Getting ahead of a gooer

Some local gas is gone, and Aii is on-line. Coincidence? I don't know, but it means we're back to only one signature in the home system. I resolve the static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see what I can find to entertain me today. It's pretty standard so far, with a tower and no ships appearing on my directional scanner. The tower is in the same place as my last visit, and I assume the static wormhole will still lead to null-sec, and that it's amongst the three anomalies and fifteen signatures.

I spot core probes on d-scan around a distant planet before launching my own probes, making a scout active in the system, and possibly not local. I'll race him, despite his having a head start. Scanning's a bit of a chore with a K346 to resolve, as they have a similar signal strength to radar and magnetometric sites, and can take a few scans to simply identify. Four of these sites crop up to start with, wearing me down a little. But I continue, hoping to find some rocks and gas instead. Oh, and wormholes too, I suppose.

Yep, I resolve all of that. Rocks, gas, wormholes. A K162 from class 4 w-space joins the static exit, but the other scout is gone and has been for a while. He's either gone to our home system or out to null-sec, as I've been sitting on the C4 K162 since finding it, and no ships have passed me yet. I'm going to loiter for longer, because I know that having probes vanish from d-scan often heralds a ship jumping through a wormhole, and I don't want to be quite so obvious in my behaviour. That gets you spotted at best, killed at worst.

My waiting pays off. The K162 flares as a Helios covert operations boat perhaps gets bored of waiting for me to appear, and jumps home. A minute later the wormhole flares again, this time bringing a pilot from the C4 to C3a, a Proteus strategic cruiser moving from the wormhole and cloaking. Okay, now what do I do? The other corporation know a pilot is around somewhere, and I don't want to waltz in to an ambush I can avoid. I think I'll just sit here for a while and do some paperwork whilst monitoring the wormhole.

Nothing passes me, in or out. I'm not going in yet either. I think I'll exit to null-sec to see what I can find there. I may still be spotted, and potentially ambushed coming back, but at least I'll be doing something. I warp across C3a to the K346, and leave w-space for a null-sec system in the Catch region. I appear in an empty system too, letting me rat and scan. Five extra signatures keeps me active whilst my Loki strategic cruiser chews through a rat, but all I find are three magnetometric sites and a radar site. And one more, of 'unknown' type, that I can't quite resolve.

Launch all probes! Well, it's not a wormhole after all, but a Centus Assembly T.P. Co. site, rated 10/10 by DED. I don't think I'll be warping in to that, even if I could resolve it with eight probes. But it doesn't give me another option either. I return to C3a, am thankfully not greeted by weapons fire on the wormhole, and decide to live a bit more recklessly and actually visit C4a. Warping across the system and jumping through the K162 has all looking clear. There are no ships on the wormhole, and all that d-scan shows me is a territorial control unit and some bubbles. Not even a tower.

My notes help me out. A tower was present seven months ago, and if it's still there it is around a planet out of d-scan range. I warp across to take a look and find the tower remains as it was, with a piloted Brutix battlecruiser floating inside its force field. It's the Helios pilot too, so I don't have a new contact, even if there's no sign of the Proteus. I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan, revealing five anomalies and two signatures, which is pretty simple. It takes under a minute to scan the second signature, a ladar site, confirming that the constellation is at an end. Now to watch the Brutix.

I don't think the battlecruiser will be sucking up gas any time soon, not with actual guns fitted to the ship. At least I see the return of the Proteus. Hello! That means my route home is safer, but that probably nothing will happen tonight. Indeed not. Both pilots go off-line. And then are replaced by a Cheetah cov-ops and Badger hauler. Will I see some planet goo collection? No. The Cheetah goes off-line, followed by the Badger, replaced by a much less interesting Anathema cov-ops. I doubt he'll be visiting customs offices. The Prorator that appears might, but trying to catch a cloaky transport is what I like to call 'tricky'.

I've little time to consider any kind of plan, as the Prorator turns, aligns to a planet, and enters warp. I've waited for this, so I'd better give chase. I drop out of warp around the customs office at the first planet, just to see the Prorator enter warp towards the sixth planet. I follow, but the agile ship enters and exits warp quicker than my Loki, and I can only watch as the transport leaves for the second planet. I follow again, so that I can see him warp towards the seventh planet. This isn't working.

Screw it. I don't go to the seventh planet, but the tenth. I won't catch him by being in his shadow, so let's see if I can get ahead of the Prorator. I am assuming that he'll be visiting each planet in the system, so have picked a planet not yet on his path. I have also got a little lucky, as the tenth planet is out of range of the tower and all other planets. Being out of d-scan range lets me brazenly shed my cloak. I can ignore the sensor recalibration delay from decloaking, activate my sensor booster for added locking speed, and sit on top of the customs office. On top of that, I won't appear on the Prorator's d-scan until he warps to this customs office, and by that point he won't be able to turn around to avoid me.

Speak of the devil, here he is. I have no idea how many other planets the transport has visited since our paths diverged, but it doesn't matter. We're together again, and I want to show him how much I care. Naturally, the Prorator was warping cloaked, so my first view of the ship is when it bumps in to the customs office. Even so, I have to wait a second or two for the transport to fully exit warp before I can gain a positive target lock. But I do, at which point my warp scrambler holds his ship close, and I burn towards and bump in to the ship as I start shooting, just because I can.

The class 4 w-space system's magnetar phenomenon helps my guns deal their damage, tearing the Prorator's shields, armour, and hull, and shredding the ship apart. The transport explodes, the pod flees. I loot and shoot the wreck, trying to work out what goo I want to squeeze in to my limited hold and believing I have time to make the decision. I get a high-five in the local channel from the shipless pilot, which is nice, as is the planet gooer kill itself.

