So, today the pilots of Per Ardua Ad Sol scored a mighty victory, assisted by none other than yours truly.
Now admittedly, there's no killmails to be had, but there's also no loss-mail. I guess it really depends on your definition of 'a mighty victory'... You decide.
Today a wormhole opened into Our Slice of Heaven from a suddenly neighbouring class 4+ wormhole. (I didn't stop to check the readings on the other side, but the wormhole indicated at least a C4). Within that wormhole was a branch of the Shadow of xXDEATHXx alliance. They decided to pop in and start running some of our sites.
Understandably I was a little intrigued to see 7 Moa's and a Bestower on my directional scanner when I logged in, and perhaps just the slightest bit amused when dropping combat probes cleared the system in about 25 seconds flat. Give the boys over there in xXDEATHXx credit, they were paying attention and they scrambled their butts out of there when the free gas harvesting time was over.
So while I looted their wrecks, others of the corp scanned the system down properly, identified their entrance and planted a scout.
Not really feeling like doing much, I AFKed for some time and came back to check on things a few hours later.
Seems xXDEATHXx had gotten bored sitting in their own system, and decided to come over and do a few sites.
That's all well and good, but I really wanted to run some of those sites in the next day or so...
What to do, what to do.
So that was when I decided on setting the Conditions of Victory. Against a group of remote-repping (with drones) Drakes and with relatively minimal numbers available on my side, and the knowledge of their numbers back in THEIR wormhole, I decided to see if we couldn't convince them to keep it quick by ripping their wormhole a bit of a new one with a few battleships.
Racquel and Leilani went to work in Scorpion and Dominix respectively, but as they arrived on-gate, an Onyx appeared beside the wormhole. "Oh crap" was pretty much the sentiment all around.
Ducking through, the Shadows converged from all over the wormhole, eventually sporting a fleet of 9 people on Our Slice of Heaven's side of the wormhole, including the Onyx. One drake dropped through and managed to decloak Leilani and she was forced to jump back through. As we're anticipating a HICtor bubble and much pain, Leilani ramped up the warp drive, and to our surprise, noted the Onyx had jumped through!
Racquel quickly scrambled to jump back through to our side, even as Leilani evaded tackles and warped out from under the 8-man gang of battlecruisers (one of them MIGHT have been an Anathema instead, reports vary).
Racquel then joined Leilani in attempting to warp, while the Onyx was still stuck on the "Thirty Second Timer of Doom" that we all know and love. She too managed to slip the tackles on her and warp off to the safety of our POS.
With the damage done, the wormhole starting to look a little ragged, I sat patiently on the wormhole and watched from cloaked safety as they milled about... As they warped back to their own space... As they came back with cloaker ships (sorry, homefield advantage wins in the intelligence business) and left again, and as they finally decided they wanted to play with someone else and popped the wormhole with a few visits of an Armageddon.
So, my Conditions of Victory were met, and the 4 of us that took the time to work on it effectively drove off at least a 9 man fleet.
Oh, and I got to go loot our combat site and salvage their wrecks. Only about 40 million ISK worth of profit, but hey, at least I didn't have to waste any missiles on it. ;)
Fly Straight! Even you Shadow boys! You were organized and you rallied FAST to every change of situation, it was impressive to see you in action, but I'm glad it turned out how it did.
Showing posts with label Wormhole Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wormhole Space. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Getting things back under control...
It's amazing how much stuff can pile up in a Wormhole when the most active participants in site-running take a vacation.
I'm not really complaining, mind you, I quite enjoyed the 6 Radar sites, and 4 Mag sites, that awaited our greedy little Analyzing and Codebreaking ship. But getting caught up, amidst growing 'real life' complications has proven to be a bit of a challenge. I'm currently staring at the hardly dented list of sites to run, and it's a little bit daunting, to tell the truth.
But, with plenty of fuel in the POS and bills to pay, we'll just have to suffer through the horrible burden of making a few billion running wormhole sites.
Doesn't your heart just bleed for us?
;)
Fly Straight, from site.. to site... to site....
I'm not really complaining, mind you, I quite enjoyed the 6 Radar sites, and 4 Mag sites, that awaited our greedy little Analyzing and Codebreaking ship. But getting caught up, amidst growing 'real life' complications has proven to be a bit of a challenge. I'm currently staring at the hardly dented list of sites to run, and it's a little bit daunting, to tell the truth.
But, with plenty of fuel in the POS and bills to pay, we'll just have to suffer through the horrible burden of making a few billion running wormhole sites.
Doesn't your heart just bleed for us?
;)
Fly Straight, from site.. to site... to site....
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Making The Game: Planetary Interaction In Wormhole Space
Unlike my usual 'Making the Game' posts, this particular post centers less around an idea I had for making the game more interesting, and more around my growing suspicion that the new Tyrannis expansion is going to be applied only to K-Space in terms of Planetary Interaction.
So I thought, 'well, maybe we should go over the positives and negatives of letting W-Space holders have access to Planetary Interaction'. Voila, a blog-post was born. Don't mind the squalling, newborns are cranky like that.
POSITIVES:
- Consistency of realism.
- More reason for people to explore.
- More resources in riskier locations.
NEGATIVES:
- More profitability to W-Space habitation.
Now, let's discuss these points in a little more detail, shall we?
For the Positive team, we have Consistency of realism, which can be roughly explained by this question. How does it make sense that all W-Space planets and moons are completely devoid of profitable minerals? And people too? Did the sleepers strip-mine all the planets to build more of themselves and in-so-doing kill all the indigenous people? I could buy that, if there were planet-side ruins and the like, but if so, couldn't we import colonists and export archaeological finds? Maybe as a precursor to T3 Frigates? It's unrealistic and inconsistent to, in a sandbox environment, say 'you can do this stuff with planets and moons' and then say 'except the ones over there' without giving an explanation.
Next we come to, More reason for people to explore, that's right, the shiny probing interface that was installed a few expansions ago? Doesn't that suggest you WANT people to explore, find W-Space, and go searching for fun and profit? Another resource in w-space means another reason for people to want to visit. It also ties in well with my next point...
More resources in riskier locations. The key point here is RISKIER. W-Space is more dangerous than 0.0 in a lot of ways, particularly if you're at a location that isn't either a) protected by a POS bubble, or b) requiring a full set of 4 scan-probes to location. In other words, paranoia at a Mag-site, needed. Paranoia at a combat site? Really needed. Paranoia floating above a planet? Down right necessary to even the faintest hope of survival. In 0.0, you could dock up when someone comes in system, in W-Space, you have to hope you spot them as they're warping to your planet, and hope you can get into warp before they arrive. Is anyone else snickering at your odds there?
Since Risk vs Reward is what you're looking for, W-Space will have a good mix of risk to reward if PI does get implemented there. Sure, you're off the beaten path and someone has to scan down your hole to find you. But once they're in your system, you have no way of knowing if you're going to drop in on your planet safely, or if a handful of SB's are gonna decloak and fry you for your greedy ways.
Add to all that my hope that they'll design the 'launch to space' system in such a way as to give a chance (however small) for theft of your hard-earned goods, and it just sounds like a better and better idea.
For the Negatives team, I could only come up with one thing that really seemed logical to me. Call me biased, cos I probably am, but More profitability to W-Space habitation was all I could decide would hold CCP back. It's been stated that CCP didn't intend for W-Space to be colonized on a permanent basis, so maybe they won't want to give people even more reasons to want to stick around in W-Space.
But that ship has already sailed, folks. W-Space is colonized in the majority of systems that open up connecting to Our Slice of Heaven, and from what I hear, it's the same for most other colonists out there in the community. Trying to artificially coax people out with inconsistent, artificial schemes is a bit sad at best and detrimental at worst. People wouldn't do it if they weren't enjoying it, and the game you've designed is supposed to be a sandbox, and the first rule of the sandbox is that you don't kick down other people's castles just because you don't like their moat.
Anyhow, if YOU have any ideas on a good Positive or Negative on the 'PI in WH' argument, post it in the comments and lets chat. I'm sure there's plenty of arguments for both sides that I've missed!
Fly Straight,
So I thought, 'well, maybe we should go over the positives and negatives of letting W-Space holders have access to Planetary Interaction'. Voila, a blog-post was born. Don't mind the squalling, newborns are cranky like that.
POSITIVES:
- Consistency of realism.
- More reason for people to explore.
- More resources in riskier locations.
NEGATIVES:
- More profitability to W-Space habitation.
Now, let's discuss these points in a little more detail, shall we?
For the Positive team, we have Consistency of realism, which can be roughly explained by this question. How does it make sense that all W-Space planets and moons are completely devoid of profitable minerals? And people too? Did the sleepers strip-mine all the planets to build more of themselves and in-so-doing kill all the indigenous people? I could buy that, if there were planet-side ruins and the like, but if so, couldn't we import colonists and export archaeological finds? Maybe as a precursor to T3 Frigates? It's unrealistic and inconsistent to, in a sandbox environment, say 'you can do this stuff with planets and moons' and then say 'except the ones over there' without giving an explanation.
Next we come to, More reason for people to explore, that's right, the shiny probing interface that was installed a few expansions ago? Doesn't that suggest you WANT people to explore, find W-Space, and go searching for fun and profit? Another resource in w-space means another reason for people to want to visit. It also ties in well with my next point...
More resources in riskier locations. The key point here is RISKIER. W-Space is more dangerous than 0.0 in a lot of ways, particularly if you're at a location that isn't either a) protected by a POS bubble, or b) requiring a full set of 4 scan-probes to location. In other words, paranoia at a Mag-site, needed. Paranoia at a combat site? Really needed. Paranoia floating above a planet? Down right necessary to even the faintest hope of survival. In 0.0, you could dock up when someone comes in system, in W-Space, you have to hope you spot them as they're warping to your planet, and hope you can get into warp before they arrive. Is anyone else snickering at your odds there?
