are not similarly saved results and need to be bookmarked before any subsequent scan.

That's one signature resolved. Now we start again. Reset the central probe to have a 4 AU range, giving the satellite probes an 8 AU range, move the cluster over the same celestial object if there are more signatures to resolve around it, or another celestial object otherwise, and repeat until there are no more signatures to resolve.

It's possible to short-cut scanning a little, mostly when multiple signatures are close together. If you are only looking for wormholes you can cluster your probes around several close signatures and hope to get a 25% or better result so that more than one site can be ignored at once. Or you can note the approximate position of nearby signatures when scanning at 4 AU or even 2 AU, so that when you resolve the current signature you can move the probes to that remembered position and continue scanning without having to revert right back to an 8 AU range.

The above steps may seem like a lot of effort, but that's because of the explanation included with each step. Once what is trying to be achieved is understood scanning can be performed fluidly and quickly. With only a little practice, more time will be spent waiting for scan results than adjusting and moving probes. Using less detail, and with the initial launch and adjustment steps removed, the process can be seen to flow better.

• Centre view on signature.
• Reduce probe range.
• Mouse-wheel zoom in.
• Move probes vertically.
• Move probes horizontally.
• Scan.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Gas sites are ignored and wormholes found in no time.

One last note: when you have finished scanning, it's worth taking a moment to reset your probes to your favoured launch formation before recalling them. For me, that's the blanket scanning formation of an 8 AU range central probe, 16 AU range satellite probes, sitting about 18 AU above the ecliptic plane. This is because your probes are next launched in the pattern and position in which they were last recalled, and it's normally more convenient to spend a few seconds cleaning up at the end of scanning than fiddling with them in a newly entered system.

That's how I scan.

Posted in Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tags: eve online, mmorpg, scanning

How to perform a blanket scan of w-space: Odyssey edition

Scanning changed in EVE Online: Odyssey, and not just the mechanics of moving probes around. The discovery scanner now shows every capsuleer entering a system every anomaly and signature whether they want to see them or not, as well as around which celestial object the signature can be found. I am hopeful that this remarkably short-sighted feature will be reverted, at least partially, perhaps only for w-space, so that the unknown remains unknown until actually and actively looked for. Until then, the blanket scanning technique is at least still applicable for locating ships in a system.

The aim of my kind of blanket scan of a w-space system is not to see what signatures are in the system, so that you can pick likely wormholes from the noise. The aim is not to see what sites and signatures there are, so that you can see if it's worth making ISK from Sleepers. The aim isn't even to see what sites, signatures, and ships there are in the system.

The aim of a blanket scan of a w-space system is to see what sites, signatures, and ships there are in the system covertly. It is important to stress the point that neither you nor your probes should be visible to any potential targets or threats. This is w-space. You don't want to be seen if you can help it.

Because we want to see ships, we do not use core scanning probes, because these will not detect ships or structures. We need an expanded probe launcher loaded with combat scanning probes.

To stay hidden, we need to bear in mind an important point: the directional scanner (d-scan) has a range of a little over 14 AU. We need to keep our ship and probes at least that far from any potential pilots in order to remain unnoticed. For our ship, we keep out of range of d-scan simply enough. We can pick a point in the system that is out of range of any ships before dropping our cloak to launch probes. We can check this easily by updating d-scan before decloaking. To keep our probes hidden, we need to be more careful, which is where this guide comes in.

A larger version of each image is linked behind the standard images in this post.

1. Find a spot in the system out of d-scan range of other ships and towers.

It is most important to be out of d-scan range of other piloted ships, as we have to assume that they will be pinging d-scan regularly. It is useful to be out of range of towers, even if there are currently no ships present, because many pilots come on-line in their tower, and if our timing is unlucky we'll be spotted at just the wrong moment.

If we cannot get out of range of both other ships and an empty tower, compromise by launching probes in range of the tower and out of range of active pilots.

If there are active pilots as well as piloted ships in a tower, it is still best to compromise by launching probes in range of the tower. Active pilots outside of a tower are more likely to be pinging d-scan than those sitting safely inside a force field.

If the system is too small to let you get out of d-scan range of active pilots, be quick with the process and hope for the best.

