Turning it up to eleven

We've killed all our sites again. The home system is dry of signatures beyond anomalies and the static wormhole, giving me an easy route to exploration. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has an off-line tower within directional scanner range of the K162, and a single planet out of range of d-scan that holds a tower but no ships. Scanning the seven anomalies and nine signatures finds rocks first and a chubby wormhole second, which turns out to be a K162 from null-sec k-space. I hope it's not going to be another one of those nights, with only exits to resolve.

More scanning gets more rocks, even more rocks, gas, more gas, a radar site, and the static exit to null-sec, the wormhole at the end of its life just to crush any hopes of continued exploration. I have the K162 to jump through and the null-sec system beyond to scan for more wormholes, but as that connection already originates in the null-sec system I'm not confident at finding any more. Even so, it's my only route out of here, so I warp to the healthy K162 and exit w-space to appear in a system in Immensea.

The one pilot in the system doesn't actually deter me from ratting whilst I scan, as d-scan is clear, so I find a rock site, line up a battleship, and launch probes as I approach the rat. Cor, that's a lot of everything under my probes, which is quite unusual for any k-space system. I ignore the anomalies without bookmarking or counting them, as they are mostly irrelevant, and focus on the single ship amongst the nineteen signatures first. Pop goes the rat as my probes tell me the ship is a Nyx supercarrier. Pop goes a second rat and I enter warp to take a look at a class of ship I rarely see in w-space.

The Nyx is nestled inside a tower's force field, and is piloted by the other capsuleer in this system. I would say it's safe to ignore him, which lets me start looking for wormholes. And, my goodness, do I find wormholes. I think I'm lucky by resolving one so soon, warping to it whilst I continue scanning because there is little benefit in keeping wormholes closed outside of w-space, but I've resolved a second by the time I've identified the first as an EOL K162 from class 5 w-space. I warp to the second wormhole, an outbound connection to class 5 w-space, as I ignore a couple of standard sites and resolve a third wormhole.

The S199 outbound connection to null-sec is a good find, as it adds to my table of wormhole types, even if it's EOL and doesn't offer an interesting destination. And still more wormholes appear under my probes. A fourth, fifth, and sixth are all outbound connections to class 5 w-space, two EOL, and surely the last I'll resolve. It's not known how many wormholes a single system can hold, but I've heard general murmurings and agreement that it's seven, so with our own K162 I've hit that limit. But I find another, the eighth feeling rather special, until I hit nine, then ten, and finally eleven.

Those last wormholes all connect to class 3 w-space, two of which are EOL, and provide me with the richest system of exploration I have ever heard about, let alone encountered personally. I'm almost glad that most of them are dying of old age, because I don't have time to investigate them all, particularly after having spent time scanning. And one of the healthy C3 wormholes is made less navigable soon after finding it. I am warping away from the tenth wormhole and towards the eleventh as the connection flares, bringing two pilots in to null-sec too late for me to cancel my warp. The pilots are gone by the time I get back, and all I get to see is a Raven battleship make a second trip to destabilise the wormhole to critical mass.

That leaves three wormholes suitable for exploration, a K162 from class 5 w-space, and outbound connections to class 5 and class 3 w-space. But before I exit this system I make one last loop and bounce off every wormhole, making sure that none have collapsed whilst I was scanning, just to confirm that there are eleven simultaneous wormholes. And there are. Curiosity satisfied, I choose the healthy outbound connection to C3c and jump through, only to appear over six kilometres from the wormhole. I won't get my hopes up for any activity.

D-scan is clear but warping to investigate the two planets out of range finds a tower with a couple of ships. The Tengu strategic cruiser and Rokh battleship are actually piloted, and by capsuleers red to us. These look like pilots I'd like to shoot, but almost before my passive scan completes, showing me sixteen anomalies, both ships blink off-line to leave me in an empty system. Get bent, reds. My notes for this C3 show it to hold a static exit to high-sec, which I don't care to scan for, not with connections to class 5 w-space waiting for me, so I leave this system behind and return to null-sec.

The healthy outbound C5 wormhole spits me over eight kilometres from the K162, and despite the echoes I saw in the previous system I continue to be pessimistic about finding activity. D-scan shows me nothing, and warping to the lonely planet out of range doesn't change that. My last visit to the system just over a year ago perhaps explains why this C5 remains unoccupied, as the static wormhole connects to deadly class 6 w-space. That doesn't sound particularly appealing to my explorer self either. Screw it, I'm going home. Finding a system with eleven wormholes was interesting enough that I don't need to continue scanning. But, space, do you think you could maybe abandon this 'all or nothing' approach you've got going?

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, nyx, penny ibramovic, raven, rokh, scanning, tengu, w-space

Dead space

One new signature in the home system looks enticing to my scanning eyes. W-space has felt pretty quiet of late, and I'm really hoping that the extra signature is the mythical beast that is a second wormhole. A second scan sees that it's an 'unknown' type, which, unlike in stupid k-space, definitely makes this a wormhole. It's a chubby one too, so will be a K162 and means I'm still waiting to see our first random outbound connection in this system, and a third scan resolves the wormhole enough for me to warp to it.

