Scanning traces of activity

A bit of Sleeper combat helps to wake me up. The only bookmarks in our shared can are for our home system's static wormhole and that of our neighbouring system's. The latter wormhole hasn't been visited, though, keeping it inactive for now and letting us clear a couple of anomalies of Sleepers in peace. With the resultant wrecks looted and salvaged it is time to explore the rest of today's w-space constellation.

I jump through the static connection in our neighbouring C4 in to a C2, a second scout coming to map the systems too. The directional scanner shows a tower and a couple of ships in the system, which I find. The Drake battlecruiser, Helios covert operations boat, and barely-worth-mentioning Ibis rookie ship are all unpiloted at the tower. There is also a canister labelled 'Set's arkonor' which encourages me to resolve and bookmark gravimetric sites when scanning the system instead of ignoring them, in case this 'Set' fellow comes out later to fill the can some more.

An exit to low-sec empire space is found amongst all the rocks in this C2 w-space system. Diving only two wormholes deep would be a rather boring conclusion to exploration so I keep on scanning, making a note of more mining sites as I do. As is common with most class 2 systems a second wormhole is found, this one leading to another C2. I've run out of signatures to scan in here so I jump through to the next system to begin again.

The second class 2 system is unoccupied and devoid of activity. Scanning finds another exit to low-sec empire space as well as a wormhole to a third class 2 system. The connection to the C2 is a K162, meaning the wormhole originates and was opened from the other side, which is a promising sign of activity. But when I go to jump through the K162 I get a message that the wormhole is stabilising, a sure sign that no one is in the system beyond. I jump through anyway to investigate and explore.

There is a tower in the third C2 but unsurprisingly no ships. And following tonight's theme I quickly find an exit to low-sec space, which couples with the homewards static wormhole to make three class 2 systems with similar connections. My colleague has continued scanning the previous C2 and has resolved a third wormhole, also jumping through a K162 in to yet another C2. For want of targets I am more thorough in scanning this system, my effort rewarding me with two more wormholes.

I resolve two inbound connections, one from a class 4 system and the other from a C2, the latter reaching the end of its life. Either or both systems behind these K162s could hold activity that we're looking for. But my scouting colleague has headed off deeper in a different direction to me, scanning his way through the C2 in to a C3, then C1, and on to a further C3. Despite all these connected systems and K162s opened by earlier activity there are no targets anywhere to be seen.

I jump through the K162 in my current system to the C4 to try to find signs of life but only drop in to an unoccupied system. Both I and my colleague are arm-deep in the colon of w-space and the stink is starting to get to us. We turn around and head back home to our tower. At least with no one around we should be able to pilot our strategic cruisers in to a few more anomalies to shoot Sleepers with little concern of interruption.

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

Muffing a Myrmidon murder

There is not much space to explore today. A scout relays the local w-space constellation as leading from home to a class 4 system, in to a class 1, and then exiting to null-sec space. I board my Manticore stealth bomber, copy the bookmarks available, and head out to take a look for myself. The C4 has a tower around a distant planet but no activity, and the C1 is empty. I am guided to the wormhole leading to null-sec, as it has only just been found, the scout still continuing his scanning. And he finds a second wormhole in this system.

A K162 wormhole has opened in to the C1 from a class 2 system, which looks good for signs of activity. We both jump through the wormhole to explore, although there is little I can do without probes. The directional scanner shows a tower on scan along with a Myrmidon battlecruiser, but the presence of wrecks of Sleeper ships suggests that that Myrmidon is not sitting inertly inside the tower's shields. I activate my ship's on-board scanner to start looking for anomalies, as my colleague warps off to find the local tower.

I get only the one anomaly returned from my scan and directing d-scan to take a narrow-beam reading shows the Myrmidon or wrecks are not there. I warp away from the wormhole and closer to the centre of the system and initiate a second scan. I get a second anomaly, with cosmic signature SEX. The filthy pervert Myrmidon pilot is getting his rocks off there. I warp in voyeuristically to find the Myrmidon engaged against a single Sleeper, not that I'm implying the capsuleer slipped the other ship a roofie. But the Myrmidon doesn't stay in the anomaly for long, warping out shortly after I arrive.

