Noctis in action

Enough speculation! I have my Noctis salvager now, I need to get out and use it to see how effective it can be. The numbers certainly look impressive but I want to experience it. It looks like I'll have the opportunity for some simple salvaging too. Exploration ends in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where I find the local tower easily from it being in the same place as when I was here a month ago. There are no pilots or ships at the tower, or elsewhere in the system, and scanning finds only three signatures. Two of them must be the wormholes home and out, and I already know from my previous visit that the static connection here exits to low-sec empire space, so I leave it inactive to keep the C3 isolated. The other signature is a lone anomaly, making the system almost entirely empty of Sleepers. But I only need the one anomaly.

I get my Tengu strategic cruiser out and take it to the C3, warping in to the anomaly and making relatively short work of the Sleepers there. Now I get to use the Noctis, which today is a bigger motivation for clearing the anomaly than profit, and I shall experiment. Normally, I look for and bookmark what I consider to be the most convenient wreck for salvaging, one that will get me within the twenty kilometre tractor beam range of most of the wrecks, whilst also providing a clear path to move to those wrecks out of range without having to double-back on my path. But not today. Tractor beams on a Noctis can reach much further, and I want to see what the ship can do when in rather more clumsy hands.

I don't bookmark a wreck at all, instead warping in to the anomaly's cosmic signature, which is almost guaranteed to be nowhere convenient. And it isn't, any bookmarked wreck certainly being a better option, yet all but two of the wrecks are still in range of the vastly increased reach of the tractor beams, and those two out of range only need a small movement in order to pull them towards me. Ten wrecks are locked and four tractored to my position, where the salvagers rip the remains of the wrecks on a faster cycle time to my expansive cargo hold. The increased velocity of the tractor beams' pull catches me sleeping a couple of times, still expecting them to take a while to get any wreck close to me.

Thanks to my having trained to fit Salvager II modules the salvaging completes in almost no time. It certainly seems much faster than having been in a destroyer, and my time was spent activating tractor beams and salvagers instead of calculating and tracing an efficient path between each cluster of wrecks whilst also working the modules. I am impressed. Some of the strategy in salvaging is removed but in favour of much increased efficiency, which appeals to me. Oh, and I get a little over fifty million ISK in loot from the anomaly.

Now I can help the recently arrived Fin to collapse our static wormhole, which goes smoothly. Isolated again, it is time to clear some of the anomalies in our home system. The sites are building up locally, and there is always the risk of other capsuleers passing through and taking the profit for themselves. It's not really a 'risk', as it doesn't involve direct harm to ourselves, but the profit from the class 4 anomalies is significantly above that of the plentiful supply of class 3 anomalies we have beyond our static wormhole, and we would rather realise the ISK in our home system ourselves. So Fin and I take our Tengus out for a romp, clearing three frontier barracks of Sleepers, before it is time again to salvage. We only have the one Noctis between us, and I selfishly grab it for personal use again.

Frontier barrack anomalies are awkward to salvage. In my destroyer, I generally bookmark a wreck in the cluster of the second wave of ships, low in the z-axis, before moving vertically towards the wrecks of the third wave, which warps in over a hundred and fifity kilometres from the second, and finally surging with my MWD to the final two battleship wrecks that comprise the first wave. It seems like an efficient routine, and one that works well for me, but I immediately see the potential to use the Noctis more effectively. The frigates of the third wave move quickly to intercept us and result in wrecks mid-way between the second and third waves, and those are the wrecks I bookmark to warp to.

Placing my Noctis fairly neatly in the middle of the anomaly puts me within tractor beam range of nearly all the wrecks. An impossible situation for a destroyer, and one where I would have to double-back at least once, the Noctis grabs and pulls most of the wrecks without having to move, and they surge towards me with the speed of an MWD-boosted destroyer. Even when I have to move the Noctis towards the few wrecks out of range, and even with an MWD active and pushing my speed above 1,100 m/s, the wrecks held by the tractor beams don't fall behind out of range of the salvager modules, easily matching my speed and more. The awkward barracks are tamed by the Noctis.

It is awesome to speed around and still have wrecks keep up and overtake my ship, to have ten locked targets to manipulate, not to have to path the wrecks to any sophisticated level. Fin wonders if there will be fewer ambush opportunities because of the increased speed of salvaging, but I don't think so. As I pointed out in a previous comment, I am normally waiting in the site before the salvager gets there. The only change in behaviour I will need to adopt is to predict where a Nocits salvager will warp in to the site, as the increased range of its systems may change the initial position, and I will need to ensure my ship is close enough to strike. Otherwise, the Noctis is fatter, less agile, and more susceptible to torpedoes. I would say the Noctis is a good addition all around.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, salvaging, scanning, tengu, w-space

Navigating some null-sec

Scanning today could be interesting. After yesterday's contretemps Fin and I were a little concerned about the other corporation coming in to our home system and stealing all the profit from our indigenous Sleeper population. It is a minor concern, and one that prompts us to gather that profit for ourselves at the next opportunity instead of leaving it for passing wanderers to claim, but I am still curious to see if we have lost any sites.

Launching probes and taking a quick look around shows no signs of missing anomalies, and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I initiated the conflict and the other pilots didn't seem keen to follow us to our home ground, so the likelihood of them entering a hostile system to engage Sleepers is, in retrospect, rather slim. In fact, a couple of new sites have spawned, a new ladar mining site and anomaly now present in our system. And, yes, this is about as interesting as scanning gets.

