Working the newly stocked system

OK, back in town and had my first chance to get back to operations.

First thing was to reconfigure the POS for normal operations. I had left the POS defenses in an "ALL ON" config while I was away - this consumes fuel at a higher rate and I typically do not keep all my arrays offlined and all defenses, guns, and hardeners onlined.

With the POS back into working order, I began my reverse engineering jobs. I am trying Wrecked salvage, and thus far I am 0 for 9, with a few partial failures that returned some of the elements. I am going to run 21 total jobs and see what I want to do from there.

Continuing from the last post on respawns, the final tally is good:

• 1x Mag
• 1x Radar
• 2x Grav
• 17x Sleeper sites

So, while I continue to run the RE jobs, I will be clearing out my newly restocked system. The Radar netted 7 Melted Nanoribbons and a ton of the very elements I am using for RE.

Also, a quick shout-out to Mick and his W-space adventures over at his blog!

Safe Flying!

Wormhole Respawning

I am about half-way through my vacation, and although I am not able to log real play time, I am checking in daily to check on my POS and to run a 64AU combat scan. Two pieces of good news:

1. Literally no traffic to my W-space system (every time I login, I get the CCP message stating my system has not been loaded yet, indicating I am the first entrant to the system since downtime)
2. I now have 2 Mag, 1 Radar, 2 Grav and 8 Sleeper sites in my system. I had none of these a few days ago. Makes me wonder if not farming the system increases the respawn rate.
   

Hope everyone is having a great Holiday! Off to see a few movies, including Sherlock Holmes and Avatar...

Fly Safe!

Happy Holidays!

Mrs. Star Defender and I (and kids) are in upstate New York for the holiday (coast-to-coast travel is like a 40 jump run to market), and other than the occasional check-in on the POS, not going to see any real play time until next Wednesday or so. Was surprised to see new Radar and Grav sites respawn overnight - hopefully they will not despawn before I get a chance to work them...

Happy and Safe Holiday wishes from SD and LT!

Fly (and travel) Safe!

Industrial Ship "Demolition"

So if you have ever read my in-game bio or my blog, you would see that I am decidedly the friendlier type of pilot. In past encounters with WH visitors, I try to be helpful and/or express interest in learning about their experiences. I am not in the habit of ganking unsuspecting W-space travelers.

That being said, today I ran across an Industrial in the adjoining C2, which was literally in the middle of nowhere. I scanned down the ship, warped-to at range in my Covops, cloaked.

The industrial was just sitting there, occupied. I tried opening up a conversation, but only after a while did the pilot respond. At that time, I asked why he/she was simply sitting in space. The pilot replied that he/she had no probe launcher and had no exit.

I offered to provide an exit...

But no response. Actually, the pilot closed the chat session. Hmmm. OK, try local. Offer an exit bookmark again. No response. I extended the proverbial olive branch and did not get a response. OK, this pilot needs a trip home and is unresponsive - sounds like he needs a clone-express. So, I send in my Drake, fitted with a warp scram, and tackle/destroy the ship and the pod. Not exactly PvP, but the pilot needed a trip home...and got one.

A single friendly gesture would have been rewarded with a BM drop right on the spot - there was a HighSec and LowSec exit in the system at the time. Alas, even in space people are socially challenged?

Fly Safe!

The old abandoned Medium POS is nigh...

That old relic of a Medium POS that I abandoned months ago has finally met its end.

Someone finally had an opportunity to demolish the long-abandoned Medium POS in J161138. I started getting DED reports about the POS taking damage. It must have only been 2 pilots, as it took forever to finish it off. Dark Djinn of XXX.666 corp must have been moving into that old W-space system.

Best of luck XXX.666 and thanks for cleaning up the w-space!

Fly Safe!

Zephyr trailing a Sleeper

Time for the requisite Zephyr showcase. I packed it up as cargo into my W-space system to avoid those with other, more anarchistic intentions... ;-)

Oh, hello Sleeper. Don't mind me, I am just passing through...

Star bleeding through the solar wind sails...

Warping to one of these fancy new planets...

Fly Safe!

W-space neighbors and utilization

With having seen more than 2 dozen adjoining C2 systems from my static C2 exit, I have seen quite a variety of W-space, and thought I would share some observations.

First off, confirming that W-space (at least the lower C1-C3 classes) is getting much more densely populated, I would estimated that 75% of all C2's that have opened from my system were populated by a POS. All but 2 were online and defended.

The interesting bit comes when you scan these "inhabited" system. For example - If you were to land in my system and scan, you would get exactly 3 hits: two WH's (for each of the static exits, one LowSec and one C2) and a Structure (my POS). Meaning, you could tell that I am an active W-space player because I farm out my system faster than it respawns and as such, rely on the recurring adjoining C2 for additional "farming". As such, my system could be considered "empty".

With the respawn rate being so slow, you would expect that any populated/colonized W-space system that had been colonized at least a week ago would/should be "empty", just like my system. However, of the systems I have seen with a POS, most have had plenty of sites available, typically including sleeper sites, ladar, and Grav. This is a curiosity to me. If I am investing in the POS maintenance costs, I need to cover expenses by farming my system.

The last 5 adjoining systems have all had a POS, but none had anyone present/online at the time I evaluated the system for farming. All 5 had multiple Radar/Mag/Ladar/Sleeper sites, to the extent that not once have I had the time to completely clear all of the sites in the adjoining system. Not that I am complaining - if all of these settled systems looked like mine, I would probably be moving out of W-space.

Why would you colonize your W-space system without completely leveraging the available resources?

Fly Safe!

Reverse Engineering

Within the last few months, I have seen my experience broaden to include POS management, mining, reactions, and manufacturing. It reminds me about just how massive a game EVE is, and I can understand how and why people continue to stay engaged with the game - there is seemingly no end to what you can do.

I am nearly set for my Reverse Engineering skill training. I am a big believer in not even getting into a particular function unless I am nearly max-skilled for it, so I am waiting to complete Level 4 on the few remaining skills that are not already at 5 before I begin. It has been widely reported that reverse engineering success rate is factored upon skill levels.

I am going to stay quiet on what I am building for now, but really enjoying the excitement that comes with exploring new facets of Eve, this time being research and manufacturing.

It has been interesting retaining all of my sleeper loot for production rather than running it to market for the quick profits, but now that I have completed my T3 production spreadsheets (Excel in space!), it was good to see there is good margin to be made making all (ok, most) levels/types of T3 components. I am sitting on over a billion ISK worth of loot in preparation for T3 production. Anticipation...

One issue with Reverse Engineering is that you randomly get the subsystem BPC upon success. In other words, although I can choose which subsystem type (offensive, defensive, etc.) to reverse engineer, I cannot choose the explicit subsystem to target for reverse engineering. Since some subsystems are clearly not worth manufacturing, it falls to chance that you get the subsystem(s) BPC that you actually want. This is considered part of the game, so most of the calculations on market margin for subsystems has to factor in "wastage" in the form of BPC's that you do not want/need. However, with the bulk of the cost in production, not invention, this is not the primary factor in T3 manufacturing.

Off to get my Zephyr(s)!

Safe Flying!

Average Frontier Deposit

The Average Frontier Deposit is so vast that you can actually warp between Roids!

Continuing on the evaluation of W-space Grav sites, here was the inventory analysis on another type of Class 2 W-space site, the Average Frontier Deposit. I just had 1 of these in my adjoining C2. Based on the comparison with the Unexceptional Frontier Deposit site, this site would yield quite a bit more ISK, netting out to be roughly 569M ISK of raw ores, and about the same in refined minerals (assumes 100% refine).

NOTE: This is specific to my current Class 2 Average Frontier Deposit site, so results may vary. This is also a snapshot in time on Jita prices, which are obviously subject to change.

Here is a look at the counts by ore type, their respective yields, and their cargo requirements:

Note that the Plagioclase and Veldspar amounts are estimated - the damn site was so vast it would have taken an hour to scan them all. All the rest were explicitly captured on the survey scanner.

Please refer to the prior post on the logistics issues relating to W-space mining.

Fly Safe!