Having the Myrmidon warp out of combat looks like we've been made, but perhaps not. A minute or so later the battlecruiser returns to start shooting the Sleeper battleship again. Maybe the capsuleer is having difficulty tanking the Sleeper fire, which bodes well for the success of our own assault. I call in my colleague in his scouting Proteus, who is happy to point and hold the Myrmidon as I head back to the C1 system to guide in a fellow pilot who wants to help with the kill. Unfortunately, the Proteus strategic cruiser warps through the structure in the anomaly to reach me and is harshly decloaked, despite coming to a rest tens of kilometres away from it. The Myrmidon sees the Proteus and flees. Although I drop my cloak and burn towards the battlecruiser my Manticore can't get close enough to disrupt its warp engines.

There is a small flurry of changing ships and monitoring wormholes both by us and the Myrmidon pilot but it doesn't look like anything is going to happen. The capsuleer is not going to return to the anomaly he started for fear of us shooting him—which is what would happen, to be fair—and it seems a shame for the loot to go to waste. The wrecks already littering the site will disintegrate in the vacuum after a couple of hours, so they need to be salvaged soon or be lost. I jump home and refit my Tengu strategic cruiser with a salvager module, returning to the C2 to steal the loot and salvage the wrecks. My colleague's Proteus helps with shooting the remaining Sleepers and our two combat ships deter the local pilot from interrupting us.

Just for kicks, we decide to clear the last remaining anomaly in the system too, bringing in another Tengu to help. The class 2 anomaly is pretty easy for a pair of Tengu cruisers used to class 4 systems, but we aren't looking for a profit as much as trying to bait the Myrmidon pilot. And he pays us a visit, now in a Purifier stealth bomber and trying to disrupt our attempts at disruption by destroying the wrecks before we can salvage them. It nearly goes wrong for him when he tries too long to take a second shot, my colleague's Tengu hitting the Purifier quite hard and dropping it in to low armour, but we don't quite get close enough to pop the bomber. We clear the anomaly and are able to salvage the remaining few wrecks without any more trouble, as trying to look inattentive doesn't fool the Purifier pilot and he stays away.

We leave this now-empty system and get home with our meagre but stolen C2 loot. As we are in our strategic cruisers and have got in the mood to shoot Sleepers we continue the operation in our neighbouring C4 system. The black hole in the system reduces missile range but compensates by letting me speed much faster between ships, which makes the combat a little different to normal. More corporation pilots arrive and we are able to have a Cormorant destroyer fly behind us to salvage, my Tengu now restored with a full complement of five launchers, and a fourth strategic cruiser pilot joins us as we start the third anomaly. We finish after the the fifth anomaly, clearing this system as well, and head home a little bit richer after another fun day in w-space.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: comorant, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, proteus, purifier, pvp, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Roaming w-space

The w-space constellation is already scanned and mapped. I can take my Manticore stealth bomber out directly, each wormhole on the route located and bookmarked. I am warned of a cloaking Tengu strategic cruiser having been spotted roaming around, which is good to know in advance. Our neighbouring class 4 system has plenty of customs offices littering the planets but no sign of permanent occupancy. There is no activity in the system either but there is promise with the presence of a K162 wormhole, the connection leading in from another system. I jump through to the C4, as easily discerned from the distinctive orange hues bleeding through the wormhole.

The directional scanner reveals two towers, an Orca industrial command ship, and a bunch of scanner probes in the system. I find the Orca sitting piloted in one of the towers not doing much and warp around to examine the two K162 wormholes bookmarked in the system. Both wormholes are stable, one leading to a class 3 system and the other to a class 4, and I leave the inert Orca to visit the C3. There are more customs offices without capsuleers in the C3, the other wormhole here leading to low-sec space indicating that perhaps an empire pilot is taking advantage of the better resources out here. Scanning probes can again be seen on d-scan but they are not of particular interest, most scanning covert operations boats being quite difficult to catch.

I jump back to the C4 and then through the K162 to the other C4. A tower here indicates occupancy but there are no ships and no activity of interest elsewhere in the system. I return to the previous C4 again where the Orca is now joined in the tower by a Proteus strategic cruiser and two cov-ops boats, a Helios and Buzzard. Maybe they are the scouts implied by the probes seen on d-scan. I loiter cloaked at the tower, wondering if the capsuleers are planning any action. It looks promising, as one pilot swaps to a Nemesis stealth bomber and another to a Iteron hauler, with hints of movement. A third capsuleer changes his passive ship for a Dominix battleship and the intel I am feeding back to my corporation has a fleet preparing for a possible engagement. But it is all for naught, the ships remaining in the tower.

