Bringing back the brains

All I want is my sammich. Why must you tease me so? I warp away from the tower, after watching a Bestower appear, go off-line, a second appear and go off-line, only to get as far as the wormhole home when the hauler makes a reappearance on my directional scanner. I look at the wormhole, at d-scan, at the wormhole, and consider just jumping home and ignoring the temptation. But it's not called a temptation for nothing. I turn my cloaky Loki around and warp back to the tower, hoping that this time the pilot will head out to collect planet goo.

Fat chance. I drop out of warp outside the tower's force field to watch the Bestower, and I watch the Bestower go off-line. Maybe the pilot of the Badger I caught earlier really has warned members of his alliance about the roaming Loki. If I'm not getting any scraps in this C2 I'm definitely getting my sammich. Back to the wormhole with me.

And straight back to the tower. This time, it's not the false allure of the same Bestower but a new contact in a pod, albeit at the same tower. A new pilot could mean a pilot ignorant of circumstances, and being in a pod makes him likely to soon choose a ship from his hangar. I drop out of warp outside the tower's force field to watch the pod, and I watch the pod do nothing. 'Soon' is relative, after all. I'm hungry, I'm going home for my sammich.

Dammit, one last update of d-scan as I approach the wormhole home has the pod replaced by a Wreathe. Great timing, capsuleer, plucking a hauler from your hangar just as I warp away. I really can't ignore that either. A new pilot jumping in to a hauler is as sure a sign of planet goo collection as anything. But if the pilot follows standard behaviour patterns, the boarding of the ship will be followed almost immediately by the first choice of destination. I imagine I am already lagging behind the hauler.

Rather than warp back to the tower I take a punt at the pilot's first choice of customs office, that of the closest one to his tower. I warp directly there, hoping to at least see the Wreathe, but the hauler remains on d-scan and not my overview. A quick point of d-scan at the tower confirms the hauler is out and about, but I have no idea where. I aim d-scan at each planet, checking the customs offices in turn, and locate his current position. Thinking I won't catch him there I warp to what I hope is the next stop on his route.

I actually get to where I think I'm ahead of the hauler whilst the Wreathe is still at the previous customs office. That's good, as it means he's moving slowly, but my guess is bad. The Wreathe moves on and not my way. But he is taking his time at each customs office, so I take another chance and warp to where he is now, hoping to see where he goes next if I don't actually get a chance to catch him directly this time. But I'm seconds too slow, the hauler dropping off my tight d-scan beam as the planet looms large ahead of me. I need to locate him again.

At least this next attempt should be good. As I've noted before, if he warps before I can stop him I should be more agile than the industrial ship, and get to where he's going with plenty of time to catch him at the subsequent stop. If he happens to be warping back to his tower, then I'd have lost him whatever happens. And if he doesn't get away, well, I've got him. So with this in mind, I decloak when dropping out of warp to finally see the Wreathe in front of me. I don't need to hide any more.

I get my sensor booster active as my Loki decloaks, and my guns and warp scrambler hot. I burn towards the Wreathe and gain a target lock, which simultaneously disrupts his warp engines and gets my autocannons chattering. The Wreathe positively falls apart, as only Minmatar ships can, and, as a special reward, I snare the ejected pod. And once my Loki slows down a little, my guns manage to track the tiny object in space, cracking it open after a few failed attempts, to reveal the corpsicle inside.

It's just me again. I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck, bagging yet another expanded cargohold for my collection. And now I can get that damned sammich at last. As I can also enjoy it with my new corpse buddy and his hundred million ISK brain, I would say that this tea party was worth the wait.

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

Expanding further

I come on-line for an exploratory poke around w-space to see my glorious leader and the poppet in the home system. I sense great mining is afoot. But nope, 'we have a C2, with a high-sec to Kador'. That's the only K162 in the home system, and the second static connection in the class 2 system is its sole signature, apparently. Our neighbouring class 3 system, through our own static wormhole, is left unscanned for now, as it contains an exit to null-sec that no one can really be interested in.

I'm curious about the C2. Fin's been there and scanned, but I always like to see for myself. I jump through the K162, update my directional scanner, and see three towers, a Badger hauler, Magnate frigate, Impel transport, Impairor frigate, and two shuttles scattered around the system. Fin ignored looking for the towers to instead use the high-sec exit to export loot and import, um, useful materials I suppose. That's cool, because two of the towers are around planets with a single moon each, and the only tower around a planet with multiple moons holds no ships. And it's the ships I'm interested in.

Specifically, I'm interested in the hauler and transport, so warp to where the Badger sits first. Dropping outside the tower lets me see the hauler is piloted, but I don't see it for long. Barely before I'm reorientated, and without a chance to get in range to take a closer look, the Badger is warping out of the tower. At least I'm close enough to see where the Badger goes, and it's towards the nearest customs office. Good-oh!

I follow behind the Badger, but my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser feels clumsy in giving chase, the apparent time to enter warp exacerbated by my current sense of urgency. I warp to the customs office in time to see the Badger here, but do I have time to catch it now? I don't know, and I don't want to spook it, not yet. The hauler is moving again, so I hold my position, and my cloak, and simply watch the ship align towards the fourth planet and warp again. This time I'm right behind it.

It's all over rather quickly. I decloak, gain a positive lock, and start shooting. The Badger is ripped apart, throwing the pod in to the vacuum of space, which, despite my best efforts, escapes. I loot and shoot the wreck, gaining another valuable expanded cargohold, and—did the pod not warp back to its tower? It certainly didn't head in the right direction. I was already turning to shadow the pod as I looted the wreck, so rather than warp to the tower I head to the customs office in that direction.

I can't say I'm expecting much from this chase. A pod is notoriously difficult to catch without a warp bubble, and I'm a few seconds behind the fleeing capsuleer anyway. And as I approach the distant planet d-scan is showing me another tower along with the pod, so it's quite likely the pilot simply fled to the safety of a different force field. So it is with some surprise that I land next to the customs office to see the pod waiting for me. Hello, pod.

