Three towers, one force field

It doesn't look like there will be an Azerothian adventure tonight. The two of us available remove our leather britches and don thrilling space trousers and head in to New Eden. Or, at least, some region of w-space possibly connected tenuously with New Eden. We arrive at the corporation tower to find a can full of current bookmarks and no one else around. It seems like a good opportunity to roam through our neighbouring systems looking for activity.

The neighbouring system is empty, with no ships showing on the directional scanner and no towers installed, so we jump onwards to the next system. Oh, this is more promising, with two Retriever mining barges on d-scan, particularly with three jet-cans also visible. An active mining operation looks to be in progress, but I have no bookmarks for gravimetric sites in this system. I need to head back to our tower to pick up my Buzzard scanning boat to find the miners. But, like a complete newbie, in my excitement I mis-judge the session change timer and bump off the wormhole in my Manticore for several seconds. Those several seconds could make all the difference, my stealth bomber appearing on the miner's d-scan until I jump through.

I warp back and change to my Buzzard, returning to the system where the miners were spotted. Jumping in to the system I hit d-scan again, and the Retrievers are gone. The jet-cans are still visible, and I start using d-scan to get a directional fix on their location. A Viator and Iteron are alternately seen on d-scan, and as the number of jet-cans whittle down and disappear they must be collecting the mined ore. I manage to get a good bearing on their location before they completely disappear, which lets me resolve the signature for the gravimetric site quickly once I drop probes, but it looks like the operation has finished. It is possible that the brief glimpse of my Manticore on d-scan earlier spooked the miners in to finishing, but that would make them quite intrepid to go back to pick up the ore.

I bookmark a few of the rocks just in case the miners decide to get active again, then go searching for the tower in the system. In fact, I see three towers on d-scan but only one force field, which intrigues me. I find out why, as two towers are anchored but not on-line, with only a handful of off-line defences around them and no storage arrays. There is not much that can be done about these towers without destroying them, and blowing up a tower with minimal force takes far too long to be practical. The active tower has a Hulk, Retriever, and Iteron Mk V in its shields, and no activity otherwise. Whether spooked or simply finished, it doesn't look like they'll be mining again soon. There is another wormhole to jump through and system to check, so I move on.

The next system across is empty apart from a couple of mobile warp disruptors, which I don't care to find. I wonder how so many warp disruptors seem to be discarded, but think that perhaps they are anchored on the K162 side of wormholes and then lost when the wormhole collapses. Either way, there is no activity in here. I go back to help my colleague monitor the tower in the previous system for a while, but there is no movement at all. Eventually heading home, it ends up being a peaceful night in w-space.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, hulk, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, viator, w-space

Moving away from wormholes

Wormholes are passively dangerous. Connecting to other w-space systems makes wormholes natural attractors to predators, and as they act as cosmic bodies they decloak prey trying to sneak through them. If you have no cloaking device, the normal methods of navigation and jumping apply to wormholes, noting that you can be up to 5 km from a wormhole and still jump through it. With a cloaking device, you have an excellent chance of not being noticed, but care needs to be taken when navigating around wormholes.

Jumping through a wormhole will spit you out in to the connected system between 1 km to 5 km away from the wormhole on the other side. Cloaking devices fail to work when 2 km or closer to another object. This means that, more likely than not, you will be able to activate your cloaking device as soon as you shed the cloak gained from the transition change. When squeezed out over 2 km away from a wormhole, it is tempting to activate your warp drive to fling you to your destination—maybe the next wormhole en route, or your tower—punch the cloak, and enjoy the ride. But this is not a reliable way to remain cloaked.

Your initial position relative to the wormhole is arbitrarily determined and your direction of travel could turn you to face the wormhole you've just exited. When your ship aligns and gains speed you can easily find yourself moving to within 2 km of the wormhole, breaking your cloak. You will then have the reactivation delay that will make your ship visible in local space and on the directional scanner for much longer than is desirable. Being detected means nasty pirates can set up ambushes, or potential targets—miners, haulers, ships in Sleeper combat—can run back to their tower either to hide or swap in to ships bigger than yours. So whether you are in a scanning boat, stealth bomber, or transport ship, you want to get cloaked as soon as possible and remain cloaked. There are ways to achieve this.

First, check your overview after jumping. This will give an instant idea of any immediate threats. Don't worry about stealth bombers, as you can align and enter warp before the bomb reaches you, and any other cloaked ship will have too long a sensor recalibration time to be able to lock you before you can cloak yourself. Next, punch d-scan and check the results. If there are only celestial bodies visible you can probably move away from the wormhole and cloak or warp with little chance of being seen. If you want to warp, wait until you are just entering warp and are far enough away from the wormhole before cloaking. Just remember to ensure you have a bookmark for this side of the wormhole before leaving.

