Shooting fish in a black hole system

Earlier reconnaissance has paid off, but only in finding the wormholes and not the activity. A corporation moved in to a class 1 w-space system whilst I was stuffing my face, but knowing where to find the C1 let me cause some disruption in my stealth bomber, popping a Mammoth hauler bringing needed ammunition in to the system. His pod got away, only thanks to my incompetence, but I'm happy that the black hole slowed the ship's alignment enough for the fitted warp core stabilisers not to have helped. The locals probably won't take the same risk again, so I warp to the newly installed tower to see what reaction I've provoked.

There's no discernible change in the capsuleer's movements. The escaped pod floats inside the tower's force field, along with a few other ships and pilots, with little happening. I have more systems that I found earlier to roam for activity, and I warp towards the K162 from class 2 w-space. Jumping in to the C2 sees the Cyclone battlecruiser and Scorpion battleship that were present earlier, but no sign of the Crow interceptor that was bouncing around. I warp to the tower to find the two ships in the same state as I left them, at which point the Crow appears on my directional scanner, apparently still bouncing between the two static wormholes, one to the C1 and one exiting to high-sec empire space.

I would have thought doing nothing would have got boring by now. I suppose the Crow could have gone off-line for a bit, just as I did, and has only recently returned, but he's not really doing anything productive. Sir, a corporation has moved an entire tower, along with defences, hangars, and ships, in to the system your home currently connects to, and all you have done is impotently patrol your borders. Nothing will happen here, unless I want to die to an interceptor, and I warp back to the wormhole to the C1 and wait whilst the Crow circles from a distance.

It looks like the Crow is far enough away not to be a threat, not even an interceptor able to cover well over a hundred kilometres in a few seconds. But given enough distance a ship could warp directly to the wormhole, an agile interceptor doing so in short order, and could potentially jump and greet me on the other side with unfortunate results. I hold my position until the Crow warps away to the other wormhole again, then burn and jump whilst he is unable to react. I return to the C1, and move away from the wormhole and cloak without a problem. I warp across to the exit wormhole to low-sec and wait a little while, in case the new occupants try to bring another ship in, hoping I've gone by now.

It doesn't take long before the wormhole flares, and I'm back to holding my breath, waiting to see what ship appears before decloaking and bursting in to action. It could be the Prorator transport ship, which I would have a hard time catching, or a combat ship, which may not be too wise too engage at such close range. Nope, it's a Bestower, another harmless hauler! Again hoping for the increased inertia caused by the black hole to hold the hauler in place for me I decloak, gain a positive target lock, and fire my siege launchers, burning towards the Bestower to give it a little bump. But my launchers stop cycling after only the first volley of torpedoes, as I lose my target lock. I think the hauler was luckily aligned towards the tower on entry and is warping away.

I think wrong. The Bestower doesn't enter warp but instead explodes in a shower of sparks, a single volley of torpedoes crushing his flimsy ship. I lock on to his ejected pod, probably more disorientated than they normally are, and prevent its escape. I cut my micro warp drive, not wanting to make the same mistake as against the Mammoth's pod, and make sure I have a freshly frozen corpse to scoop in to my hold. There's no loot in the Bestower this time, although I'm tickled to see this ship was also fitted with a pair of warp core stabilisers, but that's okay as I have no room left to carry anything after the mammoth Mammoth haul. I shoot the wreck and activate my cloak again.

Now I don't think I'll see any more ships pass my way. I visit the tower again to see a complete lack of reaction to my presence, so it's time to leave. They'll probably remain spooked and paranoid anyway. I warp to the exit wormhole and jump to low-sec empire space, where my session change cloak holds as the Prorator returns from another trip and jumps in to the C1. With the session change timer in effect I couldn't chase him if I wanted to, but I still think it would be an exercise in futility. I instead warp across the system to the K162 from class 3 w-space I resolved on my earlier reconnaissance, but get no further as I see the connection is now at the end of its natural lifetime. I'm about to turn around and go home, happy with my two kills and single podding, when I notice a familiar face in the local communication channel. The pilot I podded is back in the system. I wonder what he's flying.

I warp back to the K162 to the C1 and am sitting on the wormhole as the fresh clone appears in a shuttle, and he's too far from the wormhole to jump. It would be devilish to assault the pilot a second time, and I can take the hit to my security status, so I decloak and target the shuttle. I get a positive lock and one volley of torpedoes slams in to his shuttle before he manages to get to the wormhole to jump. I follow in behind, decloaking immediately so that I can lock his ship when it appears, but the shuttle is agile enough and with a signature radius sufficiently small for it to enter warp before I can get a positive lock on the other side of the wormhole. He warps to the tower with most of his ship intact.

Now I leave the C1 behind me, having terrorised the newly arrived locals, and head homewards. Despite this being my lucky day our neighbouring class 3 system remains quiet, giving me no more targets to shoot, and I simply jump home and drop the corpse and the faction ammunition in to our hangar before swapping back to my scanning Tengu strategic cruiser. I was right about my ship choice today, exploring in the Tengu and roaming in the Manticore, as I would not have got either of the ship kills in the Tengu. The sensor recalibration delay on decloaking would have taken too long, and although the heavy assault missiles can put out plenty of damage they don't hit as hard against large targets as torpedoes. It's been a good day, even if I found activity where I wasn't expecting it.

Posted in Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tags: bestower, crow, cyclone, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, pvp, scorpion, w-space

Housewarming in the cold of space

I'm fed and watered, and ready to see if my earlier reconnaissance will reap any rewards. Before I get carried away looking for targets I launch probes and scan the home system, ensuring I'm not about to be made a target myself. No new connections have opened up here, so I can go abroad and wreak havoc. But I'm not taking my covert Tengu strategic cruiser, swapping it instead for a Manticore stealth bomber. The Tengu is an able ship and fitted to scan for new connections, but a stealth bomber can strike quicker and harder before dissolving in to the background again. For this kind of expedition I prefer the single-minded approach offered by the Manticore.

Stowing my Tengu and boarding my Manticore, I warp across the system and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. I see a Maelstrom battleship and Blackbird recon ship on my directional scanner, which looks unchanged from earlier. I'm happy to assume them both unpiloted at the tower, particularly with no wrecks on d-scan, and warp across to the K162 from class 4 w-space to see if anyone has woken up in that system instead, but I'm not about to find out. The connection is now reaching the end of its natural lifetime, and without having scanning probes fitted I am not going to risk the wormhole dying and leaving me no way home. If I have time and find nothing elsewhere I can come back this way in my Tengu.