I am happy to see the static wormhole sitting quite conspicuously away from my already referenced sites, and it is a simple matter to resolve the signature. Jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system finds nothing of interest, lacking any towers, ships, or pilots. I launch probes and scan once more, seeing a healthy sixteen anomalies waiting to be plundered, along with eight other signatures. I resolve a wormhole and leave it unvisited for now, but a second wormhole demands attention, having the possibility of leading deeper in to w-space. But the second connection turns out to be a K162 from null-sec space, making this C3 less interesting again.

The entrance from null-sec probably means that the system's static connection has already been opened, letting me pay it a visit too. What I actually find is another K162, this one from deadly class 6 w-space, and I am left to resolve a third wormhole here before moving on. The static wormhole leads out in to null-sec space as well, which isn't terribly interesting for a w-space dweller like myself, but I appreciate the chance to get more red dots of exploration. I pop out to null-sec and happily find myself near a couple of dead ends in the Malpais region. I head off to visit more systems, one direction being uneventful but the other sending me in to my first stargate surrounded by warp bubbles.

I have to say, I make a bit of a mess of navigating the bubbles, and although it's lucky there are no capsuleers present to see my clumsiness I am sure the rats on the gate nearly take advantage of me. I am a little taken aback by not being able to keep the stargate at range, which I can with wormholes, making me manually navigate initially. I move away and cloak safely enough, but aligning to the next stargate in my route only sends me flying back in to the stargate I just used, which decloaks me and has me all in a fluster trying to move away and cloak again before the rats lock my Buzzard covert operations boat. I decide to play it safe and just head directly out of the bubbles by the nearest route, which then lets me warp away.

What is more interesting is that the next gate is also bubbled, but not quite so thoroughly as to cover the stargate itself. Lots of large bubbles float around and look menacing, but my ship is able to warp to zero and land in activation range of the gate. The arrangement is a bit of a shambles, I'd say. But there is no one around to notice any of my movements and I am soon back in w-space, having visited seven more null-sec systems. The other exit to null-sec from the C3 also is near a dead-end system, one hop away in fact, making my visit here even briefer. And with my null-sec exploration over for today I warp to the K162 from the C6 and jump through to more w-space.

My directional scanner shows me one on-line tower and lots of big ships, including carriers, dreadnaughts, and strategic cruisers, and twenty curiously off-line towers, whose purpose I can only wonder at. And as I am wondering I hear the wormhole flare behind me, catching sight just in time of a Tengu strategic cruiser leaving the system. Rather than follow him I take a couple of minutes to find the tower in this C6, which then puts me in d-scan range of a second tower with some equally big ships, but the only other pilot I see in the system is in a Proteus strategic cruiser, and he's not moving.

By now, I think enough time has passed for the Tengu to have moved away from the wormhole in the C3 and I jump back, hoping that perhaps he is engaging Sleepers and that I will soon have a salvager to shoot at, but there is no sign of him in the system. There aren't even any scanning probes visible, to suggest some activity. So with little else to do for now I simply head home and take a break, after a mostly relaxing afternoon of exploration.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, tengu, w-space

Moving on to the familiar

Westfall ho! I never much enjoyed adventuring in low-level Elfland and, now that the cataclysm has hit, I am hoping to find new experiences wherever I go, rather than simply trying to streamline my progress to be as efficient as possible. But first I have to work out how to get there. Taking a gryphon flight from Rut'theran Village to Auberdine reveals a tidal wave has destroyed the pier, and no ships depart from here any more. I fly back to the village where I saw the ship earlier. I assumed that was the old service redundantly shuttling characters between here and Auberdine slower than the gryphons, but it is now travelling directly to Stormwind City. I am on my way, and have seen some of the new changes already.

In Stormwind City, I see the goblins in the centre of the trade district and at first ignore them, not planning to waste time with the seasonal quests to get some mostly useless presents from a jolly weirdo in a beard, until I realise the potential. I grab the flight point in Stormwind City, hop on the Deeprun Tram up to Ironforge, help myself to a couple of presents, then take a gryphon flight south again. This should let me get a bird's-eye view of a few regions and the mighty changes wreaked. And it's all a bit disappointing. There seem to be a few changes in Dun Morogh, but only where trolls have moved in, and both Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes seem unchanged. Northshire Abbey, starting zone for humans, has been razed and is slightly different, but I see nothing cataclysmic.

Oh well, on to Westfall. I know the route and don't fancy taking any diversions, not seeing any major changes here either. But I can't resist going to say hello to Hogger again, the elite mongrel who was the bane of many a low-level character. I return a warlock, with a blue cloud demon for company, and feeling suitably overpowered. And Hogger is easier to find, now restricted to his own end of the camp and neatly cordoned off to keep the unwary from wandering in to his path. But my revenge is not sweet. I am about to defeat the dog when some Stormwind coppers turn up to haul Hogger off the the Stockades. That's different, and I assume we can meet again when I am inevitably sent to quell a riot.

Diversion complete, I get back on the road and cross the border from Elwynn Forest in to Westfall. No longer are there two evicted farmers standing forlornly by the side of the road but instead a crime scene, with an inspector and his officers examining a couple of corpses. I am tasked to gather some clues, which I do, killing a few rather aggressive tramps along the way, but I am keen to explore the rest of the zone. I leave the inspector behind and press onwards, stopping at a farm to get a chicken for a pet, and making it to a Sentinel Hill that is more impressive than I recall. I also spy a gaping chasm off in the distance with rocks and trees flying in a cyclone above it. That's new.

The quest density seems much decreased. I don't find my log crammed with a dozen quests that let me run around with gay abandon and slaughter anything in my path. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I am sent to the lighthouse, though, which makes a change from having to find it on your own initiative to gather the quests there, although that defeats the exploration aspect of the world a little. The revamping of the zones includes the quests, which I am glad to find out at the lighthouse. The old ghost used to send you along the entire length of the Westfall coast, murdering murlocs across such a level range that you either had to gain five levels whilst doing the single quest, risk getting stomped in to the ground by the higher-level murlocs in the south, or slaughter the fish-men for no XP gain in the north. Now you only need to cull a few of the locals, which is easier and makes more sense.

