Never go back

Damn. I'm meant to be getting food to calm my grumbling tummy, but jumping back from the idle class 2 w-space system in to our neighbouring C3, and only one jump from home, I see two Dominix battleships on my directional scanner. The local tower is far on the other side of the system and, even if it weren't, this is the first time I've seen either ship here. It looks like I've stumbled across activity and I don't want to let it pass me by. Besides, I still have some time before malnutrition strikes.

It doesn't take long before the Dominices disappear from d-scan, even before I've had a chance to check nearby anomalies for them, and that's before I realise I didn't scan the system myself and only have connecting wormholes bookmarked. My best option for now is to warp to the tower to see if I can catch up with them, which I do. The pilots aren't stopping for dinner themselves either, as one of them swaps in to an Imicus frigate and starts crawling out of the tower's shields. That's a little foolish, but at least he's heading directly away from the centre of the system, where visitors are likely to have warped from. Never the less, I still see if I can 'bounce' off a different moon to get close.

I drop out of warp back at the tower closer to the Imicus, but neither close or quickly enough, as he is now burning back in to the shields after launching scanning probes. If he's simply going to spend an hour scanning I'm off to eat, but in a deft act of misdirection the pilot returns his pod to the Dominix without stowing the Imicus, and both battleships warp off. I took the thirty seconds to perform a passive scan of the local volume of space around the tower, revealing a sole anomaly, and the Dominices are now to be found there. I may well have a target when they come out to salvage the wrecks, but I need to refit first.

I'm returning from unsuccessfully ambushing a Hulk exhumer, swapping bombs for probes on my Manticore stealth bomber to save time jumping across five w-space systems, and now I want the bombs back. I could feasibly attack a salvaging ship without them but a bomb puts my point across rather more effectively. I jump home, shuffle the launchers around, and get back to the C3, bouncing off my bookmark at the tower to approach the anomaly from below in a bid to avoid decloaking on ships, wrecks, or structures. Imagine my disappointment when I see the Dominices are salvaging the Sleeper wrecks as they go, protecting their profit with combat ships. I don't know who else would be so unsporting.

Even if there won't be a salvager turning up, I still have targets. The Dominices are being shot by the Sleepers, which must be testing their tanks a little, depending on their configuration, and both ships are nestled almost on top of each other. I could throw a bomb that will hit the pair of them, lock both, and follow with torpedoes against the most damaged one. I'll need to align out, to avoid the pilots or Sleepers reducing me to a wreck myself, but I can cause a bit of consternation and, with a bit of luck, get a lucky kill.

I line up my shot, trying to stay at a decent range to avoid getting caught up in any unexpected situation, and decloak and launch. I lock both ships, select the one currently being attacked by Sleepers, and wait for my bomb to detonate before cycling my torpedo launchers. I align out to a planet, expecting either capsuleer or Sleeper to start shooting my tiny boat at any second, but none does. So unexpected is this turn of events that I stumble over how to continue. I want to keep aligned but I am just out of range of my warp disruptor, which would force one of the Dominices to stay in the anomaly. My decision is made for me ten seconds later when both ships warp out, my Manticore still shooting and a mere two kilometres away from pointing my target.

I cloak and wonder if maybe I should have been more bold. I knocked the Dominix down to half armour before the pair fled and I seemed to be doing decent damage. I at least expected the ships to target me and send their drones to attack, which would have chewed the Manticore up pretty quickly. As it is, they didn't even recall their drones, which are now being systematically targeted and destroyed by the Sleepers. Oh well, I gave it a go and did quite well. It's all experience and next time maybe I'll get the kill. And maybe that next time will come sooner rather than later, as both Dominices warp back in to the anomaly, seemingly to carry on shooting Sleepers.

The battleships clearly have remote-repair capability now, which will bolster their defences and makes a second assault by my stealth bomber futile. But maybe they won't expect a different, more powerful ship either. I warp home to swap ships, knowing that what I am doing can only end badly. I know that when pilots return to a site after being attacked that they are inevitably prepared, and most likely skilled, and that I should just leave them alone. But I want to try anyway. I stow the Manticore and board my Legion, warping back out to our static connection to return to the C3.

In the C3 I warp directly to one of the wrecks in the anomaly, where the Dominices were last clustered together. The two battleships are still there. I lock the two targets, burn towards them to get in to a tight orbit, and disrupt one of their warp engines. When in range I cycle my neutraliser modules, choosing the other ship from the one I'm shooting. My plan, such that it is, is to hold one ship in the anomaly whilst making the other powerless to help his colleague. The problem is that it's not working.

Actually, I have two problems. The first is that my plan isn't working, the Dominices no doubt exchanging capacitor juice as well as repairs, which I simply cannot drain quickly enough. The second is that the Sleepers have taken a dislike to my Legion, and are grinding through my armour without the Dominices needing to take a shot. Crap, make that three problems. One of the battleships has fitted a warp disruptor. I know this because Tyler knows this, and he's telling me I can't warp out because external factors are preventing it. My overview confirms the point on my ship, and I realise I'm dead.

My low armour has already triggered an alarm. I had to get close to activate my neutralisers, close enough that even burning away from the ships gives me too much distance to cover for the time my ship has left. I hold on until the last second, hoping that the Sleepers will come to their senses and shoot my target, or that maybe my neuts will finally drain the Dominix dry, but in that last second before it explodes I eject from the Legion. With little fanfare I warp my pod away from the half-billion ISK wreck. I bounce off a couple of planets to ensure my session change timer expires before warping to the wormhole, and I get my pod safely home. I think I should go and get my food now. Maybe one day I'll start recognising when the voices inside my head make sense, and then listen to them.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, imicus, legion, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, sleepers, w-space

Stealth bomber scanning

There's plenty to explore today, judging by the number of bookmarks stuffed in to our shared can. No one else is around at the moment, so I jump in to my Manticore stealth bomber to take a solo roam around our w-space constellation. Our neighbouring class 3 system has been settled by capsuleers since my last visit four months ago, but only an unpiloted Iteron hauler sits inside their tower currently. Bookmarks point me towards the static exit to null-sec, and a random outbound connection to class 2 w-space. I warp towards the second wormhole, preferring to stay in w-space.

