Bumping in to bait

The Noctis has warped clear from my assault, and has unsurprisingly exited the class 5 w-space system. The salvager was sweeping up wrecks in some gravimetric and ladar sites in the system, cleared by at least a couple more pilots, until I interrupted, and now a Buzzard looks to be scanning. The covert operations boat may be looking for a new wormhole, but the one I entered through is old, one which I scanned a few hours ago. The fleet should also know about it already, as long as it is the same fleet that I interrupted the first time I was here, which isn't necessarily the case, but the warp-stabilised Noctis suggests it could be.

If the Buzzard's scanning, then so will I. The other pilots know I'm here, and I know there is a static connection to class 3 w-space to find, as well as probably a K162 that the fleet is using. I probably won't be able to, or want to, engage those pilots again, even though my glorious leader is also in the system and perhaps unknown, but there could be more to find further down the constellation. I launch probes, blanket the system, and start sifting through the twenty-two signatures.

There are a lot of rock and gas sites in the system, and, I notice, a whole bunch of Sleeper wrecks remaining unclaimed. Rather than ignore the sites when identifying them, I resolve each one, as they could lead to some easy ISK by looting the left wrecks, including those of a couple of Sleeper battleships. It could also find the replacement salvager, as a Cormorant appears under my combat scanning probes at one of the sites. Salvaging in a destroyer is old-school, but cheaper than using a Noctis and much more agile. And as the wrecks in the mining sites will be close together there is little lost in using the Cormorant.

Of course, the destroyer is probably bait, and as much as I'd like to take a shot at the ship I realise I would more likely end up pretty dead if I did. Fin agrees with me, and so rather than chase the Cormorant I switch tactics. I ignore scanning for now and warp to the rarified deposit of rocks that I have resolved, hoping to find the battleship wrecks there. I find one of them, and a Sleeper battleship wreck in a class 5 w-space system will contain a nice chunk of loot. I make a safe monitoring spot, check that the Cormorant is still around and apparently alone, and warp in to steal the battleship's loot.

That was pretty easy, and relatively lucrative. I grabbed about fifteen million ISK in loot from that one wreck, and although the other wrecks are just from cruisers I am more than tempted to nab a bit more profit. I warp to one of the cruisers to steal again, just as the Cormorant warps in to the site and on top of that very wreck. That's bad timing. Or good timing. I'm not sure which, but I can find out. I drop my cloak, lock on to the Cormorant, and start shooting, and at the same time the destroyer's cloaked retinue appear and no doubt try to do the same to me.

'Help.' I doubt my Loki can turn away from danger and get clear before I'm stopped, so call out to Fin to get her Legion strategic cruiser here. Except I get clear, and warp to my monitoring point, perhaps confusing me more than the Rapier recon ship, Purifier stealth bomber, and Proteus strategic cruiser that all dropped their cloaks simultaneously. I have to check my logs to see what happened, and it seems that luck was on my side. I initiated warp and activated my cloaking device, expecting neither to happen. But the wreck I was trying to loot was pulled out of range by the Cormorant, putting my Loki in clear space, and my reactions were apparently quick enough for my cloak to activate before a ship got a positive lock on me. That's fortunate indeed. At least, it is for me.

I'm clear, but I may have just called Fin in to her death. Thankfully, her Legion can cloak too, and the other ships disappear from sight once I've warped away from them, so although Fin warps to my aid, which is no longer needed, her cloak's integrity remains intact and no one is the wiser. Even so, if the fleet didn't know Fin was around, maybe we could have stayed for a fight. The Proteus is probably built like a brick, but the Purifier is fragile and the Rapier would have been toast if we could have got close. Still, I don't think panic-warping is such a bad reaction to seeing three unknown ships suddenly appearing on my overview. Maybe I'll get better at assessing a situation as I gain more experience.

I think we'll leave the Cormorant alone now, even if I hadn't actually planned to engage it. I return to scanning the system and looking for wormholes, eventually finding a weak signature that resolves to be the static connection to class 3 w-space. I jump through to take a look around, finding a tower but no ships, and my notes informing me that the static connection will lead to low-sec empire space. And that's all I find amongst the seven anomalies and six signatures, bringing this part of the constellation to an end. But it doesn't explain where the other ships have come from.

The fleet wasn't local to C5a, which I'd already checked, nor were they from it's neighbouring C3 system, going by the ownership of the tower. None of the ships jump past Fin, sitting on the K162 to C2c as the fleet disappears from d-scan, and I didn't resolve any K162 connections in the class 5 system. It's possible I missed or overlooked a chubby signature, but I don't think I did. Maybe the C5 locals scanned and resolved a weak outbound connection, opening it before going off-line, and the corporation on the other side of that wormhole made use of it to plunder the C5. I dunno, but I'm not going back to scan for a wormhole that holds hostiles who are aware of us.

There is also the fact that our route home has a wormhole at the end of its life, which I only just remember. It had a good couple of hours left before its inevitable implosion, but our shenanigans have soaked up a fair bit of that and we ought to head home whilst we can. Even though we would still have a valid route home, having scanned alternative routes earlier, the one through the dying wormhole is the most convenient. We turn our ships around and head back through dead w-space systems, through the dying wormhole, and across low-sec to reach our home system at the end of an interesting evening.

