One lame duck

Scanning the home system is becoming involving again. Two new gravimetric sites and an extra ladar site need resolving whilst I hunt for today's static wormhole, and perhaps other signatures are disappearing. The changes are making it difficult to discern the new wormhole signal from the static cloud of bookmarked sites, and I suspect I'll be performing another full scan of the home system soon. Sooner rather than later, in fact, as I continue to struggle to find the wormhole, although eventually I do. With some relief, I jump through to our neighbouring w-space system.

The class 3 system looks quiet, even with eight warp bubbles on my directional scanner, as there are only those eight bubbles to see. One planet remains out of range of d-scan, although that doesn't hold too much promise for activity. I warp across to investigate, finding an off-line tower and a bunch of giant secure containers floating nearby. I wonder if perhaps the tower has recently been assaulted and the cans hold fuel or loot that couldn't be carried back by the raiders before their wormhole collapsed. I may as well take a look, but I'll do so by collecting the GSCs directly.

I jump home and board our Bustard transport ship, suitably fitted for cargo space, and return to the off-line tower in the C3. Scooping the GSCs I am a little disappointed to find them all empty, but they are still GSCs and will come in handy as storage at the tower or increased cargo capacity on fuel runs. I take all seven of them homewards as glorious leader Fin jumps in to the system across my bow, with a different take on how active the system is. Rather than see an empty, unoccupied system, Fin sees three Tengu strategic cruisers and a Noctis salvager. They're new.

I dump the Bustard, swapping it for my Manticore stealth bomber, and return to the C3. Not only are there now ships on d-scan but also Sleeper wrecks. But the Sleeper wrecks are also disappearing, no doubt the Noctis in action. Fin has been hunting for anomalies and found some, and I have my Manticore's passive sensors working too. I see the anomaly the Noctis is in, and that the Tengus have moved on. Fin jumps home and gets her own stealth bomber as I watch the last of the wrecks disappear in the site with the Noctis. But the Noctis remains at the site, at least according to d-scan, perhaps waiting for his colleagues in the strategic cruisers to clear another anomaly of Sleepers before he can continue salvaging.

It's a little risky to remain in an anomaly rather than head to a safe spot, or even the wormhole home. But I imagine the Noctis pilot is burning his micro-warp drive in an arbitrary direction, making it difficult to catch him, particularly if he is travelling along the z-axis. I warp in to the anomaly to take a look, Fin almost back in the C3 herself. Nope, the Noctis isn't moving. At all. He's about four kilometres from the anomaly's cosmic signature and simply sitting there. This is one fat target. Fin warps close to my position, we line up the Noctis as Sleeper wrecks are still being made by the Tengus, and let loose a pair of bombs.

Our previous two attempts at a Noctis kill were unsuccessful. Two bombs just isn't enough to obliterate the ORE-designed salvaging ship. Even as our bombs are in flight I am locking the Noctis and burning towards it, disrupting its warp engines to prevent it fleeing, and painting its hull to present a large signature radius for the bomb to affect. But the Noctis simply pops. I am momentarily confused as to why my torpedoes don't start firing, before realising that the bombs did the job. And then I am locking the pilot's pod, confusion cleared and instincts back, trapping him and getting my torpedoes to fire at last.

The pilot is podded. I burnt towards the Noctis when I decloaked, bringing me close to the wreck and corpse now, and I hastily grab what survived the explosion, leaving a couple of bulky tractor beams I have no room for. The corpse is scooped, wreck destroyed, and I cloak again, anxiously conscious of the Tengus that must be ready to come to their colleague's aid. Except they don't. I move away from where the Noctis once was, now nothing but empty space, and wait. But no one comes. I get forty kilometres away before I consider myself properly out of danger—forgetting again that I should warp out and let the anomaly despawn, lest my presence be inferred—and cut my engines, letting the Manticore come to a halt. And even then I have to wait a little longer before the Tengus warp in.

'Dude, where's our salvager?', Fin chuckles across our fleet communications, giving me her impression of the Tengu pilots, 'I thought you said he was here'. The Tengus sit in the apparently empty anomaly for a minute, perhaps wondering just what happened, not even the logs of the Noctis surviving to reconstruct the incident. They have little to do but warp away again. Their laggardly response suggests the salvager was a distant cousin of theirs, brought in to space to make up numbers rather than dedicate himself to capsuleer life. It makes sense, too. If he lacked even the core skills then his shields, armour, and structure would be sufficiently weakened than for more skilled pilots, which is why the Noctis popped so easily. Even so, a simple act of moving in an arbitrary direction would have made the task less predictable and, as a result, more uncertain.

I wonder if the Tengus are making a full retreat, but apparently not. They have returned to the second anomaly, the one they already started. I warp in to take a look and one of their number is looting as they go, grabbing the blue loot of the Sleepers even as they fight. It looks like they are making the most of what they can, and are probably not coming back to salvage the wrecks. I can't really blame them. They can't know that a squad of three Tengus would be a suitable deterrent for us, instead of a juicier target for bigger fleet. The Tengus warp out once the last Sleeper explodes and its loot is retrieved, leaving the system as judged by their disappearance on d-scan.

We could salvage the wrecks left behind, although, as Fin points out, 'this is where we get trapped, historically'. And she's not wrong. We have tended to get a decent victory and then get cocky, thinking we know exactly what is going on and what we face, throwing ourselves at targets that actually know better than us. And by 'we', I mean 'I'. We, I, need to be cautious, but the wrecks seem like an additional reward for destroying our first Noctis. I imagine the other pilots found this system, scanned it, noted no additional wormholes, and formed their fleet, only after which I opened our static wormhole to connect in here to give them a surprise. Fin even finds that we've encountered them before, the three little ducks having upgraded their battlecruisers since our last meeting. I'll give it a while and scan the system before salvaging. After all, we have a couple of hours before the wrecks decay.

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Tags: bustard, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, w-space

Opportunistic test-fire on a small tower

A conspicuous wormhole is a good wormhole. At least, it is in the home system, either to go out exploring or to warn of potential invasion. Today, as is the more common case, I am heading through our static wormhole to explore our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. A punch of my directional scanner on the other side of the wormhole sees an operational tower and a couple of Mammoth haulers, but not many defences. Finding the tower reveals the haulers, and also my overestimation of its defences. What I saw on d-scan were only some hardeners. Quite a few shield hardeners, it must be admitted, but that is the entirety of the tower's defensive systems. No gun or missile batteries, no warp disruption modules, no stasis webifiers. The complete lack of retribution is almost an invitation to shoot the tower.

It's just me in my Buzzard covert operations boat, though. And even if I swapped for a bigger ship it would still be just me, and until I get my dreadnought I don't think it's worth spending time slowly whittling away at the tower's shields. I launch probes and scan, my first intention, to see twelve anomalies and seven signatures to resolve. I bookmark all of the anomalies, in case of an ambush or ISK-making opportunity, along with a radar, gravimetric, and three ladar sites, before finally getting to the static wormhole. Today's exit leads to null-sec k-space. I poke my nose out to get the destination system, although I don't appear to be quite as motivated to increase the number of red dots of exploration on my system map these days. I return to w-space, through the quiet C3 to home, and, with nothing happening, take a break.

