Ducks and dopes

Fin's here, and my glorious leader has been scanning. I wonder what rich systems she's found for harvesting Sleeper loot, or if she's spotted any half-awake haulers pottering inside force fields waiting to collect planet goo. 'We got nothing.' Okay then. Our static connection takes us to an occupied but inactive class 3 w-space system, with an exit to low-sec and a dying K162 from null-sec. We could just kill our wormhole and start again. 'Sounds like a plan.'

Two pilots halve the time when crashing a wormhole. We can also halve the wormhole's mass allowance in one go, which then only needs one more pair of staggered jumps to collapse it. It all seems so much easier when it's not just me. And hopefully we'll now connect to a better constellation, with pilots, miners, salvagers. Or, at least, someone to watch as they sit motionless inside a tower. We never know until we look.

We get the tower but still no ships, after resolving the replacement static wormhole and jumping to the new C3. Locating the tower sees that it's owned by ducks, which makes its being empty a better result, and it's a tower that wasn't here fourteen months ago. The old one is off-line, which I find from a reference in my notes, which also reminds me of the Drake that escaped from me thanks to some ECM drones. I think I remember that. Nothing's happening now, though, so I launch probes and scan, whilst Fin discusses recruitment.

Two anomalies don't offer much, even if seventeen signatures could making scanning a drag. I soon get them whittled down to one magnetometric site and three wormholes amongst the rocks and gas, and checking the connections gives me a static exit to low-sec, a K162 from high-sec, and an N968 outbound wormhole to more class 3 w-space. Fin's followed me to the system now, so heads to reconnoitre beyond the high-sec connection, giving me the option to see what C3b holds. Not much.

I see a ship on my directional scanner, but I suspect the Chimera carrier is lacking a pilot and is floating inside the tower also visible. Again my notes hint at times more exciting than today, as five months ago in this system I missed locking a Hound stealth bomber in my Loki, thanks to a lack of sensor booster. That was an early outing in my strategic cruiser, and my fit has been altered since. Pray I don't alter it further. I locate the tower in the same position as before, confirm the carrier is empty, and start sifting through the ten anomalies and five signatures.

Rocks, gas, and an exit to low-sec are typical Schmosby, but the K162 from class 2 w-space is a nice surprise. And poking through even finds pilots. Not straight away, as d-scan is clear on the other side of the wormhole, but I locate a couple of towers when exploring, one of them with four ships and three pilots. The Hulk exhumer is sadly empty, but the Drake battlecruiser, Purifier stealth bomber, and Helios covert operations boat all offer their own opportunity and challenge. If they leave the tower, which it looks like they're not about to do.

I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system. One anomaly and three signatures doesn't promise much activity from the locals, and as C3b through their w-space static connection is almost as sparse they may not feel like going abroad either. And after a few minutes of watching ships sitting stationary I decide to resolve the other two signatures. Rocks and the second static wormhole, an exit to high-sec. I check high-sec for oranges, but see none in the system in Lonetrek, so return to w-space and continue watching the pilots do nothing in the tower.

Dumb C2 pilots, making Penny act dumb. I leave them behind, not caring to waste more time, and return to C3b to see a change of circumstances. No longer is the Chimera alone and empty, as now d-scan is showing me a Dominix battleship, Tengu strategic cruiser, and a pod. It almost makes me rue the wormhole being in d-scan range of the tower, or hope that Fin magically becomes unsleepy and returns on-line, as she disappeared home after scanning high-sec and finding only a wormhole connecting to low-sec. Then again, it's better if she gets some rest, as warping to the tower sees the pod gone and the ships empty.

No, I don't know either. I warp out and back again, in case the lack of pilots in the ships is merely a glitch with my overview, but they still look empty on my return. If I had to guess, I'd say that a pilot came on-line, jettisoned the Dominix and Tengu from the hangar in a drug-induced haze, thinking it would be wicked funny for reasons I can't imagine, then slumped unconscious on to his controls, which coincidentally logged him off again. It's the only reasonable explanation.

Moving on, I leave the hangar jetsam of C3b behind for the still-sleepy normality of C3a, where no ducks have yet woken up. I poke to low-sec through the static wormhole, hoping to find piloted ships being active by scanning for more wormholes, but only resolve a radar site, a Sansha's Fortified Outpost, and a second radar site. Nothing's happening tonight, and I don't want to force anything. Mistakes happen that way. I'll just accept the quietness and head home.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: chimera, dominix, drake, eve online, helios, hulk, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, scanning, tengu, w-space

Sneaking up on a sneaky salvager

All's clear at home, with no ships or incoming wormholes to muss up the system. It's so very quiet, until I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 s-space system. I don't find activity, but my glorious leader comes on-line. I almost ignore the Gila cruiser, Drake battlecruiser, and Armageddon battleship, which are probably all at the tower also visible on my directional scanner anyway, what with there being no wrecks. The combat scanning probes are interesting, and sitting cloaked on the wormhole as I give Fin a sitrep seems like a good way to see if a ship comes my.

Nothing does come my way, not until Fin jumps in to the C3 behind me. We're left staring at the same three ships—which Fin reconnoitres at the tower, finding them all empty of pilots—until the combat probes disappear. Whoever scanned apparently isn't interested in jumping through whatever wormholes he resolved, but I am. I launch my own combat probes and scan, and even though I already know about the nine anomalies from a passive scan when entering the system, I am a little surprised to see a mere four signatures. Surely the scout wasn't that slow to scan, particularly as all four signatures are chubby.

It takes me a minute or two to resolve a gas site and two wormholes. The second wormhole is no surprise, as the lack of pilot returning to the local tower was a convincing sign that the scout was a visitor. And he's less likely to have come through the static exit to low-sec, particularly given the K162 from more class 3 w-space that connects in to the system. The exit leads to a system in Genesis, and the K162 to a C3 that looks clear from the wormhole. Exploring finds an unoccupied and empty system, one that holds a static exit to null-sec, so the scout has probably come from another system back, which could explain why he was reluctant to delve even deeper.

I scan again, reducing seven anomalies and eleven signatures to one obvious wormhole, a K162 from class 4 w-space, just like home. Jumping to C4a has no ships in d-scan range, but plenty of Sleeper wrecks. That's interesting. I activate my passive scanner, revealing one anomaly that holds no wrecks, so obviously the fleet has finished and is probably looking to salvage. Not being able to find the anomaly is inconvenient, but no impediment to ambushing a salvager. I just have to hunt the wrecks and scan for, presumably, the Noctis that will come. I just need to be able to launch probes covertly.

