Scanning through rude space

All looks quiet. And it is. Or, without wanting to repeat myself, it looks quiet. All I can say for now is that there are no obvious ships in the home system. Only after I launch probes and take a more careful look around am I actually convinced the home system is quiet, as the only unknown signature that my probes pick up is our static wormhole. I resolve the wormhole and jump through to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to look for activity. It's possible I've found some too, with a Hyperion battleship and Noctis salvager visible on my directional scanner, although it's just as likely they are sat unpiloted inside the tower, floating next to the Taranis interceptor that rounds off my d-scan result. Even so, I perform a passive scan of the system and bookmark the seven anomalies here just in case the ships are active.

My notes don't help me find the tower here, as my last visit eight months ago had this C3 unoccupied, but towers are straightforward to find. And the Hyperion and Noctis turn out to be piloted after all, which makes me hope that they are pairing up to clear some anomalies. I warp out and launch scanning probes, mostly out of habit, blanketing the system to see six signatures and the three ships I know about, to accompany the anomalies I've already bookmarked. There's not much to scan but I'll leave my probes dormant, in the hopes that the ships will become active but, la la la, time passes and nothing happens. I'm not spending my evening watching other people's ships do nothing, so I start resolving the signatures.

I'm expecting to find a static connection to null-sec k-space, so resolving two chubby, definitely not null-sec wormholes is a positive sign for further exploration. A couple of rock sites get in the way before I resolve what must be the static wormhole, just as the locals show that they are awake and active. Sadly, they don't demonstrate this by warping out to an anomaly, or taking a hauler to collect planet goo, but by spotting my probes on d-scan and telling me, rather curtly, to get out of their system. I have to admit that I'm a little upset by this. Not because of this pilot's demeanour, but because I've finished scanning and have wormholes to reconnoitre, which means recalling my probes and leaving the system moments after being rudely told to do just that. I'd almost rather stay. He's not the boss of me.

As much as I don't want it to look like I'm kow-towing to this pilot's unreasonable instructions, there's little point staying in this system. Were I petty—or, rather, had I thought about it sooner—I could have left my probes floating in the system, reconnecting to and recalling them when coming back this way, just to irritate the locals, but I leave the system clean. Well, not right away, as the first wormhole I warp to is a K162 from high-sec empire space that's at the end of its life. The second wormhole being an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space has me jumping through it, though.

The other side of the N968 doesn't look as exciting, and not just because of the uninspiring K162 designation. All d-scan shows me is a tower and an Orca, the industrial command ship most likely unpiloted at the tower. My last visit to this system was also seven months ago, where I miss popping a warp-stabilised Mammoth hauler, which evokes a memory of a gravimetric site fiasco. It doesn't look like I'll have any such encounter today, so I simply locate the tower, with empty Orca, and scan. One anomaly and six signatures makes for quick scanning, and only the static exit to low-sec crops up as a wormhole, which takes me out to the Derelik region. There are two other pilots in the system, so I'm not going to rat, but I can scan further.

The first two signatures are of 'unknown' type, but being outside of w-space that's no guarantee of finding a wormhole. It's not until the third signature that I find one, a K162 from class 3 w-space, but a wormhole that is EOL. Another wormhole gets me another class 3 w-space connection, and this K162 is stable and healthy. But before I jump through it, a third wormhole appears from a really weak signature, which is interesting, and I resolve an outbound connection to class 5 w-space. A quick poke in to C3d, through the stable K162, has me looking for some obvious targets, but all I find are a couple of combat ships floating unpiloted inside a tower's force field. I won't bother scanning here, not with more systems already found and waiting to be explored.

I jump back to low-sec and in to C5a, where I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system. My probes show me eleven anomalies and only eight signatures, and the system map shows me there is nowhere to hide, so I'm in an unoccupied and inactive system. I've been here before, ten months ago, when I resolved a connection to null-sec, but I suspect that wasn't the C5's static wormhole. Taking a more thorough look around finds what must be the actual static wormhole, an H296 wormhole to more class 5 w-space, and as it too is EOL it looks like scouting is at an end.

I return to low-sec, where my curiosity for exploration overcomes the sense of risk, and I warp across the system to take a look through the dying connection in to C3c. Except it's gone. I suppose it's good that I resisted the initial temptation to take a look, although what I would have found, both in the w-space system and on my inevitable and tortuous route through empire space to get home again, remains a mystery. I still have to get home now, but it's a pretty short trip. Jumping in to C3b sees no change, just the tower and Orca on d-scan, and although returning to C3a now has a Proteus to replace the battleship and salvager the strategic cruiser looks about as active as the other two. I ignore him and jump home to get some sleep.

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Tags: eve online, hyperion, low-sec, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, taranis, w-space

Getting lucky with the loot

A new static wormhole leads to another boring-looking system. I renewed our static wormhole to isolate ourselves from an occupied but empty class 3 w-space system, where the only indication of activity happened when I was pushing the Orca through the wormhole to collapse it. Now I'm looking at my directional scanner and seeing a tower and Chimera in this C3, and I'd be amazed if the carrier turned out to be piloted. At least d-scan doesn't span this entire system from any point like it did the last, giving me more to explore. I warp away from the wormhole and proximity to the tower so that I can launch scanning probes.

My attempt to get out of d-scan range of one tower, crossing 60 AU to do so, only bumps me in to another. There are no ships on d-scan to go with this tower, although I note the presence of a couple of core scanning probes, so something could be happening here. Core probes won't detect my ship either, so I feel safe launching probes, as long as I try again to get out of d-scan range of the towers here. I warp towards the centre of the system, where I don't see any more towers but a fleet of ships instead. Two Megathron battleships, three Typhoon battleships, a Loki strategic cruiser, Oeniros logistics ship, Guardian logistics ship, and Noctis salvager are all out and about, and there are Sleeper wrecks somewhere. That's actually quite exciting.

As soon as I drop out of warp I punch my on-board scanner to get a passive reading on all the anomalies in the system, but I am thinking about the core scanning probes I've seen. The size of the fleet, the number of wrecks on d-scan, and the Noctis already being present all suggest that they haven't just arrived, and so I must have opened our static wormhole in to this system after they started shooting Sleepers. That will mean the K162 will appear as a new signature, and perhaps rather obviously. I suppose that will depend on how many other signatures there are in the system and how far the scout has progressed in scanning. But in the worst case, the scout has already scanned and ignored all signatures, so that the new K162 shines like a warning beacon.

Ambushing the Noctis here may be a dangerous proposition, depending on what the fleet is now expecting, and there's no way I can tell without giving it a go. First, I need to find the fleet to find the Noctis, as none of the eight anomalies my scan revealed holds the Noctis currently. One of them has the fleet, though. I warp in to take a look and see the ships efficiently despatching the Sleepers. So efficient that they can afford to spare a pilot to guard the Noctis? I'll soon find out, as the last Sleeper in this site explodes and the Noctis warps in. Most of the fleet has already left for the next anomaly, leaving two battleships and the Oneiros.

