Scanning more w-space

Warping to empty space confirms that the old wormhole is dead. Chocolate-fuelled scanning resolves the new static wormhole and I jump through to today's neighbouring class 4 w-space system. There is a tower and some ships visible on the directional scanner, and as two of the ships are a Retriever mining barge and Iteron hauler I delay launching probes until I find them. The tower is located and both of the ships are inside the shields, along with a Helios covert operations boat, only the latter piloted. I warp away from the tower to launch probes and begin scanning, returning to monitor the Helios.

The Helios warps away somewhere but I have little chance of catching it, even if I were able to resolve anything but gassy ladar sites. A signature of a wormhole brings me blessed relief, scanning taking a little longer than normal because I am resolving and bookmarking the mining sites for potential ambushes later. Warping to the wormhole reveals it to be an incoming connection from a class 2 system. I bookmark the K162 and keep looking for this system's static wormhole.

More rocks and gas is found, making me check that I did in fact enter this system through our static connection and not a K162 like before. I still haven't found the wormhole and there is only one signature remaining. If only I hadn't stuffed my face with chocolate I would have gone for PIE sooner, the meat-filled-pastry signature turning out to be the static connection to a class 1 system. Now that I have found the wormhole I ignore it in favour of first jumping through the K162 in the system, as its presence indicates a greater likelihood of activity on the other side.

The C2 system does indeed look active, with three towers on d-scan and a Drake battlecruiser elsewhere. Exploring the system finds four more towers active, and plenty of silos, and a Raven battleship lurking in w-space. But I can't find the Drake or Raven at one of the many towers here and trying to locate them using d-scan shows they are moving around. Then they disappear. With no ships in the system I launch probes and start scanning, unsurprisingly resolving a wormhole in the general direction where the two Caldari ships were last noted on d-scan.

Checking the wormhole shows it to be an exit to high-sec empire space, suggesting that the recently departed ships are high-sec tourists. There is little point setting up an ambush on a high-sec wormhole, even more so when it is likely that the ships using the wormhole are not coming back, so I return to the C4 and jump through it's static connection to the C1. A tower is visible on d-scan but no ships, and I start scanning. Three signatures and three anomalies makes for a quick and thorough scan, revealing the homewards wormhole, a gravimetric site, and the system's static wormhole, which is an exit to low-sec empire space. The wormhole is also reaching the end of its natural lifetime.

There is nothing else to scan and no more sign of activity. I jump through the wormhole in the C2 in to high-sec space to note the destination system, putting me only eleven hops from Jita. The proximity to the market hub would be worth a shopping trip if I had anything to buy. Instead I head back home in w-space, copying the bookmarks I have made in to our shared container before going off-line.

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Tags: drake, eve online, helios, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, raven, retriever, scanning, w-space

Not every exit can be an entrance

The static wormhole in our system is feeling the stress. Our corporation has pushed enough ships through that the wormhole's mass allowance is below half. But a Manticore stealth bomber can still come and go as it pleases, and I jump out of our system to roam our currently mapped constellation.

Our neighbouring class 4 w-space system is occupied, but only has an unpiloted Iteron hauler sitting inside the shields of the local tower and nothing else. A K162 connects from a class 2 system, the wormhole reaching the end of its natural lifetime meaning I don't venture through. Instead I jump through the C4's static connection to a class 3 system, which is also occupied and again has only unpiloted ships at its tower, this time a Megathron battleship and an Ishtar heavy assault ship.

There is little else to see in our w-space constellation today. A K162 from null-sec empire space has evaporated, although the static connection to low-sec space remains. I poke the nose of my Manticore through to the Placid region, finding it to be suitably named and lacking in activity, before returning to w-space and heading back home. All is quiet.

I set my Manticore to orbit the tower idly and kick back in my pod with some Quafe. The next I'm conscious I find some corporation fellows have turned up and are collapsing our weakened wormhole, which sounds like a good idea to me. What doesn't sound like a good idea is trapping our Orca in the adjacent system but it seems the corporation lost track of the number of jumps made during the earlier Sleeper engagements. At least there is a route out to empire space that can be used, one that is suitably free from menace. We just need to find a new exit that the Orca can use as an entrance.