Moonbrook has been taken by the Alliance, and it's about time. The 'secret' entrance to the Deadmines eluded the idiots at Sentinel Hill for a few too many years to give any impression of competence. The Defias Brotherhood also seem to be pretty much eradicated, although I am seeing hints of a revival. And I find out, after returning to collect further hints for the inspector, that I am indeed doing something wrong with respect to quest density. Once I have furthered his quest objectives a little I am asked to do much more, and have a nicely populated quest log after all. It seems that the content is gated more heavily now, pulling you in to the zone and shepherding you in a certain direction until you are capable to wandering freely. It's a little restrictive, and having to do the same initial quests each time on entering the region with any character could become tiresome, but it adds a decent narrative direction.

I see there are new flight points dotted around the landscape, which should make low-level travel more bearable than continually running across the region at the whim of sadistic quest givers. But maybe they aren't as needed as expected, as the quest givers have been given a stern telling-off, stopped from getting you to speak to someone in another continent who only tells you to go right back where you came from. They also don't ask you to kill a number of very specific mobs, where defeating a stronger enemy is apparently less desirable and won't count towards the quota. Nowadays, you are sent of to kill a type of mob, and any kind of kill is recognised as getting the job done.

Another change is the highlighting of the mobs' nameplates when they are the target of a quest. That's a decent visual indicator, letting you clearly see what mobs around you are needed for quests without having to mouse-over them or check your log or quest helper. However, it has a peculiar side-effect of making areas look deceptively unthreatening. Other mobs can populate an area but their nameplates won't be highlighted, and as you condition yourself to look for the red nameplates to gain targets you can become blind to the other mobs, wandering in to dangerous places without realising how much of a target you are making yourself. This is compounded when defeating the last mob required for the quest, as then all the other mobs of the same type are no longer highlighted either, and your view goes from seeing a bunch of red names to no names at all, and everything looks safe. But you still need to be aware that you are surrounded by mobs that want to eat you. The highlighting effect is a neat addition overall, but a decent awareness of it being active is required or it can backfire significantly.

I glide through Westfall, pleased more with the changes to questing than with the changes to the region itself. There are some cosmetic changes, one quite large, but in general it is the same region as I remember. That shouldn't be surprising, as the world hasn't been turned upside down, and the changes that are present show progress in the world, which is change enough for an otherwise static environment. The changes to questing are decent, and extend out to Redridge Mountains and Duskwood. Even quests relying on drops look to be improved, with quest items clearly highlighted and looking to be approaching 100% drop rate, if not actually 100%. It is far less frustrating than having to trust the odds. I wouldn't call the revamped World of Warcraft a modern MMORPG, but the changes have certainly pulled it back from being horribly out-dated.

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Tags: azeroth, cataclysm, jelica, mmorpg, world of warcraft

Noctis in numbers

Now that I have my Noctis I am beginning to appreciate how good it looks, at least on super-futuristic space paper. I trained the ORE industrial skill to level one, just because I bought the book and it let me pilot the ship at the most basic level. With the ship in my hangar I have begun training a bit more, currently only at level two but improving. And even at merely level two the bonuses the Noctis gives are impressive. Tractor beams normally only reach out to twenty kilometres and pull at 500 m/s, but the Noctis systems boost this considerably, with my meagre skills letting the tractor beams reach out to forty-four kilometres and pull at 1,100 m/s. This is significant.

A destroyer as a salvager may be nippy and agile, but being able to zoom around at over a kilometre a second, with a micro-warp drive active, is wasted when dragging wrecks at only 500 m/s. The wrecks soon are left behind and out of range of the salvaging modules, meaning you are forced to slow down as on a road full of speed bumps. You could go faster, but pretty soon something will break free. But the Noctis acts in reverse, pulling the wrecks to the ship with the speed of a destroyer, MWD permanently active. Each wreck is being delivered to the Noctis by its own personal courier. On top of that, if you need to move, which you may not with a tractor beam range possibly extending over a hundred kilometres in diameter, the ship won't move away from the wrecks.

The Noctis can be fitted with an MWD, which can push it to speeds a little over 1,100 m/s itself, which is impressive. What is more impressive is that it can maintain this speed and still have wrecks tractored to it from any direction. The Noctis, it seems, will have complete freedom of movement when salvaging, not having to be concerned about moving faster than the tractor beams can pull, and only barely concerned about getting in tractor beam range of wrecks. The icing on the cake is the capability to lock a maximum of ten targets simultaneously, coupled with a decent targeting range, which is another reason to gain the elite targeting certificate and is good for us ex-logistics pilots. The new ship looks like making my carefully considered strategy on salvaging obsolete.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic

Suppressing fire

Glorious leader Fin arrives, and I update her on my mischief. A K162 wormhole has opened in to our system, and I chased a scout in my Malediction interceptor, shooting the shields off his Helios covert operations boat for giggles. A bit of manoeuvring has now seen a Manticore stealth bomber sitting on the other side of the K162, in the class 4 w-space system. I am still in my own Manticore and suggest Fin boards our Onyx heavy interdictor and throw that through the wormhole to see if it prompts a reaction, maybe a hasty or speculative bomb launch. She agrees and warms up the Onyx's systems, as I monitor our side of the connection for any activity.

