More low-sec looting

Lots of scanning yesterday ended with little to show for it. Hopefully there will be less scanning and more shooting this evening. The only shooting in the home system will be to get rid of the repopulating Sleepers. But by myself the best I can achieve is shooting rocks or gas, which doesn't sound too appealing, so I have to start by scanning as usual. Once all the eight sites are known and activated I resolve the static wormhole and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

A tower with no ships waits for me in C3a, which when checking shows it to be in the same place as six months ago. I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan. The system is tidier than home, with six anomalies and five signatures, and apparently a ship on a distant planet. I wait to see if the ship returns to the local tower, but it simply disappears. Cloaked or jumped back out through what must be a wormhole I cannot tell from here, but as the ship doesn't appear on subsequent scans and there are no obvious probes in the system I start scanning.

The mysterious ship indeed appeared and probably returned through a wormhole, which turns out to be the system's static exit to low-sec empire space. Judging by the lack of other wormholes in the system I would suppose the visitor was a tourist, poking in from low-sec to see what w-space looks like. I do the opposite, leaving empty w-space to see what low-sec can offer me, although I'm ostensibly looking for other wormholes. I jump to low-sec, appearing in a system in Derelik with one other pilot, no doubt the source of the scanning probes currently in the system and the ship I briefly spotted in C3a.

Mystery solved, I set about scanning. In fact, I can probably rat whilst I scan, given the other pilot is scanning too. Or, better still, I can find another off-line tower with intact hangars waiting to be blown up by an opportunistic capsuleer. Well, here I am. I just hope the scanner sticks to scanning with his probes for the time being. And unlike the previous off-line tower, this one is owned by a corporation and alliance with more than two members, so I'm hoping some ships will pop out of the maintenance array when exploded. I lock on and start shooting so I can find out.

A new contact appears in the system shortly after I start shooting the SMA, and checking his details shows him to be a member of the corporation that owns the tower. What a coincidence. I keep my directional scanner updated as I continue shooting, and all looks clear for the moment. The hangar explodes and... nothing. How disappointing, but I suppose if I've attracted attention I probably wouldn't have managed to recover many ships anyway. The question now is whether I can also destroy the corporate hangar array before I'm interrupted. The answer is no.

I'm shredding the last of the CHA's armour, slowed by a reload cycle of my guns, when a Punisher appears on d-scan. By this time, two more contacts have appeared in the low-sec system, both of them also members of the corporation I'm ransacking. So even though the Punisher is a mere frigate I'm not going to take the chance that it can tackle me long enough for bigger guns to drop on top of me and make me pay for my actions. I cloak and move away from the off-line tower, but staying on-grid to see what happens next. A Hurricane battlecruiser follows behind the Punisher, along with a third ship, which cloaks before I realise what I've seen. Cloaking was probably the right option.

I suppose I could have shot the CHA first and hoped to steal or destroy any spare fuel in there, as well as stock up on expensive modules that I could carry. But I couldn't have known that I would provoke such a prompt reaction, and if the corporation was careful enough to store spare fuel they'd probably be careful enough to keep the tower itself stocked. As it turns out, there can't be any fuel, as two of the three pilots leave the system with the tower still off-line, leaving the Hurricane as a deterrent to any further assault.

I doubt there is much more I can do but rue my once-again negative security status, but before long the Hurricane warps away. I don't see where he goes but the pilot remains in the system, which is pretty obvious thanks to the populated local communication channel. It doesn't take detective d-scan long to locate the Hurricane, given a little thought. The pilot is sitting in the closest rock field, and is probably aligned towards the tower and updating d-scan constantly, waiting for me to be lured in to attacking the seemingly unguarded CHA. How stupid do they expect me to be?

Instead of falling for an obvious ambush, I warp out of d-scan range of the tower and return to my first plan. I rat and scan. I pop a cruiser, the biggest rat I can find, and resolve a dirty site and some Sansha. That's it then, as I don't think there's anything left to do. Actually, I suppose I can toy with the Hurricane, who still is sitting in the rock field near the tower. Sitting comfortably away from the CHA I decloak my Loki, letting my strategic cruiser be visible for only as long as it takes for the recloaking delay to expire and let me reactivate the module. As expected, like I pulled on some puppet strings, the Hurricane warps back to the tower within seconds, perhaps scratching his head as to where I went.

Fun over, I turn to leave, but hold when I see one of the corporation pilots return to the system. He's in a simple frigate and poops a canister that the Hurricane scoops. It's fuel for the tower, I suppose, which is confirmed when the tower starts to be brought on-line again. Six minutes and counting, and I'm going to be within the effects of the Genesis machine force field. I'll never get out in time! I turn my Loki away and start moving under impulse power, but, dammit, Jim, we need warp drive to get clear. Spock makes his way down to engineering and sacrifices himself to get the engines working, and I warp clear seconds before the tower comes on-line.

Phew. That wasn't close at all, but the added dramatic tension was awesome. I leave the Hurricane behind, still wondering where I am, as he anchors some defences, and return to w-space. An Anathema covert operations boat is scanning in C3a, but not for long. I see a few probes here and there, but they go shortly before the Anathema goes off-line. Once again, empire space provides my entertainment for the evening. It will need to do that a bit more, as I work to get my security status positive again. But, for tonight, I simply turn my Loki homewards to get some rest.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, hurricane, loki, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, punisher, pvp, scanning, w-space

Looking for some Lokis

A couple of days away from space has gas go, gas come, and no bookmarks waiting. It's a fresh start for me, with only our static wormhole needing to be resolved at home. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has a tower and no ships visible on my directional scanner, which is terribly normal, so I look to my usual routine of launching probes, performing a blanket scan of the system, and locating the tower. But opening the system map has me think otherwise, as this C3 has three planets, six moons, and is around 10 AU across, leaving nothing already unexplored by d-scan. How dinky. We should get a system like this for our coffee table.