Swapping the Manticore for my Buzzard covert operations boat I join a colleague in quickly finding the new static wormhole in our home system. Jumping through to the C4 finds a system sparse of signatures, only five anomalies and three other signatures to resolve. Ignoring the gas-filled ladar site the system's static connection leads us to an unoccupied class 5 system. My colleague resolves an EOL K162 from a C3 and then the static wormhole, which leads to a class 1 system. I am able to find a K162 coming from low-sec empire space but the exit is in the Metropolis region and not near our misplaced Orca.

I jump back to w-space and continue in to the C1. A Buzzard is briefly seen on the directional scanner and then noticed outside one of the three towers in the system. It warps away before I can identify its allegiance. As I scan I look for the other two towers, finding the second with an unpiloted Heron frigate inside its shields and the third unprotected and abandoned around the outermost planet. A wormhole is found that connects to empire space and is reasonably convenient, but a link to a class 1 w-space system cannot cope with the mass of an Orca. One new colleague wanting to come to w-space is able to make the journey but our industrial command ship has to remain in empire space for a while longer.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, ishtar, iteron, manticore, megathron, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Continuing after an ambush

Another salvager sucks the vacuum! Unfortunately, the destroyed salvager is our own, ambushed by a Stiletto interceptor. The corporation fleet disengages from the Sleepers to protect itself, and to hunt the Stiletto. I arrive in the midst of the hunt and am tasked to scan for any additional wormholes connecting in to our home system. It has been assumed that the interceptor jumped in to our neighbouring system from a known route but it is best to check for additional connections, as we don't want any more ships surprising us. I launch probes and scan but there are no new wormholes in our system. The Stiletto cannot be located either.

Rather than abandon the evening's attempts to profit the fleet is reconfigured to continue more safely. Strategic cruisers are launched to complete the site that was left mid-combat, whilst recon ships and covert operations boats keep eyes on both connecting wormholes in to and out of the system. Our Tech III ships are capable of clearing the anomaly of Sleepers and our cloaked companions create an early-warning system. I join the Legion and Tengu in the anomaly in my own Tengu, adding to the combat capability and speeding up completion.

The anomaly is cleared and salvagers are brought in to loot the wrecks, a Falcon kept nearby and cloaked in case a hostile ship remains in the system. I loiter in the anomaly with my Tengu, hopefully being a threat, as the salvagers sweep the Sleeper wrecks in to their holds. No more trouble is seen and everyone gets home safely. Whether anyone else was watching or not remains unknown.

Only that one site is completed after I turn up, the hostile ship effectively calling an end to the evening's operation. At least it gives me another chance to fly my Tengu strategic cruiser, seeing how my continued training enhances the ship's capabilities now that all but one of my subsystem skills are at the highest level. Aside from boosting the effectiveness of the Tengu the completed skill training lets me return my focus to the long-term plan to get in to the next new class of ship. My goal is an undeniably pretty ship, particularly after its remodelling. But I fear it may turn out to be mostly unused, filling a niche that no one really wants, much like my Damnation.

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Tags: eve online, falcon, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, stiletto, tengu, w-space

Education through explosions

'We're going to bomb someone.' That sounds exciting but, sadly, I am a couple of minutes too late to join the party. The two-man fleet has warped off quickly in order to catch the target and, with no one else around, didn't take the time to copy and drop off the bookmarks for the scanned wormholes. I can hardly blame them, as copying bookmarks takes an inordinate amount of time for them only being small packets of data, and time is often critical when catching someone being foolish. In this case, the foolish capsuleer is piloting a Rook recon ship outside of a newly installed tower, bringing defences on-line. The two corporation stealth bombers crumple the Rook in to twisted metal easily, looting the wreck of the surviving modules.

My colleagues loiter in the distant system for a while longer but neither of the two pilots at the tower leave the safety of the shields. This gives an opportunity for one of the fleet to return and drop off the bookmarks for me to copy in to my nav-comp. The excitement may be over but I still have the urge to jump in to my own Manticore stealth bomber and roam the currently mapped systems.

