When all you find is a frigate

I'm looking for some action. An extra signature at home is just some gas in a ladar site, so there's no action there, not without my industrious colleagues on-line. I'd best resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. It doesn't look any better from the K162, though, as my directional scanner is clear of ships and towers. I launch probes and blanket the system as I check my notes, and realise the tower from almost a year ago probably isn't here any more, not if it lacked strontium and we blew it up. You'd think I'd remember that.

A new tower has cropped up since my last visit, which I find by warping around, but a lack of ships gives me nothing to watch. I'll scan whilst the locals are out. Pushing probes around finds only the static exit to low-sec of interest, the grey colours seeping through suggestive of Caldari space not lying to me, as jumping out lands me in Lonetrek. The system could be interesting, I dunno, but I pretty much ignore the concept of stargates and launch probes to scan for more wormholes.

Four extra signatures turn out to be two ladar sites, some Gurista rats, and a neat weak wormhole. Will that be a connection to class 5 w-space? The N432 and black-orange colours say yes, yes it is. Returning to w-space and punching d-scan sees a tower, plus a shuttle, Brutix battlecruiser, and Dominix battleship in the system, and it's not surprising to find all the ships unpiloted in a rather spiky tower. But I entered the system through an outbound connection, so I have at least a static wormhole to find, and I scan again.

The first of fifteen signatures resolves to be a wormhole, which is soon joined by a second, third, and fourth. Class 5 w-space tends to be connected, and with k-space wormholes too, so the mix I've found doesn't feel unusual. Out of the H296 static connection to more class 5 w-space, K162 from deadly class 6 w-space, dying K162 from a C5, and outbound wormhole to low-sec, I will check the C6 system first. Brave and daring Penny.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole in C6a, perhaps explained by there being just the one planet in range and over 100 AU to the farthest planet. Exploring the system finds one uninteresting tower at the seventh planet, and a more interesting one at the eighth, where ten ships tease me on d-scan before I see the combat and industrial hulls all float empty inside the force field. A quick scan finds another wormhole, leading back through a K162 to class 5 w-space, and I jump through to see how deep this constellation runs.

Two drones and two bubbles are on d-scan in C5d, but as the view is clear otherwise I doubt anything is happening. Ah, anything is indeed doubtfully happening, as opening the system map shows that nothing sits out of d-scan range. Another poke for K162s finds the wormhole I'm looking for, continuing with C5 w-space, and I jump to C5e to appear over five kilometres from the connection's cosmic signature. Maybe I've reached the end of the constellation now.

A tower with no ships is not a fitting sight at the end of scanning so deep, so it's good that warping away to launch probes sees one. A Probe frigate, that is, on d-scan. The Probe cloaks or warps, which is a shame, but it's activity, which is good, particularly as core probes now litter the system. I launch probes too and take a look around, loitering on the wormhole back to C5d as the Probe scans, hoping the frigate comes my way.

I resolve a K162 from null-sec amongst the two anomalies and eight signatures, which could be where the Probe came from, but this leaves me with a dilemma. The two wormholes are out of d-scan range of each other, and I don't know the Probe pilot's motivations. If he came from null-sec is he just poking around this w-space system with the intention of heading straight back, or will he be keen to delve deeper in to w-space? Which wormhole do I wait on, considering warp times will make it almost impossible to catch up with the ship if I make the wrong choice?

The black hole in this C5 makes my decision more important. Not only does it increase my time to align and enter warp, so that making the wrong choice will be even more costly, but it will make the Probe easier to catch for the same reason if I make the right choice. I just don't know where to sit. I decide to sit where I can see the probes of the Probe. If they disappear, I at least know he's moving. And I get lucky too, as the pilot makes a mistake, or just a change, and decloaks to launch a new set of probes. He doesn't stay on d-scan long enough to have warped so he must be cloaked within d-scan range again. Now I can watch d-scan for his probes and ship.

The probes disappear and the Probe doesn't decloak. Checking the null-sec K162 shows the scanning probes have been moved, which seems like a curious choice, if the pilot came from this direction, but that's fine. I watch them using d-scan, as my own probes, in a blanket-scanning configuration, can continue watching for the ship. His probes disappear again, and this time the Probe appears under my probes. It's difficult to determine which way he's warping, given the coarse results of the maximum range combat probes, but when the frigate appears on d-scan I know he's coming my way. Good.

I watch the Probe drop out of warp near the K162, pause, and approach the wormhole. I don't give the game away yet, not when he can immediately jump clear with no consequences, and wait as the Probe exits to null-sec. I hold for a couple of seconds, to give the pilot time to think he's not being followed, and then follow. I appear on the other side of the wormhole with the Probe visible and ready to be ambushed, but the ship disappears. Cloaked, I think, before realising that the transparent local channel no longer bears the pilot's name. He's gone back through the wormhole.

I give chase back to C5e, but the moment's hesitation in null-sec has cost me. I see the Probe, affected by the black hole, aligning away from the wormhole and get my offensive systems hot, but he evades me a split-second before I get a positive lock on his ship. I initiate warp to the K162 back to C5d and jump, seeing no sign of the Probe in the system, even after pausing for long enough for the session change cloak to fade. I don't have the local channel to help me now, and it seems the Probe didn't come this way.

Jumping back to C5e sees the Probe once again launching scanning probes. I have to wonder why, and I'm also wondering where he's come from if not null-sec or here. But more than that I'm wondering what I'm doing. I messed up the ambush on the null-sec wormhole and have spent more than enough time trying to catch nothing more than a crappy scanning frigate. I should be aiming higher, or at least not expending so much effort trying to make trophies out of minnows. I'm going home. The constellation should still be around later, and there's another arm left to roam for worthwhile activity.

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Tags: brutix, dominix, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, pvp, scanning, w-space

Tower prod

Huh, only three signatures. One of them's our K162 home too, making this class 3 w-space system pretty bare. It's barer since I popped a salvaging destroyer and podded a bystander, but I'm moving on from that. The two other signatures will help, being the typical static exit to low-sec, and a K162 from more class 3 w-space. I'll stick with w-space for now, and jump to C3b, where again I am greeted with seeing a tower and some ships on my directional scanner.