2. Launch probes.



A full complement of probes now gets spewed from your launcher in one shot. This saves some time in launching the probes, only to waste it by forcing a ten-second reload. Of course, this reload can be cancelled by cloaking immediately after launch, if the system is particularly busy, to reload later.

Note that the probes are in fact launched around your ship. You may think otherwise when opening the system map to start scanning:



For some reason, rather than centre the probe formation on your ship's position, where the probes really are launched and are sitting, trust me and the picture above, the probes' virtual positions are all over the bloody place. This feels unintuitive to me, and if not careful a quick punch of the scan button can spread your probes over the whole system, visible to d-scan everywhere, thus giving away your presence. We correct this in a subsequent step.

Launching the full complement of probes also currently gives you no choice about how many probes you want to play with. You get eight, like it or not. Personally, I don't like it. The seven that were initially used was better, because the 'spread' formation was 'flat', meaning that all of the probes sat on the same horizontal plane. That was good. The many capsuleer complaints that added the eighth probe back meant the spread formation needed to accommodate another probe somehow, which was accomplished by having two central probes, both offset from the horizontal plane. This is bad. Let me explain.



The idea of blanketing the system whilst keeping probes out of d-scan range is to allow for covert surveillance of ship activity. You can see them, but they can't see you. To achieve this, the probes are first moved above the ecliptic plane so that they are out of d-scan range of all celestial objects and, ideally, all sites.

A reliable method of getting the probes out of d-scan range quickly is to have the probe ranges set to 16 AU and move the probes upwards until the probe spheres are a little above the ecliptic plane.

3. Move probes closer together.



4. Move probes above the ecliptic plane.



The probes should also be moved so that they are directly above your ship's position. If they remain spread around the system, despite them ending up out of range of any active ships they may warp through one ship's d-scan range and give the game away. Moving them upwards then horizontally ensures your probes are never seen.

5. Expand the range of the probes.



Once your probes are out of d-scan range, expand the range of the probes to get maximum coverage.

Oops! Because changing the range of probes now moves their positions relative to each other, that lower-offset central probe gets moved downwards, and potentially within d-scan range of a target. This negates any benefit of the blanket scanning technique.



There are options for this thoughtlessly positioned probe. For example, you can individually adjust its position once all probes are at their maximum range, holding shift to reveal its virtual box and moving it to be on the same plane as the satellite probes. Personally, I prefer to recall the probe. I feel it's simpler that way.

Let's start again, and get rid of that wayward probe.

1. Launch probes.



2. Recall the unwanted probe.



Hold shift to reveal the positions of the individual probes, and right-click on the box of the probe to be recalled. Select the 'recover probe' option to remove it from the cluster and return the probe to your ship's cargo.



The probe has been recovered but the pattern is still not flat, which irks me. Adjust the other thoughtlessly offset central probe to flatten the spread.



Hold shift to reveal the positions of the individual probes, and use shift-drag to move the central probe downwards to flatten the formation. It's best to shift-drag the probe by the arrow, so that the probe can only be moved in the vertical axis.

Of course, I just said that recalling the probe is simpler than moving it, but there are benefits to having that central probe that become apparent when resolving signatures.

3. Adjust the separation of the probes.



With the spread formation now looking like an actual spread formation, the separation of the probes can be adjusted properly. I find I get best results with the satellite probe boxes brought to be a little within the half-range line of the central probe.

Press alt to highlight the satellite probe boxes, and alt-drag one of them towards the centre of the probe cluster to get the required probe separation.

4. Move the probes above the ecliptic plane.



Grab the virtual probe box and glide the cluster up and out of the system. As explained above, the probes need to be moved above the ecliptic plane. The base range of the probes on the first launch after coming on-line is 16 AU, so no range adjustment is needed for this step.

Don't forget to move the probes so that they are roughly above your ship position too, so that the probes warp directly upwards.

5. Scan.

With the probes up and out of the system, scan. You can push and pull the virtual boxes and spheres as much as you like without the probes going anyway. Hitting the scan button actually moves the probes. You won't get any usable results from this scan, but it keeps your probes hidden.

6. Adjust the range of the probes to their maximum value.



With the probes out of the system, as gauged by their 16 AU range, they can now be expanded to their full 64 AU range to get maximum coverage. Grab any of the spheres, wildly drag it in one direction until it can't get any bigger, and release.