If there are ships or tower structures visible on d-scan from the wormhole then your ship uncloaked will be visible to them too. It is advisable to limit the amount of time spent uncloaked as much as possible, and this is where a proper method of moving away from a wormhole becomes important. To get cloaked as quickly as possible, and stay cloaked, some care needs to be taken. Spin your view around to determine which side of the wormhole your ship is on and hold the viewpoint so that you can move directly away from the wormhole. This generally means placing the wormhole between your external viewpoint and your ship. In quick succession, and in this order, start moving your ship away from the wormhole, activate your micro-warp drive or reheat, and activate your cloaking device.

Moving away from the wormhole removes your session-change cloak, and activating your speed boost ensures you clear the 2 km range as quickly as possible, enabling you to activate your cloak with no delay. The micro-warp drive will pulse for one full cycle as well, even after the cloak is engaged, pushing you a fair distance away from the wormhole. Performed correctly, this manoeuvre will mean you are only visible, locally and on d-scan, for a second or so. Although a pilot sitting on the wormhole and paying attention will note your presence—which they can infer from the wormhole flare anyway—and ship class, it would take some lucky timing for ships in d-scan range to notice your entrance in to the system. Sufficiently far from the wormhole for it not to decloak you when aligning for warp, your Buzzard can move off the grid to drop probes, your Crane can warp to the next wormhole en route, or your Manticore can warp to the bookmarked gravimetric site to be a dick, all with only the smallest risk of being detected. If you aren't flying Caldari ships I'm afraid I cannot help.

I have two notes to end on. Don't worry too much about probes being visible on d-scan. Although probes imply the presence of a scanning boat the position of that boat cannot be ascertained. As long as no ships or tower structures are visible you are as initially safe at the wormhole as anywhere else. However, some attention must be paid to the cosmic signature of the wormhole, which is effectively the grid beacon that is scanned to find the wormhole in the first place. The cosmic signature does not coincide directly with the wormhole, sometimes being several kilometres away from the hole itself—which is why you should always bookmark the wormhole after first warping to it and not bookmark the signature from the scan results. The signature has a tiny physical presnce that, whilst difficult to see, can be spotted. It also decloaks ships just as any other object. Care must be taken not to fly towards or near the wormhole's cosmic signature, or you will find yourself rudely uncovered.

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

Hunting a Buzzard

A mining barge sometimes isn't enough, particularly a mining barge used as bait. With Sleeper destruction wrapped up for the evening I visit our connected w-space systems to look for any activity. Nothing in our neighbouring system's tower has changed, and four more systems across the wreck of the mining barge is still in the warp bubble where I left it. Whilst at the edge of today's w-space border, I poke my nose through the null-sec exit. I turn up in HB-1NJ in Great Wildlands. Checking my star map gets me excited, as it now shows a single point of light for my recent visit to B2-BCK! The star map now updates when a system is visited, regardless of the point of entry. This will get me jumping through wormholes in to more null-sec systems.

On my way back home, I note that the Buzzard is now missing from our neighbour's tower. It cannot be coincidence that I spotted probes on the direction scanner when travelling through the previous system. I think I'll camp the wormhole in this system for a while, and Fin is happy to join me. Another corporation colleague scouts for a few minutes but says he doesn't have the patience to wait, and I can't blame him. Sitting stationary on a wormhole for an indeterminate period of time is not the most thrilling activity, if it can even be called an 'activity'. And it's only for a Buzzard. At least, that's all we're expecting. He could be scanning for an exit to bring in a small fleet of battleships or strategic cruisers, and just as he doesn't know who is waiting for him on the other side of the wormhole neither can we tell what will be coming through, not without a scout.

I am in my trusty Onyx, its warp bubble perfect for springing such ambushes on ships jumping through wormholes, even if it also happens to be pretty much the only really aggressive combat ship I can pilot. My plan is pretty much the same as when I ponder how to catch a small ship with a heavy interdictor, being rather the same situation. When the ship jumps in it gets trapped in my bubble. If it jumps back, I follow and get my bubble up again, at which point his ship is polarised and cannot jump back. And this time I have help, as Fin is in her brand new Nighthawk command ship. Not only does it look suitably mean but it has a web fitted, which will help by dramatically slowing down the small and agile ship should it try to flee. I still don't think we'll have much chance of catching a Buzzard, but it's good to try.