I make one last visit to the adjacent systems to look for any signs of activity. D-scan shows more capsuleers out and about now, and judging by the ship names there is a Russian Heron and Chinese Buzzard floating around. 'What next, an Indian Cheetah?' a colleague quips, as my search of the system suggests the Buzzard cloaks, the Heron frigate perhaps getting in to a safe spot before doing the same. Or maybe it isn't a safe spot as such but the appearance of another wormhole. A colleague scans to check, my Manticore not fitted with a probe launcher, indeed finding a new connection, this one coming in from a class 2 system. He gets me a reference to warp to for the C2 wormhole and I warp there to explore.

The Heron seen on d-scan appears fifty kilometres away from the C2 wormhole. I have dropped out of warp short of the wormhole myself, neither wanting to decloak myself or my scouting colleague, but on a different vector to the Heron and far from being able to engage it effectively. I start to move towards the frigate but it must have a micro-warp drive fitted, as it burns towards the wormhole and is jumping through before my cloaked ship can close the gap much at all. I redirect my ship towards the wormhole and eventually follow the Heron's path.

Inside the class 2 w-space system there is quite a lot to see on d-scan. I count five active towers and a handful of ships. I remember to bookmark this side of the wormhole and warp away to locate the towers, which keeps me occupied for a while. I find a Drake battlecruiser, the Heron, and two Mammoth haulers all inside the shields of one tower or another, a couple of the ships piloted, but there is otherwise nothing happening in the system. A quick check of the other systems shows that they remain quiet too. So much promise, so little activity. I return home and get some rest.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Roaming w-space
Tags: buzzard, dominix, drake, eve online, heron, iteron, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, nemesis, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, tengu, w-space

Interrupting an Iteron

Sleepers are being ravaged, a corporation fleet of five strategic cruisers blasting their way through anomalies in a class 4 w-space system. It sounds like they have enough firepower, so I get an update on our current constellation. A class 2 system connects in to our home system, also holding an exit to high-sec space only three hops from Jita, whilst beyond our neighbouring C4 is a class 3 system. A Drake battlecruiser was seen earlier at a tower in the C2 and the suggestion of activity is enough to make me investigate. I warp my Buzzard covert operations boat to the K162 wormhole in our system and jump through.

I locate the towers in the class 2 system, seeing two force fields on the directional scanner. I don't find a Drake but there is an Iteron hauler piloted at the tower. And he's outside the shields, unanchoring defences. What an opportunity for destruction, I have no idea why I thought coming in the Buzzard was the better option over a stealth bomber. I have no shot to take in my Buzzard against the hauler and it turns to crawl back in to the tower's shields. But I have created bookmarks to the defences around the tower, not just the side he was visiting this time, and jump back to the home system to swap ships.

The Buzzard is left behind for my Manticore stealth bomber. As I warp to the wormhole I interrupt the corporation's Sleeper operation to see if anyone wants to help bomb the Iteron. Another director is happy to stop shooting Sleepers for a few minutes to blow up a capsuleer's ship and he starts to head home. I have arrived back at the tower in the C2, picking the same array of defences the Iteron was previously at to warp to, knowing that being predictable is an under-acknowledged weakness. And although the Iteron is in the tower's shields he is indeed heading back out to the same array of defences as before, even choosing to crawl the distance in the slow hauler rather than warp away and back again.

My colleague is at our tower and swapping his strategic cruiser for a stealth bomber. He still has to warp to the K162, jump, and warp to my position, and the Iteron pilot has almost grabbed this second defence. I have no idea how many trips the Iteron is going to take, whether he will be doing this for the next hour or if he is finishing after this trip, but I hold the shot as long as I can. I am fairly sure the Iteron will crawl back in to the tower, which gives my colleague a little more time to arrive and means I don't need to attack before the module is unanchored. Better still, the Iteron pilot starts unanchoring another module after the current one is scooped in to his hold. Now we have enough time.

I am joined by the second stealth bomber. Or so he says, I can't actually see him. He reports being only twenty kilometres from the target but twenty kilometres, whilst maybe a little close, is fine for a bomb that explodes thirty kilometres away with a fifteen kilometre blast radius. My colleague aligns, I make sure I'm pointing in the right direction, and we co-ordinate our launch. The bombs sail towards the Iteron, which explodes in two big pops, never going to survive a couple of bomb detonations. The capsuleer's pod sensibly warps immediately away to a celestial object before warping back in to the safety of the tower's shields. It is a good opportunistic kill.