If a system is too big to be covered by the probe cluster, even at maximum range, you can consider splitting up your probes to cover distant planets, or you can perform multiple scans. Note that the probe cluster can be reset at any time by hitting the 'spread formation' button in the scanning interface, so moving individual probes is easy to recover from.

If the system is small, don't feel the urge to compress the separation or range of the probes. Pushing our probes closer together can get shadow signatures, confusing the results, as can reducing the range. We actually get best results using maximum range and a standard separation.

7. Perform a blanket scan of the system.



Move the probes so that they cover the whole system, where possible, and hit scan to get the results.

With no ships around, the results aren't much better than the Fisher-Price discovery scanner. But at least you know there aren't any ships around, and now you can also gauge the relative strength of the signatures to get an idea of what you're looking at, all without you or your probes being seen.

If there are ships, see if they are clustered or spread out. This can be difficult, based on the size of the ship, as the rough nature of the scan will have ambiguity in the results. But the noise from multiple ships will often cancel out to give an approximate position for all of them. This can let you know if the ships are likely to be in a tower, multiple towers—and roughly where those towers can be found—or outside of a tower and potentially vulnerable.

Once complete, our probes can remain in the blanket scanning configuration until needed for more focussed scanning or we leave the system. Subsequent blanket scans can be useful for determining changes, or movement, particularly in systems where d-scan doesn't cover the whole system.

Alternatively, if there are ships vulnerable in space, and they are not in a basic anomaly, our probes are launched, hidden, and available. We have already completed the initial steps of how to hunt in w-space using d-scan.

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

Stalking a Stabber

'Fleet me.' This had better not be a trap. Of course, it's my glorious leader asking for the fleet, but maybe she's been turned and is giving me up to a group of disgruntled planet-gooing industrialists in battle Badgers. Not that living in w-space has heightened my paranoia at all, nopers. And, actually, I quite like the thought of pitting my Loki strategic cruiser against some hardened haulers. I send Fin the fleet invitation and hope for the best. 'There may be a Fleet Issue Stabber.' Oh. I suppose that's good too.

Fin's trying to track down the cruiser through our static wormhole, in the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. There's a tower with no ships floating inside its force field, but the Stabber is persisting on her directional scanner. Fin's just not sure where. 'Still trying to locate.' Maybe I can help. I send my ship to and through the wormhole, move and cloak, and warp to a distant planet. Yep, I'm out of d-scan range of the Stabber, so I launch probes, throw them out of the system, and cloak again.

I perform a blanket scan of C3a as I warp back to the inner system, towards a planet Fin indicates is probably close to the Stabber, just to see what's out there. Four anomalies, six signatures, and two ships. The Vexor cruiser is new, but not for long. Whether he is local and was swapping skills, from elsewhere and passing through, or aligned with the Stabber we can't tell. If he's not with the Stabber then our cover may have been incidentally blown. That would be more disappointing had Fin's Loki not decided now is a good time to need a reboot.

Fin has to go off-line, sending her cloak off-line and making her Loki visible to anyone in d-scan range. If the Stabber's paying any attention then he knows there are other ships around. Still, he remains in space and it would be churlish not to at least see if I can find him. I sweep d-scan around in diminishing beam widths until I've got a good bearing, and start adjusting the range gate as Fin comes back on-line. Warp to me, Fin, and align to the seventh planet. She does. I'm ready.

I call my probes in and scan for the Stabber. It's a good result, although the cruiser is now apparently in empty space, no wormhole, no site. It looks like bait now, but I have recalled my probes and am sending us in to warp anyway. But we are only warping to the empty space the Stabber was in, now without even the Stabber. He clearly either saw Fin or the Vexor and decided to stay out to taunt us, judging by the renaming of his ship. Seriously, w-spacers don't use the local channel.

Never mind, hunting the Stabber was still good practice, and I found him in one scan too. But what now? We should probably collapse our wormhole and start again, and Fin agrees. Another ship name change by the Stabber taunts us a second time, but it's not working. With any luck, he'll think we're still out there looking for him for the rest of the evening. A couple of paired trips through our wormhole, plus a final one with a heavy interdictor, kills the wormhole, isolating us once more.