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Tags: buzzard, cormorant, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, proteus, purifier, pvp, rapier, scanning, w-space

Gas site salvager

I'm fed and watered and back in w-space, in the hopes that other pilots are out and about. A quick check confirms a lack of new connections in the home system, so I point my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser towards our static wormhole for a roam through the w-space constellation that I scanned a little earlier. The neighbouring class 3 system is dead still, and I cross it to exit to low-sec empire space, which holds a K162 from class 2 w-space. The wormhole is now reaching the end of its natural life, but given its stability from earlier, and my brief time off-line, it should stick around for another couple of hours or so. In I go.

All looks quiet, so I continue through the constellation to C2c, which is also boringly inactive, and I push in to C5a. Earlier, some gassing was happening, which I maybe interrupted just by entering the system, or maybe I didn't. I couldn't tell for sure, even though I suspect I was spotted. There is activity now too, albeit looking a little different. A Legion strategic cruiser and Noctis salvager are both visible on my directional scanner, along with a bunch of wrecks. That looks a bit weird, as a solo Legion should not be capable of much in a class 5 w-space system, but when an update to d-scan sees just the Noctis in range it seems possible that the Legion has warped away to rejoin a bigger fleet. The system is big enough to hide them, after all.

The Noctis is joined by a Nighthawk command ship on d-scan, which also is not enough ship for C5 anomalies. And, sure enough, I can't find either ship in any of the few anomalies in the system. On top of that, sweeping d-scan around on a tight beam shows that the wrecks are not clumped together but spread out. I suspect the fleet is small and making best use of their limited capability by clearing Sleepers out of rock and gas sites, making ISK where they can find it. In that case, maybe I can find one of the sites and wait for the Noctis to appear in it.

It looks like I can attempt to locate a site, and better than I hoped. I warp to the most distant planet in the system to see that no ships are in range, letting me launch scanning probes covertly. I also notice that there are a few Sleeper wrecks within range of this planet too. I was planning to 'hunt' the wrecks, using d-scan and positioning my probes, waiting for the Noctis to appear before scanning, but if there are no ships in range I can scan the site directly. This only works because the wrecks are in mining sites, which won't despawn just because the Sleepers are gone. I can't scan the wrecks, but I don't need to wait for the Noctis.

I don't scan casually. There is a chance a ship will appear before I'm close to the site and be alerted to my probes, so I hunt the wrecks normally. I don't need to be too precise, though, as a quick correction to resolve the site now is probably better than fiddling to get it perfect only to have the Noctis appear and spot my probes. I get a bearing and range on the wrecks, arrange my probes, and check d-scan for ships. There is still nothing in range, so I call my probes in for a scan, getting a perfect result on the ladar site. I recall my probes, and bookmark and reconnoitre the site.

My glorious leader has come on-line as I'm warping in to the ladar site. I give her a sitrep as I bounce off a planet, knowing that I need to enter the site as laterally as possible to avoid the clouds, and Fin starts making her way across systems and through wormholes to join me. As Fin travels I make a suitable waiting point in the site. This is probably more out of habit than necessity, as the wrecks are close together, giving little risk that the Noctis will appear far from where I choose to wait. Still, having a position in the site I can warp to and from lets me evaluate the situation as it occurs. Should the Noctis appear with an escort I can abort without being in any danger, or if reinforcements arrive early I can warp out to a known spot quickly.

Or if the Noctis warps in alone, like he does, I can be aligned and warping to his position in seconds. Fin's made it to C2c and is sitting on the wormhole, so I call her in and, as I am close to landing on the salvager, tell her to warp to my position. It would be better if we could warp in together, but a Noctis sweeping up five wrecks doesn't give us a big window of opportunity. I can hold the salvager for Fin to provide the death blow. At least, that's the plan, and as with most of our plans it goes wrong after the first step.

I lock on to the Noctis and activate my offensive modules, disrupting its warp engines and unloading projectile ammunition its way. I try to give the ship a bump too, to knock it out of any alignment it may be aiming to achieve, but it's a poor effort. I vaguely nuzzle against the salvager, not really getting a decent run-up, which turns out to be an important mistake. The Noctis has warp core stabilisers fitted, perhaps because of the threat the same pilots saw in this system earlier—that would be me—and the ship warps clear of my attention before Fin even reaches the ladar site.

Maybe I should have waited for Fin to join me in the site before engaging, to add her extra points of warp disruption to the assault, but a Noctis with a bit of luck can really clean up the wrecks. Waiting may have got us watching the salvager warp clear just as we got ready, and I considered time to be critical in this case. Either way, the early reconnaissance, and situational awareness of the wrecks and sites, got us a shot at a Noctis, which is more action than it feels like we've seen for a while. I think we can be happy with that. Besides, we still have time, and there's more constellation to uncover yet.

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

Early uncovering of the constellation

I'm out for early reconnaissance. Well, not early, really, but earlier than normal. It's still reconnaissance. But perhaps not until I've left the home system, so with all looking clear I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. My directional scanner shows me nothing of interest from the K162 in C3a, letting me launch probes again and blanket the system. Four anomalies and six signatures indicate either an occupied or often-visited system, and my notes point me to occupation that remains since my last visit a year ago.

No one's home, so I scan. One ladar site, one gravimetric site, and three wormholes is a decent result. Or it would be, if the static exit to low-sec weren't joined by a K162 also from low-sec and a K162 from class 2 w-space that's on its last legs. Checking the exits has me in the comforting bosom of Aridia through the K162, where it looks like a Pilgrim recon ship is ratting, and across C3a and through the static connection I appear in a system in Domain. And with the exits covered, giving me a route home, I poke through the dying wormhole to C2a.