I head out to low-sec where I have a choice of two paths, and like earlier I choose the K162 from class 1 w-space over that of the K162 from class 3 w-space. And it looks like I have made the right choice, as a Drake battlecruiser is loitering with intent on the K162 from the C1 as I land near the wormhole. I wait and watch as the Drake approaches the wormhole and jumps to w-space. A Drake is a hefty target, but a Drake in a C1 may well be good target to flex my Manticore's offensive muscles at. I don't want to spook him, though, so I sit on the wormhole for a couple of minutes, to let my potential target find his way and get cosy first.

Jumping in to the C1 a short time after the Drake entered sees no ships on the wormhole and none on d-scan. I have a couple of anomalies bookmarked from earlier but run a second passive scan now, in case more Sleepers have appeared to confuse my search, still finding just two. I warp to the inner system to get within d-scan range of the anomalies, hoping to find the Drake in one of them, only to have the wormhole flare behind me as I enter warp. I don't see what ship entered the system, although my hope that it is a salvager is forgotten when d-scan now shows me a tower in the system and a bunch of ships. I don't know how I missed spotting this tower earlier, it must have been some pretty poor scouting. Bad Penny, no biscuit.

A Prorator transport ship, Noctis salvager, Magnate frigate, Bestower hauler, Anathema covert operations boat, two pods, and the Drake I followed are all at the tower, only the Noctis and Magnate unpiloted. I notice the ship maintenance array being anchored, which makes me check the rest of the tower. There are only rudimentary defences above and below the tower at the moment, and other defences are scattered inside the force field, all off-line, which the Bestower is now moving to collect. I don't think I missed this tower earlier, I think it has been raised in the time since I scouted through here. It's funny how a few hours can make such a difference. And as the pilots still appear to be moving in I may be able to cause some disruption to my benefit.

The transport warps out of the tower towards low-sec empire space. I follow and consider waiting on the wormhole for his return, but a cloaky transport ship will be difficult to catch. A basic industrial ship like the Bestower will be easier to catch and pop, particularly when he makes himself a target outside of the effectively undefended tower, so I return to watch him closely. I achieve little in the time it takes for the Prorator to return, dump more defences inside the tower, and warp out again, and just as little by the time the pilot of the Drake dumps his battlecruiser, goes out to empire space, and returns in a Badger hauler. Only now do I realise the Bestower isn't about to make himself a target outside of the tower, accomplishing all he can from the inside for now, damn him.

I have another thought, one that compels me to visit the wormhole and check its condition. The new locals have already brought in a tower, hangars, defences, and a bunch of ships, and connections to class 1 w-space do not allow too much mass through them before collapsing. If I'm not careful I could get isolated in here, particularly as more ships are being passed to and fro through the wormhole. Thankfully, I drop out of warp near the wormhole to see it looking okay. Better than okay, really, as a second Bestower is sitting on top of it, probably aligning to the tower. Having wasted a bit of time already and hoping my Manticore can lock a hauler quickly enough I decloak and, damn, watch the Bestower warp clear before my warp disruptor can prevent him.

The wormhole may allow more transits between w-space and empire but I've shown my hand now. Even if the locals try to move more ships and haulage in to the C1 they will be alerted and prepared. I imagine they will even fit warp core stabilisers, which my Manticore cannot counter. Even so, I reactivate my cloak and hold on the wormhole. There is a detail about this class 1 w-space system that I have omitted so far but becomes important now. This C1 holds a black hole phenomenon, which, although weakest in a class 1 system, significantly increases ship inertia. Coupled with an increase in ship velocity a black hole makes for much longer alignment times for ships entering warp, which is just what could make a quick-locking stealth bomber fitted for maximum alpha strike happy.

The Prorator comes out of the tower again and passes my Manticore still cloaked on the wormhole. I can't stop him jumping and I'm still not going to chase the cloaky ship. Instead I return to the tower to see what precautions the locals may be making now they know a Manticore is in the system with them. Not much, apparently. Nothing obvious beyond sending out the Anathema to look for new wormholes, which he probably won't find. I try to catch him as he warps to a planet to launch his probe, but fail to guess how far short of the planet he drops, leaving me to watch from a distance as the cov-ops moves away and cloak. Back at the tower the pilot of the Badger stows the hauler and sends his pod back to low-sec, which seems like a good time for me to return to loiter on the wormhole for a juicy bite.

Waiting takes its time. But my patience is rewarded with the wormhole flaring, indicating a ship entering the system. Now I just have to hope my reactions are good. I need to spot the type of ship and decide whether to engage or not, which itself will require good reactions. There he is, a Mammoth hauler. Definitely a target. I decloak, gain a positive lock, and start firing. My first volley of torpedoes slams in to the hauler's shields as I burn hard towards my target, hoping to use my tiny hull to bump the big industrial ship off course, increasing his alignment time, on the assumption he has fitted warp core stabilisers. My bump may have worked, and even though I didn't push the bigger ship far off course it is enough, as my third volley of torpedoes shreds the remains of the structure and the Mammoth explodes in a flash of blue light.

I'm not stopping my assault with the destruction of the Mammoth. The pilot's pod is ejected and, session change timer active and not being able to escape through the wormhole, he has only one way out of here. I stop him, gaining a positive lock and disrupting the pod's warp engine, cycling my launchers once more to introduce the pilot to the real harshness of space. But a calm voice tells me that my capacitor is empty, and as luck would have it the module demanding more juice right now is the warp disruptor, which deactivates and lets the pod flee, deep in armour damage and only one volley away from being ripped apart. I was so focussed on bumping the Mammoth that I forgot to turn off the energy-hungry micro warp drive, depleting my reserves and thwarting my killer tendencies.

I'm not going to complain about having the pod get away. Popping it would have been a nice bonus but in this instance popping the ship is enough, particularly when I see the Mammoth was stuffed to the tusks with drones, charges, and ammunition, and definitely when I confirm that the hauler had two warp core stabilisers fitted. I'm glad my experience and intuition was correct. I grab what faction charges and ammunition I can carry and destroy the rest with the wreck, putting the loss at around a hundred million ISK in total. That's got to sting a little. Welcome to your new home, boys.

