Pondering the options

'Anything out and about?', asks Fin. Where do I start? Two ships shooting Sleepers turn out to be tourists from low-sec, running anomalies under the noses of active occupants of our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, who run because they either saw my stealth bomber enter the system or a local interceptor flying around, or maybe they just left because they needed different ships, at which point a strategic cruiser from the C3 occupants continues shooting the Sleepers and hangs around for a short while as a Noctis comes in to salvage, but leaves and lets me pop the salvager right as the tourists return either to engage the strategic cruiser, the salvager, or the Sleepers, and then there's a scrap on the low-sec wormhole when the locals and tourists finally meet. Yes, there has been some activity.

But the earlier activity doesn't guarantee any now. I'm as keen to find out as Fin, though, and jump my Manticore stealth bomber back in to the C3 system to find out. I discover that our K162 has finally been found, a warp bubble anchored seventy kilometres away with a Drake battlecruiser loitering with intent next to it. My Manticore by itself is not much use against a Drake, and adding Fin's to the attack would still not guarantee a kill. But we have bigger ships in the hangar, and we would probably have the advantage over the Drake if he remains the sole sitting duck, although the Tengu strategic cruiser is also visible in the C3 on my directional scanner, perhaps guarding the other wormhole. I wait for the session change timer to end and jump home, warping back to our tower as Fin and I discuss options.

We could jump through in battleships to take potshots at the Drake and see what happens. I'm not too keen to do that, though, as the C3 occupants could warp en masse to the wormhole, making our escape home uncertain. Even if we jumped back to our C4 we could be pursued and our massive ships easily pointed before we enter warp. Still looking for an excuse to use my Widow black ops ship I consider refitting it to use cruise missiles and ECM, until I find we have neither sitting available in our hangar. I also probably need to train the black ops skill a little more, never really believing I would actually use the ship in anger. A Curse recon ship would be put to good use against the active-tanked Tengu, but it would not have much effect on the passive Drake. On the other hand, a Tengu versus the Drake could work well, but not against the Drake and Tengu combined. We just need to be smarter.

Fin boards her Tengu and I swap in to the Curse. We warp out to our static wormhole and I hold on the home side, with Fin jumping through. She can engage the Drake at range and see what it does. Depending on the situation, Fin can jump home and my Curse can hurt whatever follows, or I can follow in to the C3 and be the decisive edge there. It sounds reasonable, we're clear about the eventualities, and my energy neutralisers should even militate against an interceptor causing problems. We're ready to put the plan in to action. Fin jumps through to the C3 and, well, nothing happens. The Drake's gone. Just the warp bubble and a few decloaking cans scattered inside it are visible. There aren't even any ships on d-scan.

As she's there, Fin takes the time to pop the warp bubble. Combat probes appear on d-scan, and the Malediction interceptor we know the C3 occupants have starts warping around again, but even when the bubble is popped nothing is happening. Fin bounces her Tengu off a few planets to get a better idea of what ships are out and about, but they all appear to be coincident with the tower. It doesn't look like we'll be getting a fight after all. We can't really taunt them more than we have, and having shown the Tengu there isn't much possibility of dangling some bait. At least we got to work over some options and possibilities, which keeps our minds active, and at some point we'll find ourselves in a live situation. But, for now, there's not much to do but come home and get some rest.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Pondering the options
Tags: curse, drake, eve online, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, tengu, w-space, widow

Clearing up my confusion

I have no idea what's going on. I've popped a Noctis salvager in an anomaly, getting lucky when the Tengu strategic cruiser warps away to leave it alone, and inflicting just enough damage before a pair of battlecruisers can interrupt me. I know that much. It's the rest that is confusing me. I get clear and cloak, warping out of the anomaly to drop short of our K162 home, letting my cloak hold. I turn my Manticore around and return to the anomaly, at long range, to witness the aftermath.

The Drake and Hurricane are still there, near the wreck of the Noctis; unsurprisingly, the pod has gone. It looks like the pilots are salvaging what they can from the situation, grabbing loot from the Sleeper wrecks and what survives of the Noctis. What confuses me is that the two battlecruisers are not local, they are pilots from the corporation that were here earlier. A Typhoon battleship and Drake were originally clearing this anomaly, and it was their activity that I was stalking, but they disappeared when I assumed they saw my Manticore stealth bomber enter the system. Now I have no idea.

I suspected I was going to be interrupted in my assault on the Noctis, but I would never have guessed it would be by the outsiders. I don't know if they are back to complete the anomaly, or to engage either the Tengu or Noctis of the locals. I don't even know where they are coming from. I also don't know if the locals are aware of my presence. If the outsiders have an ounce of rationality they will work out I am not local, as I have no reason to destroy my own salvager, and know I am not with them. The locals, however, may well suspect the outsiders of the ambush, happy to make the assumption instead of inspecting the kill-mail. This may get messy.

