Chasing away a Comet

I'm back, and Fin's in trouble. Like me, she saw scanning probes in the home system and decided to sit in ambush on a wormhole. Also like me, circumstances didn't go according to plan. 'I got jumped from behind', she tells me, as I see a Federation Navy Comet on my directional scanner in the home system. The frigate caught Fin unawares and blasted through her Crow interceptor's shields and most of her armour before Fin was able to flee through the wormhole. Now she's floating around our neighbouring class 3 w-space system wondering if it's safe to come home.

I scout our static wormhole to help get Fin home and, with any luck, to catch and pop the Comet in a counter-attack. I warp my covert Tengu strategic cruiser across the system to see the frigate 180 km off the wormhole and moving fast. He's not sitting on a vector with a celestial object, so he must have burnt away from the wormhole using sub-warp power. I'm guessing that he is keeping a safe distance for now, with the ability to warp directly to the wormhole should it flare, signalling the return of Fin's Crow.

The Comet's fast. He stops about 200 km away from the wormhole then moves directly upwards, my overview pegging him at 3 km/s. But then he's gone, warped off in the direction of the K162 from class 4 w-space we have in our system. I warp that way myself but not in time to see the Comet jump. He's off d-scan by the time I get there, and the frigate is not a ship to cloak. It's only when Fin gets home safely and is repairing her armour at our tower that I notice the message from the Comet's pilot in the local channel.

The Comet must have been pretty vigilant with d-scan. My Tengu was only visible for a few seconds before cloaking when returning to the system, yet he caught enough of a glimpse to ward him off. It's probably good for him that he did, as a Comet tackled by a bait Crow probably would have been chewed up by my strategic cruiser. More importantly, it looks like I actually saved Fin for once, even if it was just a matter of good timing. And, in other news, the C3 only has an exit to null-sec k-space, making it useless for collecting Pengu. Even if I didn't know it, at least I wasn't wasting time earlier in chasing the other scout.

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Tags: comet, crow, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, tengu, w-space

Scanning and scouts

I'm making an earlier start than normal, somewhat determined to get Pengu back home. My Tengu strategic cruiser configured to engage Sleepers is still in empire space, separated from the bulk of our ships and in need to be brought back so that we can start making iskies again. But I say 'somewhat' determined because when I resolve two wormholes in the home system I can't be single-minded about my objective. I first need to determine how safe the constellation is, which means exploring through the K162 in to more class 4 w-space.

This isn't my first visit to this C4, but as I was last here a year ago I doubt my notes will tell me much that can be relied upon. For a start, they suggest the system is unoccupied. Although my directional scanner is clear from the wormhole, and it's possible the scout who opened the connection could have come from a different system still, the C4 is fairly large and a tower could easily be on the far side of the star. I launch probes and blanket the system, finding a lone ship amongst the dozen anomalies and five signatures.

Following the signature of the ship I am able to locate the on-line tower here, d-scan identifying the vessel as an Orca industrial command ship before I have singled out the right moon where the tower is anchored. Warping to the tower finds the Orca unsurprisingly unpiloted. Maybe he's considering collapsing the system's static wormhole by himself, which would give me a fat and defenceless target. And maybe I'll loot my very own pony from his cargo hold. I sit and watch the Orca anyway as I scan the system, all but one of the signatures outside of d-scan range, keeping my activity undetected for now.

Maybe my scanning is not entirely undetected, as a Buzzard covert operations boat warps in to the tower as my probes whiz around the inner system. Stupid cloaked ships. The Buzzard warps out again almost immediately, heading in what looks like the direction of the X877 connecting to our home system. I keep scanning, on the assumption that he's either seen my probes on d-scan or if he hasn't looked already he won't look now. I resolve a gravimetric site and two wormholes, still leaving the signature near the tower untouched.

The wormholes are both K162s from class 4 w-space, and both worse for wear. One is sitting at half-mass, the other wobbly at the knees in reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I'll leave both of them alone for now, even if the unstable wormhole could easily withstand a return trip from my Tengu. I still have our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to explore, so I jump home to head in that direction. But in the home system I detect the presence of my white whale, core scanning probes visible on d-scan implying a scout is busy at work here. I must lie in wait for him!

Warping to our tower, I swap the Tengu for my Malediction interceptor and fling it towards the wormhole out to the C3. I assume the Buzzard coming from the C4 connecting in to us will head in this direction, so I jump through to the C3 and sit on the K162 ready to ambush the cov-ops ship. I take care to check d-scan in the class 3 system, and to consult my notes, seeing nothing in range of d-scan in the system and no information about previous visits here. And contrary to previous experiences I do not have to wait an age before my prey appears.

The wormhole flares and I get my systems hot. I watch as the Buzzard appears, and spring in to action! My ship surges to intercept the cov-ops boat, at least in theory. In practice I seem to fly off at full pelt in a rather arbitrary direction. I still don't have the hang of this, it seems. The Buzzard either warps clear or feels quite safe sitting cloaked where he appeared near the wormhole, and resetting my position on the wormhole I keep watch of the system using d-scan. There is no sign of the Buzzard, or any sign of probes being launched, and the system stays this silent. I imagine my aggressive posture has stopped the scout in his tracks, and he's just waiting for an opportunity to get home again safely. Or maybe he's calling for reinforcements to arrive.