I have bookmarks for the two static wormholes in this C2, which lead to class 4 w-space and high-sec empire space. There are also two towers, which presumably hold the rather large ships I can see on my directional scanner. Warping to the first tower finds the Nidhoggur carrier, Naglfar dreadnought, Orca industrial command ship, and Bustard transport ship, all unpiloted inside the shields. The Iteron hauler, the only other ship in the system, is not here but easily located at the second tower. It is also piloted, which gives me some hope of catching him collecting planet goo.

I watch the piloted Iteron at the tower for a while but he does nothing. Even if he's asleep he must be safely buckled in to his pod, barely in any danger of slumping over his controls and sending his hauler warping off in a random direction, and I'm not going to get an easy kill. I leave him behind for now, jumping through the static wormhole leading to class 4 w-space. The C4 is unoccupied and uninteresting, and connects to a second unoccupied and uninteresting class 4 system. The second C4 has a static connection to class 1 w-space, which I jump through to be greeted by only the one bookmark.

Scanning stopped in this C1, it seems. At least the earlier scout had the good sense to bookmark the K162, so that even if I absent-mindedly warped off I could get home again, but that's the extent of the exploration in to this system. Not only do I have no bookmark for the static wormhole there is also no bookmark for a local tower, although I see a tower and Badger hauler on scan. I'll have to find it for myself, which is hardly a bind. I find the tower, and although warping to it also finds the Badger it is only to see the hauler is on his way out. I land as the piloted ship warps, preventing me getting a good bearing on his direction, but I am hoping he is collecting planet goo and guess at his general direction, warping my Manticore towards a distant customs office.

I drop out of warp to see nothing but the customs office, but a punch of d-scan reveals where the Badger was really headed. I see a Hulk exhumer and jet-can! The Badger was collecting ore, not planet goo, and it seems the miner is still active. If only I had scanning probes, I could hunt him. But I don't, and I can't. At least, not with my current configuration. And I am still by myself and now five jumps away from home, the travel time making multiple ship swaps infeasible. But I'm not going to give up without trying. I rush my Manticore home and, at our tower, reconfigure it a little. I remove the bomb launcher to fit a probe launcher, but I hold little hope of being successful in this hunt.

There is no way I can squeeze a powerful expanded probe launcher on to my stealth bomber, meaning I can't use the bulkier combat scanning probes. Being stuck with core scanning probes will restrict me to searching for the gravimetric site and not the Hulk directly, which will add a further step to the hunt, having to warp in to note the ship's precise location in the sprawling cluster of rocks, then warping out and back in before I can begin the ambush. My Manticore also doesn't get any bonuses to scanning, unlike my Buzzard covert operations boat, neither is it rigged for scanning, both of which will make it more difficult to get a positive hit. But it's better than nothing.

Back in the C1 I find a planet out of d-scan range of the Hulk and the local tower, the large system being a help here, and launch my core scanning probes and move them out of the system in preparation. I warp across to the other side of the system where I saw the Hulk on d-scan, happy to see him still apparently active, and start to narrow down his location using d-scan. His position high above the ecliptic plane makes the Hulk initially awkward to find, but I soon have him within a five degree deviation on d-scan, and just under 3 AU away. I position my probes carefully, arrange them in a suitable pattern for maximum strength, and check d-scan one final time to ensure the Hulk is still there before hitting 'scan'.

Not only is the Hulk in the gravimetric site but so is the Badger, which may work in my favour. If they are busy collecting ore they may not be watching d-scan. I start my scan and am disappointed to see a mere 40% return signal on the site. My positioning can't have been that bad, and I think my unbonussed, unrigged Manticore is struggling to give a better result. A hasty reposition and second scan gets the result up to 97% strength, and it is on the third scan that I am able to get a full strength signal and warp in to the site. Unsurprisingly, with my probes being visible for almost thirty seconds, the Hulk has gone, leaving nothing behind either.

I didn't expect much from scanning in the Manticore, but it was still a little frustrating. I still think it was my best option, instead of warping home multiple times to swap between Manticore, Buzzard, and Manticore. Then again, perhaps I could have made a rudimentary safe spot in the unoccupied adjacent C4, ejected, taken my pod home, brought the Buzzard out, and swapped ships only one jump away instead of five. A little elaborate and risky, but probably more likely to succeed. I could also splash out on a scanning strategic cruiser, for future occasions like this, but that still seems a little ostentatious.

I warp to the local tower in the C1 to monitor the occupants, and it seems possible that I wasn't spotted after all. The Hulk is sat next to a refinery which has just started operating, and the Badger is nowhere to be seen. Considering a jet-can of ore wasn't abandoned in the gravimetric site, and the Badger warped in moments before I started my scan, there is a chance that the mining operation came to a planned conclusion instead of being interrupted by me. That's interesting, and makes my bookmark to the site more valuable, because if they don't suspect an ambush they may come back later to continue. But, for now, I am getting hungry. I head home, ignoring the Iteron still doing very little in the C2, to grab some food.