I return later to see Fin has discovered and noted the defenceless tower too. Unlike me, she's started shooting it. Now I feel like I can help. I have to borrow Fin's Nighthawk command ship to maximise my chances of making a difference, but the Nighthawk's presence is short-lived when I realise the tower's shields are resistant to kinetic damage. 'Switch to your Sacrilege', suggests Fin, which sounds like a good idea. The Nighthawk's bonuses only boost kinetic damage, but the Sacrilege's apply to any heavy assault missile type. I board my heavy assault ship, updating its fitting to include Tech II launchers and filling the low slots with damage enhancing ballistic control systems. The only snag is that we aren't quite stocked with many non-kinetic missiles, only having about four thousand EM assault missiles. It will do for now, I just need to tweak my skill training.

My Sacrilege blasts away at the tower alongside Fin and the puppet, the idea being to 'see how fast it goes with two-to-three of us on a small tower'. We can spread a little pain whilst gathering data for later experiments. The shields are being knocked down too, slowly but surely. More surely than against the large faction tower in our pulsar system, too. And, before long, my skill training completes. I can now shoot large energy turrets, almost as good as the professionals! I change ships again, swapping the Sacrilege for more Amarrian weirdness. I'm sure as a Caldari I shouldn't be doing this, but I warp away from our tower and back to the C3 in an Armageddon battleship, bristling with lasers.

I'm not entirely convinced that I can strictly be thought of as attacking the tower, not with the Amarr battleship and large energy turret skills both sitting frivolously at level one, even though big beams of coherent light shoot out from turrets at regular intervals. I'm probably doing as much harm as a light-show at a Muse gig. But the tower's shields are now down to 50% and falling, thanks to Fin's and the puppet's real skills. The question now is if the tower has any strontium in its fuel bay. Without it, the tower won't go in to reinforced mode and we can continue shooting until it is destroyed. With it, the tower will become invulnerable for as long as the strontium lasts and we will have to go home.

It seems like too much of a gamble to plant a small tower in a w-space system, particularly one connected potentially daily to null-sec, and rely on shield hardeners alone to deter attackers. But if the owners consider themselves that safe from harm then maybe they also consider strontium to be excesssive, despite its one-time installation cost for guaranteed protection. Time will tell, once we knock the shields below 25% and damage starts blasting through to the armour, which is going to happen quicker than expected. We get below the peak recharge rate of the shields without any fuss and Fin and I get more interested to see what will happen next. A speck of damage hits the armour and, sadly, the strontium kicks in. And not just a generous amount of strontium, but the maximum that fits in the bay. The tower enters reinforced mode, which it will stay in for the next forty hours.

There's no chance of waiting for the timer to end and the tower to become vulnerable again, as our static connection to this system only lasts sixteen hours itself. The chances of finding this system again are tiny, even if I've managed to re-open a consecutive connection to a system unintentionally once before, making the only hope of continued assault to be to stay in the system. Remaining here for the next two days is a boring proposition, then having to get home via null-sec unnecessarily risky, all when there is no guarantee that the occupants won't turn up in superior numbers and bigger ships to vent their anger at us. But we did it! Just the three of us, with moderate-to-meagre skills, forced a tower in to reinforced mode in quite short time.

It's good to know we can assault a tower, and maybe I can advance my battleship and laser skills to make the next assault easier, particularly if we want to finally get rid of the abandoned tower at home. Before we leave this C3 behind us Fin takes her interceptor back in to the system, burns away from the wormhole, and just off-grid drops a jet-can. By renaming the can she sends our best wishes to the occupants, for when they come to survey the damage, and have to repair and resupply. Leaving it just off-grid almost ensures that they will never be able to locate the can, particularly when our wormhole collapses of old age, keeping it in their system as a niggling reminder.

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Tags: armageddon, buzzard, eve online, mammoth, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, sacrilege, scanning, w-space

Death comes quick

The reckless miners are tooling up. A Rattlesnake battleship and Drake battlecruiser are piloted at the tower in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, along with two other pilots in a Covetor mining barge and Anathema covert operations boat. But none of them are active. I suppose they could have been dissuaded from more exploration, as Fin tells me that she nearly caught a scout of theirs in our home system, which would have added to Hulk exhumer I popped earlier. Whilst I think about how to goad the capsuleers in to coming out to play, I take my Buzzard cov-ops boat in to the system to scan it fully, not just looking for the bustling gravimetric site this time.

It doesn't look like I need to goad the pilots after all. The Anathema is crawling out of the tower's shields, perhaps to launch scanning probes of its own. Fin sees this first, lurking at the tower in her Manticore stealth bomber, whilst I am merely loitering nearby whilst scanning to monitor changes, but I still encourage her to shoot the scanning boat. It's not worth wasting a bomb, but a few torpedoes should do some damage and perhaps panic the pilot. And Fin does, decloaking and taking her shot.

The Anathema warps away safely enough—and Fin recloaks without the tower shooting her—but it's good to try to educate these pilots, they can't be careless forever. It isn't difficult or time-consuming to create a couple of nearby safe spots for the purposes of launching probes. Even a fast frigate can speed a few hundred kilometres from the tower and bookmark a point which can be warped to and from merely to launch probes. Warping on-grid takes about as much time as slow-boating out of the shields, and gets you to a much larger sphere where the odds of anyone being close enough to engage for the few seconds you're there to be tiny. Better still, warping off-grid takes maybe a second longer and makes you just about impossible to ambush. And always either return to your tower to scan, or cloak.

I scan the system, even less convinced that the locals will come out to play now that we've reminded them we're still around. But at least I don't need to feel covert about my scanning, as we're hardly hiding. I find only four signatures in total, two of which are the gravimetric site of the earlier ambush and the wormhole home. The remaining two signatures are both wormholes too, making this system quite threadbare. An outbound connection to another class 3 system holds promise, and the last signature is the static exit, leading out to low-sec empire space. Having warped to the exit, as I bookmark the wormhole a shuttle from the tower warps in and jumps out to low-sec. Even after our continued attempts to shoot them, they still seem quite blasé about any threat. It is tempting to try to catch the locals on this wormhole, but we have another class 3 system to explore.

Fin and I leave the hapless w-space inhabitants behind to explore the other connection. Jumping through in my Buzzard covert operations boat, and Fin in her Manticore stealth bomber, finds a relatively tiny system. Being less than 8 AU in radius leaves almost no possibility of a place to hide in the system from the directional scanner, and none in particular given the position of the planets. The presence of occupants is therefore easily discerned, as is the lack of activity. I launch probes, locate the tower, and lurk whilst scanning.

I soon find a wormhole, scanning being quite simple in such a small system, and resolving another N968 outbound connection to a class 3 system is nifty. At least, it would be if the wormhole weren't tiny and wibbly, both mass-disrupted and aged to the point of near-collapse. Otherwise, there is a single anomaly and four remaining signatures to scan here, resolving to two ladar sites, a magnetometric site, and the system's static wormhole. The exit from this C3 doesn't beat the odds and leads out to low-sec empire space.

Fin spots an Ares on d-scan. I confirm this, managing to hit d-scan before it leaves or cloaks, and I set about trying to scan its location. I have combat probes launched and should be able to find the Ares without too much trouble, as long as it stays in one location. Seeing that it doesn't seem bothered by the presence of combat probes I don't try to finesse its position using d-scan first, particularly in such a small system as this. I quickly get a rough position and continue refining the result, asking Fin to warp to me so that I can fling us both towards the... oh, it's an interceptor, which would be why it isn't cloaking.