A tower is visible on d-scan, in the same way ships aren't, and as I am spat in to the system over five kilometres from the wormhole I simply turn back to C3a. Wondering if the Pilgrim is still ratting, giving me a potential target, I return to Aridia, but to an empty system. Damn the local channel for making occupation obvious. But now the system has no other pilots I can rat myself, scanning to pass the time. Scanning finds one other signature, which is resolved to be a K162 from class 2 w-space before I find a suitable rat to pop. I abandon saving my security status for now, and dive back to w-space.

As with C2a, C2b has a tower and no ships on d-scan, and my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser appearing far from the wormhole, over seven kilometres away this time. But unlike C2a, the second static connection waiting to be found is the w-space connection, not the k-space one, and could be worth looking for. Two anomalies and three signatures makes finding it easy too, and I am soon jumping through another connection to class 2 w-space. C2c follows the pattern of having a tower and no ships on d-scan, and my notes make it a rough system to live in, with static connections to class 5 w-space and null-sec.

Six anomalies are accompanied by eleven signatures, all weak. Naturally, I resolve all the radar and magnetometric sites before either wormhole, which sucks up my time, but as I resolve them I may as well poke in to C5a. And I see gassing in action! I think! Two Maller cruisers, an Impel transport, two Hurricane battlecruisers, and a Brutix and Cyclone battlecruiser each are all on d-scan without a tower in sight. A minor adjustment also shows two medium Sleeper wrecks, which should be about right for a ladar site, and I'm not quite sure what else such a collection of ships could be doing in a class 5 site if not sucking up gas.

And now a Cheetah blips on d-scan. The presence of the covert operations boat could mean that the wormhole I've opened has already been spotted, alerting the gassers to bug out. I'll assume otherwise for now, particularly as a canister gets jettisoned and labelled with the current time. I warp out, launch probes, and warp across to check the local tower, which my notes from four weeks ago point me to. It's still there, and has a Noctis salvager and Purifier stealth bomber inside the force field, but no other pilots. It's time to find the gassers.

Warping back to the inner system has a disappointing result. The Cyclone is the only ship that remains on d-scan, and even then only for a few seconds. I suppose I must have been spotted, because even if four battlecruisers and two cruisers can really suck up the gas that quickly they'd move to a new site, and not disappear. And they do disappear, as a return to the tower shows the same two unpiloted ships as before, so it looks like the gassers weren't local.

My probes, already launched, show me sixteen anomalies and twenty-five signatures, and with that many to sift through, coupled with the fleet's knowledge that I'm here, means I'm not scanning for their system now. I can do that later, perhaps, or just come back to look for the C5's static connection to class 3 w-space to continue the constellation. Now it's time for food. I'll return later, to roam through the systems my early reconnaissance has uncovered.

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Tags: brutix, cheetah, cyclone, eve online, hurricane, impel, loki, maller, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pilgrim, purifier, scanning, w-space

Finding a ship to shoot

I could do with finding another ship to shoot. Do you hear that, w-space? All looks clear in the home system, with a a few changes from a couple of days ago. Four sites have dissipated in to the aether and one new signature has cropped up to take their place. It's not a new site but a second wormhole, a K162 from class 2 w-space. That sounds like a good place to start looking for other ships, and I jump through to see what I can find.

My notes have this C2 as a silo system a little over two years ago, but that was then and nothing appears on my directional scanner from the wormhole today. A single planet out of range of d-scan holds the lone tower, and in it is an Orca industrial command ship and shuttle, naturally both unpiloted. Space itself has two anomalies and thirteen signatures, which amongst the radar site, two magnetometric sites, rocks, and gas, are two more wormholes. I'm expecting to find the static exit to high-sec empire space, and trying to learn my lesson from before I pop out to bookmark the other side in case I need a route home.

I exit w-space to appear in the Lonetrek region, and a mere two hops from Jita. I probably should make use of this connection to do some shopping at the busiest trade hub in the galaxy, but I'm lazy and we probably have some tower fuel, so I return to w-space to see where that second wormhole leads. A K162 from more class 2 w-space is pretty neat, and I've already forgotten about that handy route to, uh, Rens, or somewhere. It had four letters, I think. Going with my instincts, I jump to C2b, where a red giant is visible but nothing appears on d-scan.

Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals seven anomalies, six signatures, one tower, and no ships. There's not much to be found, if you don't count the Cheetah that warps to the tower as I loiter outside it, but only to about three hundred kilometres from the force field. The covert operations boat scarpers pretty sharpish too, disappearing from d-scan to remain a mystery as I resolve just one more wormhole, which is the system's static exit to low-sec. Once more, I check the exit, bookmarking the other side of the wormhole in a system in Derelik. And as I'm alone in the system I'll rat. And as I'm ratting, I'll scan. But two extra signatures are just rocks and rats.

Returning to w-space has a bit of excitement on seeing a pod appear in the tower of C2a, particularly as the pilot pops in to a Heron frigate and warps towards what looks like the wormhole heading homewards. I follow, a bit tardily, and only manage to catch up with the Heron's return to the tower, where the ship stares intently at a hangar for a minute, before dropping back to a pod and going off-line. Still, I'm counting that as excitement, considering the past week, and can feel the adrenalin pumping. I use my pent-up energy to jump home and vigorously warp across to our static wormhole, where I enthusiastically enter our neighbouring class 3 system.