I'm aware of the additional pilot back in the C4, and that I am perhaps a little vulnerable to the right counter-attack, and return home for now. I loiter on our side of the wormhole a little longer, monitoring d-scan for any potential threats, just in case the Buzzard tries to come back, but nothing appears. I return to the tower, swap ships back for the Tengu, and head off to see what the pilot in the Orca is up to. Reaching the tower finds the pilot but not the Orca, as he has swapped to a Purifier stealth bomber now. It looks like I got here just in time too, as the bomber bounces off a hangar once before warping away, presumably to the wormhole.

It's a bit of a shame that I didn't wait longer, as my experience is that an interceptor could melt a stealth bomber easily enough, although that might be assuming a competent pilot. Even so, I warp back the way I came to try to keep track of the Purifier, but don't get to see any jumps when I reach the wormhole. It's possible the fast ship was able to cross the large distance quick enough to clear the system before my Tengu could cover the space, but I'd rather wait here for now and see if the ships return—and maybe trying to collapse their wormhole in response—than try to find a cloaked stealth bomber.

Nothing happens. I don't see the Purifier leave this C4 and eventually jump out myself, not even getting bombed as I reappear in our home system. I may as well make use of my time by scanning the C3 whilst I'm here. Warping across to the wormhole gets me there at a good time, as the connection flares as I drop out of warp. There's the Buzzard, coming back, even if I'm in no position to catch him this time. I follow him back to the K162 to see if he jumps home but again see nothing. It's only when scanning probes appear in the system that I decide to check the pilot's details and see that he is not the same pilot I saw earlier. This is a different Buzzard.

I'm not going to sit in wait a second time and my hijinks have taken enough of my time for now, so I leave the w-space constellation to take care of itself for a while as I take a short break. Maybe I can get to Pengu a bit later. I haven't actually forgotten my goal, I just get distracted easily.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, malediction, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

She bangs the drums

It's been a while since I mentioned my drumming, but I am still practicing and still getting lessons. I like to think I'm also still improving, and although progress can feel slow there are obvious ways I can tell I am getting better. Being able to play patterns smoothly that I would have got mixed up over is one sign, as well as simply trying the more complex beats and believing I will be able to play them. I'm definitely getting better, even if I'm still only playing solo.

My lessons took a new direction at the end of last year. Rather than playing some basic rhythms and fills, including some more technical if still simple patterns, my tutor started me on some funk drumming. This was all well and good, and there is plenty of interesting drumming in the book that we were using, but I had a different direction I wanted to explore. 'Can I learn some jazz?', I asked, and my tutor said I could. He then pulled out from his bookcase a book titled Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer, although I pretty much stopped reading after 'advanced techniques'.

'Advanced'! I didn't think I was quite ready for this. But I opened the book up to its first page of music and set it on the stand, and my tutor started talking me through the basics of jazz, as well as demonstrating the fundamental swing or shuffle beat. It was surprisingly difficult for a beat that sounds so simple, and on top of that I had to add the snare drum with my left hand. Even following the same time signature, albeit with different patterns, was awkward for a while, but I eventually got the hang of it. After that I could try more complicated patterns, and mixtures of time signatures on my left and right hands. It is really difficult, but rewarding when done right.

Although focussing my time on jazz, it wasn't the only style I played. I was still encouraged to play from the other books we were working from, as well as some more general exercises and occasionally playing along to music. It's interesting to see how getting comfortable with jazz has made some different styles easier to return to, as it has increased my coordination and independence considerably, although obviously continued practice would have done that anyway.

I've worked my way through that first jazz book, which my instructor calls an 'introductory' jazz book. I can kind of see why, as it was written by Jim Chapin back in 1948, and although the music definitely was advanced back then the combined experience and musical knowledge has increased significantly, as have expectations of musicians in general. Even so, for an introductory book it was pretty difficult. I've moved on to The Art of Bop Drumming by John Riley, which is giving me new challenges. The writing style, for a start, is streamlined, showing only additions to the basic swing beat and not the beat itself.

Learning jazz is pretty neat, though. I love it when I can almost sit back and let my hands and legs do what they naturally want to do, and hear a comping snare over the top of a smooth beat. I'm now working the kick drum in to my comps, which is proving as difficult to get fluent as the basic beat was when I first opened a jazz book. I'll get it, it will just take practice, and some of it is sounding pretty smooth already. Well, the first exercise in that section, at least.

I'm miles away from playing in a band, if only because I don't know any other musicians and am not exactly bristling with self-confidence. But I can play drums pretty well, and to complement my theory, technical practice, and the jazz I am learning some Nirvana songs, from a book I picked up almost a year ago and tucked away in a corner as being too difficult at about the same time. I can now fairly confidently play Come as You Are and Lithium, and nearly have In Bloom and About a Girl in my repertoire.

I'll pick up another song book soon, to keep my interest in practical drumming going, maybe Coldplay or The Police. And I'll keep practicing my jazz beats, just because it makes me feel cool. I think I'm doing pretty good for someone who got the drumming bug from Guitar Hero.

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Tags: drumming

Plenty of empty space

All is quiet on the home front, let's see what it's like abroad. I scan the home system and like what I see. Having seven known sites bookmarked and only eight signatures will make plucking the new static wormhole out of the cluster easy, particularly as the strength of the wormhole's signature will be greater than that of the radar sites littered around. But finding two wormholes isn't part of the plan, and is only explained when I realise I was looking at the wrong bookmark folder. I have six known sites bookmarked, not seven, so this extra signature actually makes sense. It's good that the two wormholes are almost on top of each other, or I may have missed one.