I was in our neighbouring class 4 w-space system five months ago with a fleet, stealing a tower. Another tower has been anchored since then and the system is occupied again, but there is no activity at the moment. Jumping through the static connection puts me in another system I've visited before, this one ten weeks ago. I have no note of occupancy in here, perhaps because I was merely travelling through the previous time, and a check of the system reveals no towers and no activity. The next jump has me in the system where the Rook was popped.

My colleague who returned with the bookmarks has swapped back in to his scanning Proteus strategic cruiser to continue looking for wormholes. Whilst he scans I warp to the tower to see what's happening. In warp, the scout finds this system's static wormhole, leading to a class 3 system, and sees a Probe frigate appear some distance away from the wormhole before cloaking. The scout thinks he got a good bearing on the Probe and moves his own cloaked ship to try to intercept, hoping to 'bump' the other and decloak him. I warp close to my colleague's position and get ready in case the Probe is uncovered.

I start moving towards the wormhole, on the assumption that the Probe will jump through to the C3, but alter course to move roughly in the scout's direction. I may not be able to catch the Probe if it jumps through the wormhole and I want to be in range to disrupt the Probe's warp drive if the scout decloaks it. Three cloaked ships, only two are sure of their mutual presence and no one knows precisely where the others are. Somewhere, the scout is moving silently towards a point, and I am trying to move towards him. Where the Probe is only its pilot knows. Empty space has never looked so threatening.

The Probe decloaks, as does as the scout, as the two ships bump in to each other. The vector was right! I decloak my Manticore and take advantage of its lack of targeting delay to lock the Probe and launch a volley of torpedoes. Although I am still too far away for the warp disruption module to work it doesn't matter, as the flimsy frigate pops and throws the capsuleer's pod in to space. The pod flees before we can trap it, returning to the tower in the system.

A quick check of the C3 system shows it to be unoccupied and lacking activity. Returning to the tower in the previous system finds a Drake battlecruiser making use of the tower's control panel to put modules on-line inside the safety of the shields. There are more modules sitting unanchored inside the shields that will need to be positioned externally but it now isn't likely to happen today. The Rook pilot has either learnt or will be told about the control tower's interface after the loss of his ship and maybe the Probe pilot will understand the safety of not sitting still even when cloaked. We leave the system behind us and return home.

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Tags: drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, proteus, pvp, rook, w-space

Flying a mixed fleet against Sleepers

Our neighbouring system has been scanned, but no further. Keeping the class 4 w-space system's static wormhole closed gives us the opportunity to make some profit from wrecked Sleeper ships with less likelihood of being interrupted. A remote-repair battleship fleet is assembled, with two Ravens, a Scorpion, and a Maelstrom complemented with myself and an ally each in a Tengu strategic cruiser, and a Cormorant salvaging destroyer flying behind us all sweeping up the wrecks. We warp to the connecting wormhole and jump.

The system locus looks familiar. And indeed it is, having last been here around four months ago. The occupants have since left, abandoning their tower in the system. We have the system to ourselves and warp to our first anomaly of the evening, a frontier barracks. There are two Sleeper battleships waiting for us in the anomaly, almost eighty kilometres from where we drop out of warp. By the time I have got Pengu in range to shoot with my heavy assault missiles the first Sleeper ship is destroyed.

The short range of the HAMs makes for a fair bit of travel between waves of ships, and thus some wasted time, but they have their benefits. The HAMs fire much faster than their heavy missile equivalents and although they don't hit quite as hard the rate of fire means they generate more DPS overall. The high rate of fire lets me switch targets more quickly and getting close to the target reduces the number of wasted volleys caused by the long flight times of heavy missiles. Needing to get close to the ships also means that I can put my speed to better use, orbiting the target adding a large transversal velocity that means I take almost no damage from incoming fire. Flying towards the targets initially can cause problems, though.

As the second wave of Sleepers appears I manoeuvre Pengu to get in range, flying directly to the hostile ships. This turns out to be less than ideal. My velocity with respect to the Sleepers is almost purely radial, with no transversal component, which means I am effectively flying head-on in to missiles and acting as a sitting duck for the guns. My shields complain as a result and I have to adjust my course before my ship explodes. Moving to a vector that has a significant transversal component negates some of the heavier missile damage but mostly forces the Sleepers' targeting systems to have to track me, reducing the incoming damage to more manageable levels. 'Tacking' against the Sleeper fire means I don't get in range quite so soon but I am in one piece when I am finally able to start launching missiles again.