The three ships stay in the site probably as a guide for the Noctis and not to watch over the ship as it salvages. Indeed, with the arrival of the Noctis the three combat and support ships warp out one-by-one. I wasn't so much expecting this as hoping for it, but either way I am already aligned at speed and waiting to see the ships leave. Before that last ship even clears the site I am in warp to the Noctis. I decloak moments before dropping out of warp and get my systems hot, more nervous about this ambush than I have been for a long while. I have no idea whether my presence is known or inferred, what cloaked guard there may be here with the Noctis, or what the response time of the fleet will be. I've pretty much only just got here myself and haven't even had the opportunity to shadow the fleet to see how they operate. I'll soon find out.

I lock on to the Noctis and disrupt its warp engines, activating my missile launchers as I do. The salvager forgets his job in hand and tries to flee, but I have a solid grip on his ship. I keep updating d-scan, having reduced its range, as I'm only interested in seeing if the fleet gets closer, but no ships look to be warping in to help their colleague. The shields of the Noctis are evaporated, its armour shredded, and hull ripped apart. The pilot's pod is ejected in to space in the explosion, but he's expecting it and flees from my continued attentions. And I flee too. I ignore the wreck of the Noctis, too concerned about the fleet to risk getting tangled in cloak-interfering wrecks, and return to a safe point where I can watch the aftermath.

Nothing happens. Maybe because I cloak my Tengu strategic cruiser so soon after the Noctis explodes, giving them no one to chase, or maybe because they really weren't expecting me and don't know what else to expect. D-scan shows me drones being recalled, but still the fleet doesn't show. Instead, they leave the system, or at least the volume of space covered by d-scan. Now looks like a good time to loot the Noctis. I warp in, approach the wreck, and hit the jackpot! This wasn't the first site the Noctis has salvaged, and I transfer around a hundred million ISK in loot from the wreck to my hold, and about another hundred million ISK in salvage that, for once, survives the explosion. Judging by the space dust, another two hundred million ISK was destroyed, which makes this quite an expensive Noctis kill. Excellent.

I should probably explore a bit. I feel quite safe launching probes from my vantage point in this cleared anomaly, and performing a blanket scan shows that our K162 probably wasn't spotted by the scout whose probes I saw. There may only be sixteen signatures here, but if the scout was only mid-way through his scanning, and because of the separation between the planets, the new signature could easily have been missed or overlooked. Even so, I couldn't know for sure and the ambush really got my heart pumping! I start resolving signatures, looking for the wormhole the fleet used, as there is only the Chimera now in the system, and think I've found it when a Dominix battleship appears on my probes along with the wormhole.

Warping to the connection sees a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space. It tickles me to think that I popped a Noctis from such a high-class w-space system, but when the Dominix reappears, no doubt collapsing the wormhole, the name and corporation don't match with that of the fleet I just frustrated. That would make this wormhole another point of threat for the fleet here, particularly with at least one active pilot on the other side. More scanning reveals more wormholes. A K162 from high-sec empire space that has been destabilised to half-mass is probably how the fleet got in to this C3, particularly as the other two wormholes I find are a healthy static exit to high-sec and a K162 from class 4 w-space reaching the end of its life.

I pop out through the static exit to a system in the Placid region, far from any hub and not useful for much. I return to C3a and check beyond the K162 to high-sec to appear in the Domain region, and only two hops from Amarr and nine from Jita. That's pretty convenient. It means Fin's coming home too, which is good news indeed. Returning to C3a has the K162 from class 6 w-space collapsed and gone, and I'm not going to bother looking behind the EOL K162 to the C4.

As I don't think the fleet will be back, I'll continue to profit from their efforts. I head home and ditch my Tengu for a salvaging destroyer, returning to C3a to sweep up the wrecks left in the cleared anomaly. All is quiet as I snatch the loot from the wrecks and salvage the twisted metal hulls, and I take home another thirty-three million ISK in loot and salvage. I store the extra profit with the other two hundred million I scored from popping the Noctis, and kick back to relax after a successful evening of w-space piracy.

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Tags: chimera, dominix, eve online, guardian, loki, megathron, noctis, oneiros, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, typhoon, w-space

Collapsing with probes

The gas has gone, bringing sweet relief to me. Still, it's made way for some stones the size of small European countries, which is probably going to cause a little more discomfort than a couple of stinky gas clouds, but they should pass through my system in a few days and I'll be none the worse for wear. Strangely, the new static wormhole has not moved from where I found the previous one, which I haven't seen in a while. Being in the same place doesn't really save much time, though, as it still takes a few scans to realise and confirm this.

There is the temptation to assume the location is identical and cluster my probes tightly around it, but sometimes the signatures appear in a nearby volume of space without being the same, resulting in a wasted scan as I pick up on a vague sniff the wormhole. And I can't reliably use the old bookmark, as each great galactic reboot tends to jolt the cosmic signatures a couple of kilometres this way and that. So even though the current static wormhole sits in the what is essentially the same position as before I still need to resolve and bookmark it as normal. That's okay, I was going to do it anyway.

Jumping through the static wormhole shows me a humdrum system on my directional scanner, with a tower but no ships visible. I'll warp out, launch probes, and, uh, oh. I would warp out and launch probes, but opening the system map shows the furthest planet from me as being a mere 7 AU distant, which means d-scan is showing me everything that can be seen. I'm in another occupied but inactive w-space system. Okay, so warping anywhere won't gain me any benefit, but scanning could find an extra wormhole or two that leads to opportunity and excitement. Or, although there are eight anomalies, it could find the bare minimum two signatures that is our K162 and the static wormhole.

The static connection doesn't even lead to null-sec k-space, forcing a couple of extra scans to resolve the weaker signature of a K346, so I am recalling my probes after three scans instead of five. That's okay, as I will have an empire space system to scan for more wormholes, or look for rats, so exploration doesn't have to end here. Not unless the static exit to low-sec is reaching the end of its natural lifetime, the bastard. This is not a welcoming class 3 w-space system. It will be best for us both if I collapse our static wormhole to isolate our two systems.

I jump home, board a borrowed Orca, and send the industrial command ship to the wormhole. Making sure I count the trips I start pushing the Orca through the connection, taking care to increase the ship's mass by using the fitted reheat module. One trip is complete, and I wait for the polarisation effects to dissipate before making a second. But this is awkward, as the C3 now has core scanning probes visible on d-scan. Even more awkwardly, as I make the return jump home the probes disappear to be replaced by an Anathema covert operations boat.

The cov-ops can hardly destroy an industrial command ship by itself, but I'd rather not be spotted in the midst of collapsing our wormhole, because the pilot could easily swap to a more suitably pointy ship. Thankfully, the Anathema doesn't appear at our K162 when I jump home, nor does he jump in to the home system before I've warped the Orca clear of the wormhole. Back at our tower, I would normally be tempted to plonk an interceptor on our wormhole in a generally futile effort to catch the Anathema, but it would be even more futile given that I'm polarised and couldn't give chase even if I spot the cov-ops.

I have to wonder why I didn't see the Anathema, though. There are only two signatures in the C3, and as the exit to low-sec is EOL our K162 must be an enticing find. Even if the scout was hoping for a replacement static connection for himself, surely he'd be interested to see what else is happening. But I realise that my second trip destabilised our wormhole to half-mass, which perhaps makes the connection look rather less attractive. Now it looks used and potentially old, perhaps not worth exploring beyond. That could be the case, but I still won't push another Orca through it until I have some certainty that it will come back.