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Tags: badger, bustard, buzzard, eve online, hulk, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, naglfar, nidhoggur, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

If at first you don't succeed, bring more ships

It looks like collapsing the wormhole attracted the attention of some capsuleers hoping to catch a juicy Orca prize. Thankfully Mick and I were around and in suitable enough ships to repel the attack and protect the industrial command ship, as well as Fin being prepared for such an assault too. As she says of her ECM drones, they are the 'best 600,000 ISK I've ever spent', and we make that back when looting the Helios, as the covert operations cloaking device survives intact. I volunteer to pick up the bulky module, having plenty of cargo space, even if it means getting rather close to the wormhole. But I may be needed there anyway, depending on whether the hostile pilots return or not.

We need to reconnoitre the C3, and I can't think of a better ship to do that than a recon class. Fin volunteers to see what is about to happen next, boarding her Pilgrim and warping to the wormhole. Before she gets here, though, a Cheetah cov-ops jumps through, moves away, and cloaks. Clearly there is going to be a second engagement, the Cheetah acting as eyes for whatever fleet it heads. Fin jumps in to see what else is coming, but Mick and I find out ourselves before she has a chance to tell us, multiple wormhole flares signalling the start of the second assault.

Two Rapiers, a Scimitar, and more pile through the connection, already showing that my Widow is far too close to the wormhole to provide support. I was supposing we would be chasing the fleet back in to the C3, not that they would act as Sand People and return in greater numbers, if only because the C3 showed no sign of activity so far. But the wormhole keeps flaring. All I can do is back away as fast as my bulky battleship hull can muster, and I am glad the Widow moves faster when cloaked than not. Mick, however, isn't so lucky. He engages the early arrivers, unfortunately as oblivious as me that a Cerberus and Muninn heavy assault ship, two Cynabal cruisers, two Vagabond cruisers, and a Sabre interdictor follow the Rapiers and Scimitars in to our pulsar home.

I simply cannot repel so many ships in my Widow, and I know that if I decloak to try to save Mick I would only become an equally expensive and doomed target. If I were at further range I would perhaps try to use ECM to break some crucial target locks to let Mick warp away, but decloaking so close would ensure my destruction. Even warping away and back would accomplish nothing, as the ten-strong fleet easily rips through the Loki. Shortly before Mick's ship explodes, the Sabre drops a warp disruption probe to capture his pod and wake him up in a new clone. At least he was able to eject to avoid the skill loss of losing the Loki.

As quickly as the ships turned up they are gone. There is a 'gf' in local, although I'm not entirely sure who it's aimed at, with the only pilot spotted now a corpse floating in space. But I take advantage of this to use the pilot's information to determine where they are from, discovering that they are part of the Northern Coalition. These members of the massive null-sec alliance must have entered through a connection in to the C3 and spotted the Orca, then come back with a crushing force to stomp on our little w-space selves. I suggest that they clearly knew what they were doing, which Mick rebuts by saying that you don't really need to know much when fighting ten-on-one. True, but they know to bring ten ships to a fight against three.

Right, there are three of us. Mick's in a new clone, I'm still cloaked in my Widow and backing away from the wormhole, so where's Fin? She's still in the C3 in her Pilgrim, saved from destruction by the session change cloak. She watched the fleet jump in to our home and decided that discretion is the better part of valour, which we can't deny right now. We hold off revealing ourselves for a little longer, remembering the scout that was sent ahead, and only get Fin home when the Cheetah is spotted leaving our system and warping back across the C3.

We perhaps should have been more cautious, or at least more thorough. We could have examined the Helios and the pilots we faced and seen that they were from null-sec and not w-space. It could have given a hint that if they returned they would have more resources to call upon, or at a minimum told us that we can't rely on information from reconnoitring the C3 alone. But we won the initial assault and protected the Orca, and were prepared to get embroiled in a second engagement, if not actually provoke one. And, even if a little expensive, it was certainly quite exciting.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: cerberus, cheetah, cynabal, eve online, loki, mmorpg, muninn, orca, penny ibramovic, pilgrim, pvp, rapier, sabre, scimitar, vagabond, w-space, widow

Action comes to us

We partake of some light Sleeper combat to start the evening. There are two class 2 w-space systems connecting in to our home C4, but one has allies and the other is inactive. Our neighbouring C3 is not particularly interesting either, but we may as well make some profit from it before collapsing our static connection, and we take two Tengus and my Golem in to raid the indigenous Sleepers.

Only one anomaly in the C3 is our preferred type, which we clear quick, but there is a radar site too. The extra Sleeper ships and abandoned databases in the radar site offer greater rewards than the couple of other anomalies in the system, so we head there to complete our brief excursion in to this system. Despite lacking a few codebreakers we are still able to hack in to the databases to recover what turns out to be rather lacklustre loot, which combines with the relatively poor salvage to see us bring home a mere hundred and twenty million ISK in profit. We've had better days, but the evening's not over yet.

We push big ships through our static connection until it can take no more and collapses, giving us a new wormhole to find and class 3 system to explore. Whilst Mick and Fin scout ahead I roam behind, checking on the C2 linking in to us. There are some ships around in the two towers in the system, but only a Tengu sits piloted. I warp around to check activity in the rest of the system, which takes a while when the system is 180 AU in diameter, but find none. It's no surprise, I suppose, considering Mick's earlier scan revealed there to be no anomalies at all in here. There's nowhere for the Tengu to go, except our C4, and he is unlikely to come here alone.

The new connecting C3 has a tower and no ships visible on directional scanner, although there are ten mining drones somewhere around. Fin scans their position and scoops them, presumably where a miner met his grisly end. There is no longer a gravimetric site where the drones sit, suggesting any ambushers have long since left the system, as have the locals. All looks quiet and boring again, although my notes point out that this is the system where we collapsed our static connection only to open a new link right back here. Let's hope that doesn't happen today, because with nothing to do here we are going to collapse our connection a second time.

