Returning reinforcements

Any help is appreciated, and I have a bookmark for the home system's static wormhole waiting for me. It's an invitation to jump through and explore today's local systems. Next door is a big system, big enough to encourage me to scan each planet's space individually, rather than try to expand and position my probes to cover as much of the system as possible. Although I won't get complete coverage of the system by scanning each planet, the stronger scan strengths, faster reset time, and more methodical approach at least shouldn't hamper my scanning efforts. Whilst I scan I also warp around the system, using d-scan to look for any towers but finding none. The system is unoccupied.

A Cheetah appears briefly on d-scan. Local activity is always interesting. I find an incoming (K162) wormhole leading to dangerous w-space. Whilst I am making notes about the newly found wormhole a Prorator transport ships appears, although I somehow miss what happens to it. Without more information about the system and ships I assume I have missed them and continue scanning. I find the system's static wormhole and finish resolving the only remaining signature, which turns out to be a magnetometric site, before jumping through. A Prorator is visible on d-scan, most likely the same as before, so I remain cloaked on the wormhole and wait. He warps to the wormhole and jumps. I follow. This is why my Buzzard has a warp disruptor, web, and rocket launcher.

The Prorator notices me following him and cloaks and, presumably, warps away. I grab my Onyx and a colleague to camp the wormhole for a short while before I realise that the transport ship has probably just gone back in to his system, not out from it, and so may well not be returning. Knowing the 'direction' of wormholes helps, and realising that K162-class wormholes are exits can give implied information about likely flow of traffic. I swap back in to my Buzzard and head through the K162 wormhole I found, believing it to be the occupied system. Indeed it is, with a tower visible on d-scan, along with a Dominix battleship, Damnation command ship, Orca industrial command ship, three Hulk exhumers and four jet-cans. The Hulks and jet-cans interest me, as it looks like a mining operation is occurring, even with the presence of the combat ships.

D-scan helps me find the occupants' tower, where the Orca, Dominix and Damnation sit, now with added Cheetah, all of the ships piloted. Attacking this mining operation could be risky, but it will be interesting. I don't want to drop probes and start scanning for the gravimetric site, or for the ships directly, as starting from a general scan could take several minutes. That is far too much time for probes to be visible and still hope to catch capsuleers unaware. I need to practice my scanning skills, which includes making use of d-scan. I warp to a distant planet, out of d-scan range of the any other ship, to decloak and launch my probes. The probes will stay there until I perform my first scan, but I can still cloak and warp back to the tower to keep tabs on the ships in the system, which is what I do.

Now I need to use d-scan to help get a bearing and distance on the miners. I enter the system map and use d-scan from within it, centred on my position, which still lets me use d-scan effectively whilst also offering an easier way to approximate the relative area to position my probes. I get a good idea of where the miners are, within five degrees of arc and half an AU in distance, but my inexperience with placing probes accurately using this information makes me make an initial scan with probes with a range fo 2 AU. It works, though, and I get a strong hit for a gravimetric site, and no other signals. One more scan and I am warping to the site, probes recovered. I see the Hulks and their jet-cans, bookmark one of the cans they are closest too, and warp back to the wormhole quickly to get in to a more suitable ship.

As I leave the system I notice the Cheetah is anchoring a warp bubble near the wormhole. The capsuleers are clearly active and definitely aware of my presence, and they are also adopting a defensive stance. I don't think the Onyx and Nighthawk pairing would be effective this time, but as another colleague turns up we may be able to gain a bit more firepower that can help should combat ships move to protect the Hulks. The extra firepower would help, but the new arrival wants to take a look at the situation for himself, which may be wise for survival but time is always of the essence when attacking other capsuleers. The more time spent amassing your own force only gives your opponents the same time to amass their own defensive force. Whilst our Cheetah warps off to scan, I jump in to a Manticore stealth bomber, my readied colleague doing the same, and we head back to drop in on the miners.

Jumping back in to the occupied system shows that even the small amount of time we spent considering our options has not been wasted here. The Damnation and Dominix are out of the tower and staring at the wormhole with their ten helper drones, a couple of warp bubbles in place too. Their presence only bothers me in that we are not going to catch the miners, as I know how to move away from a wormhole cleanly. I move and cloak smoothly, but if the combat ships are paying any attention they'll have seen the wormhole flare twice and noted the brief appearance of two stealth bombers. I take my chances and warp both of us to the position of the Hulks I bookmarked. One Hulk remains, mining lasers firing, and I launch a bomb as soon as I am even vaguely lined up. The Hulk warps off slightly before the bomb explodes, obviously warned in advance, and I destroy only jet-cans of ore. Now the problem remains of how to exit the system.

I know which area around the wormhole the warp bubbles are anchored and warp the two of us to a planet on the other side of the wormhole. Warping at range to the wormhole from that planet lets us monitor the situation better without being snared by the warp bubbles, and despite the hostile Cheetah jumping between systems occasionally the two of us are able to crawl to the wormhole and jump through safely. No one follows, which seems sensible from their point of view. We sit on the wormhole for a while deciding what ships would be best to take to that fight, when a pod jumps through from the other system and warps away. A scout of ours jumps in to get an update of the situation, and still the Damnation and Dominix are waiting, and they have been joined by a second Dominix, perhaps the other Hulk pilot. But someone went out, and they are likely to be coming back.

