Quiet night of scanning

Sites have been sucked, or left to dissipate. None of my bookmarks remain current, giving me a blank slate for the night, but that doesn't stop a proliferation of sites since I last scanned the home system. Eight signatures await the attention of my probes, and as I'm in the home system it is prudent to resolve and bookmark them all. Gas, gas, gas, artefacts, rocks, databases, more databases. Plenty of Sleepers, no capsuleers. Oh well.

Jumping through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system has nothing visible on my directional scanner, letting me launch probes and perform a blanket scan without anyone seeing. Being in an occupied but inactive system achieves much the same, though. A tower sits somewhere across the system, with a single ship floating empty in its force field, the Oracle battlecruiser unlikely to be doing anything alone here anyway. And a previous visit to this system means I know I'm looking for a static exit to null-sec. It sounds dull already.

Sifting through the twelve anomalies and six signatures doesn't give me any more wormholes beyond our K162 and the K346, so I may as well see where the exit takes me. Jumping to null-sec puts me in a system in a little-known region called Esoteria. You probably haven't heard of it. A couple of Tengus have, though, and are ratting away. Or were. The hipsters scoot back to their tower when I appear in the system. I won't catch the strategic cruisers, I don't care. I go home to collapse our static wormhole.

An Orca industrial command ship and Widow blacks op ship combined stress our wormhole to its half-mass state, which is pretty much by design. I reverse the order of the jumps for the second half, so that the more massive ship over-stresses the connection on my final return, which goes smoothly just as my glorious leader comes on-line. It's as if the first half of the evening hasn't happened. Shh, don't tell her.

I scan the home system again and pluck the replacement static wormhole out of the noise easily enough, having only recently scanned all the new sites, and jump to C3a. It's going to be one of those nights, d-scan showing me a tower with no ships. No one's present currently, but the locals must be busy bees, what with a blanket scan not picking up any anomalies. 'Why can't they be busy now, when we are here to kill them?' says Fin. Because they've got no anomalies, I'm guessing.

There are no anomalies, but ten signatures is plenty. I suppose they don't like sucking gas either. There's even more than one wormhole, two chubby and one skinny, which will be an outbound link. The chubby static exit to low-sec takes me out to Dead End in Genesis, where I resist the temptation to lick the monolith this time, and I return to C3a to examine the second chubby wormhole. It's a K162 from class 2 w-space. That's got to be worth a look. Hmm, a tower and no ships. Nope, maybe it isn't.

Back to C3a and on to the skinny wormhole, an outbound connection to class 5 w-space. That will give me as much w-space to explore as I can stand, which may not be much considering I've already scanned and isolated ourselves from one constellation tonight. But in I go, to a clear d-scan result. The lack of anything on d-scan can be attributed to the K162 appearing within range of only a moonless planet. The next closest planet is 35 AU away and also moonless, and it is twice that distance across the system. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp away to explore.

Eleven anomalies, nine signatures. No ships, no occupation. Maybe I should have persevered in C2a, as Fin scans there and finds a handful of K162s, but I have at least a static connection to find, and apparently a second wormhole too. Neither is chubby enough to be a K162, but I'm guessing one will lead to k-space, such is the nature of class 5 w-space, and indeed I end up with an exit to low-sec and the system's static connection to class 4 w-space. C4s are good, and continue the constellation, so in I go. And I see ships! Big ships! Big ships that are almost certainly unpiloted!

Yep, the Chimera carrier and Rorqual capital industrial ship are unpiloted inside the tower's force field, as are the Raven battleship and Onyx heavy interdictor. Still. Ships. A second tower is missing since my last visit, when we podded a Drake battlecruiser's capsuleer in our home system, after having collapsed their K162 to us, which I can only assume was the catalyst for their moving out of w-space. That leaves me little to do but scan. The first of seven signatures is a K162 from class 5 w-space that's at the end of its life, the second the system's static connection to more class 4 w-space. That'll do, as it's getting late. I recall my probes and jump to the last system I'll be exploring tonight.

How normal. A tower with no ships appears on d-scan, and there's not much space out of range. Well, there is, obviously, just not within the bounds of this solar system. The only notable aspect of this C4 is that despite this being my fourth visit to the system, the last was made almost three years ago. I've been in w-space for a long time now. And I've been in w-space for long enough tonight. I break my session cloak only to turn my boat right around, jumping back to C4a on my way to the home system. It's all quiet tonight.

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Tags: chimera, drake, eve online, mmorpg, onyx, oracle, orca, penny ibramovic, raven, rorqual, scanning, tengu, w-space, widow

Trading a hauler for a transport

The gooer's gone, but not in his hauler. That's gone in a different way, blown to smithereens. That the pilot is now cloaked in a covert operations boat or off-line is of no consequence to me, particularly with plenty more w-space to explore. I could go backwards, with another outbound link in our neighbouring class 3 system available, but I came to this C4 through a separate outbound connection, which gives me at least the static wormhole to find that will lead to w-space. I'll continue here, launching probes to scan.

The few signatures resolve to give me a static wormhole to more class 4 w-space. Neat. There'll be more w-space beyond that system, which is good, because C4b is unoccupied and empty, holding eleven anomalies and fourteen signatures. I get my probes working for me, and pluck a K162 from class 3 w-space, one from class 5 w-space, and the static connection to class 5 w-space from the minor mess. The C3 is likely a dead end, so is my first choice to investigate.

Notes from a visit to C3b one month ago point me to a tower where no one's home, and inform me the static wormhole leads to high-sec. I could poke the system for K162s, but not with more systems behind me. I jump back to C4b and explore through the K162 to C5c. Even if it may be another dead-end system, the K162 has the potential for activity. On the other side of the wormhole my directional scanner shows me a tower, Loki strategic cruiser, Noctis salvager, and too many drones. I don't suppose anything is happening in this system either.