My notes from seven months ago suggest there are two towers in the system, one being out of range, and they are right. The tower in range holds the four ships d-scan shows me, but the Typhoon battleship, Orca industrial command ship, Bestower hauler, and Imicus frigate are all empty of capsuleers. Warping across the system directly to the second tower sees a Buzzard covert operations boat piloted but floating inert inside the force field, and as there is no sign of probes in space I think I can say there is no activity occurring.

Scanning C3b reveals five anomalies and ten signatures, and digging in to those signatures resolves three wormholes. There's the static exit to low-sec again, a K162 from null-sec, and the better option of a K162 from class 4 w-space. Continuing my w-space exploration, I jump to C4a and see another tower and more ships on d-scan. It's busy tonight. Locating the tower finds the ships, which is no surprise given the lack of anomalies a passive scan detects, and two pilots. The tower is also pretty poorly defended.

A couple of shield hardeners protect the tower, which in a class 4 w-space system with a damage-enhancing magnetar phenomenon doesn't seem like a good idea. Well, not by themselves. It's better than nothing, but not by much. A Tengu strategic cruiser and Orca are piloted, with a second Tengu, a Scorpion battleship, Noctis salvager, Probe frigate, and Helios cov-ops floating empty, but as the owner corporation comprises four capsuleers I suppose they couldn't all be controlled at the same time. This doesn't seem like a particularly settled situation.

As I watch, the Tengu is stowed in a hangar, followed by the other ships, until just the Helios and a shuttle are left floating free. And now some defences are brought on-line. I see, the corporation has probably only just moved in to the system and is configuring their newly anchored tower. As a wise wallaby maybe once said, moving day can be a very dangerous day.

Then again, if the pilots have brought everything in with an Orca trip or two, including the ships, maybe I've missed everything. It's worth watching and waiting, though. And here's Fin. I update my glorious leader on the evening's events so far, including the, hullo, it's a small tower lacking serious defences in a C4 magnetar system. Is it worth poking the new tower, given there's an Orca and Tengu in the hangar? 'Maybe, if they have no strontium'. Do you want to come and shoot it? 'Ok.' I was kinda joking, but Fin's pretty awesome.

I want to see what happens when Fin starts a solo assault on a tower, so I loiter outside the tower for a while longer, and watch as both ships warp away, neither towards the wormhole to C3b. The Helios is launching probes somewhere, and core probes at that, and the shuttle is in empty space. I think I'll look for him. The core probes won't detect me, the tower has no active defences, and there's no one to see me, so I simply decloak outside the tower, launch combat scanning probes, and aim for the shuttle.

A couple of scans resolves the shuttle's position and I'm on my way. I drop out of warp with the shuttle sitting near a secure can, apparently none-the-wiser to my scanning, and not particularly alert. I decloak, pop the tiny craft, and pod the pilot back to a clone vat, taking a moment to plink some autocannon rounds off the canister before deciding that I'm never going to crack that open. One down.

The Helios continues scanning as Fin jumps in to the system in an Armageddon battleship. I don't know what he's scanning for, as I kept my probes out after resolving the shuttle and, having performed a subsequent blanket scan, can see only two signatures in the whole system. I think his attention will be diverted from scanning soon enough anyway. Fin warps to the tower and starts shooting. The shields apparently sit at 60% strength, so the tower really hasn't been here long. 'Mr Helios is here.'

What will the local pilot do? 'He's an old pilot, so probably has the skill to waste me', says Fin. Not in an Iteron he won't, but it seems the hauler has been brought out of the hanger because of what's in its hold: more shield hardeners and some EWAR defences. That will slow Fin down. We try to get some colleagues interested, but they haven't scanned an exit from their w-space system yet, and it will probably take too long to get anything worked out. It's not like we're serious about this siege anyway.

The Iteron is put away and a Tengu brought out. To play? Maybe, as a new contact appears and boards a second Tengu. I turned my cloaky Loki strategic around on the sight of the first Tengu, heading home to get a rather more threatening ship, but it will take a couple of minutes. Fin retreats to the wormhole as a precaution, probably wisely. 'The force field is like a high-sec wormhole', she says, noting how the locals won't have far to retreat to be effectively immune from attack. But we're not quite finished yet.

I return in a Legion strategic cruiser, but still covertly configured. We need to lure the Tengus out of the tower far enough to trap one, and we can't do that if they know what they're facing. And now that one of the Tengus has disappeared again, and I pose a credible threat to the other, Fin warps her Armageddon back to the tower, with me behind her. 'I am going to keep shooting him, if it achieves nothing else but disrupting his plan.'

And keep shooting she does. '50% shields.' The Tengu responds by moving Fin's way. Align back to the wormhole, Fin, maybe we can draw him further from the force field. But the Tengu isn't stupid. He comes out of the force field enough to start shooting Fin but isn't so cocky as to get close. If this is as good as it gets, it will have to do. I decloak my Legion, lock on to the Tengu, and let it feel the full force of my offensive modules. I even have a web fitted, which slows the Tengu's retreat, but retreat it does, nestling back inside the force field before we can deal any significant damage to it. Our Armageddon's another matter, though.

The battleship took a hammering, partly because of the magnetar phenomenon, partly because it is fit for maximum damage output at the expense of defence. But Fin warps clear as the Tengu's lock drops. And that's it for us for tonight. We tested the tower's defences and were shooed, now it's time to go home, repair the battleship, and go off-line. At least we provoked a reaction and had a little fun. I hope the other pilot saw it that way too.

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Tags: armageddon, bestower, eve online, helios, imicus, iteron, legion, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, probe, pvp, scanning, scorpion, tengu, typhoon, w-space

One-handed scanning comes with Odyssey

Great news if you get really excited by scanning—or you really don't and just want to get more drunk—and are frustrated by having to use the mouse and the modifier keys. The scanning system is getting another overhaul in Odyssey, and this time you only need one hand to scan a whole system. Swig back a drink, eat a sammich, or simply rest your chin on your spare hand in the quintessential boredom pose. It will soon all be possible.