Ordinary Perimeter Deposit

Continuing on the evaluation of W-space Grav sites, here was the inventory analysis on another type of typical Class 2 W-space site, the Ordinary Perimeter Deposit. I just had 5 of these in my adjoining C2. Based on the comparison with the Unexceptional Frontier Deposit site, this site would yield quite a bit less ISK, netting out to be roughly 282M ISK of raw ores, and just over 246M ISK of refined minerals (assumes 100% refine).

NOTE: This is specific to my current Class 2 Ordinary Perimeter Deposit site, so results may vary. This is also a snapshot in time on Jita prices, which are obviously subject to change.

Here is a look at the counts by ore type, their respective yields, and their cargo requirements:

Please refer to the prior post on the logistics issues relating to W-space mining.

Fly Safe!

The backwaters of Amarr

As mentioned in comments in some other posts, my static LowSec exit seems to have some consistency, in terms of the fact that the exits always seem to be (a) in Amarr space, and (b) in the farthest backwaters you could imagine in Amarr.

For example, my last 3 exits have been more than 30 jumps from key hubs. My latest LowSec static exit, true to form, is in Ned. Look up Ned on your in-game map or your trusty EON maps (highly recommended) and you will see Ned is about as far out as you can get in LowSec. Other exits included: Mahti, Sheri, Yekh, etc. Interesting, if not a little inconvenient. However, about every 3-5 days or so I get someone coming in from HighSec and I can make my requisite runs to market, etc.

I continue to get good sleeper site respawns locally, as well as good connecting Class 2 sites via my Static C2 exit. Tonight I cleared (from the adjoining C2) 6 Radar, 2 Mag, 6 sleeper sites, and 4 Ladar. For once, I find myself wishing for more local Grav sites, as I am going to need some ores for manufacturing. I have been in the habit of despawning neighboring Grav sites (simply visit them uncloaked and they despawn later) to see if the long-running theory about clustered site respawns has any merit. We will see tomorrow, since I despawned 6 Grav sites tonight in the currently-adjoining C2.

So just a matter of time now for skills to complete for T3 production. Invention first, and I have a deep supply of wrecked relics and all the rest of the requisite parts. I did make a run out to get the Datacore-Plasma Physics, as I believe these only come from K-space.

Fly Safe!

EVE T3 Cruiser Production

(aka Me wants Tengu!)

Funny how you begin looking at EVE after a few years. I have reached a point where I have now stocked up Billions of ISK and care less about risk and efficiency, and more about broadening my experiences - production has always fascinated me, so what better path than T3... I want my Tengu!

A quick skill check today shows me a mere 30 days from completing all skill necessary for my Tengu construction, including Hulls. This was a bit of a shock. Here is what the relevant skills look like by mid-January:

• Industry V
• Electronics V
• Jury Rigging V
• Science V
• Mechanic V
• Navigation V
• Production Efficiency V
• Missile Launcher Operation V
• Shield Operation V

• Cruiser Construction V
• Frigate Construction IV

• Caldari Defensive Systems IV
• Caldari Electronic Systems IV
• Caldari Engineering Systems IV
• Caldari Offensive Systems IV
• Caldari Propulsion Systems IV
• Caldari Starship Engineering IV

I already had the first group of "core" manufacturing skills to level V some time ago, which leaves the bulk of the training plan to dedicated construction skills and the T3 skills. Since I am constructing in W-space, the Mass Production skills are not really applicable.

I may end up buying some of the Polymers and BPC's on the market, but I decided I needed a new goal other than simply growing the wallet and the most efficient ISK yield of C2 and C3 W-space. I want to experience the full line, but if I see that researching or reverse engineering simply looks untenable, then I will take the occasional shortcut.

Sidenote: The craziest thing I discovered is that although T3 was born of Apocrypha and Wormholes, you cannot actually assemble the T3 ship in W-space! You have to attach Subsystems to the Hull in-station. Now if there was anything that sounded like an oversight, not being able to completely assemble my T3 in W-space (after constructing all necessary parts there) seems to be obvious.

CCP - I never whine about mechanics, but give us the ability to take the final 1 yard step to the goal in W-space...

Fly Safe!

Common Perimeter Deposit

Continuing on the evaluation of W-space Grav sites, here was the inventory analysis on another type of typical Class 2 W-space site, the Common Perimeter Deposit. I have 3 of these in my system currently. Based on the comparison with the Unexceptional Frontier Deposit site, this site would yield quite a bit less ISK, netting out to be roughly 285M ISK of raw ores, and just over 346M ISK of refined minerals (assumes 100% refine).

NOTE: This is specific to my current Class 2 Common Perimeter Deposit site, so results may vary. This is also a snapshot in time on Jita prices, which are obviously subject to change.

Here is a look at the counts by ore type, their respective yields, and their cargo requirements:


Please refer to the prior post on the logistics issues relating to W-space mining.

Fly Safe!

Unexceptional Frontier Deposit

OK, there was a good comment string started in my last post regarding the value of the Grav sites in W-space. I finally got around to actually taking an inventory of the two current Grav sites in my C2, with some interesting findings.

NOTE: This is specific to my current Class 2 Unexceptional Frontier Deposit site, so results may vary. This is also a snapshot in time on Jita prices, which are obviously subject to change.

The summary is: This Grav site, if fully mined, would produce just over 515M ISK of raw ores, or roughly 529M ISK of refined minerals (assumes 100% refine). As I mentioned in prior posts, the larger issue is transporting the ore out. With more than 3.2M m3 of cargo required, we are talking serious hauling. I suppose the option is to refine locally and face the POS refining penalty, or somehow get a mighty Rorqual in there (with only 300 days of dedicated skill training!).

Here is a look at the counts by ore type, their respective yields, and their cargo requirements:


So, if you were able to get it out of W-space, there is considerable ISK in these Grav Sites. I have 5 of these sites in my current system, but logistics is the main deterrent. Similar inventory efforts on C3-C5 sites, I am sure, would turn up huge jumps in ore amounts, but still the same logistics problem.

Would love to hear from any W-space miners on how you are working the logistics issue...

Fly Safe!

Using a third Alt

Late last week, as I was spending more time in the adjoining static C2, I began to be concerned that fate or bad luck or both would shut me out of my "Home" W-space system. Regardless of how closely and carefully I monitored mass restriction/consumption and the WH timer, with both my main and alt in a different system than my POS, it was very feasible to lose the WH entrance and thus lose the POS.

So, I decided to train up a new scanning alt, to be deposited and logged off at the POS indefinitely. It took less than 72 hours to get a decently trained toon up to Imicus + Expanded Probe Launcher + Astronomics 4 + all other probing skills to 3+.

Once I did that, I flew the toon into the most recent lowsec entrance and parked it at the POS, then logged off.

Now, if I happen to lose that WH back to my POS system, I can always scan my way out (both fit standard launchers) and the new scanning toon can separately locate the next static LowSec exit/entrance.

Considerably less angst over losing the WH now - feels like a weight off the proverbial shoulders.

Fly Safe!

Topped off on Fuel and ISK Tally

A HighSec exit was opened by someone late last night, so I took the opportunity to go for a market run with the rest of my loot and to return with extra fuel and supplies.

I now have nearly 60 days of POS fuel and am well stocked on Scourge Fury and Navy Antimatter, as well as other misc. supplies. Forgot the exotic dancers on this trip, but maybe next time...

Total ISK tally to date for this new POS home: 1.2B ISK. It has been just 9 days since I moved into this system and of these, only 5 times online, so based on rough hourly totals, I would estimate somewhere between 15-20 hours online in the last 9 days, placing the ISK/hour rate at about 60M. Not that I give a damn about hourly ISK yield any more, but so many people want to measure based on this I replied to a few comments that I would try to post on it.

Last night also saw the spawning of another non-static D382 (Class 2 WH) - these seem to be pretty rare, but again confirms (prior comment threads) that non-static, non-inbound/K162 WH's do occasionally spawn.

Fly Safe!

Packed Static Class 2 Wormholes

Now that I have finally landed in a W-space system that has a recurring C2, I can say that "I never knew it could be this good". Lol. Still wishing it was a recurring C3, but beggars can't be choosers.