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Tags: anathema, badger, bestower, blackbird, drake, eve online, maelstrom, magnate, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, prorator, pvp, tengu, w-space

Laying the spacework

I'm taking time to make an afternoon reconnaissance of w-space, hopefully laying the groundwork for later ambushes. Or spacework. Either way, I start as I always do by scanning the home system. All looks normal and I resolve our static wormhole, letting me jump to our neighbouring class 3 system. I have a Maelstrom battleship, Blackbird recon ship, and Cheetah covert operations boat visible on my directional scanner in the C3, along with a tower, which is startling easy to find. Despite my notes informing me that this is my third visit, the last having been four months ago, I only need to open the system map to locate the local tower.

This C3 is tiny and holds a mere two moons around its eight planets, both moons around different planets. As towers can only be anchored to moons I am soon in warp to see what pilots are here. All that my notes can add is that a second tower has been torn down since my last visit, cleanly too, with nothing left behind. When I reach the still-active tower I see that the Cheetah is piloted, the other two ships are not. There are no probes visible on d-scan and the Cheetah looks inactive, so despite there being nowhere to hide I warp out to launch my own probes so that I can scan. I doubt the pilot is paying enough attention to notice what I'm doing.

There is only one anomaly to be revealed in the C3, but our K162 home should at least be a little concealed amongst the dozen signatures. I start scanning through them, the Cheetah still refusing to move. I resolve and bookmark one gas site, two rock-mining sites, one magnetometric site, and five radar sites. I imagine it's a waste of time to bookmark those radar sites, their quantity probably an indication of their not being raided regularly, but I do it anyway. And it looks like I'm finding only a single wormhole until I get to the last signature in the system. The static exit to low-sec empire space is joined by a K162 from class 4 w-space. And it's not ours, I checked.

I jump out of the static wormhole to find myself in the Bleak Lands, bookmarking the entrance to w-space, conveniently one hop from high-sec and only a handful from Amarr, before heading back to explore C4a. A Condor frigate and Bestower hauler are on d-scan, along with a tower, and I rush to find the industrial ship only to see it sitting unpiloted inside the tower's force field. Knowing the hauler's not about to collect planet goo I can slow down and take a better look around. My probes show me only the two ships I know about, along with a lonely single anomaly and two signatures. It would be churlish not to resolve that second signature, the first being the static connection to class 3 w-space, but I only find another radar site.

The pocket of w-space connected to our home system is mapped. I can head out to low-sec and see if there is any more w-space to find that doesn't require jumping through a stargate. Six signatures in the low-sec system is a promising result, and amongst some dumb rocks and a space monastery I find two more wormholes, both K162s, one from class 1 w-space and one from class 3 w-space. I'll explore in to the C1 first. An Anathema is on d-scan when I enter, the cov-ops disappearing before I can determine where it may be. I warp away from the wormhole to launch probes, spotting the Anathema a second time, making me think that the cov-ops has just crossed this C1, decloaking on wormholes.

My probes show me a mere four signatures, which includes rocks and more rocks along with the other wormhole I'm expecting to see. I drop out of warp near a K162 from class 2 w-space, which is a good result for continued exploration. Jumping in sees a Crow interceptor, Scorpion battleship, and tower on d-scan, which I locate to find the Crow piloted but not the Scorpion. I ignore him and warp out to launch probes, bookmarking three anomalies and resolving five signatures as the Crow perks up and warps out of the tower. I scan rocks and gas before finding the second static wormhole, which d-scan tells me the Crow is sitting on. I suppose he's patrolling his home's borders, which could make it tricky for me to leave.

A new contact in a Cyclone battlecruiser appears at the tower in the C2, but the pilot just sets his ship to orbit lazily around the tower inside the force field, so I leave him to investigate the second wormhole and the Crow. The wormhole exits to high-sec, which could be interesting if the interceptor weren't bouncing between the two wormholes here. I head back the way I came, waiting for the Crow to disappear to the connection to high-sec before burning to the wormhole and jumping to the C1. The C1 remains empty and uninteresting, so I jump to low-sec and warp across to explore the second class 3 w-space system exiting to this system.

An off-line tower on d-scan is not particularly interesting, but it's my fourth visit to this system and the previous one six months ago suggests there is an on-line tower somewhere out of range of d-scan. I warp away to find it still there but with no one home. I launch probes and scan the system, the eight signatures amongst the seven anomalies persuading me to make a cursory check for other K162s. Exploration has taken its time already and I am no longer bookmarking every site I find, so I hope this is not the system that wakes up later when I come out to roam.

The only other connection I find in this C3 is a K162 from low-sec, which doesn't provide any temptation to jump through and continue scanning. The w-space constellation is mapped, at least to the k-space boundaries. I head home, not bothering to make a second sweep of any of the systems, only noting that the Cheetah in C3a is now gone. I park my ship and go off-line, getting food and taking some time away from the controls, giving w-space the opportunity to get comfortable and feel safe. I'll be back later to reap the benefits of my reconnaissance.

Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments »
Tags: anathema, bestower, blackbird, cheetah, condor, crow, cyclone, eve online, maelstrom, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, w-space

Quiet times in low-sec

Tonight will definitely be a relatively quiet night. Or short, at least. I will find a miner, pod him, then go to sleep, or I'll give up after the first couple of systems. I appreciate having plenty to explore but don't fancy it every night, as the exploration can easily take all the time I have available and there is more to flying spaceships than manipulating scanning probes. Having said that, however, living in w-space demands manipulating scanning probes just to get around, so I have little choice if I want to accomplish anything but to scan the home system first.

The home w-space system is simple enough to scan, made even simpler today by the static wormhole being in the same place as yesterday. Thankfully, the class 3 system beyond is different. My directional scanner is clear when entering the system, letting me launch probes to perform a blanket scan, and warp off to explore. I find a Hoarder hauler and tower on d-scan before my probes show me it is the only ship in the system, and locating the tower shows the Hoarder to be there and unpiloted. Fulfilling my desire for exploration not taking the whole evening there are only two anomalies in the system along with four signatures to resolve. This will be quick.

Ignoring the signature for the K162 homewards, the first two signatures are both wormholes, the final signature a ladar site that I resolve and bookmark because doing so is easy. It seems almost typical these days for class 3 w-space systems to have more than one wormhole to be found, as if they are being seeded with more perhaps because they lead out to k-space and this lack of exploration is being compensated. Then again, as the two wormholes both link to low-sec empire space—the static connection outbound, a second connection a K162—I could be talking nonsense.