The first obvious change is in the launching of probes. They all come out of your launcher at once, and in to a predefined pattern. A initial perceived drawback is that emptying the launcher forces it to reload. Personally, I always liked launching half of the ten probes in my launcher and having the option to cloak immediately or reload if I have the time, giving me two opportunities to launch probes and cloak without having to spend ages to reload. But the time it takes to launch five probes and cloak, with added latency effects, is similar to the new multi-launch and reload, so the change is positive in getting everything done at once. Launch probes! Done.

The probe formations are interesting. At the moment, neither of the two formations fits my preferred style, although one can be modified with some battling with the interface, and I could perhaps get used to the other. But these formations are likely to be changed before Odyssey, and we are apparently going to get user-defined formations too, including an option to launch a different number of probes. This looks like a positive change, particularly as switching between formations is possible at any point, which effectively resets their positions. Get one probe out of place? Switch formations back and forth and they are neat again.

Starting to scan, now it gets interesting. Only one probe box is visible, the central one, because all the probes are intrinsically linked together by default. Move the central probe, all the probes move together. Change the range of a probe, all the probe ranges change. No more modifier keys required. Moreover, changing the range of the probes also maintains their relative positions! Shrink probes to a lower range and all the probes are drawn closer together. Increase the range of the probes and they are all pulled further apart. The formation never changes.

So what does it take to scan signatures? Launch probes, position probes, scan. Pick a signature, move all the probes on to that signature by dragging the central box only, reduce the range of all probes by dragging a single probe sphere, scan. Repeat until the signature is resolve. Repeat for each signature you want to resolve. And you only need one hand. It's pretty simple. And very boring. I don't like it.

I understand that scanning isn't for everyone, and that the changes are to make the process simpler. I am not about to argue that just because I had to learn the old way then everyone should. I can recognise that there can be positive changes, like the introduction of the alt-dragging mode, and that going back a step doesn't help anyone. And I don't think my skill training should not be made obsolete. I fully appreciate that scanning is busywork of sorts, another form of PvE for w-space, akin to mission-running. And I enjoy it. But I have two issues with the simplification of the new interface.

First, simplifying the scanning interface so that a whole system can be resolved using one hand is a neat idea, but leaving one hand completely idle disengages me from the process. I'm no longer some leet hacker deftly working through some security systems that bizarrely have a graphical interface. The one-handed scanning interface in Odyssey makes me more feel like I'm playing Minesweeper. I'm just mindlessly passing the time to get to an inevitable result, until some work that's actually important comes along.

Second, the new interface feels far too close to being able to scan all signatures with a single button press. Not that I honestly think this will ever happen, you understand. But drawing back the curtain so far shows more clearly how completely possible it would be to automate the whole process. I already stated in my guide to Apocrypha scanning that the process is algorithmic, which is only to be expected in a computer-generated environment, and that it would be trivial to create a script to scan whole systems. Odyssey takes this concept a leap forwards.

As changing the range of probes also maintains their relative positions, all we need now is a button to let us centre probes on a selected signature to really show us how much we're wasting our time not letting the computer do the whole scanning process. After all, the computer can do that quicker and more accurately than we can. Then all we'd need to do is scan, reduce range, select signature and centre probes, scan. Reduce range, select signature and centre probes, scan. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Players would soon be asking for an autoscan button, arguing the autopilot achieves the same result for travelling between systems, so why not also let the computer handle scanning?

Admittedly, nothing about the scanning system in Odyssey changes the fundamentals. The scanning essentially unchanged since Apocrypha can be completely automated just as it can in Odyssey. But getting us those few steps forwards only highlights how much we are wasting our time in scanning instead of letting the computer do it all. Curiously enough, forcing the player to do more makes them more inclined to do it. The current system engages me, makes me feel skilled. The new system makes me feel like I'm just going through the motions. It will become tedious for becoming simpler.

Finally, there is a difference between scanning a system's signatures and scanning to hunt a ship. Odyssey scanning makes scanning a system really easy, and makes hunting ships really awkward. Having all probes always linked, moving all of them together, even moving them all if you change the range of a single probe, and needing to hold shift every time a single probe needs to be moved, makes hunting with d-scan fiddly. Hopefully this is something that will be addressed before Odyssey arrives, or w-space life will become terribly frustrating.

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Tags: comment, eve online, mmorpg, scanning

Cracking open a Corax

I could use some company. No one's at home, the anomaly-stealers nowhere to be seen, so I'll scan for wormholes and look for some play friends. A second wormhole to go with our static connection could be promising, but the K162 from class 2 w-space is at the end of its life and not terribly enticing. Hmm, I hope whoever opened this connection hasn't messed with our wormhole. But warping across to the home system's static connection shows that to be EOL too, damn those pigfuckers and their earliness.

Shall I over-stress the wormhole to force its collapse, or wait and watch it die naturally? It could be hours, or it could be minutes. Or it could be hours. I'll collapse it myself. The chances of actually getting isolated from the home system are slim, as Mick once pointed out to me. Despite the time it takes to collapse a wormhole, waiting for polarisation effects to end across the multiple jumps required, I will only be out of the system for little more than ten seconds at a time. I'll probably be okay.

My first jump puts me in a class 3 w-space system with nothing of interest appearing on my directional scanner, but a black hole quite obviously in the background. I don't explore further, though, least of all because I'm in an Orca industrial command ship. Straight back home with me, wait for polarisation to end, and I make a second return trip in a Widow black ops ship. The wormhole shrinks to its half-mass state as I jump back home, so I repeat the two jumps but with the ship order reversed. The wormhole survives long enough for me to choke it to death with massive ships. Now my evening can begin properly.

I resolve the replacement static wormhole and jump to a new C3a, where there is a lovely and unusual sight: a tower and a ship on d-scan together. There are no wrecks, though, so I lollop around the system locating the tower, only to be surprised when the Drake is no longer there. The battlecruiser remains in the system, however, and a sweep of d-scan within the system map suggests it's now in one of the few anomalies present. I warp in to take a look and see, well, not much happening.