I may have mentioned that a pod is difficult to catch, so I didn't gimp myself unnecessarily. I remain uncloaked with my sensor booster active, and warped to land on top of the customs office, rather than being cloaked and dropping short. Systems hot, I make another, better grab for the pod, but despite the pilot being a little careless in sitting still for so long he is at least awake to my continued threat, and disappears again. ...to another customs office, it seems.

I surge my Loki in to warp again, and reach the next destination on the pod's whistle stop tour of the system's customs offices just in time to see it disappear in warp in a direction I am not quick enough to discern. It's a bit peculiar, but perhaps the pilot was using an overview configured to show customs offices, and used that instead of fumbling with bookmarks to get away from me. And now that he's bounced off a couple of customs offices to get clear of me he returns to actual safety, as I find him back in the first tower's force field.

My fun may not quite be over, though. The pilot swaps to a Bestower, but it's no surprise that a second attempt at collecting planet goo is not being attempted. The Bestower warps out of the tower to the high-sec exit, leaving w-space once there. I can lurk on the wormhole. Why not? If he returns too soon I can pop the polarised hauler, although I doubt that will happen. And looking at my atlas, knowing from Fin where the wormhole leads, seeing that the system in Kador is a dead end and many hops from a significant market system makes me think any wait I have will be long and unfruitful.

I think it's time for a sammich. Except a Tengu has appeared on d-scan. I look for the strategic cruiser with a tight d-scan beam, only for the ship to come to me. The Tengu drops out of warp on the wormhole and jumps to high-sec too. Well, that's probably that. I can get my sammich now. Or not, not with a new Bestower somewhere in the system. The hauler is at the tower I've yet to locate, but picking the first moon turns out to be a good choice. The Bestower is there, piloted, with a second Badger, also piloted. Lunch can wait a little longer.

Doop, doop, doop. The Bestower goes off-line and is replaced by a different contact in a different Bestower. Maybe there will be some movement now, by the new pilot ignorant of my recent shenanigans. No? Nothing? No, nothing. This pilot also goes off-line after idling in the tower for a few minutes. Okay, my desire for a sammich has been unsatisfied for long enough. I'm going home for a break.

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Tags: badger, bestower, eve online, impairor, impel, loki, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Between a wreck and a planet

'Just scanned home and bookmarked the wormhole. I'm killing Sleepers in the gravimetric site.' So my glorious leader welcomes me on-line. 'And someone cleared all of our anomalies.' All of them? 'All of them.' Those pig-dogs, tidying up our system like that! I suppose we have little to do apart from look elsewhere for entertainment. After all, Fin's finished with her minor Sleeper patrol, even having looted and salvaged the wrecks, so there's nothing more to do in that gravimetric site. She even beats me to our static wormhole, and jumps ahead of me by a few seconds.

So it is that I hear 'Drakes! Wrecks!' moments before updating my directional scanner in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see them for myself. Three Drake battlecruisers, a Scythe cruiser, and drones and wrecks too, with no sight of a tower. A passive scan reveals seven anomalies, but before I can get too concerned with where the ships are engaging Sleepers I need to move away from the wormhole. With almost a kilometre for my Loki strategic cruiser to cover before it can become cloaky again I am worried I may scare our prey off too soon.

Fin's moved and cloaked, and ships and drones remain on d-scan. I follow her lead, feeling terribly visible for a few seconds, and update d-scan repeatedly once my cloak is active again. The ships don't disappear, and drones are coming out again. I think we have some ships to hunt. They're easy to find too, indeed being in one of the standard anomalies. I warp to the anomaly to assess the circumstances, creating a perch on my way in.

The Drakes are getting dirty with the Sleepers, but the Scythe is some distance from his colleagues. And judging from the blue beam emanating from the cruiser, the Scythe is transferring shield energy to the Drakes, no doubt helping the battlecruisers if they sustain too much incoming damage from the Sleepers. Maybe keeping the logistics ship separate from the Sleepers is helping to spare it. I can't quite tell how far away it is, but it's far enough to potentially cause us a problem.

With the Scythe boosting the Drakes' shields, even if one at a time, we will have a much harder time trying to break the battlecruisers' already significant capability. Of course, if we pop the Scythe first then the Drakes become normal Drakes again. But that's why its separation from the fleet is an issue. We don't want to engage the Drakes without shooing away the Scythe, but if we can't get to the Scythe easily then we may just be banging our heads against impenetrable shields. Luckily, it looks like the Scythe has wandered in to a convenient position.

It's not the Scythe's fault. He's sitting above the Drakes, which normally makes a ship difficult to warp to. But taking a good look at the site shows that the Scythe is now sitting quite neatly between one of the newly created Sleeper wrecks and a nearby planet. I tell Fin to hold in our perch whilst I take a punt at dropping on top of the cruiser. I bookmark the wreck and bounce off the planet to warp back at a not-even-estimated range to the Scythe. It's a good complete guess. Better than good, really. I drop out of warp ten kilometres from the Scythe, close enough to ambush him whenever we please.

But let's not jump the ships immediately. The third wave of the anomaly has appeared, which includes annoying frigates and a couple of battleships. Let's let the fleet take out the frigates and one battleship before pouncing, so that if the Sleepers take a disliking to us we're more likely to survive. Once the Sleepers are whittled down, Fin can warp in to engage the Drakes, keeping one close, whilst I take care of the Scythe. What a good plan. Nothing can go wrong.

We watch the combat progress, and I have a little chuckle to myself as I see the Scythe not being far enough away to avoid the attentions of the frigates. They come buzzing up to annoy the cruiser, as the Drakes send their drones this way to pop the tiny Sleeper ships. Uh, oh. Right. 'This way', as in, towards me too. I even got closer to the Scythe than the ten kilometres, to avoid any rounding errors with range and ensure my warp scrambler activates immediately. The Sleeper frigates don't just buzz around the Scythe, they buzz around and bump in to me. Oops.

