Scanning to high-sec can be an end in itself

Aii and Fin are on-line as I wake up in w-space. 'Are we being industrious?' Nope, my glorious leader is scanning the home system, and Aii is locked out, like an errant adolescent. I see from our shared bookmarks that we have a few rock sites in the system, which we probably need to turn a profit, as a blanket scan shows that our anomalies have been stolen again. There are also wormholes, two of them, with Fin resolving a K162 from class 2 w-space before our static connection to class 3 w-space. I leapfrog past Fin to the C2, whilst she continues scanning and heads to C3a.

A class 2 w-space system connecting to our class 4 home should also contain a second static wormhole to high-sec empire space, which could be good for bringing Aii home. 'Unless it's a Gallente faction warfare system', Fin says. Yeah, that would be worse than Aridia. I warp out to launch probes, consulting my notes whilst in flight. My last visit was over two years ago, and I doubt my notes stay relevant, but I see that I found a wormhole to class 1 w-space back then. I imagine that was a random connection. It should be easy enough to find out.

It's easier to confirm the static connections in C2a than I thought. The system is bare, with only two signatures in total. Scanning is therefore pretty simple, and accomplished after locating a local tower bereft of ships and pilots. I resolve the second wormhole, adding more evidence that class 2 systems with a static connection to class 4 w-space also connect to high-sec, and update my notes to reflect the actual static wormhole types.

I exit C2a, to bookmark the other side of the wormhole and give Aii a beacon to guide him through high-sec, appearing in a system in the Derelik region. The Janus system, in fact, which has me making hilarious Janus/anus puns in corporate chat whilst I scan. Thankfully for my colleagues, there aren't many signatures in the high-sec system, and I warp to a wormhole that is dead-on-arrival, ignore some rocks, and find a bona fide wormhole, an R943 outbound connection to more class 2 w-space. That'll stop me mentioning what ships I can see in my Janus.

I can see ships in C2b as well. Not on the wormhole, which wouldn't be too threatening on a high-sec connection, but on my directional scanner. Seven of them. But no wrecks. Locating the tower also visible finds the ships too, and sees that the Loki strategic cruiser, Nemesis stealth bomber, Sleipnir command ship, and Prowler transport are all piloted. Before the pilots get busy, I warp out and launch probes, ready to find all the anomalies and maybe hunt the pilots in other sites.

Hello, five mining drones are floating near this outer planet. It's a shame that I missed the miner that went with them, but never mind. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system, revealing two anomalies, seven signatures, seven ships, and five drones. There isn't a signature near the mining drones, though, so I don't suppose anyone will be back to claim them. Poor little buggers. They only wanted to serve their master, however deluded he was to be mining.

I return to the tower, ready to stalk any of the pilots, as a new contact in a second Loki appears. He moves towards a hangar, swaps to a Helios covert operations boat, and follows behind the now-active Nemesis in warping directly upwards out of the tower. It would be coincidental to have a wormhole appear in such a position, but not impossible, and although I rather suspect the cov-ops has warped to a safe spot to launch probes I don't see any appear on d-scan. Neither do I see the Nemesis and Helios again, suggesting they hold their cloaks, until they reappear at the tower.

The Helios returns first. The pilot goes off-line as the Nemesis comes back, and the Nemesis goes off-line. Well, that was fun. I'm almost interested in delving deeper in to the constellation, what with a static connection to w-space to find, but I'm a little distracted. I also suspect the two cloaky ships either just reconnoitred the neighbouring system and found nothing, or reconnoitred the wormhole itself to see it still dying and not yet dead, hence their quick return. I think I'll just make this an early night. I've got a high-sec connection for Aii to use, and Fin's found a second in C3a. That's a good result.

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Tags: eve online, helios, loki, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, prowler, scanning, sleipnir, w-space

Ending the evening with industrious activities

C3a is clear. There's no Noctis, no Venture, no Legion. A successful ambush on the salvager brought back the mining frigate, partly to sweep up and partly to lure me to attack again. Which I did, against the strategic cruiser, which we already knew about, hoped would attack, and countered with two strategic cruisers of our own. The other corporation probably has other ships, but we doubt they'll throw any more in front of our guns.

There's no harm trying to provoke more activity, though, so glorious leader Fin swaps to a salvaging destroyer and clears up the wreck of the Legion, as well as the few Sleeper wrecks scattered around that our targets were trying to profit from. Nothing happens, of course, except we grab a few million extra ISK in salvage for our efforts. That, and I scan more thoroughly, as the other ships obviously weren't local, which probably makes this a shared neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

I already know about a gravimetric site, where the Noctis was ambushed, and the ladar site that saw the Venture and Legion explode, as well as the system's static exit to low-sec. There are more ladar sites on the edge of the system too, near our K162, but what I would like to find is the wormhole our targets fled through. Judging by the ships' relative positions, considering the system is 105 AU across, I start poking around the inner system with my probes, expecting to find the wormhole nearby. I don't, though. It's just rocks and gas.

I throw my probes across the system, needing to hurry up a little, as the time taken hunting the ships means my probes have twenty minutes of life left in them, and find even more rocks and gas. I suppose that at least gave our victims lots of minor Sleepers to engage, considering there are no anomalies in the system. And, finally, I resolve a second wormhole, and the only other K162 present. The wormhole comes from class 2 w-space, and I'm dying to see what the other corporation is up to now. That's just an expression, by the way.

I don't jump straight through the wormhole, remembering the flotsam I've recovered this evening. First I head home to dump the loot in our hangar, as I don't want to take my booty through a wormhole, not with booty in my hold. Returning to C3a and jumping to C2a sees two ships and two towers on my directional scanner, and I have to wonder if both the Bestower hauler and Heretic heavy interdictor are piloted. Finding out is easy enough. The system is tiny, there are only seven planets and seven moons, three of the planets have no moons, and there are no more than two moons per planet. Locating the towers takes seconds.

I warp directly to the tower holding the Bestower first, wondering if I could possibly get a soft kill to end the evening with. Maybe, as the hauler is piloted, and after a while he even warps out of the tower. Is he heading to a customs office, with hostile pilots in the w-space constellation who have shown no mercy so far? Probably not, but I'll be optimistic and check anyway. Nope, not here, which means the hauler warped to the second tower, now even more easily found, where I see the Heretic sits unpiloted.