I am used to skipping from system to system, trying, but never finding these precious and elusive systems with static/recurring exit(s) to juicy systems.

I have been mostly getting occupied and/or farmed static systems, but one such (packed) sytem spawned early Saturday and I took full advantage over the weekend, clearing the Radar and Mag sites, some of the other sleeper sites, and several ladar sites. Net yield: 590M ISK, plus I am again stocked up on hybrid reaction gases. This type of "adjoining system farming" takes a little more attention, as you need to stay on top of the mass restriction and expiration timeline for your exit as you march back and forth.

The POS home system continues to be a "quiet" system, with the recurring LowSec exits occuring in deep lowsec, so not as much traffic, but also means less frequent and longer runs to market.

That being said, it dawns on me that I have not named this POS or system - going to have to put some thought into that - any input from the readers?

Oh, an obligatory statement: This post created from the new IGB... I dig it.

Fly Safe!

On to Mining...

Processed all I had on hand for Hybrid Reactions, cleared the handful of sleeper site respawns (2 radar, 2 SDS), and made a market run. Cleared 650M ISK thus far with this POS deployment, which includes the sleeper loot and 90,000 units of Fulleroferrocene.

I am going to jump out and pick up a pair of mining barges to replace my Rokh and Domi refits for mining and take a shot at clearing the Grav Sites, especially the ABC (Arkonor, Bistot, and Crokite).

Fly Safe!

Dominion Planets and Moons

I saw that the scanner window now identifies planets by their respective types - I happen to have in my W-space:

• 2x Barren
• 3x Gas
• 1x Ice
• 1x Lava
• 3x Temperate

Screenshots below:

Barren

Gas

Ice

Lava

Temperate

Wormhole System Daily Ritual

Warning - long post.

My daily W-space ritual:

1. Refresh all signatures
2. Bring all exits to verge of collapse (unless I need one to use for a run to market)
3. Begin clearing sites, Mag, and Radar.
4. If all of these are cleared, then run Ladar, then run Grav sites for the ores needed for my reactions.

(NOTE: edited to correct reference to POS safety -vs- PvP safety)

Refreshing all signatures: since all sigs have been scanned down previously and bookmarked, only new signatures require the full scanning method. As such, I "refresh" all previously scanned sigs by setting 4 probes to .25AU cross pattern and position/scan over the bookmark. I can refresh 20+ sigs in under 10 minutes. With all sig bookmarks refreshed (or if no longer a hit, removed), only new sigs remain in the scan results to be probed. In a typical system, that means 1-4 new sigs per day at most. Scan them down and bookmark.

If any new sigs are new exits, evaluate for access to K-space materials or loot run, and either make the run or close them. Regardless, I typically close all non-static exits and bring static exits to "verge of collapse" before I begin working the sites. This greatly reduces the chance of visitors with sufficient firepower to represent a threat to my POS and help me monitor for PvP visitors.

In fact, I have a system now where I fit my Mining ships with a probe launcher, and ignore all "known" signatures. If any new signatures appear on fairly regular scans, then I know it is either a new site or a new exit/entrance. When a new sig appears, I drop everything, RTB, and scan the new sig. If it is anything other than an new WH, I bookmark it and it is added to the ignore list and I continue mining or whatever I was doing. If it is a new WH, it is typically a K162 and someone is local. I will scan them down and typically bring out the BS's and quickly close it or bring to verge of collapse. Before my last return, I typically leave a jetcan with 1 unit of something on the "outside" and rename it to - "This WH Closed for business!" - If left in a "verge of collapse" state, the returning visitor will see an obvious indicator to check the WH Info before proceeding.

Bottom line - if nothing bigger than a BC can get in, then I am pretty much safe in hardened POS fit.

This actually happened again tonight while mining - a new NullSec exit opened - with less than 1 minute between scans (hey, what else are you going to do while mining?), I was able to scan and warp to the exit (a K162 to NullSec) and observe the Helios still at the entrance. I de-cloaked my BS and he exited. I went back for my CovOps (in case the NullSec side was bubbled) to see if they were still in local - they were not, so I quickly closed the WH and got back to mining.

Once the system is farmed out, I will amend the above ritual to scan our the static C2 and see if there are sites to be run in the adjoining system, then once completed, I again bring it to verge of collapse.

Fly Safe!

Settling In...

I logged in this morning and deployed the Large POS.

I had a few questions on why staging in a small POS: I have tried deploying the Large POS directly, but too many close calls and frayed nerves brought me to the understanding that sitting around with your arse hanging in the proverbial breeze is not a fun way to deploy a POS. So instead, I bring up the small POS and drop all of the Large POS stuff in a corp hangar. The next day (only one POS can be deployed per system per day) I go anchor the Large POS wait out the anchor and online times from the confines of my small POS shield. Once the Large POS shield is online I begin ferrying the Large POS fittings, Corp Hangar, Ship Maintenance and bring up the defenses.

With everything setup, I updated my scans and found several new exits and was able to confirm that the C2 was static - that is going to be nice! However, the new exits were to LowSec and to HighSec (1 Jump from Jita lol), and I began to see traffic. I was about to close the HighSec WH after having a nice chat with a visitor (Morshon from New Dominion corp) when EVE crashed for a while. When it came back up I figured I would take advantage of the HighSec exit and jump out for a fuel run...

But, me being me, I did a rare thing - I forgot to bookmark the HighSec-side. Although my Alt was still in W-space and could rescan all the sigs, I thought I would try Morshon - he was still relatively close and I offered him 20M ISK to fleet me and give me a jump location to the HighSec entrance to my W-space. He agreed and saved me an hour's worth of scanning - thanks Morshon!

I doubled up on fuel and supplies and am good for more than a month now. Have to leverage those convenient hub exits when you get them...

Afterward, I closed the HighSec exit and another LowSec that spawned. Looks like this system has static C2 and LowSec and is still spawning Grav and Ladar sites - I will have plenty to do here after I clear the remaining (still over 14 left) sleeper sites.

Fly Safe!

Return to W-Space

Logged on tonight after returning from California for the Thanksgiving holiday, scanned a few LowSec systems in my normal "branch" pattern, and discovered a Class-2 entrance only one jump away from my staging base. Funny how you can scan countless systems to no avail and then just happen upon a local entrance like that...

So, this C2 has 22 sleeper sites, 1 Magnometric, 4 Ladar, 4 Grav and an exit to LowSec, Class 2, and a Class 3. Not sure yet which one is static. Hope it is the C3!

I set up my small staging POS, then transported the large POS package in a series of trips. I used my CovOps to maintain scouting positions and had to wait out some pirate traffic before completing some hauler trips, but otherwise it was a pretty quiet deployent.

Once the downtime occurs and the "next day" limiter expires (cannot deploy more than one POS per day), I will deploy the large POS and the full defenses. Until then, I brought a handful of hardeners online - I just need to avoid trouble for 18 hours or so...

In the mean time, I cleared 5 sites and plan to do more tomorrow after the Large POS goes online.

Fly Safe!

EVE Dominion and Wormholes

Just thought I would capture my thoughts on the recent update to the information CCP is publishing on Dominion and Null-Sec colonization, from a wormholer's perspective.

NOTE: All of what follows is a personal perspective and should in no way be considered fact or any kind of instruction as what YOU, the casual reader, should do. In stating such, I hope to quell the influx of rants that would otherwise cascade into my blog comments admin ;-P

With the capabilities provided regarding spawn rates of high-quality mining and profession sites, Dominion brings me back to a major reason why I initially got very interested in Apocrypha and W-space, which is to say that I wanted to (begin to) gain experience in a NullSec environment. I had done my proverbial time on HighSec missioning, grew my skills, and became adept at plexing in LowSec for those high-ISK yield C-Type modules. The latter gave me experience in the use of Local, DScan, Probing, Safespots, etc. After that, I really began thinking about NullSec and my desire to get out there.

There was only one key issue there - most NullSec corps/alliances are not looking to bring on Non-PvP Plexers and Mission Runners! They want straight-up PvP and to some extent straight-up Industrialists. They are not really interested in "Please charge me 5% Tax rate to allow me to Rat/Mine/Plex in your territory" pilots.