The Drake sits a fair distance from the curiously passive Sleepers, both apparently sizing each other up. I would be tempted to engage the Drake directly, but the ship isn't sitting anywhere near the cosmic signature, making him awkward to drop on top of. Then again, looking closer, it seems that he warped to the anomaly directly from the tower, so if I do the same, dropping short as he did, maybe I can get close to him. I can worry about what ship I want to drop on his Drake afterwards.

I bounce off the tower and in to the anomaly and, sure enough, arrive on the same vector as the Drake, but significantly further from the cosmic signature than he did. This is easily fixed, except that now the battlecruiser is in combat with the Sleepers and moving around, making his position rather unpredictable. But now it's not just the Drake in the system. A Velator frigate appearing on d-scan gets my attention, and it appearing on my overview gets even more attention. The frigate warps directly to the cosmic signature, gets blown up by Sleepers, and the ejected pod simply sits in the middle of the anomaly. That's curious, but not particularly important.

What to do about the Drake. I can't reliably drop anything but my cloaky Loki on top of him, and the age of the pilot suggests his skills could ensure his Drake has enough of a shield to withstand my covert boat's firepower. I'll wait for a salvager. It's going to take a while at this speed, as the Drake takes another break, apparently with the Sleepers observing the ceasefire too, but not as long as it could be. The wave of Sleepers is finally obliterated and another wave doesn't appear. I dunno why.

The Drake warps out of the anomaly, the pod stays near the Velator wreck, and I align my Loki towards the site from my perch, as I watch d-scan for changes. I see from afar the Drake drop to a pod, and the pod hop in to a Corax. The destroyer seems to me like an odd choice for salvager, but maybe the pilot flies old school. Now I just hope for a good result. And I get it. The Corax warps in to the site on top of the cosmic anomaly, which puts it on top of the pod. That's what I was hoping for.

Rather than the destroyer warping to any of the wrecks spread around the cleared anomaly, dropping on top of the pod has them close enough together to make them both targets. I warp my Loki towards the pair, decloaking when close, and aim for the Corax. I get a positive lock and disrupt his warp engines, ensuring I stay within range of my warp scrambler, before turning my attention to the pod. I gain a lock on that too and start shooting. As I am essentially chasing behind the Corax it takes a few shots before one lands solidly on the unmoving pod and cracks it open, but out comes the corpse. Now for the real target.

The Corax isn't going anywhere, and d-scan remains clear of any potential help. My autocannons make short work of the destroyer, although try as I might to catch the pod in the middle of the exploding ship it warps away from the anomaly easily enough. Even so, I have a corpse to scoop, even if not from the Corax, and two wrecks to loot and shoot.

I grab the loot from a nearby Sleeper wreck too, but don't waste time looting any more. I reload my guns and cloak, happy with the simple kill, and warp to the tower in time to see the surviving pod board a Buzzard covert operations boat and warp away. That's a good idea. I think I'll scan too.

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Tags: buzzard, corax, drake, eve online, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, velator, w-space, widow

Bumping in to a battlecruiser

Nope, there's no one home next door. A scout from class 5 w-space that connects to our home system came this way before evading our attentions on his way back, leading me to suspect nothing was happening in this class 3 system, and I'm right. One tower has been ripped down from four months ago and a new one installed elsewhere, currently hosting no ships or pilots, with a curious bubble trap. The warp bubble has canisters scattered in it to decloak covert ships, but its alignment confuses me.

The cans in the bubble don't point towards the system's star, or the planet the moon orbits around, but to the fourth moon of the planet. That's not even the moon where the previous tower was anchored. Maybe the bubble and cans sit on the moon's natural warp capture point, but it's hard to tell when I warp in at range in an interdiction nullified strategic cruiser. But the bubble trap is a mere curiosity, particularly with no one home, so I warp clear, launch probes, and scan.

It turns out I might be right about the Tengu's brief visit, but for the wrong reasons. Scanning reveals multiple wormholes amongst the three anomalies and nine signatures, with a static exit to low-sec empire space that's at the end of its natural life. Perhaps the Tengu merely came this way to see if the wormhole had finally died, giving a new exit from w-space, and returned when seeing it still alive. That's plausible, but it doesn't explain why the other wormholes would have been ignored. A K162 from class 2 w-space offers potential, as does a K162 from class 5 w-space. The EOL K162 from null-sec maybe less so, but there are still options. I'll take one of them.

C2a is a good choice, I would say, and updating my directional scanner when in the system looks like it might be too good. D-scan shows me loads of ships and three towers, although there are no wrecks, and looking around sees reinforced customs offices everywhere. Opening the system map reveals eight planets and eight moons, so locating the three towers doesn't take long. Three frigates sit empty at one, nothing is at a second, and third has strategic cruisers, a battleship or two, battlecruisers, and industrial ships, but only an Orca industrial command ship is piloted in the whole system.

Despite the lack of pilots, the system must be worth a poke with probes. Warping out to launch my probes covertly sees a Drake battlecruiser and Thrasher destroyer somewhere unknown. And a Rapier recon ship. Maybe the ships are on a wormhole, which seems likely given that an, or the, Orca also appears on d-scan briefly. I warp back the way I came to launch probes, now that the Orca is gone from the tower, and perform a blanket scan of the system. Even more ships appear, this time three Retriever mining barges and Mammoth hauler lighting up d-scan. What the bloody hell is happening? And, more importantly, where?

The miners disappear without a trace, which is really confusing, and the Thrasher returns to be somewhere. I scan for a possible wormhole, roughly where I saw the ships to be, as Aii sees the wormhole between C2a and C3a flare. He brought a ship behind me when I started seeing activity and now he sees the Orca jump between the two systems, with the Rapier as escort, apparently stressing the connection in a bid to get rid of it. Quite how I missed the obvious destination of these ships is beyond me, but that doesn't matter. Can you grab the Orca?

'I've got the Drake.' That's not Aii, that's Fin. Perked up from a sleepy state also at hearing the activity I was seeing, Fin has followed behind with a suitably pointy ship, and although the Orca has got away my glorious leader has snared another of its escorts. I warp to join my two colleagues, both piling on the damage already, hoping to get to the battlecruiser before it becomes a wreck of twisted metal.