Isolated and ready to explore, or isolated for Sleeper combat? We have four good anomalies in the home system, and although we got a bit complacent with trying to profit from our home system, a few passing plunderers, plus a couple of poor ship losses costing plenty, have made us aware of what we're missing. Rather than look for action elsewhere, we can create our own here. One last and negative check for new signatures is made, and Fin and I swap to our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers.

We're back in to a neat groove with our class 4 w-space anomalies. Sleepers come and Sleepers are turned to wrecks, and we're just passing through, launchers firing. A second pass through each anomaly, this time in Noctis salvagers, clears up all the debris and turns it in to four hundred million ISK of potential profit. That's a pretty good result, and we get to go off-line in an almost-empty system, looking decidedly unwelcoming to visitors.

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Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, stabber, tengu, vexor, w-space

From a near-catch to nearly caught

Aii's somewhere. I can sense his presence. I can also see the bookmarks leading from home, through the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, and out to low-sec. And that's it, apparently. 'Nothing interesting', says Aii. Shall we kill the wormhole? 'Okay.' So Aii comes home and we throw some massive ships through our static connection, crushing it with the weight of a parent's disappointment in their spawn.

Five minutes have passed and there are no new signatures in the home system. That bodes well for our security, but maybe not for finding activity elsewhere. We can still look, so I resolve the replacement static wormhole and jump through. The system is familiar, kind of. I was only here six months ago, but already my notes are out of date. One of two listed towers should be in range of my directional scanner but it's showing me nothing. Exploring has the second tower also gone, leaving C3a unoccupied and currently inactive. I suppose I had better scan.

Ten anomalies in an empty system would look good for making ISK were any of them our favoured type, but they're all a bit too much effort for suboptimal gains, so I ignore them to look through the five signatures. Gas, gas, and more gas is good for Aii and will make us some ISK, but I have just the one wormhole, the expected exit to low-sec, and a constellation as limited and stale as the previous one. As Aii is happy to bounce between the sites in a Venture frigate, trying to see how much gas he can suck up before the Sleepers appear, I may as well poke low-sec to see if I can find more wormholes.

Exiting w-space puts me in a faction warfare system in Black Rise, where scanning finds nothing of interest. But with only the one pilot in the system, probably in a frigate and not wanting to have anything to do with me, I feel safe hopping through a stargate to try a second system. Three signatures is more promising, and they are. A radar site is dull, a weak 'unknown' type is the wormhole I'm after, and I can ignore the final signature for being rocks.

The wormhole is an N432 connection, leading to, what else, class 5 w-space. And jumping in sees a tower and ships, but the Talos, Oracle, and Brutix battlecruisers don't seem to be making any wrecks with the Damnation command ship's help. I don't suppose they would in a C5, but maybe they are sucking gas, old school. I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system, returning to d-scan range of the towers to see a Nemesis briefly before the stealth bomber presumably cloaks. As the Talos is missing, maybe I missed seeing the ship swap.

The Nemesis was at one tower, the Damnation and Brutix are piloted at a second, and the third is empty. And as I wonder where the Oracle went, in it comes to join the two other ships at the second tower. Okay then. My probes reveal four anomalies and six signatures, and my augmented eyes reveal bugger all more movement from the ships in the tower. I may as well scan. Radar site, wormhole, radar site, and the Oracle starts moving. The Oracle stops. What a tease, trying to distract me from seeing the Brutix get swapped for a Scorpion and warping out of the tower.

It looks like the battleship is heading to the wormhole I just scanned, so I throw my probes out of the system and see what he's up to. We may have another wormhole-collapser about to polarise himself ahead of an ambush. Happily, Fin's on-line and now heading my way in a suitable ship, and as the K162 from class 4 w-space is currently healthy it looks like I won't have to pounce now and hope for the best. There is also a slight delay as the Scorpion hits a bubble between the tower and wormhole, bounces off a different planet, and returns to actually reach the wormhole. Now he jumps to the C4, coming back seconds later in the obvious wormhole-collapsing manoeuvre. I watch the Scorpion return, warp back to the tower, and we both wait for polarisation effects to end.

A Dominix warps to the same wormhole and also adds its mass to help kill the connection. I don't know if that complicates matters or just gives us a second target. It probably complicates any ambush we plan, if only because it shows there is a second pilot active, amongst the perhaps four that I've already seen. This may be trouble. But we should have a wormhole to jump through to escape, being particularly effective against polarised ships. That is, except for the Crow interceptor now warped to the wormhole. Now it's complicated.