I can't remember the last one I caught, and a cloaky transport makes this a little special. I feel satisfied with my evening of scanning and stalking, and how my patience paid off again. I can head home to rest for the night.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: anathema, badger, brutix, cheetah, eve online, helios, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, proteus, pvp, scanning, w-space

Extreme exploration

I'm out for just a short jaunt through w-space tonight. Wormholes and w-space only, folks, and no time for collapsing static connections or any other distractions. That's right, I'm adding an X to exploration, to make it extreme! And if you tell me 'exploration' already had an X in it before I came along, I'll pod you. Okay, now that we have that straight, I'm off to a good start with only one signature in the home system. That will be our static wormhole, and it takes me to the neighbouring class 3 system.

Appearing almost 6 AU from the nearest planet continues to interest me, but I'm trying not to be distracted. So I also won't mention that our last visit to this C3 had our Sleeper combat interrupted by Darkside dropping on us, destroying two of our Tengu strategic cruisers but letting the Golem marauder and its belly of Sleeper loot escape. But if I had mentioned that then I could segue in to how that incident hasn't stopped the Sleeper slaying in the system, as a blanket scan reveals a puny two anomalies and five signatures. I didn't think the narrative through properly. Onwards!

Scanning the signatures resolves a weak wormhole right off the bat, which could be the static exit to null-sec. A second weak wormhole means one of the two is a neat outbound connection, and, after some gas, a chubby third wormhole must be a K162. It is, but only from null-sec, leaving me floating outside the sole w-space connection, this one an A982 wormhole to deadly class 6 w-space. I have no time to consider the implications of my actions, and rather than poke out to k-space first I jump to C6a without a safety net. Extreme exploration!

Look at all of those towers. There are almost too many to count! Seven. Blimey. Well, okay, I got carried away with my initially busy-looking directional scanner result, because seven towers isn't really much for class 6 w-space occupation. And there aren't any ships either. My notes tell me I was here a week ago, when I located most of the towers, but failed to get ambushed or hunted or anything. I even found a static connection to class 3 w-space. Deadly, my arse.

A Jaguar assault ship appears in the system whilst I scan through the piddly two anomalies and five signatures, and d-scan places him at a tower. I wonder what the local's plans were until he probably saw my probes in the system. Skill changing, it seems, as the pilot goes off-line again within a couple of minutes. I don't think I affected his time in space much today. On to C3b, through the only wormhole in the system, and again I see on d-scan occupation but no ships. I do see probes, though, but there's not much I can do about a cloaked scout. I scan.

I work my way through the nine anomalies and sixteen signatures for wormholes, pausing to watch a Helios covert operations boat appear a hundred kilometres from the K162 from C6a, launch probes, and cloak again. That was fun. I resolve three wormholes. One is a K162 from class 3 w-space, one the static exit to low-sec, and the third a K162 from null-sec. Sticking to my plan of staying with w-space I jump to C3c, ignoring the Buzzard cov-ops that blips on d-scan in C3b.

It's the 'You are fat and smelly' system from a week ago. It was boring then, it looks boring now. A tower with no ships, and a static exit to null-sec. Mind you, the tower is new, so good job with that, new occupants. Even so, as I intended this to be a brief session I'm calling this the end of the w-space constellation, without scanning. There is no guarantee of more K162 wormholes, and all I'm going to find is an exit. I turn around and head home, through a system or two with other active scouts. Today has seen four systems, a few passing ships, and full-time exploration. I suppose I did say I was only looking for wormholes. Maybe I should have stipulated that I was also fine with finding targets. I'll have to refine my goals in the future.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, eve online, helios, jaguar, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Exiting exhumer

What's up, space? Not much. A few new anomalies in the home system, that's about it. And what about our neighbouring class 3 w-space system? Also quiet. There's a canister named 'D's stuff' visible on my directional scanner, but nothing else of interest. The small, 10·5 AU diameter system even manages to be packed with empty space, with a mere six planets and three moons. Thankfully, the same is true for sites, with four anomalies and nine signatures on my blanket scan, giving me little to sift through.

The static exit to low-sec is expected, from a previous visit, but the weak wormhole isn't, which is nice. A third wormhole is even better, and a fourth makes me feel blessed. Popping out to low-sec first has me bookmark the other side of the wormhole in a faction warfare system in the Verge Vendor region, before heading back to C3a to reconnoitre the extra wormholes. The K162 from high-sec empire space that's at the end of its life can be forgotten immediately, but the pair of wormholes coming from and leading to class 5 w-space gives me options. Backwards first, I would say.

Jumping through the K162 to C5a has two towers and ships of all types appear on d-scan. Most of the ships appear to be at a tower, judging by d-scan, with one notable exception. A Hulk exhumer looks to be in empty space. I like that. I warp out, launch combat scanning probes, and return to hunt the miner. It's not as straightforward as I'd like to pin his position down, nor as straightforward as it really ought to be. The Hulk is almost directly above the planet I'm orbiting, a little under 3·5 AU away, but because of a limitation with the system map I cannot rotate my view enough to get him in a tight d-scan beam.

Restrictions aside, I think I've got a good enough bearing on the Hulk to scan his position. Unfortunately, my fiddling with the interface has cost me time, and just as I am ready to scan the Hulk has disappeared from the site. With any luck he's just dropping off a load of ore, soon to return to mining, so now is a good time to locate the towers. I'll leave my probes where they are. Seventeen ships sit inside one tower's force field, including the Hulk, and five are piloted, still including the Hulk. None of them are moving. Yes, that includes the Hulk.

If no one's paying attention I may as well scan. 73% is a fair result for a first scan of a class 5 w-space gravimetric site, and I'm sure it would have resolved the Hulk perfectly. A quick adjustment and a second scan has a 100% result on the rarified core deposit, letting me recall my probes. Now I watch and wait. Or I could reconnoitre the site, which sounds like a better use of my time. I warp in to create a strategic monitoring point, but think I may be wasting my time, as the Sleeper guardians have appeared in the rock field. They are what sent the Hulk away, not a hold full of ore.