Again, as the wormhole is being over-stressed with big ships I check on the Tengu in the C2, although there's even less to see now that he's gone. A Helios covert operations boat on our static wormhole is interesting, though, and I jump back as Fin announces its appearance. Fin accidentally warps her Orca away from the wormhole instead of jumping back home, putting her on a planet and turning around to return as I warp across the home system and jump in to the C3. I stop in my tracks as an unfamiliar Rapier recon ship drops out of warp at the wormhole, then cloaks. It looks like perhaps Fin's industrial command ship has drawn some attention.

Fin returns to the wormhole and jumps home, the Rapier following behind, no doubt with hostile intentions. I decloak and jump back too, as a Scimitar logistics ship warps to the K162 in the C3. We have quite a party going in our home system now. Fin's Orca is trying to get home safely, the Rapier and Helios are engaging her, and Mick and I are putting up a simultaneous defence and assault. I start attacking the Rapier in my Manticore stealth bomber, switching to the Helios when the Scimitar jumps in and starts repairing the Rapier's shields. The hostile pilots switch to my fragile ship too, and I have to bug out when I start taking heavy armour damage, able to get clear without exploding.

I return to our tower and swap to my ECM Widow black ops ship, needing to break the locks on Fin's Orca to help her enter warp, and acting as back-up for Mick's quite capable Loki strategic cruiser. But my Widow isn't needed, the Orca warping in to the tower as I warp out, happy to be leaving some ECM drones behind. I warp back to the wormhole anyway to provide further support, but as I appear the ships leave the system, jumping through the wormhole to the C3. At least, two of them do. The Helios was quickly finished off by Mick's Loki, and when the pod looked uninterested in leaving he shot that too. We have a corpse and some loot to collect, all without loss on our side.

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Tags: eve online, golem, helios, loki, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, rapier, scimitar, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Upsetting negotiations

I need to kill some time, but killing a miner seems like a good alternative. I'm pootling around looking for something to do when a newly piloted Retriever warps out of the tower of our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, apparently off to strip some rocks of ore. I'm already loitering in the system in my Manticore stealth bomber, which may be great for shooting the mining barge but it won't let me find the gravimetric site to get close enough to do it. Thankfully, Mick turns up right on time and comes in to the C3 in his scouting Loki strategic cruiser, ready to put his scanning skills to use.

A bit of work with my directional scanner puts the Retriever between 325 and 350 million kilometres almost directly above the fifth planet in this system, which I hope helps Mick get an initial bead for his own passive detection. He gets a five degree bearing and a similar range, positions his probes, and the Retriever disappears from d-scan. The miner can't have seen us yet, surely. I warp back to the tower in this C3 to see him sat inside the shields and inactive. I urge Mick to resolve the gravimetric site anyway, which is actually a good idea considering the site is out of d-scan range of the tower, where his probes will remain undetected.

The Retriever warps back out of the tower again after a couple of minutes, returning to the gravimetric site. And Mick is there too now, seeing the miner continue stripping a crokite asteroid of ore. I warp in to join the two of them, Retriever oblivious to Loki and Manticore, and we are preparing to take our shot when Sleepers gatecrash the party. The piddly Sleepers are of little concern to us, as we can pop the Retriever and probably pod the pilot quickly enough, even if they were not out of their own range. Sleeper missiles fall short of the Retriever, whilst the pilot seems entirely unconcerned about the incoming fire, taking time to approach the crokite instead of trying to warp out.

We have a quick decision to make, and let the Retriever warp out of the site. It seems likely that a combat ship will be brought in shortly to deal with the Sleeper presence, before the miner can continue chipping away at rocks, and a harder target would be a more satisfying kill than another unarmed boat. I'll probably need a more capable vessel for the escalated assault, and warp home to swap the Manticore for my Legion strategic cruiser, still waiting to see some real action. I warp back to our static wormhole and hold, waiting for Mick to call me in when our target is ascertained. Fin's here and waiting on ship selection for the same reason, seeing if we need additional firepower or if we can instead take a heavy interdictor in to trap the pilot in a warp bubble. But no ship comes to shoot the Sleepers in the gravimetric site.

Mick reconnoitres the tower in the C3, seeing the miner switch from his Retriever to a shuttle and head out to low-sec through the system's static wormhole, confusingly enough. We assume that perhaps he is heading out to collect a ship in which he can engage the Sleepers, somehow not having one fitted and available in the hangar nearby. Still hoping for the kill we wait, although Fin decides to get back to her previous task instead of wasting time. She continues moving a puppet across to our previously connected C3, which was unoccupied and the occupant of this C3 was interested in buying. 'This is the pilot you're selling to?' Mick asks. Yep! I realise it may hurt negotations a little if we podded a colleague of his, but it would be pretty funny.

After a short while the pilot returns from low-sec, but only in the same shuttle that he left in. He gets back to the tower and promptly logs off. That's disappointing, and a little peculiar. I don't quite understand why he'd leave the Sleepers alone, unless they perhaps get bored and wander off within a day. Even so, they are hardly more than flies to swat aside before getting back to mining. Maybe the pilot just wanted to activate the site, grab however much ore he could until Sleepers arrived, then wait until the next day before getting stuck in to the mining. It just goes to show you can never really tell if you should take the shot or not, as we could have easily popped the Retriever and only restrained ourselves with the hope of a bigger prize.