The drones are in space—perhaps in an anomaly, I don't care to check—and the two ships are inside the tower's force field. The Loki is piloted and doing about as much as the empty Noctis. I'll leave the capsuleer to his navel contemplation and push deeper in to the constellation, back through C4b and in to C5b. D-scan is clear from the K162, so I follow my standard operating procedure and launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp away from the wormhole to explore the planets out of range.

Five anomalies, twelve signatures, two towers, one ship. The Anathema cov-ops is piloted at one of the towers, but goes off-line moments after I find her. This gives me an inactive system to scan, and I resolve a weak wormhole that leads to a class 3 w-space system. It's good enough, and probably heralds the end of this arm of the constellation, so I jump through to see what I can find out here. A tower, no ships, and a black hole. Nothing is out of d-scan range either, so with that other wormhole all the way back in C3a I declare exploration to be over in this direction.

C5b to C4b to C4a through a wormhole now at the end of its life. Bouncing off the tower sees the Buzzard back and now joined by a colleague in a Cheetah cov-ops, but I ignore them and return to C3a. Warping to the outbound link to C5a has me scratching my head for a minute, as I hear the familiar pulsing that comes from a mass-stressed wormhole. I'm sure the connection was fine when I reconnoitred it earlier, and I was probably the first pilot to visit it. How come it's now sitting at half mass?

The obvious answer becomes clear when a Helios cov-ops appears and jumps to C5a, followed by a flare and Orca industrial command ship coming in to C3a and jumping straight back to C5a. The wormhole was found by an active corporation and is being collapsed. On the one hand, it looks like I'm too late to crash any party. On the other hand, a corporation vigilant enough to find a wormhole that didn't even bring any visitors, and active enough to keep themselves isolated, is perhaps a corporation I wouldn't catch vulnerable.

I sit and watch the wormhole, now in a critically destabilised state, out of curiosity, but the C5ers don't return to finish the job. That's curious, but not as curious as the Iteron visible on d-scan. C3a was empty of ships earlier, so is this hauler local? And gooing? Maybe, and I've been too keen to watch a wormhole collapse I can't even affect to keep d-scan updated. The Iteron's out of the tower already and, by the looks of it, bouncing between customs offices. Never mind, it gives me my second chase of the night.

Be quick, my Loki, for we are one step behind. But my strategic cruiser stays behind the Iteron, and when I try to get ahead I merely end up missing the hauler entirely. The last I see of the pilot is him back at the tower, swapped to a Proteus strategic cruiser, and disappearing after warping away. I suppose the odds of me catching an efficient planet gooer are slight, but I probably could have been paying better attention to my surroundings. I fly past the C5 wormhole again, seeing it still there and sickly, and turn my Loki back towards our K162 to head home for the night. Or not.

A Viator has appeared on d-scan, which I catch on a routine final check before approaching the wormhole to jump. I turn my Loki around and warp to the tower, but this pilot is as quick as the Iteron. He knows what he's doing, and isn't hanging around. I'm kinda at a greater disadvantage with the Viator than the Iteron, as the transport ship is much more agile than the basic hauler. But I may have one advantage, given that I think I spotted the pattern the Iteron pilot was flying. Considering the short time between pilot sightings, the two may be related and follow similar patterns.

The Iteron looked to go from the outermost to innermost planet, methodically, perhaps trying to subvert the expectations of most ambushers. I'll assume the Viator will do the same and, rather than try to chase the transport, catch it with cunning. I plant my Loki around a planet half-way along his course and wait for the target to come to me. Ah, but if only it were quite as simple as that. I reach my customs office of choice but, because of the size of the office, range of my warp scrambler, and likely approach vector of the Viator, I know I can't stay where I am and have the transport land in my lap.

I manoeuvre my Loki around the office, careful to maintain my cloak, so that I am closer to where the Viator will drop out of warp. If I'm right, that is. I flick d-scan around and find the Viator at the fourth planet. I'm on the third. The transport should be coming my way next, which I can keep tabs on using d-scan pointed at the other planet. And, luckily for me, the Viator isn't warping cloaked, which will give me a visual indicator as the ship decelerates out of warp. I'll use that time to soak up the recalibration delay caused by decloaking.

D-scan is punched at regular intervals. He's there, there, there—here. I see the Viator drop out of warp having come from the other planet, and my manoeuvring has paid off. I still need to get closer to get in range of my warp scrambler, but it looks to be only a few kilometres instead of over ten, and I start moving before the Viator even has the chance to react. I drop my cloak, activate my micro warp drive, and burn towards the transport, getting my sensor booster on-line once I am moving fast. I gain a positive target lock, and my scram activates before he can turn and flee.

Autocannons chatter as the Viator turns from me, but he's not going anywhere. I slow to a normal thrust and settle in to a nice vector where my guns do optimal damage, chewing through the armour, shields, hull. The Viator goes pop, the pod goes in to warp. That was a nice trade, losing an Iteron to catch a Viator. I don't think it's a valid strategy in general, though. I loot and shoot the wreck, watch the pilot back at the tower board a Helios cov-ops and disappear, and I head home to go off-line two gooer kills richer for the night. And, despite the extensive map, both were within two jumps from home.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, cheetah, eve online, helios, iteron, loki, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, viator, w-space

From Buzzard to Bestower

It's all quiet at home, just the way I like it. ...but boring, I'm going out. No new sites makes resolving the static wormhole child's play, and I'm warping to it in seconds, jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system looking for other pilots to play with. No one's around, though, with only a tower visible on my directional scanner from the wormhole.