I see as much happen near the wormhole in our system as Fin finds on the other side, although I suppose an Onyx doesn't often work well as bait. And the lack of an early bomb launch suggests either a relatively experienced pilot or that he's moved away again, perhaps after our two Manticores crossed paths. I still like the idea of pursuing the lone capsuleer, though, which means swapping in to my Buzzard cov-ops boat to scan for another K162, as I found out earlier that this class 4 system is no longer home to any corporation.

Scanning in the connecting C4 sees me having to ignore lots of gas, like being in a company lift after curry day in the canteen, but I find a wormhole without too much fuss. It is quite likely that the system on the other side of this K162 holds the home of the pilot I've been chasing, and I have no idea what awaits my entrance. As I am only in my fragile Buzzard I invite Fin to come along for the fun, but also in a cloaky ship for some element of surprise and possibility of escape. She chooses a Pilgrim recon ship and flies out to join me.

With Fin in warp, I jump through the K162 in to the next class 4 w-space system. The Manticore I saw earlier makes itself known to me almost immediately and launches a bomb directly towards the wormhole. I sit curiously passive, knowing that the session change cloak, whilst it remains active, will shield me from any aggression, and watch as the bomb's explosion encompasses me without dealing damage. And I also know that I have Fin behind me in a Pilgrim, only a few seconds away, and fly in to action. My Buzzard spins and surges towards the Manticore, locking and pointing it, sending rockets from the single launcher its way in what seems like a feeble effort to engage it. But all I am doing is stopping the bomber from escaping and buying time until Fin arrives, which she now does, the wormhole flaring behind me.

My Buzzard's shields are taking a beating but the Manticore will soon be dust now that I have a Pilgrim behind me. Except just as Fin jumps a second ship decloaks, a Rapier recon ship. The pilot I've been chasing has brought in his own support, and I can't survive this. The Manticore pilot isn't happy with the situation either, and he jumps through the wormhole. I am happy to follow him, shields pummelled but armour thankfully untouched so far, although it means abandoning Fin to a fight I hadn't prepared her for. In the other system, the Manticore doesn't want to engage any further and simply moves away from the wormhole and cloaks, and I again follow his lead. But it seems that perhaps the stealth bomber was more of a lure, as Fin doesn't respond as I ask if I should change ships and return.

Without knowing what else is in the system I can't adequately swap in to an effective ship, but Fin's silence at least means she is still fighting and not in a new clone. I return home anyway, preparing to get the right ship, and fter a short while I hear a response. 'Lots of help came', Fin tells me, an Arazu recon ship, Nighthawk command ship, and Onyx heavy interdictor all turning up for a barney. And although the Pilgrim was a good choice, with its tracking disruptors working well, the hostiles' use of ECM drones was also effective. At least Fin was able to flee, although at the cost of leaving her own drones behind, and we are both safe.

No ships were lost on either side, which is an interesting result. Perhaps if I had been in a different ship when I first jumped in we could have got a kill, but I stayed in my Buzzard in case further scanning was required. I couldn't have known that the stealth bomber waiting for me was inexperienced and would launch a bomb ineffectually against my ship whilst it was protected by the session change cloak. Or maybe he was counting on my panicking and trying to flee the bomb, making it effective as a result. It is difficult to know people's motivations when there are conflicting possibilities that can equally explain them.

Fin's return passage through the wormhole in to the C4 directly connecting to our home system is not followed. I attribute this to the attackers' desire to keep the fight on their terms and not wanting to be pulled in to an uncontrolled combat. I can fully appreciate that. It lets us return home simply enough and, again, it looks like no one follows us. It looks like I can finally now go out to get my Noctis salvager, still waiting for me after buying it before noticing the encroaching capsuleers. I'm pleased I can pick up the ship now, as the capricious nature of wormhole life would mean the collapse of the connection to empire space could make collection another day rather more tortuous.

Bringing the ship in to w-space is still a little risky, but now I don't need to rely on hoping nothing changes in the systems or connections. Fin gracefully accepts my request to monitor any changes of activity, which she does by placing herself mid-way between the two wormholes in our system and keeping watch on her directional scanner. Nothing should pass through without being spotted, however briefly, and I am able to pick up my Noctis and throw the fittings together without Fin spotting any ships. I bring the ship home safely enough, the C3 looking unchanged as I jump in, letting me warp homewards.

I think I am home and safe, but just as I am entering warp in our home system to return to the tower the wormhole to the C3 flares behind me. I don't see the ship appear, making me wonder if I caught whoever it was napping as I passed him, but Fin spies a Falcon on d-scan briefly. He made no move against my Noctis, maybe even being oblivious to the new class of ship and wondering about its offensive capabilities, and I get the harmless salvager home. We ignore the Falcon, Fin considering engaging it to be a lot of hassle for little gain, and settle down for the night. We don't have the firepower to overcome the tanks of the Onyx or Nighthawk, and even neutralising their capacitors won't give us an advantage against passively regenerative shields and missile launchers, so we just let them be and get and early night.

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, eve online, falcon, manticore, mmorpg, nighthawk, noctis, onyx, penny ibramovic, pilgrim, rapier, scanning, w-space

Looking to get a Noctis

We have big neighbours today, the class 3 w-space system occupied and holding a Chimera and Orca, amongst other ships. The carrier and industrial command ship float gently inside the local tower's shields, with an Onyx heavy interdictor and Drake battlecruiser nearby, none of them piloted. My probes find a wormhole on the first hit, which seems like canny scanning sense until I realise there are only four signatures in total, including the wormhole homewards, although there are also nine anomalies in this otherwise tidy system. The wormhole is an exit to high-sec empire space, but is reaching the end of its natural lifetime, making it not even worth checking the destination system. Instead, I resolve the two signatures waiting to be discovered as radar sites, bookmark everything, and head home to take a break.