I get back to our tower and swap in to my Onyx heavy interdictor again, going to camp the same wormhole as earlier, after seeing the Prorator come through it, but this time with the understanding that someone will be coming back through it. It is not a long wait before the wormhole flares, and as a Hurricane decloaks as it aligns for warp I drop my Onyx's cloak and activate its warp bubble. It must be quite a shock for the pilot, as he jumps back through the wormhole, only for me to follow and get my bubble up again. I call for assistance and get it in the form of a stealth bomber and Megathron. The Hurricane is trapped, as his hull is polarised from the two wormhole jumps in quick succession and my bubble prevents him from warping away. With our combined firepower his ship is popped fairly quickly and his pod ejected.

I am persuaded to try to ransom the pod, although I point out that we need to be quick as the polarisation effect will wear out otherwise, allowing him to jump and escape. A ransom demand is made, a paltry sum is offered, and we accept it for the sake of expediency. But it is still too late, as the pod jumps through the wormhole and is gone before I can follow and re-activate my bubble. I bet the pilot was only too aware of the countdown until his polarisation dissipated, happy to stall for time in his pod instead of being shot. It is a good tactic. I doubt we could hold a pod on a wormhole without two HICs as well, so perhaps we either needed to pod him or let him go. Either way, we get another kill and no losses on our side, making it a successful assault. And with this minor success we leave the other system alone.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, damnation, dominix, eve online, hulk, hurricane, manticore, megathron, mmorpg, nighthawk, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, prorator, pvp, scanning, w-space

Orbiting an Orca

It's time to roam. Earlier scanning has a route to high-sec mapped, and with a couple of occupied systems on the way there may be a target or two to find. First I need to choose my ship. I only scanned for wormholes and located towers earlier, so if there are any miners around I'll need to be in the Buzzard to find the site they are in. But it's quicker not to have to swap ships and maybe I'll get lucky, so I jump in to my Manticore stealth bomber and head out to look for activity.

The unoccupied neighbouring system is empty, so no one has ventured in to it yet, and the next system along is also quiet, with no activity at the tower. The low-sec exit wormhole that was EOL has now collapsed and gone, and I prepare to move on when an Orca appears on the directional scanner. These very expensive industrial command ships are juicy targets, I'd like to see what it's up to. I warp to the wormhole that leads to the system holding the high-sec exit I scanned earlier but the Orca isn't there. Oh, but the low-sec exit is this system's static wormhole, this one is a K162. The Orca may be using the new static wormhole, meaning I need to get my Buzzard to scan for it.

I swap in to my Buzzard quickly and head back, but before beginning my scan I check the location of the Orca. It is now back at its tower, apparently inactive. It's quite possible I have missed my opportunity to snare it, or that I will have a bit of a wait if it is picking up ore from a mining operation occuring in an adjacent system. Then, as ponderously slowly as Orcas move, it turns to point away from the tower again. Finding the tower of occupants in the system has one obvious advantage, in seeing what ships are currently sitting in its shields and if they are piloted, and thus being able to tell what is in the system that isn't at the tower. But it also can provide some other intelligence.

Using the 'look at' option to get a close look at the aligning Orca, I use this opportunity to get some good information on where it is headed. From this view I get an excellent idea of its direction of warp and, using my system map, I realise it is heading towards the wormhole I have bookmarked, the K162 in the system. It dawns on me that I recognise this behaviour. Orcas do not travel quickly, so repeated jumps of short intervals through a wormhole can only mean that the pilot is collapsing it. This also means I know exaclty where it is headed and that it is due back. My suspicion is confirmed when a quick last check of the wormhole shows that it is now critically unstable. The window of opportunity is short!

I dash back to the tower, where a colleague is now waiting in his Arazu. I have excitedly told him of this Orca and now we have to act quickly. Our two-man fleet is already formed, I jump back in to my Manticore, and warp back out. I can't delay to wait for my colleague to copy the bookmarks, nor do I want to wait whilst he bookmarks them on the journey. Time is scarce, and he can follow. I get back in to the target system and warp directly to the K162 wormhole being collapsed. I am not planning to launch a bomb, only get close enough to warp disrupt the unarmed Orca to prevent it escaping. My torpedoes will then be more than suitable to get my message across.

Dropping out of warp 10 km from the wormhole, I arrive to see it collapse in to empty space! I wonder if I am too late, if this is a visual echo of the event, and then the Orca sheds its jump-cloak and starts to align. And that's when I decloak myself, off its port bow, and lock, disrupt and open fire. I update my colleague and he soon warps to my position to help provide menace. We have already agreed to ransom the Orca, hoping to make an easy hundred million ISK each or so by letting it go. But just as a conversation is opened to the Orca pilot he logs off. This is really disappointing, as it gives us little choice but to coninute firing. If we disengage just because someone logs off it sets an easy escape route for future engagements. We must finish the assault.