A tower with no ships in class 3 w-space is pretty normal, really. But my last visit, five months ago, had a second tower, and as there is nothing out of d-scan range there has clearly been some change in the system. Ah, I see. Warping to where the second tower was finds a few incapacitated defences still floating in space, so I'm supposing there was some kind of hostile takeover of the system at some point.

Invasion or not, there's nothing happening now, so I launch probes and scan. The first of the twelve signatures resolves to be a wormhole, as is the second, denying me a future whingeing session about the first also being the last. It's a weak signature too, making it an outbound link and not a K162. The third signature is also a wormhole, but as it's our K162 it's kinda cheating to count it. The fourth signature is a legitimate wormhole, though, and now I finally hit the sites. Well, one site. Then it's another wormhole, sites, a sixth wormhole—another weakling outbound connection—more sites, and, blimey, the final signature is a wormhole too. I've hit pay dirt.

Warping around the wormholes gives me quite the spectrum of space. The system holds a K162 from high-sec, a static exit to low-sec, and a K162 from null-sec, and there are outbound connections to class 1, class 4, and class 5 w-space. What to do with myself, and where to go first? I pop out to high-sec first, getting me a safety net in case of trouble, this one in Hulm, a 1·0 sec system in the Heimatar region, five hops to the Rens market hub. But I care not for shopping, not with plenty of w-space behind me to explore.

Back to C3a and onwards to C1a, where a tower and no ships greet me via d-scan, and a black hole by virtue of it being a vast gaping hole in space. Despite there being only one planet in range from the wormhole, and exploring finding two more towers, the system is inactive. I could scan, but as there probably is only a static connection to k-space hidden here my time is perhaps better spent diving in to the class 4 and 5 w-space systems that will guarantee further w-space exploration.

In to C4a next, and four drones are on d-scan, nothing else. No tower, ships, wrecks. One planet sits out of range, where a tower, Buzzard covert operations boat, and Mammoth hauler are all detected by d-scan, but by the time I locate the tower to see the Mammoth empty the Buzzard has disappeared. Has he gone towards the wormhole? Who knows. Warping in that direction doesn't see him, but a Bestower hauler is now somewhere in the system.

I frantically sweep d-scan around the planets, looking for the Bestower at customs offices, and see him at the fourth planet. Go, go, go! Of course, I'm too late, as it takes time to warp even a short distance, but I should be quicker than the hauler and maybe I can get close enough to get the jump on him. I just need to be quick with d-scan. Sixth planet's customs office, go! Missed again. I could keep this up but I fear I'm not going to win this way. Instead, I'll see if I can pick an unvisited customs office and wait for the Bestower to come to me.

I thought I was better than this at waiting patiently, but the Bestower being vulnerable somewhere has me sitting at an empty customs office for only as long as it takes for me to locate the hauler's current destination. Eschewing my considered plan and knowing that I may well be crossing the Bestower in warp, I surge towards the hauler anyway. This time, I get lucky. The hauler remains at the customs office I saw on d-scan, and I think I've got him. If he warps now I will see where he goes and be able to catch him. If he doesn't warp, well, I've got him. The only way I'll not catch him is if the pilot is already aligning back towards his tower, in which case I'll miss him whatever happens.

Feeling I have my prey already, I decloak when decelerating, activating my sensor booster as I do. Once out of warp the target lock is good, I burn the couple of kilometres I need to close to get my warp scrambler active, and the Bestower's as good as dead. I rip open the ship to get to the pod inside, but my prize warps away before I can stop him. That's okay, I made another pretty explosion. I loot and shoot the wreck, reload my guns and cloak, and warp back towards the tower.

The dispossessed pilot's back in the force field and in the Buzzard—presumably back in the Buzzard. I would guess that the Buzzard's disappearance was the pilot swapping ships and warping away to collect planet goo between subsequent d-scans whilst I was locating the tower. Now he warps away again, definitely in the Buzzard this time, and disappears. That's cool. I have more w-space to explore.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, eve online, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Mapping makes a map

A-roaming I will go, after checking what's at home. There's nothing different that probes can detect, but my directional scanner is showing me core probes in the system. As there is still only our static wormhole as a route in or out, I loiter there whilst waiting for the scout to make himself known. I could jump ahead and go roaming as planned, but I don't know if the scout is lurking around our tower or on the wormhole, and I'd rather not give away my position quite so readily, particularly as the scout's presence means there is activity somewhere, even if only here.

The scout is taking his merry time scanning our system. We only have a few measly gas harvesting sites, which don't take long to identify. Ah, the probes finally disappear. But have they been recalled or are they scanning a volume of space out of d-scan range? Yep, that second one. The probes return to d-scan within a minute, without a scout passing through the wormhole. Not only that, but a bit more waiting has the probes perhaps die, or perhaps be close enough to death to be recalled, as an Anathema appears on d-scan and launches a new set. I've written a guide to scanning, by the way.

Still, as the covert operations boat is on d-scan it means he's not on the wormhole. I no longer have to wonder if I'll be spotted jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, so rather than wait for the scout to finish and come past me I ignore him and finally press on. Not that C3a looks any different to when I scouted it earlier. I don't even know if the Anathema is from here or further afield, and maybe even empire space, so I continue forwards through a connection to class 2 w-space.

C2a remains unoccupied, with no one currently settling the system, and the static connection to more class 2 w-space that was dying earlier is dead now, giving me a fresh wormhole to scan for. The replacement connection is nice and obvious amongst the stale signatures, and I barely have to pause in C2a before I'm jumping in to C2b, where d-scan is clear, one planet is in range, and the others are over 40 AU away. I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp away to explore.