The Bestower gets swapped for a Magnate, and the frigate warps out of the tower, to empty space. The ship didn't go towards the wormhole connecting to C3a, which would be crazy, so I assume it went to the system's second static wormhole. It's time to launch probes and scan. Concentrating on where the Magnate disappeared to, I resolve a wormhole pretty quickly. Warping there reveals a static exit to high-sec, but one that has been stabilised to half mass, and is at the end of its life. That's not terribly interesting.

What's more interesting is that the wormhole was very EOL, dying not a couple of minutes later. I see it die, having loitered with intent, leaving me floating in empty space. Or so I assume. I wonder if the Magnate came out here to watch the wormhole collapse, and if he'll now decloak to launch probes, carelessly close to the wormhole. He doesn't, and I'm not waiting any longer to see if he's being cautious. For all I know, he exited to high-sec to buy some new ships. He'll be wanting a new way home at some point.

I'm not sure why, but I scan and resolve the new exit to high-sec. I don't visit the wormhole, not caring to open it or see where it leads, instead simply recalling my probes and heading home. It has been a full evening already, with hunting and ambushes aplenty, and time is drawing on. Two gravimetric sites in the home system with Fin and Aii on-line also equals a mining operation just waiting to happen. All that's needed is our static wormhole to be collapsed—achieved with suitably massive ships—and we're all happy.

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

Bait and baiter

The Noctis has been destroyed, the Legion has gone. I can slow down and explore our neighbouring class 3 w-space system properly. The two ships weren't local, as neither the salvager or strategic cruiser retreated to the tower visible on my directional scanner, so there is probably a second wormhole to find as well as the static exit to low-sec empire space. I have a bunch of signatures to wade through too, as there are plenty of gas and rock sites that the pair were clearing Sleepers from. Actually, scanning can wait. A Venture has appeared in the system.

The mining frigate is new, and has the same kind of name as the now-destroyed Noctis. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that the Venture is piloted by the salvager, and is salvaging the remaining Sleeper wrecks. It's a curious circumstance, returning to the system where you've just lost a ship, but I think I know what's happening. The Venture has increased warp core strength, which I'm supposing the pilot is trusting to let him get away from me. And as they know I'm around, this could also be bait. Lure me in to engage the Venture, have the frigate evade me, and counter-ambush me with the Legion. Well, I can't disappoint them.

My combat scanning probes are launched and have been monitoring the system. The pilots clearly know I'm here and are probably expecting me to attack a second time, so I don't proceed with any subtlety. I chase the Venture with my probes openly, going for a direct scan without any initial use of d-scan. I miss the Venture at one site, as he moves on before I get a solid scan, but partially resolving a wormhole gives me a better idea. I can find their K162 connection and catch the ship as it returns. I may not be able to catch up with the frigate, but maybe I don't have to.

I resolve the wormhole my probes have accidentally clustered around and warp to it, and rethink my plan when it turns out to be the C3's static exit to low-sec. I doubt the ships have come through this connection, and trying to pluck their K162 from the mess of other signatures—in a system 105 AU across, mind you—could prove tricky in the short time I have. I return to concentrating on the Venture itself. This time I find it. A couple of scans resolves the frigate's location, and I throw my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser in to warp immediately.

I normally aim to drop a little short of my target, to give me a chance to assess the situation and hold my cloak if I find something unexpected. This time, because the Venture is fast and agile, I warp directly to the ship. I need to get close and stay close, particularly as I have a warp scrambler fitted with its limited range. Oh, and that's right, it's a Shadow Serpentis scrambler too, with three points of warp disruption, enough to counter the Venture's extra two points of warp core strength. This will be my first surprise.

There's the Venture. He's got almost ten kilometres away from my scanned position during the time I've been in warp, which isn't unexpected, and, more importantly, not quite out of range. I shed my cloak and get my sensor booster running as my engines spool down, letting me lock on to the frigate as soon as possible. It looks like he's making a break for it, so I flick on my micro warp drive as my targeting computer gets to work, and burn towards the Venture. Pop! It's gone. The frigate was more fragile than I expected, as it seems to have been obliterated in one volley. I didn't even get to shout 'surprise!' Not only that, but my autocannons hit the Venture so hard that it hasn't left a wreck.

I'm almost too startled to aim for the pod. Almost, but not quite. But, like with the Noctis before, the pod evades me and warps clear. Never mind, I still have the wre—well, not even a wreck, but the loot the Venture was collecting has been safely jettisoned in a canister, which I can nab. And I'm okay taking my time about looting, even as the Legion seen earlier appears on d-scan. I don't care to cloak, or warp clear, and instead pretend to be blissfully unaware of the strategic cruiser returned to the system, right up until it drops out of warp almost on top of me.

The Legion locks on to my Loki, disrupts my warp engines, and starts pricking at my shields with its lasers. The pod of the destroyed Venture even warps back to the site, albeit a safe hundred kilometres away, presumably to gloat over my imminent destruction. The combat Legion has an obvious advantage over my covert Loki after all. The pod doesn't stay long, though, and bounces right back out of the site when he sees my second surprise. Another ship decloaks, approaches our little scrap, and engages the first Legion with me. It's my glorious leader!

I saw the Legion in the system earlier and wondered if he'd be protecting the Noctis, so got Fin to join me in one of our ship killers in the hopes that the Legion would protect the salvager. We weren't able to bait the Legion during the Noctis kill, but in trying to lure me in to my own destruction they've successfully managed to bait themselves. Now Fin's energy neutralisers are sucking the Legion's capacitor juice, and my autocannons are pounding away at the strategic cruiser's armour.

Thanks to fighting the Navy Issue Megathron battleship the other day I know that I can hold a relatively tight orbit with my micro warp drive active, which mitigates most damage without draining my capacitor too heavily. That the Legion has a warp disruptor fitted and not a scrambler lets me run my micro warp drive. This bit of speed and the occasional pulse of my ancillary shield booster keeps my Loki quite healthy, thank you, right up to the point where the Legion is no longer shooting me. I first think that he's switched targets to Fin, but realise that his capacitor must instead be empty and he's got no juice to fire his lasers. That's unfortunate.