Since Risk vs Reward is what you're looking for, W-Space will have a good mix of risk to reward if PI does get implemented there. Sure, you're off the beaten path and someone has to scan down your hole to find you. But once they're in your system, you have no way of knowing if you're going to drop in on your planet safely, or if a handful of SB's are gonna decloak and fry you for your greedy ways.
Add to all that my hope that they'll design the 'launch to space' system in such a way as to give a chance (however small) for theft of your hard-earned goods, and it just sounds like a better and better idea.
For the Negatives team, I could only come up with one thing that really seemed logical to me. Call me biased, cos I probably am, but More profitability to W-Space habitation was all I could decide would hold CCP back. It's been stated that CCP didn't intend for W-Space to be colonized on a permanent basis, so maybe they won't want to give people even more reasons to want to stick around in W-Space.
But that ship has already sailed, folks. W-Space is colonized in the majority of systems that open up connecting to Our Slice of Heaven, and from what I hear, it's the same for most other colonists out there in the community. Trying to artificially coax people out with inconsistent, artificial schemes is a bit sad at best and detrimental at worst. People wouldn't do it if they weren't enjoying it, and the game you've designed is supposed to be a sandbox, and the first rule of the sandbox is that you don't kick down other people's castles just because you don't like their moat.
Anyhow, if YOU have any ideas on a good Positive or Negative on the 'PI in WH' argument, post it in the comments and lets chat. I'm sure there's plenty of arguments for both sides that I've missed!
Fly Straight,
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Honour, Humour and Piracy.
Not exactly the Holy Trinity, but it was pleasant the other day after getting jumped while closing an unscheduled Low-Sec hole, (details to follow) to find a set of Pirates with both Yarring skill (see details for a bit of an addenda to that..) a sense of humour, and enough honour to follow through on a ransom.
We lost 2 ships and 1 pod to their gank, which included a Phobos. Fortunately for us, it took them too long to kill Leilani and her pod before moving onto Katt that by the time her Typhoon exploded, the Phobos pilot had run out of capacitor and lost his bubble, so Katt slipped away safely. Fortunately for me, I'd managed to get my cloak on before they jumped through the bubble, and despite some close calls, they didn't manage to close within 2k (<2.6k? Sure, but never less than 2k.. phew).
Tip of Experience: Cap stability is not an optional item on a HIC.
Insurance covered Leilani's loss, but Katt being in the wrong ship cost us a few million, nothing hurtful though.
Normally, this would quite upset us, as would the threat from the pirate gang to further harrange and bother us in Our Slice of Heaven, they were asking for 50M, which isn't a tremendously unpleasant amount of money to pay, which just shows at least they weren't silly. Afterall, we could just hide out in our POS and unless they felt like sieging us while we called the reinforcements, they would have a very boring afternoon.
So, to pay or not to pay? I was working (called away when they warped INTO the wormhole, of all the darned times to get someone at my door), and so Katt held the negotiations. Some of the highlights included the threat of seeing one of the pirates in a Leather Tutu, which surely evoked horror in his compatriots, who fair begged Katt to give them the money and save them from such a fate.
They made Katt laugh, and that was worth 50M to us, so we paid them to go about their business, fully expecting them to stick around and cause trouble.
Well, holy moly! They said their thank-yous and meandered out, assuring us several times of their lack of ill intent. Katt closed the wormhole up boldly, and was unmolested in the process.
So, Pirates, if you're going to ask for a ransom, keep in mind that while you've just had your entertainment and blown someone's ship up, if you're trying to get paid, it helps to get the OTHER party, the gankee if you will, in a good mood! If they'd just threatened us, we'd have kept our money and onlined a few extra defenses at the POS, they'd have spent a very boring day in a wormhole hoping we'd come out, when we'd in actuality cleared the absolute last site in there just hours before their arrival on the scene.
Their sense of humor netted them 50M, and I hope they have similar luck elsewhere.
Well, I also hope the next group they jump on a wormhole is sitting there in a gank-squad and teaches them to leave W-Space holders alone.... But I never said I was consistent.
We lost 2 ships and 1 pod to their gank, which included a Phobos. Fortunately for us, it took them too long to kill Leilani and her pod before moving onto Katt that by the time her Typhoon exploded, the Phobos pilot had run out of capacitor and lost his bubble, so Katt slipped away safely. Fortunately for me, I'd managed to get my cloak on before they jumped through the bubble, and despite some close calls, they didn't manage to close within 2k (<2.6k? Sure, but never less than 2k.. phew).
Tip of Experience: Cap stability is not an optional item on a HIC.
Insurance covered Leilani's loss, but Katt being in the wrong ship cost us a few million, nothing hurtful though.
Normally, this would quite upset us, as would the threat from the pirate gang to further harrange and bother us in Our Slice of Heaven, they were asking for 50M, which isn't a tremendously unpleasant amount of money to pay, which just shows at least they weren't silly. Afterall, we could just hide out in our POS and unless they felt like sieging us while we called the reinforcements, they would have a very boring afternoon.
So, to pay or not to pay? I was working (called away when they warped INTO the wormhole, of all the darned times to get someone at my door), and so Katt held the negotiations. Some of the highlights included the threat of seeing one of the pirates in a Leather Tutu, which surely evoked horror in his compatriots, who fair begged Katt to give them the money and save them from such a fate.
They made Katt laugh, and that was worth 50M to us, so we paid them to go about their business, fully expecting them to stick around and cause trouble.
Well, holy moly! They said their thank-yous and meandered out, assuring us several times of their lack of ill intent. Katt closed the wormhole up boldly, and was unmolested in the process.
So, Pirates, if you're going to ask for a ransom, keep in mind that while you've just had your entertainment and blown someone's ship up, if you're trying to get paid, it helps to get the OTHER party, the gankee if you will, in a good mood! If they'd just threatened us, we'd have kept our money and onlined a few extra defenses at the POS, they'd have spent a very boring day in a wormhole hoping we'd come out, when we'd in actuality cleared the absolute last site in there just hours before their arrival on the scene.
Their sense of humor netted them 50M, and I hope they have similar luck elsewhere.
Well, I also hope the next group they jump on a wormhole is sitting there in a gank-squad and teaches them to leave W-Space holders alone.... But I never said I was consistent.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Speaking in Local... Part 2.
Last month I told you all of my quandary regarding warning people in the local channel of our presence and ownership of Our Slice of Heaven.
Not long ago, I had occaision to test the theory once more. Upon logging in for the early morning victuals (don't ask...) I was displeased to find a small gallente POS on the D-Scanner. For those of you that play WoW, (I know, I'm a sub-par EVE personage), you may remember a certain iconic phrase uttered by mechanical robots in Gnomeregan.
That's pretty much what I was screaming inside my head, "WARNING, WARNING, INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!!!".
After I calmed down a little and started scouting this new threat out, prepared to pester as many folk online and into combat ships as possible to drive these intruders out, I found the tower. Looking up the corporation from the ticker, I quickly looked up membership numbers.
1.
Ok, that's not so bad. Katt spotted a wreck, named after the pilot (tsk tsk) and I looked that guy up. He wasn't from the corporation of 1, but had a name eerily similar. Hmmm.
Convo? No convo? Convo? No Convo?
Here's the score-card for warnings in Local:
Warnings Gratefully Received: 3
Gankings: 1
Because 90% of you didn't go read my link *Sad panda* you will have to keep reading to know what that means.
But, I'm not gonna make you wait long.
Really.
Ok, fine. He was really nice, and explained he was very new to Wormhole space and 'did I set up my POS too close to yours?'. I explained that typically speaking, in the same wormhole is considered too close, and normally explosions followed shortly after such a lapse in etiquette. He politely asked if he could move his stuff out of our space and I agreed.
I and others watched him move out, and though none of us ever uncloaked, I kept relaying helpful tips on how he could improve his operations in WH space, in part to let him know he was being watched, and in part to be nice. Let me tell you, having only just recently trained up Bomb deployment, it was tempting to break cloak when, 30 km in front of me, and still 10km from the wormhole, his Hulk comes out of warp and starts slow-boating towards safety.
Fortunately, I'm a nice guy. Phew for him, eh?!
Fly Straight, but not into other people's territory!
Not long ago, I had occaision to test the theory once more. Upon logging in for the early morning victuals (don't ask...) I was displeased to find a small gallente POS on the D-Scanner. For those of you that play WoW, (I know, I'm a sub-par EVE personage), you may remember a certain iconic phrase uttered by mechanical robots in Gnomeregan.
That's pretty much what I was screaming inside my head, "WARNING, WARNING, INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!!!".
After I calmed down a little and started scouting this new threat out, prepared to pester as many folk online and into combat ships as possible to drive these intruders out, I found the tower. Looking up the corporation from the ticker, I quickly looked up membership numbers.
1.
Ok, that's not so bad. Katt spotted a wreck, named after the pilot (tsk tsk) and I looked that guy up. He wasn't from the corporation of 1, but had a name eerily similar. Hmmm.
Convo? No convo? Convo? No Convo?
Here's the score-card for warnings in Local:
Warnings Gratefully Received: 3
Gankings: 1
Because 90% of you didn't go read my link *Sad panda* you will have to keep reading to know what that means.
But, I'm not gonna make you wait long.
Really.