Erk. Forty anomalies and twenty-three signatures appearing on my blanket scan make the system look positively unoccupied before d-scan confirms it. So... static connections to class 5 w-space and null-sec k-space? Let's see. There's one wormhole, with a really weak signature. Now gas, rocks, magnetometric sites. A second wormhole also has a weak signature, so neither's a K162. And that's it. Well, would you look at that. An N062 wormhole to class 5 w-space and an E545 to null-sec. Yeah, I'm pretty awesome.

Not caring for null-sec I head to C5a, where a tower appears on d-scan but no ships. I'll be scanning again. Three anomalies and a more manageable eleven signatures give me a D364 wormhole to class 2 w-space early enough for me to assume it's the static connection, and I recall my probes and keep going forwards, jumping through the wormhole and in to C2c. I see a vague sign of activity too, but don't let the mining drones fool you, I know this man is a diabetic there are no ships on d-scan. Only a tower or four.

A previous visit indicates class 1 w-space and high-sec static connections, which makes me want to ignore locating the towers and simply scan hopefully to a system with actual pilots. But opening the system map shows there to be only four moons in range, with seven planets in total. I've found the towers, sir. And I may as well check that sole planet out of range, with its two moons. Yep, two more towers. The system is saturated. But who cares? It could somehow have two towers crammed around each moon and it still wouldn't change the fact that I don't own a car there are no ships.

I launch probes and scan. There's the high-sec wormhole, and that will be the connection to C1 w-space. The extra wormhole to more class 2 w-space is a nice surprise too. Hitting C1 first has a tower but, what a surprise, no ships. I've stopped caring about this system already. And about scanning too, come to think of it. There is probably only a connection to k-space to find here, and I have enough of them already. I drop back to C2c and poke my nose in to C2d, but again I see only a tower and distinct lack of ships on d-scan. It's time to catch some shut-eye. I head home with a fistful of bookmarks, and little else to show for the evening but a cool map. At least the home system finally looks clear of that damned Anathema.

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

Starting by scanning a stub

I'm off for an early stroll through the constellation, maybe murder someone who crosses my path and carry their corpse back with me to perform unspeakable acts of tea-partying with it. Nothing sinister, you understand. Have I mentioned before how plans never seem to get past the first step? Well, I stall before even that point today. I again forget that I collapsed our static wormhole mid-evening yesterday, which means its replacement lingers a little longer than it takes for me to sleep, eat, and kickstart a Minmatar ship.

I'll read for a bit. Collapsing the wormhole sounds too much like effort, and the neighbouring system wasn't exciting enough for me to risk isolation by seeing if anyone's awake and active. And there she goes. It takes a little while before I hear the sucking sound of a wormhole imploding, no doubt created by my sensors unless the theory of aether was right all along, and I draw my attention away from my very important researching of cats on the internet to scan for its replacement.

Resolving the wormhole and jumping to the new class 3 w-space system has my directional scanner show me a tower with ships. I'm almost excited already by this unusual occurrence. The Tengu strategic cruiser and Hurricane battlecruiser could feasibly be shooting Sleepers, even if the Flycatcher interdictor won't be, but as there are no wrecks I'm happy to simply entertain the possibility of imminent activity for the moment. As it turns out, there are no Sleeper wrecks because there are no pilots in those ships, all three floating empty in the tower's force field.

I warp out, launch scanning probes, and blanket the system. Eight anomalies and twelve signatures are no barrier to continued exploration, and amongst the usual sites the static exit to low-sec empire space pops up as nicely as a static exit to low-sec empire space can. A K162 from null-sec is made duller for being at the end of its life, and most interesting by far is the outbound connection to class 2 w-space. I have myself a proper constellation forming.

Jumping to C2a has nothing appear on d-scan from the wormhole, the tower that was present fifteen months ago torn down cleanly, and a single planet with moons sitting out of d-scan range doesn't hold newer occupation. I'm back to scanning, looking for the class 2 w-space and low-sec static connections, but specifically the former. Two wormholes are resolved, and knowing the propensity of class 2 w-space systems to reach out and grab other systems I keep going. But, in this instance, there are no more wormholes to find. Never mind. Onwards!

No, backwards! The wormhole to further w-space does indeed lead to a second C2, and I would like to press on, but the connection is at the end of its life and not really suitable for exploration. The exit to low-sec is healthy, as it was in C3a, but I don't care to scan low-sec for further wormholes right now. I think I'd prefer a sammich, mostly because waiting for our own connection to die took a bit longer than my glossing over perhaps hinted at. But I'm content with this little expedition. I have some space to roam later, hopefully along with a new connection to class 2 w-space.

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

Going for gassing in a black hole system

Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has an active scout, but still I scan overtly. I don't think it's a problem if I'm spotted. I can pretty much assume the scout knows I'm here anyway, what with him boarding the Imicus scanning frigate after I destroyed his Venture mining frigate in a successful ladar-site ambush. I already resolved a K162 wormhole coming from low-sec kinda by accident when looking for the Venture, and the ladar site that I purposefully found, which leaves me two anomalies and seven signatures to sift through.

Not needing to hide my intentions, I scan systematically, starting from the outer planet and working inwards. That coincidentally has my scanning the planet holding the local tower first, under which I find a wormhole with a weak signature. As the static exit leads to low-sec, and a weak signature means the connection is outbound, it looks like I have more w-space to explore already. I like that. I also like the other two wormholes I resolve, amongst the general collection of sites.

I don't know why this pilot was sucking gas in such a connected system, but maybe he thought the agility and increased warp core strength of the Venture would keep him safe. I wonder what he thinks about that now. Personally, I think the ship means little compared to the vigilance of the pilot, and it's the vigilance that's the hardest aspect to maintain. It only takes a few 'it hasn't happened so far' instances of constant vigilance to skew a pilot in to complacency. I know, because I'm guilty of it too.