Once my polarisation effects have worn off I swap in to a Manticore, and warp to the wormhole. The stealth bomber is cloaky, small, and agile, whilst packing some decent firepower, which makes it a good ship to reconnoitre a potentially hostile system. I sacrifice one polarisation cycle to take a look around the C3 again, which I consider to be a sensible precaution. There are no ships obviously waiting on the wormhole for me, and d-scan looks clear. In such a small system there's not much else I can do but decloak and warp away, to see if the scout reveals himself, which he doesn't. Maybe he really is just waiting for the exit wormhole to die of old age. I think I'll risk the Orca.

There's only one more trip to be made with the Orca, which limits its risk, but it only needs to be caught once. Besides, I know a few manoeuvres. I swap back to the massive industrial ship, warp to the wormhole and jump. D-scan again looks clear in C3a, but I'm pretty sure cloaked ships aren't detected, and jumping back has no one follow me. Well, that was easy. But the wormhole is still there. That's according to schedule, though. That was my last trip with the Orca, and now I've got to finish the collapse in a different hull, my Widow black ops ship.

I wait for polarisation to end once more and take my Widow to the wormhole. I feel less vulnerable in my powerful ECM battleship, although as I jump out and the wormhole looks to collapse I realise that I have no means to scan fitted to the ship, and if the ageing exit to low-sec happened to die I would be stuck here. Much to my blessed relief, our static was merely destabilising to critical levels, not actually collapsing, so I don't need to find out if the exit wormhole is still alive. Instead, I return home, reheat blazing, to have our static connection finally collapse, on schedule and without a fight. That was rather more involved than I had expected. Now to get back in to my scanning boat and start again.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, widow

Watching Sleepers rattle a snake

All alone in space again, so sad. It's just me and my gas. Hey, maybe that's why I'm alone. I need to get rid of the gas! Damn, I think I'm suffering from space madness, so enough of the high jinks and on to exploring the w-space constellation for today. I resolve our static wormhole and jump in to the neighbouring class 3 system, which looks terribly ordinary with its tower and lack of ships on my directional scanner. Scanning finds two anomalies and eight signatures, and for some reason I resolve each signature until I can bookmark it. I suppose I'm hoping for pilots to arrive and do something, in a crazy fit of optimism, or maybe it's that I'm not expecting this constellation to go anywhere and am using scanning as a time-sink.

There are no other wormholes to find in this C3 beyond its static exit to low-sec, which leads to a system in our favourite region. Hello, Aridia! And for once I don't shout this in the local channel, as there are a dozen other pilots here with me. That's anomalous, but never mind. Activity stops me ratting in low-sec—well, as there's a station and nowhere to hide it's not so much 'activity' as the threat of docked pilots coming out to play—but it doesn't stop me scanning. There are no more wormholes to find, though, which pushes me back to w-space, where there is no change from a few minutes ago. I either collapse our static wormhole or find something else to do this evening.

I jump home, board an Orca, and get my maths head on as I start jumping the industrial command ship back and forth between home and C3a. I note the mass I push through the wormhole with each trip, and when the wormhole's stability decreases, and the conditions look favourable tonight. I swap to a Widow black ops ship for the final round trip, stressing the wormhole going out and over-stressing it on the way back, so that I'm floating in very empty space. Hey, it worked. Okay, I'm back to square one and scanning for our static wormhole, hopefully to find a more neighbouring interesting system than the last. Yes, this looks more interesting, with an Arazu recon ship, Zealot heavy assault ship, Taranis interceptor, Curse recon ship, Dominix battleship, Helios covert operations boat, Bestower hauler, and Orca all on d-scan.

The ships all look interesting and varied, but there is also a tower on d-scan, and no wrecks, no cans, no probes. Just as I imagine, I find all of the ships unpiloted inside the force field of the local tower, which is not really an improvement over the system I just isolated us from. A blanket scan of C3a reveals no surprises, just seventeen anomalies and nine signatures, and this time I merely identify the signatures and don't resolve them. A chubby wormhole sticks out nicely, with a weaker wormhole signature being a nice contrast, but that's all I find that isn't rocks, gas, or radar sites. The chubby wormhole is a neat K162 from class 3 w-space, which would make the weaker signature a static exit to null-sec, so I ignore the exit and continue through to C3b.

Three canisters and nothing else are visible on d-scan, which is no real indication of occupation or activity, and only one planet is out of d-scan range. I suppose I'll be looking there for a tower and pilots. D-scan shows me a tower as I get close, and finding the tower shows me pilots! A Hyperion battleship and Apocalypse battleship both sit capsuleer-infested inside the force field of the tower. I warp away again, launch scanning probes, and blanket the system, revealing a puny three signatures and healthy twenty anomalies. I return to the tower, where all I have to do now is hope that the pilots do something.

Clearly, the two pilots are not going to do anything right now. And it looks like the two signatures I don't know about are far out of d-scan range of the tower, which should let me resolve them whilst these lazy boys fritter away their evening. Done. A ladar site and a wormhole, which is an exit to low-sec. I poke my nose out to be in Aridia again—hello, Aridia!—again in a system with a dozen other capsuleers. Is Aridia gaining in popularity for some reason? It's a toilet. Whatever, I'm not scanning here when I have w-space pilots to watch, so I return to C3b and watch pilots.

There's no change in the two battleship dullards, but a new contact arriving in a Tengu could be interesting. The new pilot ditches his strategic cruiser for a Helios cov-ops and warps away, towards one of the wormholes. I guess that he's going to check the exit to low-sec and follow, but my Tengu doesn't quite go in the same direction as the Helios. Ah, of course, the pilot has gone to scout w-space and not see how popular Aridia has become, and warped to the N968 to C3a. I correct my position and loiter on the other wormhole, but remain firmly in the dark as to what's happening. I have no idea if the Helios actually jumped, and am out of d-scan range of the tower so can't tell if he warped back there or if the two other pilots are preparing dual haulers for some planet goo collection.

I should probably head back to the tower. I don't want to jump in behind the Helios and give away my position, if he went this way, I'm not about to catch a cov-ops without a degree of luck anyway, and am better served by waiting for his return. And, as if by magic, the shopkeeper appears. I cut my warp engines as the wormhole flares, heralding the return of the Helios. He warps clear, bouncing off a point in space I don't recognise that is likely to be a safe spot, and we both end up back at his tower. Now there looks to be activity looming, as the Helios is swapped for a Rattlesnake battleship which, after a few minutes of preparation, warps towards the centre of the system.

I leave the tower behind to locate the snake, d-scan putting him in a local anomaly. That stymies my idea to grab my Legion and engage the battleship directly, as I'll have an extra system to traverse that will soak up time, and he'll have two pilots in the same system that could possibly be called on for rapid support. I suppose I shall watch and wait for a salvager, and I'm glad to see the Rattlesnake isn't looting and salvaging as he shoots. But he is having problems, warping out at one point and even leaving his drones behind. That's my cue to leave the anomaly too, as the presence of my cloaked ship will prompt the Sleepers to continue popping the drones, which will be a dead giveaway to the pilot if he also knows this.