With still no movement at the towers, and the Hulk pilot not swapping to a combat ship, I don't think anything else will happen for now. It's time to explore through the other wormhole in C3a, leading to C5b, where d-scan shows me nothing. Launching probes and blanketing the system, however, also shows me nothing. I'm in an empty and inactive class 5 system, which would be a little demotivating if it weren't for a previous visit informing me of the static connection to class 2 w-space there is to find. I just hope that's not a mis-classification in my notes. An easy way to check is to scan.

Four anomalies and seven signatures are whittled down quickly to hold just the one wormhole, which confirms the static connection is indeed a D364 that leads to class 2 w-space. How lovely. Jumping to C2a doesn't offer much, though, with two towers and no ships around, but again my notes give me hope, with static wormholes to class 2 w-space and high-sec empire space to be found. I hope it's worth scanning through this mess of fourteen anomalies and twenty-five signatures, and luckily I pluck the D382 out of the noise early. That'll do. I ignore the rest of the signatures and press on.

C2b is much like a combination of C5b and C2a, taking the worst elements of each. Unoccupied and inactive, and sprawling with signatures. My notes come to the rescue once more, this time saving me some effort, as an earlier visit tells me that this C2 system holds static wormholes to class 5 w-space and null-sec k-space. If I'm heading for a C5, it will be the one behind me with hints of activity, thank you. I recall my probes and make the few jumps back through C2a, C5b, and C3a.

Once in C5a I check the gravimetric site first, seeing the Sleepers remain there and unmolested, and hitting the towers shows the Hulk off-line. It looks like I saved myself a valuable thirty minutes of doing nothing, and filled it instead by scanning. That's probably good. But the Hulk's leaving is my cue to go too. Had I just been a few minutes earlier, or the system map interface not quite so clumsy, maybe I could have bagged another miner. Never mind, the exploration itself can be an end.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Exiting exhumer
Tags: eve online, hulk, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Sleepers, shuttles, and selling loot

Home looks clear. One new signature resolves to be more gas for Aii to harvest, leaving me with the one direction to go. Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system shows me nothing of interest, with two off-line towers appearing on my directional scanner, and opening the system map revealing no planets sitting out of range. I'll be looking further afield for entertainment tonight, and to do that means launching scanning probes.

Out of habit, I first perform a blanket scan of the system, even keeping my probes hidden despite there being no occupation or activity. I suppose it's possible that a ship will jump in to the system from another wormhole in the time it takes for my probes to perform one scan, but the probability is so slight I don't think I'm saving any time. But I am quite used to interpreting the blanket scan that I would say I benefit from starting my scanning using this method. For whatever reason I do it, my scan reveals five anomalies and eighteen signatures.

The static exit to null-sec k-space, suspected from the lack of occupation, is confirmed by my notes from a visit eight months earlier. I'd best get looking for it, as the K346 signature for the wormhole is weak, and I could be digging for a while. Ah, he's my glorious leader to help. In fact, I make a rougher scan of C3a, looking for chubbier K162s instead, and finding none determine that it's probably safe to clear some anomalies of Sleepers. We won't even have to find the static wormhole, and hopefully won't need to use it.

Back in the home system we swap scanning boats for Sleeper boats, me in the Golem marauder and Fin in her Tengu strategic cruiser, and return to C3a to warp to the first anomaly. And it's only now that I realise the red-shifted light around the black hole dominating the celestial background. Black holes aren't good for missile boats, dramatically reducing their effective ranges, and my Golem already needs a little time to close with some of the Sleepers. Never mind, we're here now. We'll suck it up. Besides, the increased velocity of our ships will let me close the range a little quicker.

Combat seems a little peculiar, as if our ships aren't quite as responsive as normal, which turns out to be because time dilation is in effect, sitting at 80%. I have to wonder what's happening nearby. Or who is nearby. And it makes me glad that w-space is not conventionally connected, as it means we are probably still safe. And we are, at least until the three anomalies of our favoured type are cleared, looted, and salvaged, and we return home potentially 150 Miskies richer. This puts us back to exploring, and we'd still rather not have to find the null-sec wormhole. Instead, we kill our static connection, shoving massive ships back and forth until it implodes through the stress, with both of us in the home system.

Resolving the replacement static wormhole and jumping to the new neighbouring system puts me in a C3 with nothing on d-scan and a black hole pulsating in the distance. Weren't we just here? Thankfully not, as exploring reveals occupation, albeit in the form of a tower without ships. Scanning the five anomalies and eleven signatures for wormholes looks to throw me a bone, but the signature with identifier OUT resolves to be a ladar site instead. I'll file a complaint with trade descriptions later, as gas, rocks, a magnetometric site, static exit to high-sec, and a radar site give way to a juicy K162 from class 4 w-space.

Drawing the short straw, I head to high-sec as Fin jumps past me to C4a. I end up in an uninteresting system in Sinq Laison, Fin trumping me with a Tengu cloaking on the wormhole in the class 4 system. And she corrects me about where I am being dull, pointing out that the system I am in is one hop from market hub Dodixie. Truly my leader is glorious. I return to C3a and warp to C4a's K162, holding in case the Tengu reappears or jumps and we decide to engage it. But it doesn't, so we don't. A pod appears, however, and as we stand no chance of stopping it we magnanimously let it head through C3a to high-sec.

That the pilot of the pod isn't local to C4a gets Fin scanning. As she does, a shuttle appears on d-scan in C3a, another ship agile enough that we are almost forced to ignore it. Well, we ignore the ship, but the pilot I pay attention to. He's red, and interrogating a database shows him to be a member of Reconfiguration Nation, R-NAT. I know some of them, and they tend to be dangerous in numbers. Or they self-destruct on Sleepers. Either way, I'd prefer to ignore them without better intelligence on their movements.

Fin finds a wormhole in C4a. The K162 from class 5 w-space probably leads to R-NAT's home system, either directly or a jump or two further down the rabbit hole. We could poke our noses through to find out, or we could sit on the wormhole and hope to catch an easy mark thinking the route to and from high-sec is clear. That's what I do, Fin wants to be productive, and heads home to throw our recently accumulated loot in to a transport with a plan to sell it in high-sec.