Fin, engage the Drakes. My cover is blown, and there's no way I can activate my cloak and pretend no one saw me. Even less chance of doing that when I am actually recognised and addressed in the local communication channel. But I'm already locked on to the Scythe and stripping its shields. I doubt this will take too long, as I'm assuming the Scythe has no local repairs running, or offensive systems either, but it's still no hauler.

I look behind me to see Fin bravely brawling with all three battlecruisers, and try to ignore the obviously distraction tactics being employed by Firstly, one of the pilots. I have to admit that he's either a genuine reader of my journal or does some impressively quick research. But I need to get this Scythe down, so that the remote repairs disappear and I can help my glorious leader against the combat ships. And there she goes. The Scythe pops, the pod flees quickly, and I bounce off our perch to join Fin, shaking off the Drakes' drones and reloading my guns as I do.

Fin plus Sleepers minus logistics equals damage. The Drakes know the jig is up, the two that can flee fleeing once their Scythe is down, but Fin is keeping a tight hold on the third. His shields are gone and is taking armour damage by the time I'm close enough to add my guns, probably having caught the ire of the two Sleeper battleships as well, and, as we're all getting chummy in local, he admits that it's time to melt. And melt he does, the Drake's armour and hull dropping quickly and easily to our combined fire.

I aim for the pod of the pilot ejected from the wrecked Drake, and I get a positive lock too. Quite why he manages to warp away is a mystery, until I realise that I still haven't turned off the function to automatically return a set number of target locks. I have to admit, I like the more obvious feedback as to when I'm being targeted, but in this case, as others, it has let a target slip away. I got my offensive systems hot so that they would activate immediately on a positive lock, but because I had automatically returned the lock of the Sleeper battleship my commands were translated to activating my warp scrambler and guns on the current active target, which is the battleship. Silly Penny. It's time to change that.

Even without the pods we get two good kills. Fin was brave as buttons to warp in amongst the three Drakes and hold them at bay as I popped the logistics, and I am pleased that I identified the threat of the Scythe and was able to manoeuvre my Loki in to position to enable us to strike simultaneously. It was rather more interesting than a straight duck hunt. The other Drakes have retreated and aren't coming back, so I loot and shoot the wreck, grabbing the loot from a nearby Sleeper wreck too. I looted the Scythe as I was aligning back to the perch, and don't care to make another trip to destroy its wreck. Once safely out of the anomaly and cloaked, we can relax a little.

Pilot Firstly hangs around to chat for a bit, but is scared away when Fin's scanning resolves the K162 from class 5 w-space he's sitting on. They fleet came through there from null-sec—Firstly trying to expand his colleagues' horizons, a plan that we may have mangled by our ambush—and although I gave my word that we wouldn't engage him if he wanted to stay I can't blame him from leaving the system. I warp to Fin at range and manage to land on top of the wormhole, decloaking and no doubt looking a mite threatening. But I gave my word, that was merely an accident. I just get curious as to wormholes in space.

There's nothing else interesting in the system. The static exit to low-sec leads to a system in Black Rise, which Firstly's scout in a Tengu strategic cruiser investigates before Fin gets there. There is no occupation and we've killed the activity. I doubt there is much happening in the class 5 system either, what with the null-sec pilots passing through it safely. I think we're finished for the night. But that's okay. We've had a short but satisfying hunt, with some variation over our normal targets, and not forgetting our standard need to improvise a little. And we had a nice chat afterwards, with tea and scones. Well, Fin and I had tea and scones. They're a w-space staple, after all. Maybe Firstly can remember that for the next time.

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

Chasing cov-ops

A pair of bookmarks bookending our static wormhole wait for me, but they are a day stale. What's new? Just the replacement wormhole, so scanning says. I could take this opportunity of a bit of quiet time to deal with correspondence, but there may be other pilots to shoot nearby. 'There's always people to pew', says Elroy Skimms, trying to agree with me but, really, just jinxing my evening. And so I jump to a neighbouring class 3 w-space system that's occupied but inactive. Thanks, Skimms.

I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system. Three anomalies and six signatures isn't much, and I identify gas, gas, rocks, Fin, a weak-arse wormhole, more gas, and a chubby wormhole. The wormholes could be a static exit to null-sec and a K162, or an exit to low-sec and a random outbound connection. I'm leaning towards the former as being more likely, so head to the chubby wormhole first, hoping to and indeed landing next to a K162. This one comes from class 5 w-space.

Hullo, a final check of my directional scanner shows that there are core probes in C3a now. Has a scout entered from the null-sec exit, or this C5 K162? Well, obviously the K162, but not because the directional properties of opening wormholes. The null-sec connection could have been opened earlier, letting people come through its K162 too. I am sure the scout has come through from C5a because my blanket scan picked up six signatures, and, along with our own K162, I ended up identifying seven. This wormhole is new.

Just to show my reasoning is awesome, a Buzzard appears well over a hundred kilometres from the K162 I'm sitting on and warps away. Quite why he decloaks to warp, and stays visible, I can't say. Maybe the pilot is still in training to fit the covert operations cloak that can be fitted to his covert operations boat. It makes him easier to catch, though. Not by much, admittedly, and I still need to get close to him, but still easier.

The Buzzard didn't head to our K162, which is a shame for Fin in her Flycatcher interdictor waiting on the other side, and by the time I reach the K346 exit to null-sec in C3a I can't tell if the cov-ops has cloaked or jumped. I get a better idea of what the pilot did when the wormhole flares a minute later, bringing the Buzzard back to w-space and warping off a moment later. He's still not going to our K162, which makes me think he hasn't scanned it, somehow resolving the much weaker null-sec connection only. But back to the C5 K162 we both go.