The static exit to low-sec from this C3 is reaching the end of its natural lifetime, and rather than risk being isolated from the home system I jump through the K162 from low-sec to continue my exploration. Finding myself in Black Rise with a sole pilot in the system I launch probes and scan again, finding only one other signature to resolve. I don't find another wormhole, keeping tonight's w-space constellation nice and simple, instead resolving a magnetometric site. I could head home and grab an early night, but I think I'll complicate my evening slightly by swapping to a Drake battlecruiser and clearing the site in low-sec.

I face another complication when configuring my Drake, as we don't appear to have any analyser modules in the tower, which I'll need to open some of the containers in the magnetometric site. I know we must have some modules somewhere, as we occasionally run magnetometric sites in w-space, so I board our analysing ship, strip a single module from it, and swap back to the Drake to fit it. I add a salvager module too, apparently needed for this site, and head back out to low-sec. I'm expecting a simplified combat, but warping in to the site and engaging the empire rats has them jam me with ECM before I've fired a second volley of missiles. This may not be a soothing experience.

Once the first ECM cycle is broken I target the jammer and his identical friend, popping them pretty quickly before continuing with the other rats. I clear the first wave at the same time as a new contact appears in the system in a Merlin frigate. He doesn't seem like a threat, as long as he's not the vanguard for a bigger fleet, and I continue in the site, salvaging rat wrecks and analysing containers. The loot is all a bit rubbish, pretty much only basic salvaging components, unlike the radar site I did recently. It seems that the value of radar and magnetometric sites is reversed between k-space and w-space.

More rats come, more rats are popped. A second new contact arrives in the low-sec system and d-scan shows it to be a Rorqual capital industrial ship, and only know my oblivious self sees the cynosural beacon lit no doubt by the Merlin, guiding the massive Rorqual in to the system safely. Neither ship or contact is a threat to me, allowing me to keep calm and carry on. I've got maybe a few million ISK in loot, which is a bit poor, but also a bit of security standing increase from popping rats, which occasionally helps when I get brash and engage a target running to low-sec. I've nothing else to do tonight, which pleases me, and jump back to w-space, warp across an unchanged C3, and get back to the tower unmolested after a quiet night indeed.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Quiet times in low-sec
Tags: drake, eve online, hoarder, low-sec, merlin, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, rorqual, scanning, w-space

Plenty to scan, little to shoot

I fancy a short poke around tonight's w-space constellation before settling down at home with some hot chocolate. Something simple, not too involved. There is no change in the home system from yesterday, which is a good start, leaving me to resolve the static wormhole and jump in to our neighbouring class 3 system, where a bunch of ships visible on my directional scanner may so soon scupper my chance of a quiet evening. I am presented with a nice cross-section of hulls, with a Tengu strategic cruiser, Orca industrial command ship, Dramiel frigate, Buzzard covert operations boat, Cheetah cov-ops, and Ibis rookie ship all somewhere in this C3, and I imagine only the cov-ops boats will be piloted.

My notes put me in this C3 only three months ago, and although warping to the location of the tower finds it still there it has since been abandoned, probably through the use of force. Two new towers have sprung up to replace the occupying corporation, one of which holds the Buzzard and Ibis, the Buzzard piloted and the Ibis empty and floating some distance out of the force field. By the time I've found the second tower the Tengu has disappeared and the Dramiel has been replaced by a Machariel battleship, the only other piloted ship in the system. The Tengu is not somewhere else in the C3, as opening the system map shows it to be tiny, maybe 11 AU across. There is nowhere for a ship to hide.

I could watch the two pilots here to see what they do, the Machariel possibly going to shoot Sleepers, but they look otherwise absent. I launch probes and send them out of the system, performing a blanket scan to see what's in store if I decide to scan, then I decide to scan. There are only two anomalies and ten signatures, and I would rather not spend my evening waiting for nothing to happen, particularly as the lack of action on behalf of the locals probably means I could scan without them noticing. I resolve and ignore gas, gas, and rocks before bookmarking a wormhole, then back to jumping Jack Flash, it's gas, gas, gas, and a second wormhole. The final signature is more rocks.

One wormhole I've found is the system's static exit to low-sec empire space, the other an outbound connection to more class 3 w-space. I stick with w-space and jump through the N968 to C3b. I am curious to see if this is where the disappearing Tengu went, plundering a different C3 and not his home, but d-scan is only showing me bubbles from the K162. Warping to the planet initially out of d-scan range sees no Tengu but a tower with an Anathema cov-ops and Prorator transport ship, neither piloted. Curiously, the hangars at the tower here are anchored and not on-line, giving the eight-capsuleer corporation few available resources. Maybe they are trying to save fuel in these austere times.

I launch probes and scan. I get a magnetometric site, rocks, gas, aun9b bhvqub... Even I stopped caring about the details a bit quickly there. All that's important to know about the eighteen signatures I sift through are the four wormholes I find, which are a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space, a K162 from class 5 w-space, another N968 to further class 3 w-space, and the U210 static exit to low-sec. So much for a quick poke around the normally straightforward constellation.

I jump through the K162 to C5a first, hoping to find activity but only seeing a small can on d-scan. This is another small system, giving nowhere for pilots or a tower to hide, so I am compelled to launch probes and scan for a further K162. And I find one, coming from class 4 w-space, which is a good enough early result for me to consider it the only one. I jump in to the C4 to have a single planet within range of d-scan, so launch probes and blanket the system to get a better feel for what's out there. Not much, just a tower and some Russian probes in the inner system, the tower looking pretty pathetic for a 104-pilot corporation, a single defence, incapacitated, failing to offer any protection.

I don't care to scan the C4 for further K162s, so return through C5a to C3b and head in to C4a. D-scan still shows me little of interest, a blanket scan with combat probes not helping, but with only seven signatures I am happy to look for the static connection at least. A split-signature turns out to be a wormhole, a K162 from more class 5 w-space, and it takes a lot more scanning to find the static connection in the final signature. It is so weak that, from experience, it can only be an H900 wormhole to a C5, and warping to the wormhole confirms my intuition. Again I pick the K162 over the outbound connection, and seeing a territorial control unit on d-scan indicates an occupied system. Let's hope it's active.

I launch probes and blanket the system before warping to the location of the TCU. Sure enough, I find the tower with the TCU and, sure enough, the TCU is placed amongst a bunch of bubbles with cloak-breaking jet-cans littered liberally in them. There are also a whole bunch of ships sitting in the tower, dreadnoughts and carriers, a battleship and battlecruiser, but only a Loki strategic cruiser is piloted and he doesn't look like he's about to do anything. I'm still not going to watch a pilot do nothing, which would result in my doing nothing. The evening's already getting late and I have more systems to explore.