Both wormholes today connect to class 3 w-space. I first jump through the K162, to what I'll dub C3b because of its secondary nature to our static wormhole, in the hopes of finding activity. And I seem to, with two Rifters and a Cheetah visible on my directional scanner, and with no tower in sight. But in a blink of d-scan one frigate goes, then the second disappears too. A few seconds later and not even the Cheetah remains to be seen. They could still be in the system, just not close to the wormhole, so I warp off and launch probes, blanketing the system to see what's here. My probes show me thirteen signatures, six anomalies, but no ships.

No ships means no activity, and with a second system available to explore I head back home and across to our static wormhole. I would prefer to see if anything is happening in the other class 3 w-space system before bothering to invest time in scanning anywhere. A Helios cov-ops boat and a tower are visible on d-scan in C3a, and warping away to launch probes and peform a blanket scan of the system reveals a second ship to be here. I reconnoitre the outskirts of the C3, where the ship looks to be, and find a second Helios sitting in a second tower. I drop out of warp outside the tower, letting me see this Helios piloted, but not for long. The pilot falls asleep and disappears, a second scan having the first Helios vanish too. I killed the system just by turning up.

I'm here, I may as well scan this C3 first. I resolve the system's static exit to low-sec empire space, a second wormhole, two ladar sites, and a gravimetric site. The second wormhole is not as exciting as it could be, as it is only a K162 coming from low-sec. I check the exit system to find myself in the Black Rise region, relatively close to some assets but with too much low-sec space in the way to be convenient, and head back to the C3. I briefly stop at one of the towers to investigate a new contact in a Buzzard, but I'm in no mood to wait for a cov-ops boat to perhaps warp somewhere stealthily, and head across to check the second exit. This one is better, being only one hop from high-sec and a mere six jumps from the bulk of our remaining ships. But the low-sec system is busy, despite being in a dead-end island, and a possible scout sitting on the entry stargate makes me think it isn't safe to bring ships in. Besides, what we really need are our Sleeper ships, and those are many more jumps away.

Glorious leader Fin suggests collapsing the wormhole to get a better neighbouring system, one with an exit to high-sec a couple of hops from our ships, and jumps in to her Orca industrial command ship to start destabilising the wormholes. She bounces between the C247 and K162 to collapse both simultaneously, and I head home to swap to my Widow black ops ship to help. With Fin's calculations and a couple of cooperating connections the two wormholes are collapsed smoothly, and we can start the evening again.

Scanning finds the new static wormhole easily enough, just the one wormhole this time, and jumping through to the neighbouring class 3 system shows promise. Fin initially reports no ships visible on d-scan and I jump in behind her, but scouting the outer planets reveals a Tempest battleship, Noctis salvager, and Crane transport ship present, along with a tower. I warp in the opposite direction to the ships and launch probes, a blanket scan showing no other ships and only a few signatures present. There are, however, over twenty anomalies in the system, which hold an awful lot of unrealised profit. And when the two pilots, in the Tempest and Crane, log off within a couple of minutes of our entry those anomalies look even more like missed opportunity.

Sadly, despite hoping for a decent connection to empire space, this C3 also leads out to low-sec. As Fin checks the exit, finding it to lead to Metropolis and far from everything, the final signature in the C3 resolves to be a second wormhole. The piqued hope wanes quickly when the connection turns out to be a K162 from null-sec k-space, and bound to be even less convenient than a link to low-sec. A quick scan of the null-sec system in Querious shows a lot of Blood Raider anomalies but only the one signature, which is the X703 to the C3. I'm finished with scanning for today, leaving us nowhere to go and little to do. I really need to get my Sleeper ship in here as a matter of priority, so that I can make good use of my time in quiet periods like this.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, crane, eve online, helios, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, rifter, scanning, tempest, w-space, widow

Straightforward scanning

Glorious leader Fin is floating in a ladar site, I'm going to scan my way out of our home w-space system. Or I could let her guide me to our static wormhole, as Fin is harvesting gas and rocks lazily, activating all the mining sites in the system. I saved the bountiful ladar sites from my own purges, not wanting to impose my own thoughts about mining on to my colleague, but it turns out we're both in the same mind now. As Fin warps around to visit the handful of sites still here I jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to look for targets, or maybe find a convenient route to our absent ships.

I see drones and a tower on my directional scanner, but there are no ships, such as w-space has been recently. After locating the tower I find a quiet corner of the system where I can launch probes, and blanket the system. There are still no ships, the thirteen anomalies are teasing me for still not having my Sleeper boat here, but seven signatures shouldn't take long to resolve. Before that, we are still a bit paranoid about our stalking scumbags, so Fin acts as bait for a while to see what happens.

I suppose if we don't actually have a trap or ambush planned Fin isn't techincally 'bait', more a sacrifice, but we're really just testing the waters. As she sits bravely waiting her fate I seek some intelligence on our previous pests, finding out that pretty much all of them can be placed in a different w-space system wholly unconnected to ours a couple of days previously. I think we're relatively safe for now, at least from them, and I start scanning the C3 as Fin swaps back to a more suitable ship. I hope all those Bothans didn't die in vain.

First hit in the C3 is a wormhole, and I continue scanning to find a gravimetric site, a second wormhole, and three ladar sites. Two wormholes are interesting and, with Fin back with me, we find the system's static exit leading out to low-sec empire space, but reaching the end of its natural lifetime, and a K162 coming from class 4 w-space. Fin checks the exit to low-sec, ending up in the Derelik region and far from anywhere, as I investigate the C4.