Anyway, I'm ignoring the Imicus, which probably won't put itself in to a position of much threat for now, and instead inspect the wormholes. The K162 from low-sec I know about, the static exit to low-sec is no surprise, and a K162 from null-sec is hardly interesting in itself. That weak wormhole, though, is an outbound connection to class 5 w-space, and very much worth exploring through.

Jumping in to C5a has me first notice the black hole gaping away beneath me, before I update d-scan to see a tower, Sabre interdictor, Iteron hauler, Drake battlecruiser, and pod somewhere in the system. My notes give my last visit as being five months earlier, and as opening the system map shows nothing to be out of range it all looks to be unchanged from then. I warp to the tower to see three pilots, the Sabre being the empty ship, and I slow down to watch the Iteron to see if he'll do anything.

The hauler doesn't budge an inch, and I think about heading home, not really wanting to be so obvious in scanning for wormholes in such a small system. But as I ponder my next move the pod boards a second Drake, and the Iteron pilot swaps to a third. Now there's movement. One Drake warps out of the tower, one moves slowly out of the force field, and the third swaps to a Venture. This all looks rather positive. The first Drake returns shortly, and I note his vector of flight as coming from a little above the fourth planet. That may be important, particularly as he swaps ships to be in a second Venture.

Knowing that ships are gassing, and having a rough idea of where they are gassing, means little if I can't scan the site. But just because all of the system was in range of the wormhole it doesn't mean the whole system is in range of the tower. Thankfully, the locals have taken the short-sighted step of planting their tower on the edge of the system, out of d-scan range of a planet on the other side of the system. Before the pilots steel themselves to suck gas, I beat a hasty path to that far planet, launch probes where no one can see me, and return to the tower to watch for further movement. And I do it all just in time.

All three ships are at the tower as I warp back, so I am confident my probe launch went unnoticed, but not for long. The two Ventures warp away, towards but above the fourth planet, leaving the Drake behind. That's fine by me. I have more gassers to hunt. I warp behind the ships, on the assumption that the fourth planet will be closest to the pair, and start looking for them with d-scan once I am in position. The range is good, at maybe 1·25 AU or so from the planet, and knowing the rough vector lets me narrow down their position more quickly than having to guess completely. I'm almost ready to scan.

I align my ship roughly towards the Ventures to help propel me in to warp more quickly. This normally shaves a few seconds off the flight time, which isn't so much of a concern really, except in a system with a black hole. The effects of a class 5 w-space black hole will be quite pronounced too, so the penalty to ship agility could cost me a significant amount of time. Pre-aligning for warp could make the difference between catching the Ventures or having them escape, particularly as the black hole will be affecting their ability to quickly retreat too.

Now I scan, and talk about a perfect result. The ladar site and ships are fully resolved, smack-dab in the middle of my probes. If I could take time to admire the result I would, but time is of the essence. I recall my probes, throw my ship in to warp towards the Ventures, and bookmark their positions for reference. And the ambush is looking good too, as both ships are still in the ladar site as I enter it. But, bah, not for long. It seems that my probes were spotted, as almost before I've decloaked and got my sensor booster active one of the Ventures has warped away. The second, however, is not so quick.

Not so quick, but quick enough. My targeting systems recalibrate themselves and I aim for the remaining Venture, but a split-second before I can stop him he too warps away, back to the tower. I'm still impressed, though. A combination of excellent scanning, good situational awareness, and a strong black hole almost cost a vigilant pilot his Venture. But not quite.

I warp back to the tower, cloaking once clear of the gas cloud, and monitor the pilots briefly. The Drake left behind swaps to a Helios covert operations boat and heads out to scan the system, and one of the Venture pilots breaks out a Tengu strategic cruiser, perhaps to scare me. It's time to go home anyway. These pilots know about me, the pilots in the system behind us know about me, there's not much more to be done. Well, except ponder what the Punisher is doing at the wormhole to C5a in C3a.

Jumping to C3a sees the frigate near the wormhole, but even though thirty kilometres may be 'near' in cosmological terms it isn't close enough for my warp scrambler to stop him warping away. And he's not the Venture/Imicus pilot I've tussled with, which makes me wonder if he's bait. Maybe, probably not, but he's burning away from the wormhole to be further out of range, so I merely move and cloak. And, no, he's not bait, as one look at my Loki has the Punisher scurrying away to his tower. I don't know what he was doing, but it doesn't matter. With a corpse, wrecks, and a near miss, it's been a most entertaining evening indeed.

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Tags: drake, eve online, helios, imicus, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, punisher, sabre, scanning, tengu, venture, w-space

Looking for a ladar site

The wormhole's as dead as the Heron pilot. That is to say, a replacement has already been stirred. It seems that no matter how hard you try to kill them, wormholes and capsuleers just keep on respawning. Still, that's good, in both cases. Replacement wormholes give new constellations, and replacement capsuleers give new targets. Or, in this case, the replacement wormhole gives me a new target. Is that polymorphism at work? I dunno, I'm just happy to see a Venture visible on my directional scanner through our new static connection.

The mining frigate is in space by itself in the class 3 w-space system, according to d-scan, putting it outside of a tower and probably active sucking gas. Moving my Loki strategic cruiser away from the K162 and cloaking doesn't spook the pilot either, which keeps him a target for now, and as the system is large enough I warp away in order to launch combat scanning probes and start my hunt. But in getting out of range of the Venture I bump in to a couple of towers, in d-scan terms, one with a Reaper presumably inside its force field.