Why? I was never really sure why this model was not interesting to NullSec corps, that is until I understood that they have all the riches they need from a select group of Moons, and as such do not have ANY need for little minions generating fractional ISK to support their capital ship costs.

However, with the purported changes coming in Dominion regarding Moon-Goo yields (huge drops in ISK Yield), and with the model identified by Dominion regarding "use it or lose it" system upgrades, the opportunity for small corps to "Rent Out" NullSec systems now becomes feasible and potentially highly lucrative for the major NullSec stakeholders. As long as these major NullSec Corps and Alliances continue to provide territorial defense, a new sources of good income can be tapped in the form of "NullSec Colonists".

For example, given the options of:

• A - Commit major ISK to a colonization of a (growingly rare) Class 3 W-space system with consistent neighboring spawns
• B - Commit major ISK to a colonization of a systematically developed and upgraded NullSec system

I would be excited to give Option B a try. The risks are different of course, but for those of us actively looking to slowly join the ranks of large fleet battles or even regional skirmishes to defend our (and our neighbor's) colonies, I think Dominion carries a huge opportunity. I don't want or need CONCORD protection - I actually enjoyed Low-Sec. The problem with Low-Sec is that it is not really colonize-able, short of a Providence-like uber-corporation controlling the area.

As a matter of fact, Dominion itself feels more like a Providence model, albeit with systematically controllable elements to upgrade your local grounds, rather than constantly roaming ala Mongolian style.

I am actually seeing Dominion as a possible next step towards NullSec, Defensive skirmish PvP, and eventually Fleet PvP.

(edit) I also wanted to point out Letrange's post, which I read after publishing my post and thought was well crafted.

Fly Safe!

Holiday and Skill Planning

I leave in just three days for holiday, where I will not have sufficient online access to support an onlined POS. As such, I will stick to some local Low-Sec plexing until I leave this Saturday. After the holiday, I will resume my Low-Sec search for a suitable C3.

In the mean time, and throughout the holiday, I am finishing up skill training on Caldari T3 (Tengu!) - only 14 days to Skill Level 5 on the remaining Caldari T3 skills. Although I can already get into a T3, I typically wait for at least level IV ship skills before actively piloting. In the case of an expensive T3 Tengu, I figured I wanted that last bit of edge.

Separate note - Had some good convos with Quiv - we had been independently thinking about the future of W-space and share a belief in parent-corp/alliance efforts. I posted some comments on my thoughts about the future of w-space colonization here - look for some fun and interesting points in the near future from Quiv.

Fly Safe!

This space occupied (redux)

I posted back in August about the growing difficulty in finding a suitable W-space home. Since then, the trend has continued to the extent that even finding a good W-space system from LowSec is extremely difficult.


There is a good post on this topic here.

I agree that the likely future for W-space is some classic consolidation. If you are a solo or solo+alt corp trying to maintain a presence in W-space, the time may quickly come for you to join forces and pay homage to a "parent corp", otherwise you will likely face challenges defending your territory.

The most likely arena for this will likely be in Class 3 or higher w-space systems, where the w-space systems can generate an ISK yield to support larger corps.

It has grown crowded out here in w-space! Favorite analogy, posted by Xonus:

"...In this game, we have a limited number of systems and spaces for people. I wouldn't mind if someone set up a cabin in the forest somewhere and occasionally hunted. But, if everyone set up a cabin in the forest somewhere, it would cease to be a forest."

Safe Flying!

POS Unanchored

OK, well it took nearly 5 hours, but the ECM structure was finally repaired and I was able to avoid hostiles long enough to get the POS and that structure out to my LowSec base. Best part was running the repper AFK for the last hour before downtime, knowing that this morning I could login and finish it up. I suppose I was lucky that no pilots came into the system and probed my POSprey, but I valued my sleep more than the remaining goods. ;-)

What a pain, but happy that I am not abandoning the POS (and of course the 100M replacement savings).

Off to my RL TODO list, but online tonight to see if I can scan a good LowSec WH entrance...

Fly Safe!

POS Incapacitated Structures

I have seen a lot of posts regarding the issues relating to incapacitated structures and the related inability to unanchor the POS until all surrounding structures are unanchored.

I logged in the other night to find one of my White Noise Generation Batteries in an "Incapacitated" state, meaning someone had slugged it out and pounded that structure until it was nothing but structure left. I can see why the pilot stopped at structure - the structure benefits from a 99% Hull Resist with the Tower present. You would need a fleet of BS's to take down the Hull.

So, here I am, ready to pack up and leave this crappy C1, but now I either have to repair 1,500,000 worth of armor or try to destroy 100,000 HP worth of structure with 99% resists... Hmmm.... Forget the latter - only option is the repping route.

The issue here is that while the tower is anchored, it applies the 99% resist to hull for the structures. However, you cannot unanchor the tower unless all structures are destroyed or repaired. Impasse.

This is why there are so many abandoned POS's in W-Space. Basically, I am left with either spending 6-8 hours of my limited play time repping or I take everything except the POS. After making the 500M, I am not going to sweat leaving this 100M ISK Small POS in lieu of repping it - just not worth it. However, I am loathe to leave another POS just floating in space. So, I jump out and bring back a POSprey (Osprey fitted for Armor Repair). I can run the armor reppers while AFK, so rather than spending a some time hunting for a new home, I spend tonight repping the structure. I am 3-hours into it, with a check-in about every 15-30 minutes or so.

During this period, my static LowSec exit respawned to a much less pirate-infested system, and I was able to transport everything except the POS and the ECM structure to a local station. Going to set the Repper for AFK and go to bed. If someone happens to jump in, that POSprey will be easy pickings, but we will see...

It makes no sense to me that you cannot unanchor a tower with an incapacitated structure anchored. If this is about space clutter, then allow the POS to unanchor and then allow incapacitated structures, when the Tower is no longer present, expire like cans do after several hours?

Safe Flying

Veterans Day

Like most of us, I have family members that have participated (and in some cases are currently active) in almost every major conflict in which the United States has been involved, going back to WWII.

I feel that these men and women deserve recognition of the fact that they have risked, and lost their lives for the freedom of the rest of this dear planet. Their sacrifices, whether it be time away from beloved family or even their lives, should be remembered.

Veterans: We appreciate what you have done for us. There are no words to express the impact you have had on all of us.

Dedicating this post to:

• My Grandfather on my Dad's side, who served in the Army WWII, witnessed D-Day, was a tank and armored personnel carrier driver and lost many close friends.
• My Grandfather on my Mom's side, who served in the Air Force as a B-52 pilot and also saw an enormous number of friends lost.
• My Brother-in-Law, who currently serves in the Air Force and has seen hostile, active duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• My Step-Brother, who served as a paratrooper for 4 years and was involved in a major conflict.

Thank You.

Final Tally for this C1

Final Tally for all 34 sites was 503,310,384 ISK. The issue was basically that so few of the wrecks dropped the Melted Nanoribbons.

The sites were:

• 13x Perimeter Ambush Point
• 12x Perimeter Camp
• 7x Phase Catalyst Node
• 1x The Line
• 1x Forgotten Perimeter Coronation Platform

With that, all that is left are 2x Grav and 5x Ladar sites. Not really planning on sticking around to clear them, so next online time will be jumping out of the static lowsec and scanning for other WH's.

Fly Safe!

Low Class-1 W-space yields

Cleared 21 of the 34 sites and ran a short 9 jumps in the current LowSec exit to Jita to sell off the loot. Total yield: 198M ISK. More proof that the same effort would have yielded 3x in a Class2.

No other pilot traffic here as yet, and although I am getting some light respawns of the sleeper sites, I am wasting time here. Going to wait out a few more days to see if any interesting exits spawn, otherwise getting out of here by Friday.

Safe Flying!

Class 1 Wormholes

First, a little back-story on why I find myself in Class 1 wormhole, as you may be wondering...

After pounding the proverbial systems looking for a suitable Class 3, I found myself mostly "chaining" (in some cases 3 or 4 w-space systems) deep into W-space, hoping for a good C3.