The Rattlesnake returns to shoot the Sleepers a bit more, but withdraws again. Either his drones are taking too much of a beating or his ship is, but it's enough to make the pilot rethink his choice of hull. That's the last I see of the Rattlesnake, but the night's not over, as the pilot returns to finish the anomaly in his Tengu. Maybe the Rattlesnake is relatively new and he is either under-skilled in piloting it or he hasn't quite worked out how to use it effectively against Sleepers. I don't mind, I'm just waiting for the Noctis salvager to appear. And after some more painful minutes of watching the Tengu gradually wear down a Sleeper battleship—a tedium I know from personal experience—the anomaly is clear.

I warp out along with the Tengu, and to my relief we both go to the local tower. It seems neither of us want to see him struggle through a second anomaly alone. The Tengu is stowed and a Noctis boarded. This is what I've been waiting for, and not just tonight but for a week or more. I need no more encouragement and warp back to my monitoring point in the cleared anomaly before the Noctis even leaves the tower. I am in position and aligned towards the wrecks when the Noctis warps in. All I have to do is choose the wreck closest to the salvager, engage my warp drive, and in I fly to take another crack at a defenceless industrial ship. I decloak, lock on to the Noctis, and disrupt its warp engines, happy to see missile explosions envelop the ship.

The Noctis looks to be aligning, so I get my Tengu to give it a couple of nudges to try to prevent it flying straight, but the salvager's not going anywhere. The ship explodes in beautiful blue flames. I aim to catch the pod but the pilot was ready for this moment and warps away almost immediately. Judging by the targeted and burst ECM modules fitted, the pilot was hoping he'd be warping away with more than his pod, but the capricious nature of ECM didn't benefit him today. I loot the wreck of what little booty he'd managed to grab so far and the few modules that survive the explosion, before shooting it, cloaking, and warping back to the tower to gauge the reaction.

A second Noctis is already out, piloted by a capsuleer who was in a battleship. The fled pod is in the tower too, maybe deciding what ship would best scare me off, but the third capsuleer is missing. Off-line or already cloaked and in the anomaly, I can't say, but it doesn't really matter. Never go back. Besides, I got me a Noctis kill, using patience and precision. It's late, too, what with having to collapse our static wormhole to get here. I'm heading home. Well, after I grab the seven million ISK loot in the Sleeper battleship wreck left in the anomaly, apparently not learning the lesson in greed from last week. I get the loot with no hitch though, and after a detour through the until-now unvisited static exit to null-sec in C3a—appearing in a system in Cloud Ring hosting the requisite dozen other pilots—get home safely to settle down for the night.

Posted in Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tags: apocalypse, arazu, bestower, curse, dominix, eve online, helios, hyperion, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, rattlesnake, scanning, taranis, tengu, w-space, widow, zealot

Gigs of 2012, part one

I'm still getting to gigs, still with mixed results. Here are my experiences from the first gigs of the year.

Wild Flag/Peggy Sue at Electric Ballroom

Peggy Sue play first, and though seem pretty good initially they start to wear on me as the set continues. I'm not sure why at first, until I realise that their two lead vocalists share almost all the singing duties. They both have good voices and have enough differences to tell them apart, but nearly all the time they both sing together. On reflection, this could be why I didn't enjoy the album from the Smoke Faeries. I think I would like the band more if they acknowledged their two voices rather than trying to make them one, having different parts for each voice and only occasionally combining them for harmonies.

Interestingly, putting two voices to good use is what Wild Flag manages to do perfectly. Maybe because the lead singers come from different bands and look to be sharing writing duties, they both take turns singing the main line in a song with the other, along with keyboardist and drummer on occasions, as well as helping with harmonies and a chorus here and there. Doing so creates a stronger presence and personality for each voice, and gives individual character to the songs. Of course, it helps that Wild Flag has Mary Timony of Helium and Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney as lead vocalists, as you can't have a much better indie pedigree than that. And I love seeing Wild Flag perform live, not just because of my Timonycrush, although it would be better if the lighting guy wasn't trying to blind me at every opportunity. Hey, light the band, not the audience, you moron! I see no benefit in pointing the brightest lights right in to the face of an audience in a darkened venue and flashing them to the beat of the songs. But even when I couldn't watch the band because of watering eyes filled with after-images I could still listen to them. Some new songs were played along with most tracks from their debut album, and it was all rather jolly. Highlight for me was, naturally, Something Came Over Me, my favourite track from the album.

Slow Club at Heaven

Seeing Slow Club perform tracks from second album Paradise at the end of last year made me realise how accomplished the album is. It seems brasher and less folky than their debut, but it is a natural progression and evolution of themselves that comes across in the music. Hearing it with the same Charles and Rebecca tomfoolery between songs that there always was makes me jump at the chance of seeing them again, this time at an NME-sponsored event. And I'm not disappointed. Slow Club open the gig with a relaxed cover of Pulp's Disco 2000, as they did at their Christmas gig, which gives those who went to that one another chance of hearing it, and pricks the ears of others in recognition to create an immediate atmosphere. Slow Club are happy to be playing in London too, after having just played what Rebecca claims to be one of their worst gigs in Leeds. 'We had to make our own crowd noises', she says, showing how she faked audience appreciation when announcing a song. 'Did Bono have to make his own?', Rebecca wonders, before announcing the next song and getting a huge cheer of appreciation, almost startling her in to fluffing the intro.

We get mostly new songs from the current album, including the first encore being a beautiful acoustic version of Gold Mountain, where Charles and Rebecca stand at the front of the stage, in front of their monitors, and sing and play with no amplification. There are also favourites from Yeah, So scattered around, including Giving up on Love, which gets the audience clapping along and Rebecca very excited. 'We're Kasabian!', she says excitedly, seeing audience hands in the air. 'Charles, we're Kasabian!' Maybe not yet, but Slow Club deserve all the attention they can get.

Little Dragon at the Forum

Both support acts tonight are not really my scene. The first is one man behind some turntables, or samplers, or whatever the kids are using today, and although the music is okay I still don't see the attraction of having one man hidden behind a hood on stage twiddling knobs. At least SBTRKT had a colourful Aztec mask. Second act THEESatisfaction are a couple of rappers from Washington state who are again ok, and are great movers, but are using backing tapes for the whole performance. The sound levels are also rather imbalanced, so that I can barely make out the vocals most of the time. But maybe the support acts are tailored for the main act, as Little Dragon are perhaps more of a dance band than I first thought.

At least Little Dragon have a full band, including a drummer, which makes for more of a performance. But all I can see is some annoying git in front of me waving his arm high above his head, not caring about who this inconveniences behind him. I'm not having a good time, despite liking Little Dragon and the music they're playing tonight. Maybe I'm disappointed with the venue for having such poor sight lines, even in a tiered structure. Maybe I'm disappointed with the morons in front of me who would rather dance and sing along to each other than watch the band, who are there to perform the songs for them, right on the stage, right over there! Look, look! But maybe I'm disappointed with myself, for not having the confidence to dance like those in front of me, for not being able to have a good night out with friends. I think I'm just getting old. Hopefully I just need to pick artists and venues more carefully. The Forum is a bit big for my tastes and Little Dragon too dancey for me to feel like I belong. Back to grimey little venues and indie guitar nonsense!