An interceptor seems a bit more trouble than perhaps a stealth bomber and cov-ops boat can handle, particularly knowing its capabilities from flying one myself. I was expecting a simple frigate, which shows that my ship identification capability, despite much improved, still needs work. But Fin is happy to engage the Ares. And the interceptor looks to be on the exit wormhole to low-sec, perhaps visiting or a local returning home and loitering for wandering scouts. With a solid hit on its position I send both our ships in warp to its location, pausing my engines briefly and re-engaging them a moment later so that our two ships don't bump and decloak each other in warp.

I was planning to add my Buzzard to the engagement against the Ares, until I find out it is an interceptor. I am fairly sure my single rocket launcher and flimsy frigate-sized hull will be useless as support, and I choose to stay cloaked for now. It's probably best that I do, as Fin's Manticore gets pounded pretty quickly. 'I just melted', she tells me, sadly from yet another new clone in high-sec space dock, her pod not quick enough to escape from the interceptor. I feel pretty guilty about a second podding so soon after the first, not being much of a protector. At least I know for sure not to engage a competently flown interceptor. I suppose the trick is knowing which ones are competently flown before engaging them.

This second class 3 system is fully scanned now, and I'm not going to exit through to low-sec past the interceptor. Instead I head homewards, swap to my own Manticore, and loiter at the tower in our neighbouring C3 as I wait for the new Fin to come to w-space. She brings another new Manticore with her, sadly no longer loosely name-paired with my own, but such is the difficulty of coming up with decent names at short notice. The C3 stays sleepy, with only an Occator returning from low-sec with an intensive refining array, which the pilot anchors before going to sleep. That's a good idea. Fin and I jump home and hit the sack ourselves.

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Tags: anathema, ares, buzzard, covetor, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, occator, penny ibramovic, pvp, rattlesnake, scanning

Hulk hammering

Scanning again, I jump through our static wormhole in to another pulsar system. Our home class 4 w-space system holds a pulsar, nicely boosting shields and capacitors, and this C3 gives the same benefits. If I find any ships here, I had better take stronger shields in to account. Nothing is visible on my directional scanner from the wormhole, but the system looks big. I bookmark the wormhole home and warp away to explore.

Moving to a different part of the system has a tower appear on d-scan, and a Hulk exhumer too. I may have a target! I locate the tower, where the Hulk warps in a couple of seconds after I get there myself. The pilot of the exhumer swaps ships, boarding an Iteron hauler and surging away under warp drive shortly afterwards. I may not have a target, perhaps turning up just as the mining operation finishes. But I won't assume so just yet, instead warping away from the tower myself in the same general direction as the Iteron. And, indeed, it looks like I'm not too late, as a second Hulk shares space with the Iteron.

I launched probes back at the wormhole, where no one could see me on their own d-scan and it was safe. I moved them out of the system to keep them out of sight, and now I can make use of them. First I need to use d-scan to narrow down the location of the still-mining Hulk, joined again by the first Hulk along with a Covetor mining barge—it looks like I could get quite lucky here. And my skill with d-scan is improving, or maybe I'm just getting better at positioning myself close enough for differences in arc to be minimised. I narrow down the bearing and range, position my probes carefully, and call them in to scan.

No longer relying on core probes to scan targets, I had combat probes loaded in to my launcher when entering this C3, and this is what I am now using to locate my targets. The first scan is excellent, getting 100% hit on both Hulks, the Covetor, and the gravimetric site they are in. The cosmic signature for the site may be a hundred kilometres from any rocks, but getting a hit on the ships directly means I don't need to warp in to find out, which entails a risk of getting decloaked and spotted in the process. Thanks to the combat probes I can warp to within a couple of kilometres of any of the targets.

As I make bookmarks of the scan results I warp away, but not back to the wormhole yet. Before I leave I want to check the local tower, not wanting to be negligent or sloppy. And it's good that I check, as a Tengu strategic cruiser is now present and piloted by the Iteron pilot. He's active too, moving out of the tower to launch scanning probes. I wonder if he's just passing the time, or if my presence has been noted. Either way, the obvious choice of the Onyx heavy interdictor for this operation is no longer a good option, despite its capability of capturing all ships and pods it its bubble. The bubble would trap me too, and if the Tengu is called in I don't want to be a sitting duck of my own making, potentially losing more ISK than I destroy. I'll bring in my Manticore stealth bomber instead, which should give me the firepower needed to bring down a Hulk or two, whilst providing the agility and stealth to flee if necessary. And so I warp back to the wormhole, jump home, and swap ships at our tower.

Jumping back in to the C3 is simple, as the mining site is out of d-scan range and I won't be made by the miners. I warp to my bookmarked location of one of the Hulks, aiming to land thirty kilometres away in case I get decloaked by a rock and need a hasty launch. But I arrive cloaked and away from any rocks, giving me a good view of two Hulks busily mining. I manoeuvre a little closer, to get within comfortable range for disrupting their warp drives, and decloak and launch my bomb.

As the bomb glides towards its detonation point I lock them both and paint the one I have arbitrarily designated as my primary target. There's a mighty explosion and both Hulks take damage, the painted one considerably more, and I start firing my siege launchers, sending torpedoes towards my first target. Hulks are hardy, and the pulsar's boost to its shields making it more so. I risk flicking my warp disruption module between the two ships, hoping that neither of them has the good sense to align first before trying to enter warp, and keep both Hulks unable to escape.

But my desire to destroy both targets causes an unfortunate instance. The first Hulk finally pops and I am quick enough, thanks to my sensor booster, to lock on to the pilot's pod. But still the pod warps away, a split-second before I can get the warp disruption module active on it. Normally, with a lone target, I can get the point hot and it will activate on the first locked target. But with a second ship—in this case, the other Hulk—already locked the point will automatically activate on to that, regardless of any targets currently being acquired. So the point keeps the second Hulk in my sights, but the pod of the first flees.

Regardless of the pod's escape, I still have one Hulk destroyed and the other in my sights. My point holds the second Hulk and, the only other ship here, he becomes my next victim. His ship didn't take as much damage from the bomb, not being painted to increase its signature like the other one, but I have plenty of torpedoes. What I don't have is time. I knew about the Tengu back at the tower, and as soon as I began my assault I started punching d-scan, every couple of seconds, fully expecting the strategic cruiser to arrive. And now I see it. The ship hasn't got to the gravimetric site yet, but it is on d-scan, heralding its imminent arrival.

I prepare for the Tengu by aligning my Manticore back to the wormhole home, still shooting the second Hulk. The Tengu flies in close to the wreck of the first Hulk and, when it looks like its warp engines are about to cut out, rendering its targeting systems active, I warp out myself. The second Hulk still has healthy shields and would easily have survived long enough to see the Tengu rip me to shreds, so I am not losing a kill by bugging out. And my preparation means I don't even get shot, and thankfully don't lose an Onyx. I get clear of the site and cloak again, soon finding myself back at the wormhole home.