The loot has been recovered and the Drake and Hurricane warp out of the anomaly, although I also see the other Drake and the Tengu on my directional scanner, those of the local corporation. Their tower is out of range of d-scan, so these two ships are nearby. And, seeing that a Cheetah covert operations boat was scanning earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone was headed to the wormhole bringing the outsiders to this class 3 w-space system. Everyone but me, that is, as I still haven't scanned beyond passively finding a few anomalies for the Noctis kill.

All the ships appear on d-scan together, and I wonder if perhaps they are part of the same alliance, or coalition, after all. I don't quite see why else the outsiders would risk engaging Sleepers in an occupied and active system. But then drones appear on d-scan, and it looks like a scrap has started. A second warp bubble is also now visible on d-scan, which I'm sure wasn't there before and will make the engagement rather more dangerous. I can't see what's happening but am amused to think that, if not the cause, I am the catalyst for all this pent-up aggression.

It seems like a good enough time to finally scan this C3. Little attention will be paid my way at the moment, if the locals are even aware of my activities yet. I am fairly sure they found the K162 heading to our home system, but I don't think they have explored it. And they clearly have their focus elsewhere currently. I jump home, swap the Manticore for my Buzzard covert operations boat, and head back to the C3 to scan. My previous monitoring of the barney makes it easy to resolve what indeed turns out to be a wormhole. Warping to it finds the newly anchored warp bubble encompassing a K162 coming from low-sec empire space. The other pilots are tourists! Now I understand.

I rearrange my scanning probes to blanket the system, finding two more anomalies than I currently have bookmarked from my earlier passive scan and only three more signatures. I resolve each of the three, bookmarking a radar and gravimetric site, and the system's static wormhole. It's another exit to low-sec empire space, naturally, and this wormhole is not bubbled. I would like to pop out to check the destination system, but I dropped out of warp quite short and don't fancy taking the time to crawl to the wormhole. I bookmark the wormhole and take the opportunity to bounce off the tower to land at zero on the wormhole, which will let me see what the locals are up to.

Three Drakes and a Malediction interceptor are sitting idly inside the tower's shields, not looking like they are going anywhere. I warp back to the static exit and jump out, putting myself in the Citadel region, which is Caldari space. I briefly consider bringing in a ship or two that I still have scattered around but the route to high-sec includes passing through the notorious Tama system, and I decide against it. Jumping back to w-space finds the Malediction outside of the tower, according to d-scan. In fact, he's not just out of the tower but dropping out of warp on the wormhole I'm at. I'm glad I didn't take my time moving away and cloaking, or I could have been in trouble. With the locals still a little on edge, and perhaps having just realised it was me responsible for the destruction of their Noctis, now seems like a good time to go home and take a break.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Clearing up my confusion
Tags: buzzard, cheetah, drake, eve online, hurricane, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, tengu, w-space

Waiting for the salvager

I have no idea what's going on. The ships I was stalking have left the system, I know that much. I assume the Drake battlecruiser and Typhoon battleship saw my Manticore stealth bomber enter the class 3 w-space system, but maybe they didn't. And maybe it didn't even matter. A Malediction interceptor is now visible on my directional scanner and, as far as I can tell, he is warping around the system. It looks like he is bouncing from one anomaly to the next and, when he enters the active anomaly, wrecks still freshly unlooted, I can see that he is from the corporation local to this system, which the other two ships were not. Maybe it was the detection of the interceptor that caused them to flee.

A Cheetah covert operations boat is seen briefly on d-scan, dropping a single combat scanner probe which, after what must be the time it takes to reload the launcher, is joined by some core scanner probes. Thinking that the scanner will find the K162 wormhole leading back to our home system—which is the only connection I have bookmarked here currently—I warp back to lurk in my Manticore. Perhaps the Cheetah will find the wormhole and jump through, giving me a slim chance of engaging it. Or maybe the Malediction will be sent to investigate instead, easily better equipped to despatch my ship than I am his, and the thought of that makes me back off from the wormhole a little, taking a more observational role for now.

The probes get closer to the K162. When all five core scanning probes get within 1 AU and disappear abruptly I get ready for a ship's appearance. It's not really surprising that I don't see a cloaked ship appear, but what I don't expect is for a Tengu strategic cruiser to crop up on my d-scan return, a local one judging by the ship name. Checking the few anomalies I scanned passively earlier, the Tengu is in one of them. But he's not in just any of the anomalies, he's in the one where the Drake and Typhoon were shooting Sleepers. I warp back in to the anomaly myself to see what the Tengu is up to, and he's shooting the Sleepers now, but still not salvaging the wrecks.