I head back to C4a and jump in to the confusingly named C5c, based tonight on the order of finding the systems and not direction of travel. This class 5 w-space system looks empty and a blanket scan shows it is empty, unoccupied too. There may only be four signatures to scan but I think I've had my fill of scanning tonight, and there is another system yet to visit beyond an already resolved wormhole. I head back through C4a to C3b and jump in to C3c, where my interest perks up a little. An Iteron hauler, Hurricane battlecruiser, and Cheetah are on d-scan, along with a tower. I rush to find the tower, hoping that I am quick enough to catch the hapless hauler as he pootles around collecting planet goo, but drop out of warp outside the force field to find a distinct lack of pilots. Such a shame.

I'm not scanning any deeper, I need my sleep. All that is stopping me from heading home is the realisation that this C3 is quite large and that activity could be hidden out of d-scan range. I warp across the system to stumble on to a second tower, also with a cov-ops and hauler, also without pilots, and the other planet out of range doesn't even have that. I'm going home. My last hope for activity tonight is for the pilots in C3a to finally be stirring, and although there is some change, with the Tengu returned, the Machariel pilot back in his Dramiel, and a new contact arrived in a Cynabal cruiser, there is nothing happening. How dull. A short poke around w-space turned in to an expedition through eight systems, and I have nothing to show for it but another of my natty maps.

Posted in Gaming | 9 Comments »
Tags: anathema, buzzard, cheetah, cynabal, dramiel, eve online, hurricane, ibis, iteron, loki, machariel, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, prorator, scanning, tengu, w-space

Compensating for bad timing

I'm out in low-sec, the hauler's got away, and it looks like a carrier is left to take care of an unanchoring tower. But the evening's not over yet. On scanning my way out of the home w-space system, across low-sec, and through more w-space to the deadly class 6 system where the tower was being torn down, I also happened upon a second outbound connection in this system in low-sec empire space, one leading to class 3 w-space. It would be remiss of me not to at least take a quick look in that system for some hapless industrialist to shoot.

Jumping in to the C3 has a Moros dreadnought and Onyx heavy interdictor visible on my directional scanner, the curious combination of the two leading me to suspect them both sitting in the tower also to be seen on d-scan. And finding the tower turns out to be remarkably simple, as I am pointed the way by my notes. Normally this is quite usual, my notes after all being made specifically for such occasions, but my previous time here was around eighteen months ago and anything I have scribbled down from that long ago is generally so stale that I don't even care to mention an earlier visit. Amazement at the tower's stable presence in w-space aside, both ships seen on d-scan are indeed unpiloted and the system looks thoroughly inactive.

The hour's already late, having tested my patience in watching and waiting for the Bestower hauler to take an unanchored hangar out of w-space only to blink and miss him, so I wasn't planning to scan this C3. Never the less, I would kick myself if I didn't at least take a cursory look around with my combat scanning probes, the decision having nothing to do with my making a newbie error and failing to bookmark the wormhole back to low-sec. Thankfully modern ships keep track of visited wormholes in their system maps, which once a blanket scan has shown me no other ships and nothing of interest, lets me cluster my probes around the wormhole I entered through and resolve it in one scan.

I'm thinking about heading home, but my waiting in low-sec for a hauler that doesn't appear and bumbling around in the C3 has whittled away enough time for the tower in the C6 to be nearly ready to be scooped. Even if the Nidhoggur carrier will be doing the scooping, it being the ship left alone in the system, I am still interested in seeing it happen. I warp across low-sec, jump in to C5a, move straight on to C5b, and then back through a K162 to C6a, where I warp to a good vantage point that I was setting up when the Bestower serendipitously made his exit. I have five minutes until the tower unanchors and can be collected, five minutes until I see if I have a target.

It takes me three of these five minutes, spent idly tapping on a keyboard, for me to realise that the tower could be scooped by anyone, and that currently there is no one from the owner corporation to be seen. Rather than bring my covert Tengu strategic cruiser back here I could have brought my Crane transport ship, racing against the Nidhoggur or whoever to be first to scoop the tower and claim it as their own. Now, surely, it is too late to return across half-a-dozen systems, swap ships, make the same journey back and still have a chance of stealing the tower, even if the tower's current owners are a little tardy in remembering when they have to be somewhere. I suppose I'm stuck waiting in my Tengu.

The five minutes pass, the tower unanchors. No one comes. I keep updating d-scan, not with the same urgency as when engaging Sleepers but still frequently, and yet there is no sign of the Nidhoggur or Bestower to suggest they are warping in to collect the tower. I'm waiting no more, I'm off to get my Crane. If the no-longer-locals don't care to recover their tower I will be happy to do it for them, despite the distance between it and my Crane. I warp to the wormhole back to the C5, make a cursory refresh of d-scan as I jump, and see the Bestower appear on the results. My cursing is only swallowed by the wormhole throwing me between systems.

I wasn't expecting to see any ships when I updated d-scan before jumping, I just wanted to confirm there were still none arriving! Damn my bad timing, and not for the first time this evening! I was getting in position to strike the Bestower when it warped away, after spending long enough urging it to do just that when it was invulnerable inside the force field. I gave chase but took a wrong turn. Now I leave the system moments before the hauler returns to an entirely predictable position where I could have engaged him with almost no risk to myself. It doesn't look like being my evening.

I am quite tempted to jump back to the C6 and warp in to assault the Bestower as he collects the tower, but I refuse to compound bad luck with error. The Bestower may have already scooped the tower and be in warp to the wormhole, which could cause us to cross paths and I'd be chasing him again, a situation that has already ended in the hauler's favour. Not only that, but if I make a second transit through the wormhole so soon my ship will be polarised, and even if the Bestower lands on my Tengu on the wormhole he would be safe to jump and warp away for a couple of minutes at least. I am best served sitting on the wormhole and waiting for him to come to me.