I drop out of warp to see the Buzzard stationary near the wormhole, for long enough for me to get close and consider either engaging or waiting to see if different ships will be brought in to the system. I suppose not, if he saw my combat scanning probes, but before I can call Fin in to drop on top of the cov-ops the Buzzard jumps to C5a. I don't follow. The cov-ops will be agile enough to evade me, and there is still a chance a better target will come our way. I pause for a couple of minutes, to make the sure the Buzzard is clear of the wormhole, and then, well, still do nothing, as the K162 flares once, then twice.

The Buzzard is back, and he's brought a friend in a Helios cov-ops with him. Both ships warp away, I think both towards the null-sec wormhole, and I am again too slow to see either of them leave the system. This time, though, I get Fin in to the system and sitting on the K346, in case the ships return. The plan is made more awkward when we realise neither ship actually left. The Helios is seen on d-scan in C3a, and when I finally check C5a for activity I see the Buzzard is somewhere in that system. At least we know that now.

There is still movement to be considered. Fin's not doing much good on the null-sec wormhole, but planting her Flycatcher on the C5 K162 could be useful. As she does, I look for the Buzzard. He disappears, so I launch probes and scan for another K162. I find a couple, the K162 from more class 5 w-space almost being inevitable, but its dying state not really making me believe the Buzzard came from that way. The second is a K162 from null-sec, which doesn't look any better, but given the pilot's interest in the other null-sec system it seems more likely. A third wormhole, a C140 exit to low-sec, is just an annoying complication.

Checking the null-sec K162 in C5a lands me in a system in the Stain region, with no sign of the Buzzard, Helios, or any other pilots. And core probes are visible in C3a again, Fin spying a Buzzard on d-scan briefly, named differently from the previous cov-ops. We have new contacts, and from a source unknown. When some combat probes also appear we think it best Fin heads home, which she does for long enough to swap to a cloaky ship. But, as it turns out, adding more invisible ships to a system doesn't really help with hunting. All the probes disappear without any ships replacing them, leaving us staring at empty d-scan results. There may be a handful of ships in the system, but none are wanting to be found. I don't think we can do anything else here.

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

Music of 2013, part one

I had two-thirds of this initial review written by March, and I thought I was going to get a good jump on my posting of music I'm listening to this year. Then I got kicked out of my groove, like a needle skipping on a record, and ended up listening to the same bits again, and again, and again, but without writing about them. That's okay, though, as I really like what I've been listening to, for the most part. Still, I knew I ought to finish part one of 2013's music review so that I could move on to part two, so here it is.

I've liked The Joy Formidable for a while, although their debut album proper of last year wasn't quite as thrilling as the earlier A Balloon Called Moaning. Never the less, seeing the band play the tiny KCLSU venue late last year revived my interest in them, and I can't help but buy second album Wolf's Law. It's okay. I think The Joy Formidable are growing in a different direction to me, either finding their calling or being influenced by the huge venues and the bands they are supporting in those venues. The songs have traces of the older tracks, but the feel is grander, anthemic, instead of an intimate reflection. Although this is a generalisation, and there are songs to enjoy on Wolf's Law, the final song sounds like it was written to be played in arenas. And best of luck to The Joy Formidable, for they deserve to be heard by a wider audience. This type of rock is just not for me.

Seeing Toy live, speculatively, left me feeling a little underwhelmed at the supposedly psych-rock band. Not that I really know what psych-rock is meant to describe, but Toy felt a bit, well, normal. But I was craving some new music to listen to, and they weren't bad as such, so I pick up their eponymous debut album. And it's pretty good, maybe a bit better than that even. Guitars drone and hum along for the most part, working up to catchy riffs for extended outros, and there is enough character to each song to differentiate them and keep the album flowing. The vocals fall a little flat, not really having the shape that the music almost demands, but they aren't distracting most of the time. So despite the first live experience of Toy, Toy the album has me engaged, and perhaps enough to encourage me to go to another gig of theirs in the future.

Is the 'difficult second album' still a concept? It was often mentioned about bands back in the day, mostly after a strong debut, but I doubt it would be applied to Unknown Mortal Orchestra's second album. Whilst I enjoyed the somewhat psychedelic offerings on the first album, it was a little shallow in its ideas, taking a hook and not doing much with it. But II shows early maturity for the band, where a more mellow approach to songs creates a depth both within tracks and across the album, putting hooks and riffs on top of a foundation that forms songs which feel much more complete. II expands Unknown Mortal Orchestra's music as much as it extends, resulting in a second album that is not at all difficult to appreciate.

Sometimes a review turns my head, but unconvincingly. Occasionally, almost rarely, I will actually do some research and find snippets of songs to listen to in order to see if I will like the band, rather than speculatively buy the album. This is what I did with Grouper, where the review made the album sound interesting but perhaps not what I was looking for. So I hit iTMS and listened to what was available for The Man Who Died in His Boat. And I wasn't sure that I liked the rather bleak, minimalist sounds, to the point where I discouraged myself from buying the album. And then I bought it. I really do occasionally get a need to look for new music, and just wanted anything that I could listen to. The good part is that I actually really like the album. Yes, it's slow, quiet, kinda depressing, but I get it. Maybe not on a conscious level, where I could analyse the music, but I can put the album on, sit back, and let it wash over me with an understanding that I don't have to explain why I like it. I don't think I can recommend The Man Who Died in His Boat, if only because I don't know why I like it so much, but I do. I love it.

Opening track of Images du Futur, second album by Suuns, feels tense, with the droning chopping guitars and the chords never really resolving. Indeed, it takes until 2020 kicks in before you feel comfortable with the direction of the music, even with the drooping guitar playing in a different time signature to the relaxed bass and drums. It's a great start to the album. And where Zeroes QC felt energetic and vigorous Images du Futur feels laid back and mellow, but somehow without losing the same overall vibe. Minor Work's muted bassline seemingly drifting in to being from nowhere, Edie's Dream's playing more with off-beat guitar melodies, and the title track's being an atmospheric interlude demonstrate an overall coherence to the album not often found on many others. And the way that Bambi, although released prior to the debut album, slots seamlessly in to place in their second album is a testament to how Suuns can progress their music whilst maintaining a distinctive style. Images du Futur is an impressive album, and one that won't be out of place in most music collections.