So far it looks to me like some outsiders came in to the C3 to shoot Sleepers under the noses of the occupants, were then chased off indirectly, and now the occupants are continuing what the outsiders started. If that is the case, this continuation can only end in conflict. Of course, I am hoping to catch the salvager myself, adding to the threat, and I don't care which corporation he belongs to. The interceptor warping around is a concern, though, but I'll worry about that when I need to. I warp out of the anomaly, so that it can despawn if given the chance, keeping a tight d-scan beam focussed towards it so I can monitor progress, letting me see a Drake warp in to help the Tengu.

The final battleship explodes and becomes a wreck, but I suspect there is another wave of Sleepers to appear before the anomaly is cleared. And, sure enough, a new small wreck appears shortly. I'll leave them to it, and hang some washing to make use of this otherwise dead time. I get back a short while later with combat still occurring and plenty more wrecks visible. The Drake eventually warps out, signalling the end of the fight and an Anathema warps in. That's odd, I'm not sure why a covert operations boat would enter the cleared anomaly. But, at last, a suitable target appears, a Noctis salvager following behind the Anathema. That cov-ops is concerning me a little, though, but I suppose I am more a danger to it than it is to me.

What is more concerning than the Anathema is that the Tengu remains in the anomaly. I warp in to the wrecks, keeping them just out of optimum bombing range for now, and see all three ships in the site. The Noctis is moving around and salvaging, the Anathema is poking the wrecks a little itself, and the Tengu is looking menacing from a distance. He may be too far away to disrupt my warp engines, but that's not what I'm worried about. Fitted with heavy missiles, the Tengu will easily be able to engage me anywhere in the site, giving me no more than a couple of shots at the Noctis, and recent experience with two bombers makes me think I'll need a little more time to pop the salvager. For now I simply shadow the Noctis as best I can, ready to take an opportunistic shot if nothing else.

The Tengu warps out. What a beautiful sight. Only the Anathema is left 'protecting' the Noctis, which is an odd decision considering the circumstances, and I am quite happy to engage now. In fact, this is the best time, as the Tengu will be slow in turning around and coming back. I line up the Noctis, getting a little closer so that I can be sure of getting my point on the ship shortly after decloaking, and take a cleansing breath. I decloak, launch, and lock. And, luck apparently on my side today, the Anathema warps out the second I decloak, powerless to cut his engines.

I activate the target painter and warp disruptor, and fire my first volley of torpedoes just as the bomb detonates, shredding the shields of the Noctis. I burn towards the ship, so that my point holds, and watch the target's armour deplete as torpedoes hit home. My systems are cycling, the Noctis is captured, and my attention is now on d-scan. There must be a ship or two heading my way, ready to save the Noctis and destroy me in revenge. Sure enough, a Drake appears on d-scan as the Noctis starts taking structure damage. I keep firing but align my Manticore out of the site and towards the wormhole home, not wanting to get caught in a counter-strike.

Two battlecruisers warp in to the anomaly, the Drake accompanied by a Hurricane. The Noctis still survives, but the ship is being held together by positive thought alone. The battlecruisers are slowing down and are moments away from dropping out of warp, at which point they can target me and will easily pop my fragile Manticore. But I hold for one more second, letting my siege launchers cycle one last time, making sure I fire one final volley of torpedoes before warping clear and saving my own ship. And that final volley is just enough, my Manticore warping away from the combat ships as I watch the Noctis explode, jettisoning the pilot's pod. I don't think I've ever been quite so glad at having trained a skill, cov-ops V only recently completed and boosting both my bomb and torpedo damage.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: anathema, cheetah, drake, eve online, hurricane, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, w-space

Stalking battleship and battlecruiser

Gah, more anomalies and mining sites! I should either do something about the proliferation of signatures in our home system or stop complaining about it. I have fifty bookmarked sites getting in the way of finding wormholes now, and I cannot be entirely sure which bookmarks are still relevant. Most of them, I would guess, by the mess of red marks my scanning probes return, but maybe I can change that. It may be difficult, but it's not impossible to find our static wormhole, and I eventually do, leaving behind the housework to explore our neighbouring class 3 w-space system instead.

My directional scanner immediately shows me a Drake battlecruiser and Typhoon battleship in the system, a quick adjustment also revealing a Sleeper wreck. I must find them! I bookmark the wormhole home and warp away, looking to get out of d-scan range of the combat ships but finding a tower on the other side of the system instead. The Tengu strategic cruiser and other ships may not stop me launching scanning probes covertly, though, as it depends on whether they are piloted or not. To find that out I need to locate the tower, which is a new feature to this sytem from ten weeks ago when I was last here.

The tower is easy to find around one of the moons, and I see the Tengu is piloted, as is a Crane transport ship and two covert operation boats. I can't launch probes without a chance of being spotted so I merely warp back to the centre of the system and start a scan with my passive sensors. The passive scan should find the Drake and Typhoon, as long as they are in an anomaly, which they are. And the increasing number of wrecks appearing on d-scan suggests they are not salvaging as they fight, which should mean a salvaging boat will follow behind them, giving me a target. I warp in to the anomaly, cautious not to decloak on a ship or structure, where I bookmark a couple of wrecks. But just after I warp in the Drake warps out.

I assume the Drake has left the anomaly in order to preserve his shields, if he is running a standard buffer tank, but the Typhoon soon follows. I don't know much about Typhoon battleships, although I would think they are generally fitted with an active tank, and one that can survive a basic anomaly in class 3 w-space. But it is possible the Sleepers have overcome the battleship too, and the ship's persistence on d-scan indicates they may be coming back. Actually, I don't know what that means, as they clearly haven't gone back to the local tower, as that is out of d-scan range, yet they are not in this anomaly. I'm not entirely sure what's happening here. My best guess is that they warped out to a wormhole, but that would mean they are shooting Sleepers in an anomaly whilst there are piloted ships in the local tower. That would be risky!

As I am considering all this the Drake and Typhoon warp back in to the anomaly where I'm waiting, giving me the chance to see what corporation they belong to. Warping to the tower confirms my suspicion that the combat ships are not in the same corporation as the C3 locals, nor the same alliance, so they do seem to be taking a risk in being here whilst the locals are awake. But that's okay, as far as I know the outsiders have reconnoitred the system and seen the other ships, maybe without movement for long enough to make them think it's safe. Maybe they even have a scout sitting cloaked off the tower, ready to warn the combat ships of possible movement. Either way, I'm heading home to get my stealth bomber.

Neither the locals nor the outsiders know about me yet. No scanning probes have been visible on d-scan, which keeps our wormhole secret for now. The connection is in d-scan range of the active anomaly, though, making my entrance important to get right. I jump back to the class 3 system, move away from the wormhole and cloak, and warp to the anomaly, looking to keep my distance for now. The ships warp out again, a little too soon after my reappearance in the system to be coincidental, although they could be conserving shields again. But, this time, they disappear from d-scan. It looks like they caught my Manticore on d-scan as it entered the system and have bugged out, and their vigiliance on d-scan isn't surprising given the circumstances. Oh well, it looks like I won't get an easy kill today.

Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments »
Tags: crane, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, typhoon, w-space

Tower takedown take two

We're shooting a tower again. And again it is the one in our home system, off-line but resolutely withstanding the harshness of space without an active force field. We made an earlier attempt taking down the tower, but lacked the firepower necessary to blast down the shields augmented by the pulsar phenomenon. This time we think we might. Fin has bought a Raven battleship specifically for the task, and fitted it with siege launchers to blast torpedoes at the tower. The tower's shields have no resistance to kinetic damage, making missile weapons an obvious choice to start with, after which we can swap to laser-fitted battleships, to save ammunition costs.

Fin's been shooting the tower for a while, with a can next to her ship with thousands of extra torpedoes, and I join to help in my Widow black ops ship. I have fewer launchers than Fin's Raven, but my skill training and Tech II launchers are outputing more damage overall, which is impressive, and it is all kinetic damage too. When we get in to our battleships Fin will show me what it means to do damage, I'm sure. That is, if we get in to our battleships. We are certainly making a dent in the shields of the tower, but we are still struggling against the increased recharge rate the pulsar imbues. Even so, we have plenty of ammunition, the evening is ours, and shooting a defenceless tower is quite relaxing.

I'm a little surprised how relaxed I am, in fact. When I was mining gas, in our home system, with an inactive static wormhole, I was really quite nervous about being ambushed. But now, shooting the tower in a much more expensive ship than the gas harvester, I am barely checking d-scan for hostile ships, although I am taking the occasional look. We are much easier to find at the tower, too, not even needing scanning probes to locate us. Maybe I am more relaxed because I can shoot back, even if I will probably still lose my ship, whereas I was a sitting duck when harvesting gas. Or I could simply cloak.

We're not killing this tower. We're doing damage, and chipping away at the shields, and we could even be doing enough to overcome the peak recharge point. But discussions with a colleague lead to calculations, and we will need to be here for maybe another seven hours if it's just the two of us and a puppet. We could perhaps recruit our colleague to help, and maybe a couple of other pilots, but only if we can get an entrance in to our system, which means finding an exit. We've kept our static wormhole closed so far, for security, but now it seems like a good time to open it. I warp back to our tower and swap in to my Buzzard covert operations boat to scan, as Fin continues shooting.

Another new ladar site has spawned. I can't find anything in this mess of a system. One problem is mistaking bookmarked anomalies for mining sites and discarding nearby signatures as already found, thinking that the bookmark pin is for that red dot and not the anomaly that I've disregarded. Maybe I need to stop ignoring the anomalies as my probes reveal them. As it stands, it takes me a while to hunt for the wormhole, ignoring rocks, then gas, then more rocks, some more gas, and so on. Eventually I resolve our static wormhole, letting me push forwards in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

The system number of this C3 looks familiar, and I have indeed been here before. Eight months is a long time to remember a string of six numbers, though, so I suspect I don't actually recall being here before, particularly as it is nondescript. The system was unoccupied when I was last here, and now a tower floats somewhere in the system. There are no ships around, though. Scanning should be quick, as a blanket scan reveals only four signatures along with six anomalies. As we are trying to find a convenient route to our home system for people to join us for once, Fin hopes that the exit does not lead to the Aridia region.

I resolve a wormhole, which is a static exit to low-sec empire space, and a gravimetric and radar site, to accompany the connection home. The exit leads to the Khanid region, one hop to high-sec but distant from our colleague. He's not terribly willing to make the journey if we aren't going to commit the hours to destroying the tower, and I doubt that we will. It looks like our second attempt at removing the old tower is also ending as a learning experience. We need more guns, much more guns, if we are to be successful in any reasonable time frame. Or we just leave the Angel control tower as a piece of modern art in our home.

There is one system of interest quite close to today's exit in Khanid. I apparently parked a Drake battlecruiser of mine nearby, Non-sentient Ship, built and named for Sleeper combat, which must have been an awfully long time ago. I suppose the Drake made it out here during one of our moves, when we dumped ships in empire space whenever a convenient exit appeared. Well, maybe not 'convenient', but certainly 'high-sec'. I'm not sure about dragging a Drake through low-sec, even one jump, as my record with doing so is poor, but judging by the relative location of the ship I probably won't get a better opportunity for recovering it.

Before heading back to w-space I check the stargate my Drake will be using to return. There are quite a few pilots in the system and I don't want to run headlong in to a gate camp if I can easily avoid it, and I am pleased to see the stargate is clear of all ships. I jump back to w-space, drop my Buzzard at the tower, and head to empire space in my pod. The four hops pass quickly and I am soon back in a ship, the Drake feeling familiar yet long-forgotten. It's interesting to look at my old fitting to see how far I've come, although there is not much I can do to improve this Drake. I simply make sure all the modules are on-line and loaded, and rush back to w-space before the low-sec stargate gets crowded.

The jump to low-sec is free from trouble and I warp quickly to the wormhole, after which I feel surprisingly untroubled, despite the drop in security level. The C3 remains quiet, I get home easily, and I return my Drake to a hangar in w-space, where it can be forgotten closer.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Tower takedown take two
Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, raven, scanning, w-space, widow

A class 3 radar site and anomalies

Fin's out scanning. We form a fleet and I warp to her position to get an easy ride to today's static wormhole, and Fin reports it to be the only wormhole in our system today. Jumping through puts us in an unoccupied class 3 w-space system, where a quick scan shows there to be fourteen anomalies full of Sleepers and their lovely loot. This seems to be a good system to make some iskies, particularly as we've been neglecting our wallets for a while.

Before getting our strategic cruisers out we hunt down the dozen or so signatures to ensure there is only the single wormhole here too, as any more could indicate the possibility of unwanted visitors whilst we're shooting Sleepers. My newly trained covert operations V skill gives a nice boost to my scanning strength, and I am discarding rocks and gas quicker than ever before. There is only one wormhole in the system, and we leave it unvisited in the hopes of it remaining closed, and the only other signature of interest is a radar site. We'll run that first.

Our Tengus are launched from the hangar and we return to the C3 in a fully HAM configuration. Despite the short range of the heavy assault missiles, even if one of us is webbed to a crawl the other should be able to close to the webbing ships and turn them in to wrecks. What I am not expecting, in the radar site, is for the frigates and cruisers to web different targets, and for the cruisers to be remotely repairing the frigates beyond our damage capability. We can't get close to the cruisers because of the webs, and can't can't pop the frigates because of the reps. Maybe we can't fly HAMs here after all.

Fin has an idea. She 'bounces' off a distant planet to warp in at range from her previous point, choosing the alignment so that she drops out of warp near the pesky cruisers. And it works. Fin starts shooting the cruisers and takes one down before it can get out of range again. As she does that, I pop a frigate. The repairs from one cruiser were taken from the frigates to repair the other cruiser, which Fin was shooting, letting me finally overcome the defences. And with those first kills a domino effect is created, letting us clear the wave.

The other waves pose a different problem, with the Sleepers neutralising our capacitors, but simply pulsing our shield boosters helps maintain enough cap to continue. The booster is run continuously normally out of convenience, soaking up far more damage than we receive, and there is no danger of destruction in pulsing it when required, our Tengus never even falling below 80% shields. On the last battleship of the site I warp out, leaving Fin to continue shooting, to swap to a hacking ship. On my return, I start hacking in to the Sleeper databases whilst Fin is flung to a basic anomaly to continue shooting.

I grab all the decryptors and head home to swap back to my Tengu. The wrecks can be left for later, as they stay in space separate from the site, unlike the databases. In the anomalies we play ping-pong with Upholder cruisers, this time having one of us webbed and the other free to pursue, the Sleepers switching between us as our level of threat changes. Otherwise, there are no surprises. We clear four anomalies in total, working our way down the difficulty scale as the evening progresses, hopefully maximising our profit for the time spent. We both bring in a Noctis salvager each, making quick work of looting and salvaging the wrecks, bringing home almost three hundred million ISK for the evening, not counting the radar goodies. That's a nice haul, and it has been a good evening's fun.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: eve online, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Scanning finds a scanner

I can't get lucky three days in a row. And, sure enough, the new signature by the sparsely surrounded outer planet turns out not to be the static wormhole but a ladar site. I continue my search along my normal routine, checking the other planets on an inwards spiral before dealing with the dense fog of bookmarks in the inner system. But I just can't find the wormhole. Site after bookmarked site is ignored and still nothing looks promising. On a whim I go back to check the outer planet again, only to find the wormhole has been there all along. I should have looked harder.

Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system looks familiar, and indeed I've been here before, but before I consult my notes too heavily I check my directional scanner. There is an Anathema covert operations boat somewhere in the system and no on-line tower to accompany it. The Anathema isn't cloaking, making me wonder what it's up to, and I move away from the wormhole and cloak to start looking for the cov-ops boat. It doesn't take long to locate the ship around a moon, where it sits unpiloted next to an off-line tower and nothing else. That's a curiosity, but one I can ignore for the moment.

Now I can check my notes, which put me in this system six months ago, making it unlikely that I actually recall the system number, particularly as nothing of interest occurred the last time I was here. There are now two off-line towers instead of one, plus the Anathema, but that still equals no pilots. I launch probes and scan. Two anomalies and fifteen signatures are revealed, and I start to sift through them. I ignore plenty of rocks and gas until I get to a particularly weak signature that resolves to be the static wormhole, an exit to null-sec k-space. It is also the penultimate signature I scan in the system, the final one being another ladar site. There is nothing of interest to be found today. Except for the Anathema, I suppose.

I return home and drop off my own cov-ops boat at our tower to return to the C3 in my pod. It's possible the Anathema could be a lure for an ambush, but it would be a seriously elaborate ruse to take place in an unoccupied system with no active wormholes beyond those I opened myself. So it's no surprise that I safely get my pod nestled in to the Anathema, where I find it is fully fitted and fancy! I activate the installed cov-ops cloak to hide myself, out of good habit mostly, and am tickled to find a Sisters expanded probe launcher, some Sisters combat scanning probes, and a smattering of Tech II modules. I think I'll keep it. There isn't much else to do today, but the Anathema is a nice reward for a little scanning.

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

Fuel run through low-sec

Scanning is quick again today. Our static wormhole is around the outermost planet, as it was yesterday, which just happens to be my first place to scan and rather bare of other signatures. A new signature is easily spotted there. Following glorious leader Fin's example, I helpfully copy a bookmark of the wormhole's position in to our shared can, to make it easier for her to follow behind me when she wakes up, before jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

The C3 holds a tower and a Dominix battleship, according to my directional scanner, and I note from the system map that the whole system is covered by d-scan quite comfortably. Depending on the status of the Dominix the system looks quiet. I locate the tower, using d-scan, and warping to it finds the Dominix unpiloted, but also a newly appeared Buzzard covert operations boat. I have nowhere to hide in this system where I can launch scanning probes covertly, so I simply monitor the Buzzard for now, and he does nothing. A refinery is operating at the tower and is close to completing its job, and it's possible that the Buzzard pilot has turned up to check progress.

Assuming the pilot is only waiting for the refinery to finish he probably isn't paying much attention to his scanner. This seems like a good time to launch probes and scan the system myself, before the pilot becomes active. Thankfully the scan is quick, with only seven signatures to resolve, and nine anomalies to bookmark. I find the static wormhole, leading out to low-sec empire space, along with three ladar, one gravimetric, and one radar site. I recall my probes with the Buzzard remaining inert, now four minutes left on the refinery's processing.

The refinery completes its job and, a couple of minutes later, which confirms that the pilot wasn't paying too much attention, the Buzzard starts it running again. Another ninety minutes of processing begins, and the Buzzard simply sits there. How dull. But checking the exit beyond the static wormhole puts me in the Sinq Laison region and only four hops from Hek, making today a good opportunity to buy more fuel for our tower. I return home, swap my scanning boat for a Crane transport ship, make a shopping list of fuel, and head out to market.

The Buzzard has disappeared from d-scan in the C3 as I pass through the system, no doubt not wanting to sit still for ninety minutes when he could be productive elsewhere. On my first run to Hek, which is all low-sec travel until entering Hek itself, I see a Crow interceptor on one side of a stargate and Dramiel frigate the other, looking very much like a small camp. I'm glad I'm in my cloaky hauler, designed to evade unwanted attention, although I'm not sure about interceptors. But I make it to Hek, buy my first load of fuel, and turn around to take it home.

There is no sign of the Crow and Dramiel on my way back, and w-space is empty. I off-load the fuel and turn my Crane around, starting the second journey. Hopefully my predictable path won't land me in trouble, although the Crane makes me feel safe. The second run goes without issue, even with the Crow and Dramiel double-act making a return appearance, now with a wreck on the gate. They pay me no mind. At least, none that I notice. Fin appears as I am shoving fuel in to the tower and getting ready for my final trip. 'Should we export loot too?', she asks. Yeah, that's a good idea! We could make iskies as well as spend them.

Fin gets a second Crane out of the hangar, loads it with Sleeper loot, and begins her journey to empire space. I can buy a bit more fuel now, knowing that Fin's ship can bring some home too, and I adjust my purchases after making sure I know how much room her Crane has, dependent on her fitting. Fin sees the Crow and Dramiel 'gank squad', as she calls it, but they leave her alone too, which is good, otherwise I may have felt guilty about forgetting to mention them. This last trip is again uneventful, and Fin sells our loot and we both bring home a full load of fuel to keep the tower running. We look to be good for another month, but realistically it will probably only be a fortnight before I start worrying about fuel levels again.

Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, crane, crow, dominix, dramiel, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Good time to scan

What a silly time to think about taking a break. Sure, the Hulk exhumer has gone, and all the other pilots, but that's just it: all the pilots have left the system. Being all alone offers me just the opportunity I need to do some proper scouting. For a start, I warp from the tower in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to the gravimetric site where the Hulk was mining. This gives me the approach vector I would use when monitoring the tower and warping for a bombing run, and I can see where the rocks are in relation to the vector. If the rocks get in the way I risk decloaking and losing the target, needing a closer approach and reliance on torpedoes. But, in this case, dropping out of warp at thirty kilometres from the Hulk's mining position leaves me in empty space, which allows for a covert approach and bomb launch. This is good to do now where I can be decloaked with no consequences instead of finding out later when it matters.

And warping in to the gravimetric site reminds me that the Hulk's final jet-can remains there, which must hold some ore. Not much ore, I imagine, as a hauler collected a load before I started scanning for the Hulk, but still some ore, and no one to collect it. My second task in this recently deserted system is to claim the ore for myself. I jump home, swap the Manticore stealth bomber for a Crane transport ship, and return to the gravimetric site. The Crane can travel cloaked, which lets me check the C3 for other ships before committing myself to picking up the ore, and the system remains quiet. I manage to empty the jet-can in to the Crane's hold, although the can was mostly empty to start with, and I take home a mere sixty-three units of arkonor.

Scouting the gravimetric site and collecting the ore seems like all I can do in the C3, and I consider taking a break now. But I realise there is still more I can achieve, and take my Buzzard covert operations boat back to scan the system thoroughly. I only located the tower and found the mining site earlier, which was the focus of my operation, but there may be more to find. And there is, but not much. I resolve the system's static wormhole, which is a connection to low-sec empire space in its end-of-life stage, and perhaps where the local Buzzard from earlier came to scout after the Hulk inferred my presence. It's possible the pilot warped here to see if I was a low-sec tourist and would exit, or he anchored the bubble that currently encompasses the wormhole.

I also resolve one anomaly and two ladar sites in the C3, the final signature being another wormhole. This connection is a K162 from null-sec space and also bubbled. I wondered why the locals didn't consider my presence to be the result of a new connection opening in to their system, and this existing K162 may be a good reason for them to assume I came from null-sec instead of somewhere new. Considering the handful of signatures in the system it would have been trivial to perform a quick blanket scan and see a new signature had appeared, though. As both other wormholes here are bubbled I am quite surprised they didn't scan again. It works to my advantage, though, and now that I have a complete scan of the C3 I finally decide it is time to take a break.