I did not scan the C6 earlier, not wanting to spook the pilots, but I also didn't see the need. I entered through a K162 and it made sense that this wormhole is its static connection and the wormhole the pilots will be using. And when chasing behind the Bestower earlier I caught sight of him on d-scan in this class 5 system, so the odds are good that he will return this way, bringing the tower with him. I hold on the wormhole and wait, rewarded before long with a flare signalling a ship's passage. I don't care much for the element of surprise that my cloaking device gives me right now, only using it whilst waiting so that I would not be visible to any scouts that may have warned the Bestower. Now that he is presumably in front of me the cloak will only force a delay on my targeting systems, so I shed its disguise immediately and wait in full view. Besides, a Tengu sitting menacingly on a wormhole must be surprise enough for a hauler.

The ship just entered the system through the wormhole sits and waits, holding its session change cloak, which is a good indication that it is the Bestower. I sit coiled in front of my controls, ready to pounce, knowing the hauler cannot maintain its hidden state forever. And there he finally is. I lunge towards my target and activate all my systems, and this time luck is on my side, as the ship has appeared too far from the wormhole to jump straight back. My missiles slam in to the soft belly of the hauler, exploding violently enough to cause the pilot to eject early to try to save his pod. I see the pod and swap targets immediately, the Bestower exploding moments later anyway, but despite getting a positive lock and activating my warp disruptor some latency in the effect lets the pod warp clear anyway. That's a shame, but I won't say my new-found luck is faltering just yet, as the destruction of the hauler did not take the control tower with it.

Now I have a decision to make, whether to destroy the wreck and the tower inside, or leave it intact and try to recover the tower myself. I could easily do either, preferring the loot to be lost than recovered by its previous owner, but I would like to at least try to realise the ISK myself. I have a fair distance to travel to get my Crane here, and no inkling if the owners will send a second ship, perhaps with an escort, to pick it up themselves, causing me a wasted trip. It seems better to try to collect the tower than blow it up with such little regard for the rightful spoils I could recover, and turn my Tengu around leaving the wreck intact on the wormhole.

I jump from C5b to C5a, out to low-sec, in to C3a, back to home. I swap the Tengu for my Crane and make the same journey back, through C3a to low-sec, in to C5a and across to C5b, where the wreck remains visible on d-scan. But d-scan cannot tell me if it is looted. I warp to the K162 from C6a cautiously, dropping a little short in case I stumble in to ships I'd rather not see. But all that is there is the wreck and wormhole, and d-scan stays clear of any obvious threats. I approach the wreck, am decloaked when I get too close, and transfer the tower from the wrecked Bestower to my Crane's hold, burning away from the wreck and reactivating my cloak when done. My Crane spins around and warps back along the route I've taken several times this evening. I would say this has been a successeful evening, and the wait was worth it in the end. I not only get the Bestower kill I was looking for but snatch a hundred million ISK or so in loot for my effort.

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Tags: bestower, crane, eve online, mmorpg, moros, nidhoggur, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, w-space

Manoeuvring misses the moment

A stabilising system is an unbothered system, which is how I find home at the start of the evening. If I want bother, I have to look further afield. Scanning reveals five signatures now, looking positively cluttered compared to recent days, and although I get a pang of excitement about maybe a wormhole opening in front of my probes, what looks like a new signature appearing where there wasn't one seconds before, it turns out to be the static connection and I simply wasn't paying enough attention. Otherwise there is only gas, rocks, and more gas to be found, and I activate the sites before jumping through the wormhole to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

A tower is visible on my directional scanner in this C3, but nothing more of interest. My notes place me in this system seven months ago, although I have no detail of where the tower may be or what wormhole I'll find, as it seems I was just passing through. That's no problem, finding towers is easy, and once I launch probes I locate and float outside the tower as I scan. Four anomalies and eight signatures will make scanning straightforward, and with no one to help me with Sleeper combat tonight I'll restrict myself to looking for wormholes for further exploration.

There's a wormhole, first hit on my probes. But are there any more? A radar site, second wormhole—so, yes—gas, gas, rocks, and, hmm, I appear to have miscounted. No matter, I have no more signatures to resolve or ignore, leaving me with some rather dull wormholes, it seems. The static connection leads out to low-sec empire space, whilst the second wormhole is a K162 from low-sec, which hardly sets my pulse alight but I work with what I'm given. I exit through the static connection first, appearing in Molden Heath, and I ignore the handful of pilots in the system to launch probes and scan again.

Six signatures is promising, even with one of them being the wormhole back to C3a. Working through them gives me a magnetometric site, radar site, an outbound wormhole to class 3 w-space, a second outbound connection, this one to class 5 w-space, and the last signature is merely gas. Two outbound connections makes me feel lucky, I think I'll poke my nose in to the C5 first. It's more dangerous space, certainly, but will also more likely lead to further w-space, whereas the C3 could terminate to k-space.

The class 5 w-space system looks clear from the K162, letting me launch probes and perform a blanket scan. One ship could be interesting, if I could find it, as it drops off my probes on a second scan and there is no sign of occupation here. Warping around confirms a lack of capsuleer presence and the ship doesn't turn up a second time, but its blip on my probes perhaps indicates I will find more than one wormhole amongst the eleven signatures here. I get scanning, resolving the system's static connection to more class 5 w-space but being left with nothing else looking like a K162, which surely the errant ship must have used to pass through this system. I attribute the ship's appearance as a glitch in my electronics and press on.

Jumping in to the second C5 has a tower but no ships on d-scan, leaving me alone and free to scan once more. Or not so alone, as by the time I've noted the thirteen anomalies and eight signatures here and found the tower there is now a full complement of core scanning probes on d-scan. I go back to the K162 and loiter, hoping to get a look at the ship, but when the probes disappear no ships appears, leaving me apparently in an empty system again. I suppose it's my turn to scan. A K162 from deadly class 6 w-space is ominous, a K162 from null-sec k-space less so, and I'm happy to consider resolving the static connection to even more class 5 w-space the final wormhole I'll find.

Poking my nose in to C5c shows me two ECM drones on d-scan and nothing else. My notes let me know I was here three weeks ago, on another relatively long exploration compared to our usual constellation. The system was unoccupied then and I resolved a static wormhole to C5 w-space, at which point I stopped scanning and turned around. I'll do the same today, exploration taking its time and not finding capsuleers making it seem like I could be doing something more interesting. I'll still head in to the C6 for a look around, though, as there's no point thumbing my nose at already discovered systems. And maybe I've found activity at last.