Exploring C4a finds two towers, with a Vulture command ship in one, and a Purifier stealth bomber and Noctis salvager that both disappear before I can see them. It looks like salvaging is starting, maybe with a soft escort. Fin brings her ship to the wormhole to C4a but holds her position for now, as I try to launch probes and locate the ship. This isn't so easy, as I can't get away from the towers—where the Vulture is piloted—or the Noctis. But I shall assume the Noctis will be paying more attention than the Vulture, and launch my probes in range of the tower. I doubt the command ship pilot is sober enough to care at this point.

I throw my probes out of the system and return to the inner system to see the Noctis still working away, with no sign of the cloaked Purifier, funnily enough. I have already determined that there are multiple sites cleared, as suggested by the number of Sleeper battleship wrecks, and that I simply need to find a site the Noctis isn't in, 'hunt' those wrecks, and get my probes ready for the Noctis's entrance. And that I do. I find a site, get a good d-scan bearing and range, and get my probes arranged. Having the site just under 2 AU from me makes the process quicker, as using a reference probe set to a range of 2 AU makes arranging the others simplicity itself. And just in time for the Noctis to enter the site.

I tell Fin to get ready, and go for a scan. Perfect. 100% on the Noctis lets me bookmark and warp to its position. I call for Fin to jump in to the system and hold as I am in warp, already getting the command ready for her to warp to my position. But I drop out of warp further than expected from the Nocits, who looks to be aligned out of the site. Indeed he is aligned, as a couple of seconds later the salvager warps away, back to his tower. I suppose the Purifier is not flying escort but scout, sitting on the wormhole watching for intruders, as the Noctis's reaction was far too slow to be caused by seeing my probes.

I recognise the pilot too. Or, in retrospect, I recognise the sister of a pilot I've encountered more than once before. It's a shame we can't get reacquainted today. At least, not yet. I follow the Noctis back to the tower, where I see it swap to a Cheetah covert operations boat and warp away. Fin admits to not standing a chance of catching the cov-ops, and nor can I, but if the scout saw Fin enter, maybe seeing her leave will get the Noctis, or at least another salvaging ship, back in the site I already know about. Fin agrees, being glorious, and makes a show of leaving the system and warping away in C3b. But the Cheetah doesn't return to the tower to swap boats again.

Rather than wait for the Cheetah, I go looking for it. I find it, too, back in the site I reconnoitred, looting and salvaging one wreck at a time. That's interesting, and probably a little careless. The Cheetah may be harder to catch than a Noctis under normal circumstances, but it won't be able to cloak when next to a wreck, and when not fitted for salvaging will take its merry time stripping each wreck. And that's just what I'm seeing. The Cheetah is sitting on top of a battleship wreck, taking cycle upon cycle of its salvager modules just to clear that one wreck. I think I've got a shot here.

I wait for the current wreck to be salvaged, as there's no point rushing, and see which one it heads to next. Another battleship. The pilot is aiming to maximise their profit for the time and risk involved, which makes sense. I hope to ruin that for them. I warp close to the next wreck and, as the Cheetah snuggles up to it and gets cosy, start creeping forwards. I keep my cloak active until the last moment, then activate my micro warp drive and burn towards the cov-ops, as my sensors recalibrate from decloaking.

The Cheetah cannot cloak being close to the wreck, nor align out when given a solid thump from my Loki strategic cruiser, and my targeting systems get a positive lock on the tiny ship. I disrupt the warp engines of the cov-ops as my guns start firing, pretty much missing entirely on the first burst, as the bump sends both our ships off course, but once they start tracking the Cheetah its shields, armour, and hull are rapidly destroyed. The Cheetah explodes, its pod jettisoned, and despite my best efforts the pilot gets clear. She was clearly ready to flee.

I loot the wreck, bagging me some juicy Sleeper goodies instead of just expanded cargoholds, and shoot it for giggles. Mmm, Sleeper loot. And when I realise I'm surrounded by it I decide to take advantage of my situation, knowing that there's probably only a Purifier in the system—elsewhere in the system at that—and snag the loot from the remaining battleship wrecks, netting maybe fifty million ISK for the kill. I think that's probably it. Fin notices our old friend is in the Purifier, having jumped to C3b, but he doesn't try to bomb me when I leave the system, on my way home. It's a shame, but I suppose he knows a single bomb against a strategic cruiser probably wouldn't do much good, particularly with a second, probably allied strategic cruiser still loitering somewhere.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: armageddon, cheetah, drake, eve online, gila, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, scanning, vulture, w-space

Missing gassers, getting fuel

I return on-line some time after my sammich, but in the same w-space day. Nothing is happening in the home system, not even faux-blue pilots stealing our iskies, but I have the start of a constellation to roam, so jump to our neighbouring class 3 system. It's still unoccupied, still inactive, even after a couple of hours. The same twenty-two anomalies are present, and although twenty-three signatures is one less than earlier the K346 and N968 wormholes are still around, and I find I don't care about some Sleeper site decaying. The important point is that nothing is new. I jump to C3b.

The tower and Zephyr exploration ship remain unchanged from before, and the wobbly wormhole coming from class 4 w-space may be closer to the end of its life but it still has about an hour before dying. I suppose that's enough time to see if anyone is being careless. I poke my prow through the K162, see four ships on my directional scanner, and note that only the Vulture command ship is different from earlier and likely to be piloted. Even so, there are no other ships in the system that it could be boosting, and no activity gives me no reason to be here. I return to C3b.

The K162 from class 6 w-space remains in the system, stable and healthy. I know that the system beyond is unoccupied, and a scout was scanning there when I first looked, so there is probably another K162 to find that potentially holds activity. That's got to be worth a look. The same anomalies and signatures are revealed by my probes, so whatever wormhole brought the scout will still be here, and it is probably that obvious-looking wormhole lurking by the outer planet. The only other obvious signatures resolve to be rocks and gas, so rather than waste time on weak signatures I jump backwards through w-space to look for action. And, boy, have I found it.