This is my third visit to this class 4 system, the last being six months ago, and whilst it was empty then capsuleers have now moved in, two towers visible on d-scan from the wormhole. Two ships are obviously in the system too, a Myrmidon battlecruiser and Orca industrial command ship. As I see no wrecks or jet-cans it is unsurprising to find one ship at one tower and the second at the other, although it is encouraging to see the Myrmidon piloted.

The towers are sitting on the far planet of the system, which has a much bigger orbit than the other planets, and I can launch probes without the Myrmidon pilot seeing them. Even better, the only signature of the five signatures that's close to the tower is the wormhole connecting to the C3, and I can resolve the other four unseen. I find no more wormholes, only a gravimetric and three radar sites. The lack of ladar sites is a disappointment, as it means the battlecruiser is not likely to go out gassing and will have to visit the C3 if he wants to suck. And at the moment it doesn't look like he wants to do much of anything.

I could sit and watch the Myrmidon, hoping he leaves the safety of his tower to do something, anything that could make him a target, but the odds are he'll do nothing. And as much as I would prefer to be active, the dying wormhole to low-sec is discouraging and I'm not in the mood to collapse our wormhole and scan again from the start. It seems like a good day to get a terribly unexciting early night and catch up on some sleep, so that I can be perky for tomorrow's adventure.

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

Letting a gasser go free

The Probe's been despatched, the Prophecy isn't likely to move, and Fin's gagging for a target. The frigate was caught in an obvious location, the battlecruiser is piloted but inactive in the local tower, and the rest of the system looks quiet. I'll scan this class 3 w-space system to look for someone new to shoot. There are six signatures in the system and the first one I resolve, right on the outskirts, is a good start to continued hunting, being a K162 from class 2 w-space. The second signature is a second wormhole, a K162 from class 4 w-space. We have options.

An Anathema covert operations boat is a new contact in the system, picked up on my probes and ship-type identified using the directional scanner. I warp to the local tower to see if it is there but don't catch sight, although there are some core scanning probes a little over a hundred kilometres outside the tower's force field. I would assume those belong to the Anathema but I am sure the cov-ops boat had launched combat probes already, not cores. That would mean a second scout is in the system, but I haven't seen one. I am confused. Or maybe just stupid. The second scout, who the combat scanning probes belong to, is me. I can probably ignore them.

I keep scanning to find a magnetometric site, the system's static exit to low-sec empire space, and the final signature turning out to be another wormhole. It's a really weak signature, though, making it an outbound connection to class 1 or class 5 w-space. And warping to the wormhole, once resolved, shows it to connect to a C5. There is plenty of choice for adventure here, and I understand the popped Probe's pilot reluctance to admit how many wormholes there are, as well as why he was keen to find out which system I came from. It's not easy to guess the source of visitors with four extra-system connections all potentially bringing tourists in to your system.

Scanning is complete at about the same time as a new Probe appears in the system. Judging by its default name, it is the same pilot who I popped earlier. He really should christen his ship, and Fin jumps in to the system solely to offer him a little advice, albeit indirectly. I consider trying to shadow him again, giving up after a while not because it would be evil to shoot him twice in one evening but because he logs off. I nearly caught him at our K162, where he finds and chomps the jet-can Fin left, but I was a bit slow and can only watch as he goes to sleep at his tower, still without having changed his Probe's name.

Fin's getting an early night too, for extended values of 'early', and I wouldn't mind getting some shut-eye. But there are still other w-space systems to explore, maybe with soft targets. The least I can do is poke my nose in and see if there is a hauler or two to pop. I start with the wormhole coming from class 2 w-space, the lowest class of available system more likely to contain softer targets, but jumping in sees only a tower on d-scan and no ships. With limited time and two more systems to check I merely turn my ship around and jump back to the C3.

Next stop is the C5, chosen because despite its higher class the wormhole is an outbound connection, giving an element of surprise to my visit. I don't think I can surprise drones, though, which are all I can see on d-scan from the wormhole. Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals only anomalies and signatures, no ships or structures, making it about the same as the last time I was here three months ago. Rather than scan through all the signatures for the static connection to more class 5 w-space I turn back to investigate the class 4 system connecting in to the C3.

The C4 looks empty from the wormhole, but the system is bigger than d-scan's reach. Launching probes and blanketing the system finds two ships amongst the three signatures and two anomalies, and I warp to the tower listed in my notes to see if they are there. They may be, the Cheetah cov-ops boat and Brutix battlecruiser now appearing on d-scan, but the tower isn't where my notes say, apparently getting out-of-date in the past eight months. Sweeping a narrow d-scan beam around to locate the tower gives another interesting result, in that the Brutix is not inside the tower.

I open the system map to locate the Brutix and it looks like he's sitting in one of the two anomalies, but I can't believe a battlecruiser would survive by itself in a class 4 w-space anomaly. Besides, there are no wrecks. It looks like the anomaly is simply coincident with the Brutix's position from where I am, and he's distant enough that I ought to get closer anyway. I try to get a range on the battlecruiser but he has warped from where he was, so I head off to reconnoitre the tower for now, which will get me closer to what is possibly a ladar site the Brutix was in.