Even if we can't upset negotiations by killing our potential buyers, we can steal profit from their system. There are three anomalies in this C3, all of them out of d-scan range of the tower. Fin's got the puppet in to the other C3, ready to sell if we agree a price, or stay in there to look for other buyers later, and rejoins us for the Sleeper combat. My Golem marauder joins their two Tengu strategic cruisers, and we warp in to the first anomaly. The outpost frontier stronghold is fairly straightforward, even in a black hole system that significantly hampers my torpedo range, as all the Sleepers come rushing headlong towards us. The first anomaly is swept clean of Sleepers in short order.

The oruze construct and fortified frontier stronghold are not quite as simple as the first anomaly, though, as some of the Sleepers we encounter prefer to stay at range. At least my Golem's target painter isn't affected by the black hole phenomenon and can still improve the damage of the Tengus' missiles. We clear all three sites without problems or interruptions, my Golem looting and salvaging as we go. We get home with an uninspiring but worthwhile hundred and fifty million ISK in profit, which won't be counted as part-payment of the system for sale, if the locals even notice their anomalies have disappeared.

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Tags: eve online, golem, legion, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, retriever, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Bargaining with an ambusher

Our neighbouring w-space system holds plenty of profit today. A full twenty-one anomalies wait to be harvested, along with whatever sites can be found amongst the other twelve signatures, the plentiful resources explained by this being what must be one of the few remaining unoccupied class 3 systems in w-space. There is a tower in the system but it is off-line, and the Sleepers are able to run free as a result of there being no settled capsuleers. I sift through the signatures here, scanning for wormholes, checking to see how isolated this system currently is, and amongst the gas and rocks find two connections.

Two wormholes in the same w-space system could be interesting, but both here connect to low-sec empire space. The static wormhole is healthy, the K162 reaching the end of its natural lifetime. There isn't much more to see here after all. I jump out of the static exit to find myself in Caldari space and only seven hops from Jita, which would be convenient if I had any reason to visit empire space. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to making another datacore run for some passive profit, but not today. I head back to w-space and our home system, where I plan to spin my ship waiting for colleagues to turn up.

Speak of the devil and she will appear. Fin turns up as I drop out of warp getting back to our tower. I give her a sitrep of our constellation and my own preference to collapse the wormhole and start afresh. There is a lot of ISK that can be made in our current connecting class 3 system, but I've shot many Sleepers recently and our wallet is looking healthy enough. Fin's okay with collapsing our wormhole and ten minutes later I'm scanning a second time. The new wormhole's signature is obscenely obvious beyond the outer planet in our still fairly tidy system, and I resolve it to jump through it to our new connecting C3.

My directional scanner is clear in this C3, letting me launch probes and get the signature identifier of the K162 leading home. But I actually get two wormholes returned on my localised scan, the second one sitting almost directly underneath where our K162 has appeared in the system. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and resolve this second wormhole, making a simple bookmark of the scanned deadspace signature for now, before throwing my probes out of the system to look for capsuleer activity.

I have visited this C3 before, some eight months ago, and there was occupation around a distant planet back then. My blanket scan of the system shows the tower is probably still there, and probably holds in its shields the only other ship in the system. I warp to the moon indicated in my notes and find the tower remains in the same place, but also that whilst the Probe frigate is indeed at the tower he is not inside the shields. I make a hasty bookmark to let me get back here quickly before rushing home to swap in to a better ship to shoot the careless pilot.

Fin and I board our Manticore stealth bombers and warp out to hopefully greet the Probe with torpedoes. But jumping in to the C3 a second time now sees the frigate on d-scan, despite the tower being far out of range. The Probe cannot warp cloaked and must be travelling, perhaps to the second wormhole I resolved below us. I move away from the wormhole and cloak, just in time to see the Probe come to investigate our K162. I think I concealed myself before he arrived, and now the Probe cloaks too. He dropped short by a hundred kilometres or so, clearly only looking to see where this new wormhole leads.

As the Probe pilot reconnoitres the K162 I align my Manticore from the wormhole towards the local tower, knowing that if he remains stationary for long enough I should bump and decloak him for a surprise attack. The odds are slim, though, and indeed he decloaks voluntarily long before I get close to him. I don't try to engage now, being seventy kilometres away still and with him probably already aligned to warp out quickly. Considering this C3 holds a black hole phenomenon, decreasing ship agility and as a result increasing align times, making sure you are aligned before dropping your cloak is probably second nature to the locals.

I follow the Probe back to his tower where he sadly lands inside the shields. But he comes right back out again, and on a reciprocal course. I imagine he's planning to jump in to our home C4, which is making me regret not being quick enough to agree to Fin's suggestion of her placing an interceptor on the other side of the wormhole. But it should be okay, he'll have to come back and his Probe will be quite vulnerable, even to our slower stealth bombers. We both lurk quietly on the K162 and watch the Probe jump in, then circle like sharks waiting for his return.

I initially sit on the wormhole with my sensor booster active, ready to get a quick target lock on the Probe. I think that having the sebo online gives a considerable advantage to catching the Probe, whilst not being cloaked effectively gives nothing away. But thinking further changes my mind. If the Probe jumps back to see our ships decloaked and waiting he will cloak, align, and decloak and warp, forcing us to bump his ship in order to catch him. Our small, agile boats may be capable of doing that, but it would be better if we didn't have to try so hard. And if the Probe comes back and sees no ships waiting he will probably simply try to enter warp directly, not only remaining uncloaked and vulnerable but also needing to cancel warp in order to activate his cloak. Being concealed will work much better for us, and I activate my cloak at the expense of the sebo.

The K162 flares, and the Probe indeed decloaks and initiates warp immediately, suspecting nothing is amiss. It's just as I expected, and Fin and I decloak as one and target the hapless ship for destruction. But the frigate warps away, before I even manage to get a positive lock! He must have been superluckyaligned on jumping back to enter warp so quickly, as even frigates can take many seconds to align for warp in a black hole system. That's rotten luck. And to compound the lack of a kill the evading pilot starts talking in local, asking if we come from the C4, either oblivious to or uncaring about our hostile intentions. I reply coyly at first, and when he seems pleasant and harmless enough get in to a little discussion about w-space systems.