The Drake's going nowhere, and the damage from Fin's Legion strategic cruiser and Aii's Manticore stealth bomber is formidable against the battlecruiser. I add what little my autocannons can do, but am really just here for the ride, it seems, particularly as no help comes for the Drake. There is nothing our target can do but explode and get his pod to safety with impressive efficiency, leaving us a wreck to loot and shoot. The cloaking device found in the wreck makes me realise why I probably lost track of the ship, and makes me wonder why anyone would fit one to a Drake. And, typical for a Caldari pilot, he forgot to launch his drones.

'Get ready to jump', says Fin, 'they've got overwhelming numbers'. I think she's just taken a look at d-scan. They've got overwhelming ships, Fin, and maybe three pilots. 'Oh.' Suitably calmed, Fin stays menacingly on the wormhole in her Legion as Aii and I activate our cloaks and reconnoitre the various towers. The Orca's returned to where I first saw him, and the Thrasher is joined by a Corax destroyer in what was the empty tower. A Mammoth is new on d-scan, and not at a tower. Surely he can't be collecting planet goo at a time like this.

The hauler indeed isn't at a customs office, but he isn't at a tower either. I launch probes again and resolve his position, this time finding another wormhole, but sadly finding the hauler to be sitting on an exit to high-sec empire space. Still, he's in w-space at the moment and not moving, I won't risk much by poking him with a stick. I move close, decloak, and open fire, as I surge my Loki forwards to give the Mammoth a bump. That woke him up. The ship jumps to high-sec before I can do any more damage, leaving the system subdued.

How quiet is the system? Aii reports the local pilots are perhaps gearing up, as battleships and a new Drake are being prepared in one of the towers, but the capsuleers don't look to be serious in whatever intentions we can assign them. Whether they are considering finishing the collapse of the wormhole or engaging us directly, the battleships don't budge from the safety of the force field. Jumping Fin's Legion from the system and off d-scan doesn't alter the situation either. Never mind. We caught the Drake and got a decent kill, so we can head home happy.

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Tags: corax, drake, eve online, legion, loki, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, rapier, retriever, scanning, thrasher, w-space

Tracking a Tengu

'The wormhole's unopened, and we waited one day too long to run our barracks.' That's a shame. We had a nice pile of anomalies built up in our home w-space system, and we knew we should probably make a bit of time to clear them of Sleepers and rake in the profit. But someone's beaten us to them, as a blanket scan shows. Almost no anomalies are left. There's a second signature to go with the static wormhole too, so it looks like it was worth my scanning even after glorious leader Fin had done so. W-space can change pretty quickly.

The second signature resolves to be a K162 from class 5 w-space, and I may as well jump through to see what's there. Surely there's someone around, if it's only recently been opened. Hello, my directional scanner shows me ships and canisters. Three Venture mining frigates and a couple of cans look good, and the Tengu and Proteus strategic cruiser, Ferox battlecruiser, and Buzzard covert operations boat could all be in one of the six towers. Maybe there's some mining going on.

Sweeping d-scan around the planets, to look for the towers and ships, has all of the ships coincident with a planet holding five towers. Maybe there's not some mining going on. Then again, maybe there is some mining going on. Locating the tower holding the Ventures shows all of the frigates to be piloted, just as one of the capsuleers swaps his Venture for a second Tengu and warps out of the tower. He could be popping Sleepers newly arrived in a ladar site.

Hunting gassers would be made easier if there were somewhere to disappear from d-scan range to launch probes, which I can't do in this class 5 system. Still, I could launch my probes in range of the tower, hoping that the gassers are getting the drinks in whilst they have nothing to do, and out of the range of the Tengu engaging the Sleepers. Well, I could if it were possible, which it isn't. All would be lost if it weren't for the Iteron new to d-scan. Maybe the hauler will want to collect planet goo in a too-casual manner.

I locate the tower holding the Iteron and start watching him for movement as Fin sees the Tengu jump to our home system and warp away. Okay, maybe there's not some mining going on. But there is a Tengu at large, and if he jumps back to C5a shortly Fin is ready to pounce, hoping to use polarisation effects to our advantage. The Iteron I'm watching does nothing, and the Tengu doesn't return immediately, but he does return, probably after having poked through our static wormhole to C3a. Either way, Fin's ready.

Fin jumps in to the class 5 system and I warp to join her on the wormhole. The wormhole doesn't flare, and I'm starting to wonder if the Tengu will return when it decloaks and starts aligning for warp. I hadn't realised the strategic cruiser had already entered the system and Fin had followed, and so I'm still cloaked with systems unprimed. I shed my cloak as soon as I can react, but have the sensor recalibration delay to contend with as a result, and despite Fin lunging for the Tengu as well our target smoothly moves away from the wormhole and cloaks.

That's a shame. The strategic cruiser was a decent target, and Fin was in the right ship to neutralise whatever defences it may have had. There were enough ships and pilots in the system to make a scrap potentially overwhelming for us, but only if they were awake and willing to put up a fight, which isn't always the case. But it's academic now, as our prey has gone. Fin and I jump back home again, backing away from the wormhole and waiting for the inevitable reaction. And I use the word 'inevitable' in an uncommon sense.

Nothing happens. No scouts are sent through the wormhole to our home system to see what ships and pilots we may have ready. No big ships are pushed through and back again to begin destabilising the connection between our systems. Really nothing happens. It's a little anticlimactic. And as the Tengu returned so swiftly from our neighbouring class 3 system we have to assume that pretty much nothing is happening there too. Still, heading in that direction to take a look has got to be better than floating in space watching a wormhole.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Tracking a Tengu
Tags: buzzard, eve online, ferox, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, tengu, venture, w-space

Abandoned constellation

I've not much time tonight, being delayed by other tasks, so let's see if I can make what I have count. I'm given a head start by my glorious leader being on-line and having done some preliminary scanning. Fin's checked the home system, resolved our static wormhole, and jumped to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system already, and has even found two wormholes in C3a. One is the static exit to high-sec empire space, the other a K162 from class 4 w-space. I'll head her way and play leapfrog.