A tower on d-scan with a Magnate frigate, Buzzard cov-ops, and Mammoth and Bestower haulers looks promising, and more so when warping to the tower sees all three ships piloted. Three ships? Let me count again. I see, the Buzzard isn't in the tower. I sweep d-scan around looking for him, but can only place him in empty space. Still, he's not cloaking, so maybe he's paying little enough attention that I could catch him. I quickly give up hoping one of the haulers will collect planet goo to warp out and launch probes, returning to the tower to see if I can find that Buzzard.

I get a decent range on the cov-ops boat, and a fair idea of where in space he is, but as the tiny boat is agile and can cloak I see little point in taking the hunt too seriously. I position my probes and scan, getting a decent first hit, where a slight adjustment and second scan lets me bookmark the wormhole the Buzzard is near. I throw my probes out of the system and warp to the wormhole, not knowing if the Buzzard is sitting on it or two hundred kilometres away. Either way, I have options with my combat probes still out and getting eyes on the Buzzard to see where it is.

My scanning didn't find the system's static wormhole but another K162 from class 2 w-space, with the Buzzard sitting right on top of it. That's curious, and gives the cov-ops a really easy escape route, but I'd like to see how alert the pilot is and move closer to give him a poke. He's awake. Decloaking to engage, I get one volley out of my guns before the Buzzard is through the wormhole. I follow and try to continue the engagement, but, as I suspected, the agile ship slinks away from the wormhole and cloaks before I can get close to stopping him.

I may as well take a look around this C2 as I'm here. D-scan is showing me a Tengu strategic cruiser, Orca, Mastodon transport, and two Mammoths, along with two towers that are easy to find, thanks to my notes from a week ago. One Mammoth is empty at one tower, and the other ships are all at the second tower, with the Mastodon and Mammoth piloted. Having the Buzzard draw me in to the system to find planet gooers would be quite serendipitous, but instead I watch the haulers for a couple of minutes until they decide to go off-line. Oh well, I'm calling that the end of exploring and time for sleeps.

First I need to see what waits for me on the wormhole back to C3a. Surely there will be repercussions for trying to explode one of their scouts, and there maybe is, kinda. Jumping through the wormhole sees a change of ships, with a Manticore now visible on d-scan, but a visible stealth bomber is failing at something, and this time it's because he's at the tower and not lurking to bomb me on the wormhole. Still, I actually managed to shoot another ship, so I should call this a victory of sorts. I ignore the unmoving ships in C3a's tower to warp and jump home, where I hide in a corner of the system to get some rest.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, cheetah, eve online, heron, magnate, mammoth, manticore, mastodon, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Half-heartedly harassed

All alone, tonight may be another quiet night, if it weren't for the persistent notifications about a tower I don't care about in a system I don't know running out of fuel. I hope the force field goes down soon, so my in-box stops blinking at me, making me think I'm popular like that. I ignore it as best I can for now, launching probes and scanning the home system. My, what a mess. Eight signatures now clutter our system, with two more signatures than there were yesterday. Then again, only one of them is a new site, a clumping of rocks, as the other is a K162 from class 4 w-space. Let's see what's there.

What's in C4a is a well-stocked tower, and no—hold on, there is a ship, a Loki strategic cruiser decloaking as it approaches the wormhole. I don't break the session change cloak my own Loki lingers under, wondering if the pilot saw my entrance in to the system, and I can be fairly sure he did. The Loki doesn't jump through the connection, warp away, or cloak, but enters a lazy orbit of the wormhole. I may as well break the cloak voluntarily, so that I know when it happens, and move from the wormhole and activate my cloaking device to hide again. The other pilot will certainly know that I'm here, and what I'm flying.

There's little point jumping straight back home, as I'll end up polarised, so rather than loitering ineffectively by the the wormhole I'll explore the system. The tower I see on my directional scanner is in the same position as from two years ago, but warping around reveals two new towers in the inner system, along with an Onyx heavy interdictor waiting warmed up at one of them. Is that for me? How sweet. I also notice the off-line towers on every single moon in the system, to make any invasion inconvenient, and the farthest planet holds one more tower with a piloted Tengu strategic cruiser inside its force field.

Having been made already, I will achieve little in this system but die horribly. I'll head homewards to look for opportunity in the other direction. The wormhole looks clear when I land on it, but having seen active ships and waiting pilots I have no idea what's on the other side. I jump to find out, and appear in the home system on what looks like a clear K162. Moving away from the wormhole and cloaking has a ship follow me from C4a, if a bit slowly, and I am safe before the Tengu reveals himself. And, as far as I can tell, no one follows me across to our static connection, and I get no surprises jumping to the class 3 w-space system beyond.

I suppose it's not really disappointing that I'm not being hunted, and I'll still need to be wary of what I do in case I'm being shadowed, but I suspect those C4ers will not pose a particular threat this evening. I turn my attention instead to the strategic cruiser on d-scan, but as there is a tower also visible and a lack of wrecks I'm not surprised to see the Legion unpiloted at the tower. I'm back to scanning, and I sift through the seventeen anomalies and twelve signatures to discard the usual suspects from the sole wormhole in the system, which is its static exit to low-sec empire space. Where it goes, nobody knows. Except me. It goes to Domain.

There are other pilots populating the low-sec system, which keeps me from ratting but not from scanning. I launch probes just as I am spotted in the local communication channel. Maybe low-sec isn't so bad after all, even if he's wise to my general antics. Scanning reveals three additional signatures, but I am wondering how long they are going to last. I resolve a magnetometric site, some rocks, and, well, it looks like my fellow w-spacer wasn't kidding that he was collapsing a wormhole, as the third signature has disappeared. Maybe I should be less conspicuous, or fake my levels of competence even more than I already do, so that pilots welcome me in to their systems.