There is no satisfaction when the Orca is turned in to a large and rather impressive wreck. I return to our tower to get a salvage boat to at least hope to make some profit out of the ruined hull, whilst the Arazu loiters in the system to protect our disappointing spoils. It is during the time I am jumping between w-space systems that a colleague of the Orca pilot opens a conversation in the local channel, my own colleague responding. It turns out that we perhaps made a bigger faux-pas than we realised, as another member of our corporation was seen hauling through this system earlier and the occupants tried to send a message that they were planning to collapse the wormhole, in case she was still using it. Oops.

Never the less, the fellow and the Orca pilot, when he returns, don't seem terribly bitter about the affair. The Orca wasn't alone, his colleague was scouting for him to make sure the systems were clear, but my Manticore was cloaked and I had a bookmark to their position. The Orca pilot celebrates his insurance windfall but clearly would have preferred to have kept the ship, as getting a new Orca and shipping it to w-space is not straightforward. My colleague ruefully says that we too would rather have got a few hundred million ISK than the five metal scraps of salvage I manage to recover from the huge ship. The ambush didn't really work out well for any of us.

I almost apologise, saying that I just like to see explosions. The Orca pilot asks if the explosion of the ship looked good and if the wreck is impressive. 'Do you want to bring your pod out to take a look at it?', I ask him, but he declines gracefully.

'Just go', says his colleague, 'they are nice decent people'.

During this time I have brought back my Buzzard to continue looking for the new low-sec exit—the system's static wormhole that has disappeared since earlier—concered that with the K162 gone our scan man may not have a route back to the tower now, unsure whether he has made his way back in or not yet. I find the wormhole lurking on an outer planet and, whilst the conversation continues, keep scanning for a little longer to see what else is in the system. I bookmark a gravimetric site or two, but I don't think even I have the blackness of heart to return to ambush any later mining operations. Acknowledging the new position of the static low-sec exit, we leave our new acquaintances alone. As we exit the system the Orca pilot says goodbye, telling us, 'it was a blast meeting you'.

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

Getting the clone home

Another early start to scanning. This time, instead of one of pilots getting isolated on the wrong side of a collapsed wormhole, our scan man got in to trouble and woke up in a new clone in empire space. We need a route to get him home. I am already in my Buzzard and my search starts early enough that the signature references haven't yet changed, so ignoring our local sites is easier than normal. I resolve the BEZ signature in our home system and job's a good 'un, it's our static wormhole. I warp to it and jump through, finding myself in an unoccupied system, at which point Fin also wakes up and comes out to help scan for an exit.

Using my system of comparing a known but unresolved wormhole signature in order to find other wormholes in the system, I locate a wormhole on my first pick. I jump through to an occupied system, but one where there are a couple of defences somewhere other than the system's tower. Whilst I continue my efforts scanning signatures using probes, I also use my directional scanner to find these artillery batteries, warping to see them incapacitated around a distant moon. They both have complete armour damage and some structural damage, and I cannot unanchor either of them, but Fin thinks that maybe if we get a Guardian logistics ship to repair the defences we may be able to recover them as our own. I continue scanning.

My search for the next wormhole sees four signatures identified at the same time, all being close enough for the probes to register their type. The one I had selected and two other signatures turn out to be ladar gas mining sites, but a fourth registers as 'unknown', a wormhole, which is a lucky find. It turns out to be an incoming wormhole, having the K162 designation, so I keep looking for the system's static wormhole before jumping further. I locate the static wormhole, a low-sec exit to empire space, but it is both EOL and critically unstable, making it unsuitable for travel. Seeing no more wormholes I jump through the K162 to continue.

The system is occupied and there are probes visible on d-scan. I drop my own probes and start scanning anyway, there being no obvious threat at the moment. There is a wormhole on the outer planet in the system, and conveniently enough it is a high-sec exit leading to Lonetrek. That's a pretty decent route uncovered, and hopefully should see our scan man return to us soon. I poke my nose in to empire space and dock to contract a copy of the bookmarks leading back home to our colleague. It's only a short stay in k-space, as I then turn around and head back to our tower in w-space, mission accomplished.

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

Scanner scouting scanner

Sleepers cleared and profit made, there may be time for a quick roam. Our scan man heads out in his Cheetah, now with an added gun, to reconnoitre our local w-space systems of the day. Nothing particularly promising presents itself, but a Buzzard is seen. We set up a new camp on our wormhole, my Onyx heavy interdictor ready to try to panic a pilot in to making a mistake. There is 'no sign of a hostile fleet', according to our scout, who keeps track of the Buzzard's movements as best he can. Our Arazu pilot jumps in to the other system to provide quicker support to our scout in his Cheetah if required.

The Buzzard jumps through a wormhole that heads away from our home system, the Cheetah and Arazu following. Then a garbled transmission comes back from our scout, leaving me unsure what to do. I have experience of miningzen's excellent tips on w-space surivival and know that 'if your corp mate types a sentence fragment, spelled poorly, consisting of any two [common w-space words], run'. As such, I hold my position on our side of the wormhole until given a clear order. The other two pilots with me are equally cautious, or confused. Our scout could be excited about finding a target and the message was mangled in the rush to communicate it, or he has just run in a to a trap and is concentrating more on escaping than communicating. It turns out to be the latter.