That's a lot of ships on d-scan without a tower. Three Brutix battlecruisers, four Hurricane battlecruisers, two Maller cruisers, and a Ferox, Myrmidon and Prophecy battlecruiser each are all the type of ship that can be optimally fitted for harvesting gas. The jet-cans numbered with what looks like a recent time adds to the feeling that I've found gassers, as does the lack of wrecks, even if the combat and ECM drones look out of place. But just as I find gassers I lose them again. I suppose it's no surprise that a well-coordinated operation would be alert, or even have a cloaked scout watching the wormhole, but it is still with a sense of sadness that I watch pairs of ships disappear from d-scan, until none are left.

I take the exodus as an opportunity to launch combat scanning probes, throwing them out of the system and performing a blanket scan, to at least take a look around. Ten anomalies, twenty-eight signatures, no occupation. The curious collection of drones also seems to be debris and unrelated to the gassing operation I interrupted. As I consider this, an Iteron hauler appears on d-scan. I suppose it has come to collect the gas harvested and temporarily stored in the jet-cans, and the Proteus strategic cruiser that also appears must be its escort.

I've lost my shot at the gassing operation, and the Proteus is a threat, but I can still see what I can do with my probes. Without caring that they'll be seen I locate the Iteron, taking a few scans to find the ladar site it visited, only resolving it once the hauler has been and gone. And I get confirmation that a scout was sitting on the wormhole when I entered, as I am mentioned by name in the local channel. It's the only way they would know me by name. Well, maybe not the only way.

I could scan for the fleet's K162, but I imagine they won't be caught by surprise by me, making there little point in doing so. Instead, I head back the way I came, past their perhaps-remaining scout to C6a, and on to C3b, where I exit through the static connection to low-sec empire space. Being alone in the system in Molden Heath encourages me to rat whilst I scan, but the lack of any signatures except for the exit wormhole stop both activities within one scan. I continue with my optimism, travelling through C3b to C3a and out this system's static exit to null-sec space, where again I find myself alone and able to rat and scan. But the rock fields in the Perrigen Falls system are populated with dumb drones, the anomalies are full of drones, and there still aren't any more signatures to find.

Maybe I can find better opportunity by collapsing our static wormhole. Sure, why not? I may as well make a habit out of it. Orca, Widow, Orca, Orca, but the connection does the wormhole-equivalent of hull tanking, clinging on to life as tenaciously as possible. I am ready to give up, but polarisation lasts a mere five minutes, and a heavy interdictor should see the end of the wormhole. It would be churlish to give up now. So, after a few minutes, I take our mis-named Devoter, Stutter, to the static connection, bubble-up one way, activate the over-sized reheat the other, and kill the wormhole. Done.

A quick scan has the replacement static wormhole resolved, and a quick scout has me sifting through the twenty anomalies and seventeen signatures of an occupied but inactive class 3 system. A static exit to high-sec awaits, judging by the strength of the signature, and a sneaky K162 hides from me until I've all but given up finding one. Popping out to high-sec shows that killing the old connection may have been worth it after all, if not for finding targets then for getting supplies. I appear in The Forge, four hops from Jita. All that matters now is where the second wormhole in C3a leads. Jumping back and warping across, I land next to a K162 from low-sec, which is unthreatening enough even without it also being EOL. I think it's safe to take an Orca to market.

I remember to move the mining link module from the Orca's hold to our hangar before leaving for Jita, so that my calculations on how much fuel I can carry don't go askew, and grab what little loot we've accumulated since Fin took the last load. The one intervening w-space system holds no surprises, and four hops doesn't take long to cross, even in an industrial command ship, so I am soon selling reprocessed flotsam and packing lego bricks everywhere that they'll fit.

Undocking, and whilst waiting for the Orca to make its slow, slow turn towards the stargate, I ponder the number of pilots and ships just in this one place, and all the stories they must have. I can't help but wonder if I should get more involved occasionally. The feeling passes as I leave Jita, cross high-sec, and return to the quiet of w-space, where I restock the tower and put the rest of the fuel in storage. We should be good out here for a while longer.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Missing gassers, getting fuel
Tags: brutix, devoter, eve online, ferox, hurricane, iteron, maller, mmorpg, myrmidon, orca, penny ibramovic, prophecy, proteus, scanning, vulture, w-space, zephyr

Reddish blues

Yesterday's break turned in to a bubble bath and sleep, although not at the same time. I return to space refreshed, and with a new constellation to uncover, for early reconnaissance instead of a late roam. I don't get far to start with, not when finding a pair of Tengu strategic cruisers in the home system, and a bunch of Sleeper wrecks scattered around. The action has come to me today. I have already launched combat scanning probes on the edge of our system, so I have them in a blanket configuration and showing me two signatures and a bunch of anomalies. I am ready to find these ships.

It seems obvious that the two signatures will be our static wormhole and the K162 the intruders have come through, which, combined with new wrecks appearing, means I should find the Tengus in a basic anomaly. But my probes have revealed all the anomalies in the system and my directional scanner is not showing me the ships in any of them. That's odd. I can't see how the second signature can be a Sleeper site, unless someone opened our static connection earlier, collapsed their wormhole to our system, and the C3ers came backwards. But I have to work with what I know, and I know that I'll have to scan for the ships directly.

Or, rather, I'll have to scan for the salvager when he arrives. Wherever the Tengus are, they are in range of our tower, which means I can't swap ships without being obvious on d-scan for a while, and my solo cloaky Loki strategic cruiser won't be a match for two Tengus. But that gives me time, at least, and I have probes already launched and available. I settle down, switch to my salvaging overview, and start hunting the wrecks. I can't resolve the site from the wrecks themselves, but if I know where they are I can scan for the Noctis as soon as it arrives, and use the salvaging ship as a beacon.

Even better, when the Tengus leave I could probably scan for the site directly, without the small fleet being any the wiser. The site should persist for a couple of minutes, letting me resolve its position and recalling my probes without any chance of them being seen. And that's a fine plan, except that scanning resolves nothing. I could have got the range wrong, or the site has despawned quickly. Or I'm dreaming the whole situation. Whatever, I throw my probes back out of the system, but directly upwards so that they can be brought back in to position easily enough, and wait and watch d-scan.