I consider taking my Manticore stealth bomber in to the C3 a little later, hoping to find some activity to disrupt, but take my Buzzard covert operations boat out to look for the new exit to high-sec that should have spawned by now. My choice is good, as the C3 remains sleepy and with the same ships sitting inert at the local tower, and the aging wormhole I found earlier has imploded. I resolve the new static wormhole, easy enough when it is the only changed signature, and jump out to see if I am close to market.

Now that I have trained the skill to pilot a Noctis salvager I may as well buy one and see if there is any fuss to be made over them, so I lurk cloaked by the wormhole in high-sec as I buy a ship, along with some fittings I work out in a rush. I plump for a standard split of tractor beams and salvager modules in the eight high slots, then opt for a choice of propulsion module and capacitor recharger in the mid slots, and hedge my bets with more capacitor recharge modules and agility modifiers in the low slots. I doubt I'll need to expand the already significant cargo hold, particularly as loot from Sleepers can be efficiently stored in a pack of After Eights.

With my shopping done I jump back to w-space to head home, where I can leave my Buzzard behind and take my pod out to bring in my new Noctis. Except I see there are now scanning probes in our home system, which weren't there when I left. I doubt the C3 inhabitants have woken up and found their way in to our system—their system was unchanged as I passed through, and I would expect them to have jumped out to high-sec through their static wormhole before heading deeper in to w-space—which means that a new wormhole has opened in to our system. I won't collect my Noctis just yet.

It is easy to see that whatever scout is in our system hasn't found our static wormhole yet, as his probes are all many AU away from my position at the wormhole. If he's being methodical it will take a while for his attention to get over here, what with the two dozen or so signatures messying up the system, so I launch probes and look for the K162. I have an advantage, as I have all of the clutter already bookmarked and I simply need to look for the signature that seems out of place, and I quickly am in warp to a new wormhole. The K162 comes from a class 4 system, much like our own, but I don't jump through it and only bookmark its location instead. Now I can set an ambush.

I swap the Buzzard at our tower for my Malediction interceptor, hoping that the scout isn't too smart and isn't monitoring the tower, or at least won't think anything of my ship appearing briefly. Now I warp back to our static wormhole and jump in to the C3, where I wait. I can be almost certain that the scout came through the K162 in to our C4, and is looking to continue his exploration, which can only lead him to the wormhole I am now sitting menacingly on. When he jumps through, I will do my best to catch his hopefully unsuspecting self and pop his ship. But that means waiting, and I think I already mentioned the large number of signatures he has to resolve in our system.

I keep a check on my directional scanner as I wait, making sure that no probes or additional ships appear in the class 3 system, beyond those already noted to be at the local tower. And I wait for the flare of the wormhole, listening for its distinctive sound to alert me of a ship's passage. Inevitably, I get bored and jump back home, quickly check d-scan again to confirm probes are still in the system, and return immediately to the C3 to once again wait, wait, wait. Punch d-scan, note no changes, go back to reading on my secondary computer systems. I have my sensors tuned to the wormhole's frequency so that any flare will be amplified, helping ensure I miss nothing, and still I wait. La la la, I get bored again and jum—the wormhole flares!

I get my interceptor's systems hot. Warp disruption modules are brought on-line, the micro-warp drive is engaged, and rocket launchers prepared. A Helios cov-ops boat appears! He is feeling confident, as he broke cover before the session change ended, but I am alert and primed. I fail to gain a positive lock on the ship, but I expect that and concentrate instead on throwing my ship directly at his. Success! My Malediction bumps the Helios, decloaking it, and I get a positive lock before it can warp away. Now the Helios is pointed and my launchers are active, spewing newly effective rockets towards the captured boat. His shields are obliterated pretty quickly but not much more, as he returns to the wormhole and jumps back to our home C4 to evade me.

I follow him through the wormhole, but maybe a second too slowly as I fail to intercept him in our home system to get the bump I need. But thinking I would be chasing him the way he came is why I took time to scan for the K162 before swapping to my interceptor. I haven't caught him on our static wormhole, but I can warp to the K162 and try again. But again I seem to be a second too slow, dropping out of warp at the K162 without seeing either the Helios or a flare of activity. It was close, but I don't get a kill this time. At least I got some shots in and managed to use my interceptor effectively, which I am quite happy about. And the action may not be over yet, as I can still follow him in through the K162 in to what I presume to be his home system. But I won't do that in my interceptor, it being a bit vulnerable, particularly now that it has been seen.

I return to our tower and swap the Malediction for my Manticore, preferring the combination of stealth and firepower until I know what repercussions my attack will bring. I warp to the K162, jump through, and explore. I was here before, about four months ago, and I have a tower listed in my notes. But d-scan only shows me an off-line tower, which turns out to be the same one in my notes, only abandoned. It looks like this isn't the home of the Helios pilot and that he must have come from elsewhere, and I can't find any wormholes in my current ship. I can't see any sign of ships or probes in here either, maybe making it a good time to collect my Noctis.

Actually, maybe it's not a good idea to try to bring a defenceless ship in from w-space after having just shot another capsuleer and not knowing for sure if a counter-attack is being staged. I warp back to the wormhole home, planning to get back in to my Buzzard to quickly scan for a wormhole in this neighbouring class 4 system, at least to satisfy myself that the capsuleer I engaged is not seeking revenge. But I only get as far as the wormhole before realising that I have prompted a reaction, a second Manticore seen lurking nearby and cloaking as I approach. I warped to zero on the wormhole, landing me on top of it and deactivating my cloaking device, so I have little option but to go with my inertia and jump home, holding on the other side for a while to see if the other pilot follows. He doesn't, but it certainly isn't time to collect my Noctis, not just yet.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Looking to get a Noctis
Tags: buzzard, chimera, drake, eve online, helios, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Class 4 versus class 2 w-space anomalies

Exploring today easily uncovers three wormholes in our home system, all by looking in the bookmark container. Glorious leader Fin has been scanning and found the wormholes, and continued through our static connection. I copy the bookmarks to my nav-comp and zoom off in a different direction, picking one of the two class 2 w-space systems connecting in to our home system to explore. The system number for this first C2 looks suspicously familiar. Even though it could simply be the pattern of J123450 making me think I've been here before, it turns out I actually have, twice, and the last time was only two weeks ago. I check that my notes are current and find all four towers in the system where I left them. And there's only one ship in the system, the Vexor Navy Issue cruiser sitting unpiloted at one of the towers.