A Phobos heavy interdictor has caught our Cheetah in its bubble and we get told to 'come', so I jump through our wormhole point my ship towards the next, still a system away from the fight. But then we are told not to bother, as a Flycatcher interdictor turns up to help pop and pod our poor pilot. I return to our system and follow communications as it is revealed our Arazu pilot followed the Cheetah and is also now trapped. The Arazu is not as flimsy as the Cheetah, being the cruiser-hulled equivalent of the covert operations frigate, but it is still in danger. Our man fights back, concentrating on the smaller Flycatcher, managing to shoot through the armour of the interdictor and inflicting hull damage, causing the ship to warp off. With the warp scrambler of the Flycatcher no longer preventing its activation, the Arazu's micro-warp drive can be brought back on-line to let our pilot burn out of the heavy interdictor's warp bubble and warp away. But he is not quite out of trouble.

The Arazu has warped away from the wormhole and needs to find a way back. Our scout is in a new clone in empire space, so we have no one monitoring ship movements. And a connecting wormhole is now EOL, so he does not have the luxury of time to wait out a patient force. Luckily, the hostile ships look to be treating the Cheetah kill as a good result, particularly with the near-destruction of their Flycatcher, and they are perhaps wise in considering that the Arazu can call for help to turn up. A few minutes of tense waiting sees the ambushing ships disperse, our own pilot making a dash for the wormhole when it looks clear and returning safely to our home system.

Losing a ship and pod is not the best end to the evening, particularly one that started so well. And although the implants and expensively fitted ship will eat through all the profit made by our scanning man this evening, at least we had that profit to lose. The encounter also shows that a scanning boat in w-space can never be considered benign. Certainly, we chased it, perhaps provoking the defensive response, but it is just as likely that the Buzzard was out looking for targets for his own HIC-backed fleet to trap and kill, just as our man in the Cheetah was. Dispose of the scout and the fleet behind it will be blinded. I don't feel guilty about hunting cov-ops boats.

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, cheetah, eve online, flycatcher, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, phobos, pvp

System cleared for anomalies

The threat of the Buzzard is gone. I think it's safe to say we can clear some sites of specific Sleeper interest without being interrupted by his corporation. The fleet of hunting ships is stored in a hangar and battleships and Guardians brought out instead. Warping and jumping in to our neighbouring w-space system we head to our first anomaly of the night.

It's my turn tonight to hear the natty armour warning sirens. Fin got all the attention the other evening and I struggled to keep her Guardian afloat, and now the Sleeper battleships are all targeting me. My twin is somewhat more competent than me, my logistics ship wavering around the 20% armour mark for a while but never taking hull damage. At least we are aware of the alpha strike these Sleeper battleships can inflict. And although I don't take structure damage I am warped in to structures a little too often, the structures of Sleeper compounds.

My whining about having to continually navigate out of structures doesn't go unnoticed and it is suggested that it is perhaps more desirable to do that than warp in some 70 km away from the initial Sleeper presence. Personally, I disagree. I find it much more convenient to be in clear space and head towards a target when the alternative is having to determine which side of the structure my ship has arbitrarily bounced to, before having to point my ship in a suitable direction and move away, trying not to select the structure itself when trying to turn my ship, all whilst having to lock on to the twin Guardian to start the energy transfers and all the other ships in order to be ready to repair damage.

On top of that, as smilarly named anomalies have the same waves of Sleepers, starting some distance away lets me set an approach vector that will get me in range of both the intial and the second wave of Sleepers without having to change direction several times to navigate around an imposing structure. And I'm sure it doesn't help my apparent threat with the Sleeper battleships when I accidentally ram one when trying to move away from the structure either. But I'm not squad leader, so we are warped in to structures.

Irritations aside, the anomalies are cleared quite smoothly. An ally is again along for the experience, after enjoying a previous junket through w-space anomalies with us, and officially joins the corporation to remain out here. The extra damage is welcome, even if the extra ship makes repair logistics more complex than having two reppers on the Scorpion, one on the Guardian, setting the nav-comp to follow the Dominix with the last active repper, and taking a nap. But Fin and I are getting really quite handy with Guardians in a small fleet. We individually have assigned certain reppers for specific ships, allowing us to know how many are active and where for greater agility in re-assigning the reppers in emergencies, as well as understanding the fleet's capacitor needs and generally keeping everyone's guns and drives energised.

We are able to blast through nearly all the many anomalies in the system, as well as a magnetometric and then a radar site, the latter's dark dust clouds of blessed relief being a pleasant change from the bloom clouds of increased blinding in anomalies. With a little time left we clear one of the easier anomalies too, leaving only one site in the system as we jump back home. It has been a good evening for profit, bagging over 125M ISK each. That should be good to buy a new ship or two.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, guardian, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scorpion, sleepers, w-space

It's not you, it's me

The unfortunate case of the twice-podded pilot raises the issue of our corporation's current engagement policy in w-space. Our initial stance was defensive, in that we'd hide in our tower's shields until the threat went away. From that, we moved to throwing inexpensive ships at the attackers until they ran out of ammunition, which proved awkward against cap-stable laser boats. The natural progression was to engage aggressors. But from there we have taken a more aggressive step ourselves, by hunting and shooting anyone not allied—or 'blue'—to us, the 'Not Blue, Shoot It' (NBSI) policy.