I don't jump home, though, as I am in no immediate danger—the locals don't appear to know about this connection yet—and instead move away from the wormhole. I send my Manticore back to the gravimetric site, close to the wreck of the Hulk, and no one is there. I loiter for a short while, wondering if anyone would be stupid enough to come back so soon to loot the smouldering remains of the Hulk, but deciding it would be far too reckless to expect anyone to do so. I visit the tower instead, seeing the Tengu, Hulk, and Covetor all nestled inside the shields. I don't see the pod of the destroyed Hulk, though. At least, not until he warps back to the tower in a Bustard transport ship. Hang on, did I miss him?

Another quick check of the gravimetric site shows just how foolish some capsuleers can be. The Hulk's wreck is now looted, no doubt by the Bustard, and I can only have missed him by a few seconds! Recovering the surviving modules from the wreck may have worked this time, but it was a remarkably incautious action. Perhaps the Bustard's shields would have withstood a bomb, and the increased warp strength enabled it to warp out again, but a ship and his pod was still a big risk to take for bringing home a few million ISK of standard equipment.

Beyond collecting their own salvage, there doesn't seem to be any more current activity. There is little point in waiting for them to feel safe again, and if they return to mine the chances are there will be a counter-ambush—at least, I am safer to assume there will be one—so my best option is to return home and take a break. I have no loot or corpse to deposit from my assault, but I can bask in the satisfaction of getting another clean kill.

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Tags: bustard, covetor, eve online, hulk, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Gasping for a breath of fresh air

My warlock is happy adventuring in the Southern Barrens. The scenery is new and vivid, the quests are varied and generally involving, and there is almost no one else around. I am guided from Northwatch Hold to a new oasis, then south to a camp, then further south to another fortress, all the while picking up fresh quests and working my way through them. I leave her to it, swapping back to my death knight, Gnomesblight, thinking that maybe I should take my 80th level self away from digging in Azeroth to the new region of Vashj'ir, where there is a call for heroes.

Before I go, I remember that perhaps I should pick some talents, so that I am not woefully underprepared. Talent selection is fairly easy now, needing to focus in one tree and having to put almost all your points in that tree before the other two open up for a bit of cross-training. Essentially, I pick and maximise just about every frost talent, except for those that require dual-wielding single-handed weapons, meaning little overall thought is required. I leave the cross-training talent points alone for now, only wanting to be prepared, not fully optimised. Now it's time to catch a boat.

I head to the dock, noticably phase out from everyone else when turning in the quest, then have to wait for the boat to appear whilst NPC soldiers natter on about kicking arse and taking names, or something. The boat arrives, I am taken for a ride, a cut-scene occurs. It has taken a while to get here and my attention has wandered, such that I am not sure if I need to be focussing on what's happening or if this is just another set-piece over which I have no control. Naturally, the scene just happens around me until, eventually, I am thrown back in to the game in front of an NPC with a quest. I could have made and eaten a sammich in the time it took to get here, and the cut-scene wasn't that dramatic.

Now I am underwater, which necessitates a botch job so that I am not forever struggling for air. And so I go on a first quest to attain my 'sea legs', although I can't trust a mariner who doesn't actually know the meaning of the phrase. I'm pretty sure someone who has their sea legs can't breathe underwater or swim faster. At least with my 'sea legs' I can explore further. Or just to the next NPC, who offers me quests to kill some rats. Underwater rats, of course, the goblins also presumably having their 'sea legs'.

I've read about players not getting used to the underwater combat, having trouble with gauging distances, and I have to agree. It is difficult to judge how far away a creature is with no frame of reference, which is what happens the first time you encounter a new mob. Is that eel as big as an epic sword, or as small as a gnome? You can't tell until it's biting you, at which point three more have joined in. The faux-3D of modern games works when there is an environment that augments the sense of depth, such as having ground or walls, where you can tell that the normal kobold is standing next to a giant kobold because they are both on the same horizontal plane, and you can also gauge the relative distance to them both. But when everything is floating in a nebulous 3D environment the visual cues are missing.

On top of the distance problem, mobs can now exist and attack from all directions, not just on the same plane as you. This has been seen before with flying mobs, and it was annoying then too, when an unseen chimera would swoop down as you were eating to recover the near-fatal damage from your seconds-previous last combat. You need to be much more aware of your surroundings and the possible threats in this underwater world, because the mobs can come from anywhere. It's not a terrible situation, though, and it can be managed. But it seems to be too much of a gimmick than a desired or desirable environment. I imagine the designers wanted to create a zone that allowed flying combat, but couldn't work out how to do so without ruining the experience of flight in the rest of the world, and so end up instead breaking swimming to be a peculiarity in Vashj'ir.

I am getting used to the underwater zone, just as I am overcoming the mind-boggling gear inflation once a few quest rewards and random drops brings my damage and survivability up to par. What I continue to find distasteful is the gated content. There seems to be no open access to the new zones, either here in Vashj'ir or in Mount Hyjal where my warrior started her new adventures. A single NPC gives you a quest whose completion lets you talk to maybe two more NPCs, who give you a couple of quests before sending you to the next small encampment where the process repeats. And if you ever decide to go wandering you may find some more NPCs, but they won't want to talk to you.

This isn't an adventure, it's a guided tour. 'Don't go astray, death knight', I am told, 'we're not scheduled to visit that camp until tomorrow. It's all on the itinerary. Just sit back, relax, and let us tell you the story. There's no need to go looking for it, we'll bring it right to you'. There's an obvious flaw in this methodology to quests, in that it severely inhibits an explorer's instincts. There may be plenty of new sights to see and new creatures to find, but there is no point in looking for them. You'll only have to come back and be productive here in order to later be productive there. Of course, an explorer doesn't need a point beyond exploring, but when the game essentially demands progression, and offers little for pure exploration, you need to make concessions.

I always enjoyed adventuring in Westfall and Duskwood, as both regions let me fill my quest log and run off in any direction to complete those quests. Now the number of quests in my log is barely reaching double digits, in binary. The progression is horribly linear, not allowing you to go astray for fear of ruining the, I imagine, finely crafted story you're supposed to be unfolding, regardless of whether you actually read the quest text or just the requirements for completion. I found the gated content quite irritating in Northrend, refusing to allow you to experience a new region if you were the 'wrong' level, even if you wanted to risk the dangers, and heavily restricting access to Dalaran again until you were a certain level. I thought it was a bizarre and disgraceful restriction then, but now it's worse, and phasing has to take some of the blame.

The introduction of phasing was great, allowing characters to alter the world around them, to see changes occurring because of your actions. It was a little restrictive when differently phased characters could no longer team together, but overall it was a good feature. Now phasing is everywhere, almost occurring from camp to camp as you progress through the quest you currently have. It's all part of telling the story, but it almost removes the first two Ms from MMORPG. You are phased from one point to the next, maybe seeing a few other players who happen to be on the same stage, but otherwise you won't be interacting with anyone else. Vashj'ir and Mount Hyjal are effectively single-player on-line RPGs, SORPGs. Only in dungeons, PvP, and cities do you feel a connection to other players, and even then you may not want to.

It is phasing that allows an MMORPG to create a cohesive storyline. The game no longer has to rely on static landscapes, or every player either needing to be present at the same time or have most of them miss the key event, like opening the gates to Ahn'Qiraj. And it is the overuse of phasing that is destroying the experience. I am struggling to motivate myself to continue this drudgery of hand-holding through the quest-lines, refusing to let me, a high-level adventurer who has faced epic foes, to go off on my own lest I encounter a particularly vicious crab. And it's not just the thought of doing these quests individually now that is demotivating me, because I know that if I want to level another character I'll be doing exactly the same quests again, in exactly the same order. If I don't like some of them the first time I'll hate them the second, and I probably won't have an option to bypass them. That's a crippling thought. This is no longer an adventure, it's a theme park.