A Nidhoggur carrier and some combat drones are on d-scan in the C6, along with a Helios covert operations boat, Bestower hauler, and a tower. I run a passive scan, revealing a whopping twenty-nine anomalies, making the system look underutilised, but looking for the tower, moved from my last visit only four months ago, shows the carrier to be there and not with its drones. I don't suppose there is much point scanning the anomalies to see where the combat drones are. Maybe the Nidhoggur pilot saw me enter the system, or he was warned by a scout, the owner of the previously seen probes. Or maybe the drones are nothing to do with tonight's plan for the pilots here, as the complete lack of defences around the tower and the current unanchoring of the sole remaining hangar makes it look like they are moving out.

The Bestower is piloted here too, and with the hangar soon to be scoopable I think it's worth watching and waiting to see what happens. It takes a bit of waiting but the hauler does indeed scoop the hangar once it unanchors, but rather than giving me an immediate target by warping to the wormhole it stalls. A new contact warps in to the tower in a pod, a second in a Cheetah cov-ops, and although the Nidhoggur turns and fires up its engines it's not going anywhere really. The pod hops in to the Helios and warps off, the Cheetah goes off-line, and the Bestower starts to move! No, he's faking it, the hauler just bouncing off the tower a dozen times or more, perhaps trying to tear it down physically. The dented Bestower and passive Nidhoggur are then joined by a Moros dreadnought, leaving me two impossible targets and one obstinately refusing to make himself a target.

Oh, that's interesting. The tower is now being unanchored, which requires it to be first taken off-line. A consequence of this is that the force field necessarily drops, leaving me a Bestower nestled between a dreadnought and carrier. I think I could probably pop it and get away before the big ships can do me too much damage, or even get a positive lock, I just need to get close enough. It's worth a try, so I bounce off a nearby moon and return at range, only to see the Nidhoggur now left alone with the tower. Damn it, what terrible timing! I have been patiently watching the Bestower and urging it to warp to the wormhole, and when I turn my back for a second it does just that.

The hauler is still on d-scan, presumably heading out to wherever to drop off the hangar, so now it's a chase. I surge my Tengu strategic cruiser towards the wormhole back to C5b, the Bestower disappearing from d-scan long before I get there, but jumping has the hauler back on d-scan in C5b. I swing d-scan around and, roughly placing him heading towards C5a, warp to the next wormhole in the route. The Bestower's gone again before I jump and this time I catch no sight of him in the next system. I do all I can think of and warp to the exit to low-sec, jumping out again to no sign of the hauler, not on d-scan and not in the populated local channel.

That's quite disappointing. I put in the time to stalk my target only to end up making a decision to strike that lets him evade me, even if accidentally. I probably came out of w-space the wrong way too, the big ships from the C6 probably needing to head towards the null-sec connection and not low-sec. Even so, I'm glad I pushed deeper in to the constellation, and having the patience to wait for the right moment and the ensuing chase has given me tonight the thrill I seek. And it's a good reminder that I need to look for it, as it is a rare day when the hunt will turn up on my doorstep.

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Tags: bestower, cheetah, eve online, helios, mmorpg, moros, nidhoggur, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Minimal w-space adventure

I have no overriding plan for today, I'm just going to see what's out there. Then again, I suppose that's pretty much my 'plan' for every day in w-space, as there really isn't much that can be predicted. I never know if I'll run in to a bored miner, be hunted as soon as I jump through a wormhole, or stumble in to some intruders at home without having to launch a scanning probe. Today the home system has just me and my glorious leader, as far as my directional scanner will tell me. Blanketing the system with combat scanning probes gives much the same impression, although an extra signature above the known ladar site and static wormhole is worth investigating.

The new signature is just some rocks. I activate the site to start its inevitable decay and then drag Fin with me to our wormhole, where hopefully we can start an adventure proper. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 system has an Orca and a tower visible on d-scan, my report of which causing Fin to hold on the other side of the wormhole for now, but I call her in. The industrial command ship floating by itself is a pretty good indication that there are no pilots around, although I caution not to launch probes in full view of the tower, in case we are incredibly lucky and have found a solo capsuleer using the massive ship to collapse an unwanted connection. I doubt it, though.

I warp to a distant planet, ensure no one obvious is watching, and launch scanning probes, throwing them out of the system as soon as they hit vacuum. A blanket scan reveals little of interest. There is the one ship, the Orca we know about; two signatures, which are obviously the K162 home and the static exit to known space; and six anomalies, only one of which is our preferred type. It's not much, but the scan results give us a plan. We'll locate the tower, resolve the static wormhole without visiting it, then clear that one anomaly to make some ISK. There's little point utilising two scanning boats to resolve one signature, and Fin returns home to swap boats as I fulfil the first two points in our plan, easily resolving the wormhole with a stink of null-sec about it as I look for the moon holding the tower.

Hmm, locating the tower hits a snag. There's no problem with finding the tower, but doing so reveals the occupants to be blue, allied to us. Strictly speaking, Fin tells me, we ought to ask permission of the corporation before plundering any of their sites. She's right, of course, and there's no question that we would claim ignorance of the local's alliance and come back to shoot Sleepers whilst there is no one around. It's clearly perfect timing on our part how we both board our Sleeper-fit Tengu strategic cruisers and return to the C3 just as a Cheetah covert operations boat appears in the system, d-scan placing it coincident with the tower, letting Fin open up diplomatic relations with the pilot.

The local pilot knows Fin and we share what we currently know about both our systems, including locations of wormholes, as well as get permission to clear the anomaly we're looking at. The pilot, with no plan for himself either, is happy to stick his cov-ops boat on the exit to null-sec to act as an early warning for any fleet that may want to come and catch our Sleeper operation in progress. What a lovely chap. That's not to say we can rely fully on his warning us, as a new wormhole could open up in this system, or our own, and bring visitors in from a different direction, so we still check d-scan regularly for probes or ships as we shoot Sleepers.

One anomaly in class 3 w-space doesn't take long to clear of Sleepers, and we're finished in a matter of minutes. No one comes to interrupt us. The pair of us return home and Fin volunteers to salvage by jumping in to a Noctis before I can, so I take on the role of protector, boarding a stealthy combat ship to shadow Fin's salvager. There are no problems, though, and we recover around forty million ISK of loot to our hangar safely. And that looks to be it for us for now, running out of steam early. We thank our ally and bid him good night, hitting the sack after a short but relatively profitable evening.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Scanning back and forth

I'm back and hoping my previous reconnaissance will now pay off. I plan to ditch my covert Tengu strategic cruiser for a more appropriate ambushing Manticore stealth bomber for my roam, removing the sensor recalibration delay and gaining a faster locking time, along with harder hitting torpedoes and the devastating first punch of a bomb. Considering the neighbouring class 3 w-space system is the same as yesterday, and not a single pilot has shown his face in the system in over a day, it's probably academic which ship I take. I could probably wander around in a shuttle and be just as successful in roaming as any other ship, but I want to be optimistic.