Here comes the Noctis. In to the system, if not the site. There are more wrecks, so he has at least one more site to sweep up first. I can be patient, and I hold in position, updating d-scan to see when he coincides with the wrecks I have in my beam. It takes a few minutes, but there he is. I give him an extra minute to settle down, go back to salvaging and ignoring d-scan, and call my probes in to scan. Whatever I missed the first time, I get a solid hit now on the Noctis, letting me recall my probes and warp in to ambush the salvager. That was the plan, but it seems I didn't let him settle in enough, as someone was clearly watching d-scan intently. There isn't even a Noctis warping away when I get to the site, just abandoned wrecks.

There's not much I can do now but watch and wait once more. I get in to a decent monitoring position in the site and keep d-scan updated. An Arazu recon ship appears, no doubt coming from the other system, and launches a scanning probe. He won't find any other signatures. I'm local. That may confuse him.

The Arazu cloaks, reappears, disappears, and reappears. I suppose he checked through our static connection to look for activity, but I can't really tell just from watching d-scan. What I can tell is that a Falcon recon ship has also been brought in to our system, followed by the reappearance of the Noctis. They want their loot, and are making sure the salvager is protected. I still might take a shot, though. I'm not sure.

The Noctis warps in to the anomaly and, well shit, he's blue. Light blue, but blue. I'm still thinking about shooting him. I may joke about it occasionally, but it's a little rude to clear an allied corporation's sites without permission, and if there's no one home you don't assume permission, you move on. Despite my instincts to shoot first and let someone else resolve political consequences later, I think 'What would Fin do?', and open a communication channel to the Noctis. But this, it seems, is almost more likely to cause a diplomatic incident than shooting the salvager.

The visitors apparently didn't know that this system was blue-occupied, supposedly because they didn't reconnoitre our tower for fear of losing their ships. That is a weak excuse, as is their new intention to move on, considering that they've already finished here. And calling me 'mate' is being deliberately provocative, given past events, and decidedly unfriendly. I don't like the cut of their jib, frankly. Even so, it's no big deal really, so I let them bullshit their way through the conversation, bugger off back to their system, and collapse the connecting wormhole. There is even a hint of an apology right before they leave. But no sooner, I notice, and only a hint. I may have to downgrade their light-blueness to grey.

The only information I actually trust from our supposed allies is that they were in a simple anomaly. I have no idea why my probes refused to detect it, though, but it explains there being only two signatures to resolve. One, now. And I resolve it, and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system hoping to find capsuleers I can shoot without compunction. All I find is an unoccupied system with a static exit to null-sec, and one I visited a mere week ago. Still, the last visit offered a second connection to class 1 w-space, and today it gives me an N968 wormhole to more class 3 w-space, and occupied C3 space at that.

C3b has a tower and a Zephyr on scan, and I don't expect much from an exploration ship, which is good as it is unpiloted. But scanning gives me two more wormholes, although I obviously spook a Drake on the first, as the battlecruiser jumps through as I am scanning the connection. He goes back and is not seen again. The other wormhole is a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space. Maybe I'll poke in to C4a first, being an idiot and all, heading towards active ships instead of a benign connection. C4a doesn't disappoint. Although I'm not directly threatened, a Nemesis stealth bomber gets swapped for a Purifier stealth bomber before disappearing, and an Armageddon battleship is swapped for a Proteus strategic cruiser. They may start looking for me, so maybe I can hide in C6a instead, leaving these C4ers paranoid for now.

The class 6 system has d-scan showing me core scanning probes and nothing else from the wormhole. Exploring reveals little of interest, and a blanket scan returning twenty-two anomalies and thirty-four signatures, whilst not unusual in an unoccupied system, deters me from scanning any further currently. Initial reconnoitring is complete, and I have occupied systems to roam, and more w-space to scan for activity. That should ensure I come back later, and not tomorrow. I head home, hide in a quiet corner, and go off-line to get myself a preparatory sammich.

Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments »
Tags: arazu, armageddon, drake, eve online, falcon, loki, mmorpg, nemesis, noctis, penny ibramovic, proteus, purifier, scanning, tengu, w-space, zephyr

Early scouting

What am I going to do today? A second signature resolving to be a second wormhole offers the potential for some mayhem, right up to the point where I drop out of warp in empty space. The wormhole dies before I even reach it, which puts paid to the promise of mayhem. And if this wormhole has collapsed, what does that mean for our static connection? Nothing, apparently. The connection to class 3 w-space is stable and healthy. I won't complain about that.

Jumping to C3a has a tower visible on my directional scanner, but no ships. My last visit was six months ago, when, according to my notes, I pop a high-sec Noctis salvager with my Tengu strategic cruiser. That sounds bafflingly intriguing, but I'll check my records later. A tower was noted during my last visit, but one that should be out of range of d-scan, so there has been some change. That tower has gone, and finding the new one, although straightforward, gives me a start as I warp directly through it's force field. Thankfully, my cloak holds and I'm not in trouble. I'll settle down to scan.

Nine anomalies and eight signatures are whittled down to be two ladar sites, two gravimetric sites, two wormholes, and one magnetometric site, plus the K162 leading home. The static exit to low-sec is known, but reaching the end of its life, so I instead head out through the second wormhole, a mere K162 from high-sec, to see what else I can find. I'm ejected to a system in the Derelik region, where scanning reveals one additional signature, a radar site. That's not much fun. Do I move on, or collapse?

High-sec stargates are as safe as you can get, but there's a guarantee in finding a new w-space system by collapsing our static wormhole than hopping between high-sec systems, so I head home to kill the wormhole. Orca, Widow, Widow, Orca. Done, smooth. I get back in to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to scan once more, this time with just the one signature in the home system. That dead wormhole is definitely gone now. A replacement static wormhole takes me to a replacement class 3 system, and it looks much the same as the previous one.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole, where I launch probes and perform a blanket scan, and exploring finds a tower with no ships floating piloted or otherwise inside the force field. Two anomalies and eight signatures are scanned looking only for wormholes this time, ignoring any sites as being currently irrelevant, and again I resolve two connections. One is the static exit to low-sec, the other a K162 from high-sec. That sounds familiar. The link from high-sec even comes from Derelik again, six hops from the previous exit. It's like I never left.

The high-sec system is currently undergoing an Incursion, which deters me from spending any time there, even to scan. I ignore it as much as I can, given the mandatory communication channel demanding immediate focus, and return to C3a to see what waits beyond its static exit to low-sec. A faction warfare system in the Essence region is better than the Incursion system, but not by much. And, like before, the single additional signature resolves to be a radar site. No more wormholes.