Ok, fine. He was really nice, and explained he was very new to Wormhole space and 'did I set up my POS too close to yours?'. I explained that typically speaking, in the same wormhole is considered too close, and normally explosions followed shortly after such a lapse in etiquette. He politely asked if he could move his stuff out of our space and I agreed.
I and others watched him move out, and though none of us ever uncloaked, I kept relaying helpful tips on how he could improve his operations in WH space, in part to let him know he was being watched, and in part to be nice. Let me tell you, having only just recently trained up Bomb deployment, it was tempting to break cloak when, 30 km in front of me, and still 10km from the wormhole, his Hulk comes out of warp and starts slow-boating towards safety.
Fortunately, I'm a nice guy. Phew for him, eh?!
Fly Straight, but not into other people's territory!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Time Demands in WH Space
Hey folks,
Over at EVE-Online Wormholes, this post popped up and sparked my conversational side. I started to leave a nice rambling comment, when I realized it was going to be almost as long (or longer) than the original post!
This calls for, BLOGGING MIN! *Plays cheesy super-hero music*
Ok, now that I've got my inner dork out of the way for a bit, let's get down to brass tacks. Many different bloggers and W-Space occupants have recently decided to step back their operations in WH space, citing either the emptiness and inactivity of their bit of space, or the constant demands upon their time that managing W-Space requires.
While Katt and I have run across both of these problems within Our Slice of Heaven, we've come up with several methods of combatting the dread 'W-Space Mania' that has afflicted so many of our fellow capsuleers. And now this information can be yours for the price of just 49.99 ISK plus shipping and handling!
Or, you could just read the blog...
Let's set up some fancy looking (not) headings and break this issue down, shall we?
EEK, MY AGORAPHOBIA:
"So much empty space... Nothing to do in it... Gahhh!!"
Problem number 1, and by far the most common complaint I hear from the various WH inhabitants that I've spoken with or read the blogs of, is that they're too efficient, and everything is cleared, and now they've got nothing to do.
While indeed this is a painful problem, and one that's difficult to amend, there's a key pair of words up above, 'too efficient'.
That's right, you done shot yourself in the foot, boys!
Wormhole signatures, while not completely reliant upon the number of signatures in system, DO take into account current 'activity' (via readings on how many untouched sites there are) when spawning new sites, particularly wormholes and combat anomalies. What this means is that, when you aren't getting enough sites, you need to do LESS.
Freaky, I know. But when we left 5 combat sites and several signatures as 'seed', we would often have upwards of 5 combat sites and 3 wormholes or other signatures spawning PER DAY in Our Slice of Heaven.
It takes a little coordinating to leave these sites alone amongst the various folk inhabiting your wormhole, but the net result can be a large increase to the profits your corporation can enjoy. Another big issue is defending all these resources from poachers. But really... You went to WH space to avoid PvP?... Seriously??
IM TOO TIRED TO THINK OF A WITTY TITLE:
"Zzzzzzzz... *Snort* Huh, What, yeah, I've got that Sleepless Upholder right where I want him.... Zzzz.."
Sometimes, Real Life (tm, pty, ltd), can be a real pain in the neck. Often it keeps us from playing as much EVE as we want (*gasp*) and even more often, it leaves us with only 'so much' time to spend on our hobby. When our WH's spawn rate is high enough, that can mean we don't have enough time to get all done that we want to.
Also, EVE is a big game, sometimes we want to do something OTHER than pop the 3 wormholes that spawned in our hole this morning, before we go to work.
Actually, I can pretty much guarantee we'd rather be doing almost anything than popping all those wormholes. It's boring as all get out.
Anyhow, for whatever reason, the other main gripe going around at the moment is people getting sick of the amount of time they need to spend EVERY SINGLE DAY to keep their WH under control.
You probably won't be surprised to learn that the solution to this problem is 'DO MORE'.
Ok, maybe a few of you were shocked. But only if you're not paying attention. That's right, if you completely clear (or, just visit every site and let them despawn on their natural cooldown) your wormhole, you will get less site-spawning.
By clearing your wormhole down to the static exit, and then popping that static exit and not scanning down the next one, you have effectively sealed off your wormhole. You're all alone, with no way in, and nothing to do.
Log off at that point, and take a much-needed break. Sure, stuff will spawn, slowly, while you're gone, and there's always the possibility that a wormhole will open into yours, where it will be almost instantly disregarded by 99% of visitors as 'worthless'.
IF by some chance you run into that last 1%, your tower should be online, armed, well defended, and with a fat bay full of Strontium. Odds are, most folk won't bother, and the few that will, would have bothered even if you were logged in.
Using this method, you can log in every other day, or even less frequently. If you're a little worried about leaving it that long, open up http://www.evemaps.dotlan.net/ and run a search for your J-Code, see how things are going. If you see a bunch of jumps, maybe log a character into the WH and peek about lazily to make sure the POS is still untouched.
In closing, these methods have worked for Katt and I. We've been occupying Wormhole Space for over 6 months, and have no intentions of leaving any time soon.
Fly Straight, whether you're agoraphobic or using toothpicks to hold up your eyelids, it's just darned easier than zig-zagging!
Over at EVE-Online Wormholes, this post popped up and sparked my conversational side. I started to leave a nice rambling comment, when I realized it was going to be almost as long (or longer) than the original post!
This calls for, BLOGGING MIN! *Plays cheesy super-hero music*
Ok, now that I've got my inner dork out of the way for a bit, let's get down to brass tacks. Many different bloggers and W-Space occupants have recently decided to step back their operations in WH space, citing either the emptiness and inactivity of their bit of space, or the constant demands upon their time that managing W-Space requires.
While Katt and I have run across both of these problems within Our Slice of Heaven, we've come up with several methods of combatting the dread 'W-Space Mania' that has afflicted so many of our fellow capsuleers. And now this information can be yours for the price of just 49.99 ISK plus shipping and handling!
Or, you could just read the blog...
Let's set up some fancy looking (not) headings and break this issue down, shall we?
EEK, MY AGORAPHOBIA:
"So much empty space... Nothing to do in it... Gahhh!!"
Problem number 1, and by far the most common complaint I hear from the various WH inhabitants that I've spoken with or read the blogs of, is that they're too efficient, and everything is cleared, and now they've got nothing to do.
While indeed this is a painful problem, and one that's difficult to amend, there's a key pair of words up above, 'too efficient'.
That's right, you done shot yourself in the foot, boys!
Wormhole signatures, while not completely reliant upon the number of signatures in system, DO take into account current 'activity' (via readings on how many untouched sites there are) when spawning new sites, particularly wormholes and combat anomalies. What this means is that, when you aren't getting enough sites, you need to do LESS.
Freaky, I know. But when we left 5 combat sites and several signatures as 'seed', we would often have upwards of 5 combat sites and 3 wormholes or other signatures spawning PER DAY in Our Slice of Heaven.
It takes a little coordinating to leave these sites alone amongst the various folk inhabiting your wormhole, but the net result can be a large increase to the profits your corporation can enjoy. Another big issue is defending all these resources from poachers. But really... You went to WH space to avoid PvP?... Seriously??
IM TOO TIRED TO THINK OF A WITTY TITLE:
"Zzzzzzzz... *Snort* Huh, What, yeah, I've got that Sleepless Upholder right where I want him.... Zzzz.."
Sometimes, Real Life (tm, pty, ltd), can be a real pain in the neck. Often it keeps us from playing as much EVE as we want (*gasp*) and even more often, it leaves us with only 'so much' time to spend on our hobby. When our WH's spawn rate is high enough, that can mean we don't have enough time to get all done that we want to.
Also, EVE is a big game, sometimes we want to do something OTHER than pop the 3 wormholes that spawned in our hole this morning, before we go to work.
Actually, I can pretty much guarantee we'd rather be doing almost anything than popping all those wormholes. It's boring as all get out.
Anyhow, for whatever reason, the other main gripe going around at the moment is people getting sick of the amount of time they need to spend EVERY SINGLE DAY to keep their WH under control.
You probably won't be surprised to learn that the solution to this problem is 'DO MORE'.
Ok, maybe a few of you were shocked. But only if you're not paying attention. That's right, if you completely clear (or, just visit every site and let them despawn on their natural cooldown) your wormhole, you will get less site-spawning.
By clearing your wormhole down to the static exit, and then popping that static exit and not scanning down the next one, you have effectively sealed off your wormhole. You're all alone, with no way in, and nothing to do.
Log off at that point, and take a much-needed break. Sure, stuff will spawn, slowly, while you're gone, and there's always the possibility that a wormhole will open into yours, where it will be almost instantly disregarded by 99% of visitors as 'worthless'.
IF by some chance you run into that last 1%, your tower should be online, armed, well defended, and with a fat bay full of Strontium. Odds are, most folk won't bother, and the few that will, would have bothered even if you were logged in.
Using this method, you can log in every other day, or even less frequently. If you're a little worried about leaving it that long, open up http://www.evemaps.dotlan.net/ and run a search for your J-Code, see how things are going. If you see a bunch of jumps, maybe log a character into the WH and peek about lazily to make sure the POS is still untouched.
In closing, these methods have worked for Katt and I. We've been occupying Wormhole Space for over 6 months, and have no intentions of leaving any time soon.
Fly Straight, whether you're agoraphobic or using toothpicks to hold up your eyelids, it's just darned easier than zig-zagging!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Busy doing nothing...
EVE is one of those games. You know, the kind where you can sit at it, playing for hours on end, and not actually be 'doing' anything of major importance.
Except it's all important.
So, this morning when I logged in, I wasn't expecting much on scan probes. We had popped the last signature (a Ladar) the day before, and surely our spawn rate had dropped to next to nothing.