With no incoming fire I can deactivate my micro warp drive and save some energy, slowing down to a lazy, mocking orbit as my autocannons rake through the Legion's armour, no longer being actively repaired. The fight is over. The only uncertainty now is whether I'll catch the pod. The Legion's armour depletes, the hull takes a short pounding, and the strategic cruiser explodes. The pod escapes. I almost don't mind this time. Not catching the pod from the Noctis got us the Venture kill, and ultimately snagged us the Legion, our prize kill of the evening. Still, I doubt the pilots will return with more ships, but their spirit in devising an ambush and coming back for revenge almost deserves them getting their pods out safely. Good on them.

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

Failing to be bait

Another day in w-space. This is too cool. My glorious leader is here as well, and although she's sitting on our static wormhole Fin is a couple of signatures away from jumping to our neighbouring class 3 system. I leapfrog ahead, and, as she resolves what turn out to be a pair of new gravimetric mining sites in the home system, I spy a pair of Legions in C3a. My directional scanner shows the strategic cruisers are in empty space too, without a tower in sight, and an adjustment reveals Sleeper wrecks. If only I hadn't been spat in to the system under a kilometre from the wormhole.

I have a virtual chasm to cross before I can cloak again and hide from the pair of Legions. I give it a go anyway. All looks good for now, and my passive scanner is running, pinging all nearby anomalies. But there are none, which means launching probes to hunt the Legions. But what Legions, Penny? They've dropped off d-scan. I may have been spotted. Let's see if I can trace them back to a local tower. Damn, opening the system map shows that C3a is huge. Why, in a system 105 AU across, did our K162 have to appear within spitting distance of a pair of ratting Legions?

I warp to the inner system, towards a moon that held a tower three months ago but doesn't any longer. D-scan shows me a replacement tower is somewhere, though, and the Legions are nearby too. But the ships aren't at the tower, as it turns out. It's possible they are now sat on the wormhole to their home system, cautiously looking for further signs of new activity, but d-scan won't show them much in a system so full of space. Perhaps I wasn't spotted after all. I still need to launch probes to hunt them in whatever site they have been active in, but with plenty of empty space all around I won't have trouble doing that.

In fact, I bump in to more wrecks around an empty planet, far from where the Legions currently are. There aren't many Sleeper wrecks either, suggesting the Legions are bouncing between the ladar and gravimetric sites, clearing the low-hanging fruit from the system. They're probably still going too, and as they are leaving wrecks behind a salvager will likely follow soon. Not only that, but the vast reaches of space between the planets will let me resolve a site or two quite overtly, without the Legions ever seeing my probes. As long as I'm cautious, that is.

I warp back to the inner system and keep a watch on the Legions using d-scan. As long as they are here they won't be elsewhere, so I call my probes in to scan for the site I stumbled across when launching probes. Done. That gives me one vantage point. I could perhaps grab a couple more, just in case I cock up the ambush, and aim my probes near our K162. Around the first planet there was one signature, obviously holding the wrecks. Near our K162 are half-a-dozen signatures, and I have no idea which ones have been cleared and which haven't. I roughly resolve a pair of ladar sites and get stuck deciding which one to concentrate on when a Legion drops off d-scan. Abort, abort!

I throw my probes out of the system, as I don't know where the Legion is heading, and take my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to the site I have resolved. I make and retreat to a strategic bookmark, as I reconfigure my probes to a blanket scanning pattern. Repeated blanket scans let me see that one Legion remains in the system, and when a new ship appears too. That'll be the Noctis salvager. That the Legion also remains is a little unsettling at first, until I remember I have Fin behind me. 'Fin, bring a ship killer to C3a.'

My glorious leader prepares a ship and joins me in watching wrecks float apparently abandoned in the C3a gravimetric site. Not for long, though, as a Noctis appears on d-scan soon enough. A Noctis without a Legion escort, I note. Now we have an interesting choice: do I ambush the salvager solo and hope the Legion comes to its aid, giving us a second, juicier target? Or do we go in together to share the glory of destroying an unarmed salvager? I'll go in alone.

The Noctis appears and starts sweeping up the wrecks. I'm in warp almost as soon as we see it, decloaking as I am almost out of warp, and locking on to the salvager before he has time to react. I disrupt its warp engines and start shooting, barely watching d-scan for the Legion as I know Fin has my back. He's not coming, though, and I am left ripping the Noctis apart, ejecting the pod in to space, and watching as the pilot warps clear of my further attentions. That was quick and brutal.

I loot and shoot the wreck, still without the Legion appearing, and assess the situation. The pod escaped. The Legion has disappeared from my combat scanning probes still blanketing the system. The loot was mostly destroyed in the explosion. So no pod, no Legion, no loot. Still, we got the Noctis, which is something. Now, with no ships left but me and Fin, I can slow down and take my time scanning the system.

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Tags: eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Today's history is more interesting than the present

Fin's been busy reconfiguring our tower. I don't ask how, or why, as I probably won't understand and will only get confused. My glorious leader has also scanned the w-space constellation to our neighbouring class 3 system and out to high-sec empire space. I've actually launched probes and am performing a blanket scan of the home system as I am being updated. I find it comforting to make an initial check of home, even if a colleague has done so recently. I don't think you can check for incoming connections too frequently.

There are no new signatures that I can see, so I head next door to C3a to see if the Scorpion battleship Fin spotted earlier is still around. Not that I can tell, he isn't. My notes point to a previous visit from almost two years ago, which involves a skirmish or two. At first, I personally don't think it's worth linking to the posts where my Manticore stealth bomber misses catching a Helios, a fleet ambushes us and I escape, or a follow-up in which my Manticore pops a local Noctis salvager, as they aren't particularly spectacular. But I notice that pilot q2eve appears in the middle of it all, the same q2eve that I ambushed again recently. I knew I'd seen her more than once before.