It looks like I'm going home. I leave low-sec behind me and return to w-space, with C3a remaining unchanged from only a few minutes ago. Jumping home has no one obviously waiting for me on the wormhole, and neither is the K162 from C4a buzzing with ships or being collapsed. It's all rather anticlimactic. Never mind, I can try to get an early night. I don't suppose there's much else I can do at this point.

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Tags: eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Slumming it in low-sec sites

Fin's here, but not much else. 'We have mostly nothing.' Even a K162 from class 4 w-space leading to a K162 from class 5 w-space doesn't look promising, and neither does our neighbouring class 3 system heading out to low-sec empire space. I would ask what the plan is, but I suspect I know the answer. 'That also falls in the 'nothing' column.' Yeah, I asked. But Fin sends me in to C4a, behind us, to see if the C5 K162 remains. It was wobbling at the end of its natural life when she found it.

C4a was unoccupied the last time was here, and no one has moved in during the past seven weeks. The wormhole has gone too, which I warp to without stopping to look around, but now I do. There's still not much to see. The system is tiny, and I barely have to move my scanning probes to cover it all. The lack of anomalies could perhaps have been caused by the occupants of the class 5 system that connected here having blasted through them all. I doubt they also collected all the rocks and gas that accumulate in empty space, but a mere five signatures remain.

Rocks, rocks, rocks, and gas is essentially nothing, and I head back in to and across the home system to see what can be found in the other direction. Nothing in C3a, which Fin has already scanned, and she's currently in low-sec and scanning the system in Aridia. That explains why she labelled the bookmark 'Crack o' the Bum', as I didn't recognise it as a system name. A Drake battlecruiser in C3a perks me up. Is it new? 'Old, at the tower, unpiloted. Provisional Blood Outpost?' Okay. 'And a Regional Blood Raider Data Mining site.' Sure, let's do them.

The lack of wormholes in low-sec and pilots in w-space makes it easy to convince each other to clear a couple of sites that we don't normally see. We both return to the tower, where we board our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers, which will be more than adequate for the minor threats we'll encounter. I slot a codebreaker on to my Tengu, so that we can hack the databanks in the data mining site, and we head back out of w-space to Aridia.

I'm fitted to hack, so we should probably go to the radar site first. It's all pretty simple, with basic ships that don't need us to coordinate fire, or even run the remote-repair modules between each other. We need to keep an occasional watch on our directional scanners, though. But, being out of w-space, we only have to do this when the local communication channel shows a pilot enter the system. One Drake appears, followed by a Cheetah covert operations boat, but both are simply passing through. The rats are popped, the cans hacked, and we warp on to the next site with some decryptors, datacores, and a couple of blueprints for our time.

A new contact appears in the system in a Manticore stealth bomber as we enter the outpost. He loiters for a while, not passing through until perhaps he realises we are in a site that cannot be found without scanning probes. We have time to watch d-scan, more or less. The combat is less about survival and more ensuring that our launchers actually keep firing, as we're facing only frigates and they pop pretty easily. And a couple of deadspace zones gives us nothing challenging, nothing rewarding.

Moving around the last deadspace zone triggers a new wave of frigates, but still nothing special. It's only when I destroy a chapel that I provoke the required ire, and in warps a Dark Blood Arch Templar. He doesn't last long. He also doesn't carry much, leaving us to loot a Dark Blood brass tag and a Blood microwave crystal for laser weapons. That's not great, but I suppose it's better than nothing. And, with that, we are finished in low-sec. We return home, through the class 3 w-space system, where we settle down for an early night. It's quiet out there today.

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Tags: cheetah, drake, eve online, low-sec, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Banging with blues

'Are we dead yet?' Apparently not, as the K162 in the home system leads to neighbours that are blue to us, and so supposedly allies. But they have seen some Ducks about, which are rather more threatening in space than ponds, and have a scout or two wandering around seeing if they can set up some bait to catch them. Apart from that, Fin's not sure if we have a plan beyond to do what we normally do. 'We could collapse both wormholes', I suggest, which would isolate ourselves from the threat of the ducks and let us actually do what we normally do. And although it would collapse the blues' static connection, it would also give them a new wormhole that would offer better opportunity than simply linking to our dull system.

The motion is carried, and we both jump in to a Widow black ops ship each. The mass already passed through either wormhole is unknown, and the Widows will give us a finer estimation of when the connections destabilise to half-mass, which should help us crash the wormholes without getting isolated. The only problem appears to be with the blues, who aren't too happy with us collapsing the wormholes. That's too bad, as it is our prerogative to keep our w-space system isolated, and although they have free passage when connected to us our relationship doesn't give them any special dispensation to dictate our operations.

Of course, we give them notice of what we are doing, along with time to recall their scouts. We're not unreasonable, and aren't out to ruin their evening. We just want to enjoy ours. So it is a bit awkward when, on one trip with an Orca in to the C4—which looks unchanged from ten months ago, according to a rough look with my directional scanner—I get a conversation request from one of the blues. He tells me not to collapse the wormhole, and after I assure him that we are letting their pilots get home, and that I am working with Fin, he simply closes the channel without acknowledgement.