I could collapse our static wormhole a second time, but I am ostensibly only on a scouting excursion, mapping the constellation for a later roam, and I would say I have managed that. C3a remains quiet when I return from low-sec, all of five minutes later, but it may get busy later, either with local activity or with new wormholes connecting in to it. With my initial scouting complete, I am content to head home and go off-line for a break and food. I'll see what more I can find later.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Early scouting
Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

That's Tiger Ears MA (Phil), bitches

Along with playing EVE Online, writing about EVE Online, learning to play jazz drums, playing and writing about RPGs, and something about working a full-time engineering job, I have been studying. I like to keep my mind active.

Many years of interesting but hard work came to its conclusion this year. I took a few paragraphs of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice and wrote an 18,000 word dissertation on them, arguing that Rawls is guilty of circular reasoning. Naturally, the university recognised my brilliance and passed my dissertation with merit.

There is much to enjoy about my dissertation. Personally, I quite like its subtitle, How to Give Reality a Liberal Bias. And I was pleased to be able to sneak in the sentence 'Either we get it or we don’t, and if we don’t then we just aren’t trying hard enough, which is committing the yet-to-be-recognised fallacy of proof by peer pressure', although that isn't in reference to Rawls's writing.

The dissertation result also means that I have been awarded my target qualification, the Masters degree in philosophy. I knew it was coming, but I am still ridiculously happy with my achievement. Now to work out what to do with it.

Posted in Personal | 17 Comments »
Tags: education, philosophy

Music of 2012, part three

No post about my adventures in EVE Online today. Blame Vectid for that, and maybe my continuing desire to hear new music. But mostly Vectid. I have another collection of albums from this year that I've been listening to and, for the most part, enjoying. And I have one or two more collections to review too, but I doubt that will be published this year. They're worth waiting for, though.

Taffy are a Japanese band, not that you'd know it from listening to Caramel Sunset. You may be able to convince yourself that the lead singer has a vocal quality that sounds oriental, but the music and style don't give anything away. Opening track Between is a breezy pop song with fuzzy guitars, and is followed by the even chirpier Candy Lane. And, would you know it, the whole album is like this! Yeah, the album cover is bland and uninspiring, featuring a nondescript sunset, but don't let it fool you. Caramel Sunset is a good album of guitar pop.

How much adorable can you squeeze in to a single album? Allo Darlin' do their best to find the limit, with jangly guitars and dreamy vocals reminiscent of Kirsty MacColl from start to finish on second album Europe. Lead singer Elizabeth Morris's Australian twang barely registers, doing a bloody good impression of a Londoner, as she lilts through some occasionally prosaic lyrics. But it doesn't really matter how lacking in metaphor the songs sometimes are, as Morris could be singing a telephone directory and, ukelele or not, come across as utterly charming. Europe is light, breezy pop that is almost guaranteed to bring a smile to any music-lover's face.

Support acts can have a rough time occasionally. They can sound good, and even give a performance that makes the price of the ticket feel worthwhile, only to be so completely overshadowed by the main act that you've forgotten about them before you've got on the train home. Maybe it's lucky that I bought the eponymous album of NZCA/Lines, before Django Django took the stage. NZCA/Lines were good, but Django Django were amazing. So it was with trepidation that I first played the album, wondering if I was perhaps dazzled by a live performance more than the music, and whether the electronica would translate to the studio. And, thankfully, my fears are unfounded. The songs are light, catchy, and translate well to the studio. And even though I remain cautious about the electronica keeping me entertained for the whole album, as my attention can wander sometimes, the songs are distinctive enough from each other that they all sound fresh, keeping this a decent album.

Third album from Shrag gets a positive review from NME, with enough good words to encourage me to buy it. I don't really know what I'm getting in to, though, with a band name like Shrag and an album called Canines, but luckily they are a better than I expected. This is top quality indie pop, right off the bat, with Tears of a Landlord starting the album with a nifty B52's Planet Claire-esque vibe. An early height is reached with the catchy and happy Chasing Consummations, and the good songs just keep coming. Penultimate track Flinching at Forever feels like a good closer, but Shrag give us just one more, with a slightly downbeat, but equally pleasing, Jane with Dumbbells to close the album. Canines is a surprising hit for the year, and will be enjoyed long after 2012 is over.

A compilation album is an unusual addition for me. But Slowdance release a vinyl-only single that costs twice as much in transatlantic postage as the disc itself, and I find that one of the songs is available on this album. On top of that, I am keen to listen to more French music, after liking Stereolab for ages and hearing some excellent French rap on Torpedo Boyz's Head Music. This compilation from the Kitsuné label, Kitsuné Parisien II, is a decent enough collection of music, and starts with the quirky and enjoyable So Long My Love by Tomorrow's World. Not everything is to my taste, with the second track being a somewhat objectionable electro number that probably should have been left back in the 80s. But other highlights include La Forêt by Lescop, Holy War by Birkii, as well as obviously Airports by Slowdance.

Second album >> by Geoff Barrow's krautrock project Beak> starts off on a suitable note. A simple repeating drum pattern has keyboards droning over the top of it, and, to be honest, is just what I expect and enjoy from the krautrock genre. Second track Yatton is a more traditional genre track, bouncing along with an even more simple beat and subdued vocals. The album continues nicely along this vein, offering decent songs one after another, until the rather more serious-sounding Wulfstan II. It's not a bad track in itself, but it has one refrain too many, making its hook line wear thin. But the album gets right back on track with Elevator, so I can forgive it, making >> well worth getting.

Purity Ring get several mentions in NME before this eponymous debut release, and I have to admit that my curiosity was piqued. I like the name of the band, that they are a duo, and the way their music is described appeals to me. I pick up the album, keen to get swept up in the fuss, and initially quite like it. But within a few tracks it all gets very tired. The effects on one specific song, which I don't care to listen to to find out its name, become weary quickly, having me think that there is a reason why this sort of crap was left behind in the 80s. I still want to like it, and perhaps if I dipped in to the album, track-by-track, over the course of a few days I'd like the songs individually. But, lumped together, the album is a mess of old ideas being given limp-wristed chest compression, and not even in time to Stayin' Alive. A disappointment, but at least I didn't get too carried away and order a ticket for Purity Ring's gig at the Scala.