Disappointments aside, I get an interesting insight in to song selection. I normally see bands that I've followed from early in their careers, and so like to hear a range of songs that doesn't only focus on the current album—or are early in their careers and don't have many songs to play I won't have heard before. In fact, I generally would prefer to hear songs I'm more familiar with and leave the current album until I know it better, particularly as bands can tour within a week of its release. Yet this time, I only know Little Dragon from their current album, which I think is their third. So now I am hoping to hear mostly recent music, as I won't recognise anything else. And I realise that my expectations are reversed to what they normally are. Of course, the band is touring to promote the current album, which I must have known already, but only now do I see the full benefit of playing most of the album's songs. New fans, like myself here tonight, are more likely to remain fans if given a memorable performance, which means playing songs from the album we've bought, whereas older fans will pretty much like everything you throw at them.

The Duke Spirit at Koko

This is a first. My sister has managed to blag some access all areas passes to a gig, thanks to knowing the support band, and is kind enough to throw one my way. I am obliged to turn up early to listen to the support act, Sissy and the Blisters, who are pretty good and have a decent frontman, but I am mostly keen to see The Duke Spirit, who I've followed since early release Roll, Spirit, Roll. I have to admit that despite enjoying their recordings, the Spirit have not always captured my attention live. Vocalist Liela is fabulous on stage, having amazing energy and a lot of presence, but the rest of the drably attired band blend in to the background too much. Tonight's no exception, really, but maybe it's less that the band are lacking and more that Liela is just so impressive. The music's good, with a decent mix of old and new, and the smaller venue lets me enjoy the band and the music in equal measure. And after the gig I get to go backstage, which is cool enough in having to walk on the stage itself, and then I get to meet the band and fawn over them for a short while. It's not for long, although I get my photo taken with Liela before I have to leave to catch a late train. What a very cool evening.

Bo Ningen/Pelican at the Garage

Favourites of mine Bo Ningen are back from Japan and gigging again. Power Armoured Beard tells me that they are supporting Pelican at the Garage and asks if I'm going. That sounds like a plan! But rock venues are getting distinctly unrocky these days. I aim to turn up expecting to see Bo Ningen get on stage at 8.30 pm as the second support act, and it is only coincidental timing of tube connections that gets me to the venue at 8 pm on the dot, just in time to hear Bo Ningen start. What follows is the usual noisy, vibrant, manic psychedelic rock that thrills and entertains, which along with an ever-changing set-list is what I have come to enjoy about every Bo Ningen gig. We get recent single Henkan, the always amazing Koroshitai Kimochi, and simply breathtaking closing song from the debut album all crammed in to a half-hour set, and the band blows me away again. It's just a shame that PAB walks in to the venue a few seconds after 8.30 pm, just as Bo Ningen are leaving the stage. I don't think my enthusiastic replay of the set, complete with vigorous arm-waving, eases his frustration with missing it.

There is still Pelican to see. And, judging by the merchandise table, there will be plenty to see. The band must have twenty albums available! I am out of my depth here. Even so, I think I saw Pelican quite a few years back at the Scala, where I went to see Part Chimp support them, so I have an idea of what to expect. But first, there is no cheering for the drummer. He wanders across the stage and sits down at this kit to little impression from the audience, who then go wild when the guitarists come out. I would be offended, but seeing him play makes me realise he isn't the backbone to the band, as drummers can be in many heavy rock bands. The guitars pretty much drive the music on by themselves, and I suppose they have to when there are no vocals. It's good music too, even if the lack of vocals makes the focus on the music a little unrelenting by the end of the set. But by the end of the evening I've had a good time and enjoyed both sets. And, thanks to the venue putting the acts on relatively early, I can get home and have a cup of hot chocolate before bed. Rock and roll!

The Dø at the Garage

I only have myself to blame for feeling a bit queasy at tonight's gig at the Garage, a second glass of wine giving me enough of a headache to harsh my mellow and make it awkward to stand uncomfortably in the middle of a crowded venue. Thankfully, I think, the venue itself helps out, having one of the toilets flooding and causing an inch-deep puddle of water to cover the centre of the floor, so I end up standing uncomfortably at the side of the venue, where instead people keep pushing past me to go out for a smoke. But the band, right. Support band We Were Evergreen are amazingly perky and jolly, but there is only so much you can do with a ukelele and glockenspiel, and I tire of the samey-sounding music by the end of the set. Actually, by the penultimate song, because the final song is a fabulous thumping mix that defies most of what went before. If more of We Were Evergreen's music was like that I'd be really interested, but not if I have to dig through so much twee to get to it.

I only know The Dø from album Both Ways Open Jaws, which I like more than I remember each time I listen to it, and the tracks that I recognise today, albeit not by name, are all excellent. Those that I don't recognise, coming from the first album, sound good enough but don't have that flicker of recognition that helps my ailing brain along tonight. I was considering buying the first album here at the gig, but the merchandise stand doesn't open until after the show, which seems a curious decision to make. But it's tough to review a band when I'm not feeling well, have to move out of a puddle, and can hardly see anything between a sea of heads. I'm pretty sure I still like The Dø, but I'm just not feeling the love tonight.

Posted in Audio | Comments Off on Gigs of 2012, part one
Tags: bo ningen, electric ballroom, forum, garage, gig, heaven, koko, little dragon, mary timony, peggy sue, pelican, sissy and the blisters, slow club, the duke spirit, the dø, theesatisfaction, we were evergreen, wild flag

Meddling with a Magnate

It looked like the night was over, but it seems there are more benefits in connecting to our sister w-space system than merely stealing ammunition. My attempt to collapse our static wormhole has resulted in a critically destabilised connection, one which I don't quite fancy pushing a ship through again, but Mick volunteers to come from the class 5 system to give the wormhole one last push. If it collapses on his way in, we scan him a way out and he can return to the C5. If it doesn't, he jumps back out and hopefully collapses the wormhole then. It all rather sounds so much like a plan that I realise I miss Mick being around.

Mick brings his Proteus across the class 3 w-space system that bridges our two systems and jumps the strategic cruiser through the destabilised wormhole. It survives, so he warps to our tower, fits an oversized propulsion module, and jumps back to C3a with the reheat active. Somewhat surprised at the mass of the Proteus, the wormhole collapses behind Mick, leaving me with an empty system and a new wormhole to find. Job's a good 'un. Thanks, Mick! Come and visit whenever you like. I scan the home system again, the replacement wormhole being the only new signature to find, and jump to a different neighbouring class 3 system.

I see some ships! A Nighthawk command ship and Probe frigate appear on my directional scanner, but as there is also a tower somewhere, and a lack of wrecks and scanning probes, I doubt anything is actually happening. As this is my third visit to the system I locate the tower without any searching, warping to it as I reminisce about the time six months ago when I pop a Noctis which ejects its loot, and then fail to catch a replacement salvager being brought through the static wormhole. But that ship and its fleet weren't local to this system, so doesn't herald any particular opportunity today. Indeed, the two ships in the tower are unpiloted when I find them.

A Heron, however, looks to be piloted, if only because it is new on d-scan, not at the tower, and launching scanning probes. If I'm to catch up with this scout it looks like I have a scanning race on my hands, with my opponent getting a head start. That's fine, as my ship is probably much more capable than his simple frigate. I warp out, launch my own probes, and start scanning. A simple blanket scan first shows me eleven anomalies and ten signatures, and trying to locate the Heron when it appeared makes me think I can resolve the wormhole it came through easily enough. There are only two signatures in that general volume of space, and the one I choose turns out to be a wormhole.