Reapers are rookie frigates, though, and, like most, I imagine this one is either unpiloted or has a pilot who's currently not paying attention to his surroundings. Rather than cross the system again, wasting precious hunting time, I ignore the ship, piloted or otherwise—I don't waste time finding that out either—and launch probes at least out of range of the Venture. Now it's back to the inner system to get a bearing and range on the mining frigate.

I get close to the Venture and start refining my estimate of his position in space, reducing d-scan's beam a step at a time and finding the frigate again at each step. Naturally, the Venture disappears when not in the narrower beam but, as it turns out, he also disappears when he's gone from the site. The occasional reset, for sanity's sake, shows me a lack of Venture in range, which saves me fiddling with d-scan looking for nothing, even if it's disappointing to have missed my target.

The Venture may be dropping off his gas back at the tower, and I got close enough to determining his position, and have good enough scanning skills, to see if I can resolve the ladar site before he returns. Nope. The site's gone too, although I find a wormhole nearby. Okay, I hide my probes again, and as they are out of the system I perform a blanket scan to see what's still here. Two ships are somewhere, one being the Reaper, and warping to the tower doesn't find the second. A repeated blanket scan shows the other ship stays in the system, I just don't know where.

The other ship is the Venture, back in empty space, probably in a different ladar site. Luckily for me he isn't finished sucking on gas. I start my hunt again, narrowing down his location with d-scan, having plenty of time to do so now, and placing him about 1·7 AU from me. That's close enough to fill me with confidence when arranging my probes, so I put them in a tight cluster at a low range and prepare to scan. Before I call my probes in I orientate myself, aligning my ship roughly towards my target for quicker entrance to warp speed. Here we go.

Bingo. There's the Venture, and I can ignore the site he's in as distinctly uninteresting. I recall the probes, throw my ship in to warp, and bookmark the site for reference to distract me whilst in flight. I appear in the ladar site with the Venture still sucking away, which probably means I haven't been spotted, but there's no point pausing now. I drop my cloak, activate the sensor booster, and get my guns firing after locking on to the frigate.

What I don't manage to do is disrupt the Venture's warp drives. It's not because of the increased warp core strength of the mining frigate, but just that I am a couple of kilometres out of range. The Venture has been orbiting the gas cloud, perhaps under the belief that it keeps him safer, maybe just to amuse him during the tedious process of harvesting gas, and the ship is now not where I scanned him to be. But that's okay, because I notice this. I burn towards the Venture and make sure to get my warp scrambler active as soon as I get in range. By the way, it's also a Shadow Serpentis warp scrambler, with three points of warp disruption. The +2 warp core strength of the Venture won't help against me.

My target is snared and in my sights. I scratch its shields initially, but as I burn to get close and jostle the Venture my damage drops to nothing. That's understandable, as my guns were struggling to track at those speeds. Now I can slow down and sit nicely behind the Venture, letting my guns line up and get a couple of solid hits. Pop! That wakes the pilot up, if he wasn't already, evidenced by the ejected pod fleeing immediately.

I loot and shoot the wreck, getting me little and costing the pilot almost nothing. But I don't care. I consider this another good kill, only made possible because of skilful scanning. And catching an agile frigate with boosted warp strength is pretty gratifying. And with the trace of my ambush erased, I reload my guns and warp away from the site, activating my cloak once more. It looked like the pod possibly warped to the wormhole when fleeing, back to low-sec, but I was mistaken. The pilot is local, now back at the tower and in a scanning frigate. I think I can safely ignore him, and scan for more wormholes and more opportunity.

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Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, reaper, scanning, venture, w-space

Leaping before I look

First item on the agenda tonight is to kill our static wormhole. I'm not even going to check the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, as it was unoccupied and empty earlier. And although new wormholes may have opened in to the system, potentially bringing capsuleers hauling loot or popping Sleepers, it's just as likely that nothing has changed in the past few hours. I'd rather not get myself polarised and waste a few minutes waiting for the effects to dissipate just to see that C3a is still empty and uninteresting. So I'm collapsing our static wormhole.

No, I'm scanning the home system. One day I'll have a well-considered plan, just not today. Collapsing the wormhole is my aim, but it can't be my first task. I really ought to check for possible new connections in to our home system first, because I really don't want to break out the big ships only to be caught polarised on a wormhole in one of them. Sometimes I learn from my own lessons. So first I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system. All is as it was, which is good. Now I can kill, kill!

I swap my Loki strategic cruiser for an Orca industrial command ship, aim the massive ship towards our static wormhole, and warp away from the tower. Generally, I've got so used to collapsing our static connection that I gloss over the details, but most of the time I don't jump to C3a and see activity that wasn't there before. Punching my directional scanner on the K162, whilst the Orca holds its session-change cloak, I see a Heron frigate and core scanning probes in the system. That's just my luck.

There's nothing I can do about the Heron whilst I'm in the Orca, and as all I can really do is jump home again there's not much I can do for close to five minutes, whilst the inevitable polarisation effects wear off. The one time there's someone new to shoot in the adjacent system is the one time I don't bother to check. Even so, the frigate is scanning, and it's been a while since I've waited fruitlessly on a wormhole in an interceptor, so I swap the Orca for my Malediction and return to loiter with intent on the wormhole in the home system.

The interceptor plan is bad. Don't worry, I know it. Not only can I not see if the Heron remains in C3a, or if he's coming my way, but if he panics and jumps back the way he came I won't even be able to follow. I remain polarised, even in a different ship. It's something to do with pods, or goo, or something. But better that I wait on the wormhole in a frigate-catching and -killing ship than ineffectively sit at the tower. And I'm not being bloody-minded about catching the Heron on our wormhole. Once the polarisation effects wear off I get more proactive.