The folksy piano of Open the Door is quite a departure from the feedback and screaming that began Leave Home. I skipped the previous album from The Men, though, so maybe their music has gone in a different direction. But the distorted guitars are back in second track Half Angel Half Light, and their punkish roots really start to show in Without a Face. But whether they are showing their more melodic side in The Seeds or bashing out lo-fi noise like Electric, The Men sound great. They clearly understand the genres they span, even fusing them occasionally, like with Bird Song, and play with confidence and style. The Men have pulled together a decent mix of songs to create an interesting album that's well worth listening to.

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Tags: cd, grouper, suuns, the joy formidable, the men, toy, unknown mortal orchestra

Missing ships

There is more to be explored. The K162 from class 2 w-space has been killed, unlike the Scorpion battleship that was killing it, but that still leaves a K162 from class 5 w-space and our static wormhole. Or, rather, our static wormhole. Glorious leader Fin has already been in to C5a and found little more than an unpiloted space potato. And now she goes to our neighbouring class 3 system to poke around. 'Seven towers, one force field sounds like the makings of a popular video. And it's a Wolf-Rayet system, yay.'

The class of phenomenon in C3a diminishes our Sleeper-fighting capabilities, hence Fin's lack of enthusiasm. I leave her to explore the system rather than stomping all over her spirit as usual, which coincidentally gives me an excuse to see the class 5 system for myself. Sure enough, a tower with an empty Dominix battleship is all C5a obviously holds, and scanning doesn't find any more wormholes leading backwards. Fin knows what she's doing. She's also found a wormhole in C3a, so now I have reason to go forwards and leapfrog past her.

I go to C3a and warp to Fin hoping for more w-space but land next to a K162 from null-sec. I think I'd rather check beyond the static exit to low-sec, so I do. I leave w-space behind, try to keep it in my autocannons this time, and simply scan the system in Kor-Azor for more wormholes. Three additional signatures are resolved to be rocks, Ruins, and a wormhole. Specifically, a K162 from class 1 w-space. That'll do nicely.

My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole in C1a, and exploring finds nothing and no one. There may well be another wormhole or two to find. Scanning the chubbiest of the twenty-three signatures resolves only one K162, from class 5 w-space, through which two towers, three unimportant-looking ships, and loads of drones that obviously don't belong to the two rookie frigates or shuttle appear on d-scan. For all the mess, it looks a bit dull. I suspect there is another K162 from class 5 w-space to find, if it's still around. I imagine the mass-restrictive C1 wormhole would frustrate most C5 corporations, and cause many to collapse their wormholes to look for a better chain.

Before I scan I explore. One tower is naked and empty of ships. The other is, oh, in reinforced mode. That explains the naked tower too, which I suppose is a staging tower for the siegers. The drones are nowhere obvious but, really, who cares about those Gallente sympathisers. There's nothing more to see, so I launch probes and scan. One anomaly, twelve signatures, and, as if by magic, a Loki appears when I call my probes in from their blanket configuration that had them hidden in the outreaches of space.

The strategic cruiser is in the bare tower, which doesn't bode well for me. He will be part of the invading fleet and perhaps think my probes indicate a local trying to escape, or at least be active in a way that should be suppressed. Or maybe he's just updating his skill queue. The Loki turns in to an Orca, which is a pretty benign act, at least according to d-scan. I don't monitor the ship directly as I've warped to a wormhole, a fairly uninteresting K162 from high-sec. It's my probes that tell me the Orca is not at the tower but on its own wormhole.

The second wormhole, which had the industrial command ship sitting on it, is the C5 K162 as predicted, and being collapsed also as predicted. What I don't know, and can't predict quite so readily, is whether the Loki went off-line or is cloaked and watching the same wormhole. Still, I like a little uncertainty now and again. Maybe he can help me pop that Orca too, when it returns, as I don't think I can destroy one particularly quickly by myself. The Bustard from a few days back took me long enough that I almost needed a break for food, and that was just a transport ship.

My combat scanning probes may have feared the Orca pilot enough not to continue with his operation to collapse the wormhole anyway. The polarisation time passes, and more, and there isn't a subsequent jump. For the second time in an evening it looks like we almost catch a solo pilot attempting to kill a wormhole. And, also for the second time, we fail to catch them in the act. I say 'we', because Fin swings by my way to share in the glory of not blowing up an Orca. Either the pilot has given up, or a strategic cruiser fleet is waiting for me to see what's taking the pilot so long. 'That almost never happens', says Fin, not-so reassuringly.

It makes me feel bad to head back through C1a, across the low-sec system, in to C3a, and through the K162 to C5b that Fin found after I abandoned her, to return to stalking a Hoarder that was sitting piloted in a tower's force field. Fin reasons that doing so will be 'less dangerous to our wallet and closer to home when it does nothing' than poking through the wormhole looking for the Orca, and she's right, of course. But even though the hauler is still in the tower, its orientation is altered. The ship left the safety of the force field and returned during the time Fin came to help me stare at a wormhole, missing the potential kill. I can only apologise. Well, that and watch the ship a little longer. But, of course, it does nothing. Silly Penny. Time for bed.

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

A cloaked ship is hard to find

I'm settling in to my pod goo as glorious leader Fin fires a stream of information at me. Safeties are on, so I don't fire back until I know what I'm doing. There are wormholes, w-space systems, and currently no pilots. It doesn't stay that way for long. 'C2 flare, Scorpion, they're closing.' That sounds like an activity we can interfere with. Form of a fleet!

I warp to the K162 from class 2 w-space where the battleship was seen, landing near a stressed but still-alive wormhole. Fin is decloaked and systems-hot waiting for the next transit, hoping to bump the ship away from the wormhole and start shooting. I'm not convinced that will work, unless the ship gets really unlucky and appears too far from the locus to jump back immediately. But that's okay, because the wormhole isn't likely to die on the next pass and we have probes fitted anyway. We can chase the ship back and engage in their system, them polarised and us able to run.