Posted in Audio | Comments Off on Music of 2012, part three
Tags: allo darlin', beak>, cd, django django, purity ring, shrag, slowdance, taffy

Predator and prey

Launch, cloak, blanket. Flying solo leads to familiar practices. No fleet. No back-up. Just static in the local comms. It would be enough to drive any pilot crazy, but the lack of other capsuleers is probably what keeps me in w-space. And no ships are picked up by my combat scanning probes, making the system empty. That's no guarantee, though, as cloaked ships are not detected. And cloaked ships are common in w-space for just that reason. In this case, being in our home system, I would be happy assuming I am actually alone, but two extra signatures picked up by my probes resolve to be two wormholes. Wormholes bring company. I'm surprised we haven't lost our remaining anomalies to visitors. Maybe their fleets are forming up at this moment. I should check. Not through the K162 from class 4 w-space, though, as the connection between the two systems looks pretty unstable, like it won't last for long. But, lucky me, the K162 from class 6 w-space is in rude health. I suppose I'm exploring through that one.

Just as I have a standard procedure when waking up in the home system, I have a standard procedure for entering new systems. I ping directional scanner to see what's visible and in range. Core probes, two Hurricanes, and a jet-can. If I didn't know any better, I'd say d-scan is showing me a pair of gassers. I can't think what else a couple of battlecruisers could be doing away from a tower in a C6. Then again, I can't remember being here two days ago, which my notes suggest. It's probably just space madness, a result of crashing our static connection twice in quick succession last night. But my reasoning seems sound, based as it is on experience. Hurricanes have a lot of fitting points for gas harvesting modules, there are better ships available to chew on rocks, and there is no way the battlecruisers would withstand the viciousness of Sleeper drones in class 6 w-space. There's a reason C6 systems are classed as deadly.

If there are gassers in the system, then I have gassers to hunt. I move from the wormhole and activate my cloak. As the Hurricanes will be in a ladar site I'll need scanning probes to find their position, and you can't just launch probes anywhere when hunting. The targets will be watching d-scan more diligently than the hunter, and it will show them my ship and my probes if I am careless. I have to get out of d-scan range. I also ought to see if there are other pilots on-line. It wouldn't do to be counter-ambushed. Not again. I warp across the system, ostensibly to find occupation but making a safe-spot in the process, and spy multiple capital ships on d-scan. That jogs my memory. Three towers, a bunch of dreadnoughts, a couple of carriers. Other ships too. Yeah, I was here. Nothing beyond general maintenance was occurring then, just some ships milling around, but that was a few hours later in the day. It seems I've appeared today during prime time for the locals. That's good for me. Maybe not for them.

The only other capsuleer I see is piloting one of the Moros dreadnoughts in the tower, which I find out at about the same time as my hopes in hunting gassers drops slightly. A pair of Hurricanes warps in to the same tower. But I don't think I've been spotted. One of the Hurricanes turns around and heads back to apparently empty space, giving me a good view of his vector as he leaves. That's useful. And I don't suspect a Moros will come out to provide cover for a gassing operation. I should be okay to hunt. Warping to my safe spot shows it to be in a good position: out of range of the tower, out of range of the gassers. I don't loiter for long, though, not even remaining decloaked to reload my probe launcher. Any ships passing this way could update d-scan and serendipitously see my Loki strategic cruiser, and that would be the end of my fun. I launch probes, throw them out of the system, and cloak. With my probes out of d-scan range of any possible site, and the ability to move their virtual positions freely, I head back to the rough volume of space the gassers are so I can locate them more accurately.

I pick a planet to lurk around and convert d-scan to its hunter's configuration. The standard full-range, 360 degree d-scan that shows everything is great for seeing what could be looking for me. But to do the looking I need to narrow its beam. I drop its angle gradually, starting at 60 degrees, and pinging to see that I have d-scan pointed towards the location of the Hurricanes. Three of them now, suggesting the one I saw at the tower hadn't returned but had perhaps just come on-line, warping out to join the operation in progress. No, five. I hope they're all sucking gas, that a pair aren't an armed escort, or this will be a short ambush. I reduce d-scan's angle, to 30 degrees, 15 degrees, 5 degrees until I'm in a small bind in locating the site. My ship's representation of the system won't rotate to a completely vertical view, stopping at maybe 85°, and it looks like the ships are almost directly below the planet I've chosen to orbit whilst hunting. That's unfortunate, but I get a good enough bearing and range that I think I can account for the minor inaccuracy.

D-scan doesn't just work in degrees. The range gate can be adjusted too. I drop the range gate to 1 AU and ping d-scan. Nothing. The ships aren't that close. 2 AU, 3 AU, still nothing. 4 AU and the ships appear. But that's still a bit too rough for what I'm doing. A bit more tweaking, however, shows that the ships are sitting at a distance from me of almost exactly 4 AU, which is a great result. A distance of 4 AU below the planet is easy to gauge using the sphere of a scanning probe. I have been shifting the virtual boxes of my probes around to keep track of my readings, and now I line up the distance datum with the bearing datum, adjusting both until I'm happy they are in the right position. I hunt this way regularly, but now I consider what I'm hunting, which isn't typical for me. Five Hurricanes are in a site in a class 6 w-space system. How much does it take to hold a C6, and does this colour how the locals perform even mundane tasks? D-scan still registers core scanning probes in the system, so I can assume they are looking for new connections, which is a prudent defence. Then again, gassing with their own static wormhole opened seems careless, particularly without a scout monitoring the connection. Maybe I'm over-thinking the situation. I call my probes in to scan.

I get a solid hit on all five Hurricanes, even if the site itself is a little fuzzy. I've come to expect that from gas clouds. A split-second after the result registers I'm recalling my probes and warping in to the site. Time is of the essence now, as the scan I just performed would have my probes visible and obvious on d-scan to anyone paying attention. It's the first time they'd be obvious, but being spotted once is enough to thwart the hunt. Knowing this, I'd normally be flying in for the kill, but with the class of w-space and five battlecruisers waiting for me I want to be cautious and reconnoitre the site first. Being cautious with ladar sites means approaching as horizontally as possible, as the clouds tend to sit above and below their association deadspace signature. Sitting vertically above the site is perhaps the worst place to be when wanting to warp in cloaked to a ladar site, which is why I returned to my safe spot, many AU horizontal to the site, before scanning. As it turns out, entering from above would have been safe, as the Hurricanes are clustered kilometres above the cloud, in a successful bid to prevent the particularly nasty Sleepers from engaging them by staying out of range.