I warp to the connection to see a K162 from class 2 w-space, and loiter there in preparation for seeing the Heron decloak and warp to wherever he next visits. But for me to catch him at his destination I will need to resolve that too, so I keep scanning. I discard rocks and gas to come up with only one more wormhole, which must be the static exit to low-sec empire space, and recall my probes. I orientate myself with the exit to low-sec, which I keep unvisited for now so that I hopefully don't miss the Heron, and with our own K162 homewards. Now I wait. It wasn't much of a race after all.

I'm assuming the Heron remained on this wormhole after he launched probes, which I feel is a reasonable assumption, but what I don't expect is the wormhole flaring without first seeing the Heron. Instead, a Magnate comes through from the C2, another scanning frigate that can't warp cloaked, and piloted by a capsuleer red to our corporation. I am tempted to take my shot now, but I know the sensor recalibration delay from decloaking my Tengu strategic cruiser would let the Magnate warp clear easily enough, so wait to see what happens. I watch as the Magnate doesn't launch probes on the wormhole but warps away. And I see where he goes.

The Magnate warps to a planet and I follow. The only question now is if I have chosen the right distance to drop short, and the answer is no, I haven't. The Magnate pushed his ship further forwards and I am far too far away to disrupt his warp engines, leaving me sitting impotently watching him launch scanning probes before he cloaks. Still, I know roughly where he is, and he'll have to decloak again before he can warp, so I reposition my ship to be near to the Magnate, cursing the fact that cloaked ships can no longer decloak other cloaked ships, and lurk.

After a short while the new set of probes disappears from d-scan. I watch for the Magnate to reappear, but he decloaks a bit further from my ship than I had hoped. I don't try to strike, thinking I can't stop him from warping in time, and merely watch and follow as he returns to the K162 from C2a. He jumps, long enough before my warp engines cut out for me to consider chasing, and I am back to waiting for the Heron, whose probes are still out and about. Waiting, waiting, waiting. And again the wormhole flares, again bringing the Magnate in to this C3. And for a second time the Magnate warps away from the wormhole to a planet. I'll follow him again.

I choose to drop out of warp at a different range this time, hoping to land on top of the Magnate, but he has chosen a different range too. I keep on saying that being predictable in w-space will get you killed, and it's kind of refreshing that this pilot mixes up his routine, even if it means I don't get an easy ambush. I watch as he relaunches his probes, as I still can't do anything about it, and cloaks. I bounce my ship off the wormhole and try to get close to the Magnate a second time, and wait for him to reappear. A bit more waiting has the probes disappear from d-scan and I watch for the Magnate to decloak. There he is, and he's much closer this time, but again not close enough for his ship to bump mine. At least, not immediately.

The Magnate aligns back to the C2 K162 and, in doing so, interferes with my cloaking device. My Tengu becomes visible but only a second before the Magnate enters warp, and nowhere near enough time for me to catch the frigate. I do all I can, which is to warp behind the Magnate to the wormhole and ineffectively chase him in to the class 2 system. I appear on the other side of the wormhole in time to see him warp off and nothing more. I bookmark the connection, make a note of the system number and that d-scan is clear, and jump back to C3a. It looks like I've blown my chance here.

I suppose I didn't think the whole plan through. I had the idea that if I got close enough then I could decloak when the Magnate would, at which point I could strike the startled pilot. What I didn't consider was getting close enough that I would remain cloaked when the Magnate appeared but get decloaked as the frigate aligned away. Perhaps what I should have done was swap to a stealth bomber, which has a quicker targeting system, although taking your eyes off a target for a couple of minutes to jump home and switch boats never looks attractive compared with monitoring them directly. Still, at least I saw some other pilots, and chased one of them away, which makes tonight somewhat more interesting than most of the past week.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Meddling with a Magnate
Tags: eve online, heron, loki, magnate, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, probe, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Scanning to the sister system

If no one's around again tonight I may just go home early. Well, come back home early. I am home. And it looks like it's just me here. But I more meant about there being no one in the w-space constellation, and to find that out I'd better start scanning. It's just more rocks and gas temporarily cluttering up the system at home, with no K162s to bring in pilots wanting to shoot me, so I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 system to explore.

A bubble and two off-line towers are all that my directional scanner shows me, and my system map adding that there's nowhere to hide, dammit. I'm in an unoccupied and inactive system. Apparently, the last time I was here I popped a Helios in my Malediction interceptor, which I find a little hard to believe, and not because there were other pilots flying around that day. And as I have the system listed in my notes I know I've got a static exit to null-sec k-space to resolve here, which makes more sense of the off-line towers. I'd better get scanning.

Hello, chubby wormhole signature, you can't be the static connection. Oh, you're not anything, just empty space. Well, thanks for that glimmer of hope that my evening will be more interesting than sifting through a dozen signatures looking for action. It was inspirational. I keep looking for more wormholes and find a weaker signature that is probably the exit to null-sec, although a second weak-signatured wormhole makes me wonder if the static connection has also died before I reach it.

Thankfully I've actually resolved two wormholes, and the static exit to null-sec is in pristine condition. The other wormhole remains in space by the time I get to it, finding a rather attractive outbound connection to class 5 w-space. In I go! And it looks like exploring is going to be a bit of a chore tonight, as I'm greeted on d-scan by five towers, with only a Rorqual industrial command ship and Armageddon battleship to show for the occupation. My notes, however, perk me up a little. But only a little, because even if there are pilots here I don't think I'll be able to shoot any of them, not without some drama.

It seems that I have stumbled headlong in to our sister w-space system, rather more expanded than the last time I was here. And thank goodness for corporate bookmarks, as it lets me warp directly to the appropriate tower where I can think about taking a dreadnought home with me. I don't think the Revelation will fit through our static wormhole, though, so I'll have to wait for generous donations that—hello?—I still haven't received yet. Instead I cram my scouting ship's hold with some missiles that we're a little short of, thanks to my having to rat to atone for shooting idiots in low-sec empire space.

Even though I've found our sister system and there are supposed colleagues on-line, no one's talking to me. I can't really blame them, as it's not like we have much to do with each most of the time, what with the capricious nature of w-space connections. At least I can have a quick poke around the constellation as my colleagues have scanned, also thanks to corporate bookmarks, but warping to the current bookmark for the static wormhole only lands me in empty space again. I suppose they haven't quite got around to scanning yet.

I could scan this C5 myself and plonk the bookmarks for the rest to find, but I can now see a Proteus strategic cruiser and scanning probes on d-scan, so I think I'll leave the sister system to it. The scout notices my burbling in the corporate communication channel and says hello, so I tell him about the dullness that is the K162 from C3 w-space connecting in to their system, as I return to that same dullness. I warp across C3a and poke my nose in to null-sec, where seventeen capsuleers are waiting for me in a system in Pure Blind. Not on the wormhole, thank goodness, just loitering here and there.