Regardless of my brief history with C3a, there's little point in scanning a scanned system, so I exit to high-sec to take a look around empire space. The wormhole takes me to a system in the Tash-Murkon region, where Fin is currently exporting goods and importing... I dunno, something industrial. I launch probes and scan. One anomaly is picked up on a blanket scan, and although I choose to pop a few rats whilst scanning I turn out to be beaten to the site by a Tengu, the strategic cruiser warping out, leaving wrecks behind, as I warp in. Okay, just scanning in that case.

A weak wormhole looks good from the scanning results, and better than the rocks of the other signature in this high-sec system. And even though the outbound connection to class 3 w-space would be good normally, its wobbly, end-of-life state makes it less attractive. But I'm in high-sec, and the one aspect about high-sec that I actively enjoy is the ability to use stargates safely. I hop one system across and scan again, hoping that a system with no stations is less-travelled. It seems to be, with no pilots currently in the system, and five signatures is a good result.

Rocks, Sansha's Nation rats, a wormhole, a radar site, and a second wormhole. The first wormhole is a K162 from class 1 w-space, which is tempting enough without the Magnate currently approaching it. The frigate jumps to C1a, with my cloaked Loki strategic cruiser close behind. I'm aware that the wormhole connects to high-sec and that I'll get maybe one shot at the Magnate, so I give him a tick to get comfortable before following, hoping to catch him already decloaked and vulnerable. But jumping in to the class 1 w-space system sees no ship on the wormhole, and nothing on my directional scanner.

I hold my session change cloak, on the assumption that the Magnate is doing the same, still hoping to get a single, devastating volley off before the pilot can get his ship back through the wormhole to high-sec. But when my session change cloak drops and there is still no sign of the Magnate I have to admit that I gave him a little more time than was necessary. He's obviously moved on, maybe even just cloaked and moving slowly away from me. There's no sense in waiting for a ship that won't be caught, so I cloak, warp clear, and start scanning.

A single, heavily bubbled tower in C1a has a piloted Buzzard covert operations boat inside its force field, providing little engagement opportunity, so I start sifting through the ten anomalies and twelve signatures for wormholes. Three K162s are resolved in total. The first is uninteresting, in coming from high-sec. The second also comes from high-sec, which makes the third high-sec K162 rather disappointing. I can take the hint, and head back to high-sec, although through the wormhole I used to enter the system. Because once in the familiar high-sec system I can warp directly across to another bookmark, without needing to scan, to a wormhole that turns out to be better than the C1 K162.

The second wormhole is a K162 from class 2 w-space. This is better than the C1 K162 because class 2 w-space systems have two static wormholes, one to k-space and one to w-space. As the wormhole I'm sitting on comes to high-sec k-space, there is a second to find in the w-space system that will lead to more w-space. That's worth looking for. And that's if there's nothing to find in this C2 system itself. Which there isn't, as it turns out. A tower floats lonely in the system, without ships, and even without hangars. Scanning for the other static connection reveals mostly gas, plus one radar and magnetometric site each, but eventually finds the connection to class 4 w-space. Onwards!

C4a is not much better than C2a. It's a bit worse, in fact, as there isn't even a bare tower. Unoccupied and inactive, I'm back to scanning pretty quickly. Working through ten anomalies and seventeen signatures doesn't seem and arduous to start with, but when the signatures get weaker and weaker, and still no wormhole appears, I fear that I'm heading towards a horrible chain of class 5 w-space. Then again, I believe C4/C1 wormholes are pretty weak too, so I keep scanning!

I keep scanning, resolve the final signature to be the static wormhole, and find it to be the H900 connection to class 5 w-space. Well, I scanned it, I may as well use it. I jump to C5a. Hullo, three Tengus, a Drake battlecruiser, and two Sleeper wrecks appear on d-scan. There's a tower too, but the wrecks suggest the ships are up to mischief. Sadly, the presence of a Cheetah cov-ops and some scanning probes deflates my new-found perkiness pretty quickly, as the newly opened wormhole I've entered through will have been spotted by any decent scout. Let's hope he's not decent.

Two Tengus drop off d-scan, hinting at the scout's competence already. A passive scan brings up three anomalies, and the wrecks are in none of them anyway. Maybe the ships are clearing a rock or gas site of Sleepers in preparation for an industrial operation. But by the time I've warped out to launch scanning probes in readiness and returned to the inner system the third Tengu has also gone. I find the Drake in the local tower, and it's hard to say whether he was part of the operation or another reason the Tengus were scared off. Either way, I doubt anything will happen in this system now, which is just Pennytalk for 'I can't be arsed to scan any more'. I turn tail and head home for the night.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, drake, eve online, loki, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Mugging a Megathron made by the navy

(The newly resurrected Our EVE tells the first half of this tale, from the perspective of my glorious leader.)

'Two Ventures are next door.' Sounds good, tell me more. 'But they are sitting in the tower now.' Such a shame. I haven't bagged one of the new mining frigates yet. It seems that my glorious leader gave it a go, but was fighting flaky systems more than the frigates, as she struggled to keep her ship on-line. Probes were launched, the Ventures' location estimated using the directional scanner, but the ladar site they were in was only scanned once the frigates were back in their tower, such was the frustration Fin felt.

Even so, it may not have been Fin's Loki strategic cruiser blipping on and off d-scan, as the cloak went off-line with her ship, or her probes that scared the Ventures back to the safety of their force field. The Sleepers turned up, with 'eight cruisers in the ladar site'. Maybe they've been swatted to one side now and the frigates are back to sucking up gas. I point my own Loki towards our static wormhole and, hoping that it's feeling reliable, jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

Circumstances seem unchanged. Two Ventures are sitting at a tower, and there are still eight Sleeper cruisers in a bookmarked ladar site. Well, if we're not going to play with the neighbours I may as well scan. I warp out to launch probes, still wanting to stay somewhat covert for the time being, and perform a blanket scan of the system that reveals seven anomalies and five signatures. Of course, two of the signatures are known, which cuts down my scanning time a little, as three signatures don't take long to resolve. I uncover some rocks, the expected static exit to low-sec, and a weak wormhole.