I actually found a packed C1 system with two Class 3 exits, a Class 2 exit and a LowSec exit. I figured (wrongly as it turns out) that at least one of the C3's or the C2 would be static, and with the extremely close proximity to my staging base (get this: one K-space jump + 3 W-space jumps!), I figured this was as good as any to move my "Large POS package" out to W-space.

With the 2 new Iteron V's packed and ready to go, I made quick work out of deploying a Small POS and Hanger to the C1, where my plan was to stage everything there until I found a good C3 exit spawn. Essentially, the small POS and Hangar are the "beachhead" to store the large POS package of tower and all associated modules. The 2 "currently adjoining" C3's were heavily populated, so I was willing to park myself and the entire C3 Large POS package until a good C3 spawned.

Well, turns out that this Class 1 only has a SINGLE static exit, that to LowSec. This is the first time I recall ever seeing W-space with only a single static exit, so I was pretty miffed. This could be common with C1's? But, since the system was packed with over 34 sites and I was a bit rusty after being offline the last month, I decided to go take down some sleeper sites. Because this is a C1, I could not bring in my BS's, so this was all about the trusty Drake. I knew from the earliest of early Apocrypha days that my Drake would not even break a sweat in a C1 even if I fully spawned the whole site. I cleared 10 sites in just under 2 hours.

It has been so long since I was in a Class 1 that several things occurred to me after my first day there:

• The first observation mentioned above - that the C1 had only a single recurring exit. This one was to LowSec. Literally every w-space system where I have take up residence had two recurring/static exits. The fact that the only recurring exit is to LowSec means that I will have less likelihood of a quality adjoining system spawn and may mean I need to move my deployment package back to K-Space once I clean out this system. If a quality exit spawns before I empty this C1, then fine - C1's are low yield ISK.
• C1 Sleeper sites are dominated by Emergent (Frigate) spawns, which have a skewed effect on drone consumption. My only prior experiences with C1 systems were "day-trips" while I was still getting up to speed on sleeper sites and ship fittings. At that time, I had not used drone DPS to any great extend and missed this observation. As compared to C2 or C3 sites, which are dominated by Cruiser and BattleCruiser sleepers, C1 sites are spawns of mostly frigates, which love to go after the drones. The BC's have poor tracking and it is really rare to lose a light drone to a Sleeper BC or BS. For example, in the last four Class 2/3 systems in total, I have lost no more than 9 drones. We are talking 100+ sleeper sites and tons of sleepers. But, in the first 5 sleeper sites alone for this system, I lost 6. As such, I need to slightly correct my prior statements regarding drone usage from "Ideal for C3 and below" to be "Ideal for C2 and C3" sites. Sentry drones would actually be ideal for C1, as they can be immediately recalled and the Emergent sleepers always come to you, whereas you need to strategically warp-in for C2/3 sites for efficient sleeper BS pwnage.
• Proportionally smaller ISK yield. I would have expected C1 systems to yield less valuable loot, but linearly, not exponentially. Whereas there is a reasonable lift in yield when going from a C2 to a C3 system, the drop in yield from a C2 to C1 is substantial. Class 1 systems are a good starting point for testing your skills, but I am now going to regularly advise Class 2 and the minimum class for your first POS deployments.
  

That's all for now - back to (RL) work. Hopefully a good C2 or C3 will spawn from this C1 and I can get back to more challenging environments...

Fly Safe!

I now officially own the title of IDIOT

Oh yeah, riiiight...faction standings.

OK, from time to time we all do something extremely stupid. Been a while for me, but today takes first prize in my EVE career.

The irony was that this entire adventure started with a return to a previously abandoned POS (read post). After coming to realize the very reason I abandoned said POS was the fact that no good C2-C4 systems EVER seem to spawn for me there, I had just finished unanchoring everything and transporting everything to a nearby LowSec exit station. I recovered more than 90M ISK worth of arrays and guns from the old haunt and stowed it in the station and then set course for Amarrian space, home of my staging base.

Old POS Note: Regrettably, two of the guns were incapacitated and I did not have the repping fittings to get them back to be able to unanchor, so the old POS still resides out there in J161138 where I long ago wrote-off the tower.

I figured my first run back to my staging system would be the Fuel, Strontium and Hangar I had just brought out to power up the old POS. Here is where I should have paused to recall that my Caldari character piloting the quite-expensively fit Itty V has a Gallente security rating of -7.5 (aka GTFO-IWILLPWNUHEREDONTTHINKOFSHOWINGYOURPODGOOCRUSTEDASS).

But noooooo... I am playing the part of an idiot today!

So here I am, all packed up in my Iteron Mark V, max-fitted with Cargo rigs, Expanders, etc. and filled with POS Fuel, Stront, Small (staging) POS, Corp Hanger and lots of other expensive goods.

Cool! I mutter, only 18 jumps! I avoid gankers in the 4 jumps through LowSec, but as soon as I jump into the next system, poof! I am CONCORDOKKENPWNED. I was toast the moment I hit Jump.

After all of this time in W-Space, I had forgotten that my Gallente status was criminal (from back in the early days when I used to mission run in Caldari).

An expensive lesson in not paying attention to your faction standings and flight path. Using my Gallente Alt I was able to recover the Hangar Array, half the Strontium (all in GSC's), and some fuel, but that little mistake cost me over 450M ISK.

I can take the hit, with billions of ISK in reserve and a full Large POS configuration procured and sitting in my staging hangar, but that really sucked.

Safe (and SMART) flying.

What is old is new again...

Talk about karma!

After a system-failure-induced 4-week hiatus from EVE, before I can even begin my second round of probing, I get a convo request from one Zendane of Phoibe Enterprises (Member of SOLAR WING). Now, I was AFK at the time of the request, and had no idea how long it had been, but I responded and he laid a proverbial bombshell on me.

Turns out his corp stumbled into my old, abandoned POS. Yes, the Class 2 POS home that yielded me Billions of ISK, which I later abandoned because I was too spoiled to bother spending 4+ hours offlining and unanchoring everything.

After a fun chat, Zendane offered to meet me in a lowsec entrance and fleet me back to the POS.

Next karma fact - only 13 jumps from my Amarr staging base! It less than 10 minutes to run over in my Covops to meet Zendane and his corp, fleet up, and bingo - we arrived.

Funny thing is: The entire POS setup was virtually untouched. What a thrill/rush to see the old domicile in such great shape! The POS Tower itself, all 8 ECM Batteries, the Webification and Warp Disruption Batteries, and all 12 of the the Guns! Only a couple had been shot at and needed minor repairs. The only two structures destroyed were the Corporate Hangar and Ship Maintenence arrays. When I abandoned this POS, the Ship Maint array was empty and the Hangar had some C-70 gases.

After a quick scan of the system showed a fairly well stocked system, I made the decision to send my alt in with fuel and power the sucker up!

It was a little nerve-racking to bring the Iteron Mark V through LowSec at peak online time, but now I was motivated. My Covops serving as scout, I made it through unscathed. Was nice to have a fully prepped transport ready to go with fuel for a month. In less than 60 minutes from initial convo, I had onlined the POS and deployed a new hangar. Then I had to logoff for a trip to family dinner.

I am dubbing the newly reinvigorated POS "Apeiron Redux". (NOTE: Apeiron is Greek for Unlimited, Boundless)

(I will keep the dedication name up for a few days)

So here comes the karma angle. I have been offline without a gaming system for 4 weeks. The Class 2 exit Zendane's corp probed that led to the POS system was a 24-hour cycle. I just happened to be home, with my newly replaced system online, just as they found the POS. Not only that, but a friendly corp that just happened to have a member that reads this very blog...

Pretty cool IMHO.

With gushing thanks, I parted with Zendane and Phoibe Enterprises. Later tonight I got a chance to get back online and scan all of the exits - I need to find a route to bring in the ships, fuel and the other goods required to stay here for the next few weeks. Hopefully I will find a new Class 3 at about the same time I finish cleaning out this system.

Shout out to Zendane and Phoibe Enterprises! Thanks pilots! Best of luck.