The Brutix appears to unanchor the meddling bubble, but he's too far away and flying too fast to reasonably catch. Besides, I'm considering the Crow. It can catch and hold us easily enough, but can we deal with it? Neither of us are certain, Fin now on the wormhole with me and also pondering the situation. We nearly find out how one of us would fare against the Crow when it nearly decloaks me, as I was careless in not moving after exiting warp, a mistake I correct by manoeuvring to a safe distance from the wormhole.

It doesn't look like the Crow is standard procedure for the locals when collapsing a wormhole, or is specifically here to catch either of us. It's quite possible that my probes were seen, but it seems that the Crow is sat on the wormhole to prevent trouble coming from the C4. Just to show that there is potentially more than we know about, a neutral Purifier appears briefly, making a second appearance only to jump back through the wormhole when the collapse continues. The Crow chases but probably doesn't catch the stealth bomber, given how soon the interceptor returns. I don't think we'd be so lucky.

The Scorpion makes another trip, as does the Dominix, and the wormhole is, slowly, being crushed. More ships appearing on d-scan, including strategic cruisers, making the situation more dangerous with each pass and convincing me and Fin that we aren't going to do much here but lose a ship or two for no gain. We leave the locals alone with their operation, and don't even bother scanning forwards. They clearly watch for new connections and have the wherewithal to isolate themselves from unwanted attention. We turn around and head home, having gone from nearly catching a ship to nearly being caught in the middle.

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Tags: brutix, crow, damnation, dominix, eve online, mmorpg, nemesis, oracle, penny ibramovic, purifier, scanning, scorpion, talos, venture, w-space

Down a mostly empty chain

The locals have been pacified by my offering of autocannon rounds. It is safe to find passage through their system. I already know there are no anomalies, as the only one that was here is now gone, after my successfully ambushing their salvager in it, and so a blanket scan reveals just the five signatures. Gas, the static connection to high-sec, a radar site, and a K162 are all resolved, but the K162 isn't much cop. It comes from class 4 w-space and is at the end of its life, leaving me one direction to go.

Jumping to high-sec puts me in Kador, not particularly close to anything and in a dead-end, stationless system. It's pretty dull. Scanning finds rats, rocks, and a weak wormhole, which is the apparently standard M555 connection to class 5 w-space that high-sec likes to have. It's good enough for me, so I leave empire space behind and head to C5. I think it's safe to say I'll be scanning again. Not only do I appear over eight kilometres from the wormhole, but one planet is in directional scanner range out of a total of two, and the other doesn't have moons. It's bit of an unusual system.

C5a isn't unusual in one respect, and that's in having a static connection to more class 5 w-space. A previous visit informs me of that, as digging through the three anomalies and twenty-one signatures has me finding other wormholes first. I'm looking for K162s, but first find a Z142 exit to null-sec, followed by another Z142, then the H296 static connection, a third Z142, and finally a fourth. So, no K162s. Thanks, C5a. Okay, C5b, what have you got for me?

D-scan is clear from the K162 in the second class 5 system too, and again its just the one planet that's out of range. I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp to see if it holds occupation. Nope. And now I see the black hole lurking beneath me, which perhaps explain the lack of anyone making this system their home. C5b's been quiet for a while too, as my scan reveals a mighty thirty-one anomalies and twenty-two signatures. I focus on the chubby ones again to look for K162s.

There's a wormhole. Does it lead to null-sec? No, this looks to be the static connection, and it is taking me out of class 5 w-space. The wormhole goes to a class 4 system, which itself could lead to a perpetuating chain, but it will be a change of scenery at least. And there are more wormholes. Two actual K162s crop up, both coming from class 5 w-space, because where else would they come from? I'll poke a K162 before heading forwards.

C5d has nothing on d-scan and two planets out of range with nothing to find at either. I won't scan for K162s, not with other wormholes already waiting, so return to C5b and head through the other K162 to C5c. D-scan is again clear, but now I see a Proteus. The strategic cruiser is on my overview, though, some two hundred kilometres above the wormhole. But not for long. As I watch, the Proteus warps away to empty space, presumably another wormhole. The pilot's name catches my attention, and it takes me a little too long to realise that Efraya has commented here occasionally. Maybe I should have said hi.