So when I saw 6 signatures, all unscanned, I was a little surprised.
Tip of Experience: When scanning, organize your first set of results by scan strength, the higher your percentage, the more likely the signature you're aiming for is a wormhole. Gravs, Ladars, Radars, Mags, they're all harder to find, so if you start with the stuff that yields the best results, you'll usually scan down all the exits before you get to the good stuff. Reverse the process if you don't care about exits, obviously. ;)
So, I wanted to find wormholes, so that Katt and Leilani could drive battleships through them and make them go away. With 6 signatures, I'm thinking at least 1 'extra' wormhole in addition to our static.
First sig, static exit. Katt and Leilani get to work.
Second sig, another wormhole, the Tip of Experience up above proves itself worthwhile once more.
Third sig, ANOTHER wormhole. Well crap, how irritating, Katt and Leilani are by this point bouncing around between the signatures like they're auditioning for a new game, "EVE: The Pinball".
Fourth sig. You guessed it, folks, wormhole number 4. At this point I have 4 different calculators open and running on my secondary screen to keep track of mass allowances, and I'm starting to get a little confused as to which one matches up with which name. Fortunately, Katt is more practical than I, and named her bookmarks 'Wormhole 1' through 'Wormhole 4', so I just put calculator 1 at the top and staggered them downwards.
Fifth sig, couldn't possibly be another wormhole, could it? Sure it could!! It's that kind of day! Fortunately, this one spawned sometime after we logged yesterday and was nearing closure all on it's lonesome.
Sixth signature.... Nope, Ladar. Phew! At least we got something to do other than ping-pong between wormholes.
In other news, far more exciting, in my opinion, we have started production, finally, of our T3 Subsystems, should have a batch in my hold for a trip to Jita or another big market, soon. Rather excited, to say the least.
Except it's all important.
So, this morning when I logged in, I wasn't expecting much on scan probes. We had popped the last signature (a Ladar) the day before, and surely our spawn rate had dropped to next to nothing.
So when I saw 6 signatures, all unscanned, I was a little surprised.
Tip of Experience: When scanning, organize your first set of results by scan strength, the higher your percentage, the more likely the signature you're aiming for is a wormhole. Gravs, Ladars, Radars, Mags, they're all harder to find, so if you start with the stuff that yields the best results, you'll usually scan down all the exits before you get to the good stuff. Reverse the process if you don't care about exits, obviously. ;)
So, I wanted to find wormholes, so that Katt and Leilani could drive battleships through them and make them go away. With 6 signatures, I'm thinking at least 1 'extra' wormhole in addition to our static.
First sig, static exit. Katt and Leilani get to work.
Second sig, another wormhole, the Tip of Experience up above proves itself worthwhile once more.
Third sig, ANOTHER wormhole. Well crap, how irritating, Katt and Leilani are by this point bouncing around between the signatures like they're auditioning for a new game, "EVE: The Pinball".
Fourth sig. You guessed it, folks, wormhole number 4. At this point I have 4 different calculators open and running on my secondary screen to keep track of mass allowances, and I'm starting to get a little confused as to which one matches up with which name. Fortunately, Katt is more practical than I, and named her bookmarks 'Wormhole 1' through 'Wormhole 4', so I just put calculator 1 at the top and staggered them downwards.
Fifth sig, couldn't possibly be another wormhole, could it? Sure it could!! It's that kind of day! Fortunately, this one spawned sometime after we logged yesterday and was nearing closure all on it's lonesome.
Sixth signature.... Nope, Ladar. Phew! At least we got something to do other than ping-pong between wormholes.
In other news, far more exciting, in my opinion, we have started production, finally, of our T3 Subsystems, should have a batch in my hold for a trip to Jita or another big market, soon. Rather excited, to say the least.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Speaking In Local...
As I'm sure you're all aware, Wormholes have a 'delayed' local. In actual fact, they're just missing a local entirely, you just have an 'optional local', there's no-one manning the wormhole to tell the populace who has just entered system, so as long as a Pilot keeps their mouth shut, no-one is the wiser.
Well, except for the D-Scanner, and combat probes, both of which are likely being spammed every few seconds.
And cloaked scouts on wormholes...
You get the idea.
Anyway, the lack of a local channel is both a curse and a blessing. For one thing, it makes you paranoid as heck. I know my brief visit out to Syndicate was made incredibly relaxing by the presence of a Local channel. I listened on comms one day as people talked about checking local every few minutes and was agog. Seriously, checking every few minutes? If I had Local all the time, it'd be stretched as tall as it could go, and the moment my screen made a flicker in a way I wasn't expecting I'd be ramping up to speed and gone.
On the other hand, having a Local channel means the guy who drops in knows who you are, how old you are, and what mates you have with you. Intel cuts both ways.
So, when is it a good idea, in a Wormhole, to break the comms' silence and give out the intel that you're around? We've had good luck and bad with making our presence known to trespassers and passers through, and I'm torn as to which is the correct choice.
Just yesterday, a pilot (Boshack) who was passing through spoke up in local, requesting permission to pass through our space. Since I don't go out of my way to be a jerk to people who are nice to me first, I spoke up in reply, letting him know he could pass through, but that all entry points (including the one to his Wormhole) were at critical destabilization, so he should keep the ships nice and small.
Boshack acknowledged the reply, and upon exiting the system, thanked us for our consideration and convoed me for some general chatter about what we enjoyed out in W-Space.
Just this morning, I gave a 45 second warning of wormhole collapse to intruders from null sec, and upon returning to our space, surprisingly without the complete destruction of the wormhole (had enough left for them to get half their gang back through) discovered a present waiting. Katt managed to get away while they primaried my disposable battleship and tore me up, jammed all the while by their Rook pilot (I totally need to get an ECM ship).
So you can see why I'm of mixed thoughts. I've given the 45 second warning before and watched from the safety of cloak as the interlopers warped back to their territory and waved their thanks for the warning in Local, and I've been ganked.
Which is the right choice?
Right now, here's the scoreboard:
Warnings Gratefully Received: 2
Gankings: 1
Well, except for the D-Scanner, and combat probes, both of which are likely being spammed every few seconds.
And cloaked scouts on wormholes...
You get the idea.
Anyway, the lack of a local channel is both a curse and a blessing. For one thing, it makes you paranoid as heck. I know my brief visit out to Syndicate was made incredibly relaxing by the presence of a Local channel. I listened on comms one day as people talked about checking local every few minutes and was agog. Seriously, checking every few minutes? If I had Local all the time, it'd be stretched as tall as it could go, and the moment my screen made a flicker in a way I wasn't expecting I'd be ramping up to speed and gone.
On the other hand, having a Local channel means the guy who drops in knows who you are, how old you are, and what mates you have with you. Intel cuts both ways.
So, when is it a good idea, in a Wormhole, to break the comms' silence and give out the intel that you're around? We've had good luck and bad with making our presence known to trespassers and passers through, and I'm torn as to which is the correct choice.
Just yesterday, a pilot (Boshack) who was passing through spoke up in local, requesting permission to pass through our space. Since I don't go out of my way to be a jerk to people who are nice to me first, I spoke up in reply, letting him know he could pass through, but that all entry points (including the one to his Wormhole) were at critical destabilization, so he should keep the ships nice and small.
Boshack acknowledged the reply, and upon exiting the system, thanked us for our consideration and convoed me for some general chatter about what we enjoyed out in W-Space.
Just this morning, I gave a 45 second warning of wormhole collapse to intruders from null sec, and upon returning to our space, surprisingly without the complete destruction of the wormhole (had enough left for them to get half their gang back through) discovered a present waiting. Katt managed to get away while they primaried my disposable battleship and tore me up, jammed all the while by their Rook pilot (I totally need to get an ECM ship).
So you can see why I'm of mixed thoughts. I've given the 45 second warning before and watched from the safety of cloak as the interlopers warped back to their territory and waved their thanks for the warning in Local, and I've been ganked.
Which is the right choice?
Right now, here's the scoreboard:
Warnings Gratefully Received: 2
Gankings: 1
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
A 'warm' welcome home.
Yesterday was day 1 of freedom. My 'hades week' in the Work Pod was over with, and I was freed from the confinement of my 9x9 office cell, allowed to roam the world, or, more truthfully, fasten my buttocks to the stability ball that I call a chair and let myself roam through New Eden.
Day 1 didn't go so hot.
Katt and I decided to try clearing an entire magnetometric site in Our Slice of Heaven. We've cleared the first two waves and looted the relics on a regular basis for the past months, but we've never been willing to tempt fate and face the 3 Sleepless Upholders that come at the end of a typical C3 Mag site. With some friends helping out, we figured we could give it a go.
Wave 1, cakewalk. Bring in the Analyzer ship to take care of the relics before we push on, take those back, store safely and come on back in combat ships.
Wave 2, cakewalk. Turn on our tanks, smiling happily at our full capacitors as we ready the remote rep.
Wave 3, manageable. 2 Battleships, not really that big a deal, we were handling it fine and starting to get into a groove when it happened. Onyx and Tengu drop out of warp on top of us, and the bubble goes up.
"Oh crap."
Then the Rokh, Drake and Drake arrive inside the edge of the warp bubble.
"Double crap."
In what must have been a relatively swift and skilled use of combat scanner probes, our ships were reduced from 'hey, we got this!' to imminent death. I scattered for one edge, trying to draw them off while Katt and our corpmates headed the other direction. They seemed intent on destroying her Typhoon, but given that, even at 20km out, my Scimitar's 4 Medium Shield Transporter's were well within range, they weren't having a great time with that.