There's no chance of my ratting in the busy null-sec system, and scanning reveals no signatures beyond the wormhole I jumped through, so that looks like it for tonight. That is, unless I collapse our static wormhole, by myself. I could, I suppose, but I had planned to thumb my nose at w-space if it was being dull, and it certainly is. Ah, what the hell. The worst that can happen is I get isolated from the home C4, and I could even make my way to the C5 system and wait for a decent exit there instead of trying to get safe through the C3's connection to null-sec. Circumstances are in my favour.

I prepare an Orca industrial command ship, make sure I'm counting the mass going through the wormhole as it happens, and make the first round trip. I wait for the polarisation effects to end and make a second, pausing another few minutes before jumping out and back for a third. And the wormhole reaches critical instability when I'm not quite expecting it to. As much as I have a safety net of the C5 system I don't really want to be isolated from home, so I don't risk pushing the Orca or a battleship through the wormhole. Instead, I pull out the wormhole-collapsing Devoter heavy interdictor, because using the HIC worked out so well for me the last time.

After my current polarisation effects end I warp to the wormhole, activate all three warp bubbles to reduce my mass to be lighter than a frigate, and jump. Naturally, the wormhole doesn't collapse behind me, because I'm really not that unlucky, and so I activate the over-sized reheat and jump home, massing close to a battleship. The wormhole doesn't collapse. I suppose that's only to be expected, given the overall mass allowance of the wormhole and what I've pushed through. Still, I've got sour memories of the last time I tried a second trip in the HIC, and after losing a Tengu, getting isolated, and losing another Tengu, maybe I ought to hedge my bets occasionally. I cut my losses and tonight err on the side of caution, swapping back to my scouting boat and hiding on the edge of the system.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scanning to the sister system
Tags: armageddon, devoter, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, revelation, rorqual, scanning, tengu, w-space

Scanning empty space still takes time

My little corner of space looks pretty quiet, which is a pleasant start to the evening. Launching scanning probes, blanketing the system, and warping to a more central point shows the home system to be clear of hostile ships and unexpected signatures, which lets me take time to see what else might be happening. It seems that my glorious leader has yet to make it back here after a wormhole collapsed behind her, and is still stuck out in the clamouring hell that is high-sec empire space. That gives me a mission for the evening. I have to get Fin... back to w-space! This is all still in the future, so the reference works.

I scan my way through our static wormhole to appear in a class 3 w-space system far from anything. I am once again on a K162 almost 6 AU from the nearest planet, this one on the opposite side of the planet to the star. Once collapsed, the position of the wormhole will make a pretty good safe spot, particularly as the nearest planet is also the only one in the directional scanner's range. Having a good sense of being hidden, I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system. My probes reveal two ships, perhaps at a tower but perhaps not, and I warp towards their rough position to find out one way or the other.

As I cross the system and get in d-scan range of other planets I see that the two ships are a Chimera and Mammoth, and that they are likely both in the tower also on d-scan. I doubt the carrier will be piloted or active, but the hauler could be getting ready to collect planet goo or make a trip to empire space. Locating the tower is straightforward enough. My blanket scan's rough positions for the ships has sent me to the right planet, and d-scan lets me find the moon the tower's anchored to. Unfortunately, all I find is a pair of empty ships. So with no one to chase I bring my probes in to the system and start sifting through the manageable but significant twenty signatures.

One signature far from any planets is, quelle surprise, a wormhole. A second has a ship appear alongside it, which switching to d-scan shows it to be a Proteus strategic cruiser. I sling my probes back out of the system to at least pretend I'm not here, although I realise that any competent pilot has already seen them, and watch d-scan for now. The Proteus disappears and doesn't come to the local tower, and performing regular blanket scans for the next few minutes doesn't show any sign of the ship's return. I suppose I'll get back to scanning. I restart with the signature near the Proteus's appearance, which naturally turns out to be another wormhole.

Warping to the newly resolved wormhole shows it to be the system's static exit to low-sec, which could make the Proteus a tourist from empire space, but he could still easily be a w-space denizen simply travelling through the C3. And resolving a third wormhole near the second almost confirms that the Proteus was coming home, and what a home. I drop out of warp near a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space. As I'm now investigating wormholes I may as well warp to the first that I resolved, which finds me a K162 from high-sec. That could be useful. It also looks like all I'll find here, with only radar and magnetometric sites left to resolve.

I ignore the class 6 system for now, if only because a pilot probably heading that way no doubt saw my scanning probes and I won't be surprising anyone, and jump to high-sec through the K162. I appear in a dead-end system in Derelik, a couple of dozen of hops from anywhere and far from convenient. There are also scanning probes visible on d-scan, so I'm not going to scan if all it will get me is sloppy seconds. I return to C3a and warp across to the static wormhole, jumping to be in the Solitude region. Of course, I'm by myself in the system, so I look for rats, but with only two rock fields in the system the best I can manage is a piddly cruiser. That'll do, pig.

Now I can continue scanning. I could find a shortcut between empire systems, or more w-space to roam. Or, in this case, gas and rats. How disappointing. Still, I'm one hop from a dead end, and as this system is empty it's possible that the dead end is too. Possible, but not the case. Three pilots are in this system off the beaten path. Maybe their presence will stop me ratting but it won't stop me scanning. No, what will stop me scanning is a complete lack of signatures in this system. At least launching probes here is a quick waste of my time. Time to head homewards and, out of curiosity if nothing else, take a peek in the C6.

There's no obvious change in the C3 so I approach the K162 from class 6 w-space and jump. Only a warp bubble appears in d-scan range from in the C6, so I move away from the wormhole and cloak before exploring further. A tower sits on the other side of the system, holding a Typhoon battleship, Zephyr exploration boat, and Buzzard covert operations boat, and judging by their names this is the home system of the Proteus I detected earlier. He's gone now and left no one in his wake, as all three ships are at the tower and unpiloted. I suppose I am not going to find any more wormholes here either, and although I could look I don't think I will. It's been pretty quiet lately, so I'll simply head home and call it a night.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scanning empty space still takes time
Tags: buzzard, chimera, eve online, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, typhoon, w-space, zephyr

Newbie blogger initiative

Syp of Bio Break has announced a Newbie Blogger Initiative. The idea is for established bloggers to encourage and help new and aspiring bloggers along, with advice and encouragement given with articles and links.

I am participating and will publish a post detailing why and how I got started with blogging, and any tips that I think may be helpful for new bloggers. I have ideas, and the Newbie Blogger Initiative itself is offering more, but if anyone has specific questions they would like to see addressed, please feel free to ask it as a comment here.

The forum for the Newbie Blogger Initiative holds more information, including participating blogs and new blogs that are sprouting up as a result. It's worth checking out.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Newbie blogger initiative

Wormholes lead to wormholes

Add skill, hit apply, and quickly! Phew, having an unscheduled lack of net connection for a full weekend drained my skill queue, which threw me in to a mild, uh, feeling of ennui, really. What's a few hours here or there? And even once the net connection was restored I didn't see the point of rushing to add a skill to the queue. It could wait until after I'd cooked, eaten, and let everything settle. Tummy first, skill queue second. I'm pretty sure that's the saying. If not, it will be soon enough, mark my words. But now I'm back in space and looking for some action. There's not been much of that around lately, except for us losing another strategic cruiser to some more competent players. That's only to be expected.