With still no motion at the tower I recall my probes and exit to low-sec. It seems I've invoked the curse of Aridia again. But never mind, there's a second wormhole in C3a. I return to w-space to see where it leads, dropping out of warp next to an outbound connection to class 5 w-space, one at the end of its lifetime. That's rum. I wonder why the locals would harvest gas whilst this wormhole exists. Fin thinks that they probably haven't even noticed it, which is possible. But there's no point my jumping through it, not with the risk of isolation, so I swing past the tower once more.

There's still no movement. I'll be heading to low-sec to scan the system in Aridia. Or I will be, once I wait for my polarisation effect to wear out. And I would, except one of the Ventures warps out of the tower, apparently towards the ladar site. I think I'll stay in w-space for now, although I'll move from the tower too, following the Venture. I warp to a tactical bookmark Fin made in the ladar site, but not in time to see the Venture. I imagine he confirmed the Sleepers were still here and went right back to his tower. The only question now is whether he'll do something about the Sleepers. Seeing a Megathron battleship on d-scan makes me think yes, yes he will.

It's not just any Megathron on d-scan either. This is a Navy Issue Megathron, which is a much shinier prize than the standard issue battleship. It's enough to call Fin back from sleepytimes. My glorious leader prepares a suitably pointy ship in our home system as I return to reconnoitre the ladar site, watching the Navy Issue Megathron engage the Sleeper cruisers. We could pretty much ambush it whenever we want. I think I'll let the battleship whittle down the Sleepers a little first, so that we are under less risk from being overwhelmed. The wrecks also create suitable beacons to warp to.

Two cruisers are left. It's time. I tell Fin to enter the system and hold as I warp to the Megathron. Or thereabouts. It's difficult to judge relative positions from over two hundred kilometres away, and although I get close to our target I'm not quite close enough to guarantee catching it, not with the battleship moving and potentially aligned and ready for warp. I need to get a bit closer. Not that much closer, though. I have the sensor recalibration delay from decloaking to account for, which combined with a pulse from my micro warp drive will cover a few kilometres before I can lock on to the ship.

This will do. I have the Megathron in my sights, so decloak, hit the micro warp drive, and activate my sensor booster. It works. I gain a positive lock and pin down the battleship with my warp scrambler before it can react. 'Warp to me, Fin.' As my partner comes to join the fray our target realises what's happening. The drones move from the Sleepers and across to my Loki, but I'm not much concerned about a few Ogre Is. In fact, I like the look of them. I suspect the pilot has thrown ISK at the Navy Issue battleship to compensate for other factors.

In warps Fin, as the capricious Sleepers take a disliking to me. They wanted the Navy Issue Megathron for themselves, it seems. Too bad, Sleepers, he's ours. Fin's Legion strategic cruiser adds its weaponry to the fight, which mostly consists in sucking the capacitor energy from the battleship. With any luck, it will run out of juice before we do, and halt any armour repairs its got running. The Megathron's shields are already gone but its armour is holding strong, so I assume it's the armour we'll have to break. Not many pilots hull tank. Not for long.

We're holding out just fine for now. Fin's Legion is built like a brick, and not being targeted. I've remembered my shield booster for a change, and realised that my Loki can keep a decent orbit around the Megathron with the MWD active, without sucking my capacitor dry, to mitigate much of the incoming damage. And it's not long before the damage to the Megathron's armour stops being chips and starts becoming chunks. D-scan remains clear whilst we fight, the other Venture pilot having swapped to an Anathema covert operations boat before the ambush, and decided to stay in that.

Bang goes the Megathron, with an explosion worthy of a Navy Issue battleship. I aim for the pod but it gets clear, leaving me and Fin to loot and shoot the wreck, which includes grabbing a micro jump drive. As the new battleship-class jump drives still work when only warp-disrupted, I am getting ever more glad that I changed my ship's fitting to include a warp scrambler module. The Corpus A-type large armour repairer, worth serious amounts of ISK and no doubt keeping the Megathron alive for quite a while, sadly did not survive the explosion. Never mind, we bagged ourselves a kill worth around one billion ISK, and, as Fin says, 'just the fact that it was Gallente makes the kill sweeter'.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, legion, loki, megathron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, venture, w-space

Music of 2012, part four

I was aiming to get this final review of my 2012 music purchases out for the end of January, in a bid to make it somewhat timely, but again have fallen behind schedule. That's okay, though, as January has been pretty dry and I don't have any new music to listen to yet. It's good that I have a few excellent albums from the end of last year to keep me going for the moment, but I'm again feeling the itch to hear new sounds and will need to reinvigorate myself soon.

Delightful harmonious vocals are at the core of the folk songs on Into the Diamond Sun, debut album by Stealing Sheep. There are wonderful melodies and great variety and texture in the songs, with White Lies reminding me superficially of an Olivia Tremor Control track, in a good way. Even the obviously silly lyrics of Shark Song become part of a rather jolly song, and don't relegate to being merely a novelty track, and it remains entertaining after repeated listens. Into the Diamond Sun is entertaining and soothing, song after song, and remains on regular playback, marking Stealing Sheep as a favourite new band.

Dinosaur Jr. reformed with their original line-up to record the excellent album Farm a while back, so when they follow up with I Believe in Sky it's a simple choice to pick up the CD. And I suppose the heavy fuzz rock is much as expected, but somehow it doesn't have as much of the spark of the previous release. The songs are mostly good, such as Stick a Toe In and What Was That, but it all seems a bit average. It's definitely a Dinosaur Jr. album, just not one of their best.

The Pheromoans is a dumb name but Does This Guy Stack Up? is a good album, according to the NME review. It is a pretty dumb band name, so I'm willing to give the album a shot. One song is awfully weird, and if I knew how to write the characters in the Cyrillic script I would give its title. But I don't, so I can't. Whilst not averse to a little experimental music, the track is simply a bit out of place on an otherwise homogenous album. Apart from that, the songs trundle along pleasantly enough, with decent but not exceptional vocals, a nice mix of guitars and keyboards, if nothing particularly outstanding, to create an album that is wholly competent but not with much remark. So, yeah, dumb name, good album.