I drop out of warp to see a K162 from class 5 w-space, but one that is reaching the end of its natural lifetime and one I'd rather not risk jumping through. I at least need a way back home before I take a chance on getting isolated, and even then a dying wormhole generally indicates a system whose activity started half-a-day earlier. I am better served heading to our neighbouring class 3 system first, both in getting an exit and looking for pilots. I resolve our static wormhole and jump through.

My directional scanner is showing me nothing from the K162 in C3a, but a single planet out of range gives me a little hope of finding capsuleers. I launch scanning probes, blanket the system, and warp across to the planet, where I find a tower but a lack of ships. My blanket scan reveals twenty-two anomalies and five signatures, which suggests the locals are more industrial than combat-orientated, but as the tower is owned by a three-member corporation I don't suppose the odds are with me of catching any of them on-line tonight.

I sift through the few signatures in the system, resolving gas, more gas, rocks, and a static wormhole that I know exits to low-sec empire space. I have to work with what I've got, I suppose, so warp to the wormhole and, well, stare forlornly for a minute or so. The wormhole is EOL. I have no reliable exit from w-space, no other systems to explore, yet still a potential threat from the C5 should I think about collapsing our static wormhole with massive industrial ships.

I can keep myself amused in other ways than simple exploring. I park my cloaked ship outside the tower, hoping that one of the locals will wake up in a cold sweat realising he forgot to collect his planet goo today, and fire up my secondary computer system to waste time looking at hilariously captioned pictures of kittens. Despite the obvious potential of such a subject, it can hold my attention for only so long. I want one of these wormholes to just die. On a whim, I swing past the static exit again and, lo, I am in empty space. I have a replacement wormhole to scan for.

A second scan of C3a has the new signature light up my probes, and I resolve the super-stable wormhole and exit w-space to look for opportunity. Sadly, I end up in a faction warfare system in The Citadel that is bare of other signatures, once again leaving me with little to do. As two local pilots drop to one, and d-scan is clear, I warp to the only rock field in the system to get my second little bit of luck, as I find a rat battleship flanked by two frigates to pop for a slight increase to my security status. But it really is dullness in space tonight. I decide to cut my losses and head home to salvage the rest of the evening by watching a film.

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

Ore from an ice field

Home looks pretty clear, and only the static wormhole stands out as an unresolved signature. It doesn't stay that way for long, letting me jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to look for activity and opportunity. I'm hoping that if the C3 is quiet, which is likely, then there will be more w-space to find than yesterday's high-sec odyssey. Even though there are generally plenty of ships in high-sec I'm not sure I can shoot much without consequence.

One tower and a lack of ships is all my directional scanner shows me in C3a, and my notes from almost two years ago list two towers. The one d-scan's showing me could be one of them, and as the other is out of range it could still be here and maybe hold ships. But, no, even though the first tower is in the same location as on my previous visit the second has been stripped, and I find no obvious signs of activity. No problem, I can scan.

A blanket scan of the system reveals four anomalies and eight signatures, which won't take long to sift through. The first signature is obviously the static exit to low-sec, from its signature strength. Following a couple of gas pockets a suspicious signature is so far above the ecliptic plane that it must be a wormhole, and it's chubby enough to be a K162 as well. Scanning is looking to give positive results already, and a third wormhole that also feels like a K162 is giving me a good feeling. I ignore one last ladar site to complete scanning, and warp around to see what the wormholes are.

In reverse order, I bounce around a K162 from null-sec k-space, a second null-sec K162, and the static exit to low-sec. All the positivity has drained from me in a few short warps, damn it. On top of that, exiting to low-sec puts me in Aridia, a perfect destination from a dreary C3, and scanning has a tantalising signature of the 'unknown' type resolve to be some stinking rogue drone asteroid infestation. That's just not cricket.

I return to w-space and cross C3a to see where the first null-sec K162 leads, appearing in a system in the Branch region. I'm alone, so I rat and scan, which quickly becomes merely ratting when my probes return only the one signature, but at least I find some rats. Too many, it seems at first, when I drop out of warp at an ice field to see five chunky red crosses on my overview. Thankfully only three are battleships, as the other two are industrial ships.

I've encountered rat haulers before, and they were stuffed full of minerals, so this could be vaguely profitable. I pop the ships and their battleship escorts, opening the wrecks to see one full of pyrerite and the other mexallon. That'll do nicely, although I was kinda expecting to see ice products instead of the standard rocks. I head home, through a still-empty w-space system, and grab a Bustard transport from our hangar. This will need two trips, but as long as space stays empty it won't be a bother. So of course space doesn't stay empty, and I return to null-sec to see a new contact in the system.

The capsuleer in null-sec probably doesn't know what I'm doing in the system, and even if he's out for blood he may not be able to get the drop on me before I can get to and from one of the wrecks, which I've bookmarked. I make a dash for the first wreck and am looting it as the other pilot leaves the system. That was easy. And the second trip is just as easy, bagging me two jet-cans' worth of minerals and some increase in security status for some simple ratting. And I think I'll have to make do with this minor achievement for the evening.