Scanning the class 2 system is quick, holding only five anomalies and four signatures, one being the wormhole homewards. I resolve the second static wormhole—an exit to high-sec empire space that is at the end of its lifetime—a magnetometric site, and a K162 wormhole coming from another C2. I may as well keep up my momentum and jump through the K162, finding this next system to have more and pointier ships visible on my directional scanner. The Broadsword heavy interdictor, Typhoon battleship and others look fairly threatening, but less so once found unpiloted inside the shields of the local tower. This system is inactive at the moment too. Scanning reveals one anomaly, two mining sites, and an exit to empire space that leads to a rather uninteresting low-sec system.

Fin, meanwhile, has gone the other way and investigated the second class 2 system connecting in to our home C4, finding more space but just as little activity. I go to join Fin, following her exhaust to let me bookmark an exit to high-sec empire space and a K162 from a class 4 system. I check the destination system of the exit as Fin explores the C4 and, as she reports nothing of much interest in the C4, I make a few hops to pick up the skill book for the new Noctis salvaging ship, not so much jumping on the bandwagon as desperately running behind it trying to keep up. A destroyer has worked well for long enough that although the Noctis specifications look impressive I'm not convinced it will make that much difference. But at least it will give me an excuse to buy a new ship.

There are half-a-dozen w-space systems in our constellation today, and they are all as quiet as a Xepheillion space mouse that's been thrown out of an airlock in to the near-total vacuum of the void. Which makes it time to shoot some Sleepers! And we have some options, the class 4 w-space system beyond one of the class 2 systems seeming like the most profitable option. The C4 also holds a magnetar phenomenon, increasing damage inflicted, which should make combat quicker. The only impediment to our combat is that the wormhole connecting us to the C2 is now reaching the end of its natural lifetime. But as the connection was healthy only a short while ago we should have a buffer of a few hours before being in danger of getting isolated, and we both won't take that long and have bookmarks to guide us through the C2's exit to high-sec should the worst happen.

Fin and I swap our scanning boats for Tengu strategic cruisers. I even have my second Tech II weapons, skill training now progressing on heavy assault missile specialisation and the advanced launchers fitted and ready on my ship. Entering combat, I am sure it is the magnetar phenomenon helping more and not my extra 2% rate of fire, but whatever it is the Sleepers really are being destroyed a lot more quickly than normal. We clear two frontier barracks anomalies rapidly and return home to swap to salvaging ships to clear up behind ourselves. No Noctis salvagers yet, but probably soon. And I am beginning to think the new ship will be worth it, at least in some situations, as the magnetar reduces targeting range, our destroyers only reaching out to a little over thirty kilometres. The reduced targeting range may slow us down a little but not by much, and we bring home about two hundred and twenty million ISK in loot and salvage.

The evening isn't quite over yet, and we have more anomalies to clear in the two class 2 w-space system directly connecting to us. We modify our configuration to one Tengu and one salvager, thinking that the strategic cruiser can blitz through the Sleepers in low-class w-space as quickly as the salvager behind can sweep, but this thought is soon proven erroneous. The Sleepers are quite hardy in general, and even guardians of C2 systems take a bit of shooting to defeat. A standard two Tengu fleet is adopted and we both burn through four more anomalies together. But the combat isn't as quick as we'd like, and the loot brought home is really quite poor considering the time investment, recovering a little over seventy million ISK.

It feels rather thankless to return with so little gain, and I don't think we'll be rushing in to any more class 2 systems to shoot Sleepers. We should stick to class 3 and 4 w-space systems for a good profit in our Tengus. At least we know now, and can make better use of our time and resources in the future. And we still come away with some profit from the C2 anomalies, so it wasn't time wasted. But, for now, it is time to get some sleep.

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Tags: broadsword, eve online, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, typhoon, vexor, w-space

Scanning, shooting, selling

It's interesting to have a w-space system full of bookmarked signatures and look for differences. It gives a sense of initial approximation and spatial recognition when trying to match up bookmarked locations with the fuzzy first feelers scanning probes initially return, trying to gauge which of the couple of dozen red dots is sufficiently separate from a known site to be new. Do it enough, and finding the daily refreshed static wormhole in our pulsar system becomes easier. Which is just my way of pointing out that, once again, I am alone and scanning.

Our neighbouring class 3 system is familiar today, having visited it previously three months ago to the day. My notes have information about occupancy and the where the static wormhole will lead, which looks to be low-sec empire space again. But I also see, and confirm, that my directional scanner no longer has a tower in the system. If my notes don't agree with there being occupation, then perhaps there is still hope that I won't find an exit to low-sec!

I jest, of course, and when scanning the system I resolve a single wormhole and, knowing it to lead to low-sec space, leave it unvisited. There are also two anomalies and sixteen other signatures here, which turn out to be just rocks and gas. I consider taking a break but see the opportunity to clear a couple of anomalies without interruption. I jump homewards and swap the scanning boat for my Tengu strategic cruiser, going back to the C3 to make some quick profit. Except that running anomalies solo isn't that quick.