All looks pretty much the same in the home system, with only two new ladar sites for me to activate so that the gas will disperse by itself after a time. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where my directional scanner shows me nothing. Adjusting it reveals some planets and moons, which I like to see just to check that the scanner's working, but there's nothing of interest nearby. Three planets sit out of range of d-scan, in different directions, so I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system. The scan has ships and drones amongst the anomalies and signatures, and the way they are clustered makes it look like they are either together in a site or sitting passively in a tower. I warp across the system to find out.

Mining drones on d-scan could look encouraging, but not without a mining boat to go with them. Instead, I see two Orca industrial command ships, a Nidhoggur carrier, and a Buzzard covert operations boat, along with two towers. There are also plenty of warp bubbles, and it's in one of those where I suspect to find the drones. I warp to the tower that has the drones but no ships and, sure enough, find them stuffed in to a warp bubble that's positioned to catch anyone warping from where I did to the range I did. My interdiction nullified Tengu strategic cruiser doesn't help me here. Still, it is a simple matter to move away from the drones and re-activate my cloak as I ponder the usefulness of an effective bubble trap where no one will see its victims.

Warping to the second tower finds the ships and without my flying in to any other traps, which is a shame for the locals as the pilot in the Buzzard could have maybe spotted me if I had. The other three ships are unpiloted, and probably floating around because there isn't room to store them in the hangars. I see no probes on d-scan, the Buzzard isn't moving, and there are no ships I can't account for. I may as well scan. I bookmark the five anomalies and see the Buzzard go off-line as the first signature resolves to be a wormhole. The second signature is also a wormhole, but there the fun ends, leaving me with a rock site and two useless radar sites.

The static exit to low-sec empire space is accompanied by a K162 from more class 3 w-space, so staying in w-space I jump to C3b. D-scan is clear from the wormhole but there is only one planet in range, giving plenty more space to hold activity. And there may be something to find. My notes put me here a year ago, where I took an opportunistic bombing run at a pair of Dominix battleships, after which I throw a Legion strategic cruiser at them and lose it pitifully. I think that was the day I tried to adopt the credo of 'never go back'. I can't say I listened to myself, though. But I won't be tempted to come back today, as the tower that was here is gone, and although another tower has been constructed in the system there is no one home.

I sift through the thirteen signatures and come across a fat wormhole signature back on the edge of the system I entered to, which I assume to be a K162 and maybe the source of the scout who opened the N968 here. A second wormhole feels like the static connection to null-sec I'm expecting, and after that it's just rocks and gas. I did indeed resolve a K162, but a rather boring one that comes from null-sec. I jump through anyway, to look for a rat, to find myself in a system in the Vale of the Silent region with two other pilots. D-scan shows me two Tengus and plenty of wrecks, so I suppose I've interrupted some simple combat. I normally wouldn't rat with other pilots in the system but I imagine I've scared these two pilots back to their tower. Let me check that.

Yep, the Tengus are huddled inside the force field of a tower in this null-sec system, and are unlikely to come out again until I've left. And as there are rock fields out of d-scan range of this tower I surreptitiously pop a rat before getting out of the Tengus' untousled hair. Checking my atlas shows that there isn't an easy circuit of systems I can make here, so I leave null-sec for w-space, warping across C3a to jump through its static wormhole to more null-sec, this time in the Outer Passage region and by myself. I am happy to spend a minute ratting again, deluding myself in to thinking I'm being productive, but change my mind when I see that Outer Passage is populated by drones. Get bent, Outer Passage. No wonder whoever came here scanned for wormholes.

I jump back to the inactive C3b and back again to C3a, where there are now two piloted Anathema cov-ops boats at the tower. The addition of new contacts interests me, their unwillingness to swap to haulers and collect planet goo disgusts me. I leave them behind and exit to low-sec, appearing in the Khanid region. This is real low-sec too. I'm closer to Aridia than high-sec, and in a dead end. One capsuleer in the system ruins my notion to rat, if only because I can't tell if he's cloaked or docked, so instead I scan. This time, the three extra signatures give me extra wormholes, a K162 from a C3 and a K162 from a C2, along with a magnetometric site. That class 2 w-space system looks good, so I go there first.

D-scan shows me a tower and no ships, and the system map shows me nowhere to hide. I suppose no one's home. I launch probes and scan once more, surprised by the lack of anomalies but ten signatures here. I sift through them, resolving a wormhole just as a ship jumps through, although I'm not quick enough to swap to d-scan to see what it could have been. I don't know if it jumped in and out, or is cloaked or not, and can only assume that it saw my probes, so I carry on regardless. All I know for sure is that the ship appeared briefly on a K162 from class 1 w-space. That's nifty. I also resolve the second static connection, a wormhole to more class 2 w-space, as well as, um, the second static connection again, a wormhole to more class 2 w-space. I think it's a white hole.

I resolve a fourth wormhole as presumably the same ship from before appears under my probes, catching it on d-scan this time as a Buzzard. The fourth wormhole is a K162 from class 4 w-space and the Buzzard is local, now pottering around in the tower here, so I ignore him and go roaming. I'm not going to scan any more but just poke around the systems I've found looking for trouble. There's nothing of interest in C1a, which is a shame, and warping back across C2a has the Buzzard gone from its tower, and probably off-line. C4a is unoccupied and inactive, and I've already decided not to look for more K162s, so it's back to C2a and in to C2b. Still nothing. The system is unusually unoccupied for a C2, and no ships have wandered in from elsewhere. I jump back to C2a and check that C2b and C2c do indeed connect with different wormholes, before exploring through the last wormhole here.

Finally, some pilots. D-scan looked desperately empty from the K162 but warping across the system finds a tower holding a Drake battlecruiser and Tengu, both piloted. A Buzzard buzzes on to d-scan, but I don't know where he is. And although the combat ships here are piloted I doubt I'll catch them doing anything, because even if they decide to move it will probably be forwards through their own static wormhole, rather than limiting themselves to their home system. I could scan, but I'd have to wait until they moved or risk giving away my presence. Mind you, I think the Buzzard's already done that. Okay, I'm going home, particularly as all that's happening here is Penny's getting sleepy.

I jump back to C2a, out to low, and realise there is another wormhole here I forgot about. I can take a quick look through it. Jumping in to C3c has nothing on d-scan, now a core scanning probe, and now five of them. If I could actually catch a cov-ops I'd probably care. Instead, I look for the tower that was here five months ago, finding it in the same place and with an unpiloted Devoter inside its shields, but also with a second tower anchored somewhere. I locate the other tower if only to complete my records and, as there is nothing interesting happening here either, turn around to head home. I pause at the wormhole to low-sec as a Buzzard appears on d-scan, and watch as he drops out of warp on the wormhole and jumps.

Maybe the Buzzard will come back and be polarised. Seeing as how he didn't warp cloaked it's possible I could have a shot at him. It's also possible that he's scouting ahead of a hauler, which would give me a squishy ship to shoot. But it's most probable that he is a tourist who's not going to come back to w-space, although I say that with the benefit of sitting on the wormhole for five minutes apparently waiting for nothing. I jump back to low-sec, see no sign of the Buzzard's pilot, and definitely head home this time.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, devoter, dominix, drake, eve online, mmorpg, nidhoggur, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space