I return to my scouting cloaky Loki strategic cruiser and poke my nose through the other K162 from null-sec, appearing in the Cloud Ring region. Three additional signatures are soon discarded as a ladar and two radar sites, and this time another pilot in the system will stop me ratting. If the system in Branch stays quiet I could probably take a ship in to one of its anomalies, but I have only recently scratched that itch and I don't care to mindlessly launch missiles at sequential targets by myself again quite so soon. I just head home through the still-still C3a and hide in a quiet corner to finish watching Gamera. That film is too scary for one sitting.

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Tags: bustard, eve online, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Stuck in high-sec

Aii's here and would like to mine. I'm cool with that, just as he's cool with my desire to explore, even though it means opening our static wormhole and exposing him to additional risk. That's just the way Aii rolls. With only stale bookmarks stored I launch probes to scan for the new static wormhole, resolving it as the only unidentified signature, and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. My directional scanner is clear from the K162 in C3a, and with only a single planet in range I am hopeful that there will be more to see.

Launching probes and blanketing the system shows me eleven anomalies and five signatures, which sits between being tidy enough for the system to be occupied and tatty enough for it to be empty. Warping around shows it to be the latter, with an off-line tower being the only sign of previous capsuleer presence, leaving me to scan for more wormholes. The first signature is promising, being chubby enough to be a K162, and even though it is a K162 it only comes from high-sec empire space and isn't terribly interesting for it.

Continued scanning finds a thoroughly unsurprising K346 static exit to null-sec, and the other two signatures are equally weak radar and magnetometric sites. I poke out to high-sec to see what's happening, appearing in a system in Metropolis that's probably pretty dull. I go with that assumption for now and merely bookmark the wormhole for reference, returning to and crossing C3a to see what null-sec looks like instead. And it looks rather more interesting for the nine pilots in the system in The Spire, a region I'm not sure I've visited before.

The null-sec locals appear to be ratting, and although Aii is keen to blow them up he gets right back to mining when I mention the large ships they outnumber us in. I don't even bother scanning here, heading back to high-sec to see what I can find there instead. One extra signature resolves to be only a radar site, which isn't too disappointing considering there is already one wormhole in the system, and as I'm in high-sec I can hop one system across and scan again. And one system across looks promising, with three signatures that end up to be a site of Angel rats, and two wormholes.

I look to pop the Angels as I resolve the two wormholes, but the acceleration gate protecting them prevents my strategic cruiser from entering. That's okay, as I have two outbound connections to class 1 w-space to pique my interest. One of the wormholes is already at half-mass, which either means the ships have been and gone, or are on the other side at the moment. I'll go with been and gone for now, and poke through the healthy wormhole first. I'm soon back and looking at the half-mass wormhole, though, as C1b turns out to be as blue-occupied now as it was two months ago.

C1a isn't much better than C1b. There is nothing on d-scan from the K162, and the system is small enough that there is nowhere to hide. Screw it, I'm not scanning for another link to empire space, and just jump back to high-sec, hop one more system across, and look for more wormholes to w-space. I find a wormhole too, along with a radar site, but just not to w-space. I drop out of warp next to an A641 wormhole connecting high-sec to high-sec. That's pretty amusing, space. Still, it may lead to a more fertile system, so I jump through.

I appear in the Tash-Murkon region, a mere three hops from Amarr, which would be fairly convenient considering the high-sec route it provides, but I'm not interested in logistics at the moment. I launch probes and scan again. One extra signature becomes a wormhole, just as a Buzzard covert operations boat appears on the high-sec link I'm sitting on, clearly as disappointed as me in the find, because he decloaks and re-launches his probes. I wonder what his reaction will be if he follows me, as the wormhole I've found is another high-sec/high-sec link. What the hell, wormholes? Sleeper technology is on the blink.

I still can't resist a wormhole, so jump through to the next system, which puts me in Domain and now four hops from Amarr. Okay, I can take the hint. I make the four stargate jumps to the capital to buy some more ammunition for my Loki, before going the three jumps to the wormhole-holding system in Tash-Murkon, and making my way home to give up for the night. What a disappointing set of connections.

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

Back shooting Sleepers

I'm putting my detective hat on. The puppet's here and the corporate wallet is drained, so I am deducing that we have new Tengus to replace the two strategic cruisers we lost recently. 'I have ships for us.' Brilliant, Holmes! 'But the wormhole died as I jumped out of w-space', hence there being no trail of new bookmarks. I had better scan to get our japanese rock star colleague back home.

Three new signatures in the home system resolve to be a radar site, new gas, and our static wormhole, giving me one direction to head. The neighbouring class 3 w-space system has a tower, Badger hauler, and Buzzard covert operations boat visible on my directional scanner, and although my notes from fourteen months ago don't point me towards the tower it is easy enough to find as being around a planet with a single moon. I warp there to see both ships unpiloted, which is a little disappointing but gets me back to the main task in hand.

My notes also tell me that I'm looking for a static exit to high-sec empire space, which is good not just for bringing the puppet home, but also because so I can adjust my expectation of signature strength for the wormhole accordingly. In class 3 w-space, wormholes to high-sec are weaker than those to low-sec, but nowhere near as weak as connections to null-sec. And having no pilots in the system turns out to be beneficial for the time being, as there is nowhere to drop out of d-scan range and so I have to launch probes overtly.