Lots of drones show up when I update my directional scanner in C3a. A passive scan reveals the anomalies in the system, and a sweep of them with d-scan shows that most of the drones are split between two active anomalies. That's a little unusual, and is suggestive of recent activity, but without wrecks, or indeed ships, I can't bring myself to worry too much about what it means. I have the anomalies bookmarked, so if anyone comes back to claim the drones we can do something about it then.

There's a tower in C3a too, and I'd like to locate it for my notes. On the one hand, such a simple system—three planets, two with one moon, one with four—makes finding the tower straightforward, and I can move on without much delay. On the other hand, because it's so simple I probably don't need to spend the time now to save so little time later, particularly as I may not be in the system again for months, or with the same occupation. But I've done it now, so let's move on.

Fin finishes scanning the system, I jump through the K162 to C4a. A tower is visible on d-scan along with a couple of ships, but the Orca industrial command ship and Arazu recon ship make for an unlikely pairing, so I'm not surprised to find them both unpiloted inside the tower's force field. I may as well scan, as a lack of pilots suggests a possible K162 coming in to this system, the likely candidates for connecting to C4 w-space being both more C4 w-space or a class 5 w-space system.

I only care about the chubby ones of the four anomalies and fourteen signatures, looking for K162s, nicely cutting my search space in half. I find two. A C4 K162 and C5 K162. Yeah, I know my w-space. I end up floating next to the K162 from class 5 w-space, so I go to C5a. A gaping black hole waits for me on the other side of the wormhole, but nothing that d-scan can see. The one planet out of range holds neither occupation nor proximate activity, so I launch probes to look for another K162.

Again, cutting out all but the chubby signatures reduces the twenty-seven signatures nicely, and as they don't take long to identify I wave my probes over all of them. Nothing. Whoever was here must have been and gone, collapsing their static wormhole to give them new options. Well, there's still another C4 system to explore, so I return to C4a, warp to the second K162, and jump to C4b. As is becoming typical for this w-space constellation, d-scan shows me nothing and, this time, there is nothing out of range. At least the black hole has been replaced by a less visually suggestive red giant.

Scanning once more reveals five anomalies and seventeen signatures, and most of the signatures are chubby. But, as I say, chubby is easy to identify and ignore, and ignore them I do, all of them. Another corporation came and went, isolating themselves from what I can only assume to be a pretty undesirable constellation. Well, I don't have to assume it. There's nothing happening. If we had more time, I'd suggest that we too crash our wormhole and start again. But I am already in my pyjamas.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Abandoned constellation
Tags: arazu, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Automatic for the capsuleer redux

There seems to be a continued trickle of calls for the directional scanner to be made to update automatically, at a set period, so that it doesn't need to be done manually. I can understand that, as it can get a little tedious to keep checking d-scan every five-to-ten seconds to make sure you're not being hunted. But I feel there is some confusion as to what is actually being requested. And as the proposition keeps appearing, I have no qualms updating and re-voicing my opinion about the subject.

I'm not actually against an automatically updating d-scan. I just think there should be limits. If d-scan can be set to ping regularly, then it will only do so when d-scan has focus. Are you interacting with your overview? Fiddling with settings? Checking the market? Looking at fittings? Changing ship velocity? Activating modules? Swapping skills? Seeing how much sec-status you've gained? Checking your wallet? Poking a newbie in chat? Spinning your view in space? If you're doing any of these, then d-scan is not updating.

The reasoning behind this suggested behaviour should be clear. If you are interacting with any other part of the interface, then you are not interacting with d-scan and cannot feasibly be in a position to update it manually. And if you cannot update manually, it won't update automatically.

But, you may ask, what's the point of having d-scan update automatically if you cannot then do something else at the same time? Because, I will answer, then you are not asking for improved functionality, but different functionality. You are not really asking for d-scan to update automatically instead of having to do it yourself, you are asking for an active version of d-scan.

Having an active d-scan would be like having an overview for the whole of the system. It sounds pretty cool, and very useful. It is also far too powerful under certain circumstances. Sure, in high- or low-sec, it may mean little to see a whole bunch of ships at indeterminate ranges coming and going. But in w-space, seeing any ships at all is generally an immediate panic button-hitting alarm that sets off red-alert klaxons. Sometimes you want pilots to forget what may be around whilst they focus on the bait right in front of them.

But you think there is too much clicking? Use hot-keys. Need a hot-key for d-scan? There is one: select the distance box so that the cursor is active there and hit enter. D-scan updates. Can't do anything else when the cursor is active in d-scan? Yeah, that's the point. If you want to use d-scan, you've got to use d-scan. If you get bored of watching it and want to interact with a different part of the interface, well, that's what hunters are relying on.

Like I say, I am not actually opposed to d-scan updating automatically. It can be a pain in its current implementation. But an active version of d-scan is too powerful when compared with the current balance of being covert and being vigilant. If an active d-scan were deployed, vigilance would be significantly increased with no equivalent gain in stealth. Sure, you would still need to be monitoring the results, and a blink-and-you-miss-it scan could still be missed if you blink, but such a change would raise the bar too high for successful ambushes.

Go ahead, make d-scan update automatically. Every ten seconds will be fine. I'd appreciate that change. But it had better be implemented so that d-scan only udpates when the scanner window has focus. Even moving away from the window to recommence firing at a rat after a reload cycle, whether by using the mouse or keyboard, should pause d-scan for the time the window isn't active. Making d-scan automatic purely to reduce the amount of clicking required to keep it updated could be a positive change. Anything else is asking for too much, and altogether different functionality.

Additional: A couple of comments over at the thread of this post at reddit have raised a similar issue, which I would like to also address here.

The fact that D-scan isn't better than a 1944 circling radar station in its current state I find offensive. Pressing the D-scan button to activate something just for the sake of pressing a button is just dumb.

I understand that d-scan in its current implementation is far from sci-fi spaceship functionality. It's really quite poor. But it needs to be this way.