The system itself is unoccupied and inactive, and although it's possible Efraya was scouting the wormhole I don't think she'd be an effective scout by warping away like that. I think my entrance was missed, and the movement was coincidental. But, again, I'm not going to scan for wormholes backwards just yet. It's back to C5b and on to C4b, although d-scan still refusing to show me anything is getting tiresome. Exploring the system finds a tower with an empty heavy interdictor inside its force field, and my notes indicate that there is a static wormhole to class 3 w-space to find.

It would be time to scan, except time is pressing on. I have a few jumps before I get home, so rather than waste any more time looking for nothing I turn around and, hello, a Cheetah appears on the wormhole back to C5b. The covert operations boat is heading my way, so I give chase, because why not? I jump to C5b, decloak and get my sensor booster active, and see the Cheetah make a break for it. The black hole should help me here, decreasing ship agility as the cov-ops aligns to enter warp, and the cov-ops doesn't look to be wanting or able to cloak.

Even though it looks like I get a positive lock, unfortunately appearing a kilometre out of warp scrambler range possibly denies me a cheap kill. The Cheetah warps clear. I follow, assuming that he's heading back towards C5a, but either he wasn't or the black hole now hinders me. I tried to close the gap between me and the cov-ops, so am not pointing towards the wormhole, adding seconds to my time to align, By the time I enter warp and cross the system the Cheetah is nowhere to be seen. He's found his cloaking button. Never mind. Back I go. In to C5a, out to high-sec, across to C3a, and home.

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

We meet again, Mr Newfahg

There's nothing interesting in the home system. Well, except for our tower. And a new anomaly, perhaps. And me. Otherwise, nothing. Next door, though, in the class 3 w-space system through our static wormhole, I see a Nighthawk command ship, Noctis salvager, and Sleeper wrecks. Now that's interesting. A tower is also visible on my directional scanner from the wormhole, although it takes a passive scan of the system to reveal a single anomaly. The anomaly is easily checked to see that, yes, the Nighthawk and Sleeper wrecks are there.

I'm curious to see if the Nighthawk is local, and if the Noctis is a colleague, or if some plundering is occurring. My notes help me with this, as a visit only a week ago points me directly towards the tower, where the Noctis floats piloted and, hopefully, primed to sweep up behind the command ship. The pilot's name is familiar too, and it's simple to look back and see him as being the pilot of the Orca that got away. Maybe I can get him tonight. All I need to do now is confirm that the Nighthawk in the anomaly is a colleague of the Noctis's, which is a bit difficult to do when warping to the anomaly sees no ship.

Is the Nighthawk taking a breather, or was I spotted and the pilot was slow to react? I start to spool up the warp drive of my cloaky Loki to check the tower again when the command ship returns to the anomaly in front of me. I cancel the command to warp and remain instead in my perch, confirming that the second pilot is local and wondering what to do next. I could ambush the Nighthawk directly, particularly if the ship is having trouble against the Sleepers. But I'll probably have to change ships to successfully engage him, and there's no guarantee that the Nighthawk will stay where he is if I jump out of the system. Despite the bigger prize in front of me, I think I'll have to wait for the salvager.

It's not a long wait. The final battleship is destroyed pretty quickly, and in warps the Noctis to join the Nighthawk. The Nighthawk doesn't leave, which is perhaps a little awkward, but I don't think it really matters. I doubt he has a warp disruptor fitted, and if I pop the salvager quickly enough maybe I can take a shot at the command ship too. In a fine display of self-control, I even let the Noctis sweep up over half of the site before I warp in to say hello, hopefully maximising the amount of loot I can steal from its smouldering wreck.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but not by much. I warp on top of the Noctis, decloaking when close, and gain a positive lock. Where has the Nighthawk gone? He picked a pretty good time to get clear, although it denies me a potential second target. Never mind, the warp drives of the Noctis are scrambled and that ship is going nowhere. My autocannons rip through the salvager with little effort, helped by the magnetar phenomenon in the system, and my target explodes, sending the pod fleeing back to his tower before I can stop him.