The Brutix has warped back to the site by the time I reach the tower, and I am now convinced he is harvesting gas, although I find the Cheetah piloted too. He doesn't look like much of a threat at the moment, I can give the gasser a poke. My probes are already launched, I just need to get a good bearing on the target, and I use my system map and d-scan to do that. I get the battlecruiser's position down to a good accuracy and position my probes as best as I can, and get ready to scan. I push my Tengu in the rough direction of the site, so that the strategic cruiser will enter warp more quickly, saving a precious couple of seconds, and hit scan.

The first return is fair at 50% but far from good enough, so I reposition the probes and scan again. The second hit is both better and worse, a relatively stronger hit but a split result. I am confident I know which of the two mirror images is the true image and position my probes again. The third time's a charm, and I recall the probes and warp to the Brutix's scanned position. I get ready to drop my cloak, warming up my weapons systems, but as I decelerate out of warp the blue cross of an allied pilot is plastered on my target. Balls.

I didn't realise the locals were blue because the Cheetah pilot has a low security status, the yellow skull of piracy obscuring any corporation standing markings. I really wish it wouldn't do that, and this is the turning point that will make me change my overview settings. Whilst it can be good information to know the security status of an individual it is much more important to know how the pilot is regarded by your corporation or alliance. It's also lucky the Brutix pilot doesn't also have a low security status, or I probably would have continued the attack, hence my decision to modify my overview settings.

The pilot doesn't seem to bothered to see a Tengu interrupt his gas harvesting session, even suggesting that he knew I was there and was ready to counter any attack. Whether he's bluffing or not there's little more for me to do here. I may not have found my soft target but I got some more hunting practice, in valuable live conditions. I warp out, make a note in my records that this system is occupied by blues, and head home to sleep.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: anathema, brutix, cheetah, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, scanning, tengu, w-space

Starting with a scout

An empty home system lets me scan in peace. There is nothing special to find, only the sites I am expecting and a single wormhole, and I jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to explore. Three Hornet drones visible on my directional scanner look interesting at first, except there are no ships, no wrecks, and not even a tower in range to accompany them. A passive scan reveals fifteen anomalies in the system and the drones floating free in space. I think it's safe to say they've been abandoned.

Performing a blanket scan of the C3 confirms a lack of ships and occupation, making me want my Sleeper strategic cruiser so that I could profit from all the potential loot here. Without a suitable Sleeper ship I am left to scan and look for further wormholes where there may be targets, and I start sifting through the dozen signatures. I resolve a ladar, five gravimetric, and radar site before realising only weak signatures remain, strongly suggesting the static wormhole will lead out to null-sec k-space. One more radar site is discarded before I find the wormhole, which indeed is a K346.

The final signatures here are a gravimetric and two magnetometric sites, giving the simplest of constellations today. I may as well head out to null-sec to take a look around, even if it is highly unlikely to offer a convenient route to collect more ships, and I end up in the Outer Passage region. Scanning finds only two drone anomalies and no other signatures, giving nothing to find here. Checking my atlas at least shows me a small ring of systems I can race around to get a few more red dots of exploration on my star map, hoping to perhaps see an impressive sight again, but all I find is a familiar name.

I spot Hugfish in the local channel in one of the null-sec systems, which rings a bell. At first I think my record-keeping from a year back was rather lacklustre until I realise I was thinking of the wrong encounters and it's my memory at fault, at which point I find when I met up with Hugfish in w-space. I doubt he remembers me, and I'm not about to reintroduce myself, it's simply a neat coincidence. I continue with my null-sec circuit, getting back around to the starting system without hassle, and jump back to the C3.

Glorious leader Fin is here, and we have an Orca and Widow, the pairing of the industrial command ship and black ops ship proving in the past to be good collapsers of our static wormhole, and we get to work. A couple of trips destabilises and then collapses our wormhole smoothly, leaving us both in the home system, and scanning can start anew. Locating the replacement static wormhole is straightforward enough, once I account for the one stray signature as being a radar site, and I jump in to the new class 3 w-space system to scout ahead of Fin.

A Cyclone and drones on d-scan look promising, perhaps the battlecruiser engaging Sleepers in the system whilst a Probe frigate sits idly in the tower nearby, but I see no wrecks and refreshing d-scan reveals core scanning probes. My guess appears to be backwards. Our new K162 looks to be garnering some attention from the probes too, as several converge rather quickly on my position. Fin swaps her scanning boat for an interceptor, which she plants on our static wormhole in wait for the scanner, whilst I locate the tower. Sweeping d-scan around, however, sees the Probe sitting somewhere other than in the safety of the tower's shields. I wonder if he's somewhere obvious.

It doesn't take long to position the Probe in line with the system's sun, and I warp to the star to see if he really is being that careless. Yes, he is, but I drop out of warp only in time to see him align out and warp away. I try to follow, on the assumption that he's resolved our K162 and about to jump in to Fin's embrace, but for some reason don't realise that he didn't warp out the way I came, and I came from our wormhole. Of course he's not heading towards Fin. But maybe he'll return to his chosen point of impending doom, and I warp back to the star to wait for him.

Sure enough, the Probe returns from his scouting to the system's star, and I have a quick decision to make as his ship decelerates heavily towards my position. I could call Fin to jump in and warp to me, her interceptor more likely to catch the Probe and its pod, but I have no idea if the Probe will sit here for long enough, particularly if it sees a Crow appear on d-scan. I also know that I have the sensor recalibration delay to contend with, once I drop my cloak. I have to act now. I drop my cloak as the Probe is still decelerating and helpless, and by the time the Probe is out of warp and can be targeted the recalibration delay is over. I have him locked and pointed.