Maybe it always was a theme park and only now am I realising it. I certainly can see the changes, though, and I know it was never always quite so restrictive. Luckily, there are alternatives. I am very much enjoying archaeology at the moment, which fully indulges my explorer urges, and there is always PvP to keep me amused. I may not be particularly good or useful in battlegrounds, or whatever new modes of PvP there are now, until I get some decent gear and remember how to play, but there is XP to be gained. I could probably stomach the odd bit of questing every now and again, but I doubt I'll be concentrating my time in the heavily restrictive new regions.

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Tags: cataclysm, gnomesblight, mmorpg, world of warcraft

Too tired to do much

There are more missing signatures at home. I imagine Fin has been harvesting gas, which is relatively quick to do and helps declutter our class 4 w-space system. I delete the bookmarks to obviously missing signatures but don't perform a full scan of the system, instead resolving our static wormhole and jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 system for today. My attention is grabbed immediately by the presence of a Hulk exhumer on the directional scanner, along with a drone. But the drone is an ECM variant and there is also a tower visible, locating which also finds the Hulk safely and inertly sitting inside the shields. The drone is elsewhere, but I honestly don't care about a lost robotic puppy.

I launch probes and scan the system, finding eight anomalies and six signatures. A wormhole is resolved quickly and is a remarkable sight, being a second exit to high-sec empire space in as many days. We're being spoilt. And a second wormhole piques my interest, hopefully offering further w-space adventures but sadly is a K162 coming in from null-sec k-space. A third wormhole must surely let me explore deeper, but this one turns out to be another route to high-sec, via a K162 connection this time. This just leaves a gravimetric and two ladar sites to resolve.

With the C3 system mapped, and all sites bookmarked, I check the exits, starting with the null-sec connection. I find myself in the Querious region but also too dizzy to care to explore, which perhaps makes it just as well we don't have more linked w-space. I poke my nose through both of the exits to high-sec too, one being four hops to The Hub, the other five hops to it from the other direction, also making it a mere six jumps to Jita. If only I were prescient I would have waited a day to buy my replacement stealth bomber. As it is, I can think of nothing I want or need to buy and simply head home to take a break.

I return to take my new stealth bomber, Lorem Ipsum, for a roam in to the class 3 w-space system. With any luck, that Hulk is now in the lone gravimetric site and nodding off at the controls, but the system remains as sleepy as I feel. I check the wormholes—finding the K162 from high-sec to be reaching the end of its lifetime, and the other two still stable—before heading home to get some rest. Or maybe not. Jumping back to our C4 sees scanning probes on d-scan. It looks like we have a new connection.

Swapping the Manticore for my Buzzard covert operations boat, I go scanning once more. The new wormhole is easy enough to find. I change back to my Manticore and, with no sign of activity on the connection itself, I push in to the class 5 w-space system now linking to us. There is nothing on d-scan but a single, outer planet, so I bookmark the wormhole and warp away to explore. Further in to the system is a tower, a piloted Tengu strategic cruiser idling inside the shields, with some empty haulers nearby. There doesn't seem to be any other activity and I head home, where probes are still visible in the system.

The scout is most likely looking for wormholes, perhaps bookmarking anomalies or other sites of interest for opportunities a bit later. His continued presence and persistent scanning encourages me to jump in to my Malediction interceptor and plant myself on the other side of our static wormhole, hoping to catch the scout's boat as he moves on. The problem is that I don't have the patience today, jumping back home after only a few minutes and returning to the tower to slump in to a sofa. The probes remain on d-scan as I go off-line.

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

Returning fire

The Noctis got away, but the activity doesn't halt. Our bombing run on the salvager sees the alert pilot escape from my inept clutches, thwarting glorious leader Fin's kill, leaving the Sleeper wrecks still in the anomaly. And it doesn't look like the local pilots want their profit go to waste, as I loiter cloaked in my stealth bomber at the tower in this class 3 w-space system. The pilots of the two Tengu strategic cruisers and single Drake battlecruiser stay in their ships, the Drake moving towards their hangar array before warping away, back towards the anomaly.

It makes sense to refit the battlecruiser, cramming its many high slots with salvagers and perhaps fitting a warp core stabiliser or two. The Drake's hefty shield will easily protect it from a couple of bombs and a few volleys of torpedoes, which will give it time to escape, if it doesn't outright discourage an attack that should likely fail. And no further attack leaves it in peace to loot and salvage the wrecks. But Fin and I are game. I've seen how a Drake explodes with a co-ordinated triple bomb launch and a few torpedoes, so maybe two bombs and a bit of time will be enough, particularly with a couple of sensor dampers hopefully preventing the Drake from returning fire.

I warp back to the anomaly to see the Drake slowly crawling to the first of the remaining wrecks. Fin is already at the site and in position, so after a little manouevring we are ready to go. We co-ordinate our launch, decloaking simultaneously to send our two remaining bombs towards the battlecruisers. Oh, hullo, a third Manticore decloaks and launches its own bomb, but he's not with us. I try to adjust for the new ship's appearance, pegging the bomber as a softer target, but I'm caught in his bomb's detonation and he's not in mine. I get a hefty shock to the system, followed by a Manticore and Drake shooting my small ship, even before I have locked and launched at the third bomber. My ship pops, releasing my pod in to vacuum, and I hurry to warp away to safety.

Fin, however, is not quite as fortunate. Her ship too is destroyed, but her pod doesn't escape. A new Fin wakes up in a clone vat somewhere in empire space. She sets about buying a new ship and returning to w-space, and I realise I also need a replacement ship. I turn my pod around and fling it towards the exit wormhole, which leads out to a convenient high-sec system in Kador today, to go shopping. The wormhole is reaching the end of its natural lifetime, and neither of us knows how long it has left, but buying a new Manticore shouldn't take long. And as I hit the market for a ship and fittings I reflect on my mistakes.

I know I cleared the anomaly after our unsuccessful ambush on the Noctis, but I wasn't sure if Fin did. I imagine so, but I didn't ask. On warping back in to the site, to line up the Drake, the anomaly was still there, structures and all, instead of being wrecks floating in empty space. Anomalies disappear relatively quickly, as long as ships aren't present, and this one should have been empty for long enough. If I had checked that Fin had cleared the site its continued existence should have alerted me to the presence of a cloaked ship. That was one mistake.

Also, the Drake was moving awfully slowly towards the wrecks. I know that Drakes aren't particularly fast normally, but this one could have warped in to a better spot to begin with, or at least started tractoring wrecks towards it—if it intended to salvage them. Its lazy speed should have been another warning sign that this was a counter-ambush. But I only saw another target. I should be smarter than this and have been more prepared to escape, or simply not engaged what ought to have looked like obvious bait.

Hopefully I'll learn from my errors for the future. For now, I have my new ship to assemble. And being a bit picky about wanting a cloak and bomb launcher, plus ammunition, before taking the ship home I find that shopping isn't all that quick today. My purchases send me through a dozen systems as I go hither and thither, even accidentally buying a module in the completely opposite direction to my current destination, not checking my atlas but only going by the number of jumps to the system. But eventually I have a fully fitted ship, and I'm heading home.