Unexpected treasure from last year was Mines by Menomena, which keeps getting played and enjoyed even now. Third album Moms has a lot to live up to, and my first impression is that it doesnt, not quite. But that's just because I've built up Mines so much, through repeated listens, that it doesn't stand a fair chance. Seeing Menomena live and eschewing Mines for Moms for while lets me better appreciate the new album. It's a different album, which is good, yet with general impressions that make it a Menomena album, which is also good. There are shared vocal duties with two distinctive voices, plenty of non-standard drum patterns, and some saxophone thrown in amongst the guitars, to make some atypical but layered and interesting pop songs. With Moms, Menomena are solidifying their notable position in my collection.

Line the Wall is the second album from Japanese psych-rock band Bo Ningen, their debut blowing me away a year earlier. I've also seen the band play live quite a few times in the pasty year, so have heard most of the songs already, including at the album launch gig. Henkan, in particular, stands out for also being a single, and has grown on me to become a favourite song. Daikaisei Part I, however, is a little disappointing in being fairly standard rock, although Daikaisei Part II, III later in the album completely makes up for it, and the album gets interesting again immediately with Nichijyou and its highly syncopated intro. But overall Line the Wall is a gradual progression of Bo Ningen, rather than a specific step forwards, perhaps because the band continually change their live set and tour almost constantly. There is new material that excites, but mostly the songs are more of the same, which whilst not always bad also isn't as fulfilling to listen to. I'll probably still continue to see them live.

I like the psychedelic tinges to previous Moon Duo album, so pick up current release Circles with some expectation. I can't say I'm disappointed, as droning grooves with guitar solos laced with stylised fuzz permeate the album. But accidentally playing opening track Sleepwalker back-to-back with Rolling Out near the end of the album shows some strong similarities between the main riffs, and perhaps as a result the slightly limited scope of the album. It's all enjoyable enough, and I'm certainly not going to be skipping any tracks, but there's not much that really stands out.

Debut album Wild Peace by Echo Lake starts with some ethereal vocals, that put me off a little, to be honest. I kinda got burnt by the rather awful Purity Ring album, and was thoroughly underwhelmed when seeing 2:54 live, so although Echo Lake have been on my radar, as the kids are calling it these days, I am a little wary of another duo being touted as the next big thing. But giving Wild Peace a chance has me really enjoying the wispy singing and dreamy melodies that are integral to Echo Lake's sound. It's relaxing and appealing, without becoming monotonous or doggedly quirky. And although Even the Blind treads a fairly fine line between the two moods, Last Song of the Year is gorgeous. This is simple pop music done well.

Metz are supposed to be loud and raw, and the lo-fi pulse of opening track Headache kinda gives me that impression. It's followed by a suitable guitar drone and partially swamped vocals that hooks me in to the band. The songs are short and snappy, distorted and energetic, and mostly feedback-fuelled, like Wasted. The messy, vital burst of adrenalin ends with Negative Space, and with me having a new favourite band.

Times New Viking's Over & Over EP follows on naturally from their Dancer Equired album, with much less fuzz on everything than earlier recordings but still holding an exquisitely lo-fi sound. The six tracks bounce along nicely, and the only disappointment is that because each song is short, and this is an EP, it is all over too soon. It's a fabulous nugget from the band, though, and makes me look forward to more from Times New Viking.

Posted in Audio | 3 Comments »
Tags: bo ningen, cd, dinosaur jr, echo lake, menomena, metz, moon duo, pheromoans, stealing sheep, times new viking

Losing motivation

'Beware, I am feeling industrious.' Such is glorious leader Fin's warning as I come on-line in the home system. I'd better scan my way out of here, lest her condition is contagious. The system remains nice and clean, with just our static wormhole to resolve, sending me to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. As is usual, my directional scanner shows me a tower and no ships, and none of the system sits out of range. I suppose what I'm seeing is what I'm getting.

Scanning for wormholes, and more opportunity, has me sift through three anomalies and seven signatures. That doesn't sound like much, but still three wormholes are resolved. The static exit to low-sec is obvious in this typical C3, the N968 to more class 3 w-space keeps the constellation alive, and the K162 from class 2 w-space would be good for a roam were it not at the end of its life.

In keeping with typical class 3 w-space behaviour, the exit to low-sec plants me in the middle of Aridia, the region slowly clawing its way back in to my consciousness. An empty system has a few pilots appear within a few seconds, who all then move on a minute later, no doubt trying to find their way back to a proper region of New Eden. I leave too, jumping back to w-space and warping across C3a to enter C3b. Hey look, a tower with no ships on d-scan! Brilliant.

There is more to scan in C3b, with eight anomalies and seventeen signatures, and less to find. Well, fewer wormholes. There are plenty of rock and gas sites, leaving me the static exit to low-sec to explore beyond. And this time I find myself in Essence, and with no one around. I launch probes to scan and warp around the rock fields to rat, revealing four extra signatures and a rat battleship to engage. Suck it, Aridia.

One signature turns out to be a wormhole, a C3 K162 keeping the theme of tonight as class 3 w-space. And just as the theme continues, so does the motif, as d-scan in C3c shows me a tower and no ships. It's my sixth visit to the system, the last from eight months ago listing occupation as here but not where it would be, so I locate the tower using d-scan. I note its location, and warp out to launch probes, seeing a pod on d-scan as I am in flight. I'll ignore the first sign of life for the moment, as my probes may help me find it.

A blanket scan of the system reveals three anomalies, three signatures, and a lack of a pod. I'm betting one of those signatures is a K162, and it doesn't take long to check. I don't have to scan the wormhole I came through, one signature is a ladar site, and the last is the K162 I'm expecting. The wormhole comes from class 4 w-space, and jumping through sees nothing on d-scan this time. The system has secrets, or at least planets out of d-scan range. A fair distance out of range.

D-scan shows me the first two planets in the system, the third is 42 AU away, the fourth 84 AU, and the most distant 125 AU. That's a lot of space to cover, particularly as the planets are in different directions, but only one of the three holds moons, which makes checking occupation easy, even if looking for activity could be time-consuming. Warping to the planet out of range but with moons indeed finds a tower, with a shuttle, Buzzard covert operations boat, and Viator transport floating in the force field. The Buzzard is piloted, which isn't great, but none of the ships would be a good choice for me to chase.