Their own tanks held up under massed drone-fire without much of a scratch, our ships being outfit for the long-haul of PvE combat, not for burst dps.
They switched targets and came after my Scimitar, but once they had a standard point on me, their Onyx paced the battleships to destroy any hopes of escape. As it was, webbing kept me from getting to the edge before my shields finally (after more than a minute of fire) crumbled. As expected, my pod was sure to follow.
This process was repeated, minus my shield transporting, upon all 3 of the others. I don't have KB links, as P2AS doesn't have a Killboard at this time.
So, what to do when 4 of you are stuck out in Empire? Run for the entrance!
It was closed.
Fortunately, we had other corpmates who had not been deployed and destroyed in the battle of Magnetometric pass. New entrance found.
11 Jumps of low-sec.
Sigh.
Noob-ship fleet action! We made it back without incident, hopped in new ships and converged upon the Wormhole that had permitted the Brotherhood of Starbridge to invade our territory. While we were gone, they had gone to work running every last one of our unfinished sites. Part-way through the wormhole collapsing process, they converged on the wormhole themselves, collapsing it with Leilani on the wrong side, less than 2km from another of their ships.
You guessed it, second BS loss of the day for the alt.
Got the pod 'out' and warped around their system for a while, chatting at their english-speaking comrades, giving them props for their very well executed gank. Eventually I self-destructed and ran my way back into the hole through the previously scanned entrance.
Meanwhile, we had the Tengu (Cov-ops fit), Rokh, and a Heron sitting inside our wormhole. Katt started collapsing the entrance to at least limit their stay, and they camped her outside. She managed to just narrowly escape their clutches and cloak-up in the low-sec system and we outwaited them, Minuit sitting off the gate in a Stealth Bomber, eating popcorn while I watched them hope she would be dumb enough to jump back into their grasp.
We proved to be the more patient group, and when they left, with a parting shot of 'bu))' that I'm not sure I understand, but took to be a sign of great frustration and sadness, we finished collapsing the wormhole and replacing our losses.
All in all, a very expensive day for Katt and I, and P2AS, but, we later went out on a loot-selling run, and recouped pretty much the entire cost of the days adventure, and a months fuel.
Could be worse.
Fly straight,
Day 1 didn't go so hot.
Katt and I decided to try clearing an entire magnetometric site in Our Slice of Heaven. We've cleared the first two waves and looted the relics on a regular basis for the past months, but we've never been willing to tempt fate and face the 3 Sleepless Upholders that come at the end of a typical C3 Mag site. With some friends helping out, we figured we could give it a go.
Wave 1, cakewalk. Bring in the Analyzer ship to take care of the relics before we push on, take those back, store safely and come on back in combat ships.
Wave 2, cakewalk. Turn on our tanks, smiling happily at our full capacitors as we ready the remote rep.
Wave 3, manageable. 2 Battleships, not really that big a deal, we were handling it fine and starting to get into a groove when it happened. Onyx and Tengu drop out of warp on top of us, and the bubble goes up.
"Oh crap."
Then the Rokh, Drake and Drake arrive inside the edge of the warp bubble.
"Double crap."
In what must have been a relatively swift and skilled use of combat scanner probes, our ships were reduced from 'hey, we got this!' to imminent death. I scattered for one edge, trying to draw them off while Katt and our corpmates headed the other direction. They seemed intent on destroying her Typhoon, but given that, even at 20km out, my Scimitar's 4 Medium Shield Transporter's were well within range, they weren't having a great time with that.
Their own tanks held up under massed drone-fire without much of a scratch, our ships being outfit for the long-haul of PvE combat, not for burst dps.
They switched targets and came after my Scimitar, but once they had a standard point on me, their Onyx paced the battleships to destroy any hopes of escape. As it was, webbing kept me from getting to the edge before my shields finally (after more than a minute of fire) crumbled. As expected, my pod was sure to follow.
This process was repeated, minus my shield transporting, upon all 3 of the others. I don't have KB links, as P2AS doesn't have a Killboard at this time.
So, what to do when 4 of you are stuck out in Empire? Run for the entrance!
It was closed.
Fortunately, we had other corpmates who had not been deployed and destroyed in the battle of Magnetometric pass. New entrance found.
11 Jumps of low-sec.
Sigh.
Noob-ship fleet action! We made it back without incident, hopped in new ships and converged upon the Wormhole that had permitted the Brotherhood of Starbridge to invade our territory. While we were gone, they had gone to work running every last one of our unfinished sites. Part-way through the wormhole collapsing process, they converged on the wormhole themselves, collapsing it with Leilani on the wrong side, less than 2km from another of their ships.
You guessed it, second BS loss of the day for the alt.
Got the pod 'out' and warped around their system for a while, chatting at their english-speaking comrades, giving them props for their very well executed gank. Eventually I self-destructed and ran my way back into the hole through the previously scanned entrance.
Meanwhile, we had the Tengu (Cov-ops fit), Rokh, and a Heron sitting inside our wormhole. Katt started collapsing the entrance to at least limit their stay, and they camped her outside. She managed to just narrowly escape their clutches and cloak-up in the low-sec system and we outwaited them, Minuit sitting off the gate in a Stealth Bomber, eating popcorn while I watched them hope she would be dumb enough to jump back into their grasp.
We proved to be the more patient group, and when they left, with a parting shot of 'bu))' that I'm not sure I understand, but took to be a sign of great frustration and sadness, we finished collapsing the wormhole and replacing our losses.
All in all, a very expensive day for Katt and I, and P2AS, but, we later went out on a loot-selling run, and recouped pretty much the entire cost of the days adventure, and a months fuel.
Could be worse.
Fly straight,
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Adventure Continues...
As promised, here's the remainder of the story.
Leilani was stuck in W-Space. Fortunately, we'd taken the precaution of fitting her ship, not one we usually used for wormhole popping, with a scan-probe launcher and a prototype cloaking device. Any time you're leaving your wormhole for anything but known space, a core-probe launcher is not a luxury item, but a necessity. The prototype cloaking device isn't technically a 'necessity' but if you don't fit one, then while you're scanning things down you have to also manage long warps between safe-points so that you never stop moving.
Having both those items, I warped off into space, created a safe-point, dropped probes at a planet, warped back to my safe-spot and hunkered down in cloak for some scanning.
I hate scanning down other people's wormholes that I'm not going to do anything with.
Seriously, it's kind of depressing to see dozens of signatures and know that all you want is a bloody exit to K-Space.
Some time later, I found the only exits in system were to other wormholes. Great. 1 Class 4+, 1 Class 3. Statistically, the lower the class of the wormhole, the greater its chance of a good exit. Class 3 it is.
I popped through, and held cloak as someone flew past me in a Viator.... Yeah, honest to gosh.
Then I got to start scanning again. Sigh.
The rest of the process was fairly uneventful, scan, scan, scan some more, find an exit to low-sec, pop through to see if it's worth it, do a happy-dance. Right next door to high-sec, no-one in system, and the high-sec system in question is my Empire home-base. You really can't get much better service than that. Especially not when Our Slice of Heaven has a destabilized wormhole not 8 jumps away, with hours left on it's timer.
Leilani's adventure was far less impressive and exciting than Minuit's, but it was more stressful, by and large because I almost never have both of my characters out of the hole at the same time and fate had forced it upon me. The other folk in our wormhole took care of matters beautifully, of course, led by Kattra in destabilizing the remaining holes, and soon enough everyone was back where they belonged.
That night, given my earlier 'success', I decided it was time to install Minuit's Jump-Clone out in ORDR's portion of 0.0. This blog-post needed something a bit more exciting than scanning, after all!
Picking up my interceptor, The Dirk, I shot off like a rocket into the black, 4700mps is a beautiful thing, and I enjoyed every minute of my 16 jumps through low and null sec space. I had been hearing the horror stories of my fellow pilots throughout the week previous about gate-camps and bubbles and the like, so I was fully intent upon my navigation, warping to celestials to avoid Stargate-to-Stargate drag bubbles, scanning in a tight radius or angle to check for people just off grid, or waiting at the end of a long warp.
Not a soul. That's right, I didn't see a single neutral or hostile target the entire way down. I'll admit I was a little disappointed, I docked up, set my medical clone for future use and went to check out our constellation and set up some safe-spots, insta-warps and off-grid locations for various tasks. I discovered that, yes, I can outrun the local rat population without too many worries, and that it was downright RELAXING out here in 0.0.
That's right, 0.0 is relaxing compared to WH space. Every time I clicked my D-Scan out in 0.0, I snickered to myself at the habit, because a glance at local showed everything was clear.
In case you didn't catch it previously, ORDR is settling Syndicate space for the moment. We're excited about the incoming goon targets just like the rest of Syndicate, but we're not actually planning on sticking around in NPC space forever. REAL 0.0 is just too tempting. IT itself (the corp, not BoB) has had a long history in 0.0 space, and the old-timers want to get back to their roots, while the young-bloods like myself just want to see what all the fuss is about. We're currently looking for some partners in this grand endeavor.
So, Syndicate space has its own unique challenges, like the ability for all and sundry to dock up at 'our' stations.
We discourage this practice wherever possible, and during my brief stay yesterday I managed to join in the hunt for an interceptor. Never an easy task. We had him on the run in our home-system, so I ducked next door to sit on gate, MWD burning, point, scram, ewar, all overheated and primed for a target.
Unfortunately, when the interceptor, predictably, jumped through to me, so did one of our other pilots, and my time in WH space showed. I was on the wrong overview tab.
That's right, I locked the heck out of my pal, and pinned him down like nobodies business, while the interceptor ran like he had 5 pilots on his tail.
Oh, that's right, he did.