The C3 Probe pilot's corporation is looking for a new home, and he entered our C4 in the hopes of finding a suitable system. It takes me a couple of minutes to realise we just collapsed a connection to an unoccupied C3 system, paying it no mind at the time despite even being asked earlier in the year to keep my eyes open. And both Fin and I deleted all our bookmarks, as there is generally no call for keeping them once the connection to our home system is gone. But I remember name of the low-sec system the static exit connected to, and that system will hold the K162 to provide access to the C3.

Knowing how to get in to the unoccupied C3 means I can start negotiating a price for the system. Fin kindly takes a puppet out towards the low-sec system to start scanning for the wormhole, through this C3's static exit to low-sec space. We can even plant the puppet in the system and sell it later, getting a new static exit to let the buyers in whenever it is required. Selling w-space systems is not really my scene and I'm not sure I'd want to get too involved in it in general, but I'm happy to broker a deal handed to me. The buyer just has to find the funds and agree the sale with his corporation, none of who are around. I'm okay to wait for the moment, but it means finding something else to do for now.

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

Wormhole colours

Telling which class w-space system you are about to enter appears to remain an art, or perhaps some kind of witchcraft. To the untrained capsuleer the indecipherable letter and numbers that float near the wormhole mean nothing, and coming at it from the wrong side only gives you the standard K162 designation that gives no information about the system beyond. It is possible to interrogate a database of static wormhole designations in order to determine the class of w-space you're about to enter, but it would be much more useful to be able to tell at a glance. But trying to inform the inexperienced pilot about the colours that bleed through somehow only leads to more confusion. Let's see if I can make visual identification easier.

First, wormholes are not simply holes in space, they are more akin to tunnels. The colours that surround a wormhole reflect not only the system on the other side but also that of the system you're currently in. The outer edge of the wormhole represents local space being funnelled through the portal before it transitions entirely in to the view of the system beyond. This is important to realise, as the different colours around the edge of the wormhole can potentially taint your impression of the whole. The example images I give in the body of this post are as representative of the main colours as I can manage, although I also include a more comprehensive matrix to aid with identification and visualisation.

It must also be noted that the colour of a wormhole only provides information about w-space systems. There are plenty of wormholes that lead to high-, low-, or null-sec space, and the colour of the wormhole will reflect that of the colour of the system on the other end of the connection. As the full range of system hues exists in each security level of k-space the only way to know the level of security on the other side of the wormhole, without jumping through, is to open up the information panel for the wormhole. The panel will inform you of either the security class of the k-space system, or that the wormhole leads to w-space.

The information panel also describes several tiers of w-space: unknown, dangerous unknown, and deadly unknown. These tiers split across the classes as follows. Class 1 to 3 systems are unknown w-space, class 4 and 5 systems are dangerous w-space, and class 6 systems are deadly w-space. Identifying class 6 w-space systems is therefore pretty straightforward. And if being the only w-space systems classed as 'deadly' weren't enough the lava red colours of the wormhole are also quite striking. There is no mistaking the fiery entrance leading in to class 6 w-space.

Moving down to merely 'dangerous' systems, the class 5 wormhole can be recognised by its prevalence of black, slightly tinged with orange.

Wormholes leading to also dangerous class 4 w-space are orangey-green, and quite distinctive if only because I do not believe there are k-space systems that generate such vivid wormhole colours.

The wormholes leading to the highest level of plain and far from dangerous 'unknown' space are also quite distinct, being essentially a light grey. These class 3 systems are about as bland as the wormhole colour, and you barely need to check your directional scanner when mining in one, this information in no way tainted by the author's current hunting grounds.

Most confusion comes from the difference between wormholes leading to class 2 systems and wormholes leading to class 1 systems. I'm not sure what the fuss is all about, though.

Blue-green on a black background, it's quite clear. Just like the wormhole leading to class 1 w-space.

And by 'just like' I really do mean 'just like'. Blue-green on a black background. But if you look carefully at the wormhole leading to class 1 systems you can see a small cowlick of green at the top in the centre, like Superman's barnet. It's a subtle distinction between the two types of wormhole, but a trained eye can discern the difference. To add to the confusion, wormholes leading to class 1 and 2 w-space are those most often confused with wormholes leading to k-space. It's always best to open the information panel to check these.

Now let's look at how the originating system affects the colour of the wormhole. I have collected a range of images from many types of wormholes to illustrate the differences. The matrix format should make both the originating and destination system colours clear. The rows show the originating system and the appropriate colours are reflected around the edge of the wormhole. The columns show the destination system and the appropriate colours are reflected in the centre of the wormhole. Although there are gaps I aim to update the table as I encounter the missing types. Larger images lurk behind each wormhole.

[Direct link to the table below.]

	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6

Hopefully with this information you will be able to tell quickly and easily the class of w-space you are about to enter. Being able to do so at a glance removes the need to jump in to the system to find out, particularly if you are looking at the K162 side of the wormhole.

And for those who prefer a black background:

[Not forgetting the corresponding direct link to the table.]

	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6

 

Posted in Gaming | 24 Comments »
Tags: eve online, mmorpg, w-space

Profiting from popping Sleepers

Another Buzzard has been lost to a tower. Fin was scanning in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system when one of the two on-line towers noticed her covert operations boat's cloak wasn't active, and gave her a nudge as a reminder. A nudge with gun and missile batteries, mind you. But it's okay, most of the expensive modules survived the explosion and have been recovered, and Fin bought a batch lot of Buzzards after the previous accident. There was also no local activity around to notice the incident, which saves blushes, and the only reason Fin admits the loss to me is her mistaken impression that I routinely check the appropriate tab in the corporation interface.