Camping a wormhole can be tedious, it really depends on the company. There is plenty of conversation to be had, and not just on potential tactics for the eventuality of a small fleet of nasty ships surprising us by not being a Buzzard. But even we have a limit to our patience, with several systems all holding many signatures for the Buzzard to scan, particularly at this late hour. Fin wants to move one system across to potentially reduce our waiting time. We are conveniently out of d-scan range of the tower in this system, and I doubt that a second ship has moved to scout the wormhole for his colleague, so I think we're safe here. I am also concerned about passing the Buzzard whilst in warp, whereas here we are perfectly set and waiting. But a mis-click sends Fin next door, so we move one system across anyway to avoid polarisation problems, placing a new camp on the next wormhole along.

Five more minutes is all we can really devote to waiting, particularly as we've sat on one wormhole or another for much longer already. And just as we reach the seventh of those final minutes or so, the wormhole flares. My warp bubble is already up, our systems are hot and waiting only for a target to lock. No ship appears, no flare signals a secondary jump. We wait a bit longer, tension rising. The Buzzard, if it is he, must be pondering his options on seeing an Onyx and Nighthawk hovering on the wormhole. He makes a break! The Buzzard appears and starts trying to push through to the edge of my Onyx's bubble. All systems lock on to him and we open fire, Fin's web slowing the Buzzard down to a crawl. The Buzzard crumples under our heavy fire and the pilot's pod, still mired in my bubble, is targeted and fired upon. And then it's gone.

The Nighthawk jumps through the wormhole, quickly followed by me as soon as I loot the Buzzard's wreck, but no pod is on the other side. The kill-mail turns up and we get notifications for the destruction of both the ship and pod. Jumping back to where the Buzzard was destroyed we are surprised to find the corpse floating in space. The pod was blown apart quicker than we could even notice. We recover the body and warp home quickly, leaving the pocket with suitable speed. Our ships completed the ambush with aplomb, setting up a good trap and being fitted with suitable systems to prevent escape. And it is first blood for the Nighthawk. The kill is also probably rather more problematic than normal for the pilot and corporation. We clearly kill a scanner who was no doubt returning to his tower with a ship's system full of current bookmarks, none of which make it back. Let's hope they have at least a second ship and pilot capable of scanning.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, nighthawk, null-sec, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Taking the bait

A Retriever mining barge has been spotted. It is in a medium bubble and obviously bait, but the possibility of heading in to a trap hasn't stopped me taking a look before. Some colleagues are pondering bumping the Retriever out of the bubble, perhaps to recover it, I'm only thinking of bombing it. I get my Manticore stealth bomber ready and, when the scan man returns, copy the bookmarks to my systems, ready to warp off for adventure.

Today's neighbouring system is occupied. The tower has a Buzzard, Badger II, Moa, Iteron V, and Viator all in the shields, the first three of which being piloted, and there is nothing else showing on the directional scanner. Onwards! I jump in to a class 5 w-space system, which is completely empty. Onwards in to another completely empty system, and then another. If it weren't for our neighbouring system being occupied we could have a bounty of systems and sites to choose to plunder. I jump in to the occupied class 3 system holding the mining barge bait.

The Retriever and mining drones appear immediately on d-scan, clearly presenting a tempting target for others. A Retriever by itself is not suspicious, as it could easily be sitting inside a tower's shields, but having the mining drones visible makes it look like a miner is active. I am not worried that this kind of bait will make me waste time when out scanning normally. I always scout out the locations of towers when entering a system, as it best gives an accurate count of active ships within the system. I am not initially given the location of the tower in this system, but they are easy enough to find. I warp to a central position in the system and prepare to use d-scan to narrow down the moons it could be anchored to. As luck would have it, the arbitrary moon I warp to holds the tower, no searching required.

And there's the Retriever and the drones, sitting in a warp bubble some distance away from the tower's shields. I bounce off the bubble but my cloak holds, and I move away and around the bubble in to a better position. There are no other ships at the tower or visible on d-scan, all is quiet in the system. I manoeuvre my Manticore to get in to an optimal attitude for a bomb launch, taking my time rather than rushing. An empty mining barge is even easier to hit than one being piloted. One last check that d-scan is empty and my bomb is launched. It glides gracefully in to the warp bubble, exploding beautifully to destroy all five drones and the mining barge in a single blast.

Blowing up the bait is hardly an accomplishment, but gratifying all the same. And I always like explosions. Besides, there seems to be no point in using bait if no one bites. With the system quiet, and now void of other ships, I navigate my way back through the network of wormholes towards home. I call up a few articles to read on the journey, casually checking the overview and hitting d-scan around wormholes and system transitions. I know that w-space isn't safe, even when cloaked, and that there is no way to know what is waiting on the other side of a wormhole, even if it happened to be clear two minutes ago. I have stumbled in to and set-up my own traps based on that. Yet I am remarkably calm about travelling through w-space now.

I wouldn't say I am blasé about life in w-space, or the dangers it poses, more that I am comfortable with them. Nearly all my time is now spent in w-space, either cloaked and careful to remain unnoticed, or in a fleet with good information about who and what are in adjacent systems. And all the time the directional scanner is my friend, letting me see what is and isn't in the system. I feel experienced.