My prospects of a hunt tonight are looking bleak. The hour is getting late and I've only seen a pod obliquely and an inactive cov-ops. Launching probes in C4a and performing a blanket scan makes up my mind that I'm not looking further. The system is untidy, cluttered with enough anomalies and signatures that I don't even care to count them. I simply recall my probes and decide to go home. I'm not wading through signatures for a K162 that may not be there, or waiting for a Buzzard to do anything. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

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

Bagging some booty through bubbles

Excuse me a moment. I just have to plug in a new implant. Oh yeah, 10% more scanning strength. That's well worth training cybernetics up to level V. And I have my glorious leader to thank for the gift, which is awfully generous of her. Here she is, too, just as I am launching probes to put the new implant to use. But it doesn't take a scanning genius to decipher the blanket scan of the home system. Fourteen anomalies and one signature gives us only the static wormhole again. And the anomalies.

Ignoring the Sleepers for another day has me jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where some bubbles crop up on my directional scanner but nothing else. D-scan covers the whole system today as well, so I'm not not missing anything obvious, which doesn't surprise me considering the system has a static exit to null-sec. A blanket scan reveals ten anomalies and ten signatures, but they're crappy anomalies and I start looking for more wormholes.

A chubby signature looks promising, and resolves to be a K162 from class 4 w-space. With Fin and a newly arrived Aii wrapping up scanning in C3a I jump to C4a, where d-scan shows me a Drake battlecruiser and tower. My notes suggest a second tower is in the system, out of range, and they are right, but there are no more ships. Warping to the first tower sees the Drake piloted, and although Fin says to 'ask him if he is going to bother even doing anything', I think I know the answer. I ignore the battlecruiser, and warp out to launch probes and scan.

Fin and Aii find three more wormholes in C3a, but they are all k-space connections and uninteresting. I, on the other hand, resolve a single wormhole in C4a which turns out to be a K162 from class 5 w-space. I think I've been watching the wrong tower, on the assumption that this C4 has been the end of the constellation. Let's see what's on the other side of the K162 in C5a. Bubbles. Big bubbles. A pair of them enveloping the wormhole quite thoroughly.

D-scan shows me more than the bubbles, and a fair bit more. A fleet is somewhere, and I know it's a fleet because there is no tower to go with them. A Tengu strategic cruiser, Fleet Issue Tempest battleship, Rapier recon ship, Megathron battleship, Archon carrier, Absolution command ship, and two Moros dreadnoughts are creating Sleeper wrecks somewhere. As it turns out, an easily found somewhere, as a passive scan of the system reveals twelve anomalies, one of them holding the ships.

Circumstances look promising for ambushing a salvager. There are plenty of Sleeper wrecks with the fleet and no obvious signs of them diminishing, which means a salvager will need to appear at some point, but before the red mist descends I had best reconnoitre the rest of the system. If I am going to be warping in to trouble I'd rather know about it first. I find occupation, with three towers around one planet, as well as a few more ships—an Anathema covert operations boat, Damnation command ship, and two Thanatos carriers. Nothing any more serious than the dreadnought-led fleet, though. All looks okay for a potential ambush.

I warp in to the anomaly, creating a tactical monitoring point as I do, and invite Aii to join me there, cloaked, shortly after the fleet has finished and a Noctis salvager warps in. Most of the ships have gone, but the Absolution and Archon remain, maybe acting as escort, maybe not. It's hard to tell. As the Noctis moves amongst the wrecks the escorts maintain a casual distance, not really moving with the salvager. Perhaps they are merely a deterrent. A pretty bad one, I have to say, as I'm willing to give this ambush a shot. Not just yet, though. I want to take a closer look first.

Warping in to the site, but not too close, lets me see what the Archon and Absolution are doing. They are moving, but aligned towards their tower, which not only makes them look less threatening but actively takes them further away from the Noctis. That's good, for us. I still want to be as cautious as possible, though. There is a nice clump of wrecks further from the two combat ships, which the Noctis will have to move to. Once he's there, and further from the escorts, we will pounce. And, as a happy consequence, the Noctis will have swept more loot in to his hold too.

I tell Aii my intentions and we align towards the Noctis in preparation. Fin would join us, but a Helios covert operations boat has jumped through the wormhole to C4a, potentially monitoring the wormhole now. It's got there far too late to keep their system safe, as we are about to show, but it means Fin has to sit this one out, sadly. At least she won't die with us. Aii and I are ready, though, and the Noctis is now nicely distant from the other two ships, nearly finished with the main clump of wrecks. I throw our Tengu and Loki strategic cruisers in warp towards the Noctis.

We decloak as we get close, getting our weapon systems hot. The Noctis doesn't get clear by the time we get positive locks and disrupt his warp engines, and we start shooting. I burn to get close to the salvager, realising this puts me in more danger than aligning away from the site, but the C5 Sleeper loot is pretty good and I want to snag it from the wreck. What might stop us is the Rapier reappearing. Maybe not from his position, curiously nearer the Archon and Absolution than the Noctis, but I have a nagging sensation that those recon ships have increased range on one type of module.

Whatever, Rapier pilot, you're too late and too far. To show how casual I am about this, I snag some loot from a wreck being tractored in to the Noctis—cheeky—moments before the salvager explodes. I aim for the pod but miss, but maybe that's for the best, as time may not be on my side.

Even so, as the Rapier gets closer and Aii warps clear, I get my Loki on top of the wreck of the Noctis. Loot, done. Shoot, done. Warp... done! I cloak as I flee, the Rapier apparently not having much negative effect on my ship, and comfortably return to the tactical bookmark I made.

Maybe not so comfortably, actually. That combat really got my adrenalin pulsing through me. I'm a little tense. I quite like the 350 Miskies of loot in my hold, though, stolen from the destroyed Noctis. That's a calming influence. And I think we should probably get it home. There are bubbles on the wormhole out of here, after all, and even though they may not stop us directly we probably shouldn't linger to gloat. We both turn around and warp to the connection. Quite why the wormhole was bubbled but not collapsed, and not monitored whilst the fleet was in action, is beyond my ken. Maybe the locals thought bubbles would be enough. They're not, by the way.