Of course, this assumes we can pop the Scorpion. I imagine we can, but a mass-optimised battleship will be heavy on armour, and rather than slowly chew through its defences I'd rather rip them apart. Fin is sitting tight, we have a couple of minutes before expecting the ship again, so I warp to our tower to get a rather pointier ship, one not compromised by requiring a cloaking device. Our Legion strategic cruiser is mean, and doesn't want to hide that fact.

I return to the wormhole shortly before it flares again. The time between transits, and not having seen a second ship, suggests it may be the single pilot collapsing the wormhole. That's good for us. Fin sends me through the wormhole before the Scorpion has time to orientate itself in our system. That's a canny move. I can see if there are any escorts, check my directional scanner to see what else may be in store for us, and get ready for the Scorpion's inevitable return. He won't want to stay in our home system for long.

The wormhole is clear in C2a. D-scan looks clear too, but that's not such a good sign. The battleship is clearly intending to collapse the wormhole, which is almost exclusively done by occupants of the originating system. A tower should be somewhere, and that I can't see it means I also can't see what ships and potential pilots are available. Still, the wormhole is clear, and as we have seen just the one ship so far remains a good indicator that no one else is around. I can keep d-scan updated anyway, just in case.

Fin probably scares the Scorpion pilot, and I imagine definitely startles them, but the battleship's return to its assumed home system was always going to happen. Fin follows, I'm already here, and the Scorpion gets lucky. He appears far enough from the wormhole to cloak immediately, and neither of our ships is suitably close or agile to intercept and bump it back to being visible. Still, a cloaked battleship is quite big, and definitely slow. If he intends to get away, we can probably stop him. It's now a matter of patience.

We could sit and wait for the Scorpion to decloak and run. The cloak will slow down the already slow battleship to a crawl, and it will take long enough to accelerate to warp speed for us to easily get a positive lock and engage it on our terms. But a slow crawl is still positive movement, and a pilot patient enough could feasibly open up a far enough gap to account for the acceleration time. That will take minutes, many minutes, and rather than definitely lose him in that time we do what we can now.

We boost out to the Scorpion's last estimated position, orbit the wormhole at different distances, and align towards a few planets from the wormhole, all to no effect. My notes for the system suggest a tower could be in one direction, but aligning towards it, in the expectation that the Scorpion will be aiming that way, doesn't get a result either. A cloaked ship is hard to find.

Fin cloaks and scouts the system, but we could have guessed the results. There's a tower and no more ships or pilots. Had there been any we'd have no doubt been introduced to them by now, one way or another. We have one final tactic. Fin gets in to position between the wormhole and the tower, and I jump back home. Sure enough, a few seconds later, thinking the coast is clear, the Scorpion decloaks and starts accelerating. So does Fin.

Unfortunately, the battleship stayed much closer to the wormhole than we anticipated, and despite Fin getting a positive lock and burning towards it, the Scorpion manages to enter warp and get clear. Space is big, and space around a wormhole more so. Maybe we need more drones. Or just some to start with. But that's probably it. The pilot is unlikely to return, and definitely not in his current configuration. That leaves us with an unwanted wormhole.

Luckily, as I jumped home the wormhole destabilised to critical levels. That the mass of a strategic cruiser did that, and knowing the limits of this type of connection, makes the maths pretty simple for finishing the job the Scorpion pilot started. Fin holds in C2a, I swap to a standard battleship at our tower, and jump to join my leader again. Fin comes home, I come home, the wormhole dies. Well, that was an interesting start to the evening. Didn't Fin mention other wormholes and systems too?

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Tags: eve online, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scorpion, w-space

Looking for Sleepers

We should make some more ISK. No reason. Our current neighbouring class 3 w-space system could be a suitable Sleeper hunting ground, for it being unoccupied and stuffed full of anomalies. There was a K162 coming in to it from high-sec empire space earlier, but that was reaching the end of its life when I left it and will be dead now. The main concern about the K162 would be that whoever opened the wormhole from high-sec also opened C3a's static connection to null-sec. But an open wormhole to an inactive system, or one with pilots uninterested in wormholes or w-space, is hardly a threat.

Threat or not, that was then. This is now, and more wormholes could have opened or closed. We really ought to see what's out there before flying shiny ships out of the hangar. Launching probes in the home system sees nothing of interest—including the fact that we have just one anomaly, making our own system a poor source of income at the moment—so I recall them and head through the sole wormhole to the neighbouring system.

Before launching probes a second time I warp to the K162 from high-sec to confirm that, yes, it has died and is no longer a potential portal for hostile ships. But performing a blanket scan of the system reveals eleven signatures amongst the many anomalies, when there were only ten earlier. Ten minus the dead K162 should be less than eleven, if my maths is right. This is another good reason why I keep notes about what I find.

I'd better find out what those stray signatures are. I don't really mind, as it gives me the opportunity to resolve the magnetometric sites I identified and ignored as irrelevant earlier, but could be a good source of ISK now. I find the magnetometric sites, and a pair of radar sites—which would also keep us out of the far-too-easily found anomalies—along with a couple of new wormholes. That's not good.

The first wormhole is a K162 from class 4 w-space that may not be horrible, as it has already been destabilised to critical levels. Watching for a few minutes sees no attempt to kill it off finally, leaving it open but looking like it will be thoroughly ignored for leading to the undesirable C3/null-sec system. The other wormhole is a K162 from more null-sec space. That could also be unthreatening, a connection opened by an explorer who has long since disappeared in a different direction. Or it could be checked occasionally by a scout hoping to catch careless w-space denizens mixing with Sleepers.