Two anomalies of our favoured kind would be good if we had ships to clear them with, and twelve signatures won't take long to sift through. I resolve the exit to high-sec soon enough, easily identified by knowing what I'm looking for, and I call Aii in to the system and fling him towards the connection whilst I continue scanning. There's nothing else of much interest to find, beyond a single magnetometric site, giving us a minimal w-space constellation.

The static wormhole leads out to the Essence region, once more linking us to Gallente space, but at least it's high-sec. I scan and find nothing as the puppet makes his way across to us, and end up monitoring the tower in C3a until the time comes to pick up the new Tengu. I drop to my pod at our hangar and warp nekkid to high-sec, collecting the Tengu and taking it home, where it is fitted and ready for combat. And there's no time like the present, so with three pilots, two new ships, and anomalies waiting for us next door we send the Tengus out for their maiden combat operation.

I don't join in with the combat, and it's not because I'm gun-shy from our recent loss. C3a holds a black hole, which makes the Golem sad. The decreased missile flight time reduces the range of the marauder's torpedoes, which already struggle to hit the waves of Sleepers when they first appear. Rather than looking pretty and doing nothing most of the time, it will probably be better if I salvaged behind the fleet. And, now that I think about it, rather than waiting to be called in to the cleared anomalies I really ought to be sitting in C3a with combat probes blanketing the system watching for new ships or wormholes. So that's what I do.

There is a slight moment of mixed confusion and excitement as jumping back to C3a sees a Tengu and Noctis on d-scan. The excitement comes from thinking our Sleeper operation has become a hunt, the confusion from wondering if both ships are actually ours. We quickly regain composure and see that Fin is in the Tengu but the Noctis is local, and I warp my covert Loki to the tower to see the new contact in the salvaging boat. A single pilot in an industrial ship is no particular threat to us, so I call for the operation to continue as I monitor the pilot and evaluate any change in circumstances.

Our Tengus warp to the first anomaly and start shooting Sleepers, and the pilot in the tower swaps to a Heron frigate and leaves the tower. He only moves a couple of hundred kilometres away, though, and if I had my probes launched I could maybe catch him. I bounce off the nearest planet to get my probes ready, as the Heron launches his own, but the frigate cloaks before I can resolve his position. That's okay, I need my probes out anyway, and I blanket the system, confirm no new signatures are present, and ignore them all for a clear slate. Now I can properly watch what's happening.

'Probes.' Yes, the Heron's. Don't worry until I tell you to worry. 'Got it, chief.' The Heron scans, I keep my probes actively blanketing the system. Nothing changes until the Heron returns to the tower, where he makes no sudden moves. 'First site is clear, moving to the second.' The Heron goes off-line. Okay, the coast is clear, there are still no new signatures, so don't die; I'm getting a drink. 'Great, our scout is getting drunk. This sounds more like null-sec.'

After the second site is cleared our fleet moves to the magnetometric site I resolved earlier, and there are still no new signatures. Not only am I getting drunk, but I'm abandoning my post. The cleared anomalies have despawned and the wrecks are just sitting there, and as it would now take combat scanning probes to find a ship in them I jump home, grab a Noctis, and return to the C3 to start salvaging. Nothing ambushes me as I sweep over a hundred million iskies in loot and salvage in to my hold, returning to the tower and swapping back to my Loki strategic cruiser as the final site is being finished.

Now I act as scout and escort. Aii takes a Noctis to salvage the magnetometric site, Fin boards an analysing cruiser, and I loiter between the two whilst my combat probes continue to confirm no new connections in to the system. This goes against my normal instincts, and as I sit cloaked between two ships pulling profit in to their holds I have to remind myself that they are on my side. I must not ambush Aii's Noctis.

Thankfully I manage to resist temptation, even if I try to playfully catch the salvager on our wormhole as it heads home, and another hundred million ISK in loot is returned, plus whatever the artefacts will fetch. We got everyone home, new Sleeper ships, and back in to Sleeper combat. I'd say it's been a good evening.

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Tags: badger, buzzard, eve online, heron, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Hauling ore

Hulks, mining drones, and jet-cans! Returning to w-space to see ships chomping on rocks would normally get my juices flowing and see me launching probes to hunt the exhumers. But this is the home system, and it seems that after Fin and Aii collapsed our static wormhole they decided they'd rather profit from a rich vein or ore than scan their way to empire space. I can't really blame them, and judging by the number of jet-cans scattered around they could probably use another capsuleer to help haul the rocks back to the tower. I am that other capsuleer.

I get invited to the fleet without asking, because that's how we roll, and I'm in warp to the tower as the request comes to haul ore and is answered that I'm on my way. I know that I would probably be performing more of a service if I used my covert Loki strategic cruiser to scan the system first, to confirm that no new wormholes have opened in to our system, but living in w-space tends to make everyone blasé occasionally. Even after only recently losing a billion ISK's of ships to a newly opened wormhole, I swap my Loki for an Orca back at our tower without scanning.