Once he reached the edges of our borders, we let it go and drew back into our territory. I apologized profusely to my fellow pilot, and gang, and reset my overview settings, adjusting my PvP and a few other tabs settings while I was at it to clean the overview up a bit.
So, to summarize; 0.0 seems like a very relaxing place to be, with the edge of excitement looming on the horizon. I'm looking forward to getting more time out there.
Fly straight, and keep your E-War on the enemy!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
An Unintentional Adventure
So this morning has been a little crazy in Our Slice of Heaven.
Katt and I logged in, frowning grimly when we realized someone had come into our wormhole. (For those of you who don't live in WH space, you may not know that WH systems do not 'load' onto the server unless someone is inside. Therefore, if you log in W-Space you'll get a 'this system is still loading, please try again soon' message if you're the first person after downtime to try and enter).
We immediately hopped into our battleships and scanners, calling on additional ships to ensure a nice smooth popping of the offending wormholes.
I found the problem. Our usual exit was still weak and in place, as expected, but we had another opening into 0.0 and someone had obviously poked their nose in.
So we started the not-so-exciting process of weakening the wormhole. Our calculations were running smooth, until I stepped through for the last jump.
The sucking sound that a wormhole makes when it collapses around you is usually a bit exhilerating. When it drops you in Q0OH-V, the butt end of no-where, 30-odd jumps from Empire, in a Typhoon sporting 7 reinforced steel 1600mm's, it's not really all that awesome.
Nope, really not.
So hey, what the heck, I buy these things knowing they're likely to end up on the wrong end of a blaster eventually, I set destination for Keberz and start warping.
20 or so rather boring jumps go by, and I'm starting to wonder if I have a chance of ACTUALLY making it out alive... Nawww....
So I arrive at the gate into GE-8JV to see a Crusader and another sitting on gate. My odds of survival plumet, but I warp through immediately on landing, hoping that the Crusader pilot is a little slow. When my systems come back online in GE, I see a Stiletto. "Ok, I'm toast."
I'm locked up faster than a dog with rabies. I let loose the local message I had prepared 8 or 9 systems earlier, explaining that I was just trying to make it back to Empire, and 'gank if you must, but I'd LOVE a free pass *hopeful smile*'.
I was informed that I could get back to Empire really fast if I warped to the local station.
I played around with my drones a bit while they chewed on my shield-tank. Drove off the nemesis that was torping me and bombing my poor drones. I DID forget to use the 3 guns on my ship, cos I was pretty certain of my demise and having a nice chat with the boys who were doing the demising.
They got through shields and I thanked em for a good fight and asked their corps, offering a mention on my Blog for their hard work... The 7 x 1600mm plates held out longer than I thought they would, under the circumstances. I warped my pod out before the two interceptors could catch it, told em all to 'Fly Straight' and continued on my merry way.
I don't think they tried to follow, though I kept my warping as fast as I could to avoid any hassles. I ducked to a planet to avoid the drag bubbles on the Keberz gate and slipped back into High-Sec, kissing space-dust and thinking about what a journey it had been.
Little did I know that adventure number 2 was about to start...
Another wormhole popped up, and in the process of damaging it, our alt, Leilani, got stuck in a Class 4 Wormhole... *sigh*
But you can read about that tomorrow...
Fly Straight!
Katt and I logged in, frowning grimly when we realized someone had come into our wormhole. (For those of you who don't live in WH space, you may not know that WH systems do not 'load' onto the server unless someone is inside. Therefore, if you log in W-Space you'll get a 'this system is still loading, please try again soon' message if you're the first person after downtime to try and enter).
We immediately hopped into our battleships and scanners, calling on additional ships to ensure a nice smooth popping of the offending wormholes.
I found the problem. Our usual exit was still weak and in place, as expected, but we had another opening into 0.0 and someone had obviously poked their nose in.
So we started the not-so-exciting process of weakening the wormhole. Our calculations were running smooth, until I stepped through for the last jump.
The sucking sound that a wormhole makes when it collapses around you is usually a bit exhilerating. When it drops you in Q0OH-V, the butt end of no-where, 30-odd jumps from Empire, in a Typhoon sporting 7 reinforced steel 1600mm's, it's not really all that awesome.
Nope, really not.
So hey, what the heck, I buy these things knowing they're likely to end up on the wrong end of a blaster eventually, I set destination for Keberz and start warping.
20 or so rather boring jumps go by, and I'm starting to wonder if I have a chance of ACTUALLY making it out alive... Nawww....
So I arrive at the gate into GE-8JV to see a Crusader and another sitting on gate. My odds of survival plumet, but I warp through immediately on landing, hoping that the Crusader pilot is a little slow. When my systems come back online in GE, I see a Stiletto. "Ok, I'm toast."
I'm locked up faster than a dog with rabies. I let loose the local message I had prepared 8 or 9 systems earlier, explaining that I was just trying to make it back to Empire, and 'gank if you must, but I'd LOVE a free pass *hopeful smile*'.
I was informed that I could get back to Empire really fast if I warped to the local station.
I played around with my drones a bit while they chewed on my shield-tank. Drove off the nemesis that was torping me and bombing my poor drones. I DID forget to use the 3 guns on my ship, cos I was pretty certain of my demise and having a nice chat with the boys who were doing the demising.
They got through shields and I thanked em for a good fight and asked their corps, offering a mention on my Blog for their hard work... The 7 x 1600mm plates held out longer than I thought they would, under the circumstances. I warped my pod out before the two interceptors could catch it, told em all to 'Fly Straight' and continued on my merry way.
I don't think they tried to follow, though I kept my warping as fast as I could to avoid any hassles. I ducked to a planet to avoid the drag bubbles on the Keberz gate and slipped back into High-Sec, kissing space-dust and thinking about what a journey it had been.
Little did I know that adventure number 2 was about to start...
Another wormhole popped up, and in the process of damaging it, our alt, Leilani, got stuck in a Class 4 Wormhole... *sigh*
But you can read about that tomorrow...
Fly Straight!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Homehole Advantage
We had several uninvited visitors in 'Our Slice of Heaven' today, and it was nice to be able to settle back into our 'Homehole Advantage'. For instance, our ships, pvp and otherwise, are set up for the anomaly within our wormhole.
Our enemies aren't.
We have already scanned down every signature and can warp, cloaked or otherwise, to wherever our enemies are without deploying scan probes and warning our prey.
Our enemies can't.
We know where our various sites are in relation to each other and know when things will appear on D-Scan and when they won't.
Our enemies don't.
Our POS provides not only a safe haven when not enough corp-mates are online to handle an incoming threat (rare) but also gives us a quick pit-stop in the event a battle doesn't go our way. If our enemies don't catch our pods, they can be sure we'll be back with another ship before they can say 'but-my-armor-repairer-isn't-done-yet-you-tool'.
Homehole Advantage is a wonderful thing to have.
Fly Straight, but not into MY home.
Our enemies aren't.
We have already scanned down every signature and can warp, cloaked or otherwise, to wherever our enemies are without deploying scan probes and warning our prey.
Our enemies can't.
We know where our various sites are in relation to each other and know when things will appear on D-Scan and when they won't.
Our enemies don't.
Our POS provides not only a safe haven when not enough corp-mates are online to handle an incoming threat (rare) but also gives us a quick pit-stop in the event a battle doesn't go our way. If our enemies don't catch our pods, they can be sure we'll be back with another ship before they can say 'but-my-armor-repairer-isn't-done-yet-you-tool'.
Homehole Advantage is a wonderful thing to have.
Fly Straight, but not into MY home.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wormhole Mass Allowances
So we've been having some issues with the mass allowance on our static exit lately.
For those of you who aren't in the know, Wormholes have a specific mass-allowance that can travel through them (total, direction doesn't matter) before they collapse. Supposedly, at 45% remaining mass and 5% remaining mass they go into different stages and return a different result on show info to let you know how close to collapse they are.
I say supposedly because while that seemed to work for us for weeks, these last few days it's gone odd.
My previous calculations, which are based upon the individual mass of the ships we use to critically destabilize our entrances (or pop them if they're non-static) have been wrong several times this last few days.
Since I'm using the same ships, with the same math every time, I have come to conclude that there must be some level of variance in our static exits mass allowance. Obviously, this makes OUR lives a little more interesting and irritating, as we overshoot the mark and collapse holes, forcing us to start over from scratch, or undershoot and have to run the risk of collapsing the hole on our way out of W-Space.
I have noted, however, that our non-static wormholes have yet to show any significant signs of variance. The set number of jumps we use to collapse them, unless they have been tampered with by another, seems to ALWAYS work. Maybe this is just luck?
If anyone happens to read this and has encountered the same issues, speak up!
For those of you who aren't in the know, Wormholes have a specific mass-allowance that can travel through them (total, direction doesn't matter) before they collapse. Supposedly, at 45% remaining mass and 5% remaining mass they go into different stages and return a different result on show info to let you know how close to collapse they are.
I say supposedly because while that seemed to work for us for weeks, these last few days it's gone odd.
My previous calculations, which are based upon the individual mass of the ships we use to critically destabilize our entrances (or pop them if they're non-static) have been wrong several times this last few days.
Since I'm using the same ships, with the same math every time, I have come to conclude that there must be some level of variance in our static exits mass allowance. Obviously, this makes OUR lives a little more interesting and irritating, as we overshoot the mark and collapse holes, forcing us to start over from scratch, or undershoot and have to run the risk of collapsing the hole on our way out of W-Space.
I have noted, however, that our non-static wormholes have yet to show any significant signs of variance. The set number of jumps we use to collapse them, unless they have been tampered with by another, seems to ALWAYS work. Maybe this is just luck?