I swap back to my Loki at the tower and, now that I can jump through the wormhole again, I return to C3a to see if the Heron's still around. He is, and so are his probes. My instinct is to warp clear, launch probes, and hunt the Heron with those combat scanning probes, but I can be smarter about this. C3a is unoccupied, so the Heron has come from another system, either through a new wormhole or one of the two low-sec connections already here. It's possible if the Heron's come from empire space that he's still sitting on the wormhole. I point d-scan at each in turn and, yep, there he is.

Of course, the frigate may not be on the wormhole itself, perhaps having moved a hundred kilometres from it for safety, but I can warp there and take a look. If he's far, I can launch probes and get his position pretty quickly. As it turns out, the ship is in fact near the wormhole, and not far from me at all when I drop out of warp. I suffer a small pang of anxiety in considering the Heron as bait, until I realise: bait for what? C3a is unoccupied, as I may have mentioned, so the likelihood that a—by now very bored—low-sec fleet is waiting for the Heron to be jumped before springing a trap is pretty remote. I'm gonna poke him.

Decloak, burn, lock. Bump, point, shoot. The Heron pops, its ejected pod doesn't get away. All that thinking and messing around for what turns out to be a straightforward and rather brutal execution. I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck, leaving no trace of my menace. And now that the constellation is once again free from the threat of harmless explorers I can continue collapsing our wormhole to isolate ourselves from it. A Widow black ops ship thrown out and back through the wormhole doesn't stress the connection to half-mass, which makes the maths easy, and, as expected, two more Orca trips finish the job. Now I can get to the evening's adventure proper.

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Tags: eve online, heron, malediction, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space, widow

Not dead

[It would have been nice if my 1,500th post to be tagged with EVE Online detailed our excellent 3·4 B ISK Tengu kill. Or just wasn't being published in the middle of the tenth anniversary Fanfest, when no one will be paying attention to anything else. But it appears I didn't have a particularly robust five-year plan. Either way, here it is, a landmark Tiger Ears post. Enjoy!]

It's a new day, and a new w-space constellation. At least, I hope it's a new constellation. My scanning probes are converging on a signature of unknown type that is sharing space with a bookmark, and that bookmark points to yesterday's static connection. It is not unheard of for wormholes to spawn in identical locations on subsequent days, so I warp to the bookmark before I finish scanning, ostensibly to save me a bit of time, only to see a decidedly unhealthy looking wormhole in front of me. It's not quite dead yet.

I remember now. I collapsed our first static wormhole yesterday, which takes a little time, and opened a new one relatively late in the evening. My enthusiasm to scan for targets has brought me on-line somewhat earlier than is practical. Circumstances give me a bit of time to poke through the dying wormhole to check our neighbouring system, and find it just as quiet as yesterday, and so I return home and wait for the connection to collapse of natural causes.

It takes a while, during which time I get some reading done, but the wormhole eventually implodes. I scan for its replacement, warp across the system, and jump to the new class 3 w-space system beyond. My directional scanner is clear from the K162, letting me launch probes and perform a blanket scan without being seen. But it's not looking good. My fifth visit to the system a month earlier had the system unoccupied, and this sixth visit shows that a corporation has yet to move in. Still, there are only eight anomalies and ten signatures, so enough visitors come this way to keep the Sleepers at bay.

In an unoccupied system I restrict my scanning to look only for wormholes, and although I end up with two the K162 from low-sec empire space that accompanies the static exit to low-sec is disappointing. More so, exiting through the static wormhole takes me to Aridia, the region that apparently can't get enough of me. I can of it, trust me. Naturally, I'm alone in the system, so I launch probes to scan and warp to a rock field to punch a rat on the nose.

Three extra signatures resolve to be a wormhole, rocks, and drones, and the only interesting signature merely connects to more low-sec space. It's not Aridia, though, as both my curiosity for wormholes and instinct to leave this region takes me through the wormhole and in to a system in The Forge. That's much more civilised. And is that a ratting Retribution I see on d-scan? Why, yes it is. The assault frigate has found and is manly taking on a rat battleship. I consider cowardly taking on the Retribution in my rather more powerful Loki strategic cruiser, but warping to the rock field finds rocks, lots of them, all around me, and the pilot of the frigate flees.

The frigate flees, and leaves the battleship for me to finish off and, hopefully, I don't know how this works, gain security status from. Now I scan again, and three more signatures become three more wormholes. The half-mass K162 from class 6 w-space at the end of its life doesn't look good, neither does the EOL C3 K162, but the K162 from class 2 w-space is healthy and welcoming. But, aww, jumping in puts me over eight kilometres from the wormhole which, this early in the afternoon, is not a good indicator of activity.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole, but there is plenty of space out of range. I launch probes, blanket the system, and explore, finding a tower and Legion on d-scan, and soon after on my overview, at which point the strategic cruiser has been replaced by a pod. That gives me a pilot, now I just need him to be more active than doing simple ship checks. Which he doesn't. At least, not for a while, but eventually the pod almost becomes active, warping away from the tower shipless. I supposed I can scan in the direction he warped.

There are no signatures in the volume of space the pod disappeared to, which is curious, but the pod comes back as I continue scanning other sections of space, my probes clearly visible to d-scan. That's bad timing. So even though a new contact appears, in a lovely Badger hauler, perhaps ready to collect planet goo, I suppose it's no surprise if the pod warns the hauler that the system may not be safe. I watch the Badger only to see it go off-line a minute later, having done nothing and gone nowhere. Well, if nothing's happening, I may as well go home and have myself a sammich.