The NBSI policy is in contrast to 'Not Red, Don't Shoot' (NRDS), where pilots only attack others who have low standings—are 'red'— with the corporation, which are generally enemies or known aggressors. Parity Bit has a good deconstruction of the arguments against NRDS in w-space, showing that NRDS is quite workable without compromising your own safety. Essentially, don't attack anyone first, but still assume they are hostile until proven otherwise. If anyone shoots you unprovoked, set their corporation to red and move on. NRDS doesn't mean you have to be trusting, but you promote peaceful coexistence by example.

I agree that any argument that NRDS is unworkable in w-space is self-fulfilling. I consider NRDS to be somewhat impractical in w-space, though. The dynamic nature of w-space and the connecting wormholes makes it unlikely for any one system to be seen more than once over a matter of weeks or months, and the likelihood of seeing the same pilots again is remote. It can happen, with the occasional system cropping up a couple of times in my notes, the poor Buzzard pilot stumbling in to us twice, and a bigger and badder corporation poking us a couple of times, but the instances are uncommon to the point of rarity. Setting a corporation to red in w-space may have no measurable effect.

Even if NRDS can be considered impractical, there certainly needs to be some justification for adopting an NBSI stance, particularly when it allows attacking industrial and other clearly non-combat ships. One rational justification is that in w-space the distinction between combat and non-combat ships is not a reliable indicator of threat. Partly this is because the ship may not be alone, but mostly it is not the ship that is the threat but the pilot.

You can never be sure what the mining barge is actually doing, who is monitoring the hauler, or what the intentions are of the scanning ship. Nor can you be sure whether the hauler, miner, or scanner is performing his primary task or passing time until an opportunity arises to get in to his main and very pointy ship. I have attacked a Hulk that retreats to hide in his tower's shields, and also found a Hulk whose pilot launches an Ishkur to hunt me down. Our corporation regularly returns to empire space to buy fuel and supplies, but if other ships are noticed on the route we call out reinforcements to keep our hauler safe. A scanning pilot may be looking for an exit, or looking for targets, and our own pilots are not the only ones looking for an exit or looking for targets. Sometimes the two actions intersect and scanning for an exit becomes scanning for targets.

Seeing an apparently unarmed ship does not mean there is no threat, as there could be capsuleers watching out for them or close by to provide support, or even a small fleet waiting to be called in on the right signal. Of course, it could be there is actually no threat and that by attacking a threat is artificially generated, but that is the risk that an NBSI policy takes. Occasionally, it is even a desired result, where poking someone with a pointy stick ends up provoking a response in your favour. Indeed, this is where my personal justification for preferring NBSI can be introduced.

I have previously entertained justifications of blowing up any viable target such as 'because I can' and 'I like explosions'. Whilst both statements are true they are not fully representative of my motivations, which I have been trying to analyse for a while. It has been difficult to determine my reasons when there are easy and obviously false justifications like 'the game allows it' or 'others would do the same to me'. The game allows me to self-destruct my ship, or fly through gate-camps, and that would get me some pretty hefty explosions, yet I don't do that. Nor do I try to scam other players or corporations, or get involved in 'smack-talk', even though others may do so to me. There has to be an additional factor that motivates me to hunt other pilots. And there it is.

It is the thrill of the hunt that appeals to me. And in w-space the hunt is as much the challenge as the engagement that follows. There are no stargates for easy travel, no safe harbours outside of your own towers, no information of how many capsuleers are in the current system besides what you can gather yourself. You have no easy way of knowing what is on the other side of the wormhole, and sometimes not even on the other side of the system. You are limited to information you can gather yourself and your own skills to ensure your survival. You need to be vigilant and aware of possible threats, and know methods to evade them. Over time, my experience has let me understand w-space better, to the point where I am not only comfortable travelling through it freely but where I can actually be a threat.

I know how to use the directional scanner to identify potential threats, and have adapated that knowledge to help find targets as quickly and covertly as possible. I can navigate through w-space quickly and confidently, finding wormholes and sites as well as passing through occupied systems unharried, which lets me stalk targets effectively. And I have good people with me who can do the same, so that when we form a fleet we can pool information and knowledge to greater effect. Being able to note the presence of other capsuleers, locate them, trace their activity, and drop deadly ships on top of them is exciting. And it can be just as exciting to find yourself being hunted and using the same experience in trying to escape.

Of course, it is possible to locate the target and let them get away with the knowledge that you were in a good position to shoot, but it isn't the same. Although there is satisfaction to be gained from finding and observing the target, there is more to be considered. I need to have the right ship and the right fitting to snare and hold the target for long enough to destroy it. I need to understand that the information I gathered is correct and sufficient for me to complete the kill without being chased away or ambushed myself. And if it goes wrong I want to see how I cope with the situation, and hopefully learn from my mistakes. The hunt ends with the kill, the satisfaction comes from the explosion.