Back at the tower, the corporation gets a small fleet together to hack some Sleeper databanks, fending off the Sleepers as we do it. I get the privilege of being able to get my gorgeous Damnation out of the hangar to pilot it in to the radar site. I fit my command ship with a codebreaker module with the intent to provoke the Sleeper reinforcements when opening the databases. Before even that we get an escalation, as there are two Sleeper battleships present in the site when we warp in, and a deserted Talocan cruiser. We shoot, I hack, and the Sleepers are destroyed. I warp out and return in a Merlin rigged to hack, recovering the rest of the databases whilst someone else salvages the wrecks. We take home a pretty good haul, ending what has been a good evening.

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Tags: badger, buzzard, damnation, eve online, iteron, manticore, merlin, mmorpg, moa, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, sleepers, viator, w-space

Stalking and being stalked

I turn up to the familiar operation of trying to return a colleague home. Our scan man found himself on the wrong side of our static wormhole as we collapsed it, and piloted himself out to empire space. Now we are to get him back. I don't know how far progressed the operation to find an exit is, so instead I head out to look for targets at the 'badly configured Balkan tower' in our neighbouring system. I jump and warp to the tower, and again only remember once in warp that I need to bookmark the wormhole home. I am kindly told the signature of the return wormhole, but it doesn't help when I am in my Manticore stealth bomber and not a scanning boat. Luckily, a colleague still at the tower warps to the wormhole and jumps, providing me a beacon to warp to. There's nothing happening at this other tower anyway, just lots of cans floating around and no ships. I may as well be more active and get in to my Buzzard to help out with scanning.

I pass through our neighbouring system quickly, and the next system across is bypassed thanks to earlier scanning efforts, so I start scanning in earnest three systems out. And, just as the other day, I get distracted by a mining operation when trying to find an exit. A Hulk exhumer and five mining drones appear on d-scan in the system, along with a jet-can. Wormholes fade from my conscious and the hunt is on. Not wanting to push my luck with expecting oblivious miners, I practice my skills with the directional scanner. I get a good directional position on the Hulk and a rough distance, which I then use to position my scanning probes. It's a good first effort, as my probes return a single hit, already identified as a gravimetric site. But I cannot resolve the signature before the Hulk and drones disappear from d-scan. I warp to the site anyway and bookmark the positions of some likely asteroids just in case he returns, although my colleague informs me that the miner is changing ships at his tower.

An Ishkur assault ship warps in to the gravimetric site and loiters for a while before warping away again. This is not your average miner, and has clearly seen the probes and is ready for combat. Although as a fleet we may be able to put up a fight we still haven't found an exit wormhole, so I warp off-grid to decloak and relaunch my probes. I manage to resolve a wormhole on my first hit and, even better, it is an exit to high-sec empire space. I jump through to find out where it leads and relay the system information to our pilot wanting to come home. Jumping back in to w-space provides a small moment of alarm, as the Ishkur is now sitting on the wormhole with five Warrior II drones swarming around it. Oh well, my Buzzard is agile and has a cloak, and I warp away safely.

I warp back to the wormhole at range to scope the situation, but the Ishkur has gone. Apparently he was paying attention just now and was simply unable to lock me in time. The Ishkur pilot is hopping around, but perhaps is unaware that there are two of us in the system both in Buzzards. Fin heads inwards to our home system, the Ishkur seeing her jump out, which lets me lurk around hopefully unnoticed. The Ishkur pilot says hello to me personally in the local channel just as Fin leaves, but although he clearly saw me at some point I am unclear as to whether he knows it isn't me that leaves the system. Either way, I monitor his tower and d-scan for ship movements.

The Ishkur anchors a warp bubble near the high-sec exit, some 35 km off the wormhole, but I am unsure if he's aligning it with anything in particular. It certainly isn't aligned to the wormhole leading inwards, and the bubble doesn't snare me when I warp to the high-sec exit. He then swaps to a scanning boat, crawling out of the tower's shields to drop probes before returning to the safety of the shields to scan. Whilst he scans, our corporation colleague earlier stranded in empire space makes it in to the system and is guided through the network of wormholes back home. On his return, we have three stealth bombers present in this system just waiting for the right moment.

It doesn't look like the opportunity will arise, though. One of us takes a few pot shots at the bubble near the high-sec exit but with no reaction. Another finds a Dramiel frigate warping around the system, but moving far too fast to catch when it lands at a celestial body. And then a Viator transport ship turns up at the tower, after which this new pilot swaps in to a Nighthawk command ship. The occupants of this system are not going to be caught unawares or underarmed, and it is getting late. Never the less, it has been a successful operation. We have no kills, but no losses, and we have had some practice in scanning and stalking prey with good fleet co-ordination.