Fly Safe...

Searching for W-space home #7

Tonight I covered 16 K-space WH's and more than 80 sigs within W-space, looking for the "deep" jump to an unoccupied Class 3. But, all attached systems and their respective w-space exits were populated and/or were dead-ends tonight. Not a single vacant W-space system in over 30 w-space systems I toured tonight - quite different from May-July, when you had your proverbial pick...

Shout out to Galen - I buzzed his POS tonight and had a good chat with him. He was my last site of the night (21 POS hits total).

I regularly scan down ALL of the resident POS and ships, as twice I have found abandoned POS sites with good salvaging and have found abandoned ships on many occasions.

Checking out the resident POS, if/when said residents are "in", can cause the familiar "alert and bust-ass back to the POS" frenzy that all of us W-space dwellers have been through - I might get in the habit of posting "passing through" to local if I see pilots in scan... Not that it really puts the resident(s) at ease, but was sorry to interrupt Galen and their ops.

Fly Safe!

My Domi Sleeper Fit

I am happy to report I am back online and scanning like crazy to find my next W-space home.

In response to many requests to post my Domi Sleeper fit. Remember, I am solo+alt...

As mentioned frequently, I use a Domi as a Shield Repper + Drone DPS along side of my Alt's Drake or Raven for Sleeper sites. I swap out drones as needed - Ogre II's (for Sleeper BS) and Hornet II's (for Cruisers/Frigates). I had previously added a target painter and vampire mods, but found that the Gauss Guns added more DPS and is my current preference.

I know I am mixing here (Shield Tank + Armor Tank), but it is what I have used for some time and the Main + Alt combo has covered me well through Class 3 sites with relative ease.

Cap stable when not being primaried and I rarely have to rep the alt's shields, and as such I rarely if ever run out of cap.

Here is the Domi fit:

[Dominix, Domi Sleepers - Current Fit]
Large Armor Repairer II
Large Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II

Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

425mm Prototype I Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Prototype I Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Dual 250mm Prototype I Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Core Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I
Drone Link Augmentor I
Large Shield Transporter II

Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Ogre II x5
Hornet II x5

Here is the EFT (DPS 512, 60,307 Effective HP):


Fly Safe!

Imminent Return

My system has been returned from the manufacturer, but more RL travel will extend my return to EVE for another week while I head out to NY this week. Shout out to the folks from my London trip last week...

All of my W-Space gear is gathering proverbial dust, but ready to go. In the meantime, I am training up my Caldari main for T3!

Be back in W-space Soon(tm).

Fire in the hole!

Many of you may have been wondering about the lack of posts here lately.

Well, about 10 days ago, my new kick-ass system had a literal meltdown. The power supply failed and burned up, filling the entire house with smoke and setting off the fire alarms, etc. Good thing I was home at the time! I yanked all the cables loose and ran the unit outside. What a sight - if any of you have ever seen an electrical fire, you know that it can product a tremendous amount of smoke (but not much in the way of actual fire), all of which smells like copper.

NOTE: Not my actual house or system heheheh

Alienware decided it was a serious enough failure to warrant complete analysis, so I had to ship the entire system back. Their biggest concern was potential internal electrical or smoke damage, specifically relating to the water-cooling systems.

So, off the thing went - they paid for the FedEx pickup and all shipping costs of course, but just being without that sucker for close to two weeks is painful. Just received an update that I should have it back by next Sunday.

All set with my new POS plan, and my main and alt are skilled up and ready to deploy the loaded Iteron V's. Hopefully I will be back online and into W-space by this time next week...

Until then, safe flying!

EVE Online is not a PvP MMORPG

Heheheh. OK, a having a little fun with this post title and post in general, but felt compelled to comment on some recent rants on the EVE Blog Pack about "carebears" and "EVE is a PvP game".

I think this particular topic has been flamed (errr I mean covered) in more forums that I can count, but there still continues to be players all too consumed with their own perspective on Eve to actually consider a real discussion on the matter.

For newer players, I felt obligated to make this simple "perspective" post...so take it as you may.

Is EVE a PvP game?
No.

Is EVE an Industrial game?
No.

Is EVE a game where players can take on virtually any role from industrialist to pirate and face consensual and non-consensual PvP?
Yes!

It cracks me up to no end to see moronic posts like this one, where one could argue there are more pirate tears going on here than carebear tears.

As an EVE player, you should expect to eventually lose your ships from combat (or griefing, which is not combat FYI), and although I would respect a player's feelings on losing a ship that cost them much time and effort in-game, I do agree that excessive ranting or crocodile tears are indicative of a little too much sensitivity over what amounts to a hobby.

However, to consistently insist that EVE is purely a PvP game to the extent that you overlook the obvious fact that there are more non-PvP careers to be pursued in EVE than direct PvP career paths, is just...well...simple minded.

EVE is what you make it, and the best part is that you are never locked into a specific role. You could grind missions, trade, mine, construct, transport, defend, expand, conquer, manage, educate, research, invent, role-play, explore and yes, even grief to your heart's content, and then decide to do something else the next day.

Can new (and veteran) players that are partial to aggressive PvP styles of play enjoy space combat?
Yes! There is no equal to EVE.

Can new (and veteran) players that are partial to passive, industrial styles of play enjoy the immersive nature of this incredible open market system without having to focus on PvP?
Yes! Again, there is no equal to EVE.

But don't shed tears, neither carebear/industrial nor combat nor pirate tears, when someone does something in EVE that disagrees with your particular passion.

I like this counter-post and specifically, Manasi's quote in the comments:

...To me a person with no honor is the one to eliminate. Pirates I know have honor, although there are some who sling that title around and have none. The attitude I have trouble with is "our play style is right, while your play style is wrong", most players I respect do not think this way, as I certainly do not."

Fly Safe!

W-Space POS Sanity Pause

I am finding it more than a little refreshing after 2 months of constant W-Space POS life, waiting out some skill training is providing a mental recharge of sorts.

Maintaining a POS and having it in the back of your mind that the precious POS Fuel continues to burn away 24x7 is a great motivator, at least for getting online nearly every night to pay for that fuel. Call it a proverbial forcing function. You feel compelled to logon at least once per day to check up on things and to get a little sleeper carnage and looting to make sure you are yielding sufficient ISK to cover the investment risk of having your POS out there...

Every day that passes, I find myself ever more eager to get back online and get back into W-space, sort of like an odd feeling of anticipation. But, I am going to stick to my Iteron V plan. I think this will net out with a renewed passion for W-space and more efficient hauling. A win-win.

I am stopping just a hair short of recommending that W-space pilots implement their own equivalent of an R&R vacation periodically. ;-)

Fly Safe!

(edit for Capsuleer: this post has raised an enormous amount of comments - see here.)

Iteron V

I have decided to let my Main and Alt complete their respective skill queues for piloting the Iteron V's.

From a prior post comment that pointed out that I was neglecting implants for reducing training time, I went ahead and bought the relevant Implants and the training time is now a fraction of what it was w/out the implants.

Roughly two weeks and both pilots will be Iteron-V capable, meaning I will dramatically increase my combined industrial ship transport cargo capacity from 26,000 m3 to just shy of 100,000 m3 with full compliments of Cargo Expander II's, Optimized Cargohold Rigs, and GSC's. That buys me the ability to deploy my new POS configuration faster and with substantially less risk.

While the skills are training, I have been doing various cleanup activities, such as retrieving deposits of sleeper loot that I had dropped at random WH exits and had not yet taken to market, and migrating some old stashes to Jita.

Might even run some exploration sites this weekend - been forever since I have done that, since before my W-space adventures...

Safe Flying

POS Package Transport - Industrials

Again with the Spreadsheets in space...

I was looking tonight at the total Industrial trips it would take with my Badger Mark II and my Iteron IV. I only have Cargohold Expander II's and no Cargohold Optimization I Rigs. Including all Fittings, Fuel, and POS modules, it would take over 24 round trips to haul everything in my new Large POS configuration to W-space.