It seems that the blues aren't brusque to the point of being rude to just me. Fin goes quiet for a couple of minutes at a time, no doubt communicating with these wankers, even once the last of their fleet returns home and we finally get to kill the wormholes. She tells me that their plan was based around having a Falcon recon ship in their fleet and then adding some heavy-hitting ships for damage, but refusing to allow a stealth bomber to join their plan-less attack. The amateurish approach, boorish communications, and general unfriendliness of the blues has tainted our evening. I dread to think what could have come of it had we kept the wormholes open.

We need to put the unpleasant encounter behind us. Rather than explore beyond the new static wormhole—although I scan for and resolve it, to ensure that it is indeed the only new signature—we decide to make some profit from the building anomalies in the home system. We stow our current ships and board Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers, make sure they are ready, and warp out to take out some frustration on w-space drones.

All goes well, and without drama, until the third anomaly. But the drama is slight and limited to Fin's end, when she accidentally lingers over the launcher controls long enough for the information bubble to appear, which catches her a little off-guard. Thankfully, it isn't actually a ship coming to kill us again, although such short, sharp shocks to the system keep us on our toes and remind us to update d-scan often.

By the end of the third anomaly Fin is affected by another quirk. Without any Sleepers webbing her ship, the Tengu is slowed to a virtual crawl, reduced to under 50 m/s, an order of magnitude slower than normal and enough for her to be dragged out of remote-repair range. It's no fuss for me to turn around and get us back in range, and the incoming Sleeper damage is nothing to be concerned about by this stage, but it is still curious and frustrating. Luckily, clearing three anomalies is my limit tonight, so rather than work out what's happening we warp back to the tower and hope that powering-down the Tengu for the night will see it functioning properly again the next time we use it.

Our Noctis salvagers don't suffer strange effects when sweeping up all the wrecks we created. In fact, the salvaging modules seem to be working quite well, as I reap a good haul from the first site alone, and enough to make me drop it back at the tower before moving to the second site. We may not be at much risk from an ambush, but there's no point carrying 150 Miskies between sites in an industrial ship when in the home system. The other two sites don't recover quite as much in profit, but it is still a good result. And we don't get ambushed, which is also good. We both get home and combine our loot for a decent 350 Miskie profit, which lets us end the evening feeling positive.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Banging with blues
Tags: eve online, falcon, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Staying out of trouble with my scouting

'C4a may be gone. It was EOL.' I didn't know we had a connection to class 4 w-space, but warping across the home system sees the K162 wormhole still there and still wobbling away at the end of its life. My glorious leader is through our static wormhole and scanning the C3, having already found its static exit to low-sec empire space, and a K162 from high-sec. So what's the plan? 'Plan?' Yeah, that list of objectives that don't get done. 'Well, the C3a occupants are AWOL.' Okay, so we can't poke them. How about C4a? 'I honestly didn't look.' That's fair enough, as getting isolated without a route home is a bit reckless, but Fin's found our route home now so I can risk the EOL wormhole to see what's stirring in C4a.

Nothing's stirring in the class 4 system. My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole, leaving a single planet out of range. There was a tower around that planet a little over two years ago, and I suppose it technically still is there, just off-line. I launch probes to scan for dead K162s, at least until I see the twenty-eight signatures I'll need to sift through. I just turn around and go towards Fin, who, by the time I cross the home system and jump to C3a, has resolved another wormhole. This connection is T405 wormhole that leads to more class 4 w-space, so I play leapfrog and jump ahead as Fin completes scanning.

D-scan is clear in this C4 too, and the seventeen anomalies a passive scan picks up isn't looking positive for finding occupation. Indeed, there isn't an active tower in the system, letting me resolve the thirteen signatures to find out why. The weak static wormhole leads to deadly class 6 w-space, which doesn't seem like the best connection to have, particularly if you can't move capital ships through it to take advantage of all a C6 can offer. But it won't stop me roaming through the wormhole in to the system, and I continue exploring the constellation.

C6a has five towers on d-scan from the wormhole, along with a Legion strategic cruiser at one of them. Taking a look around the rest of the system, initially out of d-scan range, reveals eight more towers and more ships. The strategic cruisers, logistics ships, and heavy interdictor don't appear to be active, being coincident with towers and there being no wrecks visible, but they aren't exactly dozing inside the safety of force fields either. A Myrmidon battlecruiser with ECM drones appears on d-scan, as does a flight of core scanning probes.

I'm heading back. My own probes pick up a mere two anomalies and three signatures, which combined with a bunch of pilots and an active scout gives me some concern. The competent corporations in C5 or C6 w-space tend to crash unwanted wormholes with some efficiency, and as much as I believe in my ability to out-pace other scanners it is better to avoid getting in to such races in the first place. I turn my covert Loki strategic cruiser around and head back the way I came, continuing through C4b to C3a, where I warp across the system to see where the K162 from high-sec originates.

I jump to high-sec right behind Fin, who had the same idea. 'I hear you! peeing', she says, but I think those sentences are unconnected, Fin hearing the wormhole flare with my jump and then taking a bio-break. I'm no Marilyn Monroe, after all. The high-sec system is in the Derelick region and seems pretty dreary, being many hops from civilisation and not holding any other signatures to resolve. But Fin sees it differently, noticing the DED station and realising we can sell the loot we got from site overseers recently. I didn't even know that's what you did with them.