This C3 has the sites, a distinct lack of current activity, and what wormholes there are are relatively benign. I still don't feel safe, though. I'd prefer a better system. But the problem is that we are far from guaranteed to find one by simply collapsing our static wormhole. The next neighbouring system could be occupied, riddled with more actively used wormholes, or just lack the sites. Even so, I think it's best that we look again. More would be lost by pressing ourselves in to combat than taking the best opportunities as and when they come along.

C3a is left behind and, after a few trips with suitably massive ships, isolated from our home system. A new static wormhole appears, leading to a different class 3 system, which looks clear from the K162. Only one planet's in range, though, and despite my notes saying the system was unoccupied four months ago a corporation has since moved in. They may be pretty active too, as there are only two anomalies in the system, although no one looks to be home at the moment.

Seven signatures are scattered about the system, but despite hoping to find some combat sites I am left with gas, gas, and more gas. A single radar site is hardly enough to tempt me in to a Golem marauder, even if the static exit to low-sec empire space is the sole wormhole beyond our own K162, and conveniently unappealing being as it is at the end of its life. But them's the breaks. We could kill our static wormhole a second time and roll the dice again, but that in itself takes time, time that could be measured in ISK, and still doesn't come close to guaranteeing results. A better option is to head home, grab a sammich, and look for opportunity another day.

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

Billion-ISK brain fart

Less time-restricted today, I'm going to find another pilot to stalk. Just the static wormhole in the home system sends me directly to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where my directional scanner is clear and the system's J-number looks familiar. And maybe it should be, what with this being my sixth visit, the last being two months ago when the system was unoccupied. That's not a great start, and it gets a little worse when my notes indicate a static exit to null-sec.

A blanket scan of C3a reveals sixteen anomalies, ten signatures, and a continuing lack of occupation. A chubby wormhole amongst the signatures could be good, and even though it's just a K162 from high-sec it may be a better option for further exploration than the only other connection in the system, the null-sec wormhole. Using the K162, though, puts me in a system in Aridia, which is like null-sec except less populated and further from civilisation, and in this case high-sec.

And, being in high-sec, I ponder my choice of safety switch options. I've had my ship safeties disabled since their introduction, probably because I didn't really understand it and didn't want to be fiddling with anything extraneous to combat at critical moments. But over time I have come to understand that a fully engaged safety won't prevent any action in w-space, and perhaps I will be better served by flicking the switch to green, preventing any action that would get me in trouble. So I do. Hopefully I won't regret this decision, and I don't see how I possibly could.

Now I get back to scanning, and the sole additional signature in the system resolves to be a wormhole. The Z971 signature doesn't tell me what w-space class the wormhole leads to as vividly or immediately as the green flashing over the blue colouring seeping through the connection, and I jump through knowing I am entering the lowest class of system. Sadly, I appear in C1a over seven kilometres from the wormhole, which generally indicates a recent lack of activity. Still, I launch probes, blanket the system, and explore.

Yep, there's nothing and no one here. The class 1 system is unoccupied and generally unvisited, as the seventeen anomalies and seven signatures attest. Thankfully, the lack of occupation isn't because the system also holds a static exit to null-sec, like C3a, but a high-sec connection, curiously enough. And today it leads to The Forge, only two hops to Jita. That would be more convenient if the wormholes in and out of class 1 w-space allowed ships bigger than cruisers through.

Ignoring where I am, I scan. The two additional signatures are a boring ladar site and a DED-rated site that won't let my Loki strategic cruiser use its acceleration gate. I suppose that's it for exploration, so back I go. Through C1, to Aridia, to, well, a Vexor is now in the system, and it has drones out. I can't find the cruiser by sweeping d-scan across rock fields, planets, or stargates, and as there weren't any sites in the system about five minutes ago I am at a loss as to where he can be. But as the combat drones have been swapped for salvage drones I'm tempted to see if I can find the ship.

I warp out of d-scan range, launch combat scanning probes, and, not thinking the Vexor will linger long anyway, broadly scan for the ship instead of trying to hunt it covertly. A couple of scans locates the cruiser, still not in a site, and warping in sees it in the not-a-site with a couple of rat wrecks. How he found this place is beyond me, much like the Vexor itself, sitting around fifty kilometres away as his salvage drones lazily return to the ship. I thought I aimed to warp in closer, but maybe not.

I'm not going to cover that much space whilst cloaked, and I doubt I'll catch the Vexor off-guard, but I may as well try. But my safety is engaged, which will prevent any hostile action, presumably including warp scrambling the ship, should I get in range. I could switch the safety to amber, but would that be enough to engage successfully? I could rifle through the glove box looking for the chart that explains the three safety levels but I doubt I have time for that. This is why I had the safety turned off entirely to start with. And this is why I flick it back to red, confirming my selection, as I decloak and burn hard towards the Vexor.

The cruiser doesn't flinch, and still the salvage drones take their merry time returning to the ship. And, somehow, I close the distance and get a positive lock on the Vexor without it warping away. I disrupt his warp engines, get my autocannons chewing away at his shields, and settle in to a, uh, why do I have no capacitor juice? And why can I no longer do anything? I would say that the more important question is why Concord forces are ripping my Loki apart, but by this point I think it's pretty obvious.

I remember now. This is high-sec space. Concord-protected, precisely-why-I-had-my-safety-engaged space. And I've just aggressed a ship minding its own business. Don't I feel a bit silly. I could claim that going from wormhole to Aridia and aiming for another wormhole made me think I was in w-space, or that I associate Aridia with low-sec systems, but it's really just a brain-fart. I made a mistake. A 600 million ISK mistake.

I think this is my first encounter with The Man, trying to oppress my youthful exuberance, and it's quick and brutal. I'm soon reduced to a pod racing back to w-space and swearing never to enter high-sec again, except for this one time when I'll have to buy a replacement ship. At least we've got a good route to Jita. It's a short wait for the Leonard Shelby-run Concord to forget about my indiscretion, and rather than being entirely foolish I grab my Crane transport ship to pick up the bits of the Loki from Jita. It would be embarrassing to lose a second Loki so soon after the first. I can easily construct it elsewhere. Aridia will do.