The pod pilot in the tower boards a Buzzard and I watch him for a bit but he isn't likely to come out to play for now. My colleague swaps back to his strategic cruiser and rejoins the rest of the corporation in shooting Sleepers. With all the recent Sleeper operations I am still in the mood to explore and look for more targets, so I jump back home and head in the other direction, through the neighbouring C4 and in to the class 3 system. I am staying in my Manticore for now, hoping that I can be lucky again and not need to scan. The C3 has a tower but apart from a few small ships in the tower's shields the system is quiet.

I check the C2 again for activity, not expecting anything and a little tickled by another colleague's taking advantage of our attack to pilot his Drake in to the C2 to clear some anomalies solo. The tower in the system is empty of pilots. It looks like there is nothing more to do, except I notice the module that the Iteron was unanchoring when we attacked is now unanchored and ready to be picked up, having been left or forgotten by its owner. I need a ship with a hold big enough to carry the defence and I have that in the Crane, which can also cloak and speed along at almost 2 km/s. I swap ships and prepare myself outside the C2 tower.

I line up the Crane transport ship to be parallel with the line of defences, so that I won't be decloaked too early or for too long. I also spot a convenient planet almost in line with my trajectory, which can act as a warp destination if I get in to trouble. I crawl along my path towards the unanchored defence and when almost within scooping range I decloak, hit the micro-warp drive, and scoop the module. Within a couple of seconds I am far enough away from the rest of the defences to re-activate my cloak but I warp away to my safety planet anyway. The gain in ISK for retrieving the module is not worth the cost of the Crane, but the fun in stealing the module is. Now there is nothing more for me to do and I return to the tower to rest.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Interrupting an Iteron
Tags: buzzard, crane, drake, eve online, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Hacking and analysing in the Damnation

A fleet is formed and heading out. There is a radar site to pillage for profit and I tag along in Hack Hackz Maru, my Damnation command ship refitted with codebreakers. A salvaging destroyer will be following behind us, so I refit my ship to replace the salvaging modules with launchers to add some damage to my configuration but keep the armoured warfare links fitted to increase the effectiveness of the Guardian logistic ships.

In the radar site the Sleepers want to protect their databanks from us raiders but we are ready to take what we want. The Sleepers are engaged as I move towards the databanks, conscious that I have both launchers and codebreakers fitted and needing to be careful as to which module I activate on which target. I have memories of shooting instead of salvaging wrecks.

I hack away at the databanks amongst the destroyed Sleeper ships, getting lots of pretty loot, and the fleet warps away to a second radar site to continue the Sleeper massacre. Our salvager boat warps in to join me in collecting the profit but panics, crying 'augh Sleepers' as he warps out. I am oblivious to the danger and wonder if he's been smoking the crack again. It is only when the rest of the fleet warps in to finish the job they thought was already finished that my limited sanity is confirmed and the salvager's diminished.

There are no Sleepers left in this first radar site, my overview is not lying to me. But they are close. The fleet saw four Sleeper battleships as they warped back in to the radar site, disappearing as they dropped out of warp. Some clever piloting manages to find the Sleepers but we are not quite sure how to get to them. The battleships are both on- and off-grid of the radar site. We can get to within a couple of hundred kilometres from them off-grid but once we enter the radar site's grid the Sleepers disappear. It's quite rum.

The mystery of the Sleeper-duality is, well, maybe not solved but certainly understood, and the hacking and salvaging is able to continue, as is the fleet in the next radar site. An escalation awaits us in the second site, a deserted Talocan cruiser being our prize for surviving. I hack the Sleeper databanks again and all the loot I am recovering is too much for even the cuddly belly of my Damnation to hold, datacores and decryptors almost spilling out. I have to share the goodness with a Guardian pilot in order to continue.

There is also a magnetometric site in this system. I go back to our tower to drop off the loot collected so far and swap the codebreakers for analysers, needed to access the Sleeper artefacts. Hack Hackz Maru becomes the Damnalyser and quick work is made of the Sleepers and their artefacts, everything moving along as expected. Our path of devastation through the class 4 system only leaves venturing in to the adjoining C5 for further profit, which is what we do.

The class 5 system is the first where we will fight Sleepers without a phenomenon boosting our systems but my Damnation and its warfare links will help. The fleet is only planning to enter anomalies and so half of my support module slots become free. I refit my ship to remove the analysers and add ballistic control systems to boost missile damage, a target painter to help against Sleeper frigates, and an ECM module because I have a free slot.

Dropping off the loot and reconfiguring my ship means I turn up to the first anomaly in the class 5 system after the rest of the fleet. I try to be helpful by destroying the last frigate buzzing around like an annoying rat and end up triggering the next wave of Sleepers. Thankfully, the fleet copes just fine or I'd have received bills to replace quite a few ships. There are no other surprises, beyond my Damnation's single ECM module successfully jamming a Sleeper battleship twice.