If anyone happens to read this and has encountered the same issues, speak up!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Multi-Corp POSing...
Sucks.
During a minor hiccup this afternoon, I was disconnected from EVE. I hurried back online, inputting my Starbase password immediately to avoid being demolished by the POS's guns. Little known fact (cos no-one normally needs to know) you can't input a defence field password while warping. Nor can you enter one while within a forcefield. So when I dropped out of warp inside the field, and then immediately got ejected at a rate FAR beyond what my poor Retriever "Labrador" could handle, I hustled to get back into warp and off to safety.
Got away, set my password, growling all the while, and warped back to the POS. My OTHER ship, left on hand for hauling, was also ejected, 150km from the bubble. *Sigh*
So I ejected from my ship, and crawled out there. Just a few kilometers before reaching my goal, I was disconnected again.
You betcha, when I came back online, my retriever was ALSO 150km from the bubble.
Suffice to say, all was eventually recovered, but MAN running a character at a POS not belonging to your corporation is annoying.
Fly straight, for 145km in a 187mps pod.... Twice.
During a minor hiccup this afternoon, I was disconnected from EVE. I hurried back online, inputting my Starbase password immediately to avoid being demolished by the POS's guns. Little known fact (cos no-one normally needs to know) you can't input a defence field password while warping. Nor can you enter one while within a forcefield. So when I dropped out of warp inside the field, and then immediately got ejected at a rate FAR beyond what my poor Retriever "Labrador" could handle, I hustled to get back into warp and off to safety.
Got away, set my password, growling all the while, and warped back to the POS. My OTHER ship, left on hand for hauling, was also ejected, 150km from the bubble. *Sigh*
So I ejected from my ship, and crawled out there. Just a few kilometers before reaching my goal, I was disconnected again.
You betcha, when I came back online, my retriever was ALSO 150km from the bubble.
Suffice to say, all was eventually recovered, but MAN running a character at a POS not belonging to your corporation is annoying.
Fly straight, for 145km in a 187mps pod.... Twice.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Big changes..
Our cosy little world got turned upside down.
IT (Yes, darnit, I'm going to KEEP calling the original, 6-year holder of the [IT] ticker by it's acustomed name, and anyone who reads this can get used to me referring to BoB as BoB. *Grin*) has joined an Alliance.
Sodalitas XX is a small Alliance based in a stub constellation in NPC controlled 0.0. Syndicate space, if you want to get technical about it. Their primary corporation, 20th Legion, is ran by an old compatriot of some of the more venerable IT members. We're acknowledged as being at a low-point in IT's numbers and we're jumping in with both feet to bring that enthusiasm and drive back to our incoming new membership.
Avernus, founder of IT, has this to say on the subject.
That said, it catalysed a decision that had been some time in the making for my motley crew. Katt and Leilani have sheared off from Imperium Technologies and the upcoming drive towards PvP, so that Katt can explore CEO life at the head of Per Ardua ad Sol (Through Struggles, to the Sun) our family operation to hold Wormhole space and profit from so doing. We've recruited a business partner in Racquel Zuunii and several others and we'll be keeping the fires burning. Minuit Soleil will be helping whenever possible and I'm sure if someone decides Per Ardua is 'friendless and alone' in Wormhole space, they'll get a surprise.
So, setting up a POS is a PAIN IN THE REAR! and fiddling with corporation standings isn't much better. However the new POS is online and in position and our modules are coming online as I type. We had a few close calls, as the wormhole gods decided to make yesterday and today very wormhole-heavy in our little piece of W-Space.
Minuit will be sticking around 'semi-permanently' in the wormhole for the near future while business is settled and Katt is set up to run without Min's assistance. Then, we're off to secure our constellation of 0.0, build friendships, gain experience, and blow some crap up.
Fly straight! They'll never expect it.
IT (Yes, darnit, I'm going to KEEP calling the original, 6-year holder of the [IT] ticker by it's acustomed name, and anyone who reads this can get used to me referring to BoB as BoB. *Grin*) has joined an Alliance.
Sodalitas XX is a small Alliance based in a stub constellation in NPC controlled 0.0. Syndicate space, if you want to get technical about it. Their primary corporation, 20th Legion, is ran by an old compatriot of some of the more venerable IT members. We're acknowledged as being at a low-point in IT's numbers and we're jumping in with both feet to bring that enthusiasm and drive back to our incoming new membership.
Avernus, founder of IT, has this to say on the subject.
That said, it catalysed a decision that had been some time in the making for my motley crew. Katt and Leilani have sheared off from Imperium Technologies and the upcoming drive towards PvP, so that Katt can explore CEO life at the head of Per Ardua ad Sol (Through Struggles, to the Sun) our family operation to hold Wormhole space and profit from so doing. We've recruited a business partner in Racquel Zuunii and several others and we'll be keeping the fires burning. Minuit Soleil will be helping whenever possible and I'm sure if someone decides Per Ardua is 'friendless and alone' in Wormhole space, they'll get a surprise.
So, setting up a POS is a PAIN IN THE REAR! and fiddling with corporation standings isn't much better. However the new POS is online and in position and our modules are coming online as I type. We had a few close calls, as the wormhole gods decided to make yesterday and today very wormhole-heavy in our little piece of W-Space.
Minuit will be sticking around 'semi-permanently' in the wormhole for the near future while business is settled and Katt is set up to run without Min's assistance. Then, we're off to secure our constellation of 0.0, build friendships, gain experience, and blow some crap up.
Fly straight! They'll never expect it.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
IC: Pondering the Sleepers
Communication-Drone ID#0114-2
"Another probe loaded down with my not-so-deep thoughts. Hooray for you.
Sleepers. It's a pretty utilitarian term out here in Wormhole Space. My nav-com can't work out how many jumps away from the Empire we are, but wherever it is, there was obviously a sprawling civilization if their dregs are anything to go by.
The A.I. on the drones they leave behind is a lot better than the not-so-artificial 'intelligence' of a number of Amarrian slavers I've fought in the past, for one thing. For another, they seem to be as thick as flies.
We get a lot of reports, during our brief fuel-runs into K-Space, that others, like us, are discovering cells of these sleepers in broken down Talocan ruins and outposts. It seems to me like these Talocans had their own Empire, and maybe the Sleepers overran them. Can you imagine, being able to create an endless supply of drones, all capable of piloting themselves without relying upon a commanding ship or capsuleer? That's what these Sleepers are.
For now, they don't seem to be able to utilize the wormholes that have brought OUR Empire space to their doorstep. But they're obviously programmed to destroy anything they come in contact with. All it would take is one idiot warping out with a sleeper too close on his signature trail and...
Maybe the end of OUR Empire.
Heavy thought. All I know is that I don't leave any of them still functioning when I'm done.
You shouldn't either.
Fly straight, pilots, they'll never expect it."
End Transmission.
"Another probe loaded down with my not-so-deep thoughts. Hooray for you.
Sleepers. It's a pretty utilitarian term out here in Wormhole Space. My nav-com can't work out how many jumps away from the Empire we are, but wherever it is, there was obviously a sprawling civilization if their dregs are anything to go by.
The A.I. on the drones they leave behind is a lot better than the not-so-artificial 'intelligence' of a number of Amarrian slavers I've fought in the past, for one thing. For another, they seem to be as thick as flies.
We get a lot of reports, during our brief fuel-runs into K-Space, that others, like us, are discovering cells of these sleepers in broken down Talocan ruins and outposts. It seems to me like these Talocans had their own Empire, and maybe the Sleepers overran them. Can you imagine, being able to create an endless supply of drones, all capable of piloting themselves without relying upon a commanding ship or capsuleer? That's what these Sleepers are.
For now, they don't seem to be able to utilize the wormholes that have brought OUR Empire space to their doorstep. But they're obviously programmed to destroy anything they come in contact with. All it would take is one idiot warping out with a sleeper too close on his signature trail and...
Maybe the end of OUR Empire.
Heavy thought. All I know is that I don't leave any of them still functioning when I'm done.
You shouldn't either.
Fly straight, pilots, they'll never expect it."
End Transmission.
What are some people thinking...
I like PvP. But...
I'll admit there's a part of me that is a bit carebear, and wants PvP to be on my terms. It's silly, and I recognize it as such. I do my best to suppress this silly side of myself by telling myself how brutal and dark New Eden is. I play with a phenomenal level of paranoia, and acknowledge that 90% of that paranoia is COMPLETELY necessary.
So, I always get a little surprised by people who do things that I wouldn't dream of doing.
For instance, this morning, as I'm running a ship back and forth to collapse last night's wormhole, a Drake rocks up. Naturally, as I'm in a non-defensible hauler for this particular task, I slide back into my W-Space, get some distance and cloak.
He doesn't follow. I decide to just wait the extra time out and let it die a natural death. The wormhole flashes... A merlin? Huhn... Cos, obviously, a hauler going INTO W-Space doesn't suggest colonization...
He warps off into space.
The wormhole runs out of time. (Did I mention it was on the verge of collapse, both in time and stability?)
He spouts some Russian. I don't understand, and don't reply.
My d-scanner detects his frozen corpse.
So I'm thinking, 'there's my dose of wierd for the day.' But I was mistaken, later on, as I'm running 3 battleships (Leilani, myself and Katt) through the fresh wormhole, another Drake shows up.
Sigh.
I continue working the wormhole, cloaking in between jumps on the W-Space side, to make certain I choose the time of engagement with our Drakey friend.
Then his pod comes through....
Sigh.