• Fittings and Ammo: 5,396 m3
• Fuel and Strontium: 118,600 m3
• POS and Modules: 126,000
• Polymer Reaction Gear: 24,004
• Total m3 to haul: 274,060 m3!
• Plus Ships!
  

Granted, it is really more like 12 round trips as my main and alt would be pairing up, but still, that is 12 opportunities to either make a bad mistake or invite a ganker on the other W-space side of the WH.

I started researching Industrial ship options and fittings and the somewhat obvious choice here seems to be Iteron V's with max cargo expanders and rigs. If I train both the main and alt up to fly Itty V's, then the paired-up round trips drops to 4, a much more manageable figure. The fully fitted with skills Iteron V will carry an impressive 35,358 m3...

The only problem? Skill Level 5 is a month away for the Caldari Star Defender main and 20 days for the LightTraveler alt. Looks like I am going to run exploration sites here in Amarr territory for a while...

(edit) Quiv pointed out that I neglected to mention the Giant Secure Container (GSC) cargo trick - for those of you that did not already know this, the GSC takes up 3,000 m3 cargo space in your cargo hold, but can store 3,900 m3 - put as many GSC's into your cargo bay as you can and fill them up for an additional 30% boost in storage!

Fly Safe!

Updated POS (Hybrid Polymer Reactions) Fitting

OK, I have refined my POS fitting just a bit. As you may have seen from the previous post on expanding into Hybrid Polymer Reactions, I am replacing my standard medium POS fit with this Large, Hardened POS fitting.

Critical to note here is that the artillery (active) defenses will be anchored and stocked with ammo, but will remain offlined until needed, as will the refinery and reaction modules until I am actively reacting and/or refining.

As such, the POS setup in a day-to-day configuration for onlined-only modules looks like this.

With the massive DPS required to even challenge this POS shield, and with all of the guns, the objective here is to get the "raised eyebrow" reaction from the w-space visitor upon hitting the local scan or probe results.

Oh, and why the Minmatar Large POS you might ask? Simply convenience factor (I am in Amarr territory at the moment) and I still have ton of hydrogen isotopes from the now-old Medium POS. As Quiv pointed out in a prior comment, a hardened + ECM POS setup favors the Caldari Large Tower, which has ECM Jammer bonuses and larger shield (+5M HP).

I have had some recent questions about how to save and/or post your POS fitting - on the POS Planner site, once you have completed your fitting, click the URL that is titled "Build URL" - this will convert the URL in your browser address bar to be something you can copy and paste into a text document for safe keeping, or blog/comment.

Close call last night - nearly made a jump to a Class 4, but decided I was too tired to kick off the 3-hour move... Sleep deprivation makes for bad mistakes!

Safe Flying!

Procurement Runs

Ran around for a few hours this morning gathering up all of my POS fittings, fuel, and hybrid polymer reaction systems and reactions.

Now, time to start looking for that next home. Target is a good Class 3 or (ideally) a Hub Class 4 with static to Class 3. Since I am in HighSec at the moment, the plan is to chain through local WH entrances (which are likely to be Class 1 or 2) to see if they connect to Class 3/4's. If I get lucky and find a good Class 3 "direct" entrance, then great!

My last experience told me that finding a suitable home is best performed from LowSec, but I am right in the middle of HighSec, so will be giving it a shot locally first.

Fly Safe!

Abandoned in J161138!

Well, it served me well, and over the course of it's life it yielded me over 8 Billion ISK, with over 2 Billion ISK alone from it's current resting place: J161138

After 4 days of searching adjoining systems for a decent location to move the POS, I was growing weary of continually burning fuel and basically burning hours. With static exits to a Class 6 and NullSec only, and with my target being a Class 3 or 4, I decided it was time to jump out at the next convenient exit. I had been "chaining" exit WH's via the Class 6 but could not find the right fit - always led to more NullSec, C5, or C6 systems.

A HighSec exit (only the 3rd one ever here) opened and I jumped all over it, moving all of my ships, fittings, ammo, Refinery, 10 artillery, and all of my fuel stock to the exit system station.

With only 750M Mass allowance, it did not take long to go critically unstable, so I did not get most of the POS defenses unanchored before I had to make the final decision to abandon what remained. I could have stayed in there with my CovOps and continued waiting out the next High/LowSec exit to move the rest, but then I considered the total value of everything remaining (about 90M ISK in defenses + the Medium POS resale value at 180M ISK) and thought... "Well, you have cleared many Billions of ISK and you are moving up to a Large POS, so do you really need to put another 8 hours of offlining, unanchoring and transporting the Medium POS?" The answer, in short, was NO!

Remember, you have to offline and unanchor every unit before you can pack up that pricey POS, and with all of the stuff I had anchored out there, I shivered at the prospect of the mind-numbing effort of unanchoring everything in sequence. Here is what I left behind:



Shocked? Heheheh - tough decision, but once I took that last exit and bid my farewell to Apeiron, I felt like a weight lifted...

On to new horizons and new experiences with the Class 3/4 Large POS plan!

Fly Safe!

P.S. If someone comes across my old humble abode, please drop me a line - it served me well!

Nearly bottomed out...

With the spawn rate dropping here in my nearly bottomed-out system, and with the adjoining systems not offering up any lucrative "move the POS" opportunities, I have resorted to clearing the Ladar sites for their various gases. After clearing all of the Ladar sites, I have an inordinately high amount of C-70 and C-72, so again all indicators point to MethanoFullerene Hybrid Polymer reactions, so I started hitting the Grav sites for 'roids rich in Isogen, that means Hedbergite! So, I mined 2 max capacity refinery cycles worth of Hedbergite so far.

Now all I need is a good exit to low/high-sec to go get the silos and reactor plus the large POS. I continue to scan "through" the adjoining static Class 6 to look for new exits via the latest C6 and it's respective adjoining systems, but so far nothing looking good - in fact, the static Class 6 exit seems to only connect to C6 hubs, which seems very odd.

The search continues! In the mean time, only a handful of Grav sites left... What happened to all of my rich adjoining systems! ;-)

Safe Flying

EVE Blog Pack

I wanted to pass along a warm and respectful thanks to all of the readers and supporters of this blog, all of whom played a part in getting this W-space focused blog added to the EVE Blog Pack!

The announcement on CrazyKinux's site was called: "New to the EVE Blog Pack - Did you really want in?" - the answer is a definitive yes, and thank you very much ;-)

In addition to simply being an honor to be on the same list of some of these notoriously cool and helpful blogs, I think exposure to additional W-space and K-space writings and musings are beneficial to all of us.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

• Flashfresh - A Pirate, by Flashfresh (good to have a pirate's perspective, plus Flash is a great writer)
• Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, by Kirith Kodachi (posts even more frequently than I do, and have followed him through his carrier and new 0.0 corp move and back - good coverage and a must-read!)
• Letrange's EVE Blog, by Letrange (An established W-space corp - see what the big corps are doing in W-space. A recent T3 production chain change of plans as well)
• Sweet Little Bad Girl, by Shae Tiann (From the Hellcats, a portion of which are currently establishing a pirating base out of W-space - also a great in-character writer, one of my favorite blogs to read on Capsuleer!)

There are a lot more, and I read pretty much all of them available on Capsuleer, so looking forward to experiencing some of the new blog roll entries as well - here are some that I have just begun reading:

• Journey to New Eden, by Bill
• Diary of a Pod Pilot, by Myrhial Arkenath
• Planet Risk Show (The), by Luminus Aardokay & Quivering Palm

Lots more there to go skim and try out, so I encourage you to see what additional blogs fit your style of play.

Again, thanks readers and thanks CrazyKinux for putting in the effort to maintain the blog pack!

Fly Safe!

Hybrid Polymer Reactions

OK, trying to convince myself to do something about the Ladar sites that I continue to ignore.

I have always been interested in furthering my skills in EVE to include some form of manufacturing, and with T3 continuing to excel in W-Space and in the Alliance Tournament, I began looking at the first step in T3 production, Hybrid Polymer Reactions.

Here is a Quick-Guide and Video on an example Hybrid Polymer Reaction.