It is a lot of fun flying my Damnation, hacking, analysing, and jamming, but it is getting late for me. The fleet is going to continue in the class 5 system, confidently taking on more anomalies. Before I get to my bunk I take my salvaging destroyer out to the C5 to sweep the first anomaly clear of wrecks, helping to ensure our profit is recovered. Ending the evening salvaging is like a dream, and now I sleep.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Hacking and analysing in the Damnation
Tags: damnation, eve online, guardian, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, w-space

Exploration ends in Sleeper combat

I'm waiting for the wormhole to die. The bookmark pointing to it conveniently has a time in its notation and the longevity of wormholes in our home system lets me know when to expect the imminent collapse. I am not morbid enough today to sit and watch the wormhole bite the vacuum, only venturing out once I know for sure that it has gone. A fresh connection waits for me in my Buzzard covert operations boat and I jump through to the class 4 w-space system beyond.

The C4 is unoccupied and a system I visited three months earlier. An initial scan of the system reveals a dozen anomalies and other cosmic signatures besides. This looks like a good system to profit from the Sleepers and I know that corporation and allied pilots have been keen to make plenty of ISK recently. I scan the system a little and find a wormhole anyway. I have most likely found the static connection, judging by the initial strength of the signature, but instead of warping to the wormhole I merely bookmark its signature from the scanning interface to keep the wormhole inactive. An isolated system full of signatures should be welcomed by a fleet looking to make some profit. I jump back to the home system and copy the bookmarks I made, then go off-line to get some eats.

On my return I see that more, deeper scanning has been performed. Without a fleet available there is often little else to do but scan. All that has been found is a string of class 5 w-space systems, exploration only halted when the scout bumps in to a Sabre interdictor with carrier support. But now that I am here there are four pilots available, enough to form a fleet for Sleeper combat. We even have two Guardian logistic ship pilots, one of them unfortunately being me. There is still the option of taking strategic cruisers in to the class 4 system anomalies, but only two of us have the Tech III cruisers and we can't really support two salvagers.

I take one for the fleet and board my Guardian, knowing that if I didn't then one pilot would have to remain inactive. And flying logistics isn't so bad. Besides which, I've been in my Tengu strategic cruiser and Damnation command ship quite frequently of late, so getting back in to the Guardian actually makes for a change of pace. We warp in to the first anomaly and hear the screams of the other Guardian pilot. She's not taking fire but having her retinas burnt. 'Holy crap, the bloom!' she shouts. Yep, I've not been making up the searing radiation emanating from these sites, although she 'thought it was some kind of Mac thing, to be honest.'

We look past the blinding bloom to start destroying the Sleepers, the C4 anomalies fairly straightforward for most of us these days. A Cormorant destroyer salvages behind us, as more capsuleers wake up at the tower and join us to help with our efficiency. Adding a Rook recon ship's ECM in the fleet eases the Guardians' burden considerably, nary having to repair at all as the Sleepers have their targeting systems jammed. Only my light armour maintenance drones are active for most of the combat, just the second wave's four battleships needing me to pay close attention to incoming damage. It's looking like a fairly relaxing afternoon.

Three anomalies are cleared of Sleeper presence, and then of their wrecks, before we head back to our tower to rest. At least, I would if those yapping android dogs in the ventilation ducts would be quiet. Riyu needs to keep them on a tighter leash.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Exploration ends in Sleeper combat
Tags: buzzard, cormorant, eve online, guardian, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, rook, sabre, scanning, sleepers, w-space

More comfortably plundering a class 5 w-space system

Our static wormhole has been killed and scouts are now out exploring the new connections. So far we have our neighbouring class 4 system leading in to a chain of two class 5 systems. There are no targets and so a fleet forms to engage Sleepers for more profit. Launching my Damnation command ship shows that I haven't reverted the fitting to a sensible configuration, which is good as the Salvabreaker will be useful for the radar site found in the C4. I'm ready to go.

The size of our fleet causes an escalation to occur in the class 4 w-space radar site, prompting an extra Sleeper battleship to be present along with a deserted Talocan cruiser. My Damnation is configured to increase the efficiency of the two Guardian logistics ships, two armoured warfare links boosting fleet-wide armour resistances and reducing the capacitor need for remote armour repairs, and the remaining high slots used for tractor beams and salvager modules. With little damage capability I pootle around the Sleepers and hack in to their databases. I also salvage the Talocan cruiser, finding it to be from the Sleepers' prog-rock period, as it turns out to have two hulls to recover.