I was going to take a Bustard transport ship to the gravimetric site, but it would take several trips to collect the amount of ore my industrious colleagues have mined. The industrial command ship can carry much more ore in its various hangars and bays, and doubles as a juicy target to potential ambushers. It also gets stuck between tower modules more easily, and cancelling warp and trying to use its sluggish drives to manoeuvre free will still take far too long. Instead, I swap back to my Loki, move out of the pinball zone of continual bumping, and jump back to the Orca. Now I can warp to the mining operation in progress.

The Orca lands, I scoop arkonor and mercoxit by the jet-can, taking care to leave the container subtly labelled 'NOT THIS ONE', and warp out. I suppose we're not being watched, or we'd all be stuck in some heavy interdictor's warp bubble by now. Still, even though some ore remains uncollected, I really think I should scan before making myself stupidly vulnerable a second time. Hmm, that's curious. My combat probes show me ten signatures in the system, and we have eight bookmarked sites and an unresolved static wormhole. Something doesn't add up. I quickly find the wayward signature, and it's a wormhole. I'd best alert the others.

We have two wormholes, and they can't both be the static connection. Unfortunately, I can't tell which is the inevitable K162, as they both seemed chubby when scanning. The only way to tell is to warp to them, which will open our static connection if I choose poorly. And I choose poorly. I drop out of warp first at our C247, but totally guess better the second time and find myself next to a K162 from class 2 w-space. I keep Fin and Aii updated as they draw the mining operation to a close, and hold on the wormhole until all the ore is collected and everyone is safe. Now I can take a look on the other side.

All looks clear. A passive scan of the system is also clear, revealing no anomalies within range. I warp out to explore, finding one tower at one side of the system and a second tower at the other side, but no ships and no obvious activity. Even more curiously, performing a blanket scan shows the system to be entirely bare. The lack of anomalies mirrors the lack of signatures, besides the static connection to our home system and the second static connection, which resolves to be an exit to high-sec. That makes Aii pretty happy, as he is keen to export and process the ore. Fin's also hopeful that the exit leads to 'somewhere with Tengus'.

C2a's exit leads to a system in the Placid region, which Fin describes as being 'the Aridia of high-sec', and about as far from somewhere selling strategic cruisers as we could get through a B274. Even so, we get a little lucky, in that there are stations in the system and are right on the border of Placid, and so connected to contiguous high-sec rather than being in an island. This is all the encouragement it takes for Aii to start hauling ore out of our tower and through the C2. Personally, I'm curious about what happened to whoever opened the wormhole.

Maybe a C2er woke up and wanted to go to empire space, scanning his system but also not being able to discern which static connection was which without visiting them. Also choosing poorly, he opens the wormhole to our system without intending to before leaving through the exit to high-sec and not looking back. It's speculation, but I can't think why a capsuleer would see a pair of Hulks mining and leave them alone. Whatever happened, C2a remains quiet, so I head back and through our static connection to C3a, where Fin has scouted and is scanning.

Our neighbouring class 3 system is unoccupied and inactive, with twenty-one anomalies and twenty-four signatures. We could make some iskies here, if we had our Tengus, and there wasn't a stray wormhole opening in to the constellation. But there could still be shenanigans in other connected systems, and I help with scanning to look for wormholes. I find one, and only one, and that one even turns out to be at the end of its natural lifetime. I leave the static exit to low-sec alone, it not even giving me a new system to explore, and instead sit in C2a watching our ships come in and go out again.

Fin updates her clone in a high-sec station, and she and Aii haul out plenty of ore to be processed. I don't ask what happens to it next, but it's possible the minerals are returned to the tower for the next stage of Project Capitals. I like to leave some element of surprise in my w-space life. After a few round trips, the lazy drone of the wormhole jumps and lack of ambushes makes me sleepy. I make one last tour of C2a, checking both towers and finding them still empty, before letting my colleagues know I'm heading home to get some rest.

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Tags: eve online, hulk, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

An afternoon in null-sec

How does w-space look after our billion-ISK loss? Pretty much the same as any day, really. Empty, but potentially hiding a serious threat. And as it's business as usual I start by scanning the home system, finding no obvious incursions and two new signatures to go with the six that are known and the one assumed static connection. The new signatures resolve to be more gas and a second wormhole, a K162 linking class 4 w-space to our home system today. I'll see who made the connection.

Jumping in to C4a has me appear over six kilometres from the wormhole, which given my relatively early appearance in space makes me think I won't find anyone in the system. That, and the fact that the wormhole is near the outermost planet and 107 AU from the star. From here to the other side of the system is 175 AU, so it could be tricky finding another pilot in the system, even if they are here. And rather than warping around blindly I consult my notes to see that a tower was around one of the planets a little over a year ago. I'll go there first.

What tower was here has been torn down one way or another, perhaps because the locals got frustrated with too much empty space, and I am reduced to warping around looking for occupation where there is none. Someone must have opened the wormhole, though, so I launch probes and start sifting through the twelve anomalies and fifteen signatures looking for K162s. Bouncing my probes from planet to planet has me disregard the weaker, obviously non-K162 signatures, and ignoring the rocks and gas that pop up, until I find the wormhole I'm looking for. There is just one K162 and it's on the opposite side of the system to the static connection I warped back to, some 178 AU distant. Let me get a drink as I warp there, as I may be some time.