I rummage through our hangar to see what we've accumulated before I head through C3a, in to high-sec, through C1a, and out to The Forge, where I make the short couple of hops to Jita, buying everything else I need to put a replacement Loki together. Undocking, I aim my Crane for the planet most in-line with my vector and enter warp almost immediately, not wanting to risk even the short turn my agile Crane would have to make back to the Stargate, allowing me to escape the traffic and cloak. It would also be embarrassing to lose a Crane with Loki parts inside, after all.

I get back to C1a and in to the high-sec system in Aridia without trouble, where a station awaits and no one is around. I dump the contents of my hold, get some minions to assemble the new Loki, and take my Crane home with some additional ammunition to fill up the space. One last trip to Aridia—I should be so lucky—has my picking up the Used to be Hip and, on jumping through its first wormhole, swearing off high-sec for a while. I've used the fourth and last winning entry in my ship-naming competition. I'll need to make some more ISK before I can afford another.

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Tags: concord, crane, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, vexor, w-space

Wandering monsters make space dangerous

Mabrick mumbled over some anti-piratical sentiments recently, refusing to participate in shooting non-combat ships, asking 'Where's the sport in that?' I regularly look for and destroy innocent industrialists, out to collect planet goo or scrape chunks of rock out of asteroids, and quite enjoy it. After reading his musings, I felt a need to evaluate my own actions. And as Mabrick takes care to add a disclaimer to make it clear he doesn't condemn capsuleers who would gleefully attack industrial ships, I shall state that this won't be a rebuttal but a justification. Why do I do it? And does this make me just some dastardly pirate scum?

There is some skill to the hunt itself, whether or not the prey is dangerous. Of course, the level of skill varies, from simply following a ship's warp trail out of a tower to a customs office, to chasing them around the system, catching a ship on a wormhole connecting systems, right up to locating and resolving a ship's position in a site using a single scan with probes. Some kills are straightforward, some are more intricate. And, as I've elaborated on before, merely getting to the point of engaging the ship is not enough. You need to get the kill to ensure that you would get it, and not be out-run, out-manoeuvred, or countered.

So attacking industrialists isn't always shooting fish in a barrel. Even so, they almost never shoot back, which surely takes the sport out of the combat. I won't argue against that, any more than I will argue that my occasional popping of a combat frigate in low-sec using a strategic cruiser is in any way a good fight. But if it's not a good fight, or honourable, why do I do it? Or, at least, how do I reconcile my actions with my conscience?

EVE Online is a PvP game, you can say, and if you undock you are giving tacit consent to be involved in the PvP game. So goes the common argument. Tacit consent is a tricky concept, however, and there are good grounds to deny such arguments. Indeed, I'm not going to rely on that, as I don't think anyone has tacitly agreed that I can blow up their ship if I get the opportunity. Instead, I am going to look at what it means to be in certain areas of space.

That New Eden (and beyond, through wormholes in to w-space) has various security levels of space is hardly news, and the new crimewatch system means that the security offered in high-sec, low-sec, and null-sec is much clearer and better understood, even if occasionally overlooked. It is generally known that drifting out of high-sec to low-sec is dangerous, and null-sec and w-space more dangerous still. But just what is it that makes these regions of space 'dangerous'?

The rats are bigger and more dangerous outside of high-sec, that much is true. I've even seen w-space rats in a gas-harvesting site blow the living crap out of a strategic cruiser, so an industrial ship doesn't stand much chance against them. But mining-site rats can be easily countered. Those in sites show up once, and those in belts aren't that dangerous really. Once the threat is dealt with, the richer and rarer resources available more than make up for a minor increase in danger from rats. So is that the risk and reward? Nope.

As far as I'm aware, rats don't seem to give a damn about capsuleers collecting planet goo. Pilots can harvest as much planetary resources as they like without direct threat, and the goo available in the more dangerous regions of space also offer richer veins to be exploited than in their high-sec equivalents. There doesn't seem to be any risk/reward ratio at work here. At least, not until you take in to account the likes of me, stalking the gooers to their customs offices, or when they haul their valuable cargo to market.

The threat of dangerous regions of space doesn't come from rats, but from other capsuleers. Specifically, dangerous space is dangerous because of the combination of reduced security and the freedom it gives other capsuleers. Without the likes of me, mining, gassing, gooing all offer greater rewards in dangerous space without any significant increase in risk. Add me in to the equation and the industrialist has to balance the risk of being brutally slaughtered with the potential rewards of improved resource harvesting. I am what makes dangerous space dangerous.

If we allow industrial ships to pass freely, by some code of honour, then they get all the advantages of living in dangerous space without any of the risks. I'm not even going to consider the possible logistic uses industrial ships could be purposed for if it were tacitly agreed they were non-combatants and not valid targets. My argument is simple: there is greater reward available in regions of space that are only made dangerous by the threat of pirates, who can only be other capsuleers.

There are even obvious balances that come in to effect. There are other resources that can be sacrificed for added security, resources such as time, cargo space, and escorts. You can add time to your operation, by choosing a more circuitous route, either to hide your true destination or to drop off more but smaller hauls. You can sacrifice cargo capacity for the ability to enter warp more quickly or with less change of being disrupted. Or you can employ escort ships, adding combined time and effort to the operation. Any of the available options reduces your operating efficiency, so that it approaches what you could achieve in optimised ships in more secure space. And even though doing so decreases the risk, it may make you question why you are dealing with such hassle in the first place.

Yes, I am a dastardly pirate, arbitrarily picking on unsuspecting adventurers going about their business in the great wild yonder. But that's kind of the point. Without me dangerous space wouldn't be dangerous, it would just be more space. No, my actions are not honourable, and often they are not even challenging to achieve or pose any kind of threat to myself. But that's because I'm the wandering monster of space, and I'm okay with that.

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Tags: comment, eve online, mmorpg, pvp