I loose volleys of missiles at the helpless frigate and it can do little but accept its fate. The Probe explodes and the pod flees, giving me a little loot to grab before shooting the wreck and hiding under cover of my cloak. I apologise to Fin for keeping the kill to myself again, but there was no guarantee the Probe would jump to our system and I didn't want to risk missing it. Finding the tower at last shows that the Cyclone doesn't have a pilot who could have been tempted out to play, although a piloted Prophecy battlecruiser has now appeared.

Whilst Fin and I wonder if we can lure the Prophecy out to play the ex-Probe pilot requests a conversation with me. I tend to be a bit leery about talking to my victims, or anyone really, but I accept the request. He seems polite enough, simply asking if I came from one of the new wormholes in his system and if he was a bit obvious to find on the star. I point out that it was a little easy to locate him but am coy about which system I came from, and am curious as to why he won't tell me how many wormholes there are. It's a civil chat, just for information on both sides, and we bid each other safe travels. Now I can start scanning this system, and hopefully find targets to send Fin's way.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Starting with a scout
Tags: crow, cyclone, eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, probe, prophecy, pvp, scanning, w-space, widow

Staying out of trouble

It's been slim pickings of late, my roams only culminating in a couple of near misses. Maybe today will be luckier for me. I have to cope with a couple of stray signatures in the home system first, one of which is naturally a wormhole. A second wormhole in our class 4 system is the first sign of activity and a positive indicator, even if it means possible intruders. I resolve the final unfamiliar signature as a ladar site and warp to the two wormholes, finding our static connection and a K162 from class 5 w-space. I go where the action is and jump to the C5.

A visit to this class 5 w-space system only a month ago has my notes give me positions of three towers here, two of which are visible on my directional scanner from the wormhole. I also see some ships, and warping to the towers finds a Nightmare battleship and a pod piloted, the Fenrir freighter, three Orca industrial command ships, and Covetor mining barge empty. A Moros dreadnought turns up at the tower with the two pilots but does little more. I am interested by the presence of shield maintenance bots in the system but, like the last time I saw some, they appear to be happily floating alone in space.

I warp to the third tower, out of d-scan range of the other two towers, to find it still there but empty. Returning to the first tower has the Nightmare gone, and I'll be buggered if I'm sitting here watching a Moros do nothing, particularly when I have a class 3 w-space system to explore. I leave this populated but boring system behind me, warp across our home system, and jump to the connecting C3. D-scan is clear on my entry, and launching probes and performing a blanket scan of the system reveals no ships, a tower on-line but empty on the outskirts of the system. I start scanning the handful of signatures here.

A gravimetric site is first resolved, then the system's static exit to high-sec empire space, followed by two more wormholes and a radar site. The second wormhole is an outbound connection to more class 3 w-space, which would be dandy if it weren't reaching the end of its natural lifetime, leaving me with a K162 from low-sec empire space to complete my exploration here. I check the exit to high-sec and am happy to see myself out in Caldari space, in The Citadel region no less, but rather less pleased to have a Nighthawk command ship and Guardian logistics ship sitting right on top of the wormhole with me.

It's possible that the Nighthawk and Guardian were preparing to enter the C3 and shoot some Sleepers until I appeared in their midst. Possible, but unlikely, and not just because the pilots are from a Russian PvP corporation. The Guardian repairs armour and feeds capacitor to ships, the Nighthawk has a formidable and generally passive shield tank. The two are like oil and water in fleet operations. Whatever they are doing there, they are no immediate threat in high-sec, and they don't follow my Tengu strategic cruiser back in to the C3. I warp away from the wormhole and check the low-sec system on the other side of the K162.

The low-sec exit looks to be better situated than the high-sec one, a mere six jumps from our stored assets. There may be a low-sec system or two to navigate to get there and back, but my Crane transport ship will be able to cross that with no difficulties. And with w-space still quiet it looks like a good opportunity to get my utitily ship back home, along with some more sundries we exported as part of our evacuation. It's settled, then. I'll bring my Crane home.

I drop off the Tengu at our tower, grab a shuttle, and make my way through w-space, to low-sec, and then high-sec. Travel is easy and quick, and I dock and load my Crane. I stuff a couple of giant secure containers in the hold, letting me carry almost all of the modules and some of the ammunition that I brought out previously, leaving only some ammunition and a few modules that I may want to keep for the ships still stowed here. I undock, make my way peacefully back through high- and low-sec to the wormhole, and jump in to the C3. No one's waiting for me, but I can see two Badger haulers on d-scan now. Just my luck to miss some soft targets as I peform logistics myself.

I warp the Crane home, throw the returned modules in to our hangar, and get in to my Manticore stealth bomber, wanting to get back to the C3 as quick as I can. I return to see a Crane on d-scan, apparently picking up planet goo, but I only follow in its agile shadow until I chase it back to the local tower, where its pilot takes a nap. Three Drake battlecruisers are also now at the previously empty tower, all piloted along with a Heron frigate. My interest in the now-active system wanes somewhat when the Drakes disappear in a puff of disconnection smoke, leaving only the Heron.