Oh, that's hilarious, w-space. I drop out of warp next to a wormhole that's at the end of its lifetime, which means whoever opened it is probably long gone even if I wanted to risk the connection. Then again, maybe it wasn't EOL when I entered warp. I'd better get back to the wormhole home quickly, in case it dies on my travels across this ungainly system. Thankfully, the connection remains stable and I leave one unoccupied system to explore another, crossing the home system to jump to our neighbouring C3.

A lack of occupation in a class 3 w-space system generally means the static wormhole connects to null-sec k-space, which is soon confirmed when scanning reveals a mere four signatures to resolve. I get gas, more gas, and a wormhole that is nullish by its signature strength, nullish by its K346 type, and nullish by sending me to a null-sec system in Stain. I'm alone in the system, so I rat and scan. Or just rat, as scanning sees no other signatures besides that of the wormhole I just jumped through. But I find a couple of battleships flanked by a pair of frigates, and my Loki strategic cruiser seems more capable of popping them now that I have a better choice of ammunition.

With little more to do, and not much motivation to collapse our static wormhole, I think I'll say hello to the Sansha rats in one of the anomalies in this null-sec system. But I'll do that in a Nighthawk and not my covert Loki, which I don't think will fare so well. I go home, swap for the command ship, and head back to null-sec to pop a whole bunch of rats. I bug out once as a new contact enters the system, but return to the anomaly when it looks like he was just passing through. But a second new contact, followed soon after by the first, has me bugging out not just to the wormhole but all the way home, as a Tengu strategic cruiser blips on my directional scanner. Cloaky or passing each other in warp, I don't really care to find out.

I don't get to see if I luckily have a True Sansha ship warp in to the anomaly, or the opportunity to loot the wrecks in a Noctis salvager, but that's okay. I made some pocket iskies from the bounties and got to fly the Nighthawk again. It's been a quiet and relaxing afternoon in space, and it's time to take a break for a while. I get home, swap back to my covert Loki, and hide shortly before Aii appears. I update him on the constellation and lack of good exit to replace the lost Tengus, which gives Fin time to turn up too. But despite now having company I really am taking a break. I leave my colleagues to their plan of collapsing the wormhole to look for a better route to empire space.

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Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, nighthawk, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Caught in an anomaly

Aii's here but not responding to my pings. I'll follow his bookmark breadcrumbs to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, which he has kindly left behind. The C3 looks clear from the wormhole, judging by my directional scanner, but an adjustment to show everything and not just occupation and threats has a wreck of a frigate appear. That's curious. A passive scan of the system reveals twelve anomalies, and some fiddling with d-scan puts the wreck in one of them. Warping in to take a look sees the wreck far from the Sleepers, no doubt the frigate having warped in to take a look and not quite expecting such a quick reaction. This way is experience gained.

The wreck is unlooted, and I'm in a relatively robust Loki strategic cruiser, so I get closer and loot and shoot the remains of the ship, opportunistically nabbing some minor loot and tidying up the system. Now there is nothing of interest to see, particularly as exploring shows the tower that was here three months ago has gone off-line without a replacement. Aii returns to tell me he has scanned the outer planet and found some gas and what is probably the static exit to null-sec k-space, and I launch probes to continue where he left off. And as our glorious leader comes on-line—'the frigate was a wreck when I found it, honest!'—I restrict myself to looking for K162s only, as we could make some iskies tonight.

There are no obvious wormholes in C3a, which means no K162s for sure. Neither Aii nor me have visited the exit wormhole, so it could remain closed, although I am a little concerned about where the frigate wreck came from. But no other connections means a relatively safe system, and with five good anomalies and three pilots we should be able to blast through a handful of sites. 'C3a is a wolf rayet' says Aii, as I jump home. Crap, that's what that big glowy ball of light was, I remember now. But there are three of us and it's not like we struggle in class 3 w-space anomalies, so we press on with the plan. Fin and Aii board remote-repair Tengu strategic cruisers, and I get the Golem marauder ready for combat.

Despite the wolf-rayet's boost to Sleeper armour and degradation to our shield systems, Sleeper combat is without much drama. The unified inventory system is the biggest pain, insisting on opening my hold whenever I loot a wreck, forcing me to close the unwanted window every time I loot, showing once more that it clearly wasn't designed with w-spacers in mind, but it's a minor annoyance. Otherwise, our biggest scare is when Fin updates d-scan and a fly lands on her screen. 'I didn't recognise that ship', she says, 'it was pretty big and fast'. We also don't recognise the Legion that decloaks next to us in the fifth anomaly.

The strategic cruiser is a bigger threat than the fly, and as soon as it appears I am springing in to action. I initiate a squad warp to get us all heading back home, although I know that will fail and immediately switch to fumbling with the drone interface to get some ECM drones in to space. I am just about to launch the first flight of ECM drones when the unexpected happens, and I am thrust in to warp away from my colleagues in the two Tengus. This is almost a disaster!

My Golem hull is worth more than a fitted Tengu, and if I include the shield booster the Golem is worth more than both of the Tengus. On top of that, I have over four sites' worth of loot and salvage in my hold. I fully expected to be the primary target and was sure I'd need to save myself, but it's the two Tengus who are warp scrambled and being drained of capacitor juice. If I had realised I would have ordered us all to align homewards instead of warping, giving me time to launch the ECM drones and hopefully break the Legion's lock to get us all out safely. But there's no point heading back now, and as a Loki strategic cruiser appears on d-scan as I approach our K162 I have to focus on actually getting home safely.