Fin hadn't quite completed her scan of the C3 before having to return home in her pod, so I take my own Buzzard out to continue the exploration. The half-dozen good anomalies have been recorded, as are the locations of the two on-line towers and the system's static wormhole. I launch probes and resolve the three remaining signatures, finding a gravimetric and radar site, and the system's static wormhole. Resolving the static wormhole isn't as much of a surprise as it perhaps should be, as the other one is listed as being at the end of its natural lifetime and I simply assume it collapsed and has been replaced. But warping to confirm its collapse sees it instead still alive, if wobbly, and actually a K162 coming in from low-sec empire space. It's an easy mistake to make, as the wormhole is definitely of k-space colouring and it is natural to assume a C3 exits to low-sec.

The static exit leads out to the Bleak Lands, and is close to Amarr, but we don't need to go anywhere today. We could collapse our static wormhole and look for a better hunting ground, but it would be a shame to let those good anomalies go to waste, particularly now that I have got my marauder skill trained to level IV. We board combat ships back at our tower, Fin in to her Tengu strategic cruiser and me in to my Golem marauder, and we return to the C3 to shoot Sleepers for fun and profit. I note that my completed skill training combined with the Gist B-type x-large shield booster now replenishes 1,337 shield every four seconds, which is, um... there must be a word for that, but it escapes me. The increased effect of the target painter will be good, too.

Sleepers pop all over the place, neither battleship nor frigate lasting long, and our chosen anomalies have them all flying cockpit-first in to our missiles. There is no chasing coy Sleepers here. The C3 remains quiet, apart from our devastating all six anomalies, and all the loot and salvage is swept in to my Golem's hold as we go, not even requiring us to come back and be vulnerable in Noctis salvagers. And when my sole salvaging module is left struggling to scrap those final two ships Fin warps ahead to make a start on the next anomaly, it's all quite efficient.

We get home safely, and I drop the three hundred million ISK of loot in our hangar as Fin boards her Orca industrial command ship to start destabilising our wormhole. The return trip of the Tengu and the Golem in particular has already reduced the total mass allowance of the wormhole, and I suspect we won't even need the assistance of my Widow black ops ship to give it the final push. And my intuition is proved right, as the connection becomes critically unstable on Fin's third jump out in the Orca, collapsing it neatly on her way home. I have performed an initial scan of our entire system and ignored all the results prior to the collapse, so the new static wormhole glows like a beacon for my probes.

Our new neighbouring C3 is sadly quite dull. Nothing being visible on the directional scanner on entry is generally advantageous, but in this case there is little else to find. An off-line tower is all that litters the system, and there is but a single anomaly amongst the seven signatures to be scanned. Those signatures don't even offer adventure, turning out to be a ladar, ladar, ladar, ladar, and ladar site, the system's static wormhole leading out to low-sec, and even a second wormhole being a rather uninteresting K162 coming in from null-sec.

I jump out to visit null-sec, finding myself in the Paragon Soul region, which may be a first for me and almost interesting, but the two pilots in the system take shelter in their tower as soon as I show up. The low-sec exit, which Fin checks, doesn't offer any excitement either. We head home to get an early night after our earlier profitable Sleeper culling, and look forwards to more adventure tomorrow.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, golem, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Sleeper magnet

The constellation has been scanned, bookmarks are in the can, and Fin's heading out to sell Sleeper loot. Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has two exits to low-sec empire space, one the outbound static wormhole and another inbound K162, giving us little to explore today. The C3 is apparently quiet too, even with an on-line tower in the system, but I think I'll take my stealth bomber out to take a look for myself.

Belay that roaming, cadet! New information continues to come, and I find out that one of the exits to empire space is close to Amarr. That's handy, as it means I can go out to collect my Widow, the black ops ship only being docked and abandoned yesterday after collapsing our wormhole got a little ahead of schedule. I strip down to my pod and make the two jumps to get to low-sec, another two jumps to high-sec, and six more to reunite me with the Widow. It's a simple matter to get my ship back home to w-space, no low-sec pirates waiting to ambush me and the C3 occupants remaining absent.

Safely home, I swap to my Manticore stealth bomber and lurk by the tower in the class 3 system, willing the locals to wake up and dozily collect planet goo, but it stays quiet. That's okay, there are a couple of radar and magnetometric sites waiting to be plundered, and Mak turns up as Fin returns from empire space herself. We cobble together a basic fleet of a Tengu and Loki strategic cruiser, and my Golem marauder to head out to shoot Sleepers up the exhaust pipe.

The magnetometric sites are rather more involved than the simple anomalies we have tended to prefer, with more Sleeper ships, warp-disrupting frigates, and easily confused wave sequences. It's nothing we can't handle, though. At least, I think it isn't. I concentrate on target painting and salvaging the wrecks of the smaller ships to start with, giving my colleagues a helping hand without accidentally shooting them, although I manage to blow up a wreck before I can salvage it.

When the battleships arrive I am a little frustrated that they loiter just out of range, preventing my torpedoes from doing their huge damage against these more massive targets. More importantly, Fin's Tengu starts to take heavy damage, ripping through her active shield tank. Her armour drops, and she even starts taking hull damage before finally warping out. The remaining frigate was scrambling Fin's warp engines, preventing her escaping sooner, and it is only with 28% structure left that she gets clear, which is a relief to us all.