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Tags: buzzard, dramiel, eve online, hulk, ishkur, manticore, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, scanning, viator, w-space

Finding an exit means scanning for wormholes

After killing five miners in our neighbouring w-space system, and their hauler, it is decided to collapse our connecting wormhole. Personally, I don't really think our neighbours pose any serious threat, partly because we have just sent six of them back to empire space without ships, and partly because the additional pilots available didn't quickly jump in to really nasty ships to teach us a lesson. As it is getting late and we aren't likely to be clearing any sites of Sleepers now, I'm not entirely sure what threat we are expecting. But the wormhole is being collapsed, and it doesn't really matter one way or the other. Unless, of course, the operation goes awry and someone gets trapped on the wrong side when the wormhole disappears.

Luckily, we are aware of the risks, and the ship that inevitably gets trapped on the wrong side of the collapsing wormhole is fitted with a probe launcher and scanning probes. It's good that it is too, because the next wormhole along, used not half-an-hour before to bring our colleague back in from empire space, has now also collapsed, leaving no straightforward exit to empire space. Our scanning man is trapped in w-space until he can scan a new exit for himself, which won't be too easy in a battleship. Not only does his ship not give bonuses to scanning, but the mass of the ship restricts his possible exit routes. Whilst he looks for a way out to k-space, the rest of us once again jump in to scanning boats to find our new static wormhole and a new exit so that he can jump right back home again.

I am using my 'most likely percentage' (ML%) method of finding wormholes in systems, but I have modified it with a cunning addition. After jumping in to a new system, rather than probing the wormhole back completely and then ignoring the signature, I put a single probe on the wormhole at a reduced sensitivity that will still let me retrieve its signature reference but without resolving the signature itself to 100%. This is crucial for the new comparison. If a signal is resolved to 100%, it is always returned as 100% regardless of the sensitivity of the scanning probes. If it is not resolved to 100% then the return signal is only as strong as any other result within the probes' range.

With the signature reference noted, I make an overall scan of the system with a standard probe configuration. I now have a list of all the signatures available, but with the wormhole back listed normally amongst the rest of the signatures. I can compare the signal strength of a known wormhole with those of other signatures in the system, without having to make mental adjustments for different probe ranges or using different hardware. For example, if the return wormhole shows up as having a 4·56% signal strength, and I want to find other wormholes, I am best served looking for other signals with a similar strength.

Although ladar sites still have similar signatures to wormholes, being able to quickly compare all returned signatures against a known wormhole signature can offer valuable time savings. Using this method, I am able to pick a wormhole out of all the signatures in the system on the first attempt. Jumping through and continuing my scan, three ladar sites interfere with my initial results before I locate a low-sec exit, two jumps to high-sec. Our scan man has also found his way out to empire space, but he is thirty-six jumps away from the exit I found. He doesn't much fancy making the journey in a battleship at this late hour, even without the low-sec hops, so we'll have to look for a new exit another day.

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

Officially converting to yarrbears

Five jumps out, our static wormhole collapses. The podded pilot we were hoping to get back in to w-space has made a dozen jumps for naught, the wormhole in high-sec space she was heading for now leading to a dead-end. Quite why our static wormhole chooses this time to collapse is uncertain, as it didn't seem to be at the end of its life. Now we need to get out and scan again, to find not only the new location of the static wormhole but a route out to empire for our pilot to use. The static wormhole is relocated quickly enough in our system, and two of us jump through to start looking for an exit.

Checking the directional scanner in the new system reveals nothing but celestial bodies, so after bookmarking the wormhole home we drop probes and start scanning. I note the presence of a planet in the system that's out of range of d-scan, so as I position my probes for an initial sweep I warp to this outer planet to check for signs of life. As my probes return only a few signatures in the entire system, d-scan shows that there is a tower set-up around the outer planet. There are also some Covetor mining barges and a couple of Drake battlecruisers around. I pick the sole signature around this planet to resolve first, whilst using refined d-scan searches to find the tower. And there it is, with the pair of Drakes sitting alone in the shields. But that means there are five Covetors elsewhere in the system, and they must be active. Not only that, but I am currently scanning the only signature within d-scan range, which turns out to be a gravimetric site. It's time to form a fleet!