Thankfully, the Loki is not sitting on our wormhole, and neither are there any ships waiting for me in the home system. I warp back to our tower, throw the Golem in to a hangar, and prepare a Falcon recon ship for flight. But it's already too late. A Tengu joined the Loki and Legion in the assault, and I don't even have time to point my Falcon towards the wormhole before Aii and Fin are both returning home in pods. Tengus with no capacitor juice are quite flimsy, and judging from the kill report the Legion was purely there to suck their juice and prevent them from running. I'm still not sure why it did not target me.

I get my Falcon to our wormhole anyway, watching for intrusions and acting as protection, as Aii heads back to C3a in his covert Tengu to scout. Probes are now in C3a, and although they must find our wormhole no ship shows itself. Aii scans the hostile Tengu, which is sitting uncloaked on a new K162 from class 3 w-space, but wisely chooses not to provoke a second engagement. Judging by our ambushers, if we went back looking for revenge we'd be outnumbered pretty quickly. It's best just to accept the loss and move on.

There is the usual concern about what more we could have done, and if we were too casual, but I don't think so. A new wormhole opened in to an already-scanned system, bringing in a covert strategic cruiser whilst we were in easily revealed anomalies. That's just the luck of the draw, and unless we hit d-scan in the few seconds that a ship needs to move away from a wormhole and cloak there really isn't much that can be done. Besides, we still brought home quarter-of-a-billion ISK of loot in the Golem, I stole a similar amount a couple of days ago, and our normal operations are padding our export hangar nicely. Even without that, our wallet can take the hit, and the main inconvenience is buying the new ships and bringing them home.

We need new ships, but we can't do much with our current constellation. We are best served by isolating ourselves before we think about doing any more, so with Aii on their wormhole and me watching ours Fin starts pushing an Orca industrial command ship through the wormhole to collapse the static connection. No ship movements are seen, our Orca isn't threatened, and Aii is brought home shortly before Fin over-stresses the connection to kill the wormhole as dead as our Tengus. No? Too Soon?

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Tags: eve online, falcon, golem, legion, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

A short history of moving wormholes

That was when Fin and I moved a wormhole and tried to catch a transport aiming for it, but Sleeper technology has since been upgraded to prevent that kind of shenanigans.

I remember looking for the post describing these events when it came to editing the above entry, but couldn't find it. That was odd, particularly as I remember the engagement fairly vividly—the transport held together as it crawled the few kilometres we were able to shift the wormhole—and the event is in my notes. Even so, with well over a thousand posts about EVE Online I occasionally have trouble finding a specific incident, often because I get my timescales wrong. Elroy Skimms reminded me about the reference, as he wondered how it was possible to move wormholes, and so I went looking again. And I still couldn't find it. Here's why.

Fin and I successfully moved a wormhole to catch an Iteron hauling expensive items, which was a pretty sweet kill for us. The comments tell more of the story, because almost as soon as that tale was posted the client was updated to stop wormholes being moved, a change I agreed with. Moving wormholes was nefarious and mostly undetectable, and posed a danger that probably shouldn't be present.

As there is a delay between what I do and when I post, that wormhole-moving kill story only just got posted before the tale became obsolete. The second tale, with the transport ship, happened a few days or maybe a week later than the Iteron, and of course was scheduled later by the same time period. As the situation had been fixed before the post was going live, and I had plenty of posts still lined up, I ended up spiking the second tale. I maybe didn't want to be too obvious about the delay in my posts at that time, even if I'm no longer so coy in that regard.

But there is an additional point that should be collected with these notes, which is that we knew how to move wormholes for a long time. We just never really did anything with it. I thought it was a curiosity, something that was interesting but not something that could be used to any effect. That was before colleagues started messing around and testing what could be done. Even then, it was hard to put the theory in to practice. My intention here is to illustrate the time difference.

I make an off-hand comment about the threat of moving wormholes, which is followed-up with a couple of comments, including one from a different w-space corporation, describing how it is done. This was over a year before we managed to get a kill from moving a wormhole in practice, and also two or three months after first discovering the effect.

I have no real point but to collect this information together, as a reminder to me and as a curiosity to others. Being able to move wormholes may not have been particularly common knowledge, but it was certainly known and, as I show here, was shared openly long before we managed to use it effectively. And I'm still glad it is no longer possible to do. Besides, we can always collapse wormholes to create shenanigans.

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

Ship-spotting and hauler-popping

It seems our sister system had fun with our linking wormhole after I left yesterday. They baited a fleet that was trying to close the wormhole, the fleet not realising that owning both systems gave our pilots increased boldness and a second staging point, and successfully routed them with some good kills. Now let's see what remains of home after that ruckus. Quite a lot, surprisingly, with seven signatures under my combat probes where I have only one bookmarked. Two rock sites, two gas sites, and a radar site leaves just the static wormhole and one way to go, so I jump to our neighbouring class 3 system to explore.

My directional scanner is clear from the K162, letting me launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp clear relatively safely. Two anomalies, nine signatures, one tower, and my notes from six months ago have me looking for an exit to low-sec. I resolve gas, rocks, a magnetometric site, and three wormholes. One of the wormholes didn't look chubby enough to be a K162, so even though I'm expecting to see an outbound connection I only find two K162s. I suppose I wasn't paying much attention when scanning. The K162s come from null-sec k-space and class 4 w-space, giving me an obvious direction to continue my roam.

C4a has a tower, Orca industrial command ship, Chimera carrier, and Cheetah covert operations boat on d-scan, and even though I'm spat in to the system seven kilometres from the wormhole and on the cosmic signature I'll keep an open mind. But, no, there are no pilots to be found when I locate the tower. I get back to scanning, looking for K162s, to have nineteen anomalies and twenty-six signatures light up my probes. I'm sure the locals don't want this mess, and I spend a minute warping to activate all of the anomalies so that they'll automatically despawn within a few days. No need to thank me, chaps, it's just what I do.

Sifting through the signatures in C4a has only rocks and gas, and I'm not wasting time looking for non-existent outbound connections, so I head back to C3a and out to null-sec. Hullo, that's a lot of pilots. Over a hundred capsuleers populate the local communication channel, and although there aren't many ships on d-scan I spot an Erebus. It's not often I get to see a titan so start to look for it when the local population drops by half in an instant. Something must be happening, and I go to look for that instead. I don't find it, which is probably because the pilots left the system, but I do find a second titan, this one an Avatar sitting in a tower with two bugs for company.

What the... The Avatar projects a blue wobbly field and, moments later, a Loki strategic cruiser is disintegrated by a red beam and shocking sound. A minute later a Guardian logistic ships suffers the same fate, which I hope is actually a jump bridge effect, having never seen one before. It looks painful. Still, nothing is happening here that I can affect, and I'd rather not arouse too much suspicion by being conspicuous, so head back to the wormhole and in to C3a once I see that the Erebus has disappeared from d-scan. And before I can warp across C3a to exit to low-sec to scan, a stealth bomber appears in the system.

Warping to the tower finds the Manticore, and I alert Aii to its presence, in case the ship is headed the way of my gas-harvesting colleague. But it seems like the Manticore's only just got here, and is joined not soon after by a second pilot in a Viator transport ship. I watch the pair for a while, keeping Aii up to date with absolutely nothing happening, until the Viator finally moves. The transport only gets as far as a hangar, which is pretty dull, but more interesting is the other pilot's swap from the Manticore to a Badger, and the hauler's immediate exit from the tower towards a customs office.

I'm right behind the planet gooer, dropping out of warp at the customs office to decloak and brutally gank the industrial ship. The pilot ejects early, seeing no reason to go down with the Badger, and the ship pops, the pod flees, and I loot and shoot the wreck to add another expanded cargohold to my collection. Safely back at the tower, the pilot isn't too happy with my ambush but understands that it's part of w-space life. He's back in the Manticore, the Viator pilot swaps to a Helios cov-ops , and a third pilot in a Helios cov-ops appears. All three warp out of the tower and cloak, leaving little to do but watch empty space.

I choose to watch empty space near the U210 exit to low-sec, as it looked like the Manticore may have come this way, perhaps expecting me to exit through the wormhole. And even though I see no ships come or go, the Manticore appears on d-scan. He not only appears, but persists. Maybe he's taunting me to find him, in a peculiar way, wondering if he can spot my scanning probes or lure me in to a trap. And who am I to deny him? I warp out, launch my probes again, and return to look for him using d-scan.

I get a fair bearing and range on the Manticore, but I really don't try to place my probes with any real accuracy, as I'm not expecting to catch the stealth bomber. After all, it can cloak and warp away easily enough. Still, I scan once, twice, and on the third attempt get a solid hit on the small ship. I recall my probes, bookmark the Manticore's position, and warp in to see what's happening. The stealth bomber's sitting in empty space, doing nothing. If this is a trap it's pretty ballsy, and I've already called Aii in for reinforcements. With Aii's tengu strategic cruiser in warp to me I decloak, burn towards the Manticore, and lock on.

The Manticore doesn't react, unless you call exploding to gunfire a reaction, although the pod flees almost instantly and before Aii even reaches me. Sorry about that. But almost instantly? I think I can still catch the pod for you, Aii. I bring my probes back in, scan pretty much where the Manticore was, and get a 100% hit on the pod. That was an emergency warp, the pilot not in control of his pod. I warp to the pod, call for Aii as I disrupt its warp engines, and together we create a new corpse. Considering the 160 Miskie value of this pilot's head, I don't think he will be pleased when he wakes up in a clone vat tomorrow.

I'm not quite sure why people are lingering in space waiting for me to find them, and it kind of feels like cheating. But I'm not going to complain, at least not until it happens to me. I think I need to be careful about how long I leave it between getting any kills and going off-line. And so I do. I head home, dump our new corpsicle friend and the looted modules from the Manticore in our hangar, and hide in a corner of the system for a suitably extended period before going off-line to get some rest.

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Tags: avatar, badger, cheetah, chimera, erebus, eve online, guardian, helios, loki, manticore, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, viator, w-space