Fin wisely decides to head home and repair all the damage to her ship before returning, leaving Mak and me to take care of the rest of the Sleepers. Luckily, I can get the battleships in range and start launching my own devastating attacks, and there are no more warp-disrupting ships to worry about. I also am glad I bought the Gist B-type x-large shield booster, as it is now saving my Golem from destruction. The impressive boost it gives to my shields, and for longer than even a puny large shield booster, easily withstands the Sleeper assault, so that Mak's Loki and my Golem end up being the only ships left in this first magnetometric site.

One site is cleared, Fin's Tengu is back to full health. We move on to the second site where there thankfully are no scramming ships to concern us. I am again reduced to target painting and salvaging for the most part, as the smaller frigates and cruisers pop pretty quickly with two strategic cruisers shooting them, although I add my Golem's weight to the destruction of the Sleeper battleships. My salvaging can't keep up with the explosions, though, and whilst I continue to sweep up Fin goes home, swaps ships, and returns to claim the Sleeper artefacts as our own.

My salvaging is soon complete, and I take the Golem back to our tower to drop the loot and swap in to a second analysing boat. Opening the Sleeper artefacts doesn't take long, Fin in the second site by the time I get back to help, and we're all home again and counting our profit in good time. We get about a hundred and fifty million ISK in loot and salvage, and over two hundred and fifty million from artefacts, giving us a rather splendid four hundred million ISK in profit for the two sites. This convinces us to attempt other magnetometric sites in the future, although if we want to realise the profits we probably need to be more wary of flaming Tengus.

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Tags: eve online, golem, loki, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Sleepers follow a Heron

A scout scouts in today's connecting class 3 w-space system, seeing multiple ships on his directional scanner. The presence of combat, industrial, and a mining ship all seem to offer opportunity in their own ways, depending on what they are up to, but locating the tower finds the pilots to be 'blue' to us and, supposedly, friendly. How boring. Scanning the system shows it to hold a couple of exits to high-sec empire space, one the system's static wormhole and the other an inbound K162 connection, which allows some logistics to be performed. I spin my ship for the time being, prompted in to action only when our static connection is collapsed again and my Widow black ops ship is needed.

It turns out that my Widow is rather more than the wormhole can handle, the connection becoming critically unstable on my outward jump. That's not good, as my return will collapse the wormhole, which will leave the Orca isolated from us. The Orca industrial command ship is rather more massive than my Widow, too, so having Fin return first doesn't help, as it only changes who is isolated. But our glorious leader has an idea, sending me out to empire space in my Widow to park it in a station, the nearest one two hops away from the exit. I return without a ship wrapped around me, my naked pod barely registering as a jump through the unstable wormhole, and Fin returns in the Orca to collapse the connection.

We have a spare Widow still in the hangar, so we won't miss having one around, and the stranded Widow can be collected when we next have a convenient exit. It's an elegant solution that keeps everyone together in the home system, and we can look for more adventure without having to worry about bringing anyone back from empire space. And our little system has grown a bit, with Mak returned from an extended absence, and Riyu joining us again for a change of pace. It almost feels crowded. Mick scans our new static wormhole and explores in the class 3 system beyond, reporting a tower and a Heron on d-scan, and the frigate not being at the tower is interesting.

Pilots want to make iskies and our new connecting C3 has enough anomalies to keep us busy, and with the Heron disappearing from d-scan it seems that shooting Sleepers is a good plan. But the Heron shows up again, and Mick is fast at scanning the small ship's position. He warps to find the frigate sitting near a K162 wormhole coming from class 4 w-space, and quite vulnerable. Stealth bombers are scrambled at home, myself and Riyu warping to the C3 and close to Mick's position, as Fin chooses an interceptor for faster target acquisition, to ensure the Heron won't escape.

We hold position and our cloaks waiting for Fin to jump in, as the Heron floats obliviously nearby. As soon as she lands on-grid we will decloak and shoot the living crap out of the Heron. Fin jumps in, is in warp, and there's her interceptor dropping out of warp. We decloak almost as one, lock the Heron, and start shooting. The fragile frigate crumples under the combined assault of four combat ships, and the pilot's pod has nowhere to go when flung in to space with little warning. We scoop, loot, and shoot to leave no trace. It was a brutal assault, but maybe it will teach the careless pilot to check that his cloak is active.

I take the initiative and jump through the wormhole in to the C4, almost disappointed to see there is no counter-ambush waiting for me. An Orca, Heron, and tower are all on d-scan, which I locate soon enough, after which I confirm there is nothing else in the rest of the system. The Heron but not the Orca is piloted, and although the pilot looks active he looks only to be counting ships to help him sleep. He ejects a dozen ships from the hangar, then puts them all back again, settling down for the night to log off in his Heron. All is quiet, I suppose we can make those iskies now.

Our fleet is rejigged, and we fly out to the neighbouring C3 in a Golem marauder, two Tengu strategic cruisers, and a Loki strategic cruiser. The Tengus have been refitted for remote-repair capability, to take advantage of the cataclysmic variable phenomenon in the C3, as well as to help ensure my survival, the required subsystems bought before I threw away lots of ISK on a deadspace x-large booster for the Golem. It would be churlish to complain about colleagues wanting to keep me alive, and I appreciate the shield repairs as we go, not only to relieve the pressure on my ship's capacitor but also to reduce the number of modules I need to keep activating, as I shoot, paint, tractor, loot, and salvage as we storm our way from one anomaly to the next.

We clear all seven of the easy and profitable anomalies of Sleepers in this class 3 system, without even needing to come back to salvage. I don't get much opportunity to test my Gist B-type shield booster, but it certainly looks pretty just being fitted to my ship. We get home with over three hundred million ISK in loot which, along with the Heron podding from earlier, makes for another productive and enjoyable evening.

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Tags: eve online, golem, heron, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow