Moving between w-space systems is hard

I'm alone in this class 4 w-space system, I may as well scan and look in our neighbouring C3 for activity. Or home, for a new gravimetric site first. The rocks are bookmarked, adding a new pin to my system map, and I continue scanning to find our home system's static wormhole. Jumping in to the class 3 system reveals activity, of sorts. A tower is visible on my directional scanner, as is a Purifier. But the stealth bomber disappears from d-scan a moment later, suggesting activity on behalf of the pilot. Now moved away from the wormhole and cloaked, I check my notes to see I have been here before.

My last visit to this system was only a month ago but already the tower has changed locations, or my notes are inaccurate, and I have to find it again. Towers are easy to find, this one being no exception, and I update my notes. No ships or pilots are at the tower, and I am left to wonder if I indirectly saw the Purifier as it jumped out of the system, or if the pilot logged off. Either reason results in the ship disappearing from d-scan, and I think I am better served by assuming there remains a stealth bomber somewhere in the constellation today. But until I have somewhere else to explore our two ships won't even have the opportunity to cross paths, so I launch probes and begin to scan.

Only one anomaly is in the system, along with thirteen other signatures. Sifting through the results finds a wormhole soon enough, an outbound connection to a class 4 w-space system. That's nifty, and perhaps the Purifier has seen activity and gone roaming there. I ought to complete at least a rudimentary scan in this C3 before I move on, though. A second wormhole is the system's static connection, naturally leading out to low-sec empire space, and is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. A third wormhole is interesting, until I warp to it to see a K162 from null-sec k-space that is also EOL. It's time to explore that C4.

Nothing shows on d-scan, and I bookmark the wormhole and move away to cloak and explore. I've been in this system before, too, some six months ago. A bit of warping around shows it remains unoccupied, there being no sign of life beyond some discarded containers. Scanning reveals six anomalies and eight signatures, one of the signatures being a static connection to another C4. Glorious leader Fin has turned up and is catching up behind me, following the trail of signature identifiers that I'm leaving behind, as I search for activity and perhaps a Purifier. But this class 4 system with a static wormhole to a C4 has me interested. Our C4/C3 is within our means and convenient for getting to k-space—as long as it's low-sec—but doesn't offer as much opportunity for exploration as our old C4/C4 did, neither does the profit from a C3 match that from a C4. Perhaps we could move here.

The search for our current system was relatively fruitless. We found plenty of wormholes when scanning our way in from empire space, but they mostly led us in a tight circle back to empire space and there were few opportunties to enter dangerous w-space. Indeed, it was another branch of our corporation who scanned their way out of their C5 home who found the C4 system we now call home, eventually scanning an exit to empire space for us to come in from the other direction. And now we have a C4/C4 connected almost directly to us. The opportunity perhaps should not be overlooked.

But moving is difficult, and time-consuming. Defences need to be unanchored and taken off-line, as do arrays and the tower itself. Ships need to be moved, along with all our spare fittings, fuel, ammunition, and loot. The mass of the wormholes connecting the system will probably be stressed to the point of collapse before we get half our assets through, meaning we'll need to move the other half out to empire space and bring them in another day, when a new exit presents itself. And scanning from a C4/C4 will make exits harder to find—good for exploration, inconvenient for reaching k-space. Thinking about all of this makes me dizzy, particularly thinking about doing it all at such short notice.

Moving w-space systems is not really an activity that can be thoroughly planned. It may be possible to get somewhat prepared to transfer assets, but the random daily connections makes finding a suitable system an unlikely prospect most days, and it is almost a law that a good system will appear when half your corporation is unavailable. We could possibly move in to this tempting C4/C4, even with little preparation, but I am not mentally prepared. Perhaps it would be beneficial to move in to such a system that offers more opportunity to explore and hunt, but I haven't given it enough thought and I am actually quite satisfied with where we are. I'd rather not jeopardise our situation for one not considered adequately.

Besides, this class 4 w-space system has seventy moons, I'm not sure I'd be able to pick a suitable place to anchor our tower. Of course, we'd move a temporary tower across to an arbitrary location, as a staging point to allow us to move assets whilst stripping our primary tower, but as I appear to be talking myself out of moving systems it's as good an excuse as any. At least finding the system gives us a chance to think about our current situation and decide that it is good, as well as offering a chance to consider a move at some point in the future. But, for now, after lots of scouting of the C4, thinking of how to move, procrastinating about whether we want to or not, and with still no sign of the Purifier, we head home to get some sleep in our cosy C4/C3 pulsar system.

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

Simple Sleeper slaying

Glorious leader Fin is in our connecting class 3 w-space system. 'Occupied, no one home, low-sec.' Situation normal, then. We form a fleet and I am guided to the wormhole leading out to low-sec, able to find the static wormhole in our home system as Fin copied the bookmark to our shared can before jumping out. She's rather better at doing that than me, I tend to get excited by the prospect of a new day's exploration and head straight through the wormhole. Whilst warping across the C3 to the wormhole a check of my notes reveals I've been in this system before, the last visit eight months ago having the exit lead out directly to the New Eden system. As Fin continues scanning I check today's exit, which again is in the Genesis region but not New Eden itself this time.

I jump back and locate the tower, different from the one the last time I was here, and bookmark its position, before scanning to help resolve the last few signatures. My effort is minor today, though, Fin scouring the system for any signatures of interest. All we have are a few mining sites, and a magnetometric and radar site, no further wormholes. There are also seven anomalies ready to be plundered of Sleeper loot, and we suit up to run them, returning home to swap our scanning ships for Tengu strategic cruisers. We are both running HAM configurations today, but the reliance on heavy assault missiles shouldn't be a problem for two of us. Alone, HAMs can run foul of webbing Sleeper cruisers able to keep their distance from the short-range missiles, but when one of us gets webbed the other can burn in to range and continue to attack the Sleepers.

The first anomaly goes just as I imagine it. One Tengu is webbed heavily and cannot close with the Sleeper cruisers, allowing the unaffected second Tengu to get close and destroy the cruisers. It makes combat a little less interesting for Fin, being webbed, but at least we don't need to reconfigure our ships for longer-range heavy missiles just for two annoying Sleepers. Moving in to the second anomaly also puts our directional scanners in range of the local tower. We are given more warning should a capsuleer wake up, but it also makes our presence more obvious. I think I prefer seeing others appear, rather than let them warp cloaked out of the tower to find us covertly.

The second anomaly also makes me realise that there is only one Sleeper battleship across all of the three waves. Battleships provide the best Sleeper loot, if not necessarily salvage, and only having one in each anomaly reduces our potential profits significantly. Once the last ship here is destroyed I warp our little squad to the next anomaly, choosing a different type for our third. Two battleships is better, granting over five million extra ISK in guaranteed loot, but only if we recover it, and a briefly seen Cheetah covert operations boat on d-scan gives us pause for thought. We continue to take down the final ship, the second battleship, knowing that the presence of Sleeper Argos guns protects us a little, but bugging out immediately afterwards.

We warp home, Fin swapping in to a Noctis salvager, and I a Pilgrim recon ship to protect her. Jumping back to the C3, I check the local tower for activity, still finding it sleepy, before Fin starts salvaging the wrecks in the first anomaly. There are also no probes visible, so it is possible that the Cheetah came in from low-sec, saw two Tengus, and went back to low-sec straight away. There is no guarantee that this is the case, though, and when Fin successfully brings home three anomalies' worth of loot I take my own cov-ops in to the C3 to look for new signatures. A blanket scan reveals no new signatures, reinforcing the idea of a low-sec tourist simply taking a look around.

I jump back home and warp to our tower, where Fin waits in her Tengu. I have to advise you, I tell her, of the risk in going back when an unknown ship has been spotted but not identified. 'Oh? I am immortal.' There's not much I can say in reply to that, particularly as she is in a relatively new clone, so I too board my Tengu again. As we warp back to the wormhole to the class 3 system Fin lets me know that, 'by the way, it could be dangerous'. Okay then.

As it turns out, we complete three more anomalies before my tummy starts rumbling for food, no further unknown or hostile ships seen. I ask whether we should run one Noctis with protection again, but the desire to get food is clear. We run with two Noctises, 'get done and get out' being the philosophy of the moment. And we certainly do get done quickly, the Noctis salvager still managing to impress me with its sheer levels of efficiency. I fear training the ORE industrial skill to level four, as my head may explode in astonishment. All the wrecks are salvaged, the loot is returned home, and we are almost a quarter-of-a-billion ISK richer for our time.

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

Hobbling a Heron

Glorious leader Fin has blood on her new Crow, and now we're continuing to cake it on our Tengus. The interceptor caught an Imicus frigate—with a little help from my scanning—scouting our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, which we took to be a potential threat to our Sleeper operation. Rather than risk our strategic cruisers we found the frigate and popped it, podding the pilot at the same time. And now we're back in the same anomaly, one of only two in the system, shooting Sleepers once more.

Another pilot has been seen at the local tower, but he was idle and not looking to cause trouble. I still keep a watchful eye on my directional scanner, though, as his attitude could change, particularly if some of his colleagues turn up to provide support. And when the three probes on d-scan turn in to four I get concerned. Of course, three probes should concern me, but they are left in the system from the destruction of the Imicus, and I am discounting them. Four probes become five and I'm feeling less comfortable about continuing with our Sleeper combat.

It's irrational to be worried about extra probes turning up, really. A single probe would find the anomaly in just one scan, and d-scan would confirm our presence in it. In fact, a probe could be launched and positioned so that all the anomalies in a system can be found without the probe itself being detectable. I often use this fact to my benefit. The presence of multiple probes means the scanner isn't looking for us, or he's inexperienced. Even so, an active pilot is a dangerous pilot, or a target, and I'd prefer to know which.

The final Sleeper in this first anomaly finally pops and I send Fin home to get her Noctis salvager, whilst I remain in the site to protect her as she reaps the profits of our combat. Fin salvages, I watch d-scan. The probes disappear and I align to the exit wormhole I resolved earlier. I know that there are only two signatures in the system that require resolving, the exit to null-sec being one, the K162 heading home beind the other, and I am expecting the scout to visit one of them. I take a chance that he's heading to the static connection and warp there, as a Heron appears on d-scan. Another frigate!

As the Imicus, the Heron is incapable of warping cloaked, making it vulnerable to detection and far more susceptible to attack. Granted, it has only been a matter of minutes since his colleague was brutally left a corpse floating in space, not giving much time for them to learn from this lesson, but at least they could wait to scout until the two hostile strategic cruisers have left their system! The Heron pilot is lucky this time, not being at the wormhole to null-sec. A quick sweep of d-scan shows the frigate to be coincident with our K162 home and I throw my Tengu in to warp in that direction, but not quickly enough. The Heron has gone by the time I drop out of warp.

The Heron pilot didn't jump in to our class 4 home system, leaving him here, but as my Tengu is optimised for Sleeper combat it doesn't have any warp disruption modules. If I am to hunt the new target I ought to swap ships, and seeing as I am sitting on our K162 that's what I do. I pop home briefly to bring my Manticore stealth bomber in to the C3. My first stop is to check the local tower, to see if the Heron is there. Fin has meanwhile completed salvaging the Sleeper wrecks, perhaps a little flustered that I abandoned my post as protector—again—and is now back at our tower with a good haul from the single anomaly.

I find no ship or pilot at the tower in the C3, but warping to the inner system sees probes have been launched again. With only two signatures to scan I would have thought the pilot would be more thorough the first time, but apparently not. I lurk at the static wormhole, but as the probes aren't within 2 AU of this position yet there is plenty of time before the Heron gets here. Fin comes to the C3 once more in her Crow, happy to sit on the exit wormhole with an eye to swooping down on the Heron when it appears. I return to monitor the tower.

Yep, the Heron's at the tower now. Actually, he's not quite at the tower, more like 185 km from the tower, at a can sitting far outside the shields. No doubt the can acts as a convenient point for ships to warp to, making it easy for the locals to warp in and out of the shields instead of having to crawl slowly or warp off-grid. But, then, the drawback is that other ships can also warp to the can, 'other ships' being the likes of me. A can is certainly convenient, but it's convenient for everyone. A bookmark is just as useful, and can be shared with allies but not enemies.

I warp to thirty kilometres off the can and, after calling Fin to my position, continue pushing forwards under normal engines. At twenty-four kilometres I decloak and launch a bomb, locking and pointing the Heron at the same time, trying to stop it fleeing. Hopefully I have timed the bomb well enough not to hit Fin coming out of warp, but late enough that she doesn't miss the kill. As it turns out, a single bomb is enough to pop a target-painted Heron, although my first volley of torpedoes is already on its way to the non-existent ship. At least I didn't throw the torpedoes in to the bomb's explosion this time.

I have a new target. I lock and point the foolish pilot's pod, my sensor booster beating his reflexes, and fire a couple of volleys of torpedoes as quickly as the siege launchers cycle, fearful of the tower defences locking on to my own ship. I turn the pod in to a corpse, and re-activate my cloak without any harm befalling me, just as Fin arrives. Sorry, Fin. I acted quickly, not willing to let the pilot escape his doom because of any delays. I honestly thought the interceptor would get here in time, though.

Scoop, loot, shoot. The corpse and wreck are dealt with efficiently, leaving no traces of our second podding of the day, Fin wondering if perhaps we've isolated the capsuleers from their system. We have just sent two of the scouts back to empire space, after all. In an act of generosity, mixed with blackmail, Fin offers the pilots a bookmark to the wormhole leading in to their home, for the low price of three hundred million ISK. Apparently this is too rich for them. Besides, another pilot turns up in the C3, one who is confident in his abilities. 'Trust me', he lets Fin know, 'I'm not going to lose that tower. I may have been sitting there like a nub, but I have backup'. At this point, it just sounds like he'll make a new target for us to shoot.

More probes are launched in the system and it does indeed look like we have a suitably cocky pilot to hunt. And as we have both of the signatures in the system bookmarked, and he still doesn't, we probably have an advantage. The exit from the system even leads to null-sec, letting us plant an Onyx heavy interdictor on the wormhole that can use its formidable warp bubble on both sides. But, sadly, my time is limited and I have to leave. But I leave with Fin stalking the wormhole to null-sec in a cloaked Onyx, poised to react when the scanning probes are recalled. I rather fancy her chances more than the local's.

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Tags: crow, eve online, heron, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Intercepting an Imicus

Two Tengus out to play, shooting Sleepers who get in their way. Fin and I are plundering the first of two anomalies in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, the only two sites of interest here. The system is occupied but inactive, a couple of haulers turning up briefly to do little of nothing before disappearing again. At least we can steal what little profit can be found here, and our HAMmy strategic cruisers are cutting through the indigenous fauna.

We don't get far with our culling of wildlife, though. An Imicus appears on our directional scanner, and although the frigate is far from a concern for our powerful combat ships its presence could herald the appearance of any kind of threatening force. Interestingly, the Imicus doesn't cloak, remaining visible on d-scan. The frigate is not capable of warping cloaked, so it could be travelling, or it may be an inexperienced pilot not understanding the dangers of being seen.

The exit wormhole from this C3 leads to null-sec, and it seems unlikely to me that a tourist from lawless k-space would be naive about cloaking. Even so, in the hopes of a quick kill, I send both of our Tengus in warp to the wormhole, hoping to catch the Imicus before it gets its bearings and apparently oblivious to the thought of flying in to an invading fleet. But he's not here. Even so, d-scan shows the ship not to be coincident with a celestial body, perhaps meaning a new wormhole has connected in to this system, bringing with it fresh opportunities for exploration and hunting.

We both warp and jump home, Fin swapping in to her new Crow interceptor and me in to a Buzzard covert operations boat. I shall be looking for the new wormhole, flinging Fin in its direction once found for her to destroy the encroaching Imicus. But jumping back in to the class 3 system sees no frigate on d-scan. He must have cloaked. I warp to the other side of the system to launch probes, whilst Fin sits on the wormhole in case the Imicus turns up to scout the signature.

The Imicus reappears on d-scan, perhaps because he has entered warp. But he doesn't arrive at the K162 leading to our class 4 home system, and he isn't at the wormhole to null-sec. I bring my combat probes in to the system and start scanning his position. Normally I would take a few minutes to more carefully discern the target's location, before skilfully arranging probes to resolve the ship's position in a single scan, to minimise the visibility of my probes. But I don't think there's time for finesse, instead relying on speed of scanning to find the frigate.

I get a hit on a ship, and make successive scans to refine his position. Getting close to a solid signal, I warp back to our K162 and tell Fin to get ready. One more scan and I throw both of our ships in warp towards the uncloaked Imicus. Fin's Crow naturally enters warp more quickly than my Buzzard, and she's off. I decloak as I enter warp, not wanting my sensor recalibration delay to be a hindrance in locking the target. Fin's Crow and my probes have been visible on d-scan to the Imicus for a couple of minutes at least, my Buzzard can't be the tipping point that causes our oblivious target to flee.

I drop out of warp to see Fin's Crow already shooting the warp-disrupted Imicus, and lock the frigate to join in with my single rocket launcher. The fragile Imicus doesn't last long, the explosion launching the pilot's pod in to space. I lock and disrupt the pod, although I suspect Fin's systems were able to do that before mine, and both of our ships open fire again, until we're both looking at a frozen corpse gently spinning in vacuum. The corpse is scooped, the loot wrecked and popped, and we clear the pocket.

There was no wormhole. It looks like the Imicus pilot warped to a safe spot to scan the system. Using a safe spot is certainly wise, but it only increases security, not ensures it. The least he could have done was move, not stay stationary, but he really should have cloaked, making him all but impossible to locate. Perhaps it was an honest mistake, having warped to the wormhole and back and just this once forgetting to re-activate the cloak, or thinking he had but not checking closely enough. Even so, finding out that this capsuleer isn't a tourist but local to the system has Fin point out that 'once probes are launched, return to the tower!' More pilots need to pay attention to her.

But, really, for someone who has the resources to fit a Sisters expanded probe launcher he really should be flying a cov-ops boat for scanning purposes. The Sisters probe launcher survives the explosion, by the way, and Fin graciously lets me claim it as my own. The advanced electronics in the launcher have better error correction than in standard circuitry, improving the strength of the signal returned from the probes. This should speed my scanning times, either for general scanning or during a hunt, and is an excellent piece of loot to pull from a wreck.

It doesn't look like the Imicus pilot was looking for us specifically, although he surely must have seen our Tengus on d-scan. I can't believe any pilot can survive out in w-space without learning how to use d-scan. Then again, he hasn't quite survived, as we just podded him whilst being in full view of d-scan ourselves the whole time. Maybe he's still learning. A quick visit in my Buzzard to reconnoitre the local tower sees a Drake move forlonly inside the shields, but otherwise not looking like he'll go anywhere.

I monitor the Drake for a short while and it looks like the pilot's simply idling, maybe even nodding off at the controls. Fin thinks we can now continue clearing the anomaly safely—and I'm dropping her name there in case it all goes wrong. We jump home, get back in our Tengu cruisers, and return to the anomaly in the C3 where the Sleepers must have been wondering where we went. It's okay, silly drones of an ancient civilisation, we're back and we're shooting you.

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Tags: buzzard, crow, drake, eve online, imicus, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Misteron

Today's wormhole is nicely conspicuous against a background of bookmarked signatures. It's not quite a fully mapped system any more, although noting the single new anomaly corrects that, and more signatures will appear soon enough, but for a few days I should have an easier time plucking the wormhole from the noise of mining sites. The static wormhole is healthy and stable, and I jump through to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to explore.

Nine warp bubbles are on my directional scanner and, apart from the expected celestial bodies, nothing else. Two planets are out of range of my d-scanner, though, so I bookmark the wormhole home, launch probes, and warp away to check for signs of life. I see a tower, but no pilots, on the outskirts of the system. As I locate the tower a blanket scan of the C3 shows little more than two anomalies and two signatures. I know one signature is the wormhole home, and the other must be the system's static wormhole, which makes scanning particularly easy today.

Hullo, warping to the tower finds two Iteron haulers that weren't on my d-scan a moment ago. Both are piloted, by related capsuleers too, and there doesn't seem to be anyone else around. I chivvy up my scanning to resolve the static wormhole, luckily out of d-scan range of the tower, and recall my probes so that there are no tell-tale signs of my presence. As my signal on the signature reaches 100% one of the Iterons moves, but only to their bookmark can and then to a hangar.

I warp out to the wormhole to bookmark its actual position—the scanned position generally several kilometres away from the locus itself—noting its being an exit to null-sec k-space, before warping back to continue monitoring the ships at the tower. The Iteron warps out, but his direction doesn't suggest he's heading to the exit wormhole. Maybe he's collecting planet goo from the customs offices! It looks like he's headed directly out to the nearest planet, and maybe he'll continue around the system, I need to get a pointier ship quickly.

I warp and jump home, swap my Buzzard covert operations boat for a Manticore stealth bomber, and head straight back. On jumping in to the class 3 system I punch d-scan to see if the Iteron has ventured closer to the centre of the system, but there is no sign of the hauler nearby. In that case, I warp my stealth bomber to the tower, and find the Iteron has returned to sit inside the shields. And he's not moving. In fact, both Iterons disappear, the pilots only make a brief appearance in w-space for now.

Perhaps the pilot wasn't collecting planet goo, maybe instead visiting one of the two cans visible on d-scan but not on the same grid as the tower. But I can't be sure. Whatever he was up to, the C3 is inactive again. At least glorious leader Fin has turned up, and I update her on what has happened so far. 'Want to clear their two anomalies?', she asks. Yep, okay. We grab our Tengu strategic cruisers and start to plunder the Sleeper loot of our teasing neighbours.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Not much of anything

I start scanning the home system and realise it is a good day to take a proper look around. I am by myself, the afternoon is relatively early, and plenty of sites are missing. I could do with removing the defunct bookmarks to get a clearer picture of the system when looking for the static wormhole. I reduce the range of my scanning probes, form them in to a standard cluster, and probe each bookmark in as efficient an order I can muster.

Mid-way through the scan, glorious leader Fin arrives. She lets me know of some visitors we had, moving from our neighbouring class 3 system, to a C4 that connected in to us, making the class 4 system their new home. That may make our static connection a little tired, potentially limiting our own activities. But the full scan of the home system is complete and I only have the single wormhole resolved, so at least there will be no more travel through here. And the full scan shows how busy Fin has been mining, most ladar sites gone and a couple of gravimetric sites too, with a few new sites and some more anomalies showing up. Most importantly, I have it all mapped.

Warping to the only wormhole in our system shows that the static connection is actually quite healthy. I imagine that the earlier ship movements started long enough ago for the wormhole to collapse of old age and be replaced by this current one. Jumping in to the class 3 system sees a Sacrilege heavy assault ship, Rook recon ship, and Armageddon battleship on my directional scanner, but they all turn out to be unpiloted inside the shields of a tower. There is no one home and no activity. Instead of scanning, Fin suggests collapsing the wormhole and starting again.

An Orca industrial command ship is pushed through the wormhole a few times, my Widow black ops ship helping to destabilise it too, but the wormhole appears to have a bit of extra winter mass. Instead of collapsing on schedule it lingers unwelcome, like a fart in a lift. We could try squeezing another ship through and back, hoping to give it that last push to oblivion, but without an exit wormhole scanned and a general malaise sweeping over the both of us we decide instead to have an early night.

The following day is quiet again. The newly made full set of bookmarks of the home sites makes finding the static wormhole easy. Or it would, if a new ladar site hadn't appeared overnight. I resolve and bookmark that, and then locate the static connection to today's C3, a little awkward to spot being over 4 AU from any celestial object. But find it I do and I jump in to a familiar system. Our last visit a month ago saw a rather inattentive Thanatos pilot stray outside of his tower's shields, giving Fin the opportunity to bomb a carrier. But there's no one here today.

There are three towers in the system, the one from my notes being where Fin bombed the Thanatos, the other two I need to locate. I see no ships at any of the towers, and d-scan isn't revealing any activity either. I remember that it looked like the pilots woke up at the tail-end of our own time of operations, so if they are going to appear it will likely be quite a while later, and I am not keen to wait so long for probably no benefit. I make a quick blanket scan of the system—finding eleven anomalies and ten signatures—without delving any deeper as to what's here. I know the static wormhole will lead out to null-sec k-space and I have no business there. I simply head home and have a relaxing evening off-line.

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Tags: armageddon, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, rook, sacrilege, scanning, w-space, widow

Hit the ground digging

The stricter rationing of quests and over-reliance on phasing may be frustrating me in post-cataclysmic Azeroth, but I am still quite enjoying archaeology. And it is perhaps only because of the cataclysm that archaeology holds its appeal. Being sent to dig sites across the old world would be fairly tedious if it weren't for free flight now allowed, making it easy to point yourself in the right direction and let your mount of choice take you directly there. Even so, there is not much difference in riding your own mount and catching a gryphon taxi, but the changes made as part of the shattering have changed almost the entire landscape. Stopping to admire the scenery, marvel at the damage wreaked, or appreciate the shifting boundaries between Alliance and Horde all make flying from one dig site to another an interesting experience.

I like seeing the seams of the world too. There was some fuss made much earlier, when flying mounts became available in Outlands, about how Azeroth was not designed to be flown over and it would take a complete redesign for it to be feasible. And to continue their commitment to new content, the cataclysm became the perfect excuse to recreate the old world whilst continuing to create. Now it is possible to fly everywhere, and if you look in the right places it is obvious where no one was supposed to look—or even be—in the old world. Although there were nice touches made along unreachable areas but seen from gryphon routes, there are plenty of areas that were simply too high or completely unpassable on foot that were essentially undefined. It's fabulous to soar over them and see the joins that had to be made in order for flight to come to Azeroth. It is almost a peak behind-the-scenes.

Flying over Azeroth is even more fulfilling than I imagined it would be. Outlands and Northrend were designed from the start to be flown over, and it is only when looking down over a region like Duskwood that the design of those areas can be better appreciated. The rich, dense forest of Duskwood makes for a richly shadowy atmosphere on the ground, one that perhaps made me enjoy adventuring there more. And seen from the sky it becomes a blanket of trees, patches of ground barely visible for the most part. Although this obscured view may be undesirable as a design practice, preventing players from seeing mobs, resources, or other players, it makes for a more realistic vista. Of course, I must have taken dozens of gryphon flights alongside the region, but now that I am in control of my flight maybe I am paying more attention. I find flying in Azeroth and experiencing my old haunts from a different perspective to be quite relaxing.

And, actually, despite my earlier claim, it is not possible to fly 'everywhere'. Flying up and down the Eastern Kingdoms tickles my explorer bone and I determine to complete the exploration achievements, which I have done on my warrior but not death knight. I thought it would be simple enough, too, with only the blood elf starting zones of Eversong Woods and Ghostlands to discover to have explored the entire continent. But though I understand how I cannot fly across the mountainous border in to Ghostlands, as strictly the blood elves are content from the Burning Crusade expansion and cannot be accessed directly, I don't see why passing through the portal to Ghostlands removes my ability to fly. My first thought is that this is to protect the newbies, but that clearly isn't the case, as flight is allowed over the standard races' starting zones. And I even accidentally—at first—found myself flying over Orgrimmar recently, so there are no anti-flight zones as such. I'm wondering if the redesign of Azeroth completely bypassed these cordoned-off regions, and flipping the flag to allow flight was forgotten about. A quick ride around the regions on my black war bear completed my exploration achievement, allowing me to open a death gate and get back to civilisation.

My death gate, what a great spell. It's what is keeping me in the Eastern Kingdoms for my archaeological digs. The dig sites appear everywhere and can easily send you the length of the continent a couple of times in a session. Keeping my hearthstone set for Stormwind and having my death gate let me return to the Eastern Plaguelands once every three minutes can really cut down on travel time. It depends where the dig sites appear, but going from one end of the continent to the other in a matter of seconds is really convenient. I tried briefly digging in Kalimdor, to see the changes made to that continent and, apparently, to fly over Orgrimmar, but the lack of a death gate-equivalent travel option and the rather tall Mount Hyjal made flying across regions a little more awkward.

I felt I needed the change, though. Flying around the Eastern Kingdoms has managed to keep my attention for a good length of time, but the unchanged skill rankings are showing the strains again. I need to get from rank one to rank three hundred in Azeroth alone before I can head to Outlands for a change of scenery. The expansion continents are only designed for ten levels of development, which equates to fifty skill points, whereas the old world's sixty levels needs to cram six times as much skill progress in to its borders. The increased land mass helps, but not by a factor of six. I've enjoyed flying around and digging for quite a while, at least a good forty levels' worth of progress, but the strain of digging in the same sites is beginning to show. I can almost guess where the pseudo-random position of artefacts will appear now, I've dug the same sites so many times. But I will persevere, because it is only a little while longer and I can move on, and progress will continue apace as Outlands changes to Northrend, and then I will be in the cataclysmic regions and perhaps want to complete the occasional quest as I dig.

Maybe the old world progress from digging is already enhanced, and it will slow down from Outlands onwards. I hope not, but it's possible. The number of digs needed so far is high, although I am making decent headway, but I am already wondering if I could do the same with a second character. Gnomesblight, my death knight, has always been secondary to my warrior Sapphire, at least as far as achievements go. There is only so much grinding I can do, for pets, reputation, or completion, and I never wanted to double my effort for the ephemeral 'reward' of an achievement on a second character. So when Gnomesblight digs too close to a pet cemetery and finds a fossilised hatchling I am a little disappointed that my pet collector doesn't have this new addition, nor can it be given to her. And although I soon afterwards get Sapphire trained in archaeology in a bid to repeat the find, with Gnomesblight still digging in Azeroth I can't bring myself to repeat the effort whilst it is still continuing. Some good comes out of finding the dead pet, though, as Gnomesblight receives the title of 'assistant professor', her first title at that. She's going for tenure now.

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Tags: archaeology, azeroth, gnomesblight, mmorpg, professions, world of warcraft

Supply run and Sleepers

Today will be a supply run. Glorious leader Fin has been scouting and explored our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, finding two towers, no pilots, and an exit wormhole to high-sec empire space. I take my Crane transport ship out through the exit to the Genesis region, looking to buy some missiles. A recent siege on a small tower revealed our lack of different types of missiles, stocked up mostly with ammunition for Sleeper operations in our Tengu strategic cruisers, so I shall stuff the Crane with EM-damage missiles. I buy some EM torpedoes too, as well as some more of the usual kinetic ones, to keep our stealth bombers running.

Fin also asks me to get some rigs for her newly bought Raven battleship, which is fancy, but there is a slight kink in that she doesn't know which rigs to fit. I get out and back with a cargo hold full of missiles, packed in to giant secure containers even, before Fin can decide, so she goes out to market herself. I dump the ammunition in our hangar and check our regular stocks, finding our Tengu ammunition supplies to be diminishing sufficiently to warrant buying more. Ninety-five thousand Terror assault missiles sounds like a lot to have available, but using around six thousand per sortie depletes them quickly. I head back out to market and buy another quarter-of-a-million, along with a hundred thousand Scourge heavy missiles for Fin's Tengu and other ships.

Shopping done, there is a sole anomaly in our home system that can be cleared for profit. Better we get it now before itinerant raiders take it as their own. We launch our two Tengu cruisers, take our fill of the newly replenished stockpile of missiles, and warp to the anomaly. Sleeper combat is straightforward, having settled in to a decent groove with this type of anomaly, and it is not long before we need to loot and salvage the wrecks. We could simply send a Noctis salvager in to sweep up, but I've not been pounding my directional scanner constantly and, even if I had, the home system is large enough for a wormhole to appear out of range for ships to sneak through. I think we ought to be more cautious than those we ambush.

We both warp clear of the anomaly, back to our tower, and swap ships. Fin is the lucky one who gets to salvage in the Noctis, I am the protector. I first consider the Tengu to be a good enough deterrent, which it probably is, but the presence of a strategic cruiser won't prevent an opportunistic bombing, as we have shown. Instead, I board my Malediction interceptor. The interceptor will be quick enough to lock and snare any stealth bomber that tries a sneaky launch, hopefully deter larger ships in to thinking there is more protection available that they can't see, and is agile enough to let me flee should significant force appear. It may sound harsh, but there's no point in losing two ships if it can be helped, and any force undeterred by the interceptor would only be spurred on by a Tengu.

We wait a few minutes before warping back to the anomaly. I initiate warp a couple of times, cancelling each time, until the anomaly information box stops appearing on warp. No information box means the anomaly has despawed, which will make it impossible for scouts to find us without using probes, and it also means there are no cloaked ships lurking in the anomaly. Of course, this doesn't guarantee our safety, again as we have shown in the past, but it is a good indication. More to the point, a negative result would be a clear warning sign, one we shouldn't ignore. But it seems clear, so we warp in, and Fin begins to salvage as I enter a speedy orbit around her Noctis.

Fin's Noctis pulls the wrecks in from all directions, and loots and salvages with impressive efficiency. Even when her ship has to move my interceptor has more than enough speed to maintain the tight orbit. My steady orbit on autopilot lets me check d-scan frequently for signs of hostile ships in warp to our location, but nothing appear as Fin salvages. The odds of being ambushed are slim, but it is good to feel like we are taking the right precautions. The wrecks are cleared, we both warp back to the tower, and ninety million ISK in profit is transferred from the Noctis to the hangar, which is a decent haul from one anomaly. Resupplied and richer, we rest for the night, happy about the lack of drama.

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Tags: crane, eve online, malediction, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, raven, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Music of 2010, part four

It's almost still 2010. I didn't quite manage to post my final review of the music I've been listening to at the end of December, but here it is before the end of January. This is a triumph!

After five years or so and various label issues, Autolux release second album Transit Transit. I'm a big fan of the first album and was thrilled to hear the new album was coming, and I'm not disappointed. Slightly lower-key than the gruff debut album, there is more refinement to the songs but with the same distorted edges. The whispered lyrics and ambient music of Highchair contrast nicely against the faster Kissproof, sparse and melancholy Spots sits next to the jaunty The Bouncing Wall, and it all sounds distinctly Autolux. Transit Transit is a fabulous album.

Mines by Menomena starts out quite slow, with sleepy number Queen Black Acid perhaps not feeling quite representative of the rest of the album, which is a bit of a shame. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, not having heard of the band before, and the vocals caught me a little off-guard. I'm glad I perservered with the album though, as the vocals fit the tone of the rest of it perfectly, the whole album picking up rapidly with even the introduction of second song Taos and staying on an amazing high as it trips through song after song containing beautiful music and emotional depth. Interesting and varied drum beats form a strong foundation for the guitars or piano, such as in Tithe and Bote, producing excellent if unconventional pop music. Mines has become a favourite of the year and been played far too much, and I even appreciate the opening song now that I understand its place. This album is completely gorgeous.

When an earlier album by No Age was released I was tempted by the description of the lo-fi noise the two-piece band produced, but never got around to buying it. Now new album Everything in Between comes out and gets the same critical reception, and I jump at the chance of discovering them late. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. There is fuzz and energy, noise and quirky sounds, but it all seems a bit tame. Maybe they are better live, which I can well imagine to be the case, or their earlier work was more raw, but Everything in Between as an album is a fair enough listen, but nothing special.

The Five Ghosts starts off on a rather accessible footing, Stars sounding pleasant and appealing, two vocalists sharing a duet. It makes for a rather comfortable listening experience, but it works against the album, as its fairly standard fare turns towards the bland with repeated listens. There are some pretty good pop songs floating around on the album, but it feels a superficial affair overall. I could probably enjoy the various songs on the album in isolation, but trying to enjoy the whole is like eating an entire chocolate cake in one sitting. It sounds like it should result in more of a good thing, but turns out to just make me feel queasy.

Part Chimp are completely awesome. Noisy, raucous, vital, and with rocking tunes. Reduce to Clear is a self-produced CD containing a host of tracks recorded throughout their touring career, pretty much from their inception to their current album Thriller. Sleeve notes mention that first track X-Ladyboy, recorded at Glasgow Barrowlands, is 'the moment Ligament became Part Chimp', which is very cool. And we get taken from Belgium, to Germany, and back to the UK and London as the band are recorded live. The genius of B2 is captured in all its glory from first album Chart Pimp, as is the stupidly loud Hello Bastards from second album I Am Come, and the epic Starpiss from third album Thriller makes a brilliant appearance. We also get to hear as guitarist Iain 'sings the Bauhaus' on Dark Entries. This is an awesome collection of songs that show Part Chimp in their natural environment of playing much louder than is healthy, particularly at the ICA in London in 2004, where they get the 'most complaints re volume ever'. Oh yeah.

I like the name of electronic band Solar Bears, and so perhaps was expecting more from debut album She Was Coloured In. Although the music is pretty decent and agreeable enough, nothing really grabs me. I can listen to the album without wanting to skip any tracks, but also without really noticing that I have listened to it all. She Was Coloured In is pleasant if unremarkable.

Smoke Faeries sounds like a band I should really like. A couple of velvet voices lilting over folk guitar music should push all of my buttons, but Through Low Light and Trees seems to be rather overwrought. The balance between the emtional depth of the vocals and the mostly breezy guitars seems to be mismatched a little. The singing just needs to be a bit more twee for the whole to mesh together, but that's not to say the album is a mess. Songs like Hotel Room may feel a little mixed-up, but everything works perfectly on the more dour Dragon and Strange Moon Rising. There is potential in Smoke Faeries but, despite having all the right elements to get me excited, Through Low Light and Trees comes out a bit flat.