I have collected quite a bit of various Fullerite Gases, most at grade C-72 or Lower. If I continue to run Class 2 and 3 systems, the available gases will stay that way (i.e. I will not be seeing much C-28 or C-32 and no C-540 or C-320 at all). Based on that, I will be limited to the following reaction types:

• Lanthanum Metallofullerene
• PPD Fullerene Fibers
• Fullerene InterCalculated Graphite
• Fulleroferrocene
• MethanoFullerene

There are always abundant Grav sites to product the necessary minerals.

After considering the inputs and outputs and current market prices, the only 3 that really make sense to produce are (in descending order of yield):

• MethanoFullerene
• Fulleroferrocene
• PPD Fullerene Fibers

Because of the abundance of C-72 and C-70, and lots of Roids that yield Isogen, the logical choice for me seems to be MethanoFullerene. A quick study of the markets shows that there are lots of Buy Orders out there and the market is relatively stable.

So, my next move will see me upgrading to a Large POS with all of the required reaction arrays:

• 2x Biochemical Silos
• 1x Silo
• 1x Hybrid Polymer Silo
• 1x Polymer Reactor Array

With it, I will be deploying a hardened POS solution, with this configuration.

I will bring along all of my Artillery Batteries and anchor them, offlined in the event someone actually wants to burn the time and ammo in a C3 System to take on my hardened Large POS.

In case you are really paying attention and can see that this fit exceeds the max CPU, the answer is the refinery and all of the reaction arrays/silos will not be onlined all of the time, as I am trying to keep fuel burn to minimal as is feasible.

You may also be asking why the Medium Intensive Array instead of the larger size? Mostly because I already have the Medium Intensive Array (one less thing to buy and transport), also because the volume of ore I will be refining is relatively small compared to REAL/LEGIT refining POS's, and lastly because there is no difference in Refining Yield.

Obviously, the Hangar and Maintenance Array come with me from my current Medium POS.

Total investment into new equipment:

• 2x Biochemical Silos (36,000,000)
• 1x Silo (13,500,000)
• 1x Hybrid Polymer Silo (6,750,000)
• 1x Polymer Reactor Array (11,250,000)
• 1x Large Minmatar Control Tower (367,000,000)
• MethanoFullerene Reaction (13,500,000)
  

• 2x Explosion Dampening Array (18,000,000)
• 2x Ballistic Deflection Array (18,000,000)
• 2x Heat Dissipation Array (18,000,000)
• 2x Photon Scattering Array (18,000,000)

Total ISK Investment: 520,000,000

Ladar sites that I have seen containing these gases usually come in clouds of 3,000 units, so break-even would be just under 20 sites worth of reaction cycles of "Meth" (bad reference, but easier to type than MethanoFullerene), if prices remain stable.

And yes, EVE continues to definitely be a game of spreadsheets (assumes availability of 3,000 units each of C-72/C-50/C-84/C-70/C-60):



I am still 26 days from completing my Orca training, which will likely be a prerequisite to moving forward with the new endeavor, as there is no way I am going to haul all of this to the next system in my 2x max-cargo-expanded haulers at 13,000 m3 each per trip. ;-)

Until then, I will be continuing to work new spawns and adjoining systems. Time to try something new, as sleeper sites are getting a bit monotonous (but still profitable).

Comments welcome, as always!

(edit 12-15: Adding the Ladar site info):

• Barren has 3,000 C50 and 1,500 C60
• Token has 3,000 C60 and 1,500 C70
• Minor has 3,000 C70 and 1,500 C72
• Ordinary has 3,000 C72 and 1,500 C84
• Sizeable has 3,000 C84 and 1,500 C50
• Bountiful has 5,000 C28 and 1,000 C32
• Vast has 1,000 C28 and 5,000 C32
• Vital has 500 C320 and 6,000 C540
• Instrumental has 500 C540 and 6,000 C320

Fly Safe!

Abandoned Valuables

By the time I logged in late today, 3 sites spawned and I quickly cleared them and then scanned down the latest exits. Back to the standard 2 static exits, one to a Class 6 and another to NullSec. No other random exits today.

I am in the habit of checking out ALL Class 5 and 6 systems these days, as I and other pilots have found them to occasionally contain abandoned ships, drones, loot, and all sorts of goods. It took a while to scan all 20 of the signatures. What a miner's dream! Some of the best Ladar sites to be found in EVE W-Space, with over 10 sites with C-540 or C-320... That is some serious gas ISK.

Other than the 11 Core sites, 10 Ladar, 6 Grav and 4 Radar, there were only exits to a C5 and a C3 (in addition to mine). I dropped into the C3 to have a look, since I am looking for a new C3 system to occupy. The system was clean, but the prior tenants had left 6 small POS turrets, so I returned with my hauler to pick them up.

Otherwise an uneventful trips and did not see a single soul today. I suppose everyday in EVE will not be a huge discovery or a 1B ISK trip to market...

I need to make a decision on whether to stay in this bottomed-out system with roughly 4 site spawns per day or to move to an adjoining system. The problem is there are never C3 entrances spawning from my system - just Class 6, NullSec, and the occasional HighSec. Time will tell - in the mean time I will keep scanning adjoining systems for a new home (or more abandoned loot!)

Fly Safe!

System Cleared and some local action

Another rare HighSec exit opened in my system today - probed it and a Retriever mining a Grav site in my system as soon as I logged in. I quickly scanned down the Retriever and plopped in 100km off so that he/she did not have a heart attack.

NOTE to occasional WH visitors dropping into occupied W-space - USE YOUR BLOODY SCANNER!

I took my time scanning down his Retriever and could have easily ganked it, but instead, being the nice, friendly, anti-pirate/griefer I am, I offered to clear the nasty sleeper spawn and allow him to mine, but he got spooked and left the system - he also refused convo (why?).

Turns out the HighSec exit was to Josameto, a paltry 2 jumps from Jita - my luck continues...

Actually turned out to be a good thing to scare him off, as a few minutes later, upon returning from a quick market run in my CovOps (Cha-Ching 450M ISK!), I saw two pirates camping the Josameto WH entrance.

I had Warped (cloaked) to a bookmark 8km from the WH entrance and I knew they were waiting for an easy catch, so I teased them by maneuvering and uncloaking 5km from their ships, shouted "BOO!" in Local, then jumped through.

Obviously they followed, and already had a interdictor warp bubble up on the other side. Bubble - pffft! I am in my CovOps, so align & cloak nearly simultaneously, then change direction in case they had a line on me as I was visible before cloak engaged. Sure enough, they roared to my prior location and ran off towards my initial direction hoping to de-cloak me. I smacked in local: "Sorry folks, cannot touch my CovOps - you are heading in the wrong direction."

I stopped about 100km out just to watch and see what would happen. They missed tackling unwary visitors TWICE over the next 30 minutes and I periodically checked back on them. After an hour with nothing to show for it, they bugged out. Poor execution on a WH Bubble IMHO.

With an exit so close to Jita, I decided to stock up on fuel and other misc. supplies. Once completed, I used my Raven and Domi to close the HighSec WH. The current system has been officially cleaned (whew! that was one packed system), except for the 7x Ladar and 4x Grav sites, which I continue to avoid. That means this system yielded just a bit shy of 3 Billion ISK in the last week!

Class 2 Gas is just not worth harvesting based on my market calculations, as I make 10x more clearing sites. I did clear the handful of C-72 clouds, but anything lower quality is just not worth the time. Like I have said before, I do not have the time nor patience for mining it seems...

I did bring back a second POS, in preparation for another move if the adjoining static W-space look inviting. Looking for a class 3 or 4 now.

Shout out: Had a nice convo with Kathistos, who recently resumed EVE after a hiatus. Came back for Apocrypha and WH exploration - Good luck with your endeavors, pilot!

In other news, my blog was added to the EVE Blog Pack - Looking forward to even more commentary and discussion! Thanks to those of you that posted to Kinux to get me added - and thanks to all of the readers in the comments - I know that everyone has been getting value from your insights...

ALSO - Shout out to the crew over at Planet Risk, who also made it onto the prestigious EVE Blog Pack - congrats guys, and good to see your coverage on the Alliance Tournament.

Safe Flying!