But it's not personal. I don't choose you to shoot, I simply find a target. NRDS is closer to making the combat personal, as the standing relationship implies previous hostility and instils negative emotions before the fight even begins. NBSI only means it is open season on ships.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, pvp, w-space

Bumping in to an acquaintance

Our scan man is out scanning, assessing potential threats before we consider clearing some sites of specific Sleeper interest. Today's neighbouring system is unoccupied, which is a good start, but the next system along has a tower with a Moa and Buzzard inside its shields. We will need to be cautious about their presence if we decide to head in to Sleeper combat sites. A couple of colleagues wonder if we can tempt the other corporation's capsuleers out of their tower, hoping to reveal their strength and motivation, but then our scan man links their corporation name to us. 'I remember them.'

In fact, most of us remember the corporation, as we pop and pod a Buzzard of theirs a couple of weeks previously. The complaining that came our way when the pilot's new clone woke up was memorable. On that occasion they were in the system adjacent to us, now they are two systems away. Not only that, but it looks like the Buzzard is out scanning again, and coming our way. It may even be the same pilot out scanning, but we don't get a positive identification. The last time we met him, and sent him back to empire space, he complained that he was only looking for an exit, and it is likely that is all he is doing this time. Even so, I still get in to my Onyx heavy interdictor and sit on our wormhole with its bubble up and a Nighthawk for company, the same Nighthawk that helped the last time too. I'm sure the Buzzard will be happy to see the two of us.

We have more help. Our scan man is watching his progress, one pilot is cloaked in an Arazu recon ship on the other side of the wormhole, and another joins us on our home side of the wormhole in a Zealot heavy assault ship. Piracy likes company. It doesn't take long for the Buzzard to find the K162 of our static wormhole, coincidentally finding our Arazu as well, decloaking him when warping to the wormhole. No doubt a little panicked by the sight of this threatening ship the Buzzard pilot jumps through to our side of the wormhole, in to my bubble. With little ceremony, the Buzzard is popped and the pilot podded. And it is the same pilot as before.

Considering how easy it is for a covert operations boat to get away from such an ambush—as we have both seen and done ourselves—it is unfortunate that we can catch the same pilot twice. We are only more baffled when we receive details of his ship's fitting, which includes the requisite cov-ops cloaking device and even a warp core stabiliser. The Buzzard didn't even need to clear my Onyx's bubble before being able to warp away, giving him an extra option. He can cloak as soon as possible, which would prevent most ships from gaining a lock on such a small target, or just warp off, where even though he probably had no bookmarks there are plenty of celestial bodies to choose from. Unfortunately, it looks like his inexperience causes him to panic, which we thoroughly abuse.

Of course, we could have just let him be. He said before he was only looking for an exit, and this time again was probably only looking for an exit. But people say a lot of things. We only have his word that he was looking for an exit previously, and this time he may have been looking for targets. He could have found our tower, recognised the corporation, and plotted some revenge to ambush us when we return from clearing Sleeper combat sites. This is all highly unlikely, and the truth is more that I like blowing up other ships. It is unfortunate for this Buzzard pilot, but it's nothing personal.

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, moa, nighthawk, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space, zealot

Disturbing a Drake

A potential target presents itself early. An ally is guided out of our system back to empire space by a colleague, and on the way out he spies a Helios on a wormhole. As usual, I jump in to my Onyx heavy interdictor, and Fin accompanies me in her Nighthawk fleet command ship. A fleet is made, ships readied, and we warp out of our tower to our static wormhole. The scout ahead of us, still heading out to empire space, notes the appearance and disappearance of a Drake battlecruiser and a shuttle too, so we're no quite sure what we are going to encounter. But whatever it is, we feel ready.

With some ship movements occuring it is probably best to check the wormholes our scan man has already mapped out. We warp to one that heads further in to w-space, my Onyx dropping on top of it and the Nighthawk landing 50 km out. There are no ships on the wormhole, so I jump through to see what's on the other side. I find a Drake. The Caldari battlecruiser is sitting a few kilometres off the wormhole, clearly looking for trouble. No doubt he has just seen the first sign, the flare of the wormhole as I jump through, and he's not moving. I call the Nighthawk in and Fin burns towards the wormhole as quickly as she can as I hold my cloak as long as I can. The Drake has no idea what has jumped through yet, and I imagine my appearance will come as a surprise.

Fin calls out the status of her approach to the wormhole. As she jumps I decloak, target the Drake, and activate the HIC's warp bubble, the Nighthawk quickly joining me. Predictably, the Drake jumps through the wormhole to try to avoid us, so we both jump back. Both my Onyx and the Nighthawk are now polarised, meaning that we cannot pass through the wormhole again for a few minutes because of the quick sequential jumps, but the Drake doesn't look like he is taking advantage of this fact. Maybe he is polarised too, or is unaware of the mechanics, and although I bump him with my Onyx to try to keep him out of range of the wormhole he seems to be moving away from it anyway. Either way, we are in combat, all ships targeted and missiles burning through shields.