Meanwhile, our battleships are having their own issues. It seems they are having a little trouble compensating for the incoming damage, although I am unsure whether it is a lack of repair capability or the logistics of having to keep the fleet flying in a tight formation. The fleet's battleships lack the range bonuses on the remote repair modules that logistic ships boast. Whatever the trouble, the fleet has to warp out of the anomaly to regroup. That is, the battleships warp out, our two Tengu cruisers stay behind to tackle the Sleepers by ourselves. Whilst out of the pocket some reconfiguration of the fleet is made, a couple of pilots swapping ships and some tweaking of fittings occurring, as Pengu and pal clear the remaining two waves of the anomaly without fuss.

The battleships return to us for the next anomaly and everyone gets in to a smooth rhythm. The battleships stay in tight formation and repair through the damage, the Tengu cruisers acting as skirmishers. Five anomalies are completed efficiently and our salvager is being kept busy clearing up behind us. The sixth anomaly is a frontier command post and has a different wing of Sleepers protecting it, including a bunch of frigates that like to web their targets. My Tengu gets caught by four webbing Sleepers and my speed is reduced to a crawl, negating some of the damage mitigation I rely on. Luckily I can still repair through the damage and our squad leader's knowledge of Sleeper tactics lets us clear the wave without triggering the next until we're ready, so we are not overwhelmed.

Six sites are completed in total and the salvager returns with a full hold of loot without being ambushed. The loot is counted and each capsuleer gets eighty-five million ISK for their share. I check my cargo hold and see that I have shot around eight thousand missiles during tonight's combat. I make sure I replenish Pengu's hold with more heavy assault missiles, so that I don't absent-mindedly forget to check before I next fly and end up running out of ammunition, before docking my strategic cruiser for the night.

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Tags: cormorant, eve online, maelstrom, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, raven, scorpion, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Wandering through the constellation

I thought I saw a Hulk on the directional scanner. Of course, it is an alliance Hulk exhumer mining, being in our home system and the bookmark to our static wormhole indicating the connection is dormant, but it is still a tough choice as to whether I go exploring or gank the friendly miner. After a few minutes of heavy thought I decide to jump through to our neighbouring class 4 w-space system and start scanning. Doing so also makes mining less safe, which I recognise, but I can at least relay any significant intelligence home as well as potentially find new opportunities.

I last visited our adjacent C4 about six months ago and it remains unoccupied, keeping our miner safe for a little longer. There are a bunch of signatures to sift through but I soon find a wormhole. A static connection to a class 3 system makes me optimistic about finding soft targets to poke with missiles. And, indeed, jumping through to the C3 finds it occupied, although the only ships visible in the system are both unpiloted in the tower, an Orca industrial command ship and a Chimera carrier. Even with the carrier present I bookmark the dozen or so anomalies in the system in case their location can be used later for an ambush.

Scanning the C3 finds me a wormhole soon enough, an exit to low-sec empire space that is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. That's not terribly interesting and I keep scanning in the hope of finding a second wormhole. And I'm in luck, as I resolve an outgoing and stable connection to another C3 system. I jump through the wormhole to an unoccupied system, although there are scanning probes visible on d-scan. A cursory scan of the system finds a K162 wormhole from high-sec empire space but nothing else particularly interesting. I'll head home to our tower and take a break. Checking on the tower in the occupied C3 system finds a Nemesis stealth bomber now piloted, which is good to know, but for now I'll grab some food.

When I return there is still no one around. I launch my Manticore stealth bomber to roam the local w-space constellation. Maybe the C3 occupants are clearing anomalies and leaving a vulnerable salvager in their wake. But that's an idle hope. Our neighbouring C4 is quiet, the C3 has the same Orca and Chimera unpiloted in the tower's shields, and there is nothing interesting on d-scan. The EOL low-sec connection has died but I don't care to look for the new one. Checking the other C3 system shows the K162 from high-sec has gone too.