I loot and shoot the wreck, and loot and loot and loot and loot some nearby Sleeper wrecks of value, before warping back to my perch. This gives me a chance to reload my guns and read a new mail, from the pilot of the Noctis, giving me a sob story about his recently returning to space and how I've just removed his only source of income. Yeah, that Orca industrial command ship you were flying the other week is nothing, neither is the Nighthawk your chum has, or the fuelled tower you're running. Either he's lying to provoke guilt, or he's put all his eggs in one basket.

Ignoring the skeezy mail, I warp back to the tower to see the pod and Nighthawk there, and the curious sight of the pod jumping in to a Catalyst. Yeah, they can't be used as salvagers, so clearly he's got no way of earning ISK any more. Maybe I should donate some to him, help him get back on his feet. Actually, I'd ambush this second ship too, if he went back for the other wrecks, but he's not that foolish. I won't waste time waiting for him to move, so I warp out, launch probes, and start to scan.

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Tags: catalyst, eve online, mmorpg, nighthawk, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Getting a varied New Eden experience

I have limited time this evening. Open every wormhole! An extra signature at home gives me no such luck as an easy route to activity, as it is just a new pocket of gas. That should please Aii, though, although maybe not as much as the Navy Megathron kill we got yesterday. For me, it's just the static wormhole that's interesting. Let's see what's on the other side.

My directional scanner is clear from our K162. Opening the system map shows why, with only one planet in range and the system sprawling 60 AU in one direction and 36 AU the other. My notes from around six months ago point me towards a tower, so I align my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser in that direction and spew some probes out of their launcher. Performing a blanket scan whilst warping towards the tower isn't as interesting as reading my notes again. It seems I'm back in the system with the shattered planet.

That's interesting, I suppose, but I've been to the system a few times already and taken a good look at the shattered planet before. As I don't have much time I don't really feel like sightseeing today, so the view from where the tower remains will be as close as I get. But before I get my teeth in to the nine anomalies and eleven signatures, an update to d-scan shows a second tower in the system, now that I'm range of more than one planet. The second tower even looks like it's around the moon of the shattered planet. I suppose I am getting closer to it after all.

Now to look for wormholes. Sifting through the signatures gives me rocks, gas, and a chubby wormhole that won't be the static exit to high-sec. In fact, it won't be anything, as warping to the resolved signature lands me in empty space. An echo of a now-dead wormhole or my sensors playing tricks on me, I dunno. Whatever, a wormhole with a weaker signature will be the static connection, and it's all I'm getting from C3a. I'm going to high-sec.

C3a spits me out to The Citadel, a mere five hops to Jita. Maybe someone else can use this connection, I'm scanning. And scanning is quick in a system with no other signatures than that of the wormhole I've just used. But high-sec lets me hop systems relatively safely, now that I've worked out how not to shoot my guns when Concord are watching, so I move one system across and try again. One signature, this time. Gurista rats.

Moving on again, the next high-sec system also has one signature, and although it's an 'unknown' type I doubt it's a wormhole with a ship coincident with it. It's probably more rats. Or a wormhole with a ship on it. I warp to what is an M555 outbound connection to class 5 w-space, and one where a scout has just gone in, or come out. Or warped to, got scared, and warped away from again. It's kinda hard to tell. I'm going in, though.

There's a Jaguar on the K162 in C5a, and a tower, Orca industrial command ship, Moros dreadnought, and Tengu strategic cruiser on d-scan. The assault frigate's pilot is definitely awake, as he appears to be negotiating with the locals for passage through the convenient high-sec wormhole, but, what the hell, I'm going to shoot it. I decloak, gain a positive lock, and get my autocannons chattering.

I only get three rounds fired before the startled Jaguar jumps to the safety of high-sec, which was inevitable. I can't say I'm surprised or disappointed by the result. And I doubt anything more will happen in C5a that doesn't involve my being chased or hunted, so I go back to high-sec too. The Jaguar sees me exit C5a and mocks my puny damage, which must make him pretty brave for fleeing as fast as he can from damage he considers puny. Whatever, dude, it's not like I expected to break a Tech II ship with my first few shots.

I ignore this system and the Jaguar to move on, as my time is running low. In fact, with my time almost up I'm moving back. I cross two high-sec systems, get back to C3a, and return home. It was a short excursion, but I still saw the rare sight of a shattered planet, shot another ship, and got insulted. Another successful evening.

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Tags: eve online, jaguar, loki, mmorpg, moros, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space