At least I have a chance of catching a Heron, it being a scanning boat that cannot warp cloaked. And it even warps around, launching probes and scanning, but I'm always one step behind. The appearance of a Proteus on d-scan has me chasing two ships with d-scan, and I am finally able to get eyes on the strategic cruiser when I warp to the N968 connection, still there and awfully wobbly. The Proteus isn't local, but nor is it a particular threat to us. Well, it is, as the pilot's corporation is red to us, but the Proteus doesn't seem to be taking an interest in our system. In fact, he appears to be muscle for his own logistics operation, ships moving between the now-EOL connection to high-sec and and this N968, aided briefly by Absolution and Nighthawk command ships at different times.

A local ship is stalking the system too, a stealth bomber lurking on the wormhole to high-sec and perhaps protecting their own ships' passage. I consider trying to engage him, confident I can win a stealth bomber duel, but the exit to high-sec makes it a futile endeavour. This leaves me chasing the Heron again. The problem, though, is that the Heron is using a safe spot when he isn't at a wormhole, and I don't seem to be quick enough with d-scan to find him when he's vulnerable on a wormhole. I think I catch sight of him visiting our K162 and wait patiently for him to jump back to the C3, on the assumption that he went in to explore our home system, but his reappearance on d-scan in the C3 shows he never left, damn him.

I make one final attempt at provoking a confrontation this evening, in a horribly mis-matched—in my favour—hunt for the Heron in my Tengu. Warping around has put the frigate's safe spot under 0·1 AU from the system's star, which will make scanning his position trivial, but I'll definitely need the Tengu to do it. I stow my Manticore to bring my strategic cruiser in to the C3, and launch probes and cloak as quickly as I can, throwing my probes out of the system. But the Heron's combat scanning probes likely picked up my presence as I did this, and his ship cloaks. I get one attempt at scanning the Heron when he reappears, but my tightly clustered probes pick up no ship. Rather than continue this frustrating chase I recall my probes and head home for the night, knowing only too well what can happen if I press for combat. I'll get a good opportunity again soon enough.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: absolution, badger, covetor, crane, drake, eve online, fenrir, guardian, heron, manticore, mmorpg, moros, nighthawk, nightmare, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, tengu, w-space

Even the action is feeble

Back from my break and all is still quiet. I can take a shufti at what the locals in the neighbouring class 3 w-space system are up to now, having waited in vain to catch a scanning scout of theirs earlier. I take my covert Tengu strategic cruiser through the connecting wormhole and warp across to the tower, finding the scout now in his own Tengu and joined by two colleagues, another in a Tengu and the third pilot in a Viator transport ship. This is pretty much how I left them a couple of hours ago, making me suspect that they will not coincidentally become active all of a sudden. I scan the system instead of waiting for movement.

A new anomaly has spawned since earlier but there remain seven signatures. A wormhole leaps out at me on a general scan, resolving to be the system's static exit to low-sec empire space but reaching the end of its natural lifetime. How dull. There is also to be found a gravimetric site, a ladar site, a second ladar site, a magnetometric site, and a third ladar site. There really isn't much to do here, and I see no benefit in risking the connection to low-sec collapsing behind me, so I simply head home and take another break.

And coming back again still finds space deader than tank tops. Undeterred, and wanting to entertain myself, I grab my stealth bomber and warp out to the C3 once more. It's actually kind of fun to be in the smaller ship once more. As convenient and powerful as the scanning Tengu is there is a certain simplicity in piloting the stealth bomber, agile and fast-locking, with a hull only just able to survive the expansion pressures of one atmosphere out in space. I hope after all this time I can remember what each button does.

Jumping in to the C3 sees eight ships on my directional scanner this time, along with an exciting-looking jet-can. I don't remember that being here before and maybe a ship has gone mining, but sweeping d-scan around places it at the tower, so maybe it was here all along. Also at the tower is the piloted Viator transport ship and Tengu, the only change being the disappearance of one pilot. Maybe there's a time dilation effect inside the force field of their tower, and it's only been five minutes perceived time since I first saw them several hours ago.

Activity! The Tengu moves! The strategic cruiser moves just far enough to swap in to a Drake, but the new battlecruiser keeps on moving, engines surging it forwards. I'm keen to see what happens next and try to get a bearing on which direction it will enter warp, but it remains under normal engine power. The Drake approaches the Viator, chomps the jet-can, which I suppose must have been new after all, and then sits still again, contemplating the contents of the can. Thus ends the excitement of the Drake.

Still simply watching ships, I stir a little when the Blackbird from earlier resurfaces. The pilot swaps the cruiser for an Onyx, the heavy interdictor a curious choice for a system apparently devoid of activity, and surely it isn't warping out to engage Sleepers. I try to follow him, only finding him back at his tower a minute later, but on my little trip around the system I pay a visit to where the exit wormhole was and has now died. Good, I can scan for the new one. I warp homewards, get back in to my covert Tengu, and return to the C3 to scan for the replacement static wormhole.

A standard examination of d-scan when entering the C3 has a new contact, a Tengu in the system again. Warping to the tower doesn't find him, but sweeping d-scan around shows we must have passed each other, as the local Tengu is now sitting on the K162 home. And as I find this out the Onyx warps out of the tower to join him. Whether my movements have been detected, or actively monitored, or they are being purely speculative in their camp I don't know, but I can't see anything to worry about. I'm probably safer now that I'm back in my Tengu too. The Onyx bubbles the K162, the Tengu jumps in to our C4. I warp away, having lost interest in them already.