I resolve the gravimetric site with all haste, recalling my probes as soon as I get a strong enough hit to warp to it. Oh, it's a beautiful sight, five mining barges shooting the same rock, all huddled around the same jet-can in space. To actively use a jet-can a ship needs to be within 2,500 metres of it, which means my Onyx's warp disruption bubble will easily encapsulate all of the ships. To make it even more juicy, instead of having to bookmark the rock they are shooting and warp-in some 10 km away from them, the jet-can can be directly bookmarked from my remote position, allowing me to drop right in the centre of the ships. I'm tingling with evil as I warp back to the tower to get my heavy interdictor. The fleet sits ready, my Onyx joining a Lachesis, Myrmidon, and Zealot. It's overkill for miners, but to protect their operation the Drakes may turn up, or more.

We warp to our wormhole and hold position for all of the fleet to arrive. Our situation is excellent, as the other side of the wormhole is not within d-scan range of the miners, so we will be in warp before our ships can be detected. Once all our ships are on the wormhole we jump and hold on the other side. With everyone in the system the fleet is put in to warp, aiming for zero-point on the Covetors. If the miners had been watching d-scan they weren't spooked by the core scanning probes I was using, as they are still right where I left them a couple of minutes ago, my Onyx dropping out of warp right on top of them, its bubble capturing them all.

With callous disregard for capsuleer life our fleet starts popping the ships, as well as the pods that are soon ejected. The Drakes don't turn up to protect the mining operation, but an Iteron hauler drops out of warp and gets stuck in the Onyx's bubble, no doubt coming in to pick up the ore being mined. I like to think he was already in warp before we turn up on d-scan, as it is worrying to think that he began his trip to the gravimetric site without first checking his scanner. He is welcome to join our slaughter, though, and both his Iteron and pod are destroyed along with the rest of them.

The ambush is flawless, snaring all five ships and pods and even getting a sixth that happens to turn up. The Drakes don't leave the tower, although it is uncertain whether they are paying attention and choose not to throw themselves at us or are not around to help in the first place. However, we still need practice in withdrawing quickly, as it takes us a good five minutes to collect loot and ore and get out of the pocket. Our slow response time has cost us in the past and we really ought to improve, as we ourselves continue to show that no evident threat doesn't mean there is no actual threat. With all the loot and ore returned to our tower we can now find a new exit in peace, not that miners were likely to pose any obstruction to scanning.

Oh, right, our wayward colleague is still waiting to return to w-space. That's why we're out here shooting miners, because we are actually looking for wormholes. A new exit is found easily enough, one that remains convenient for our colleague to travel to, and she is brought back in to w-space and our home system with no further drama.

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Tags: covetor, drake, eve online, lachesis, mmorpg, myrmidon, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space, zealot

Visiting empire space

Scanning is complete before I even turn up. The bookmarks of all wormholes and exits are sitting in our can ready to be copied. I am even told that there is nothing of interest in the systems, as they are clear of sites and targets. My Manticore makes me eternally curious, though, and I am always happy to head out for adventure, the journey being just as important as the destination. I jump to our neighbouring system and find a Megathron battleship inactive in a tower's shields, the next system across has a Mammoth hauler just as inactively sat at a tower, and the only wormholes here are two low-sec exits, one high-sec exit, and a null-sec exit. Yes, there is nothing happening.

I think I'll poke my nose in to the null-sec system. I am a little disappointed that my previous appearances in null-sec don't show up on my star map of where I've been, my intuition being that the star map only records jumps through stargates. But it is precisely this intuition that guides me now, for if the null-sec system is quiet I could risk jumping through a stargate and get a blip on my star map out in null-sec. Small things still please me. I warp to the null-sec exit wormhole and jump through, turning up in B2-BCK in the Kalevala Expanse region. I break my jump-cloak to get my covert operations cloak active, and take in the view. My attention is drawn to the four people in the local channel—a luxurious warning not afforded in w-space—and decide not to try jumping through a stargate just to get a red dot on my map, heading back through the wormhole instead.

I'll try to the low-sec exit instead. At least, the wormhole of the two that isn't reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I pop out to find myself in the Misaba system in Domain, where I am quite surprised to see well over a dozen capsuleers in the local channel for a system that is five jumps from high-sec space. Checking my atlas highlights a possible reason for the numbers, as Misada is a system on the border of the Providence null-sec region. A gate-camp may be in effect. Seeing some mining ships on the directional scanner I wonder if I can ambush any in a charted asteroid field, as I have an excellent escape route home. I remember to bookmark the wormhole leading back to w-space before warping away to investigate.

The mining ships aren't active and are inside a tower's shields, which is probably for the best of all involved. Whilst I am out and about I check activity around each stargate using d-scan, finding no one on the incoming gates. The stargate leading to null-sec is out of d-scan range from any celestial body, which is a mean location to build it, so I leave it alone, particularly as I think I detect a Drake ratting at a belt somewhere. I am able to find him soon enough, warping to see him salvaging the wrecks of some rats. I can't steal any loot he leaves behind, as my hold is full of bombs and torpedoes, and I doubt my Manticore could defeat a Drake without more skill than I could bring to bear, so I just watch instead.