Fin's plan is a good plan, except high-sec is Gallente space, where there are no sanctioned buyers of Sleeper loot. I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't even heard of wormholes yet. My plan isn't even as good as Fin's failing one, as no ships pass me by as I continue to sit patiently on the wormhole connecting C3a with C4a. I could wait here a while longer, or I could go home and get some sleep. It's a no-brainer, really.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Sleepers, shuttles, and selling loot
Tags: eve online, golem, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Staying almost too long with the Sleepers

Me, the static wormhole, and a stray signature start my evening in w-space. The unexpected signature is just gas, though. Boring gas. And, after yesterday's coincidence, warping to the bookmark for the previous static connection has me land next to the current wormhole, saving me a whopping ten seconds or so of scanning. Totally awesome.

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees a bubble on my directional scanner, two of ten planets being in range, and I am also somehow detecting a Fin in the home system. The appearance of my glorious leader may help with making iskies tonight, as a blanket scan of C3a reveals no occupation and eighteen anomalies, as long as there are no threatening wormholes amongst the eleven signatures.

One wormhole in C3a looks to be the expected exit to null-sec, and a second is weak enough to be an outbound connection and not a K162. We can't really assume that no one has come here and opened either wormhole to its linked system, but a lack of K162s makes it a relatively safe bet. And if we didn't want any risk we wouldn't be in w-space. In fact, we'd probably be playing My Little Pony On-line.

We haven't made ISK in a while, but have spent some, so tonight is a good opportunity to boost our wallet. We return home, swap to our Sleeper ships, and head to C3a to make some profit. I'm in the Golem marauder, Fin in a Tengu strategic cruiser. I resolved a couple of magnetometric sites in the neighbouring system, but it looks like we'll be ignoring them.

The magnetometric sites have Sleeper artefacts to recover on top of the standard loot from the drones. But recovering the artefacts requires specialised equipment, which take up mid slots on ships. Rather than compromising our shields, we tend to bring a different ship in to the site to analyse the artefacts, but that takes time, both to swap ships and to do the analysing, time that could be spent clearing more sites. Were we flying purely combat ships, and needing to bring a salvager back to sweep up the wrecks, an analysing ship may not be a bad choice, but as the Golem salvages as it shoots there is much to be said for coming, shooting, and leaving in one smooth operation.

Sleeper artefacts aren't terribly conveniently converted to profit either. Whereas with Sleeper loot you merely have to hit empire space, find a sanctioned buyer, and sell everything for a fair price, artefacts have no sanctioned buyers. You either sell like a sucker, getting instant ISK but at a poor price, or create sell orders that could linger for weeks before you see the profit. In that time, price fluctuations could mean that your artefacts are unfavourably listed, and the capricious nature of wormhole exits could easily mean that you don't get close enough to adjust your orders. Of course, without the artefacts there'd be no strategic cruisers, but as we are not directly involved in their manufacture we are best served ignoring the magnetometric sites if we can.

Today we can ignore the magnetometric sites. There are plenty of anomalies, plenty even of our favoured type. We may not clear them all, but we'll give it a go. We know what we're doing, and the Golem and Tengu pairing works well to chew threw battleships and pop frigates without either ship getting in to any moderate bother. One, two, three, four, five anomalies are cleared, looted, and salvaged efficiently and without drama. Do we have time for one more? 'Sure', says Fin, and as I warp us to the sixth anomaly I hope I haven't just given potential attackers enough time to complete their ambush.

It seems we are safe. The sixth site is cleared of Sleepers, and then wrecks, without interruption. We both warp back to our K162 and jump home, my Golem stuffed with a little over three hundred million ISK. And the wormhole flares after I jump home. That's odd, because I'm sure I've just seen Fin warp towards our tower, away from the wormhole. And I don't normally see the wormhole flare on entering a system, only leaving. Oh, I see. A Cheetah has decloaked on the wormhole and jumped to C3a.

Depending on what or who is behind the covert operations boat, maybe we were cutting our excursion a bit fine after all. I dump the loot in to our hangar and swap back to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, warping out to launch probes and scan the home system again. A new signature is picked up, which resolves unsurprisingly to be a new wormhole, a K162 from class 5 w-space. The new connection could have been nasty, had we stayed in C3a in our expensive ships a little longer. Or it could be benign, with simply a solo scout working his way through the constellation. I'm glad I didn't find out directly, and I don't mind not finding out now. Our profit is safe, so I hide my Loki in a corner of the home system and go off-line for the night.

Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments »
Tags: cheetah, eve online, golem, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Trapping a transport

It's all clear at home. Very clear, in fact. Just a handful of anomalies remain in the system, with the static wormhole being the only signature requiring probes to find. I do just that, and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to look for activity. Nothing appears within directional-scanner range of the K162 in C3a, although the sole planet out of range holds the same occupation as was here six months ago. I would bet there is still a static exit to high-sec too.

A blanket scan of the system reveals no anomalies and five signatures, which even though Fin arrives means we won't be making ISK from this C3, so I scan for wormholes. Even from the blanket scan the high-sec wormhole is obvious from its medium-strength signature. The others are all chubby, and all wormholes. I still visit the high-sec connection first, to get a safety net, although the wobbly wormhole at the end of its life may not be good for long. I risk the wormhole lasting for ten seconds and pop out to appear in the Tash-Murkon region, returning immediately to reconnoitre the other wormholes I've resolved.

How disappointing. A K162 from high-sec would be dull enough if it weren't also EOL, and although the K162s from class 2 and class 3 w-space would be interesting, they too are EOL and far from enticing. But with no other options in this stale constellation I poke my prow through the wormhole I end at, which comes from C2a. A Raven battleship and Iteron hauler appear on d-scan, along with two towers. The ships are empty at the tower, and I don't care to look for the Amarr rookie wreck that is elsewhere, not without any obvious signs of other pilots. I return through the dying wormhole to look through another dying wormhole.