Two anomalies and eight signatures is a simple result to sift through, but bad timing strikes again. As I cluster my probes around the first signature two ships light up, which d-scan shows to be a pair of Loki strategic cruisers. I throw my probes out of the system, but unless the pilots are entirely incompetent they'll already have been spotted. And it looks that way, as the Lokis disappear, without warping to the local tower first. I imagine the ships were coming to shoot some Sleepers and thought better of it with probes visible in the system, which has denied me a possible ambush, and may lead me in to one once I find the wormhole the Lokis used.

Finding the wormhole isn't straightforward, though. It is perhaps unlikely to be the K162 from class 4 w-space that is wobbling for being at the end of its natural lifetime, or the static exit to high-sec. A stable K162 from class 2 w-space is possibly the source of the Lokis, but so could be a K162 from class 5 w-space. And another ship blipping on my probes points me towards a sixth wormhole, a K162 from high-sec empire space that has been stressed to half mass and is at the end of its life. There's plenty to choose from, and activity is somewhere, so I point my covert Loki towards C2a and poke through.

A naked tower and no ships are on d-scan. My notes put me here five months ago, where I pitted my covert Tengu against another covert Tengu, where my strategic cruiser came off second best. The tower in the system is different from the one from my last visit, but that doesn't stop there being no one in it, so I turn around and return to C3a. I take a minute to exit through the static connection and bookmark the other side of the high-sec wormhole, in case I encounter trouble, to appear in Tash-Murkon and close to Amarr. The connection would be convenient if I could remember what I wanted to buy and there weren't two Lokis lurking somewhere, so I simply turn around and jump back to w-space.

A Punisher frigate is on d-scan in C3a, which is a curious ship to see in w-space, but I am too slow with d-scan to place it on any particular wormhole before it disappears. I have little choice but to ignore it. I'm back to looking for Lokis, and have a class 5 system to explore. I tentatively jump through the K162 to see nothing waiting for me on the wormhole and nothing on d-scan, which is a little anticlimactic. Exploring finds no occupation, and a blanket scan shows the system to be remarkably tidy for an empty C5, with a mere four anomalies and four signatures. I ignore rocks and more rocks to resolve the inevitable K162, which comes from more class 5 w-space, naturally. I continue along the backwards chain in to another unoccupied and empty system, this one rather more unkempt, with thirty-four anomalies and sixteen signatures to wade through.

I take a quick look for K162s, which is easier than looking for static connections, as K162s are pretty chubby, and find it without too much fuss. Quelle surprise, it's from more class 5 w-space. Well, I scanned it, I may as well go through it. And, again, it's all clear from the wormhole, although this time only the seventh planet in the system is in range of d-scan. That gives me a little hope of finding occupation or activity amongst the other planets, but, holy crap, I still haven't found the source of this chain of class 5 w-space, as I'm in yet another unoccupied system. I'm heading back.

I return through C5b, C5a, and in to C3a, where still nothing is happening. Whatever the Lokis wanted to do I certainly scared them away, and probably then went down the wrong rabbit hole, getting dragged deeper in to a scanning mire. The K162 from class 4 w-space is dead and gone, C2a remains empty, and so to try to keep my impetus going I exit back to Tash-Murkon and scan the high-sec system. One extra signature could be lucky, and it certainly looks like it, resolving to be an outbound connection to class 1 w-space.

But, following the motif of the evening's exploration, the system turns out to be unoccupied and empty, and I don't care to scan for what will likely be another connection to k-space. It all looked rather promising to start with, and there has certainly been plenty of w-space to scan my way through. But bad timing, stupid C5 w-space, and empty systems has me heading home without having seen any action.

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Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, punisher, scanning, w-spsace

Harrassing a Hound

There's an explosion of sites at home, with eight anomalies already spawned. It just shows that you can't keep the Sleepers down. Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system isn't seeing explosions, though. Aii saw some Hulk exhumers earlier but couldn't quite scan them without his probes staying visible for too long, and he tells me that he 'spooked or angered the mining locals'. They swapped briefly for combat ships, but as is usually the case they just sat in them in their tower. Now a scout is scanning for our wormhole, much as Aii is scanning for all the gravimetric sites. I jump through our static connection to join him.

That's a lot of probes on my directional scanner, and they are all combat probes. I don't add my own probes to the scanning effort, as decloaking to launch them would reveal my ship by the other pilot, and it's probably best to keep him thinking that he only has the single visitor still. But nothing much is happening, with Aii scanning and the other pilot scanning being all the activity that can be seen. Aii needs a short break, so as some of the probes have disappeared he jumps homewards in a bid to provoke a response, but no ships reveal themselves. It's all gone quiet.

As the probes are gone I take over where Aii left off, and scan for the static exit to low-sec. I can ignore many signatures, which Aii has already resolved, and find myself one more gravimetric site and the static wormhole, the only connection in the system. With nothing happening in this C3 I poke out to low-sec to see what else I can find. Not much, that's what. But being alone in a low-sec system means I can rat as I scan, so I launch probes and look for a rock field. Actually, no I don't. I recall the three probes I've launched and turn back towards the wormhole as Aii, lurking behind me, says that a 'Hound decloaked on the wormhole'. Well, isn't that lovely!