And now that I am looking I notice that the occupied C3, ripe with anomalies, is a cataclysmic variable system. This phenomenon increases remote repair rates but reduces local capabilities, which is good for fleet operations with remote repping ships but rather less ideal for a solo strategic cruiser that is relying on a shield booster, like my Tengu. Even if I thought Pengu could survive such a decrease in defensive capability there is still the concern of the Nemesis I saw earlier in this system. Rather than worry about bringing back and maybe losing a separate salvaging vessel, or refitting Pengu with a salvager module at the loss of 20% of my DPS, I take this as an indication that I can try to get an early night. I return to our tower and go off-line.

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Tags: chimera, eve online, hulk, manticore, mmorpg, nemesis, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

The only difference between a Basilisk and Guardian is the Guardian's not on fire

Probes on the directional scanner halts a corporation fleet's Sleeper engagement. The fleet changes from remote-repairing battleships to PvP ships and seeks the source of the scanning probes. A Rifter frigate in the neighbouring system is suggestive but is likely bait. Jumping through to the next system along reveals two battleships lurking, a Dominix and a Rokh, the Rokh activating a smartbomb to try to catch our scout. Our neighbouring system is no longer safe for Sleeper combat and we are not about to engage other capsuleers on their terms. We'll collapse our wormhole to isolate ourselves from this system whilst simultaneously opening up a new opportunity.

Collapsing the wormhole goes smoothly and co-operative scanning finds our new static connection quickly. The neighbouring class 4 system is occupied, with a Chimera carrier in the tower's shields along with a piloted Abaddon battleship. The system itself looks rather bleak, with no anomlies and only two signatures, our K162 wormhole and the system's static wormhole. Finding the exit is unsurprisingly easy. The next system along has a Manticore stealth bomber somewhere, although the bomber returns to our neighbouring C4 system's tower. The dearth of anomalies and threat of our neighbours makes us collapse our wormhole a second time. It's okay, they're like Weebles.

Our third neighbouring class 4 w-space system of the night looks like a better prospect. The system is occupied but only by a mining corporation with eight members. Despite there only being two signatures in the system again—the K162 and the static wormhole—there are sixteen anomalies to blast through. It looks like the miners clear their gravimetric and ladar mining sites but mostly leave the Sleepers alone. They may not actually mind if we come in and help with their Sleeper infestation. The static connection is left unvisited, hopefully meaning that it remains 'closed', and a fleet is reformed for Sleeper combat.

I don't quite believe what I am seeing. Ravens and Drakes and Basilisks, oh my! W-space has gone tospy turvy and supplanted our normal armour-tanking, gun-toting fleet with shield-tanking missile throwers. It's glorious. I am only mildly surprised to see that I can pilot a Basilisk logistics ship and power its shield transfer arrays equally as well I can a Guardian, the armour-based equivalent, making me a natural choice to pilot one of them. An ally in a sister corporation commands the second Basilisk. But for both of us it is our first flight in a shield-repairing logistics ship. 'Don't wait for armour damage now, Penny', I am reminded, as we warp in to our first anomaly. Ooh, good tip.

Whilst shields are clearly superior technology to rely upon than having to clear up scars and craters from armour all the time, the minimal buffer of the shields on an armour-tanked ship have a purpose. The 'watch list' may let logistic pilots see immediately which ships are taking damage, but that extra second granted when the vestigial shields are vapourised gives Guardian pilots more reaction time than their Basilisk counterparts. The Basilisk pilot needs to act instantly to incoming damage, because the first line of defence becomes the only one.

It is not helping that we are flying without ECM support this evening. Normally we have a Scorpion battleship jamming the Sleeper battleships, which greatly reduces the incoming damage to more relaxing levels, and without the Scorpion we Basilisk pilots are having to repair more damage for longer, which shows when four Sleeper battleships warp in. At least we can manage the incoming damage, no ships losing shields and taking armour damage in the first anomaly, or in the second. But on the third my own Basilisk is targeted by the wave of four Sleeper battleships and my shields disappear. But I'm not worried, I know my wingman will recover the situation.