The Drake has an impressive regenerative shield, and although our two ships are making a significant dent in its defences we are uncertain whether we can break the tank. We call for extra DPS and a colleague prepares a Zealot heavy assault ship to join us, whilst the Drake pilot engages in jet-can-renaming smack-talk. I don't care much for this, merely renaming the jet-can 'I like kittens'. Fin thinks she sees the wormhole flare but no ships join the fray, and we are both aware that the Drake could be calling in his own reinforcements. Indeed, a little while in to the fight a Hyperion battleship appears about 50 km from the wormhole, but we don't know where he comes from and he isn't in the same corporation as the Drake. We initially pay it no mind, concentrating on the Drake, and although the battleship takes a couple of pot-shots at us it soon warps away. And then our Zealot turns up.

Adding the Zealot's weapons to our own destroys the Drake's shields, and the armour and structure soon follows. The Drake pilot drops another jet-can, mocking us for needing three ships to defeat him, as if we are going to be embarrassed in to disengaging. Instead, we blow up his battlecruiser and then pod him for good measure. Hmm, this might have been a good time to try to ransom his pod to earn some piratical ISK, but I tend to get carried away. We loot the wreck and destroy the evidence, then think about finding that Hyperion. It is likely that it came through the low-sec exit, as there is no sign of it in neighbouring w-space systems. Checking the other exits and wormholes reveals no more ships and we return home, pausing briefly to try to locate a different Drake that disappears quite effectively from d-scan.

It is interesting to see that we have gone from running away from most fights to actively seeking out and hunting other capsuleers in w-space. Neither myself or Fin flinched when the Hyperion turned up and once our primary target was destroyed our first instinct is to find the battleship and engage that too. Life out in w-space is certainly having an effect on our actions and motivations. And not only are we out hunting other pilots but we are doing so in expensive ships, and winning.

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Tags: drake, eve online, helios, hyperion, mmorpg, nighthawk, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space, zealot

Catching a Keres

I'm going to rewire my brain. It must have been over a year since I took advantage of neural remapping, when it first became available, and I hoped that I wasn't making any stupid choices at the time because of the restriction of only being able to remap your neurons once a year. I am fairly sure that I tried to keep a balanced set of attributes before, as I was moving in to industry but still wanted to run combat missions, although I reduced my seemingly less desirable charisma. It was shortly afterwards that the corporation moved in to w-space and my plans changed, and I even trained my charisma-dependent leadership skills quite heavily. Oh well.

I am again on the cusp of a new change, the harsh environment of w-space letting the yarrbear inside me flourish, and I have a good idea that my skill training will involve pointy ships and supporting combat skills for the forseeable future. Checking the range of most likely skills I am to train I can see which attributes are most important whilst I have the neural remapping screen displayed. I still have some leadership skills to train, but they are relatively minor and short-term plans compared to all the other skills I hope to learn, and it turns out that my current neural map looks mostly adequate. I make a few tentative changes to primary attributes, and then hastily apply the changes when a Hulk has been spotted in a neighbouring system and I need to make a quick ship change in to my Onyx. I'm sure my brain will be fine.

I understand the need for haste when on the hunt, so I don't worry about wasting time copying the current bookmarks for wormholes, I know I can make them as I go. The fleet is warped to our static wormhole, which I bookmark moments before I jump through and bookmark the other side. We warp to the next wormhole, which again I bookmark, and this is where we hold. Our scan man is in the next system looking for the Hulk, but it has gone. He moves to the next system across and so we jump, bookmark, and are warped to the next wormhole along, holding on this side again. My Onyx heavy interdictor sits on the wormhole with a Zealot heavy assault ship. Our Arazu combat recon ship, fitted with a covert operations cloak, jumps through to help provide quick assistance to our scanner. I put my HIC's bubble up to cover the wormhole, and we wait.

There are no signs of ships in the w-space system our two colleagues are in, not even at the tower there. But that's okay, because a Keres electronic attack ship warps directly to my side of the wormhole. The Keres bounces off my bubble, putting him too far from the wormhole to jump through, and I lock and start firing, as does the Zealot. The Keres is quickly popped, and the wormhole gets a few heavy missiles for its troubles, mostly because it has a larger signature radius than a pod and in my eagerness to be a dastardly pirate I target the wrong object on my overview. I can pretend it was a warning shot across the bow of the pod, which my ship finally locks on to and helps destroy with the Zealot. The Zealot pilot then asks permission to engage the Keres, hoping that he'll get a positive response.

We loot the wreck of the Keres, but as we are unlikely to bring a salvager out here for the sake of a frigate-sized hull it is decided to destroy the wreck. A wreck on a wormhole looks ominous and perhaps we don't want to show overt signs of a battle. I scare the crap out of the Zealot pilot as missiles fly and explode unexpectedly close to his ship, thankfully for him blowing up the wreck, as I take the initiative whilst the conversation about whether or not to destroy the wreck concludes. There are no other movements we can see, except a Helios covert operations boat sitting outside a high-sec exit. He doesn't look like he is going to enter, and doesn't belong to a corporation living in our current connected system of w-space. We head home, happy with our single kill.