The stealth bomber jumps to low-sec, and I am far from surprised. In fact, I am ready and waiting to engage. The Hound decloaks, I lunge towards it and aim for a positive target lock, but watch as he jumps back to the class 3 system. That's neat, as it means he'll be polarised. I follow behind, let Aii know what the Hound is doing, and decloak and get my offensive systems hot as soon as I reappear in w-space. The Hound appears too, moving away from the wormhole, and we both aim to catch it. The stealth bomber doesn't cloak, which is curious, but he still manages to warp away before we can stop him. That's a real shame. I recently modified the fitting of my covert Loki strategic cruiser to boost my tank, at the expense of having to drop my sensor booster, and in this case I could have used the sebo instead of the extra shield strength. Fittings are difficult.

Excitement and polarisation over, and with no sign of the Hound in C3a, I return to low-sec to continue with my original plan. Four extra signatures look promising on a blanket scan, but they get resolved to a couple of radar sites, some ruins, and a K162 from class 3 w-space that's at the end of its life. Despite my luck with my previous risking an EOL wormhole, I don't much fancy the trip back to this isolated low-sec system should the connection die, so I leave it alone. There's not much else to do but head home, but maybe I can get a bomb thrown at me as I return to w-space. Aii reports no activity in C3a, but that doesn't really tell us anything apart from that the pilot hasn't returned to his tower. Aii moves in to position near the exit wormhole as I prepare to jump in to the system, in case the Hound tries a hit-and-run.

I jump from low-sec to C3a and get no warm reception. I move away from the wormhole and cloak, and still the Hound doesn't show itself. I suppose he realises a single bomb would be mostly ineffective against a strategic cruiser, and if he's alone we probably won't see him again. Unless, of course, we give him a fatter target. Aii fancies harvesting some gas in the home system, which would be reckless to do with a Hound on the loose, but if we collapse our static wormhole it would become relatively safer, as well as showing a fat industrial command ship for a Hound to chase. Aii holds watch on the wormhole, and I board the Orca and start throwing it through our wormhole to stress its mass limit. The Hound is either not paying attention, or is not tempted after seeing two active pilots and suspecting one is probably watching.

The wormhole is stressed to half its mass allowance in a couple of round trips with the Orca, and all is quiet. Let's finish this. Aii comes home, swaps his scouting boat for a battleship, and one final pair of coordinated jumps kills our wormhole. Job's a good 'un. I park the Orca back at the tower, Aii boards a gas harvesting ship, and we go our separate ways. I hide in a corner of the system to go off-line as Aii warps to a ladar site. Unless the Hound sneaked in to the system when we weren't watching, Aii should be safe to suck some iskies in to his hold. I'll find out tomorrow.

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

Looting in low-sec

Gas, gas, rocks, and a magnetometric site. The Sleepers are stirring in the home system again. I activate the new sites, so that they will stop cluttering my scan results within a few days, and resolve and jump through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. A tower is visible on my directional scanner from the K162, along with a Hurricane and Tornado. I suspect the battlecruisers aren't active, though, not without any wrecks that I can see. Warping to the tower—in the same position from four months ago—shows the Tornado to be empty and the Hurricane piloted, and a poke around the system shows him to be the only obvious pilot. As he's not doing anything, I scan.

Nine anomalies and nine signatures isn't much to sort through when looking for wormholes, particularly when one signature lurks almost 6 AU beyond the system's most distant planet. It couldn't be more obviously a wormhole unless it had a big arrow pointing to it labelled 'unstable wormhole' on the system map, which it soon does. It's the static exit to low-sec empire space, and that's good enough for me for now, seeing as I've been able to resolve it without my probes coming in to d-scan range of the tower. I can leave the Hurricane floating in his tower hopefully unawares of my brief visit, so that maybe I can come back and surprise him later.

I exit w-space to appear in Solitude, but with one other pilot in the low-sec system the region really ought to be renamed. The presence of another pilot deters me from ratting on automatic as I concentrate on scanning, but he won't stop me scanning itself. Then again, what will stop me from scanning is interpreting what d-scan is showing me. Towers and empty ships aren't an uncommon sight in empire space, and I mostly ignore them as being uninteresting. I don't need to sit outside them to monitor new traffic, as the bizarrely transparent local communication channel is a better tool for that, and with space stations offering better facilities and storage it doesn't seem that many pilots use towers exclusively, unlike in w-space.

But this tower on d-scan interests me, because it has a corporate hangar array and ship maintenance array, but no force field. Off-line towers are like catnip to w-spacers, and I immediately recall my two hastily launched probes, activate my cloak, and use d-scan to locate the unfortunately unpowered tower. I warp in to take a look and, sure enough, I see the off-line tower and associated modules, waiting for someone like me to come along and crack them open. Luckily, this low-sec system doesn't appear to be well-travelled, and the lone pilot who was here before has now left, so I approach the tower, decloak, and start shooting.

My poor security status will take another hit for destroying these hangars, but it may be worth it. At least, I hope so, as the tower belongs to a two-member corporation. Maybe there won't be much to find after all. The SMA is my first target, and it explodes with a gratifying explosion but disappointing complete lack of ships being scattered around. That's unfortunate, but not completely surprising. I continue shooting, turning my attention to the CHA, and it's not long before a second explosion throws a couple of cans in to space. A quick peek inside shows some loot, but just as a new contact enters the system. My paranoia makes me back away and cloak, if only to see what happens.

I'm not quite expecting one of the two owners of the tower to appear, but my mind is telling me it's a possibility. What actually happens is even more unlikely: I'm recognised. The new pilot in the low-sec system greets me in the local channel, which I first take to be subtle hostility disguised as general friendliness, an attempt to make me relax my guard, until he asks if I'd shoot another ratting w-spacer. I'm not quite used to this, as w-space hides pilots from local comms unless we foolishly reveal ourselves, so there is little opportunity to be recognised. But I suppose I could get used to it.