My Basilisk's armour is then quick to disappear, my ship now being held together by little more than rivets and some welding. Another volley and I am down to 27% structure, the Basilisk now resembling a Meccano model. I'm flying Caldari, not Minmatar, for goodness sake. Then my shields rise again, and rapidly. My companion Basilisk pilot was desperately trying to repair my ship but mistakenly had the wrong target selected. On realising this he quickly corrects his targeting, overheats his shield transfer arrays, and brings my Basilisk back to full health. Well, full shields, at least, my armour and structure looking awfully red still. I quite like the flames coming out of my exhaust, though.

I ask if a Guardian could be brought in quickly between anomalies to repair my Basilisk, as another lapse of concentration could easily vapourise my ship. An armour-repairing logistics ship is jumped and warped to our location, also fitted with remote hull repair modules, and my Basilisk is returned to showroom condition, although the small scratch on the hull where the VIN used to be won't buff out for some reason. All is well again.

I certainly understand how the targeting error happened, as I have done it myself. When a logistics ship is capable of targeting ten other ships and all of them require either repairs or energy transfer it can be a bit too easy to forget to switch focus from one ship to another before activating the required module. Indeed, in this first flight of the Basilisks I have already sent an energy and shield transfer to the wrong ship a couple of times. And no harm is done in the end, all ships surviving the combat, and I get to hear the structural integrity warning alarm without then exploding for once.

The Guardian is sent home and our fleet in to another anomaly. A fourth and fifth anomaly are cleared of Sleepers without any cause to panic before it becomes sleepy time in the Penny world. We have had a successful test flight of a shield-tanked, Basilisk-supported fleet, showing that we are capable of flying in such a configuration. If we can add ECM to the fleet it would be even smoother. But, for tonight, the anomalies are salvaged and I go back to the tower to get some sleep.

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Tags: abaddon, basilisk, chimera, dominix, drake, eve online, guardian, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, raven, rifter, rokh, scanning, scorpion, sleepers, w-space

They came from the K162

Our scout is out scouting and I ask in hope if there are any targets. 'Nope', he replies, 'only Sleepers'. That's a shame, but I like getting another chance to pilot my Tengu strategic cruiser in to combat against the denizens of w-space. So it is also a shame that it 'seems we are doing Guardian work', a regular fleet of battleships powered by the logistics ships. Telling the battleship pilots to 'put on minimal armour tanks' doesn't sound like fun at all for the Guardian pilots, and I am one of them. But piloting a Guardian pays for new toys and I've had my fun shooting other capsuleers recently, so I start to get ready.

The situation changes rather rapidly. The plan to attack Sleepers is abandoned when our scout finds he cannot return to our home system, the wormhole connecting back in to a class 3 system has disappeared. And our scout is experienced, he wouldn't have gone through an unstable or aging wormhole accidentally. The wormhole was collapsed intentionally. Whatever the cause of the collapse, a new route to our system needs to be found so that our scout can return home via k-space. I board my Buzzard covert operations boat and jump to the last stable connection, taking me through our neighbouring class 4 system and on to a C5.

I have visited this class 5 w-space system before. About a month ago it was unoccupied and now a corporation has moved in. There are two Buzzards and an Orca industrial command ship at the tower in the system, all three ships piloted. There are also scanning probes in the system, no doubt looking for the new static connection to a C3 system after the previous one collapsed. I launch my own probes and start looking, my scanning made much easier by our scout telling me which signatures I can safely ignore, referring to his recently made list after scanning here himself. I am left with only three signatures to resolve, making it easy to find a wormhole.

The Orca at the tower is moving. I can't tell if it is aligning before entering warp and I want to warp myself to the wormhole I've just resolved. I warp away to the wormhole, thinking that I'll find the Orca there anyway if it is planning to collapse this new static connection, but I end up floating outside a K162, an incoming connection from null-sec space. I return to the tower as I reposition my probes in space, the Orca now gone. A second wormhole is quickly resolved and I warp to it to find the static connection to a class 3 system. Before I jump through to look for an exit to k-space I check the status of the wormhole. Its mass allowance has already been reduced below half, the occupants are killing this wormhole too. And they must be using the Orca to do it.