Hunting capsuleers doesn't earn much ISK, so we head out to shoot some Sleepers. The salvage and loot from the Sleeper sites can be highly profitable, which helps to keep us active out in w-space and provide new and replacement ships and clones for us all. It has been a while since we've lost a ship to Sleepers, but it nearly happens this evening. The alpha strike of several Sleeper battleships can be quite heavy, and our reliance on ECM to reduce incoming damage can make us a little complacent. My twin Guardian gets targeted by a new wave of Sleepers and sees its shields and armour drop to nothing within seconds. I am activating and switching all my reppers to my twin as fast as I can, as well as my maintenance drones, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I'm too slow!

An emergency warp is initiated, to protect the Guardian which is now at 40% structure, but thankfully my systems are pulling her back from the brink, bringing half her armour back. It's best to be safe and we warp out to recover and repair. I am reassured that it wasn't my fault, but I can't help feeling responsible. At least we all work well as a squad and the situation is recovered. We shortly warp back in to the site and exact our revenge on the Sleepers, as well as more in other sites, with no more near-losses. It has been a good evening overall, starting with the accidental snaring of the Keres and ending with almost a hundred million ISK of profit deposited in to each of our wallets from Sleeper loot.

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Tags: arazu, eve online, guardian, helios, hulk, keres, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, sleepers, w-space, zealot

Harrying a Hurricane

I go out for a roam. The earlier roam didn't find the Loki strategic cruiser, nor thankfully its friends, but I explored a few systems in the process. What I didn't do, apparently, was venture in to the connected class 1 w-space system, which is where I now head in my Manticore stealth bomber. The intermediate systems are still clear of ships, but this class 1 system shows a Hurricane battlecruiser on d-scan. And then a Sleeper wreck appears! It looks like I have a potential target.

Making the assumption that the Hurricane is in a Sleeper anomaly, the simplest of the sites and coincidentally the easiest to find, I punch my on-board system scanner. The scanner takes a while to get results without using probes, and can only find anomalies, but it is ideal when looking only for an anomaly. I get a single return signal and warp to the anomaly, but the Hurricane isn't there. He still shows on d-scan, with a couple more Sleeper wrecks, so hopefully he will be busy for a little while, giving me time to return to the tower and swap in to my Buzzard. It also lets the corporation form a small fleet in preparation.

Something prompted me to look at my Buzzard's fitting recently, and I was interested to see that it has a launcher hardpoint. I have only used the Buzzard as a scanning boat, because its ship bonuses make it the obvious choice, but I have so far overlooked any other potential it may have. The frigate-based hull may be fragile, but it doesn't have to be defenceless. I quickly slap on a rocket launcher, throw some rockets in to my hold, and head out to look for the Hurricane. I will try to keep my my Buzzard out of harm's way, but if I am ever caught I will go down shooting.

Back in the class 1 w-space system I start scanning for the still-present Hurricane. I get out of d-scan range of him to launch probes before returning to keep tabs on his presence whilst I scan. Now with the assumption that he's not in an anomaly I start looking for radar and magnetometric sites, which are more difficult and time-consuming to resolve. I try to get some information on his bearing and distance using d-scan first, but I struggle to find the site he is in. In desperation, I warp to the anomalies that are returned on my simple scans, and there he is! I call in the Arazu to warp to my location, whilst making a note that I need to find out the range of the on-board scanner for finding anomalies, as this search could have been made much simpler and performed without probes.

The Arazu warps in and holds his cloak as we watch the Hurricane fight a few Sleepers, still unconcerned about the probes that were visible on d-scan for several minutes. Our plan is to let him defeat the Sleepers and then strike, but plans don't often work as intended. The final Sleeper cruiser sniffs out the Arazu, moving close enough to the recon ship to decloak him, and we are forced in to action. Our Zealot heavy assault ship is called in from the other side of the wormhole and the Arazu locks and warp-scrambles the Hurricane. We have plenty of firepower, and hopefully enough buffer tank as the final Sleeper explodes and calls in a new wave of ships. My colleagues are focussed on the Hurricane and it soon explodes, the pilot's pod warping away cleanly.

I have watched the fight safely from my cloaked Buzzard, taking care not to let any Sleeper ships get too close. I warp out and return to our tower to get a salvaging ship whilst the rest of the fleet stays to finish off the Sleepers, suffering some armour damage in return. Flying back in a salvager, I note that one wormhole on the route is now EOL, so I hope that doesn't collapse, and on d-scan I see a Daredevil Serpentis faction frigate in an intermediate system apparently tackling Sleepers himself, as a couple of wrecks are also visible. Jumping and warping back to meet the fleet, I start salvaging the Sleeper wrecks left behind, as well as the wreck of the Hurricane.

The Sleeper ships the Hurricane killed are displayed as yellow wrecks, indicating they don't belong to our corporation, which makes it more awkward to salvage. A tractor beam cannot be used on yellow wrecks, needing me to fly the Catalyst to each of them in turn to get in range of the salvager modules and loot the hulls. All the wrecks are salvaged without any problems, and the fleet leaves the system cleanly. On the way back to our home system I note that the Daredevil I saw previously is now a Minmatar frigate wreck, and am glad to see the EOL wormhole is still present. We get home safely and deposit our ill-gotten gains in to our stash of loot.

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, catalyst, daredevil, eve online, hurricane, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, sleepers, w-space, zealot