The Drake warps off, leaving me little else to do. I'll take a look at the stargate to null-sec anyway, curious to see where all the pilots in the system are. I warp from the wormhole at range from the gate and apart from a Taranis interceptor that warps away as I land, still cloaked, it is completely quiet. I'll head out of empire space again.

Back in w-space, a Drake has appeared, but it sits inactive in the system's tower. At least someone has woken up. The Drake pilot swaps to a Heron and warps off. I wonder if he's a target and camp the low-sec exit for a while. After a bit of activity at the tower, which I detect from monitoring the directional scanner, the Heron warps to the wormhole, but on the far side of it, too far for me to catch him easily. The Heron jumps through and I ponder my options. A bomb probably won't be enough to destroy the ship, or even catch the Heron before it is able to warp away, but if I get closer I can perhaps lock and disrupt its warp drive quickly enough.

I crawl towards the hole and wait, but when the Heron returns he warps off too quickly for me to become a threat. I warp around a bit, so as not to be easily discovered, before returning to the wormhole from hopefully an unpredictable direction. Two Drakes from the tower land on the wormhole and jump through, looking awfully like bait to me. I consider the possibility of creating a proper ambush for when they return, but with a pilot remaining at their tower in this system they will be made aware of any uncloaked ships turning up. The two Drakes jump back in, entrances staggered slightly, and warp off. And that's what I do, heading back to the home system and the safety of our tower after an afternoon's exploring.

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Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, heron, low-sec, mammoth, manticore, megathron, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Minor profit from gravimetric site Sleepers

I turn up to find a couple of corporation Rifters duelling. It's all fun and games until someone loses a frigate, and one pilot inevitably isn't able to switch off his guns in time. Oh well, it's another notch on our new kill-board, and in both the kills and losses columns too. I think someone is trying to inflate his numbers. But at least he stops before podding our scan man, which lets us go out exploring today's neighbouring systems.

After visitors clear our system of Sleeper activity yesterday it is rewarding to find an unoccupied system next door that is full of anomalies and sites. All we need now are more people so that we can form a suitable fleet. We also had better explore further, to avoid any surprises. The next system across is also unoccupied and, although it has a mere three signatures, full of anomalies. One signature in here is the wormhole back, I scan a signature that turns out to be a radar site, and scan man finds the static wormhole that leads in to a class 5 w-space system. He jumps through and continues to explore as I resolve the radar site enough to bookmark for reference.

I eventually catch up with our expert scanner, who is now another system across from the unoccupied class 5 and in to a class 2 system that holds two towers. I follow, diligently bookmarking both sides of each wormhole for a change, hopefully learning my lesson after being stranded in my pod for a while. There are a few more wormholes found, one leading out to high-sec space, and we return to our tower content that we have surveyed enough. Our neighbouring system is fairly well isolated from activity and we should be safe clearing sites there. In the meantime, I pilot my Crane out to high-sec to pick up a few bits and pieces from the market, whilst scan man mines gas. He rather fancies a couple of ECCM modules in order to make his gas miner undetectable to probes.

On my way back from empire space I pick up some of the gas he's mined in our neighbouring system, then swap in to a Drake to shoot the minor Sleeper presence found in the ladar and gravimetric sites. There is no problem for us in activating the mining sites without stripping them of ore, because the wormhole connecting our system to this one is unlikely to exist tomorrow, letting us ignore the despawn timer in this case, and at least the Sleepers can be looted and salvaged. Although not expecting much, the salvage from the Sleeper frigates turns out to be adequate, and piloting my Drake again is fun.

Some more engineers turn up a bit later, enabling us to form a small fleet to tackle the Sleepers in the adjacent system's anomalies. We keep a vigilant watch of the directional scanner but are not disturbed, and are able to complete three anomalies in the short time we have available. The profit for the night may not be significant but is enough to push my wallet over the two billion ISK mark, which is pretty decent. I should start making plans on how to spend it, although hopefully not on replacement ships.

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Tags: crane, drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, rifter, scanning, sleepers, w-space

Losing profit to w-space neighbours

Intruders! There are capsuleers in our home w-space system shooting Sleepers, and it's not us. And as the external fleet has a Legion strategic cruiser, two Nighthawk command ships, two Basilisk logistic ships, and an expensive Tempest Fleet Issue battleship, these are not people we could scare away or fight off. But maybe we can show our disapproval. We may not have enough numbers around to offer resistance, but we have a few stealth bomber pilots and ships available.