D-scan was used long before w-space was known, but I doubt it was ever updated continuously on its maximum settings, or that anyone ever asked for it to be always on. It wasn't until wormholes opened that d-scan started being used for constant updates, because it became necessary to do so. But still it was necessary only in w-space. Everywhere else, pilots continued to have the local channel to alert them to changes in the system population, and only after a new pilot was seen did d-scan get used.

This is still the way it is done in k-space. Use local first, use d-scan second. This is not the way it is done in w-space, hopefully for the obvious reason that the local channel isn't populated. So the removal of the local channel from w-space created a new use for d-scan in its old-tech, arguably broken form. But it needs to stay in that old-tech, arguably broken form to maintain the emergent gameplay that has resulted.

I fully expect my argument to polarise players in to two camps: those who hunt in w-space, and those who don't. What other people are asking for, and which I argue is significantly different functionality, would pretty much kill non-consensual w-space PvP, where w-space already sees the lowest levels of PvP activity.

Yes, d-scan is clunky for spaceship technology, and if it were designed from scratch now it would be much different. But the current d-scan implementation, unlike the popular suggested changes to its functionality, allows for hunting and makes w-space dangerous. Let's keep it that way.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: comment, d-scan, eve online, mmorpg

Scanning empty space results in a route

An early roam today halts before it even gets started. I forgot that I killed our static wormhole once last night, adding an hour or so to the maths for when the next one should appear. I didn't account for that, but the Sleepers built a tolerance in to their technology, so let's see. Nope, warping to the extant bookmarks sees that the wormhole is not dead yet. Okay, abort, abort. I'll return in a little while, as I'm not wasting time watching a wormhole wobble its way to oblivion.

Okay, the wormhole's gone. One good that has come from the connection lingering, and my waking up to see it, is that the replacement has a signature identifier that sticks out amongst the known sites, a vagary of the Great Galactic Reset. The same number of sites remain in the home system, so I resolve the static wormhole directly, and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

I don't appear overly far from the K162 in C3a, which is good. A tower and a Mammoth hauler appear on my directional scanner, also good. And a recent visit, only five months ago, has the situation shaping up quite nicely indeed, except that the system was unoccupied back then and I don't have a location for the tower. But never mind, as spinning d-scan around in the system map shows the tower to be around a planet with a single moon, instead of one of the planets with many moons. Very nice indeed.

Circumstances would be better were the Mammoth actually piloted, but it floats empty inside the tower's force field. I was hoping for a nice and early gooer ambush. Maybe if I hadn't killed our wormhole last night and got in to this system earlier I could have killed a hauler, but idle speculation accomplishes nothing. Launching probes to scan does, though, and I start sifting through the eighteen anomalies and five signatures.

Scanning is easy. Five signatures isn't much to start with, and they are all chubby. Gas, gas, rocks, and static exit to low-sec. Done. The U210 wormhole is super-stable too, so I am probably the first to find it, not that that really means anything. Given the bland, grey colouring seeping through from the other side, it's no surprise to exit to Caldari space, in the Lonetrek region, where the local communication channel shows me some pilots, d-scan some probes. Are they finding anything?

Launching my own probes in to the low-sec system reveals a healthy eight anomalies and nine signatures, which looks promising for empire space. I drill down to each of them, identifying the signatures as rats, ladar, radar, ladar, ladar, ladar, magnetometric, magnetometric. That's quite a stutter the system has. And no wormholes, for those not paying attention. Well, no matter, simple morning scouting is complete. All sites in C3a are resolved and bookmarked, so I'll head home for now, grab a sammich, and come back later for some adventure.

Later comes, and later goes. I find some pilots in w-space, except they are Fin and Aii and turn out not actually to be in w-space. Fin's buying and selling, taking care of business, and Aii is picking up some non-exploded Venture mining frigates to improve our gas-harvesting efficiency. Scouting C3a has the same unpiloted Mammoth as earlier, and no new signatures. I could scan low-sec, but I don't want to be too disappointed in one night.

I still make myself useful. Aii is on his way home and, with a couple of low-sec systems to cross, Fin and I scout the stargates he'll be using. We watch the ships jump in, and then jump out again. The main excitement is seeing a fleet of almost twenty ships, pilots all flagged as suspects, enter the system and warp to the sole station, so you may understand why my attention wanders a little and I nearly miss seeing Aii and Fin warp back to the wormhole from the stargate.

Home and safe, there is chatter of crashing our wormhole to get a better constellation, which is soon forgotten when the Ventures are unpacked and fitted for sucking on the many gas clouds currently in the home system. Ventures, gas, industrialists. It was like they were meant to be together. It all results in good iskies for us all, but I think I'll leave them to it.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scanning empty space results in a route
Tags: eve online, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, venture, w-space

How the Penny maps

Every now and again a comment is made about how I make my maps. As they are not screen-grabs and aren't part of the EVE Online's mechanics it's not immediately obvious how I do it. The simple answer is that I use a basic Paint application to create each map. But the simple answer glosses over much of the nuance that goes in to the process, which I hope to now correct.

Before I get to Paint, I first must decide I want to draw a map of the w-space constellation. This decision occurs either because the constellation is extensive, interesting, or illustrative. That is, the map is big, there is something uncommon about it, or both combined illuminate the narrative. A simple home-to-C3a-to-low-sec constellation is neither out of the ordinary nor difficult to imagine. A winding route through multiple systems with their own forking wormholes, however, helps illuminate how bookmarks must be created descriptively, why we use system identifiers, and how long getting from point A to point B can take.

Once decided that I want to draw a map, I sketch it in to my notepad. This is for two inter-related reasons. First, I normally realise I want a map when I am still part-way through scanning, and second, I hand-draw each map. I will recognise that the constellation is interesting when I have a handful of systems uncovered and still have more wormholes left unexplored. And because each map is hand-drawn I can't reasonably pause each time a new connection is discovered to take time to add to an image. At least, not the way I draw my maps.