A simple count-in turns quickly in to a psychedelic scream of guitars before coalescing in to an awesome riff. Before you know it, Japanese-sounding Bo Ningen start singing in Japanese over heavy riffs, licks, and solos. You would think that they peak a bit early in first track 4 Seconds to Ascension from debut album Bo Ningen, with its raucous opening, catchy rhythms, and an extended outro that turns in to its own encore, but they easily keep up the pace for eight more songs, even adding dynamic range and a keen ear for hooks. Punky Koroshitai Kimochi (Reprise) keeps the pace up, and Gasmask Rabbit starts quiet and slow but crescendos in to being noisy and fast so naturally that it solidifies my first impression of this London-based four-piece as being seriously impressive. Able to keep up the energy all the way through to the sixteen-minute closing song makes for an amazing album to end the year. Bo Ningen are electrifying!

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Tags: autolux, bo ningen, cd, menomena, no age, part chimp, smoke faeries, solar bears, stars

Aftermath of the Noctis kill

A Noctis isn't much use when salvaging other people's wrecks. The salvager ship's tractor beams won't be able to lock on to wrecks owned by others, negating the main bonuses of improved range and speed of the beams. A more traditional destroyer is more suitable, being agile and quick, zipping from wreck-to-wreck, cycling salvager modules in the eight high slots to recover damaged components quickly before moving on. But even before the wrecks can be stolen it is best to survey the situation. We pop a Noctis for our first time and watch as three Tengu strategic cruisers abandon their Sleeper operation, and now we want to know how safe it is to profit from their retreat.

I swap the bloodied Manticore stealth bomber for my Buzzard covert operations boat, warping back across space and jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. I launch probes and begin to scan when a second Buzzard is seen briefly on the directional scanner. Perhaps he came and went, seeing my probes and not wanting to get involved. Or he could be a scout, sent by our adversaries who are now looking to see if they can get our salvager in return. It's difficult to know. There are no other probes in the system but my own, but that could either be because the Buzzard exitted or already has the bookmark. It really is difficult to know.

Scanning soon finds a wormhole, a K162 coming from a class 4 w-space system, the connection reaching the end of its natural lifetime. It seems unlikely to me that the targets came from here, passing through the EOL wormhole for a possibly extended operation against the Sleepers, and I keep scanning. I resolve a second wormhole, the system's static, an exit to low-sec empire space. I would never have guesssed. Fin is loitering in this system in her stealth bomber and uses my ship as a beacon to find the wormhole herself, heading out to get the destination system. And it's in the Derelik region, not exactly convenient for the market but only one hop from the safety of high-sec.

Fin uses the exit as an opportunity to buy more bombs. We seem to go through them quite quickly. I continue scanning the C3. There are no more wormholes to find, though. The connection from the C4 stays quiet, too. Maybe the other capsuleers collapsed their connection to isolate themselves from our aggressiveness, or perhaps they are more confident about the timing of their wormhole's life, and were happy to use the few hours available to venture through. I'm not about to jump in to the C4 to find out, in case the wormhole collapses behind me and I find myself with a long journey home. Instead, I'll salvage the wrecks left behind by the Tengus.

The C3 seems quiet enough, and the C4 connection dormant. I'm ready to take a Cormorant destroyer out to salvage—the Marquis of Granby, in my service for quite a while now and upgraded with salvager II modules—but Fin suggests a more agile frigate instead. If I need to get out of trouble it may be best, and it's a good idea. But we lack enough salvager modules to fit one properly without stripping another ship, and the frigate would be unrigged and potentially slower in salvaging. I can risk myself in the destroyer, as I think it's fairly safe, although I fit a warp core stabiliser too, just in case.

Recovering the wrecks is harmless, as it turns out, even though a Buzzard—the same Buzzard?—appears on d-scan and launches a single combat probe. I should be fast enough to avoid getting caught, particularly when repeated punches of d-scan continue to show only the single probe. Fin is back from the market and goes to get a pointy ship, seeing as the Buzzard doesn't seem to want to cloak, but in her haste gets polarised on our static wormhole. That's okay, I've finished salvaging and am coming home. Only twenty million ISK in profit is recovered, which is pretty good considering that salvaging is essentially a lottery and that none of the blue Sleeper loot remained.

Once free from being polarised, Fin returns to the C3 to find the uncloaked Buzzard on the C4 K162. I board my own Manticore again and go back to the C3 to join Fin in wondering what to do. Well, we know what we want to do, we're more wondering how much attention the Buzzard pilot is paying to his surroundings. With him so close to a wormhole we don't need to get a point on his ship, so with us both sitting at about thirty-five kilometres from him we decloak and launch two more bombs. The answer to our question is 'enough', as the Buzzard pilot jumps out of the C3 to the C4 before the bombs detonate. We get clear and cloak, changing our positions so as not to be easily discovered, and a Tengu jumps through the wormhole, tries to look menacing for a minute, and jumps back.

Fin goes home to get another couple of bombs, not having reloaded after the successful assault on the Noctis earlier, as I watch the wormhole. We have forty more bombs brought home, which should keep us going for a while. Nothing happens at the wormhole, though. Then again, we're not about to launch only a pair of bombs at a strategic cruiser, unaccompanied or otherwise. We need bigger guns for that. Hearing that nothing is happening, Fin reloads and stows her Manticore, clambering in to a Bustard transport ship instead to take out to high-sec market some of the ore I 'mined' from other ships. The C3 remains quiet, the C4 K162 doesn't flare again. I head home to rest, happy that today I have refrained from getting Fin killed.

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Tags: bustard, buzzard, cormorant, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space