My fellow w-spacer, Elroy Skimms, is bouncing through low-sec ratting, and I'm fine with letting him gain some security status. And even though he asks, I'm not quite so fine with letting him know how I managed to get a global criminal cool-down on myself in an otherwise empty system, so I am a little coy about it. I'm cloaked nearby the cans spat from the CHA of the off-line tower, close to my loot but not able to carry it away just yet. I'm going to need a bigger ship. I should be okay with keeping it all to myself, as long as I'm not stupid. Cans on d-scan look like any other cans on d-scan, unless some blabbermouth boasts about just having popped an off-line tower's CHA, and then they look decidedly like loot.

Rather than appear to be in the low-sec system without a purpose I get back to my original plan. I launch probes and scan, although it seems that Elroy's wandered a little from his exit system. The only other wormhole in the system disappears before I warp to it, leaving me with sites I don't care about. I chat a little longer with my fellow w-spacer, who points me to a class 2 w-space system one hop across, and explains his official title of trophy wife, before wanting to get back to business. I remain paranoid and, on jumping back to C3a, hold on the wormhole in w-space for a couple of minutes, in case he intends to follow me.

No one jumps through the wormhole behind me, so I am probably safe for now. I head home, swap my scanning boat for a Bustard transport ship, and return to low-sec. The system is now empty, Elroy having moved on himself, and I am free to grab the loot in the cans. There's not much of it but what's there is voluminous, and will pose the same logistic problems getting it to market as getting it home, but the reward seems worthwhile. A handful of fighter drones fills up my Bustard for the first trip, and returning lets me grab a few more fighters and ironically a bunch of Minmatar fuel blocks. We can't use them, but they're worth some petty iskies.

I get to and from the tower in low-sec without being interrupted, and my two Bustard trips net me about a quarter of a billion ISK in loot. Even with a knock to my security status, that's not to be sniffed at. To end the evening, I get back in my scanning boat and see if the Hurricane has moved yet, having passed him in the Bustard each time, only to find out that he's now gone off-line. That's good timing, thanks for that. But an empty neighbouring system and an empty low-sec system turns out to be a good situation, as it means Aii can come home. I hadn't realised he'd got locked out again, but that's okay. I update him on the status of the constellation, then turn my boat around so I can get some sleep.

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Tags: bustard, eve online, hurricane, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tornado, w-space

Dying connections don't lead to dead systems

W-space has felt quiet lately. Hopefully I can stir up some trouble tonight. Home has me all alone again, and I resolve our static wormhole so I can visit the neighbours. They're out, it seems, as my directional scanner shows a tower and no ships from the K162, and it's looking like I need to go even further afield. I warp out, launch probes, and scan. Eleven anomalies and ten signatures get reduced to two wormholes, but the static exit to low-sec empire space is accompanied only by a K162 also connecting from low-sec. Tonight's adventure doesn't look promising.

I exit w-space to appear in a system in Tash-Murkon, and over eight kilometres from the wormhole, which is interesting but far from a problem. I launch probes and scan, resolving the one extra signature to be another wormhole, but it turns out to be an effective dead end, being a K162 from high-sec that is reaching the end of its life. I am scanning and not ratting because a couple of other pilots are in the system, and one of them is rather full of himself, thinking I'm scanning for his ship. His request for me to recall my probes is more peculiar given that it comes a full minute after I've done so, and am already warping away from the wobbly K162 and back to w-space.

W-space doesn't hold me for long, as I cross C3a and am back in low-sec, now in the Essence region. At least I'm alone and free from douches, letting me rat as I scan. One extra signature and three stray drones keep me amused for a minute or so, the rat battleship and wormhole giving me a positive outlook until I drop out of warp to see the K162 from class 3 w-space on its last legs. W-space is dead again. But with little else to do I poke my prow through the ageing wormhole, just in case I'm missing out on a party. And I may just be, as d-scan shows me a Covetor, Hulk, and cans. Oh my!

The mining barge and exhumer are joined on d-scan by three towers and a Noctis salvager, which soon becomes a Mammoth hauler. I would say there is mining occurring, even if my casual sweep with a narrow d-scan beam is a bit too casual. I didn't see the mining ships coincident with a tower, but I'm also not sure I saw all three towers separately. But whatever, I'm too excited by the prospect of hunting miners to get bogged down in details. I warp out of d-scan range of everything, launch probes, and warp back to start looking for the ships.

Mining in progress is confirmed. A relatively broad d-scan beam spies the Covetor, Hulk, and now three cans not coincident with a tower. I'm hunting. I use my broad d-scan beam to get a rough range on the ships, and warp my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to a planet to be as close as I can to the ships. Now that my angular tolerances are reduced I get a tighter bearing on the ships, down to five degrees in d-scan, followed by a good approximation on the range. I place the ships just under 4 AU away, and arrange my probes around where I think they are merrily mining away. I'm ready to scan.

I switch out of the system map and get my Loki moving, aligning it very roughly towards the ships so that my time in to warp is reduced, and return to the system map to scan. I call my probes in, get a perfect result on the Covetor and gravimetric site, and, well, wonder briefly where the Hulk has gone. Never mind, the Covetor is there, my probes are recalled, and my Loki is in warp. I bookmark the location of the ship and gravimetric site whilst in warp, update d-scan on a full beam to see the Hulk in the system, then point d-scan on a tight beam directly ahead. The Covetor remains in front of me, so I'm assuming I haven't been spotted and the Hulk's departure is coincidence. I was looking forwards to getting a shot at both ships, and maybe trying my technique of holding down two targets with one point again, but one miner is better than none.