I bookmark the wormhole and start heading homewards. There is little point in jumping through and getting isolated myself. But I will be coming back, and with a fleet behind me. Ships are already being warmed up in our home system and a second scanner stays in the C5 system to keep eyes on the Orca and other two pilots at the tower. Back home, I swap the Buzzard for my Onyx heavy interdictor but don't wait to check what other ships are in the fleet before warping back to our static wormhole. The fleet follows and we all jump in to the neighbouring C4. I am given the wing commander role which allows me to warp the fleet to the next wormhole, leading in to the C5, where we hold.

Our eyes in the system knows what he needs to do. He's keeping track of the Orca, a massive ship that lends itself well to collapsing wormholes. The Orca's hull is no doubt polarised from its return trip through the C3 wormhole and he will be waiting for the charge to dissipate before making his next jump. I don't want to jump the fleet in to the system with the Orca in the tower, as our presence could be discerned from the directional scanner. So our scout is going to let us know when the Orca warps away from the tower and disappears itself from d-scan, indicating it having jumped to the C3. When that happens the fleet will have at least thirty seconds—the session change timer that prevents rapid jumping between systems—to jump in to the C5 and warp to the position of the C3 wormhole, where the Orca will be jumping back in.

The Orca at the tower starts moving and it warps away. Our scout moves to follow but keeps checking d-scan. It is only seconds later we get the message that the Orca is off d-scan. 'Jump!' The fleet moves en masse through the wormhole in to the class 5 system. I hold my position for a few seconds to ensure most, if not all, of the fleet has jumped through before warping the wing to the location of the C3 wormhole. Warp speed sounds fast but it can feel awfully long at these moments. Our ships decelerate and we get our systems hot as we drop out of warp. The wormhole has gone but the Orca is almost waiting for us, its lumbering bulk unable to align quickly enough to escape.

I activate the Onyx's warp bubble and the Orca is trapped. Our small fleet of combat ships vapourises the Orca's shields and shatters its armour quickly, then blasts right through its hull. The broken industrial command ship jettisons the pilot's pod in to space, which we destroy ruthlessly, sending the capsuleer back to a station in empire space to wake up in a clone. This could be some form of revenge for isolating one of our pilots but I think most of us just like the thrill of the hunt, and the kill.

The Orca is looted of the few modules that survive the explosion and one of our pilots even thoughtfully brought a salvager module. We manage to loot a nice booty of Tech II missiles, too. It is only now that I notice a small conversation in the rarely used local channel. Our most diplomatic capsuleer asked if the Orca pilot wanted to keep his pod, the only reply being from another member of his corporation telling us that the pilot was 'too busy watching what was going on to notice' the communication. Yes, me too. The fleet leaves the pocket and gets back to our tower, excitement over for now. And without such a big ship, and with the threat of another incursion, the corporation in the C5 may not risk collapsing the new static wormhole. It is time to get back to scanning.

The scout who was keeping an eye on the Orca has a head start on finding the new static connection and has found it by the time I get back to the C5 in my Buzzard. I am given a reference to warp to in order to bookmark the wormhole, which I do. But one of our combat pilots left his drones behind after the fight and I realise they would be at the position of the previous wormhole, which I have bookmarked. I warp my Buzzard close to that position and see the drones floating inertly in space. I may as well recover them and start moving closer. But I'm not the only one with this idea, one of the Buzzards from the local tower decloaks and scoops a drone to his cargo hold. That's okay, I have rockets and warp disruption modules on my ship.

I decloak and start burning towards my new target, but the sensor recalibration delay after being cloaked lets the other ship move away from the drones and cloak again, preventing my systems from locking on to his ship. I certainly gave him a scare, particularly as he wouldn't know if I had the fleet behind me. I lurk for a little longer to see if the situation changes but there is no more sign of activity. I move to the drones and collect the remaining four, only losing the one to the other Buzzard. At this point my presence is required in the C3, so I warp and jump through the wormhole.