Now that I'm here, this looks like a normal gas harvesting operation. But I can't say for sure from this safe distance. I want to get closer, which means backing off a little first. I made a tactical monitoring point as I entered the site, which I retreat to now, taking me far enough away so that I can warp directly to the canister the Hurricanes are using either for a reference point or to store the harvested gas. The reference point is convenient to me too, letting my warp drives lock on to it for the closer approach. But still I don't warp to engage, as I am remain cautious for now. I do, however, get close enough to get my sensors working on the ships, poking around them looking for weapons systems. I see gas harvesters firing, and other turrets dormant. They may have enough pilots that each ship can spare some hard-points for armaments. This could help me ethically, as shooting ships that can shoot back is probably easier to square with my conscience. But shooting ships that can't shoot back is easier to square with my accountant.

I take a closer look at those dormant turrets. They're unmistakably gas harvesters too. They're not firing simply because of the ship's orientation. I would say I'm safe to take a shot at the ships. Or one of them, at least, as I only have one warp disruptor module fitted to my Loki. As long as there isn't a cloaked escort nearby... No, I won't double guess the situation. Sometimes you've just got to take circumstances at face value. But I can assume help is nearby, or help will come, and still give myself better odds at survival without sacrificing time or sanity. I approach from my current position thirty kilometres away, with the space seconds before I get inside optimal range, and interrogate each pilot's known information, looking specifically for the date they became a capsuleer. The youngest is my target.

Harsh, perhaps, but I want to be quick and am not particularly looking for a challenge. The younger the pilot, the less training they will have under their belt, both book-learning and flight experience. Weaker shields, armour, slow reactions, perhaps more panic. All will work in my favour. I approach the young pilot, set my ship in to a gracefully slow orbit, and decloak. I'm not expecting any return fire from the benign gas harvesters fitted to the Hurricanes, so don't need to be particularly close or moving with any great speed. As long as I don't make any mistakes this should go smoothly. It definitely starts that way. The recalibration delay of my sensors dissipates and I get a positive lock on my target battlecruiser, activating my warp disruptor, to prevent its escape. With nowhere for the ships to go, my autocannons start shredding its shields. The other ships are free to leave, however, and within seconds the other four Hurricanes warp out of the site, scattering as wildebeest pounced by a lion.

The other ships leaving is a good sign, as my intelligence that they aren't armed looks good. But there's no guarantee they won't return, with appropriately pointy ships, and their quick reactions could be dangerous for me. This is why I want the ambush to be quick and clean. The Hurricane's shields drop with little persuasion, my guns rip through the armour, and tearing through the hull becomes a minor inevitability. A bright blue flash of flame heralds the Hurricane's transformation to a rusted wreck of melted metal. The capsuleer's pod is ejected in to space, a position the pilot has clearly prepared to be in at about this time, as I can do nothing but watch it warp away to a nearby planet before my sensor-boosted systems can even attempt to gain a positive lock. Quick and clean.

D-scan looks clear. A cloaked ship could be headed my way, of course, but that isn't likely. A full response would demand the best ships, and the best ships generally don't allow cloaked flight. And although I am probably safe from immediate retribution, I don't take my time in looting and shooting the wreck, crushing the jet-can nearby, and warping back to my tactical monitoring point, where I re-activate my cloak to disappear. No one returns to the site, and the pod drops from d-scan as it presumably bounces off its escape-route planet and back to the tower. I follow it in order to gauge the response.

Actually, never mind the response. It could be nothing, or it could be whatever might a corporation living in a class 6 w-space system could muster amongst five or six active pilots with access to multiple capital ships. I got a good result with a gasser kill, even if dropping a heavy interdictor's bubble on top of them would have been better, and I think I'd like to leave whilst I still can. It isn't unusual for wormholes to be collapsed as a form of passive-aggressive behaviour. I turn my Loki away from the tower, and warp towards the wormhole home at best speed. Seeing no ships waiting for me, or trying to close the connection, I jump through without pause. Back home, I move my ship away from the wormhole and cloak, loitering nearby for a while, waiting to see what repercussions await. None, apparently. No ships come follow me through to scout, or to stress the connection to collapse, and I'm left alone. I like that. It's a good way to start a day. A kill with no consequences.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: eve online, hurricane, loki, mmorpg, moros, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Third time's not always a charm

I only have a limited time this evening, so let's see how much trouble I can make, or get in to. There's only one wormhole in the home system, which gives me a clear choice of direction, and I jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. My directional scanner is clear from the K162, and there's only one planet out of range. My notes from seven months ago indicate a tower in the system, which warping to it shows it to still be there, and that there is a static connection to null-sec k-space. That doesn't sound great, but there could be more to find, particularly as the tower I've returned to is actually off-line and a new one has sprung up, with three ships to go with it.

So many assumptions! The old tower turned out to be off-line, and only one of the three ships is at the replacement tower. A Caldari Navy Hookbill frigate floats piloted inside the force field of the on-line tower, but an Armageddon and Scorpion are both elsewhere in the system. Maybe not shooting Sleepers, as I see no wrecks, but the battleship pair are up to something. A blanket scan of the system reveals a complete lack of anomalies, and only six signatures, and now just the one ship. The battleships have dropped from d-scan too, which is only natural, although they return a little later. I imagine they're collapsing a wormhole.

Maybe the null-sec connection isn't ideal, or they want to close it so they can mine in peace. That would be nice, thank you. I sit outside the tower, watching the Hookbill directly and the battleships blink on and off my probes and d-scan, waiting to see the ships return to the tower. But they don't return, and one disappearance lasts longer than those before it. On top of that, there are now only five signatures returned by my probes. The ships were collapsing a wormhole, I have no doubt, but it wasn't locals crashing the exit to null-sec. Another corporation wanted their system to connect somewhere better, and crashed their static wormhole. I feel a bit dumb for not considering that as an option, but in reality there probably wasn't much I could have done about it anyway.

If other visitors don't like this system I should probably take that as a sign. Rather than waste time scanning for non-existent K162s, or a crappy connection to null-sec, I turn my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser around and head home, to get rid of our own static connection. Orca, Widow, Orca, Orca. The third round trip sees core scanning probes appear in C3a, but I don't care. I complete the last trip with no one following me, and get back in my Loki to look for the next wormhole.