Storing two hulls in the Damnation's cuddly belly fills it up and I have to return to drop the loot back at our tower. I return in my Cormorant salvaging destroyer to sweep up the remaining wrecks. There is nothing else to do in this C4 and the fleet has already moved in to start clearing anomalies in the first connecting class 5 w-space system. I am asked to make a more thorough check of the C5 for safety and I take my Buzzard covert operations boat in to the system to do so. I find a tower in the C5 and I think I see no ships amongst the bristling defences, so the system looks clear. To help the fleet I go back to swap in to my Damnation again, warping to a moon near the C5 system's tower and activating my warfare links. The links will affect the fleet as long as I am in the same system and by sitting close to the tower I can use the directional scanner to monitor the arrival of new ships.

There is still no activity in the class 5 w-space system beyond our own. I warp in to the half-finished anomaly to start looting and salvaging the wrecks, hopefully to negate the need for a separate salvager to follow behind us. The Sleeper battleships in the C5 are difficult to salvage but my unrigged Damnation fitted with Tech II salvager modules is able to cope. The loot stripped from the wrecks looks much better than the C4 equivalent too. And I have just noticed that the system holds a cataclysmic variable phenomenon, boosting the capabilities of remote repair systems, amongst other benefits, and to a greater degree than in a C4.

As much as the cataclysmic variable phenomenon helps the Guardians significantly it also increases the remote repair rates of the Sleepers. The third wave of five Sleeper battleships, all employing remote repair on each other, makes breaking their tanks look uncertain. But the first of the battleships eventually explodes and, with one fewer Sleeper ship, our ECM boat can jam a larger fraction of the remaining ships and the amount of Sleeper armour repairs drops. Once we hit that bullseye the rest of the dominoes fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

With the success of the first anomaly a second is planned. I stay to complete salvaging all the wrecks before returning to our home system to drop off the expensive loot, not wanting an unfortunate incident to cause us to lose all our profits. I head back to rejoin the fleet in the next anomaly and continue my stripping of spaceship carcasses. The second anomaly is cleared of Sleepers and, feeling flush, the fleet warps in to a third. But shortly in to the third anomaly a Cheetah cov-ops boat is seen on d-scan and the fleet flees the system as a precaution. My salvaging of the second anomaly finishes seconds later, holding for a couple of module cycles to salvage the final wreck, and I exit the system too.

Everyone makes it back to our home tower safely, including my Damnation with the second anomaly's worth of loot. And it is a good amount of plunder, each site in the C5 system offering about twice as much profit than it would in a class 4 system. We each get ninety-five million ISK for our efforts this evening, a good haul considering the number of ships in the fleet. I am also thrilled to be taking my Damnation out of the hangar more frequently. Corporation recruitment is providing the larger fleet and growing number of Guardian pilots that lets me contribute to operations in more versatile ways that reflect my skill training. I am enjoying the variety of ships I am piloting and roles I can fill.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, cheetah, cormorant, damnation, eve online, guardian, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, w-space

Bumping in to rocks in space

Our pilots have a need to make some iskies. A fleet is currently engaging Sleepers in our home system and planning to continue in our neighbouring class 4 w-space system, afterwards opening the wormhole in that system in the hopes of finding more. I am happy to join in with the systematic annihilation of Sleepers, mostly because the fleet already has two pilots flying the paired Guardian logistic ships, so I get another chance to pilot my Tengu strategic cruiser. I am enjoying the dynamic and involving nature of flying my Tengu. I need to be aware of the range of my weapons and distances between each hostile ship, as well as taking care not to fly pod-first in to a barrage of Sleeper fire.

The Guardian pilots may not have matched skill training, requiring modified ship configurations or less able to throw spare capacitor energy around, but that only shows that the corporation needs more pilots willing to dedicate some training to the logistics ships. The more pilots able to fly a range of ships gives a greater level of flexibility for every operation. As Sleeper combat has come to require two Guardian pilots complementing battleships, or a reliance on strategic cruisers, a corporation pilot's ability to profit becomes dependent on being able to fly effectively in one of those fleets. There are only so many salvagers we can support.

A few anomalies are cleared in our home system without fuss and the wrecks are looted and salvaged. Three strategic cruisers, including my Tengu, jump in to the adjacent C4 to start creating more Sleeper wrecks whilst a scout explores further ahead in today's w-space constellation. My notes show that I've been in this class 4 system before, about fourteen weeks ago, and benignly suggest that I missed bombing a Hulk exhumer here. But I need to look beyond my overview of visited w-space systems to remember the events of that day, when hunting some miners sees returning reinforcements nearly get me and Fin in to trouble.