Fin has her Manticore ready too and is already back in w-space. 'Oh no!', she cries. What, has the wormhole gone? 'No, I just thought about my poor corpse. What are the bastards doing to her?' I wouldn't worry about it, what sicko does anything but leave them floating frozen in space? Indeed, jumping through the very wibbly wormhole sees Fin's corpse still in space, according to my directional scanner, which also picks up some scanning probes. I move away from the wormhole and cloak, adjusting the range on d-scan to confirm that the probes are converging on the wormhole I just entered through.

And, to answer how much life it has left, the wormhole dies behind me, seconds after I jump back to w-space. That was lucky, but it must be a bit confusing for the scanner who has just resolved its location. A Drake warps in and I can almost sense his bafflement at not seeing a wormhole. I also resist the temptation to bomb him for giggles, choosing instead to warp homewards. I jump home and return to the safety of our tower, parking my new Manticore in our hangar.

The evening ends with a chuckle, despite losing two ships and a pod. Out in high-sec, both Fin and I named our new ships in isolation and brought them home without mentioning our names. I nearly always struggle with naming ships, this time choosing Lorem Ipsum, latin placeholder text. It tickles me, then, that I see Fin has named her new ship Ellipsis. I suppose we were both in rather a hurry to get home.

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Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Not close enough

There's an interceptor in our system. Fin's here too, and I think it's her Crow I'm seeing on my directional scanner. Ever since we've moved in to this class 4 w-space system there has been a wayward jet-can lurking somewhere, perhaps dropped in a safe spot by the previous inhabitants, and it's been nagging at Fin. Now that she has a really fast ship at her disposal Fin can blast off the ecliptic plane in her continued search, rather than relying on repeated warp flights between ever-closer bookmarks. But it will still take an epic journey to get close to the can, and I suspect Fin will have to tolerate its appearance on d-scan for a while to come.

Today's constellation has already been scanned—hence Fin's flight of fancy—leading from home to our neighbouring C3, and then inevitably out to empire space, but there remains some confusion. 'What is it called', Fin asks, 'when the security status is over 0·4?' Ooh, good question. I used to know this, but haven't seen it for ages. Whatever this 'not-low-sec' is called, the exit system is in the Kador region. The class 3 system also has four anomalies and a gravimetric site, along with a Zephyr exploration ship, Nocits salvager, and Buzzard covert operations boat all unpiloted at the local tower. I now have a full sitrep, what a partner.

I board my Manticore stealth bomber to take a fresh look at the C3. But before I head out I swap out the siege launchers for faster cycling units, now that I have the grid available from completing my training in advanced weapon upgrades—which incidentally rewards me with the elite core competency certificate at last. The faster launchers may have been enough to get the Noctis kill yesterday, which is another oversight on my part. Anyway, neatly refitted I take my Manticore next door, where three Tengu strategic cruisers and a Hurricane battlecruiser on d-scan are new. There are no wrecks yet—oop, now there's one. It looks like we have activity.

Fin is close behind me, in her own bomber, and she warps off to check the local tower. I open my system map and sweep d-scan around to check the four bookmarked anomalies, easily placing the combat ships in one of them. I warp in to see them engaging Sleepers, and am pleased to see the anom sits high on the ecliptic plane, which will let me warp from any nearby celestial object to any of the wrecks being made without danger of being decloaked. On top of that, if I warp in to bombing range of one wreck I should be within suitable range of any of the wrecks, which promises to make ambushing a salvager particularly smooth today. I warp out of the anomaly, keeping a tight d-scan beam on it to monitor the slow progress.

The Sleepers are slowly converted to wrecks and the Noctis becomes piloted back at the tower. The salvager warps to the anomaly, which I pick up on d-scan as I warp back in myself. I am in a good position for a launch straight away and, finally, the Tengus warp out. But just as Fin warps in to join me for the slaughter a Tengu warps back. That's awkward, but won't stop us from attacking. We just need to be more careful. Or we just need to wait another ten seconds, and the Tengu warps out again. Okay, we're ready. We co-ordinate our launch and two bombs sail towards the bulky salvager, detonating viciously on its position. I fire torpedoes and burn towards the badly damaged Noctis, getting in to range of my warp disruption module, but, no, he warps out! The ship must have been aligned and started his warp drive soon after seeing the bombs.

Two chances of a Noctis kill in two days, and both blown. The two of us cloak and warp away from the anomaly, knowing that Tengus, or worse, could appear soon. And I start to do some maths, irritated that I am being careless in catching ships of late. I know that a colleague, long ago, got caught in the explosion of his own bomb and effectively blew himself up, and I am still careful to avoid that, but maybe I'm worring about nothing.

The bomb flight lasts ten seconds and reaches a distance of thirty kilometres, where it explodes with a radius of fifteen kilometres. That puts me fifteen kilometres from the edge of the explosion, which I would need to cover in ten seconds to get caught by the blast. I only have a reheat fitted which, at full burn, doesn't quite get my Manticore up to one kilometre per second, making my maximum distance travelled from launch at under ten kilometres. Even if I were going at full pelt on launch I wouldn't enter the detonation zone, so I have no reason to be concerned about being hoisted by my own petard. This is good to know and I can be confident about future manoeuvres.

My maths is too late to help today's attempt, though. The Noctis looks hardier than I gave it credit for. I thought the bulkier ship would be hit harder by bombs than the smaller destroyers, but it seems that ORE have taken the inherent vulnerability of salvagers in to account. Sitting in one position and having no weapons and minimal tank fitted certainly isn't good for survival in lawless space, and the shields and armour of the Noctis look to be beefed up enough to at least give the pilot a chance of escape. Twice two bombs haven't been enough, whereas a destroyer would have been dust. And it looks like I can't be sloppy, forgetting target painters or warp disruptors. Mind you, if the introduction of the Noctis means I need to improve my act then I only see it as a positive move.

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Tags: buzzard, crow, eve online, hurricane, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, w-space, zephyr

Knocking a Noctis

The popped Iteron pilot must have come from somewhere. I tried following him in to one of the class 3 w-space systems connected from this one, but only saw a few other pilots milling around. I loitered at a wormhole leading in to another C3 system from here, but the pilot still passed me by without using the connection. And he's not coming from the direction of our home system, or my Onyx heavy interdictor would have crossed paths with him. No, despite there already being a wealth of wormholes found, there must be another. Once glorious leader Fin has collected our plunder from the shipwreck I return home myself and swap in to my Buzzard covert operations boat to scan afresh. I need to at least satisfy my curiousity.

I don't have much of a bearing for where the wormhole might be. I only had one occasion where I saw the pilot warp away after returning from high-sec empire space. And as the exit wormhole is on the edge of the system my best guess is that the wormhole is near the middle somewhere, which isn't much help. But I saw his ship disappear above the ecliptic plane, which is a start. After narrowing down the search I indeed find a new wormhole, a K162 coming from a class 4 w-space system. Jumping in takes me to a system I last visited four months ago, which gives me a handy reference to the local tower. Checking the tower finds the podded pilot, or perhaps a close relative, already back and now sitting in a Helios cov-ops. Her appearance is brief, no doubt deciding that enough ships have been both moved and destroyed, and I think we have seen all the activity we're going to from here.