A tower and no ships visible on d-scan from the next K162 in class 3 w-space I find myself sitting on isn't a great start, but opportunity can be found by further scanning. Holy moly, another system with no anomalies. Someone's been on a rampage, or—heh heh—a petty scout activated all the sites. It saves me the trouble. I hope for wormholes in the four signatures, and with no skinny signatures at least the static connection won't lead to null-sec. There's a wormhole, but that's the only one. And although it doesn't lead to null-sec the exit to low-sec is about as useful, as it's at the end of its life. This system isn't any better at all!

Orca, Widow, Widow, Orca. The second static connection isn't so tolerant of massive ships, but still collapses when I expect it to, so I'm safely scanning in the home system for another replacement static wormhole. The third neighbouring C3 of the evening looks clear from the K162, but that's with only one planet in range of d-scan. A blanket scan looks optimistic, with five anomalies, six signatures, and ten ships. Ships! Let's hope for pilots too. As all the ships are clustered around one planet I make an educated guess that a tower's out there, and warp across to see two on d-scan. A Drake is piloted at one, floating alongside two carriers and three other ships all empty, and the second tower holds the remaining four empty ships. Maybe the Drake will venture in to the actually present anomalies.

Maybe the Drake will float listlessly inside the force field. At least the signatures are all out of range of the tower, so I can scan without the Drake pilot seeing my probes, if he's even awake. Gas, radar site, gas, wormhole—which from its strength is an exit to high-sec or an outbound w-space connection—and rocks. So the wormhole connects to high-sec, which I confirm by warping to it. From null-sec, to low-sec, up to high-sec. That's some progression there. This time the wormhole is even healthy, so I can use it to look for a system where pilots may actually be active.

C3a's exit takes me to a system in the Heimatar region called Sist. It's a curious spelling, but I agree with the name. Scanning holds one anomaly and one additional signature beyond the K162, but that resolve to just be rocks. I can take the hint. Nothing's happening in w-space tonight, and I'm not going to collapse a third wormhole in succession. Instead, I take my frustration out on high-sec Gistii rats in the lone anomaly, where some Gistum rats also turn up. I think they're just bigger Gistii. No special Gistish rat appears, which isn't a surprise, but at least I end the evening shooting at ships.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Third time's not always a charm
Tags: armageddon, drake, eve online, hookbill, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, w-space, widow

Scanning back and forth

Signatures are accumulating as quickly as anomalies are depleting. And we're not clearing any of those anomalies, so the profit is going to other corporations. This isn't an ideal situation. Two new signatures accompany the static wormhole, and these two are wormholes too, both K162s from class 4 w-space. Damned visitors, stealing our Sleeper loot. I've a good mind to see if I can claim some back. As I warp to the K162s in the order I scan them, to C4a K162 first and then to the one from C4b, I may as well start where I land. I jump to C4b.

My directional scanner shows me nothing from the X877-side of the wormhole, but with only one planet in range, with a customs office and no moons, there is probably more to see. The system has probably changed from two years ago, though, which is back when we lived in a C4/C4 system and regularly visited other class 4 w-space systems, and the changes include there now being occupation. Occupation, but no activity. A tower sits empty of ships and pilots, and a blanket scan reveals a messy system indeed. Eight anomalies isn't too bad, but thirty-six signatures will take some time sifting through.

I have two more known wormholes already bookmarked, so I locate the tower in C4b for reference—it could probably use more defences—and return home to see what's happening in C4a, through the other K162. A tower with no ships on d-scan looks dull, but a blanket scan shows a tidier system, with just three anomalies and five signatures. It takes no time to resolve two gravimetric sites and two wormholes, giving me another K162 from class 4 w-space and a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space. Penny the cryptocarebear will stick with C4 systems for now.

D-scan is clear in C4c, and my notes give me nothing. Exploring finds a tower with an empty Nidhoggur carrier and piloted Manticore stealth bomber, interestingly orange, but nothing else is in the system and the Manticore isn't making any moves. The four anomalies and five signatures just give me rocks, gas, and a Sleeper site, with no more connections heading backwards. I should probably look at that C6. And it doesn't look particularly deadly on entrance, as again, from the wormhole, d-scan is clear. But warping around finds plenty of ships. Big ships too.

Three towers, six dreadnoughts, two carriers, plus a freighter, a Rorqual capital industrial ship, three Orca industrial command ships, a Buzzard covert operations boat, and Arazu recon ship all light up d-scan, but the Arazu disappears before I can find the towers. That can't be a good sign. A Legion strategic cruiser takes its place soon enough, and that I am able to see at one of the towers, piloted by a relative of the Buzzard, it seems. The capital ships I don't care about. The Legion looks to be awake, as the ship warps away, but only to another tower, where I watch him do nothing. At least, until he goes off-line. I assume that was the Arazu's fate too. Never mind, there is still more to explore.

I head homewards and onwards, through our static connection to C3a, where a can is on d-scan and nothing else. A tower holds a piloted Anathema cov-ops elsewhere in the system, and the two anomalies and four signatures gives me a wormhole on my first choice of signature to resolve. As I do that, the Anathema warps out of the tower, perhaps in the direction of the wormhole, so I ignore scanning for now and follow behind. But I see no sign of the cov-ops boat, and as the wormhole is in pristine condition I have probably just this minute opened it. I don't think I was too slow behind the Anathema, more that it didn't actually come here.

The Anathema's gone, somewhere, so I get back to scanning. Gas, gas, rocks, a magnetometric site. I have one way to go, so jump through the U210 to low-sec empire space, appearing in the Sinq Laison region. A bunch of pilots are in the system, none marked as coming from the current w-space constellation, so I launch probes to see if more wormholes connect here. No, no they don't. It's all a bit quiet. I return home again, having enough time to spare to wade through the three-dozen signatures in C4b, but I find no obvious K162s and don't care to hunt for hidden ones.

So much space, so little happening. I don't give up quite yet, though. Maybe the constellation has woken up in the time it's taken me to scout it all. I poke my prow back in to C4a, which remains quiet, then in to C6a, where even the Buzzard has disappeared, and then to C4c, to see the Manticore still motionless in the tower. There really isn't anything happening. I suppose it really is time to call it a night.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scanning back and forth
Tags: anathema, arazu, buzzard, eve online, legion, manticore, mmorpg, nidhoggur, orca, penny ibramovic, rorqual, scanning, w-space