Although I was planning to clear both anomalies I soon change my mind and stop after the first, not exactly wanting for petty iskies right now and thinking there are better activities for me to do. I loot the wrecks, returning home with a modest forty million ISK in salvage, and take a break.

A little later and not much has changed. I am still by myself and the class 3 system remains empty. I may as well open the static wormhole in the C3 and go out to empire space to sell our collected loot, but trying to do so only has my ship floating in empty space. I suppose the wormhole was opened hours before I jumped in to the system earlier, by other pilots. It is a good reminder never assume anything, particularly that a system is unconnected. At least I continued to watch d-scan when in my Tengu shooting Sleepers.

I swap to my Buzzard covert operations boat and, ignoring the same gas and rocks as before, resolve the new static connection in the class 3 system. Checking the exit destination puts me in low-sec empire space, but only one jump to high-sec and three in total from Hek, a hub I recognise. I don't know where the previous connection led, but it couldn't have been much more convenient than this one. It is a simple matter to sell all of our Sleeper loot and contract the salvage to our friendly industrialist.

Whilst out in empire space, and near a market hub, I buy some heavy assault launcher II modules, ready for my second advanced launcher skill to start training. I throw them in to my cargo hold and set course to return to w-space, divvying up the ISK from the sale of the Sleeper loot between corporation tax, Fin, and myself as I make the short journey. Back at the tower, I settle down to sleep.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scanning, shooting, selling
Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Losing your tail

I have been drawn back to Azeroth, partly because of the cataclysmic changes to the landscape, and partly because of the introduction of the worgen race. Draenei are interesting in being an ungulate, but an anthropomorphic wolf appeals much more to the furry in me. It is a little disappointing, then, to find that the worgen don't have tails. At least, none that is visible over clothing, which even the draenei tailors manage to achieve. The elves even mock the tailless wolves in a quest, playing on the dual meaning of the word. But it's still pretty cool to be animalistic without cloven feet.

The starting area for the worgen is much to be expected after the radical overhauls of the previous two expansions. Phasing is used to good effect again, much like it is with the death knights, and a story is imparted to the character in the same way. You are not so much introduced to the game as you are to your race's heritage, which was barely a feature of the original starting zones. Following the plight of Gilneas, turning in to a worgen, being overrun by undead, and seeing the world collapse is all brought vividly to life by the quests and changing landscapes. But it isn't quite as slick as it appears.

There are several times when your character needs to get from point A to point B, and they are far enough apart that the game design throws you on a horse or carriage and transits you between the points. You have no control over your actions and no option but to sit back and wait until the necessary scene has unfolded. It's not particularly heroic to be nothing more than an observer, and being shuffled between areas in such a way can highlight the entirely linear nature of your adventure. And that's essentially the problem with the phasing too.

One of the problems with a massively multiplayer game is how to enable players to affect the world. You can't have bosses killed for good, as no one else can then defeat them. You can't change the scenery, because that denies anyone else doing the same. But phasing overcomes this by allowing everyone to achieve the same effects without affecting anyone else. But the problem is that it becomes not only linear but also necessary to generate the achievement. There is nowhere to go in the worgen starting zone except where the current quest tells you to go, and phasing means there is no way to escape it except by completing the quest. It is empowering to think you are the cause of the landscape-altering event, but emasculating to realise that it could happen no other way.

Whilst other starting zones clearly expect players to pick up every quest and complete them, tailored to getting the character to a certain level before shuffling them out to the next zone, at least they can be escaped. Not that I tried, but it seems that once you have chosen worgen you need to complete nearly all of the worgen quests before you can leave the starting zone. You seem to play a pivotal role in helping your fellows, but ultimately you have no choice. Phasing is as much of a restriction as a freedom, preventing progress by forcing choices.

At least there is a decent mix of quest types. There are many occasions where I have one quest to complete before moving on to the next, each one critical in imparting the story, but there are collection quests, vehicle quests, rounding-up quests, and a stealth quest. Many of the game mechanics are presented early and neatly, although it is difficult to gauge their effectiveness when I am already familiar with most of what is sought to be achieved. There was an issue with the final quest chain, where the NPC kept telling me to wait for others to arrive before we started, which may be fine in a new and busy zone, but I was waiting for a few minutes before the quest would even start. I don't know what that will be like in a month's time, but I hope the quest will start with just one player ready, because it doesn't look like you can move from the zone without completing it.

The other problem I have with this strictly linear nature is the lack of option to take a break. You are thrown from one location to another, told to help these people and those, and before you know it you're moving on again. Of course, there are safe places to sit, notably around the NPC quest givers, but there are precious few places where it feels appropriate. Maybe I was just keen to continue the story, or gain that next level, but I think I was just pushing to find the actual settlement where I could park my hairy bum and feel like I belonged, rather than remaining an outcast trying to liberate my home. And, at the end of it all, I find myself sent to elfland, my least favourite zone to quest in.

Ultimately, I think I still prefer the death knight starting zone so far, having not looked at the other new ones yet. The story is just as strong, the phasing is equally dramatic, and there is a clear base of operations available to retreat to for a break. The lightning progress of the death knight also helps, though. But the worgen starting zone is definitely good, and certainly progress. And by starting a new character I am also experiencing many new features of the levelling system, including the revamped talent trees. It is almost like I am learning it all from scratch, which is probably good. I have assumptions that I need to ignore, like being able to control my demon from first level, as it is now an ability learnt at tenth; or gaining a talent point every level after ninth. There are just so many changes to the game that it feels new, but with a familiar interface.