A visit from a month ago sends me directly to the tower in C3b. I suppose I could have guessed that the tower would be next to the territorial control unit, which is functionally useless in w-space except for being an obvious beacon, and therefore a great place to create a bubble trap. Which this one is. My notes protected me somewhat. And even though a Probe frigate is piloted at the tower I am not staying to see what he does, not with Fin reporting C3a's static exit to high-sec having just imploded. That could herald the death of these other wormholes too.

I speed back to C3a, where the K162 from high-sec is also now gone, reducing our options somewhat. But the death of the static connection gives us a replacement to find. A bit of scanning later and I'm jumping out to a system in the Khanid region, which is unimpressive by itself, but gives me a new system to scan in. Two extra signatures resolve to be a radar site and a rather attractive outbound connection to class 1 w-space. That'll do nicely. Jumping to C1a sees a tower and Crane transport ship on d-scan, and locating the tower sees the Crane piloted.

The transport ship is agile and slippery, particularly as it can warp cloaked, but I'm not going to give up before I've even given chasing the Crane a shot. Just in case the transport will leave through the system's static exit, and not collect planet goo, I warp out and launch probes, blanketing the system. Six anomalies and eleven signatures are returned by my probes, holding my attention just as the Crane warps. The ship remains on d-scan, giving me a chance to see where it is, which is made easier by the Crane returning to the tower. Sadly, it looks like it did indeed warp out to collect planet goo.

I can only hope the Crane makes a second trip to a customs office, and so I pay closer attention to what it does. It moves again, but this time not to a planet but empty space. The Crane stays on my probes, still in their blanket-scanning configuration, and I hold until the transport disappears. Now I scan. Yep, he went to a wormhole, the system's exit to low-sec. I warp to the connection and exit C1a, appearing in a system in Solitude, alone. The Crane has already moved on.

It's a shame Mr Crane doesn't know about the high-sec entrance I found to C1a. His journey would be much safer from that direction, as well as probably shorter. Still, his best defence now is probably boring us in to leaving him alone, as we don't know where he's gone or how long he will be. In our favour, he's the only pilot we know about, so we are waiting for him for now. I loiter with intent in low-sec, as Fin heads home to get a ship more appropriate for catching a cloaky transport. Better still, Aii comes on-line and is happy to bring an interceptor too.

Now we wait. One pilot enters the system in Solitude, but he's not orange and is piloting a Proteus strategic cruiser. We aren't sure we can engage a brick of a ship, which is okay since the Proteus leaves low-sec without coming our way. A new contact comes a little later, this time a Tengu strategic cruiser scanning the low-sec system. His probes disappear, and although the pilot remains he doesn't jump to C1a. And just as we are getting bored with waiting, an orange appears in the local comms in low-sec. It's our man in the Crane.

I return to C1a through the wormhole, and break my cloak on the other side. With an interceptor and interdictor quite obviously lurking on the wormhole, there seems little point in trying to be sneaky in my Loki strategic cruiser. Before long we are greeted with the wormhole flaring. The Crane appears with little delay, perhaps hoping he can get cloaked and clear, but Fin's sensor-booster Flycatcher snags the Crane almost instantly, also inflating a bubble to keep it close. All our systems go hot, sending weapons fire the transport's way, for all of the few seconds it takes for the Crane pilot to decide to leave the way he came.

The Crane jumps back through the wormhole to low-sec, polarising himself but escaping our immediate attention. We follow, but only to have the Crane successfully cloak and evade us. The interdictor's bubble launcher can't be used in low-sec either, so the Crane is probably in warp within moments. But we learn from the encounter, and realise that as soon as Aii and I were locked on to the Crane, Fin should have jumped to low-sec and primed her fast-locking Flycatcher for the Crane's attempt to escape. We'll know for the next time. But, for tonight, we've had our fun, flown as a fleet, loosed some ammunition. It's time to head home.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Trapping a transport
Tags: crane, eve online, flycatcher, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, proteus, pvp, raven, scanning, tengu, w-space

ORE tourist

Today's wormhole is sitting on top of where yesterday's was. I wish I'd known this before resolving the signature completely, but no time is really lost. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has a clear result from my directional scanner, and the two planets out of range don't hold occupation either. A blanket scan of the system reveals twenty anomalies and twelve signatures. It's not busy around here. I start sifting through the signatures.

A weak wormhole sits amongst the usual sites. Although that would normally offer a decent outbound connection I know from five months ago that this C3 holds a static exit to null-sec, and I've likely only found that. A second wormhole is a more promising sight, but as it turns out to be merely a K162 from null-sec the third wormhole gives me more hope. False hope, it turns out, and my last hope, as I've uncovered a K162 from high-sec. It's a decent safety net, I suppose, not that it looks like I'll be getting in to any trouble today.

Poking out to high-sec puts me in Kador, four jumps from Amarr, but as we have lego bricks piled up in our hangar I don't think I need to get more tower fuel. Instead, I return to w-space, if only to warp across to the static wormhole to null-sec. Exiting C3a again puts me this time in a system in the Outer Ring region, and by myself. I can rat and scan. One extra signature gives me something to resolve whilst I set my Loki strategic cruiser to automatic—which for a Minmatar ship means tying ropes to keep the controls in set positions—and engage some rats in a rock field.

The signature turns out to be an uninteresting magnetometric site, but finding a rat battleship will give my security status a decent little boost. And shooting the battleship, flanked by two cruisers, with a gorgeous view of the Cloud Ring is visually much more pleasing than concentrating on moving probes around the abstracted system map. It's almost a shame to have to move on, but I will. As null-sec seems empty out here I'll risk hopping through a stargate to look for wormholes in an adjacent region.

Hop. I'm still alive. Good-o! Scanning doesn't reveal any signatures, and the rats are cruiser-based. Never mind, they all count, and popping one lets me hop another system across, where again there are no wormholes. But I notice that I'm creeping closer to an ORE station, where I understand some valuable blueprints are sold. It would also be a system almost guaranteed to hold other capsuleers, but I don't think I've ever been this close to an ORE station before, and I'd quite like to at least take a look. I set a new course.