But hang on, before we snared the Iteron hauler I saw some other pilots, in one of the connected C3s. It's possible they are now active, and it's worth checking. I make my way to the system and warp to the bookmarked tower, where two Tempest battleships are nestled inside the shields, but two battlecruisers, a Drake and Myrmidon, are outside. I think it's time to get back in to my stealth bomber, and I get Fin alert and ready too. We probably can't do much damage before the tower's defences start shooting us, and we're certainly unlikely to destroy the Drake, but a couple of bombs and a few torpedoes could threaten the Myrmidon nicely. The only trouble is that they've got to stay where they are whilst I go home, swap boats, and come back.

By the time even Fin makes the one-way journey to the C3 the two ships are gone, the Myrmidon back inside the tower's shields and the Drake joined the Tempests elsewhere. Drones visible on the directional scanner, along with a single Sleeper wreck, suggest the ships are in an anomaly, which presents a new opportunity. We still can't do much against the Drake or battleships, particularly if Sleepers are present too, but a salvager following behind the combat will be a good target. I bookmarked all of the anomalies in this system earlier, when I was exploring, so it is a simple matter to locate the combat using d-scan and the system map. Warping in to the site is a little risky, but I don't hit any structures or wrecks and my cloak holds. I bookmark a wreck or two, those that look like good points for a salvager to warp in to, which will let me warp out and back at good bombing range.

Fin has remained at the tower and is monitoring any changes. The Myrmidon pilot has swapped in to a Buzzard and has warped away to scan, which removes the battlecruiser from salvaging duty. As it doesn't look like a salvager will follow immediately behind the combat I warp out of the anomaly, so that it will despawn from having no ships present. If I stay the site won't despawn, which will serve as a warning that a cloaked ship is waiting there. I align back to the anomaly, keeping a tight d-scan beam on it to get updates about the ships still there, which lets me see the Drake warp out and all the drones get pulled back in to the ships' bays. One of the Tempest battleships warps out too, as a Noctis salvager appears at the tower. It looks like we have our target.

I warp in to the anomaly at thirty kilometres, hoping to get in to good bombing range with no additional manoeuvring, and Fin follows from the tower. The Tempest remains, and a Broadsword heavy interdictor has been brought in too to protect the Noctis. These pilots aren't taking chances or making assumptions. But we aren't discouraged from taking our shot either. We will have time to launch our bombs and warp away, and will probably risk a volley or two of torpedoes whilst there, as long as we stay outside of the HIC's warp bubble, which is inactive for the moment. Fin and I are in range, and we launch our bombs.

Both bombs hit the Noctis well! The ship's shields and armour are stripped, leaving little but structure protecting the pilot's pod. Torpedoes are fired and the ship is soon reduced to 20% structure, without any return fire yet coming from its guards. We've got him! Oh, except we haven't, as it warps away a second before what should have been the final volley hits. We warp away and cloak, safe from the HIC, which wasn't going to activate its bubble when it would also prevent the Noctis from leaving, making it less threatening overall. Time in warp gives time for reflection, and I know what went wrong with the assault. The primary failure was my own, in not getting a point on the Noctis, being just out of range and not making sure the ship couldn't leave. Just a few kilometres and a second or two would have got us the kill. Alternatively, had I remembered to activate my target painter the missiles would have done more damage and the final volley wouldn't have been needed. Either way, I need to learn from this.

I warp back in to the anomaly to now see a Rapier recon ship with the Tempest, but not for long. The Tempest warps out and the Rapier cloaks. The Tempest returns to the tower, which Fin is monitoring, where the Noctis is apparently not repairing itself. That seems a curious choice. The Myrmidon returns and moves out of the shields again, to be followed by the Noctis, both motoring slowly under manual control instead of warping quickly to a distant point. The lack of repairs is explained as the Myrmidon starts to rep the salvager, probably believing it to be quicker and just as safe. Well, it's quicker. I urge Fin to interrupt them by launching another bomb, as I send my own Manticore stealth bomber rushing towards the tower, which she does.

The Noctis is still in one piece when I arrive, a little too close for a bomb launch, and Fin is now warped away. I realign myself and launch my own second bomb, locking the Noctis and remembering to activate my target painter. It is another solid detonation, hitting both ships but my attention focussing on just the one. I start throwing torpedoes again, getting the Noctis once more down to no shields or armour and deep in to structure, when the tower defences start shooting me. I'm prepared and have aligned my Manticore for a quick exit, but I still drop to 35% armour by the time I'm in warp and can cloak again. And still the Noctis lives. Again, the final volley of torpedoes should have destroyed the salvager, but the Myrmidon has a couple of remote reppers active and they cycle just before the torpedoes hit, repairing enough armour for the salvager to withstand the last blast.

And, with that, our carried bombs are depleted. And the locals are both sufficiently warned and aggravated that we should perhaps not be foolish enough to try again, even if the opportunity were to present itself. I think we should have got the Noctis kill, but a little lack of judgement went against us today. I should have got close enough to hold a point on the first attempt, or at least had my target painter active. And on the second attempt I should have perhaps urged Fin to wait for my arrival before bombing rather than taking a quick shot. But the two ships may not have been out of the tower for long enough, and the unrepaired damage already done may have weakened the Noctis enough for one bomb to finish the job. It could have gone either way. At least we have first-hand experience of how tough a Noctis can be, surviving a twin-strike from stealth bombers under normal conditions. We were close to a sweet kill, but for now we simply head home to reload and get some rest.

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Tags: broadsword, buzzard, drake, eve online, helios, manticore, mmorpg, myrmidon, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, rapier, tempest, w-space

Unwittingly dropping short

The constellation has been revealed. Exploration has found three more class 3 w-space systems beyond our normal neighbour, with a couple of systems occupied, creating plenty of opportunity for mayhem. I have bookmarks for all the known wormholes, which are plenty, and anomalies in the systems. Now it is time to take my Manticore stealth bomber out for a roam, hoping to run in to a salvager or two, but mostly looking for signs of activity. I already know of one active ship, as Fin is around and has copied for herself the bookmarks I left in the shared can. And there is a second ship somewhere, Fin having heard a wormhole flare but not seeing who or what jumped. There is at least one pilot to hunt.

Our neighbouring class 3 system, designated 'C3a', is quiet, as is the class 3 system connected via a random outbound wormhole from C3a. This second system, C3b, is also quiet, but it holds two more outbound connections, both to class 3 w-space themselves, and I choose to pass through the link leading to C3d, as that system holds an on-line tower. Right before I jump Fin reports a Primae industrial ship jumping through the exit from C3b to high-sec empire space, Fin having exited to high-sec to check the market. She holds her position, seeing the Primae warp away in high-sec and waiting a few minutes for the same pilot to return in a pod and jump back to C3b. I have repositioned myself on the exit wormhole and see the pod jump in, but I don't try to catch it. Doing so would be futile for such a small and agile target, particularly one that could jump right back to high-sec. Instead, I note its vector as it warps away. It may have gone towards the wormhole to C3d, although its path looked a little high, and I continue with my original plan to check that system.