Fin returns home to fumble around the tower looking for the loot, as I see if anything has happened to the wormhole linking C4b to C6a. Jumping through the T405 connection sees the core probes probably from C6a now having moved in to C4b, which pretty much answers my question without having to check the next wormhole explicitly. I return to C3a, and from there I warp homewards. There's not much happening tonight, and what there is I don't really want to get involved with anyway. I'll satisfy myself with the simple scout through a few w-space systems.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Staying out of trouble with my scouting
Tags: eve online, legion, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Going home

I'm isolated from the home system, and still doing what I do best. I scanned from high-sec to w-space, found some ships shooting Sleepers, and ambushed their salvager. I didn't get any loot from the wreck, having to evade a battleship responding to the mayday a little too tardily, but I think I can still make a bit of profit. The locals of this class 3 w-space system look to have reacted to my actions, but by mobilising scouts and combat ships. They are leaving the other two cleared anomalies alone. I can score some of the loot left in the Sleeper wrecks.

Not that there's much loot in the Sleeper wrecks, of course. And the anomalies that the locals were clearing were only protected by a single battleship amongst the cruisers and frigates, so there are really only a couple of wrecks worth looting. At least, when considering the risk of getting another Loki strategic cruiser caught and destroyed today. I'll just pluck the most valuable loot from two wrecks than worry myself sick by picking through all the wrecks for scraps.

I have monitoring positions made in the anomalies already, so I warp to them to check first for obvious ships in the sites. It looks clear, but I still can't see cloaked ships for some reason. Or maybe that's been fixed and I can see them, which means none are here. That sounds good to me, so I warp to the first battleship wreck, transfer the loot to my hold, and warp out again. That's one site done, for a measly seven million ISK or so, which I repeat for the second site and battleship wreck. Fifteen million ISK is not much of a return, but it's better than nothing. Now I should think about leaving the system.

Rather than head back the way I came, which is from a boring class 2 w-space system, I may as well scan to look for more connections in this C3. And my probes picking up just a single signature is interesting, as that must be the static connection, and I didn't enter through the static connection. Indeed, warping back to where the K162 I used should be sees only empty space. I doubt the C2ers crashed the wormhole, so it seems that some of the ship movements I saw on my directional scanner when waiting earlier were the locals finding and collapsing my route back.

The lack of K162 isn't really a problem. I am already isolated, so couldn't have got home that way. And I know that this C3 holds a static wormhole to high-sec, which makes exiting safe and the destination system relatively convenient by default. It reinforces my earlier concern that losing my scanning ship had the ambush gone wrong would have left me with nothing to do but self-destruct my pod, but all went well. I just need to resolve the static connection and leave the system. Even the warp bubble on d-scan that obviously guards the exit to high-sec doesn't bother my interdiction-nullified Loki. But plans rarely proceed as expected past the first item, and this one is no exception.

Not only have the locals crashed the K162 behind me, and bubbled the high-sec exit, but they have stressed the wormhole to critically destabilised levels. There are also ships milling around, in and out of the large bubble encapsulating the wormhole, probably waiting for me to make a mistake. Now, a critical wormhole doesn't prevent ship transit, but if the locals have a big ship waiting in high-sec for a command, and I am unlucky or careless, then they could call that ship through the wormhole to kill the connection just as I try to exit. That would leave me staring in empty space, in a warp bubble, decloaked for galaxy to see. That would be bad.

But I am over-thinking the situation. I can get on top of the wormhole before needing to decloak, and can jump immediately after decloaking. Even pilots with the best reflexes cannot transmit information across channels quickly enough to beat that. I think. So I warp out, bounce off a planet, and return to the wormhole, where I crawl the last few kilometres, decloak, and jump through. The wormhole survives the transit and spits me out to high-sec, where no one from the C3 awaits. I think my earlier death got to me there a little, combining with some uncertainty to make me fear the worst.

I'm in a system in the Bleak Lands, safe and sound, and my glorious leader has come on-line. I think I'm going home. I warn Fin of the class 4 w-space system that held the earlier hostiles, but her entry to C3a is unimpeded and warping to where the wormhole should be shows it gone. All looks clear, letting Fin exit through C3a's static wormhole to low-sec to bookmark the other side of the wormhole. I should have done that myself, which would have saved this hassle, but maybe I'll learn from my mistake. It's nineteen hops through stargates to the exit system, which I start to make as Fin scans low-sec to look for a better route. I've done the same before, and that way lies madness.

I hop, hop, hop through stargates, transitioning from high-sec to low-sec with hardly seeing another capsuleer. The odd low-sec system along my route is also completely free from other pilots, so I stop to look around the rock fields for a rat to pop. I take care of passers-by, but that's what they mostly are, and a few rat battleships explode to my guns as I steadily make my way home. I meet Fin one system away from the one holding the wormhole to C3a, and we go the last hop together. All is quiet in the class 3 system, which is just as well, as I've had a busy day. We jump home, hide our ships, and get some shut-eye.

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

Playing away from home

I'm in high-sec empire space with no way home. I don't even bother warping to where the wormhole was when I exited, as it was reaching the end of its life when I left and that was a few hours ago. I know I'm stranded, I just need to make the best of my situation whilst I wait for a colleague to turn up and find me a route home. Finding a distraction is not exactly difficult either, as I've been in this situation before, and it's simply a matter of doing what I normally do but from a different starting point. I'm scanning for wormholes, just from the outside in.