Before I trade ships I ought to be cautious and check the home system for new signatures. I don't want to be blindsided by a new wormhole's appearance bringing ships in behind me. And there is a new signature, and it resolves to be a new wormhole. I didn't really want to see the red pustule of a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space when I'm looking to hunt, but there it is. I may as well take a look on the other side, to see what may be in store for me if I am careless. Not much, it seems, at least from the wormhole, my directional scanner showing me nothing but an off-line tower. I think I'd better launch scanning probes.

I warp away from the wormhole to a distant planet, looking to get out of d-scan range of any potential active towers and the wormhole before decloaking to launch probes. Mid-warp I see an interesting blip on d-scan, a Thanatos carrier apparently in the middle of nowhere. I have to wonder what it's doing there. Maybe engaging Sleepers in an anomaly, or collapsing a wormhole, or feeling cosy in a safe spot for whatever reason. He's gone by the time I've launched probes and performed a blanket scan of the system, so maybe he warped to a safe spot before going off-line or is collapsing a wormhole. I'm curious to find out which.

My probes reveal one anomaly, twelve signatures, and two ships. The ships are an Orca industrial command ship and a shuttle, a trendy combination to leave unpiloted in a tower's shields these days, it seems. There is no Thanatos, nor any defences around the tower. I think I'll scan. Nothing looks like a wormhole where d-scan placed the Thanatos, but then again the connection to our home system doesn't look like a wormhole on my probes either. I suppose I simply don't scan C6 systems often enough to get a feel for signature strengths. Gas, rocks, magnetometric and radar sites, and only the static wormhole to our class 4 system. The Thanatos either collapsed a wormhole or went off-line in a safe spot. I won't be able to tell the difference from these scan results.

Whatever happened to the carrier, the C6 is currently quiet, and there are no more wormholes heading backwards. I return home and warp across the system to jump in to our neighbouring C3, eschewing swapping to the Manticore now that I'm back in the scanning mindset, and am utterly unsurprised to see a complete lack of activity. The only change is that the old static exit to low-sec empire space has finally collapsed after I opened it yesterday. Scanning probes give me the same overall result as before but with one signature different. And thanks to my earlier thorough scanning, coupled with labelling the bookmarks with signature identifiers, I pluck the static wormhole out of the nine signatures and resolve it, giving me a new exit, in a way I make sound so easy.

The wormhole is super-stable for only now being opened, and leads out to Black Rise in Caldari space. Scanning gives me a K162 from more class 3 w-space, jumping in finding it to be the system where we bravely pop an unpiloted Heron eight months ago. Curiously enough, despite appearing in w-space on a U210 I have a high-sec connection listed as being found last time. Maybe it's an error in my notes, or the locals found a way to reconfigure their system. The tower remains in the same place but, as is typical, no one is home. A blanket scan of the system has more signatures than I care to shake a probe at, but I soon pull myself out of a silly funk and count a mere eighteen signatures mixed with nineteen anomalies.

A mere eighteen signatures is still plenty to sift through, but I suppose I'm not going anywhere unless I do. Besides, a quick look for K162s is always tempting, and I start arranging my probes around the dense cluster of signatures in the centre of the system. Phew, eliminating a dozen signatures in a few scans is pretty efficient and, as it turns out, productive. I resolve a second wormhole in the system, making me feel justified in scanning until I warp to it and find the K162 from class 3 w-space reaching the end of its lifetime. Game over, man. It's another straightforward constellation with no one home. Despite my best efforts, I'm going home for the evening without bumping in to another pilot.

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Tags: eve online, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, thanatos, w-space

Same system, same sites

After recent unspectacular outings through w-space I am keen to do some legwork today. I am out and about relatively early, looking to perform some thorough reconnaissance for later ambushes. An extra signature in the home system could be initially promising too, but it turns out only to be some gas, which I activate upon resolving the site so it will soon be gone. Resolving and jumping through our static wormhole has me falter, as the connection is stabilising. Normally this would be disheartening, as a stabilising connection means no pilots are in the other system, but is actually rather good for initial scouting. I jump through the wormhole fine on the second attempt and, knowing there is no one home, launch probes immediately on appearing on the K162.

Uh-oh, this all looks familiar. A bit too familiar. My directional scanner shows a medium container in the system but is otherwise empty, and that system number is ringing a bell. Normally I see a pleasant string of numbers and assume I must have seen it before, but today is different. The reason the system number looks so familiar is because it is the same neighbouring class 3 w-space system as we had yesterday, the new static wormhole spewing me in here in almost the same place as well. I kick myself for deleting my previous set of bookmarks before jumping in, a little unfairly, as the odds of returning to the same system through subsequent wormholes are rather large. Then again, finding the same system through different wormholes has happened to us recently too, so maybe Sleeper wormhole technology is beginning to malfunction.

At least my notes from yesterday are intact and relevant, even if my bookmarks are gone, and I warp directly to the local tower as I arrange my probes to perform a blanket scan. Nothing has changed. The Orca industrial command ship, Maelstrom battleship, and shuttle all sit unpiloted in the tower, and although there are a surprising five extra anomalies here today—the Sleepers going at it like rabbits—the nine signatures remain the same. Well, the same when considering the extra K162 from low-sec empire space has probably collapsed. I scan, and can pretty much guarantee I won't find any extra wormholes. My recon mission has me aiming to be thorough, though, so rather than ignore the voluminous gas clouds here I resolve each site and bookmark it, in case the locals wake up. When the locals wake up. I want to think positively here.

Seven ladar sites, one gravimetric site, one wormhole. Scanning is complete here. My exploration can continue through the low-sec wormhole, or could, if the wormhole weren't the same connection that I opened myself yesterday, which is now reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I jump out to confirm that it leads to the same system and is therefore the same wormhole, then return to w-space instead of scanning the low-sec system. The EOL connection probably has a couple of hours left before collapsing, which is enough time to scan now but won't be around when I come back later to roam. I may as well be content with a mapped neighbouring system and the potential for more exploration later, once the EOL wormhole is gone, which after all is what I planned to accomplish in the first place. I head home and go off-line, feeling prepared for a second visit.

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