And I return to find glorious leader Fin has taken an Armageddon battleship in to the C3 to pop the warp bubbles on the wormholes. Well, the bubble that covered the static connection now sits in empty space, the wormhole having collapsed. I follow behind Fin in my Buzzard to scan for the new connection as she shoots. I have all the signature identifiers noted in my bookmarks from the earlier scan, making it easy to find the new wormhole amongst the half-dozen signatures, and the exit puts me in to the Black Rise region. I am in Caldari space, but even if I am only ten hops from Jita it is mostly through low-sec. The class 3 w-space system remains sleepy and I imagine it will stay that way now. I am getting sleepy too, so will leave a fuel run until another day. We still have time.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Good time to scan
Tags: armageddon, buzzard, crane, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Hunting a hulking miner

We have about two weeks' worth of fuel left in the tower. That is plenty for now, but I should start thinking about bringing some more in, to avoid future panics. I set about scanning, looking for an exit, or targets. The wormhole is nice and obvious on the outskirts of our home system, and I jump through to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. A tower and quite a few ships are visible on my directional scanner, so I move away from the wormhole and cloak without launching probes. My notes show I've been in this system before, about eleven months ago, back when my notes weren't as detailed and I didn't list tower locations. I look for the tower and ships, which turns out to be easier than usual because there are only four moons on d-scan currently. And amongst the clutter of ships and tower defences I see that a Hulk exhumer is out and mining. I have a target!

I can't conscientiously hunt the Hulk without finding the other ships in the system, though. They are pointy and plentiful enough to pose a problem should I be able to engage the miner, which will affect my choice of ship, but only if they are piloted. A lot of empty hulls would let me bring in my Onyx heavy interdictor and safely trap the Hulk and its pod, whereas even a couple of combat pilots ready to scramble would see me choose a stealth bomber to get in and out quickly and quietly. So I hurriedly locate the tower, hopefully before the miner decides he's collected enough rocks for now.

There certainly are other pilots in this system. At the tower is a Drake battlecruiser, Devoter heavy interdictor, Stiletto interceptor, Osprey cruiser, and a shuttle, all piloted. Both the Devoter and Stiletto make me want to take care, particularly if they are active, and drawing my attention away from the overview shows that they are. Most of the ships are outside of the tower's shields, engaging in what must be simple manoeuvres, making them alert and ready to respond to an SOS. I may still have time to pop a Hulk, but even if I don't I'm willing to give a go. First I need to find it.

I look around the system to see if I can launch probes covertly, out of d-scan range of both the Hulk and the ships at the tower. Whilst there is are a couple of planets out of d-scan range of the tower it seems that the gravimetric site the Hulk sits in is positioned a little more centrally, and I can't avoid his d-scan attentions. I won't find him without scanning probes, though, so I have to take the risk. I decloak, launch probes and move them out of the system, and re-activate my cloak as quickly as I can. Taking another look around with d-scan suggests I wasn't spotted, as the Hulk remains where it was. My moving around the system has also given me a better idea of where the Hulk could be, which will reduce the time it takes to find him using d-scan.

I warp to a planet I think is close to where the Hulk is mining and starting refining his position using d-scan. I am able to narrow down his bearing to within a five degree beam, after which changing the range of d-scan places him between 3·5 AU and 4 AU from me. Using this information I carefully place my combat scanning probes, using a spread of four probes with a fifth in a central position. I'm ready to scan. I call the probes in from their distant hiding place and they get to work, but my placement is ever-so-slightly off. A 99.99% hit on the Hulk is pretty good for a first estimate, but not enough to warp to him. I need a rapid adjustment and a second scan to get a 100% hit, which I can bookmark and warp to, at which point I recall the probes and hope the pilot didn't choose those dozen seconds or so to check d-scan.

It's time to swap ships, to bring in my Manticore for the kill. Except I've been spotted. The Hulk is gone from the gravimetric site, as detected by d-scan, and although he could simply be running out of steam the coincidence in timing is strong. It seems the second scan was one too many, although I could quite possibly have been spotted on the first scan too. I return home anyway, taking care to approach the wormhole manually for the last few kilometres, still trying to reduce my time being visible to d-scan. I swap the scanning boat for my Manticore stealth bomber, and head back to the C3, where I jump in and cloak smoothly. I warp to the tower to see the Hulk and now a Bestower hauler also in the shields, and neither are looking like they'll be heading out any time soon.

I stay to monitor the tower for a while, where some activity occurs. One of the pilots swaps to a Buzzard covert operations boat and warps off, although I don't see evidence of any scanning probes being launched. The Drake warps to the gravimetric site, maybe trying to provoke a reaction. And he is a good target, just not when I am by myself and an interceptor is nearby to assist the Drake. He warps out again and back to the tower, where the pilots seem to be settling down, withdrawing from a system that could have hostile visitors. I don't blame them, but it means I am not getting a Hulk kill today. Within a few minutes the pilots and their ships start disappearing, clearly logging off, until none remains. It looks like it is time for me to take a break too.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: bestower, buzzard, devoter, drake, eve online, hulk, manticore, mmorpg, osprey, penny ibramovic, scanning, stiletto, w-space