I drop out of warp close to the still-mining Covetor and get to work. I move towards my target, decloak, and burn hard to give the ship a short sharp shock to prevent it aligning away. My sensors recalibrate from being cloaked and I gain a positive lock on the Covetor, letting me disrupt its warp drive and start shooting. The mining barge is flimsier than I'm expecting, disintegrating pretty quickly and exploding in a bright flash, and although I aim for the pod it escapes. All that's left to do is loot and shoot the wreck, reactivating my cloaking once done. This time I leave the cans of ore intact, so that the miners have some means to pay for replacement ships and an incentive to continue being targets in w-space gravimetric sites.

I lurk cloaked near to the cans. I'm really not expecting haulers to come and collect the ore, at least not without an escort, but I've seen some dubious decisions made before. Updating d-scan shows the Hulk to be swapped for a Heron, the frigate launching probes to scan for a new connection. Sorry, chaps, I came through your EOL static wormhole from low-sec, but I dig that you're looking. D-scan also shows me the pod and Mammoth pilot both switching to Drakes, and locating the tower they are in has the battlecruisers stationary and probably launched just an attempt at sabre rattling.

And as the wormhole out of here is EOL it's time for me to go, leaving the locals with their new-found paranoia. I exit w-space, cross low-sec, and get myself home. An unexpected and successful hunt has made an initially drab evening entertaining indeed. W-space isn't always as dead as it looks. Not until I've had my way with it, anyway.

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Tags: covetor, drake, eve online, heron, hulk, mammoth, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Ships in towers

It looks like I have a new site in the home system, but it actually turns out to be a new direction to explore. I like that. The signature resolves to be a wormhole, and a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space too. But a wormhole is a wormhole, and I know that I'm more likely to be ambushed on a connection with class 2 w-space than class 6, so with barely a second thought I decloak and jump through the K162.

There's no one waiting for me in C6a, unsurprisingly, and no one on my directional scanner. Moving away from the wormhole and cloaking lets me feel the space wind in my hair, as my Loki strategic cruiser blasts along at over 3 km/s, thanks to the black hole that somehow went previously unnoticed, and exploring finds the system empty and unoccupied. I launch probes and scan for more K162s, plucking one from class 3 w-space from the nineteen signatures, as well as an outbound connection to low-sec empire space. I think that's it, so I continue backwards through the constellation to C3b.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole in C3b, but unlike C6a the system is occupied. There is even a piloted ship in the tower's force field, but as it's a Heron and there are no scanning probes to be seen I imagine the frigate has finished whatever he was doing and is now dozing. That lets me scan instead, and as there are only four signatures to resolve it doesn't take long. Rocks, a static exit to null-sec, and a K162 from class 5 w-space are all resolved, and as the K162 is reaching the end of its life it looks like the constellation ends here.

I watch the Heron for a minute—a space minute, which is time-dilated—and when he doesn't stir I head back through C6a, across the home system, and jump to our neighbouring C3. I see ships and towers on d-scan in C3a, with two Harbinger battlecruisers, an Absolution command ship, and an Abaddon battleship, but no wrecks. My notes from a year ago indicate the system is occupied by blues, but when I find the ships they don't look blue to me. The ships are all piloted too, although the Absolution has disappeared, and as there is nowhere to hide in the small system the command ship has either left through a wormhole or gone off-line.

I bounce around planets in C3a locating the other towers, and find that one of the three actually is owned by a corporation blue to our alliance. I double-check the others and they definitely aren't, which I would say makes them fair game, as I'm pretty sure our corporate policy is to shoot first and rely on diplomacy later. Or, at least, it would make them fair game if the ships were to leave the tower, and as the Harbingers are now mysteriously unpiloted—or always were—C3a has become less interesting. Or maybe more interesting, with a lone Abaddon as a potential target. I'm not sure. He still has to leave the tower to become an actual target, and he hasn't stirred yet. I'm moving on.

Rather than scan C3a and spook a potential target I head back Heron-wards, but the frigate hasn't budged in my time away from C3b. I duck in to null-sec from C3b's static exit, appearing in Delve in an active system with a couple of corpses on d-scan. I'll leave capsuleers to their politics and try the low-sec system from C6a instead, which sends me to a system in Kor-Azor where I'm alone. Ratting and scanning doesn't result in much, with only cruisers to pop and a radar and magnetometric site each to resolve. One last look around the w-space constellation has no change, with the ships still sitting inside their respective towers, so I take myself home for a quiet night.

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Tags: abaddon, absolution, eve online, harbinger, heron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Rejected by a wormhole

The sites are returning. A new rock field gives me something else to resolve than just our static wormhole, but not an option of system to explore, so I jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. A clear result from my directional scanner on the K162 isn't too discouraging, as only two planets are in range, even if my notes don't make me expect much to be happening elsewhere in the system. Nine months ago this C3 was used as a silo system, and even if I expect silos to be a long-term investment there appears to be change. Exploring sees that four towers have been reduced to two, and there is no substantial silo presence.

The silos may be gone but the level of activity remains low, as my blanket scan reveals no ships. There are thirteen anomalies and fourteen signatures, though, and I resolve an astonishing six wormholes to go with our K162. But as promising as that sounds, all I have found is a K162 from null-sec k-space, a K162 from class 2 w-space that's at the end of its life, a K162 from low-sec empire space, a second EOL K162 from class 2 w-space, a second K162 from low-sec, and the static exit to high-sec. What a disappointment.

I exit through the static wormhole to be in a high-sec system in the Placid region, which offers a grand view of the Cloud Ring and nothing more, except for a safe route home. This lets me head back to w-space and poke my nose through a dying wormhole to C2a, now that I have a safety net. Spat out over seven kilometres from the wormhole in C2a and sat on the cosmic signature makes me suspect nothing has happened here for a while, but a tower, Proteus, and some Sleeper wrecks on d-scan says otherwise. I need to rethink my theory. Not now, of course, as I want to find that strategic cruiser first.

A lack of anomalies in C2a will make finding the Proteus more difficult, but I have space to warp out to and launch probes covertly. Warping back to the inner system has the Proteus at the local tower, which may mean I was spotted entering the system, but I don't know that for sure. I start looking for the site with the wrecks, narrowing down its bearing and range with d-scan, and clustering my scanning probes around where I gauge the site to be. Confident that I can now find the site whenever I choose to call in my probes, I wait outside the local tower and watch the Proteus.

I wait and watch, but the Proteus does nothing. He could be distracted for a few minutes more, so I decide to scan and hopefully get the site bookmarked and reconnoitred early. I call in my probes and scan, but get a negative result. I expand the range of my probes and scan again, but still nothing. I'm confident I wouldn't be quite so wrong in my estimation of the site's location, which indicates the site has despawned. I would suggest the site's despawning is what the Proteus was waiting for, expect the pilot goes off-line moments after I recall my probes. I suppose I lost nothing by scanning.

The Proteus is gone, and whether he was responsible for the wrecks or just for scaring off whoever made them, C2a is dead. The wormhole will be too, if I dawdle, so I turn my boat around and jump back to C3a whilst I can. That leaves me another EOL K162 to class 2 w-space to risk, or at least I think it does. I approach the wormhole and try to jump, but even though I start to get sucked in I am spat right back out again. I would say that was pretty lucky, as a minute earlier and I would have been left scanning for a route home. And I suppose it shows that, just as they are opened, wormholes collapse from origin to destination.

I have no more w-space to explore, so I'll head to null-sec instead. The K162 sends me an empty system in the Kalevala Expanse, which lets me rat and scan. I find a nifty clump of rat battleships and cruisers, which whilst drones are still worth popping, whereas scanning only reveals some rocks and a drone site. Once the rats are gone there's nothing else for me here. I could explore the low-sec systems but simply head home to rest, as I've actually had a good evening already. I've explored and scanned plenty of wormholes, pseudo-hunted a ship in a site, been spat out of a collapsing wormhole, and ratted in null-sec. I've done a bit of everything.

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

Creeping up on a Cheetah

Some Sleepers are coming back to the home system, with two anomalies already showing up on my scanners. It's well known that three's a crowd, so I leave my new guests alone by resolving our static wormhole and jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. My directional scanner is clear from the K162 in C3a, making me feel like it's going to be another quiet night. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp out to explore. Six anomalies, three signatures, and one ship shine under my combat probes, and I locate a tower on the far planet with a piloted Drake. And by the time I get there a Prowler transport has joined the battlecruiser.

The appearance of the Prowler is a little unsettling. The transport can fit covert operations cloaking devices, so it is possible he was in range of the wormhole when I appeared and launched probes, and he could know about me before I knew about him. It's also possible that the pilot's only just woken up, but the orientation of the transport shows that it has probably come back from collecting planet goo, and even if he knows about me he may not have been planning to leave the tower again anyway. So, with only two signatures I need to resolve, I may as well scan whilst I can.

As I scan the Drake goes off-line, to be replaced by a Mammoth hauler. The industrial ship will be much easier to catch and pop than the transport, but if one pilot saw me it would be peculiar for him not to tell the other one. Unless, of course, the first pilot has stepped out of his pod to get a snack. Still, I'm not expecting much, making it good that I resolve two wormholes out of two signatures. And with the system scanned I'm back to watching ships do nothing. The Mammoth moves to the hangar and just floats there, whereas the Prowler, well, actually, the Prowler looks like he's heading back to a customs office.

I am caught a little off-guard by the transport ship's new movement, but I follow behind as soon as I can. I'm at a distinct disadvantage, as the Prowler is more agile, faster, and knows where he's going before I do, and I manage to get to the customs office only in time to see him turn and warp back to the tower. The Mammoth is gone and replaced by an Iteron, but I continue to watch the Prowler, as it makes another trip. This time I'm more prepared, and follow sooner. Knowing my window of opportunity is short, I decloak and burn towards the transport as soon as I drop out of warp at the customs office, but the Prowler has good reactions and warps clear before I can catch him. The jig is up.

Maybe I should have waited for one of the basic industrial ships to have visited customs, but seeing as the Iteron has already been replaced by a Badger I'm supposing that none of the haulers are going to leave the tower. The Prowler warps out again, which is a little cocky but understandable given his agility and awareness, so I sit at the tower instead of chasing him. The Badger goes off-line and isn't replaced by a different hauler, so on the Prowler's next trip I follow him again. The transport isn't dilly-dallying now, flipping his ship around almost as soon as landing, and I suspect I have no chance of catching him. I'll leave him to it and see what the wormholes I resolved have to offer.

A static exit to null-sec k-space is accompanied in C3a by a K162 from low-sec empire space, which is dreary but a second option at least. Exiting to low-sec puts me in a faction warfare system in Metropolis, far from anywhere, and with two signatures that aren't wormholes. I'm ready to return to w-space when core scanning probes come close to the connection to C3a. I hold for a minute, but when the probes disappear and no ship comes I presume the pilot wasn't looking for wormholes. But d-scan now shows me a Wreathe hauler, and although there are active towers in the system I am curiously tempted to find the ship.

I use d-scan to ping some planets that hold towers, but can't find the Wreathe until he appears on a planet without a tower. Maybe this is the planet goo hauler I've been waiting for. I warp to the customs office and in to empty space, swinging d-scan around to look for the next destination. I find it and warp there, again too late and having to locate the Wreathe again. I find him and this time arrive near the customs office to see the Wreathe warp, and even though I'm getting closer I am too late. The next destination for the Wreathe is either a stargate or station, as the ship drops off d-scan. My security status thanks my tardiness, and I head back to w-space.

C3a is now empty, so I head through the static connection to null-sec without wasting more time watching stationary ships. And on the other side of the wormhole is a Cheetah, the covert operations boat thirteen kilometres from me and not moving. It's just him and me in the system, all praise the local channel, and with the session change cloak not stymieing me with a sensor recalibration delay I pounce.

I gain a positive lock on the Cheetah and start shooting as I disrupt its warp drives. Somewhat surprisingly, the Cheetah doesn't flee through the wormhole to w-space to escape my attention, and instead decides to stick around long enough to explode.

I clearly startled the pilot of the Cheetah, and destroying a cov-ops has startled me. I try to catch the pod, first by locking the wormhole, then trying to lock the territorial control unit elsewhere in the system, before finally remembering what a pod looks like on my overview. This naturally gives a slightly befuddled pilot time to get his pod clear, leaving me a wreck to loot and shoot. And, once clear, the pilot wonders where I came from, explaining that even once I started attacking I didn't appear on his overview, hence his confusion. Mick later points out that I should have told him I had an experimental cloaking device fitted, perhaps one salvaged from a Bird of Prey, but it doesn't occur to me to mess with the pilot's mind.

The Cheetah was actively scanning, which was why he didn't jump through the wormhole, but he could have got away from me, returned, and reconnected to his probes easily enough. It's got to be better than exploding. Even better, he could have been cloaked. Still, I'm not going to complain about an opportunistic kill in null-sec. Once my chat with the ex-Cheetah pilot is over I pick up where he left off, resolving two more wormholes, but one's at the end of its life and the other is an occupied but empty C3 leading to high-sec. I don't bother scanning for more connections and simply pop a rat in null-sec before heading home, having chalked up another kill.

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Tags: badger, cheetah, drake, eve online, iteron, low-sec, mammoth, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, prowler, pvp, scanning, w-space, wreathe

Looking for trouble

Now that's a clean system. Rocks, rocks, and a wormhole. No anomalies. And it's the w-space system we call home. I'd best go next door so that I don't muss up the place and get Fin mad with me. C3a has one of those J-numbers that sounds familiar but really isn't, although it happens to be the system where the tower went off-line as Fin and I passed through it running logistics. We noticed, and ripped the tower's hangars apart, stealing what we could. Great days. Exploring finds a second tower with a Drake battlecruiser piloted inside the force field, but he may as well not be here for the amount of life he's showing.

A blanket scan has reveals two anomalies and four signatures. The system is big enough that I can resolve the signatures without the Drake seeing my probes on his directional scanner, giving me a ladar site and two wormholes to investigate. They aren't exciting, though, being a static exit to low-sec and a K162 from null-sec. Even less exciting, the static connection is reaching the end of its lifetime, and the wormhole in null-sec is heavily bubbled. That's a curious choice from the null-seccers, but if they treat wormholes that way it may be best not to scan for more.

The Drake in C3a is still just a Drake in a tower, and not living up to its potential as a target, and as the evening's early I should probably just collapse our static connection and start again. No procrastination this time, just do it. I return home, board an Orca industrial command ship, and start the wormhole hokey-cokey.

I jump my Orca out,
I jump my Orca in,
Out, in, out, in,
A wild Shev appears,
He boards a battleship,
And helps by adding mass,
And that's what it's all about.

Done. Let's start the evening again.

Our new neighbouring C3 is unoccupied and empty, and stuffed full of anomalies and signatures. The static exit to null-sec probably explains it all, and the lack of obvious K162s reduces us to looking for outbound connections. And we're in luck, as a second weak wormhole turns out to be a super-stable outbound link to class 5 w-space. Well, I say 'luck', I think I mean 'a hell of never-ending class 5 w-space'. But we're both up for the experience, and jump in to see what waits for us.

Nothing waits for us, not on the wormhole and not at the tower on a far planet. Scanning the ten signatures resolves gas, gas, gas—a ship! Of course, if my combat probes can see the ship, the ship can see my combat probes. But at least I actually see the ship, which core scanning probes wouldn't help me with, and I know where to aim to look for the potential wormhole. Two scans and one warp later, and I'm floating next to a critically destabilised connection to class 3 w-space. It's not the chain of class 5 w-space I was expecting, but it being the only other wormhole in the system brings us somewhat to a halt.

It looks like the C3ers were collapsing this connection, maybe not liking having C5 neighbours, even if there's no one home. We wait for the potential polarisation timer to end, but it seems the collapsers are happy to leave the wormhole in a ragged state rather than risk a ship. Or so it seems, because I threaten to jump through to take a look only to have the wormhole flare before I decloak. I stay cloaked, and watch with Shev as an Anathema covert operations boat moves away from the wormhole and disappears.

Well, an Anathema's an odd choice of boat to try to collapse a wormhole with. Or maybe it's a safety net for a big ship that's about to appear. 'Perhaps the Anathema is native to this system', says Shev. Good point, but warping to the local tower doesn't find the ship, and I return to the wormhole where Shev still hasn't seen the cov-ops jump back. Judging by the state corporation the pilot is in, he's probably a simple wanderer that we can ignore. I think I'll poke my Loki through the wormhole.

I could get lucky and find a mining operation in progress that thinks it safe to leave a wormhole critical but alive. Or I could find nothing and still get lucky, collapsing the wormhole on my way back and giving us a new connection in the C5 to explore through. Or I could jump in to a cluster of ships only to have the wormhole collapse behind me. Either way, the uncertainty is thrilling. As it turns out, the wormhole survives and no one greets me on the other side. W-space, it turns out, is better when imagined.