I return to C4a. And I see the Helios sitting on the K162. As it doesn't look like we've been followed yet, and cov-ops can be pretty fragile to autocannon fire, I give little thought to the hundreds of millions of ISK in my hold and turn on the Helios. I gain a positive lock and loose a volley or two at the tiny ship, but the pilot gathers his wits and jumps through the wormhole before I can claim another kill. I'd better get safe now too, so pulse my micro warp drive to get clear of the wormhole and cloak, moments before the Rapier comes through the connection.

Okay, I want to get safer than I am. The C5ers probably didn't stop scanning when they reached C4a, and so undoubtedly know about C3a, which means the Rapier could be heading that way. As such, I warp to the wormhole and jump, moving and cloaking in C3a until I am a safe distance from the wormhole, where I stop for now. The C5ers may know about this system, but they are unlikely to know about the connection to our home.

Now I can relax a bit, and realise how much fun that was! A good spot, good teamwork, and some fine piloting under pressure got us a good kill, with no loss and an excellent hold full of loot. More importantly, my expensive implant remains intact. Losing the Loki would have lost my ability to get through the bubbles quickly, and would no doubt have lost me my pod. But you need to think positively.

Posted in Gaming | 7 Comments »
Tags: absolution, anathema, archon, damnation, drake, eve online, helios, loki, megathron, mmorpg, moros, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, rapier, scanning, tempest, tengu, thanatos, w-space

Maybe an ambush, maybe not

Sleepers are breeding, bringing anomalies back to the home system. Maybe we can cull some of them before more dastardly blues come along to steal our ISK. Not today, though. I'm exploring and roaming again, heading through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where my directional scanner is clear. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan, as my notes direct me to a tower in the same place from six months ago. Thirty-two anomalies is a lot, twelve signatures isn't, and the two ships my combat probes reveal are interesting.

The ships aren't at the local tower, and warping to the other side of the system finds a couple of Nighthawks sitting in empty space. Well, I've not quite found them yet, and as the command ships are built like bricks I'm not sure if I should hunt them. My glorious leader is, as always, more confident, and is preparing a ship with more firepower back at our tower, so I start sweeping d-scan using smaller angular adjustments looking for the Nighthawks. I'm still confused, though. There are no Sleeper wrecks, or jet-cans, so I don't know what the Nighthawks are doing. The scanning probes on d-scan surely aren't theirs.

I get the command ships in a tight d-scan beam, some 3·7 AU from me, in time to see one Nighthawk disappear. As I am positioning my probes, and so don't have them in the blanket configuration, I can't tell if he's elsewhere in the system or not, but as one ship remains I press on. Then again, as I get my probes in position and Fin's not ready yet I warp to the local tower to see if the Nighthawk has returned here. Nope. There's no sign of the second ship anywhere in C3a. And now here's Fin.

I don't think this is an ambush. At least, not one for us. We've been pretty covert so far. There have been some probes flying around, so maybe the ambush is for another scout. If that's the case, not only would we be silly to fly in to it but the Nighthawks weren't exactly being subtle about it. Even so, given the choice between my scouting the site or warping the both of us in hot, Fin chooses hot. I warp back to our K162, we both align to the far planet, and I call my probes in to scan. Nothing. Well, no ships. And the Nighthawks weren't in a site, but on a wormhole.

Okay, Fin holds whilst I reconnoitre the wormhole. It's a K162 from class 4 w-space, definitely without any obvious Nighthawks sitting on it. The wormhole is neither stressed nor aged, which just makes the command ships' loitering even more curious. Maybe I should take a look. 'Sure', says Fin. 'Maybe they will jump you.' We can only hope. I approach the wormhole and jump. The other side looks clear. D-scan shows me one of the two Nighthawks, along with two Drake battlecruisers and a tower. It all looks rather benign.

Fin warps to the C3-side of the wormhole, in case I need support. I'm not sure. I see a Helios covert operations boat jump past me from C4a to C3a, which we let go, but finding the tower shows the Helios pilot not to be local. I have no idea what's going on. Were the Nighthawks really scanning in C3a? If not, whose probes were they? And if there is another scout, were the Nighthawks waiting for a cov-ops? There's no way they could catch one. It's all a bit odd.

As I float outside the tower, the Nighthawk gets swapped for a Buzzard cov-ops, which warps away, and not to their static connection. That's curious too. And as the Drake brothers probably aren't paying attention I launch probes to scan, resolving a wormhole in the direction the Buzzard disappeared. It's another K162 from class 4 w-space. Maybe the Helios came from the direction. Either way, nothing is happening here, but a scout or two is now in C3a, and maybe about to find our own w-space system. Perhaps we can set up a better cov-ops ambush than the Nighthawks.

Fin heads home and swaps to a Flycatcher interdictor, as Aii comes on-line and acts as eyes on our K162. I get myself home too, to help Fin in the ambush, and this time remember I have more ships than my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, swapping it for an interceptor. Now we wait. And wait a bit longer. Aii lets us know that the 'probes are gone' in C3a, but no ships come our way. Sometimes I would like w-space explorers to be a bit more daring. Whatever, we can't sit here forever, so stand down the ambush and return to our scouting ships.

Aii goes to C4a, and I launch probes in C3a and scan more thoroughly this time, sitting on the C4 K162 as I do. My position lets me see a Helios—the Helios?—appear on the wormhole and jump, followed a few minutes later by an orange Loki. Maybe the Nighthawks were waiting for him. But they'd still have little chance of catching the cloaky strategic cruiser, so maybe not. I watch this as I scan, carelessly not being close enough to the wormhole to easily pursue the Loki, and resolve a couple more connections. The static exit to low-sec is normal, and the K162 from class 3 w-space at the end of its life uninteresting.

Activity seems to have died down. There are no probes in C3a any more, and as far as I can tell all the ships have headed back through the wormhole to C4a. Aii reports not much happening there, and even when I jump through the K162 I don't get ambushed by a waiting ship. Even a poke through the wormhole to C4b holds little interest, with a tower on d-scan but no ships. I don't think it's worth looking any further for other pilots, what with them all now being in cloaky ships. I wait for my polarisation to end, and head back home through C4a and C3a. The evening started with some potential, but turned in to a damp squib.

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Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, flycatcher, helios, loki, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space