It's not just me considering miners now, as our scout in the next system along has seen two Hulks on the directional scanner. The question is whether they are mining or sitting inert inside the shields of a tower. Our scout goes looking for the mining ships as our strategic cruisers continue to pound on the Sleepers, the find coming mid-combat. We aren't going to stop shooting and swap ships if there are no valid targets, but when the local tower is found and the Hulks are elsewhere in the system we leave the last Sleeper battleship of the wave intact and head home. I swap the Tengu for my Onyx heavy interdictor, the other pilots changing from their strategic cruisers in to a Pilgrim recon ship and Myrmidon battlecruiser.

The new fleet warps out and jumps back in to our neighbouring C4 to congregate on the wormhole leading to the miners' system. Our scout still needs to locate the gravimetric site where the targets are and the fleet holds patiently on the wormhole as he scans. He finds the site and warps in, getting his nav-comp to drop out of warp fifty kilometres early, but doing so makes his ship bounce off a rock and decloak. The two Hulks see him and flee, warping out of the site along with a newly joined Covetor mining barge. We're not likely to be the instruments of needless capsuleer slaughter this evening. Even though the miners board their own Tengu cruisers it looks like sabre-rattling, as they don't leave the safety of their tower.

Warping in to a gravimetric site is tricky. The rocks in the site are spread over a hundred or more kilometres and there is no way of knowing how they are orientated until you reach the site. In my experience, the safest place to warp to in a gravimetric site whilst remaining cloaked is a short distance away from the cosmic signature, by maybe ten or twenty kilometres. All of the rocks are distant from the cosmic signature, as every miner who has warped to the site once just to make a bookmark to a better position knows. There will be no rocks at the signature and, as a result, no miners. Unless you use combat probes to find the mining ships themselves and warp the fleet directly to that position, warping close to the signature of the site first and bookmarking the rock being mined or jet-can of the miner is generally the best option.

Our ambush is thwarted but the Sleeper operation can continue. We swap back to strategic cruisers and warp in to the unfinished anomaly, finding the Sleeper battleship where we left it. The anomaly is soon cleared and, feeling bolder, we encroach on the system of the vanished miners and raid one of their radar sites, taking in a full fleet with Guardians and an ECM battleship, along with my Damnation command ship fitted with tractor beams, salvager II modules, and codebreakers. We have someone keeping an eye on the local tower, ensuring our safety and allowing us to steal plenty of profit from the system. It is an awful lot of fun salvaging and hacking in my hugship, retrieving Tech III proto-goodness along with standard Sleeper loot. The miners don't return, nor try to retaliate in combat ships, and we exit the system to get home safely with all our lovely profit.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Bumping in to rocks in space
Tags: covetor, damnation, eve online, guardian, hulk, mmorpg, myrmidon, onyx, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space

ECM system check

I spy some bookmarks in our shared can. Being able to jump straight in to my Manticore stealth bomber to roam the day's w-space constellation is convenient. But warping to where our static wormhole should be only finds empty space. It looks like I'll need to scan after all. Seeing me swap to my Buzzard covert operations boat a colleague mentions that the wormhole must have only just died, as he came through it in his new Loki strategic cruiser minutes ago. That was good timing. Understanding that a new static wormhole is now present he joins me to help scan.

Jumping through to the neighbouring class 4 w-space system finds a tower with an unpiloted Moa cruiser sitting inside it, but only just. The Moa may be close to the edge of the tower's force field but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and it is as safe near the border as in the centre. Scanning the system reveals only a few signatures and the local static wormhole is soon resolved, leading in to another C4. There are no occupants in the second C4 and two pilots scanning makes quick work of finding a couple of wormholes, one an incoming EOL connection from a C2 and the other the static wormhole, again leading to a C4. We leave the EOL K162 alone and jump through the static connection.

There are two towers visible on the directional scanner. But as there are no ships to be seen I launch probes and begin scanning before locating the towers. The system has been thoroughly plundered, only three signatures returned on a full scan. My colleague's skills lets him disregard the ladar site and find the static wormhole in the time it takes me to locate the system's two towers, the second of which has no defences at all. Breaking the string of class 4 systems the static connection leads in to a C3, which we jump to.