Scanning the high-sec system I'm stranded in has just rocks as the only signature, encouraging me to move on immediately. Luckily, empire space has stargates to help with moving ships from system to system, which are ridiculously easy to use, and within a minute I'm in the next system across—which, in some kind of madness, will always be the next system across—and scanning again. Three signatures resolve to be three wormholes, two of them K162s from class 2 w-space that are both EOL, and one a K162 from class 1 w-space. I'll check the C1 first.

A tower, Prorator transport ship, and Buzzard covert operations boat all appear on my directional scanner from the wormhole in C1a, which is slim pickings but I will still check for possible pilots. I locate the tower to locate the ships, where I see the Buzzard is piloted, and exploring the rest of the system has nothing else to find. I don't think I'll bother scanning, not with two more wormholes to explore through from high-sec. And although I often leave EOL connections alone for fear of them collapsing, I can't get any more stranded than I am already, so these K162s give me no such concerns.

C2a looks promising to start with, as a Tengu strategic cruiser and Mammoth hauler appear on d-scan with two towers, and I find the Tengu piloted at one tower and the Mammoth empty at the other. My notes from two years ago indicate that the second static connection will lead to class 3 w-space, which itself will go straight back to k-space, so before scanning here I'll go back to check the second C2 first. Or I would, if the wormhole hadn't withered from old age before I am able to reach it. I'll be scanning C2a, it seems.

Resolving four signatures won't take long, particularly as one is the connection to high-sec that I already know about. Rocks, gas, and the static connection all get bookmarked, and I jump through the wormhole to class 3 w-space. I suppose I'll call the system C3b, as C3a should still be around somewhere, but who cares about that when I've found trouble. Eight combat ships are on d-scan, with a pair of strategic cruisers, a couple of battlecruisers, and three battleships, along with a cov-ops, a tower, and, importantly, a whole load of Sleeper wrecks.

I impulsively switch to my scanner and passively resolve all of the anomalies in the system, all three of them. A quick check of my notes, ostensibly so that I can locate the tower and ascertain the number of active pilots, shows that I was here only two weeks ago, when I popped a planet-gooing Iteron hauler with a stealth bomber, and I see that the tower I have listed is out of d-scan range. Sweeping d-scan around sees the two Apocalypse battleships in an anomaly with some wrecks, and the rest of the ships coincident with the new tower. If the battleships are the only piloted ships this could actually be a pretty simple ambush. But, no, warping to the tower shows that all the ships are piloted, and possibly alert and ready to provide support.

I warp out to monitor the battleships engaging Sleepers, setting myself up to ambush a salvager should one arrive, when my concerns are ratcheted up a notch. An Iteron appears on d-scan, in empty space, and returning to the tower sees it arrive after a while and the pilot switch to a Drake battlecruiser. I go back to monitoring the Apocalypses, who have been joined by a Tengu strategic cruiser, if only to send me a message that their salvager will be adequately protected from opportunists like me. Maybe this is paranoia, but I only just lost a Loki strategic cruiser this morning, so my paranoia can only serve me.

The battleships and Tengu leave the anomaly, which clearly isn't the only one cleared judging by the number of wrecks in the system, and a Noctis salvager appears on d-scan. I check the other anomalies I found, seeing one of them also full of wrecks and already despawned, marking it is a probable earlier destination for the salvager than the one the ships just left. I also spy core scanning probes in the system, so the locals will probably know about my entrance to the system and be wary about sending the Noctis out alone. Still I lie in wait, wondering whether I'll die twice in a day. Not only would it be embarrassing, but because of the EOL connection I used to get here I may not actually have a way to get my pod out to empire space.

Whatever my chances of survival, the Noctis takes a while to reach my earliest chance of ambushing him. This may work to my advantage, in that the longer he salvages the less he'll think he's being stalked. I don't know if that's how it works, but positive thinking is good for me at the moment, particularly as the other ships on d-scan keep disappearing. None are swapped for obviously cloaky counter-ambushing ships, but as some were strategic cruisers they could already have been the covert variants and shadowing the salvager. I suppose I'll find out soon enough, as the Noctis warps in to the site where I'm loitering, seemingly alone. Do I trust him? Do I care? What is ISK anyway?

The Noctis must have two or three sites' worth of loot scooped in to his hold already, so I wait for him to pull more wrecks to his ship to maximise the chance of some surviving, before warping in to spring the surprise. I decloak, gain a positive lock, and start shooting. The Noctis's warp drives disrupted, I burn towards the target to give it a bump out of alignment, which also serves to get me close enough to salvage the wreck. That is, if I make a wreck. Even with the magnetar phenomenon in the system I seem to be making hard work of the industrial ship, and I don't really have the luxury of time.

But the salvager is going down. He makes a fateful turn before hitting the iceberg, and I have manoeuvred in such a way that I can align out now and probably still be close enough to loot the wreck when the ship explodes. But seeing an Apocalypse warp in almost on top of me almost at the same moment as the Noctis disintegrates in a bright flash discourages me from fiddling with transferring flotsam in to my hold. I choose instead to deny the targets anything, and lock on to the wreck and pop it, before warping clear and cloaking. At least, that was the plan.

I get clear of the Apocalypse and am safe, but I shot a Sleeper wreck instead of that of the salvager. That's unfortunate, as is not being able to loot it myself, but I can still hang a non-ironic 'Mission Accomplished' banner for the kill. Losing Minor Threat earlier was unfortunate, but You'll Thank Me Later has been bloodied during its maiden voyage in w-space, and in threatening conditions too. I still have to get home, though.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Playing away from home
Tags: apocalypse, buzzard, drake, eve online, iteron, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, prorator, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space