C3b is occupied but inactive, although a Drake blips on a blanket scan, but only the one scan. I poke the seven signatures present to resolve a static exit to high-sec, and one with two wrecks on it. That's odd, as it isn't easy to catch ships on a wormhole that connects to Concord-protected empire space. Three more wormholes resolve to be K162s from low-sec, class 2 w-space, and class 5 w-space. Shev comes to C3b, manages not to kill the critical wormhole with his mighty Buzzard cov-ops, and explores C2a. I have C5b, which I take all of ten seconds to investigate, right up to when Shev calls a Mammoth hauler appeared in the class 2 system.

I rush to join Shev in watching the Mammoth, along with an Orca. They are both in one tower, and although they dare to warp out it is only to second tower. Shev watches the two ships repeat this journey as I explore the rest of the system, finding a third tower with three piloted but seemingly inactive ships. It looks like the locals are moving, either leaving w-space or just moving between moons, as they are taking structures off-line. And when a couple of ships warp to empty space and drop off d-scan it seems they are moving out, which makes it a shame that I know from a previous visit that this C2 holds a static connection to high-sec.

I scan anyway, looking for and resolving the exit to high-sec the locals are using, and watch the Mammoth leave the system. With any luck, the exit is mighty convenient and he'll be back within a couple of minutes, polarised and vulnerable. Sadly, that isn't the case, and I spend a handful of minutes waiting only to see a Rokh battleship also leave the C2. There's probably nothing for us to do here, and so, knowing that, when the wormhole flares to finally bring the Mammoth back I take a pop at it anyway. I decloak, and burn towards the hauler to try to bump it away from the wormhole as I lock on and start shooting.

I get a few good shots at the Mammoth before he jumps back to the security of high-sec, at which point I cloak and move away from the wormhole. Shev reports the Orca pilot swapping to a Rattlesnake battleship that heads my way, and he's joined by a pilot from the third tower now in a Drake to act as muscle on the wormhole. It seems we got their attention, but I don't care to hold it.

At least I shot another ship tonight. We both even get home safely. The connection to C3b remains quiet, and the destabilised wormhole back to C5a survives Shev's jump, and mine following. It wasn't that sickly after all.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Looking for trouble
Tags: anathema, buzzard, drake, eve online, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, rattlesnake, rokh, w-space

Clearing the home anomalies

Would you look at that. Some roaming fleet has blitzed all of our anomalies, bar three. And those three may have spawned overnight. It's a bit of a disappointment, really. All of that Sleeper action, and not even a salvager for me to shoot. On top of that, they don't even leave a wormhole behind for me to explore through, as the extra signature in the home system is a gravimetric site. Oh well, I'll just resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system as usual.

A tower and Chimera are visible on my directional scanner in C3a. Odds are low that the carrier is piloted, but not so low that I'll launch my probes from the K162, particularly when I can get out of d-scan range of the tower. I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system as I look for the tower, which turns out to have moved one moon across in the past year, in some peculiar form of lunar drift. Naturally, the Chimera floats empty inside the tower's force field.

My probes reveal six anomalies and ten signatures, which resolve to be mostly gas, three magnetometric sites, and two wormholes. I'm always keen to find more than the exit to k-space that class 3 systems guarantee, but today all I get is a K162 from high-sec empire space to accompany the static exit to low-sec. The K162 takes me to the Genesis region again, which is interesting from a historical perspective but dull otherwise, and the exit to low-sec also leads to Genesis, an stargate's stone's throw from the other system.

I find myself alone in the low-sec Genesis system, so I launch probes and scan whilst looking for a rat. Two extra signatures turn out to be mere rock sites, and I pop a simple rat for a pitiful gain in security status. As I head home from an uninspiring w-space adventure, a wild Shev appears. That's good timing, as we can make some iskies from the few anomalies that were kindly left for us in the home system. Now, we could even collapse our static connection first, to isolate us and provide some protection, but where's the fun in that?

I get home, board a Sleeper Tengu strategic cruiser to match Shev's, and warp the two of us to the first anomaly. Missiles fly, remote repairs keep our shields healthy, and Sleepers explode. We move to the second anomaly, and then the third, and before we know it we need to salvage all the wrecks we left in our wake. Tengus are swapped for Noctes, and a pair of salvagers head in different directions to sweep up the mess.

And what a mess. Melted nanoribbons are everywhere. At least, they are in the cleared anomaly I'm salvaging. So much so that I daren't head to a second site without first ditching the 170 Miskies in loot and salvage I've already recovered from the first. We could both be ambushed and sent back to a clone vat in empire space and still make a profit after that one site alone. But we have two more to salvage, and although we don't get as lucky as with the first site, we still bring back 380 Miskies in total from all three cleared anomalies.

Home is swept clean, with just one gravimetric site now acting as a zen rock garden. I even have time for one last poke around the constellation. C3a remains quiet, with just the unpiloted Chimera obviously present, and no more signatures have appeared in low-sec to offer new destinations. Okay, I'm finished for the night. Or am I? I realise the high-sec system is yet unscanned, and I am compelled to at take a look. I cross C3a, jump through the K162, and launch probes in the high-sec system in Genesis. And the one extra signature in the system indeed resolves to be a wormhole, and a K162 from class 1 w-space at that.

My excitement is short lived, as jumping in to C1a has my ship appear over seven kilometres from the wormhole and sitting on the cosmic signature. I think that indicates no one's home. Six towers are on d-scan, along with a whole bunch of silos, so it doesn't surprise me that no one is in this system. But it could mean someone else opened this wormhole and that there is another K162 to be found. I launch probes and scan, and there is indeed a wormhole! Yeah, it's the one I'm sitting on that's labelled 'Unstable Wormhole' in the system map, Sherlock. Okay, there's nothing here. Now I'm heading home for the night.

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Tags: chimera, eve online, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space