Fortunately for him, we were just looking to destabilize the hole, and he makes it back out, attempting to come back with friends in a pair of Battleships and pair of Battlecruisers, but by then the wormhole is critically destabilized and unable to support more than 1 of them, and they decide to find something else to do.
A word to the wise, if you see a wormhole that's near the end of its life, turn on your paranoia and assume it's about to expire, DO NOT ENTER without a probe launcher. If you see a hole critically destabilized, and/or see the big ole ships destabilizing it, DO NOT ENTER without the understanding that there could be a fleet of us on the other side, and you have no guarantee that your friends will make it through before your only escape collapses behind you.
Fly straight, they'll never expect it.
I'll admit there's a part of me that is a bit carebear, and wants PvP to be on my terms. It's silly, and I recognize it as such. I do my best to suppress this silly side of myself by telling myself how brutal and dark New Eden is. I play with a phenomenal level of paranoia, and acknowledge that 90% of that paranoia is COMPLETELY necessary.
So, I always get a little surprised by people who do things that I wouldn't dream of doing.
For instance, this morning, as I'm running a ship back and forth to collapse last night's wormhole, a Drake rocks up. Naturally, as I'm in a non-defensible hauler for this particular task, I slide back into my W-Space, get some distance and cloak.
He doesn't follow. I decide to just wait the extra time out and let it die a natural death. The wormhole flashes... A merlin? Huhn... Cos, obviously, a hauler going INTO W-Space doesn't suggest colonization...
He warps off into space.
The wormhole runs out of time. (Did I mention it was on the verge of collapse, both in time and stability?)
He spouts some Russian. I don't understand, and don't reply.
My d-scanner detects his frozen corpse.
So I'm thinking, 'there's my dose of wierd for the day.' But I was mistaken, later on, as I'm running 3 battleships (Leilani, myself and Katt) through the fresh wormhole, another Drake shows up.
Sigh.
I continue working the wormhole, cloaking in between jumps on the W-Space side, to make certain I choose the time of engagement with our Drakey friend.
Then his pod comes through....
Sigh.
Fortunately for him, we were just looking to destabilize the hole, and he makes it back out, attempting to come back with friends in a pair of Battleships and pair of Battlecruisers, but by then the wormhole is critically destabilized and unable to support more than 1 of them, and they decide to find something else to do.
A word to the wise, if you see a wormhole that's near the end of its life, turn on your paranoia and assume it's about to expire, DO NOT ENTER without a probe launcher. If you see a hole critically destabilized, and/or see the big ole ships destabilizing it, DO NOT ENTER without the understanding that there could be a fleet of us on the other side, and you have no guarantee that your friends will make it through before your only escape collapses behind you.
Fly straight, they'll never expect it.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
EVE Blog Banter #14
Welcome to the fourteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
The first banter of 2010 comes to us from the EVE Blog Father, CrazyKinux himself, who asks the following: As we begin another year in New Eden, ask yourselves "What Now?" What will I attempt next? What haven't I done so far in EVE? Was it out fear, funds, or knowledge? Have I always wanted to start my own corporation, but have never dared doing so? Is there a fledgling mercenary waiting to come out of its shell? Or maybe an Industrialist? What steps and objectives will I set myself to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal for this year? EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?
Speaking as I often do for both myself, my alt, and my wife, here are our various goals (or inklings of goals, since we're somewhat undecided in some cases..) for 2010.
Minuit Soleil:
As my primary combat pilot, and all around 'main', I've got significant goals in terms of experiences.
Yesterday kicked that party off with my first FCing gig and I've got another scheduled soon. I want to get more experience as both a PvP pilot and FC, so that's definitely a major goal.
I want to see my wallet grow. The past few months have been very profitable, and despite a renewed interest in PvP, I want to continue to grow my wallet. By the end of 2010, I'd like to have 10 billion or more in our combined wallet.
Skill wise, I want to finish off the semi-long-term skills that have been plaguing the edges. Support skills that take several weeks each just to get that last bit of an edge. I also want to increase my training in Battleship sized weaponry and ships, so that hopefully I can give thought to Capital ships in 2011.
Leilani Belle:
As a newer character, Leilani's got a lot more skills to catch up on than Minuit. I'd like to see all the guns she can fire in their Tech II variant, as well as her drone skills optimized to their full potential. That will be her focus for most of the year, though sneaking her into a few specialized ships is definitely something I'm looking at.
KattraStarr:
Katt's not certain on her goals. This is nothing new, we often come up with what we're going to do next for her on the fly. Her primary goal, however, is to stay in Wormhole space and be as self-sufficient as possible! She's got a very close eye on our combined wallet, and has begun our foray into T3 production to help us reach our ISK goals.
Efficiency is always Katt's biggest motivator, so she's looking for newer and faster ways to clear sites with the skill set available to us (curse us all for not going Caldari!) to keep the ISK flowing.
And that's a wrap!
Fly straight, they'll never expect it.
Other Participants in Blog Banter #14:
A Merry Life and a Short One
A Mule in Eve
Life in Low Sec
My God, it's Full of Stars
Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
Roc's Ramblings
Flashfresh The Pirate
Adventures in Mission Running
A Pirate's Life for Me!
Rettic's Log
CrazyKinux's Musings
Yarrbear Tales
The Wandering Druid of Tranquility
Kane Rizzel - a Pirates Perspective
K162 Space
Deafplasma's Eve Musings
Friday, January 8, 2010
Ecliptic Rift's Flash Fiction Friday
In response to Ecliptic Rift's Flash Fiction Friday,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mining sure is boring." Minuit complained, not for the first time.
"Take up crochet." Was Katt's somewhat stock reply.
"Shouldn't have bought the barge book, Min." Came Leilani's snarky reply from back at the POS, where she was able to relax with a cold quafe and occasionally direct the deployed core probe to run it's cycle.
"Yeah yeah.. I just want you to track down some more of those sleeper drones, instead of drinking up our stores. If this goes on..."
"Got something!" Leilani exclaimed, suddenly all seriousness as, within moments, Katt's exhumer and Minuit's mining barge started ramping up to speed, drones shrieking back into their bay, ore streaming out into space in their wake with the haste of their recall.
"Identify."
"Unknown, down to 4AU scans. Reconfiguring for 2AU. Wormhole. Second sig on 32AU scan, get the battleships." Leilani reported and commanded, even as the mining crews sought to ready their ship for insertion into the ship's hangar array and KattraStarr and Minuit ejected their pods for transfer to their twin Typhoons.
Sporting no less than seven units of unwieldy steel reinforcement, the behemoths were a beast to align for their eventual crawl into warp, but their exaggerated mass ripped through the stability of wormholes far more effectively than a standard combat fit. "Jumping into unknown space, destroying wormholes to mark our territory, if this goes on much longer I'll never get that sweater done.." Katt complained, to Minuit's laughter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mining sure is boring." Minuit complained, not for the first time.
"Take up crochet." Was Katt's somewhat stock reply.
"Shouldn't have bought the barge book, Min." Came Leilani's snarky reply from back at the POS, where she was able to relax with a cold quafe and occasionally direct the deployed core probe to run it's cycle.
"Yeah yeah.. I just want you to track down some more of those sleeper drones, instead of drinking up our stores. If this goes on..."
"Got something!" Leilani exclaimed, suddenly all seriousness as, within moments, Katt's exhumer and Minuit's mining barge started ramping up to speed, drones shrieking back into their bay, ore streaming out into space in their wake with the haste of their recall.
"Identify."
"Unknown, down to 4AU scans. Reconfiguring for 2AU. Wormhole. Second sig on 32AU scan, get the battleships." Leilani reported and commanded, even as the mining crews sought to ready their ship for insertion into the ship's hangar array and KattraStarr and Minuit ejected their pods for transfer to their twin Typhoons.
Sporting no less than seven units of unwieldy steel reinforcement, the behemoths were a beast to align for their eventual crawl into warp, but their exaggerated mass ripped through the stability of wormholes far more effectively than a standard combat fit. "Jumping into unknown space, destroying wormholes to mark our territory, if this goes on much longer I'll never get that sweater done.." Katt complained, to Minuit's laughter.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Timers are insidious
Katt just input her very first Reverse Engineering jobs into our sparkling, shiny, brand-spanking new Experimental Laboratory. Glancing at her screen, constantly, I can see that I have to wait another 40 minutes and 39... 38... 37... You get the picture.
Suffice to say, we're excited about the possibilities of this first batch of our hard-won goods. Could it provide the vaunted Immobility Driver subsystem? Perhaps it could. The possibilities, while not endless, are all incredibly tantalizing and at this point I'm finding it very hard to fly away to mine or otherwise make use of my day, because I want to see what happens in 38 minutes 8... 7.... 6...
In other news, the Corp Op continues to grow momentum, our allies have been informed of the time and place and there appears to be at least SOME interest. I'm searching around the Internet for a printable list of ship-types, alphabetised by name of ship. Identifying what we find rapidly is going to be important, so that I can call to engage or retreat, and I'm worried that my knowledge isn't going to be up to snuff.
Suffice to say, we're excited about the possibilities of this first batch of our hard-won goods. Could it provide the vaunted Immobility Driver subsystem? Perhaps it could. The possibilities, while not endless, are all incredibly tantalizing and at this point I'm finding it very hard to fly away to mine or otherwise make use of my day, because I want to see what happens in 38 minutes 8... 7.... 6...
In other news, the Corp Op continues to grow momentum, our allies have been informed of the time and place and there appears to be at least SOME interest. I'm searching around the Internet for a printable list of ship-types, alphabetised by name of ship. Identifying what we find rapidly is going to be important, so that I can call to engage or retreat, and I'm worried that my knowledge isn't going to be up to snuff.
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