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!