I've seen some tool-generated maps. They serve their purpose well, but not mine. I try to tell stories about adventures, and although I believe appropriate images can help the story I also don't want to interrupt the flow of the text, which is why I restrict the vertical size of each image. This includes the map. As much as possible, I optimise the constellation image with vertical height in mind. This is not the only restraint I have on my maps, though.

I draw my maps such that:

• vertical height is optimised
• wormhole direction is indicated
• static connections lead directly out to the right of the system, where possible
• spacing, arrow lengths, and system sizes are regular, where possible

Each restraint is not always possible to follow, so I break my own rules where necessary. But I try to maintain the restraints to make the maps easy to read, which I like to think I achieve with my self-imposed guidelines, though they have only been implied up until now.

The preliminary sketch is as important to the finished map as my scribbled notes are to a finished post. In both cases, any self-imposed guidelines can be ignored for the purposes of detailing information quickly and accurately. The sketched map still needs to show wormhole directions and, ideally, static connections, but there is no great need to limit vertical space in my notebook. Accuracy is important, though, because once the bookmarks are deleted then all I have to create the map is the sketch and my notes. They'd both better be right.

My sketch begins from the home system. As I've already said, the sketch will generally being part-way through a constellation, so the initial few systems I can normally draw from memory. Even so, bookmarks are useful. Each wormhole is bookmarked in such a way to show system information and wormhole direction, and experience and my w-space notes will inform me of which connections are static. But even once finished, I will often check my sketch as I travel backwards on my way home, pausing in each system to ensure I have the right number of connections, pointing in the right direction, to the right class of system. I still catch the occasional error this way.

I transfer the sketch to Paint only after I have drafted the story the constellation is attached to. This is partly because the sketch will be half-way through the notes for the story, but mostly because without a story I don't need a map. But it is normally drawn immediately after the story is drafted, because I need to link the text file with the image file in some way. I don't write directly in to Wordpress, and neither do I have the means to upload image files to my server, not that I would want to fiddle around with that at the time. When I write, I write. Images are added later, even after the editing process, when I no longer need to feel creative.

The actual map creation process is pretty basic. The first map took more time and effort, as it the first, and created from scratch. It also became a template, of sorts. I drew the boxes for the systems, defined the arrow lengths and arrowhead sizes, and decided on a typeface for the text. Once that first map was completed, all I had to do for the next was to copy the file, and make liberal use of copy-and-paste. With this method, I just need to move the boxes around and link them with the same arrows, adding specific system text either once the constellation is complete or at the point all the links become confusing without it.

Normally, creating the constellation map from the sketch is fairly straightforward. This may be because I have got the hang of doing so, and craft my sketch already following my guidelines. But more likely is because the constellation, whilst not always strictly linear, does not meander too much. Random connections terminate quickly, or don't lead to more random connections or K162s. Other times, the map will overlap horrendously if I don't either increase its vertical height by adding extra levels of systems, or extend arrows linking systems to give more horizontal space. I consider a longer arrow preferable to a 'fatter' map.

Sometimes I need to be clever. I'll look at a map, drawn faithfully from my sketch, and realise I can compress it without breaking my guidelines or losing information. I love those moments. I flip a diagonal arrow, drop a chain there, extend this arrow, and I can lose twenty vertical pixels from the image. Now I feel like I am creating something, not just recreating it. It's not always possible, but being able to visualise such an improvement is pleasing to my sense of the aesthetic.

This post would be incomplete without an example. And so, for the first time, I offer a peak at my actual notes.

Judging from the sketch's position in my notes, I probably reached C3b when I realised I may be creating a map. Little did I know it would expand by so much, nor what a mess I'd get in to. I even ran out of room to get C1a's static exit to high-sec properly on the page. Also witness my terrible handwriting. I really do scrawl when writing my notes. They're just for me.

I have the finished image created from that sketched constellation map. Three versions, in fact, which is unusual. The first was more-or-less what was sketched. The second came after one of those revelatory moments when I saw how to compress it beautifully. The third came, curiously enough, when comparing sketch to image for this post, and saw how to better reflect a couple of static connections, breaking one guideline in favour of another.

But I'm not going to include the final version, or any of the images, in this post. Not yet, anyway. It's no coincidence that I chose a map that already overlaps. If you're interested in how I make my maps, maybe take a few minutes to decipher the image and try to decide how you would draw it according to my guidelines. And if you have some time to spare, I'd be keen to see what you come up with.

Update: the post with the completed map has been published, so it's time to share the full creation process. The first version of the schematic was pretty much a straight copy of my hand-drawn map.

There's nothing particularly wrong with the image in itself. The question mark at the bottom is because, at least for the first of the two posts that use the schematic, the connecting wormhole was unvisited and so the destination class of system undetermined. Whilst I'm okay with missing that detail, because the map is big I preferred filling it out completely, once the missing piece was known. That gave me a problem, though, once discovering it led to more w-space. Where would I fit the system's static wormhole's destination? I would need another vertical level, in a map already four-tall. Luckily, staring at the graphic for a while gave me one of those clever moments.

I saw that if I translated C3c so that the vertical direction of the link between C3b and C3c pointed downwards, and C3c ended up where C4d was, the outward chain would continue as before, but the chain heading backwards would tidy itself up and give room for C1a and its exit. Even better, one of the diagonal lines, for C4d's static connection, would become horizontal, as I prefer them to be represented.

I have to admit that this is one of my best modifications to a map, for letting me add information and clarifying the rest in one minor change. But it didn't end there. Whilst reviewing the map for this post, I noticed I could make a second change.

It's a small change, not really necessary, and breaks one rule to fix another. Still, I flip-flopped between this and the previous version for longer than I should have, before deciding that I liked the long horizontal chain of static connections, C2a fitting in to place by extending the arrow down to C1a.

But the iterations are generally small, or noticed early, because all the work is done in Paint. Every system bubble, wormhole arrow, and system text is bitmapped, so every change takes time. Maybe I should find some better software, but it's not like I do this a lot. Anyway, in the fiddliest case, that's how I go from scanning w-space to creating a schematic for a post.

Posted in Creative, Gaming | 13 Comments »
Tags: blog, eve online, writing