In the fourth class 3 system uncovered today I see on my directional scanner a Tempest battleship, and a Buzzard and Cheetah covert operations boat, but no pod. I warp to the tower, which I found and bookmarked earlier, to see all the ships inside the shields, and piloted. Capsuleers have woken up but they don't seem active yet, and there is no sign of the Primae pilot. In fact, Fin sees her, back in high-sec, in a second Primae. Maybe she's shipping out of w-space, her pod warping back a few minutes later almost confirming another repeat appearance. I often say that predictability is dangerous, and if she makes more trips between empire and w-space she has become a prime target. I jump back to C3b to see her pod briefly on d-scan, and as it doesn't jump past me she clearly isn't going to C3d. I warp to the wormhole connecting to C3c and lurk, but when an Iteron hauler appears on d-scan it seems that she isn't coming from any of the known connections.

Warping to the exit to high-sec sees the Iteron jump out, confirming the appearance of another wormhole in the system. It could be deeper w-space, or it could be from a null- or low-sec system, the pilot making using of the convenient high-sec connection to move assets more safely. At least, it was safe, moving through an unoccupied and apparently inactive system, but now we have a bead on her and I intend to set a trap. I assume the capsuleer's pod will return, she'll get another ship, and warp out again, so I go back home myself, jumping to C3a and then our C4, to swap the stealth bomber for my Onyx heavy interdictor, the HIC's warp bubble being key to catching the ship before it reaches high-sec. If I can get back to the wormhole and activate the bubble before the other pilot's ship enters warp in C3b, the bubble will pull the ship out of warp too far from the wormhole to jump, and she'll be in some amount of trouble. If, however, she gets her ship in to warp before the bubble is active then her navigation systems will have locked in to the destination and she'll pass through the bubble cleanly, letting her reach the wormhole and jump out of the system immediately. I need to be quick.

I jump back in to C3b and warp to the wormhole, urging my HIC's engines to speed our way. Dropping out of warp at the wormhole I activate the warp bubble, seconds before my continued punching of d-scan reveals the appearance of a Brutix battlecruiser in the system. I could be lucky, maybe I got the bubble up in time, even if a battlecruiser is a rather harder target than what has passed through so far, but I'm not, and I don't. The Brutix sails through my warp bubble as though it weren't there, jumping through the wormhole to the safety of high-sec without delay. Not only do I not catch the ship but I've also been made. The pilot will undoubtedly return, but my presence will be no surprise, and if I stay the capsuleer will merely wait for the session change timer to end and jump out of the system to return to high-sec, leaving me with nothing to do. It will be a stalemate, with me not catching anyone and the other pilot simply waiting until I leave. I have no desire to waste my time and so admit that I was just a bit slow, as I warp my Onyx away, returning home.

I swap back to my Manticore, returning the stealth bomber to C3b and the wormhole to high-sec. The caspuleer would be a fool to try to take another ship out to empire space after what's just happened. The Onyx has certainly been removed from the wormhole, but its presence in the first place is a good indicator that her activity has been noted. Never the less, it is no surprise that the pod returns. As I mention, it can easily see if a ship sits waiting, using the session change cloak to hide, before deciding to carry on homewards or to retreat back to high-sec. And I often rely on the folly of other pilots, which is why I am loitering cloaked on the wormhole in my Manticore, watching as the pod warps back through the class 3 system. But it looks like the pilot has either finished moving ships or is sensible enough to wait for another day before continuing, as I end up merely floating in space, passing the time with Fin nearby in her cloaked Buzzard. But maybe not. An Iteron appears on d-scan, the pilot obviously believing the lack of the Onyx has made it safe to make another journey. That much is true. But what the pilot didn't notice is what I did with the Onyx before I took it back home: I moved the wormhole.

I have known for ages that it is possible to move wormholes, finding out by accident. And when I posted about it a little while back a colleague performed some excellent research on how to move wormholes efficiently, noting that a HIC's bubble affects the ship's inertia to make moving the wormhole a quicker prospect, as a ship needs to be entirely stationary before it can shift a wormhole. I remembered this as the Brutix passed me, and on a whim started shifting the wormhole away from its current position. I knew I didn't have long, as I didn't want to remain there when the pod came back, having to exit the system myself to make it look safe to continue operations. I also had to cut short shifting the wormhole as I didn't want to risk another thirty-second cycle of the warp bubble. But before warping clear I managed to push the wormhole over seven kilometres from its original position.

What is important to know is how moving the wormhole affects bookmarks. Wormholes act like stargates, but can only be referenced indirectly. A bookmark identifies not the wormhole but a point in space, which if made properly will certainly coincide with the wormhole's position. But were the wormhole to move, the bookmark would still identify the original point of space, even though the wormhole would no longer be there. Our current target pilot would not realise the wormhole's new position when using it to jump back in to the system, as bookmarks are abstract and not indicated on the overview, so she warped away in her pod oblivious to what I had done. And this is why the Iteron now drops out of warp over seven kilometres away from the wormhole, and no doubt a little flustered.

It is possible to jump through a wormhole at a range of five kilometres. Being roughly seven kilometres away gives me and Fin only the time it takes to traverse a couple of kilometres to get the kill. Luckily, an Iteron doesn't move very fast and is quite fragile. A webbed Iteron moves even more slowly, Fin's Buzzard making sure of that. My Manticore is in minimum bombing range, as I was unsure whether I would have the time or inclination to open the assault with a bomb launch, but an Iteron should pop quickly enough with mere torpedoes, and I burn towards the hauler, just as it disappears. There is a moment of confusion, as it was too far from the wormhole to jump and we didn't see a flare. I realise that it must have cloaked, no doubt some measure of protection in case the Onyx was still around. But not only does an Iteron move slowly, a cloaked Iteron barely reaches a snail's pace. I surge my engines forwards again, thankful that I had started to close, and even from twenty kilometres out I am able to bump in to the hauler and break its cloak. Now the shooting starts.

Fin and I lock on to the Iteron, Fin's web keeping it from gathering pace, my point preventing it from warping away, and it gets pounded with torpedoes and a single light missile launcher as it tries desperately to reach the—inexplicably to her—out-of-reach wormhole to jump to safety. But her efforts are in vain. The Iteron explodes with a richly rewarding flash of light, and my sensor-boosted Manticore lunges for the ejected pod. I lock on and get a point on the pod too, the pilot either disorientated enough not to get away, or inexperienced enough to try to escape through the wormhole whilst a session change timer is in effect, and a few more shots results in a fresh corpse for me to scoop.

We have the wreck of an Iteron to loot. And what loot it is! A Proteus strategic cruiser subsystem catches my eye immediately, and I make sure I have room to grab that, but there is so much more. An extra-large ship maintenance array, corporate hangar array, and Tech II modules galore all survive the explosion, although the debris suggests just as much was also destroyed. We need our own hauler to recover all of this, as the Iteron was optimised for cargo space and quite obviously full. Thankfully, we get the pod kill, leaving our position and site of the wreck relatively safe, particularly considering the complete lack of traffic beyond this lone pilot. I stay in my Manticore as Fin returns home to get a Bustard transport ship back here. A couple of trips recovers all the loot safely, after which I shoot the wreck to leave no trace of our mischief.

The kill turns out to be a half-billion ISK loss for its pilot. Considering we missed a couple of Primae ships and a Brutix, this trophy Iteron is hitting the jackpot. And moving the wormhole in order to capture it was inspired, even if I say so myself. Taking the theoretical and making it workable has made w-space even more deadly.

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Tags: brutix, bustard, buzzard, cheetah, eve online, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, primae, pvp, tempest, w-space