Ignoring the two aggressive ships for now I launch probes and scan, resolving the new static exit to low-sec, and then wonder why I did it. It's getting late enough that I don't feel like scanning low-sec for more wormholes, and even if it weren't late and the exit were close to some stowed ships I don't think I'd want to bring them home through an Onyx's warp bubble. I recall my probes and head home for the night, just needing to navigate my way past an unintentionally feeble blockade.

Rather than throw caution to the wind I drop short of the wormhole, outside the Onyx's bubble, prefering to better control my approach. It's a simple matter to avoid the single ship in order to keep my cloak intact, and I jump through the wormhole. In the home system I ignore the session change timer and move away from the wormhole and cloak, although the Onyx doesn't appear to be in any rush to follow behind me. The hostile Tengu makes himself known, but only to decloak a second after I am once again hidden, giving him little option but to cloak again himself. The Onyx turns up but too late, making it all rather anticlimactic. I warp away, leaving the two ships to their own devices, and settle down for the night.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: blackbird, drake, eve online, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, viator, w-space

Waiting is time-consuming

An empty home system is a good start to the day. I always prefer hunting elsewhere, as it gives me somewhere safe to retreat or hide, and having w-space as a home offers at least one wormhole to explore beyond. Today there remains just the one connection at home, and I jump to our neighbouring class 3 system to reconnoitre the constellation. A whole bunch of ships appear on my directional scanner, mostly combat but with a couple of industrial ships, and even some shield maintenance bots. But there are no jet-cans and no wrecks, and I suspect all the ships will be empty at the local tower.

Finding the tower in this C3 is easy, as it hasn't moved since my last visit here about three months ago. Warping to it finds all the ships there, although my guess at them all being empty is a little off as the Blackbird cruiser is piloted, leaving only the shield bots as something of an curiosity. The bots don't appear to have been launched by any ship here, nor are they sitting in an anomaly in the system, unfinished or otherwise. But that only leaves them as unexplained, they aren't interesting in themselves and I ignore them for now.

I am able to warp far enough from the tower to drop off d-scan, which lets me launch scanning probes and blanket the system covertly. Scanning reveals eight anomalies, seven signatures, and the ten ships I've already seen. Except I only saw nine before, the tenth being a new contact arriving at the tower in a covert operations Cheetah. Soon after he appears the Cheetah warps about 3 AU away, launches his own scanning probes, and returns to the tower. Rather than watch the Cheetah scan boringly at the tower I return to the K162 homewards and watch for his scanning probes to see if they get close. Indeed they do, all the probes clustering around the signature before disappearing, so maybe the Cheetah will come and investigate the wormhole to our system.

I jump home, warp my Tengu to our tower, and swap the strategic cruiser for an inteceptor, better for catching a cov-ops. I plonk my Malediction on top of our wormhole and wait. There are few signatures in the C3, and our K162 has definitely been resolved, so the Cheetah shouldn't be long in making an appearance. That is, if he has the explorer spirit in him, rather than simply mapping what connections are coming in and going out of their C3. I wait, and I wait, and I wait. It's good that I have plenty of reading material to keep myself occupied, that and occasionally hitting d-scan to ensure I'm not about to be surprised myself. But I eventually have to admit that the Cheetah's not coming and that I can make better use of my time.

I turn the Malediction around, swap it back for my Tengu at the tower, and return to the wormhole to jump through and scan the C3. But dropping out of warp at the wormhole sees the Cheetah again, now in our home system. He doesn't see my cloaked ship and, soon enough, he cloaks too, but he was only a couple of kilometres from my Tengu. If I can't manoeuvre to decloak the Cheetah from here I should give up flying spaceships. A slight change in attitude and a little acceleration reveals both my Tengu and the Cheetah as we cross paths, and I get my systems hot, waiting the interminable delay from decloaking as my sensors recalibrate.

Somewhat surprisingly, it doesn't seem like I am targeting the Cheetah as much as gaining a reciprocal lock. I think he's going to take me on. That's fine with me, and I disrupt his warp drive and start shooting, knocking down the Cheetah's shields with a couple of hits. Just as I think I'm going to get a quick kill the blighter warps away, most likely having warp core stabilisers fitted. What a disappointment, particularly as his stabilisers would have been no match for my interceptor's systems, had I only waited a couple of minutes longer. But I already had waited a few minutes longer, and more than once. There is a limit to how long I can sit still.

Now that the Cheetah is in our C4 and has to return home I could probably sit still a while longer, but not here. I swap ships again, back in to the Malediction, and jump in to the C3 to sit on the K162 in wait for the Cheetah. I am in d-scan range of his tower, but I already scouted it and, with the Blackbird gone, I think it's safe to assume no one is watching me. At the same time, I ought to assume that the Cheetah inferred my ship swap and disappearance to mean I am ready to jump his ship should it return, and maybe he has more patience than me. He probably has, as I wore my patience out waiting for him the first time. I am kind of hoping his confidence in his warp core stabilisers will make him cocky, though.

After a while of the Cheetah not jumping in to my waiting clutches new contacts appear on d-scan in the C3. A Viator transport ship appears at the tower, as well as a Tengu. The ships aren't a direct threat to my interceptor but both bring a new pilot in to the system, either of who could board a threatening ship or simply scout my position for the Cheetah. I think it's time to head home and take a break. My busy morning of sitting on wormholes draws to a close, with little more than shield damage to a Cheetah to show for it.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Waiting is time-consuming
Tags: blackbird, cheetah, eve online, malediction, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, viator, w-space