Lots of customs offices can be seen around various planets in the C3 but there is no tower to suggest occupancy. My colleague finds another K162 wormhole, this one coming from a class 2 system, and as K162s imply active capsuleers I jump through to investigate as he continues scanning the C3. I find three towers in the C2 with a piloted Drake battlecruiser in one of them. It doesn't look like the capsuleer is doing anything, though. Despite having passed through the system's static wormhole to enter, having jumped from the K162 side, I launch probes and scan anyway. Class 2 w-space systems generally have a second wormhole available. And I find one, an exit to high-sec empire space, but it is reaching the end of its natural lifetime.

Meanwhile, my colleague has found the static wormhole in the class 3 system, another exit to empire space, this time to a low-sec system. He jumps through and sees on d-scan a Drake and wrecks of NPC ships, and the local channel conveniently informs him that they are the only two pilots in the system. Nothing is happening in w-space and this Drake looks tempting, so I make the jumps to return to our tower and swap in to my Falcon, overcompensatingly eager to try out my new toy, whilst the scout ahead tries to locate the Drake. I also bring back a second colleague in a Harbinger, in case the scout is able to locate the Drake, but the battlecruiser pilot leaves the low-sec system.

We aren't going to get any combat today, it seems. But I have some valid targets. My Falcon recon ship is fitted for ECM and I am keen to practice jamming. I already have a crib to remind me how the colour of each jammer relates to the racial sensor types. In fact, I have taken the crib one step further and arranged my modules in alphabetical order of racial types, so my monkey brain can work out more quickly which button to use to jam Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, or Minmatar ships. And I have an Amarr Harbinger battlecruiser and Gallente Proteus strategic cruiser in front of me, comprising our small fleet.

I lock on to the friendly ships and apply ECM of the appropriate type to both. The reactions tell me that I am successfully jamming any attempt to target me back, just as much as the jamming timer displayed under the ship does. The ECM is successful for a few cycles before the first failure, at which point drones would no doubt start chewing through my plastic armour, but this is a good first test of flying the Falcon, and perhaps better than against hostile targets. And we have no hostile targets still, even checking the systems on our route home. I stow the Falcon in the hangar again and go off-line to get some food.

Posted in Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, falcon, harbinger, loki, manticore, mmorpg, moa, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Fetching a Falcon

We have a route to high-sec empire space and I have iskies to burn. I'm going to buy a new ship. I am often considering different ships I could use for PvP engagements but am never really sure what to get. I know I need more options available than simply losing yet another Onyx heavy interdictor and I have the skill training to fly quite a few ships. My main concern is knowing how to fit a new class of ship. The specific bonuses granted by the class give some guidance as to what is expected of the ship but filling in the other utility slots can be difficult.

Looking at other capsuleers' fits has the problem of knowing if the configurations are theoretical or tried and tested. Then there is the tendency to exaggerate fits to use faction gear, with the resultant posted statistics presupposing all skills trained to level five, perhaps trying to boast of the ability to pay for and fly such an beast. But at least an aggregation of such fits can give an idea of what modules are expected to be or can be fitted to make the ship effective.

I know what ship I am going to buy this evening. The corporation's embracing of recon ships, my training in the class, and examples of its efficient use in w-space is seeing me buy a Falcon. I have searched for example fits and it looks like it can be straightforward to configure. Concentrating on its use as an ECM boat lets me fill the mid- and low-slots effectively, with jammers and boosters, and one high-slot naturally will have a cloaking device. The other high slots perhaps don't matter too much, as forgetting to fit a tank makes the hull rather flimsy and not a ship I want to get in to close combat, and I can probably squeeze a probe launcher on to the ship for scouting and safety.

Today's exit to empire space is convenient for spending iskies, being only two hops from Jita. I barely have time to buy the ship before I am in the New Eden capital of trade and flimflam. My Falcon is delivered and waiting for me when I dock, letting me buy and fit the rest of the modules I need. Having a ship configuration already worked out makes fitting the ship much quicker and being in Jita makes buying everything convenient. Naming a new ship is normally the process that takes the longest time for me but the Falcon is a ship that lends itself to an obvious name. And so I undock Lando's for her maiden flight, a short journey back to and through w-space to our tower.

The Falcon is an ugly bugger. But now I have more options to fly in to a PvP engagement, adding more utility to the fleet and allowing myself and others to be more flexible in ship selection. I still need more options, though. Perhaps a Curse recon ship, or a heavy assault ship of some kind. Maybe even an assault frigate would be useful occasionally. I have more research to do, for when the next convenient exit to empire space appears.

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