Two wormholes have been found, an exit available to both low-sec and high-sec empire space. I am warped to both to allow me to bookmark their positions and then I am tasked with monitoring local activity as the exit systems are checked. There are two battlecruisers on scan, a Drake and Brutix, along with a tower and finding the tower also finds the ships idling inside its shields. The system looks quiet. And the system remains quiet as our isolated pilot is brought back to w-space successfully, our route home intact. The adventure over, a fleet forms finally to battle Sleepers, but it is getting late and I instead remain at the tower to study.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on They came from the K162
Tags: brutix, buzzard, drake, eve online, mmorpg, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Orbital mechanics

Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments »
Tags: eve online, mmorpg

Music of 2010, part two

Clinging to a Scheme is the third album from The Radio Dept., and although I really like debut album Lesser Matters I managed to skip past Pet Grief. Maybe I should grab that second album, as Clinging to a Scheme shows The Radio Dept. to be as evocative now as several years ago. The distorted vocals wistfully play over nicely crafted music, its sequenced nature not detracting from appeal. It could be said that the music has not evolved much over the years, but whereas creating more of the same can be disappointing for many bands The Radio Dept. are able to extend their catalogue with another satisfying collection of songs without it feeling like the I've been here before.

Dum Dum Girls have been getting a lot of press and the interviews and opinions make it seem like I would enjoy their debut album, I Will Be. And I quite like Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout when I hear it on the radio, the Los Angeles all-girl four-piece producing some decent fuzz from their guitars behind some appealing vocals. The album produces more of the same, which eventually becomes tiring if only because the drummer plays minor variations of the same beat for almost the whole album. Although the songs have enough differences to stand out the monotonous drum beat, even with an occasional change of tempo, drags the album down in to the mire of indistinguishability. It's a shame, as there sounds like enough promise to warrant closer listening but I get bored half-way through the album and want to move on to more stimulating music.

Another Sub Pop band like Dum Dum Girls, Happy Birthday play some more distorted guitars masquerading as pop music in their eponymous debut album. Lo-fi and featuring vocal harmonies, Happy Birthday juxtaposes cheerful melodies against squeals and squawks from guitars. Songs like Perverted Girl mix traditional pop elements of the verse with more of a grunge sound of the chorus, whilst most traditional structure is abandoned for Eyes Music. Happy Birthday have created a decent collection of songs with a good mix of sounds, even if there is nothing particularly outstanding as a whole. Sub-two-minute Zit would have made a great ending, if only they hadn't tacked another song on to the album afterwards.

Second album from Canadian electronica band Holy Fuck starts slowly. First track on Latin is essentially a four-minute introduction to the album, indistinct synthesisers and eventually crashing cymbals welcoming listeners almost as a whale in rough seas. Then the album proper gets going, Red Lights not being the cover of Curiosity Killed the Cat that I was hoping but a catchy collection of riffs woven together with a steady bass beat and a few more whale song synths layered over the top. Holy Fuck aren't as lo-fi as their first album, more distinct sounds coming from higher production values, yet this doesn't detract from their style of using any old bits of electronics capable of making a noise, and tunes remain tunes whether lo-fi or not. Latin seems to lack some of the immediacy that their lo-fi sound injected, a feeling of being there with the band, but Holy Fuck remain compelling. If the music seems to slip in to the background it's only because it has worked its way in to your subconscious.

I saw Pharaohs play as a support act over a year ago and I was impressed enough to keep a note of the band. A cursory check of their website reveals a debut release We've Tried Nothing and We're All Out of Ideas, which I am happy to order. It has been quite a while since I saw the band play so I am not entirely surprised not to recognise the songs as such, but the lively tunes and catchy melodies certainly capture some of the spirit of what I saw. The studio recording doesn't quite have the enthusiasm or charm of the live performance, though, leaving it feeling a little flat. But We've Tried Nothing... is a competent start from Pharaohs.

Maybe I need to pay more attention on occasions but I didn't know that José González only covered Heartbeats and that the song was written and originally peformed by The Knife. At least, not until I heard the original being played in Sister Ray. I was impressed enough to buy The Knife's album Deep Cuts to get that one song, hopeful that the rest of the album would follow the same standard. It kind of does, in that the same synthesisers and drum machine beats permeate most tracks. It shouldn't be surprising considering the band are electropop but, again, I didn't know. I occasionally reminisce about the eighties, but reliving it is not really for me and Deep Cuts is only a curiosity and not particularly noteworthy.

Posted in Audio | 4 Comments »
Tags: cd, dum dum girls, happy birthday, holy fuck, pharaohs, the knife, the radio dept.