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Tags: badger, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, retribution, scanning, w-space

Tracking a pilot to high-sec

Out for more adventure, wondering what I'll find today. Gas, obviously, but I'm still surprised to see a new pocket before even leaving the home system. It's easily ignored, and I jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to look for actual adventure. A tower with a shuttle and Heron frigate doesn't offer much potential for excitement, but I won't know until I find the ships to see if there are any pilots. My notes kinda help me here, being only ten weeks since my last visit, but there were two towers then and I need to work out which one is missing.

Ah, opening the system map shows that determining where the tower remains is easier than expected, as there are only four moons spread across nine planets in the whole system. As a result, I can warp directly to the tower to see that neither of the small ships is piloted, and coincidentally bring myself in to d-scan range of a new second tower, again simple to find, but no new ships. Scanning has no anomalies, perhaps the reason why there are no pilots on-line, and ten signatures, reduced to just the one wormhole, which will be the static exit to high-sec empire space. So do I go on a high-sec trek, or collapse our wormhole? I think high-sec, as I can stargate hop if necessary. Here I go!

You know, I really should visit wormholes before solidifying my plans and getting excited about them. Warping to the static connection in C3a finds a less-than-enticing wormhole visibly on its last legs. I'm not going to risk it dying and isolating me from the home system, so it's collapse our wormhole or nothing. I don't have much choice, really, so head home, break out the big ships, and suffer polarisation delays. All goes smoothly, though, and I'm soon back scanning for the replacement connection.

Updating my directional scanner from our K162 in the new C3a gives a clear return, but with only one planet in range. A blanket scan reveals eight anomalies, twenty-six signatures, and no ships, and my notes from two weeks ago tell me there's a static exit to null-sec. This isn't much better than the previous system, but with so many signatures there may be a K162 or two to find. There's one, for example, but it only comes from low-sec and is about as interesting as the second wormhole I resolve, its weak signature clearly marking it as the null-sec exit even if it weren't the only other wormhole in the system.

Out of low-sec and null-sec, low-sec seems like the better option. That is, until I jump through the wormhole and appear in a system in Aridia. The system's called Soliara too, which must be mocking me in some way. Naturally, no one's in the system with me, so I rat as I scan, turning three extra signatures in to two wormholes and a radar site. Let's see what other unfortunate systems connect here. One is a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space, which I can't quite find an excuse to avoid given that the other wormhole is a K162 from class 3 w-space at the end of its life. That's okay, though. I'm sure I'll be fine.

C6a has a tower visible on d-scan from the wormhole, and that's it. No ships, and not even any hangars. A blanket scan shows that someone's active, though, with only four anomalies and four signatures. Maybe the magnetar phenomenon helps. Maybe the system is well-visited by other connecting systems. Maybe the locals have been recently invaded and are in the midst of rebuilding. I don't really care at the moment, and concentrate on scanning instead.

Balls. I resolve a wormhole just as a shuttle is using it, hardly keeping my scanning activity hidden from anyone even slightly aware of d-scan's functionality. Sure, it's only a shuttle, but the pilot is now unlikely to make a subsequent trip with a hauler full of valuable anything that could get destroyed. Never mind, I warp across to see where the wormhole leads, and drop next to a K162 from more class 6 w-space, pulsating with the thumping that comes from being mass-stressed. Plenty of ships have come this way already.

A second wormhole is near the half-mass K162, this being C6a's static connection to class 3 w-space. The wormhole is healthy, which makes me suspect it's not being used to transport the ships from C6a, but, then again, maybe C3c holds a better exit than Aridia. Wanting to find out is a good excuse not to enter C6b yet, so I jump through the wormhole to C3c and take a look around. D-scan shows me a tower and no ships, and scanning the nine anomalies and seven signatures reveals, great, a pod using a wormhole. Lower profile, Penny!

Curiously, the pod doesn't cross the system but jumps back the way it came, assuming it was heading to C6b. Even more curiously, the wormhole is not the static exit to low-sec, but an N968 connection to more class 3 w-space. I resolve the current system's exit, wanting to see where it leads out of curiosity, and jump through to appear in, huh, Aridia, seven hops from the other exit. Hilarious. No wonder the C6 pilots are presumably going through C3d to move ships. Given that they have a static C6 wormhole, it's probably not even as convoluted as their usual routes.

I head back to C3c and warp across to the N968, jumping through to C3d to see how much better the route can get. Two towers still have no ships visible on d-scan, but maybe if I launch probes one will appear. But I don't think I will scan. My notes from two months ago indicate the system holds a static exit to high-sec, explaining the route being taken by... whoever's taking the route, which now looks to be the Legion new on d-scan. The strategic cruiser warps to the K162 I've not moved from and jumps to C3c. I let him, being in generous mood.

Having my combat probes spotted twice probably means I won't get lucky with a soft target coming my way, so after loitering on the wormhole pondering my options and luck for a few minutes I jump back to start heading home. C3c looks clear—well, clear-ish, as a shuttle appears on d-scan and warps to the wormhole. It's Mr Legion again, but it seems he's not clear on what he's doing. The shuttle turns without jumping and heads back the way it came. I'm curious now. I follow behind the shuttle, fashionably late, and can't help but poke my prow in to C6b to see what's there. Ships, that's what.

Thankfully, the ships I see are all on d-scan and not on the wormhole, along with plenty of towers. I count twenty-four towers on d-scan, with some planets out of range, and eleven ships. I don't think it's on to hog all the ships in the constellation, frankly, but I'm not about to argue with eight strategic cruisers, a faction cruiser, and an interceptor. I'll take on the Viator transport, though, but I doubt that will come my way. At least all the ships look to be in one or more of the towers and are not out and about, which gives me ample time to turn around and jump back the way I came, heading home through still-quiet systems after a night of exploration and bad timing.

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