Our scan man is out and monitoring the intruders' progress, so we know their location. As a Cormorant destroyer is spotted coming in to salvage the wrecks our stealth bombers are sitting nearby, waiting for the right moment. When the salvager moves to some of the futher wrecks my colleague takes the opportunity to strike, launching a bomb and hitting the Cormorant solidly, but not enough for a hull breach. My pause, partly caution and partly lack of coordination, allows the Legion to move closer to its comrade salvager, making me wonder how quickly it could lock and fire on me. I sit and watch, staying cloaked for now.

Our tenacious Nemesis pilot comes back for a second strike, and the Legion locks and shoots back! The strategic cruiser misses and the Nemesis flees safely, and with all attention on his re-appearance I consider this a perfect time to launch my own bomb, hitting both the Legion and Cormorant. But the enemy fleet is prepared after the first bombing run and their Basilisk logistic ships are actively maintaining the integrity of the destroyer's shields. Perhaps a more co-ordinated initial attack would have been successful. Now we're just throwing bombs away.

I fly off-grid to reload, which cannot be performed whilst cloaked, and return to try to find their next site. The Cormorant isn't taken with the body of the fleet, yet remains visible on the directional scanner. He is alone somewhere in the system. Our scan man drops some combat probes to find him, and gets a signature! He warps our small fleet, hoping to drop on top of the destroyer, disrupt his systems and blow him up, but he has warped off by the time we get to the scanned location. I presume that he hasn't taken time to make safe spots, and he is likely experienced enough not to be warping to planets, which means he is probably sitting in a previous, cleared anomaly. A quick check of our current location on the system map confirms this, as we are sitting on top of an old bookmark.

The Sleeper wrecks appearing on d-scan don't diminish, so the Cormorant hasn't warped in to salvage yet. I warp around trying to find him, although as I turn up a little late my on-board scanner can only find the current anomalies, which doesn't include the ones they have already cleared. But now the small Sleeper wrecks have gone from d-scan, salvaging must have started. We warp cloaked to their finished site to keep track of them. A Crow interceptor turns up, a ship that is fast and quick-locking, no doubt intended both to deter us from interfering with their operation and to make sure that if we do interfere we only get the one chance. My colleague in the Nemesis wants to blow up the Sleeper wrecks, to put a dent in the profits they are taking from us. I think it's a bit of a waste of bombs, but I have to admit that any explosion can be a good explosion.

He warps in to the site and launches his bomb, whilst 80 km away from the closest enemy, successfully destroying the several wrecks aimed at. The hostile Crow swoops down to try to catch the Nemesis, and holy crap that interceptor is fast, but our pilot warps away cleanly. I have no idea if we're annoying them or not, but sneaking around in stealth bombers gives us something to do. Dropping off-grid to reload prevents them from knowing where we are or when we are coming, and helps to hide our numbers a little too. I don't think they are particularly concerned about our minimal threat, but the presence of the Crow shows that we are certainly disrupting their smooth progress.

I warp around a little more looking for the Cormorant as the hostile fleet moves to the next anomaly. The destroyer blips on my overview! It looks like I warp in to the anomaly he is in just as he is warping out, so he is probably warping continuously between sites and will be almost impossible to catch. When the new anomaly is cleared the destroyer goes in to salvage, and our Nemesis pilot wants to blow up more wrecks. I am in the anomaly at range and am able to make a bookmark of a cluster of large Sleeper wrecks suitably distant from the fleet's current position. I share the bookmarked location with the Nemesis pilot and he warps in, launches his bomb and destroys more profit cleanly. I just continue watching.

What I don't expect to see is the Nemesis reappearing a minute later, on the other side of the anomaly, lining up towards some more wrecks. It looks like he grabbed another bookmark during his last bombing run and wanted to do more damage. But no bomb is launched. It turns out that he forgot about the bomb launching delay, which is preventing him from launching for a little while longer, and in the confusion the Crow has pounced on the Nemesis, locking and warp disrupting him. The Legion follows behind the Crow, and the Nemesis explodes. Our capsuleer's pod thankfully escapes, the enemy fleet finishes salvaging the site, and then they all jump out of our now-empty system.

Disrupting the intruding fleet was a fun distraction, but the loss of the stealth bomber is rather unfortunate considering the circumstances. Although we would prefer to clear the anomalies ourselves the main reason they are still present in our system is because it makes more sense to save them for dry times. We normally jump to an adjacent system to plunder sites elsewhere first, often from occupied systems. The mirror held up to our activities does not go unnoticed, and the intruders clearing our local anomalies is not taken bitterly or as affront, merely capsuleers making profit from Sleepers just as we do. We'll find new sites, explore new systems, and continue to operate as we did before. And we need to make some more ISK so our pilot can replace his Nemesis.

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Tags: basilisk, cormorant, crow, eve online, legion, manticore, mmorpg, nemesis, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, pvp, sleepers, tempest, w-space