As I hop through null-sec I rat when I can, and scan as I go. It's what I do. One system holds two signatures, one of which is a wormhole, but being so close to the ORE station I ignore it for now and press ahead. I can come back to that later. And in the destination system I do indeed see other pilots. Three reds, two neutrals. I don't have any tactical bookmarks around the stations, nor really understand station games, but sometimes I'm just a naive fool. I enter warp to dock at one of the stations.

It looks clear as I dock, and I quickly buy a few blueprints for the new Venture mining frigate, although balk at the cost of the BPs for the mining barges. I have no idea if I'll make a profit, so there's little point in throwing ISK away. I undock quickly, seeing that all was clear when I got to the station and there are currently no other visitors, and my hunch that being quick will see no change in circumstances pays off. I warp away from the station towards the stargate homewards without issue.

I have a wormhole to explore, but I would rather not do so with BPs in my hold. Hey, I have a connection close to Amarr, back through C3a, so I can even see if I can unload the blueprints with little delay. It's worth making that trip, so I head back through null-sec, across w-space, and to empire space, where a few stargate hops sees the Venture BPOs being sold for less than they cost. I don't understand that, beyond realising that I have probably just wasted some ISK. It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme, though. I simply turn around and take the blueprints back to store in our tower for now. Maybe Fin or Aii can work out what to do with them.

I still have a wormhole to explore. I head back through C3a's static exit to null-sec, hop across a few systems, and warp to what turns out to be a rather lovely outbound connection to class 1 w-space. But before I jump through the wormhole a new pilot in the system catches my eye, particularly as he's in an Imicus frigate. The frigate isn't cloaking yet, making him a target, and a target I can see is better than the unknown in w-space. I sweep d-scan around to look for the Imicus, and the pilot appears to have parked around a planet. That's a little careless.

I warp to the planet at range, hoping to bump in to the Imicus, but land a hundred kilometres away from him. The ship appears to have parked at the zero kilometre point. That too seems a little careless, even if has tripped me up already. No matter. I warp out and back again, as I see on d-scan the Imicus throwing probes everywhere. I hope I can get back before he finishes, and maybe cloaks. I can. I drop on top of the frigate just as the probes warp away, and get close enough to stop the Imicus from cloaking.

It's a formality to pop the Imicus. Getting the pod too is a nice addition, although finding the corpse to be six weeks out of the clone vat gives me a slight pang of guilt. I shake that off though, and instead realise that at least this capsuleer has got himself out to null-sec quickly. I can't think how long it took me. Now back to the wormhole, and in to C1a, where a Probe frigate, Mammoth hauler, and a tower tempt me with more ideas of destruction.

Sadly, neither of the ships is piloted, and scanning the six anomalies and eight signatures only offers a connection out to high-sec. Checking the exit puts me in the Placid region, and closer to the null-sec systems I've visited than C3a's exit in Kador. I'll be heading home back through C1a. It's time to get some rest anyway. I rat my way back through null-sec, and return home via our neighbouring system. I dump the new corpse and what little loot I recovered from the Imicus and rats in to our hangar, and admire my newly raised security status of 0·2. It's been a good evening, and one where I made some explosions again. It feels like it's been a while.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: eve online, imicus, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, probe, pvp, scanning, venture, w-space

Scan, collapse, scan

With no activity at home, and only the single signature in the system, I have but one direction to go. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, looking for trouble. A clear directional scanner doesn't offer much, but it does let me launch probes covertly, and with only two of thirteen planets in range of d-scan there may well be opportunity elsewhere. My notes even tell me of a tower in the system six months ago, so with probes performing a blanket scan I warp in the direction my notes point me.

The tower's gone, and there's not much to see. Sixteen anomalies would be good to make some ISK if I had help, otherwise there are just six signatures and no ships picked up by my probes. The signatures resolve to be gas, gas, more gas, even more gas, and the static exit to high-sec empire space, with the latter being the only one I fully resolve to bookmark. With no occupation, nor any other wormholes, and no intention to suck gas myself, there's little point in wasting more time than it takes to identify the ladar sites.

The w-space constellation has ended early, but that doesn't mean I stop scanning. I can always hit high-sec and look for more connections, even hopping through stargates if I come up dry in one systems. Or I could, if the wormhole weren't at the end of its life. At least I found this early, giving me plenty of time to head home and kill our wormhole with a controlled implosion, which will open up a replacement wormhole and new constellation. I stress the connection with Orca, Widow, and Widow, Orca, pushing the wormhole over its mass limit on my final return trip. Job's a good 'un.

Back to scanning. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the second neighbouring system of the day, where circumstances don't look much better. D-scan is clear of all but a rather rude can—I'm not fat—and this time there are no planets out of range to hide occupation or ships. But the system itself can hold opportunity, if there are more wormholes, and launching probes and scanning has me sifting through the fifteen anomalies and seventeen signatures to find out.

I know from a visit almost two years ago that this class 3 system holds a static exit to null-sec. I can't say I'm particularly motivated to find the wormhole, and not because of where it leads as much as how weak the K346 type is. Null-sec can hold more wormholes, and is generally empty enough to be safe to rat and use stargates, but the wormhole is pretty weak and easily confused with radar and magnetometric sites in class 3 w-space, which can make scanning a little tedious. Still, it's scan or go off-line, so I scan.

I recognise the null-sec wormhole early, because of its signature strength, but what's this? A second wormhole could be good, and it is. A K162 from class 2 w-space is a nice find indeed, nice enough for me to stop caring about the rest of the signatures, recall my probes, and jump through the wormhole. A tower holding two Orca industrial command ships is not a great sight on d-scan, but a blanket scan revealing eight anomalies, ten signatures, and five ships perks me up. Five ships? I want to find those other three.

Exploring the class 2 system soon locates the other ships, the Imicus frigate and two Iteron haulers nestled inside the force field of a second tower. They are all unpiloted, though, which is a shame. The Orcas are empty too, of course. I pretty much expected that to be the case. And as I have probes out it would be churlish not to scan, and the ten signatures become a static exit to high-sec, some random crap, and another wormhole. I get excited for the brief time it takes me to warp to the connection, where I see it is just another high-sec link, this one a K162.