And this is why I am currently avoiding my previously level-capped warrior and death knight, as the prospect of working out all of their talent choices, abilities, changed class and game mechanics, and the junk stored in their bags and banks is rather too much to face at the moment, after so long since last playing them. I like the return to the warlock class, my first main class, learning it again and seeing the changes with fresh eyes. I will probably move away from elfland to quest, as I imagine most zones have been affected one way or another by the cataclysm, and I can always return to see the changes here later. I have much exploration ahead of me, and plenty of adventure awaits.

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Tags: azeroth, cataclysm, jelica, mmorpg, warlock, world of warcraft

Interrupting a tower attack

Leaving the boring Orca behind finds some activity. The industrial command ship turned out to be simply warping between towers, but in this adjacent class 3 w-space system my directional scanner reports both ships and drones present, and drones are only launched in the field. There are also two towers in the system, although seeing just the one force field has me supposing that the ships and drones are attacking the off-line tower, hoping to destroy it and claim the abandoned defences, which would also account for the lack of wrecks.

Locating the off-line tower confirms my suspicion, as the ships are coincident with the d-scan return. I warp my ship to their position, still in my Manticore stealth bomber, and see that the tower is indeed being slowly whittled away. A Hound stealth bomber joins three battleships in the activity, the Tempest, Typhoon, and Abaddon all adding their drones to the attack for extra damage. I doubt I'll make much of a dent in any of the battleships, even with Fin soon to join me in a second Manticore, but the Hound is a feasible target. A couple of bombs lobbed in its direction and maybe a volley or two of torpedoes should see it pop.

I line up my ship to get a good attitude on the Hound, and wait for Fin. But the Hound pilot has other ideas than his ship exploding around him, his spider-sense tingling as he warps away, back to the on-line tower in the system. I hope he is just returning for more ammunition, having used all the torpedoes in his small stores. When Fin joins me, warping close to my position as a convenient reference point, I go searching for the Hound. Finding him sitting quietly inside the shields of the on-line tower, and away from the hangar, makes me think he's been distracted and is not coming back soon. But that's okay. Even if we can't pop one of the battleships a couple of well-placed bombs should be enough to give them the willies.

Fin has lined herself up nicely, where a bomb looks like it will encompass all but the Abaddon, which is sitting somewhat further away from the tower than the other two battleships. I leave the Hound behind and warp back to rejoin her, dropping short of her position at twenty kilometres, which she says will keep us adequately separated yet both in good bombing positions. 'I'm coming from the third planet', I say, with a niggling feeling that perhaps I should have mentioned this before entering warp. And I really ought to have done so, as my vector back towards the tower sends my Manticore almost directly through it, the battleships, and the drones, and my cloak is dropped involuntarily as a result.

Our element of surprise is gone, as is any advantage of coordinating bomb launches, as my stealth bomber must be noticed by the other pilots as I warp in. But I am not about to turn around and leave just because I've been caught being unprofessional. Time is short now, my ship already decloaked, so I turn and point at the Tempest, which is the best distance away from me, and launch my bomb. As I wait for the explosion I get a positive target lock and start disrupting the battleship's warp drives, just so that it can't escape from scuttling my skiff. The bomb hits, destroying a drone and hurting the battleship, but far from threatening its destruction.

I follow the bomb with torpedoes, hoping that the Tempest's defences have been compromised for more firepower for its tower operation, although in retrospect I am not sure wishing for more firepower is particularly helpful. I already gauged what I was facing when sizing up the Hound as a target, knowing that the battleships would take a while to lock on to my small hull, so am happy to fire a few shots before fleeing. What I didn't count on was any of the ships to be fitted for PvP, although it makes sense to prepare for that during such a highly visible operation. The Tempest returns my disruption of its engines by disrupting my own, preventing my own escape, as it sets its rather dangerous drones heading towards me.

Thankfully, I am not entirely inexperienced. I know this is a fight I won't win and that my own point on the target is more a bluff than real threat. I may have locked the Tempest and started firing, but immediately after the bomb launch I also aligned to a convenient celestial object and tried to keep my range from the battleship. And, now that I am pointed, I engage my reheat to surge my Manticore further out of range. It only takes a few seconds before the Tempest's point drops off my ship, having exceeded the range of the warp disruption module, and my mashing of the 'warp' button flings my ship out of harm's way. I cloak as soon as all target locks are dropped from my ship, and remember to breathe again.

The Tempest dropped to below half shields, which isn't bad for an improvised hit and run, and my Manticore hasn't taken any armour damage. And now it's Fin's turn. She watched my hapless display remaining cloaked, choosing quite sensibly not to launch her bomb directly towards me, and now she has a clean shot. The Tempest may be gone, but the Typhoon is in her sights along with a bunch of drones. Fin decloaks, launches the bomb, and pop goes a Garde. She wisely decides to cloak again and move away rather than shoot and get shot, and we are both alive and safe, our disruptive mayhem complete!

Not knowing what else lurks behind cloaking devices, the battleships unsurprisingly warp away from their operation and return to their tower. A couple of pilots board pointier ships, one in to his own Manticore, but none apparently return to shoot the tower. I scoop the few drones left behind by the spooked ships, undisturbed, and after a bit more loitering and monitoring both Fin and I leave the system and head home for the evening. I fly-by their active tower on my way out of the system and, for the first time, notice that all of their defences are incapacitated. It looks like the battle for the system happened recently and they are working quickly to demolish the losers' tower.

Now that we have interrupted them the off-line tower's shields will regenerate, perhaps substantially, and their operation may almost have to start again. Such is the capriciousness of null-sec space. Sometimes you can't help but be a tool and ruin another capsuleer's day for your own amusement.

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Tags: abaddon, eve online, hound, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, tempest, typhoon, w-space