I don't care to scan high-sec now. Although it was an option earlier, I have now scanned my way through a couple more systems without seeing another pilot, and my mojo is fading. Even so, heading home I pause in C3a to poke my prow through the exit to null-sec, appearing in a system in the Feythabolis region. A couple of pilots are in the system, and d-scan shows me two Vargur marauders, a Machariel battleship, and lots of rat wrecks. The ratters are probably more scared of me than I am of them, and in warp to hide inside a tower's force field, and although I could probably rat a bit myself, to increase my security status, I think I'll just leave them to their paranoia. It's time to hit the sack.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scan, collapse, scan
Tags: eve online, imicus, iteron, machariel, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, vargur, w-space, widow

Space picnic

I've played with the big boys for the past couple of days—or they played with me—but let's see if I can return to being the hunter today. Launching probes and scanning the home system may put me on the back foot already, as seven signatures at home include three that are unexpected. As it turns out, a new pocket of gas is fine, as are some rocks, and although the second wormhole is interesting it is less threatening as a K162 from class 5 w-space from being at the end of its natural lifetime. I think I'll be okay. Forwards!

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 system looks like I'm back to normal. A tower appears on my directional scanner with a lack of ships. One planet is out of range—60 AU out of range—but it is moonless and so unable to hold further occupation. I'll be scanning. A blanket scan throws up a mere four anomalies and six signatures, which are mostly gas, a static exit to high-sec empire space, and an intriguing second wormhole.

Before I find out where else I may be going, I poke out to high-sec to bookmark the other side of the wormhole. I find myself in the Khanid region, not that I care, before finding myself once more in C3a and in warp towards what turns out to be a K162 from a class 6 system. Apparently I haven't had enough of deadly w-space recently. I'm cool with that. In I go.

Three towers and no ships is a weak result for a C6, although exploring uncovers five more towers and a Brutix. It's possible the battlecruiser is active, if he's sucking up gas in a ladar site, but even though the ship is piloted it is only floating inside a force field that's protecting one of the towers in the system. And as the Brutix has actual guns fitted to his ship, not gas harvesters, I don't imagine the pilot will be active any time soon.

Performing a blanket scan of the system has nothing to find. There may be seven anomalies, but the single signature will be the wormhole that I entered through, putting me in a dead end. And just as I think nothing is going to happen the pilot abandons his Brutix and drops to his pod, warping away before I get a chance to see where he may be going. I have a hunch that the pilot is heading to high-sec, making use of the convenient exit C3a provides. I turn my ship around to see if that's the case.

Although my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser will have a job catching up with the agile pod, all I have to do is exit to high-sec before the pilot uses a stargate and I will be able to spot him in the local communications channel. That's the plan, anyway, but by the time I exit C3a I see no oranges in the high-sec system. I still could have been too slow, as I wasn't terribly fast in reacting, or the pod may not have actually left C6a. Well, there's not much I can do about it now. I may as well make myself a sammich.

Nom nom nom. Hullo, the pod didn't leave the class 6 system. As I munch away on my sammich the wormhole to C3a flares, and an orange pops through. It's the pilot in his pod. Wherever he went before he has finally found his way to high-sec, through the complex series of two wormholes from his tower, and off he warps to a stargate. That's good. As the pilot's in his pod he could be buying a ship to take back to his w-space system. That would make his return worth waiting for, and gives me time to finish my sammich.

The wormhole flares a second time, and a pilot from a corporation I don't recognise exits w-space in a Cheetah covert operations boat. It takes a while for the pilot to drop his session change cloak, and when he does the Cheetah appears almost on top of my Loki, interfering with my active module cloak. As the cov-ops appears, I appear. So much for being covert. The Cheetah pilot waves to me and returns to w-space. And even though he knows I'm here, and what ship I'm in, I won't pass up the opportunity to flounder with targeting systems trying to catch a cov-ops.

I jump back to C3a and naturally miss the Cheetah, as it cloaks immediately, but I had to try. Now I'm wondering where it came from. He could be a new scout from C6a, in a different corporation from the Brutix and pod pilot, or a new connection could have opened in to C3a. It's almost worth scanning again, but I have half a sammich to finish, so I jump back to high-sec and wait for the C6 local to return. At least, until I finish eating and realise I am just sitting in space doing nothing. I'm heading home to go off-line. I suppose I could have done more with my time today, but, to be honest, it has been a pretty relaxing afternoon compared to the past couple of days.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Space picnic
Tags: brutix, cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Penny in the middle

More signatures light up my combat scanning probes in the home system. The same number of anomalies remain, and the signatures are weak, so will be Sleepers and not wormholes. All looks quiet. I resolve the static connection and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to look for activity. I may have found it too, with two Tengu strategic cruisers, a Noctis salvager, Badger hauler, Buzzard covert operations boat, and two towers visible on my directional scanner. There are no wrecks or canisters, however, so maybe there's less going on than my imagination wants there to be.

A Nemesis appears on d-scan, so there must be a pilot awake somewhere. Locating the two towers finds all ships but the Nemesis, and all empty, sadly. But the Nemesis being elsewhere shows that there is probably more to find, so I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system. Six anomalies and four signatures offer little resistance, giving me gas, a static exit to high-sec empire space, and a K162 from class 5 w-space. With a convenient high-sec connection I exit w-space to bookmark a safety route home, appearing in a system in Kador, close to Amarr.

I would consider getting fuel, but both Fin and I have recently brought back plenty, so instead wait for polarisation effects to dissipate and, well, watch a Buzzard appear on the wormhole and jump to C3a. A Devoter heavy interdictor appears behind the Buzzard, but without the intention of trying to catch the cov-ops, being from the same corporation. The HIC cloaks on the high-sec side of the wormhole, which is curious behaviour, and I orange his corporation to check which other colleagues he has locally. None. Even curiouser.

I loiter for a while, wondering what the Devoter will do, but nothing happens. The ship can't warp cloaked, so he hasn't left the wormhole, and the Buzzard hasn't come back from w-space. I could jump to C3a and check C5a, but I'd rather not be so obvious in the known presence of other pilots. Being in high-sec gives me the solution, as stargate travel is pretty safe out here. I hop one system across and scan for more wormholes. This way, I get to continue my explorations without making myself a target.

Four signatures are in the second high-sec system, giving me rocks, more rocks, and outbound wormholes to class 2 and class 3 w-space. That'll do, pig. I land at the entrance to C3b last, so enter there first. Or would, but wormholes are dangerous! Do I really want to enter? Yes, you stupid machine, I do. I spend my life in w-space, transiting wormholes. I knew yesterday's reset of all settings would bug me for a while. Still, I get to C3b without any further hassle, putting me in a rather unremarkable system.

C3b has occupation and no activity. Scanning the six anomalies and eleven signatures for wormholes finds three of them. The first is a K162 from more class 3 w-space, the second an ageing K162 from high-sec, and the last the static exit to low-sec, in d-scan range of a can labelled 'sucky place'. I remember this system now, and, yes, it is a sucky place. C3c beckons. But jumping through the K162 is uninspiring. A tower, no ships; no interest. I'm not scanning, not with a link to class 2 w-space back in high-sec, so turn my ship around to explore the better option.

Jumping in to C2a doesn't look much more attractive, with d-scan clear, and a blanket scan reveals only twelve anomalies and signatures each, still no ships. But there is more w-space to find, so I sift through the signatures. A really weak wormhole turns out to be a static connection to class 6 w-space, which is neat, and as I don't care to find the k-space wormhole I recall my probes and plunge deeper in to the constellation. D-scan shows me a tower, Buzzard, and some probes. And some more probes. Three sets of probes, by the looks of it, making this system active for at least some scouts. I add my own probes to the mix, hoping they'll get lost in the noise.

Seven anomalies and six signatures are whittled down to be a wormhole, a radar, ladar, gravimetric, and second ladar site, and a second wormhole. And despite scanning not taking long, by the time I've finished only my probes remain in the system. No ships have passed me on the way to C2a, though, so I'll be relying on the other wormholes to give me ships. The static connection to class 5 w-space isn't promising, being at the end of its life, leaving me a K162 from more class 6 w-space. I can quickly check to see what's there.

A Legion, that's what's in C6b. At least on the wormhole. The strategic cruiser isn't stationary either, as it is slowly orbiting the wormhole. And not only have I appeared under two kilometres from the wormhole, not guaranteeing my being able to move away and cloak safely, but the Legion is circling his way right towards me. I keep cool, though. So cool that space probably loses heat to me. I hold my session change cloak as the Legion approaches from over six kilometres away, lazily loops close enough to break a module-activated cloak, and continues to the other side of the wormhole.

Now I move and cloak, pulsing my micro warp drive to cross the five-hundred metres before the Legion can react and lock on to my Loki strategic cruiser. I'm safe. Well, safe for the moment. The Legion jumps through the wormhole, no doubt to wait for me on the other side, as friends of his appear on this side of the wormhole. A second Legion warps in, followed by two Lokis and a Phobos heavy interdictor. I can also see two Tengu strategic cruisers on d-scan, so this may not be all the locals are willing to throw at me. Who knew jumping through a wormhole connecting two class 6 w-space systems could be so dangerous?

Ah, I appear to have stumbled in to the home of Aperture Harmonics—AHARM. This is probably not good for my health. But maybe I can draw the ships off the wormhole if they think I'll appear elsewhere in the system. I warp out, launch combat scanning probes, and rather than be covert with my efforts I throw my probes around the system as obviously as I can. If the pilots think I'm going forwards then perhaps they will at least split their efforts to try to catch me, giving me better odds of escaping.

You know, I think my plan of faking the locals in to thinking I'm looking for their static wormhole would work better if I hadn't jumped in to the system using their static wormhole. I came through a K162, so there is no 'forwards' direction for me to go. Silly Penny. Even so, there are two more signatures in the system, and one of them is a second wormhole. It's another K162 from class 6 w-space, which isn't a great sight, but it may pull a couple of ships away from my route home. It's not likely, considering that this K162 may be a dead end and I'd have to come back this way anyway, but you never know.

A more likely distraction is the small fleet that appears on the wormhole shortly after I land near it. They are not AHARM ships, and so not come back from a roam to help with finding me, and the cascade of waves followed by a welcome from my hunter in the almost never used local communication channel is odd. But interrogating the intelligence from the local channel shows me that this new fleet is part of Exhale, and it looks like they are inviting AHARM in to a scrap on the wormhole. It's working too, and playing to my advantage.

I warp back to the static wormhole, leading to C6a, to see ships jumping back in to the system and warping away, no doubt towards the Exhale fleet. Looking for a lone cloaky Loki must be dull compared to getting a guaranteed fight. I'm okay with that for now. I take my cue and exit AHARM's home C6, clearing the other side of the wormhole with only an AHARM Buzzard jumping past me. That was pretty exciting, and rather cool. It also tickles me that the same corporation who chased us yesterday have inadvertently drawn away my attackers today.

As much as I'd like to see the engagement between two w-space forces, or even be involved in more than mostly solo adventures, I am best served heading home safely for now. Maybe I can be interesting another day. I return to C2a, then high-sec, and hop through a stargate and warp to the K162 to C3a. Jumping through has abandoned drones and a frigate wreck on the wormhole in the class 3 system, showing that something happened whilst I was exploring elsewhere, but whatever it was is over now. A poke in to C5a has a tower but no ships, making w-space quieter in this direction than the other. Much quieter. I suppose it's time to sleep. And even if it was mostly scanning with a bit of running, I've had another fun evening.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Penny in the middle
Tags: badger, buzzard, devoter, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, nemesis, noctis, penny ibramovic, phobos, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space