Thursday, July 23, 2009

WH Travels irony

In my last post, I covered the demise of POS #2.

I had made a rapid escape via the latest low-sec exit that spawned last night. What I forgot to mention is that the exit I used to escape the dreaded russians turned out to be 3 jumps from the very first wormhole whence I began my entire sleeper experience! So here I am, with all of the ships, remaining unsold loot and all of the other fittings I pulled out, a scant 3 jumps from my corporation office. Go figure!

Felt like a time-warp or some kind of Dallas episode (10M ISK to the first person to recognize the reference and link to it in comments), but looking at the billions of ISK added to my wallet reassured me it was not all just a dream...

Goodbye POS #2! R.I.P.

POS in Reinforced Mode...

Funny. I logged in to update some skill training and had a DED email about my POS. Turns out a Russian crew from Kolodishy, Inc. decided they liked this WH and wanted to move in. I had a few hours remaining on my reinforced mode, so I warped out all but two of my ships and all of my loot and extra fittings before they got wise and started camping the exit WH and the LowSec side. Made it out with my Covops (carried all the pricy loot), Drake, and Domi before the camping began, so then self-destructed my hauler and the cormorant salvager rather than risking getting podded. Last exit was in my gatecamp-busting Covops... ;-)

I stripped all the fittings from the ships before the self-destruct, and no rigs on those two ships, so total loss estimated at roughly 150M (Small Tower, Hangar, Ship Maint, Hauler, Cormorant). Considering this second POS earned over 1.5B ISK in the last 2 WH systems, I was still pleased with the investment.

Interesting how things work out. I was trying to decide last night what to do with the POS - it had 2 days of POS fuel left and I am leaving this weekend on vacation for a week, and did not want to simply offline it, and I did not like the hour-long process of offlining and unanchoring and transporting it all out (part of the reason I sold my first POS), so I suppose the question on whether to invest further in this Class3 system is now a mute point! Nice forcing function...

Off to vacation and upon return, back to Class 2's - quieter and higher NIM yields?

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Neurovisual Input Matrix (NIM) Yields in Class 3

Subject to randomization theory, observed behavior tends to indicate thus far that NIM yields on comparable salvage between Class 2 and Class 3 systems is horribly skewed.

Part of the good news in going to Class 3 WH Systems is that the spawn counts are higher. Typically, more wrecks == more salvage == more NIMs. However, whereas clearing 15 Class 2 Perimeter sites yielded over 40 NIMs, I have now cleared 18 Frontier sites in this Class 3 and have only 19 NIMs.

One is tempted to second guess the randomness factor typically referenced on salvage drops...

Anyone have similar experiences?

Magnometric - Forgotten Frontier Quarantine Outpost

Spawn Information for the Forgotten Frontier Quarantine Outpost in a Class 3 WH System:

Spawn 1
  • 3x Awakened Preserver (Trigger) (Kill 2 of these first to eliminate incredible sleeper repping!!!)
  • 6x Emergent Defender
Spawn 2
  • 3x Awakened Defender (Trigger)
  • 2x Awakened Preserver
  • 2x Awakened Upholder
Spawn 3
  • 4x Emergent Upholder (Trigger)
  • 1x Sleepless Defender
Spawn 4
  • 2x Sleepless Preserver (Tough cookies!)
  • 4x Emergent Defender
Everything was pretty smooth until the 2x Sleepless Preservers - I had both my Domi reppers running full time until I took one down. Figuring there was a big sleeper spawn coming, I let my capacitor recharge before killing off the trigger on Spawn 3, leaving a full cap for repping against the dual sleeper BS...

In terms of salvage value and loot from the artifact cans, I am yielding between 180M to 200M ISK per Forgotten Frontier Quarantine Outpost site (Remember, results may vary...):

Salvage:
  • 13x Ancient Coordinates Database
  • 1x Cartesian Temporal Coordinator
  • 91x Electromechanical Hull Sheeting
  • 6x Emergent Combat Analyzer
  • 1x Emergent Combat Intelligence
  • 1x Fused Nanomechanical Engines
  • 1x Heuristic Self Assemblers
  • 4x Melted Nanoribbons
  • 72x Modified Fluid Router
  • 58x Neural Network Analyzer
  • 15x Neurovisual Input Matrix (5M ISK/each)
  • 35x Powdered C-540
  • 3x Resonance Calibration Matrix
  • 58x Sleeper Data Library
  • 3x Sleeper Drone AI Nexus
Cans:
  • 1x Malfunctioning Electrochemical Component (*6M ISK/each)
  • 1x Malfunctioning Weapon Subroutines (*16M ISK/each)
  • 1x Wrecked Armor Nanobot
  • 3x Wrecked Power Cores
  • 4x Wrecked Thruster Sections

Monday, July 20, 2009

The thing about great wormholes...

...Is that they are in high demand.

If you recall from the prior post, I had been looking for a nice non-border WH (i.e. no High or Low-Sec exits/entrances), but happened upon a nicely packed Class 3, but it was a border system. RL has kept me busy and I have only cleared a handful of sites, which I cashed in for just under 400M ISK on a nice Amarr exit only 4 jumps to market hub. When I logged in tonight, I scanned down a small crew from Zero-G Operations Group working an Oruz Construct site. I watched them work on sleepers for a while (cloaked) and then convo'd them.

After some obligatory smattering of smack talk (funny), we briefly chatted about why they were not working class 4's - If I can clear Class 3 sites solo w/Alt, I am still not clear on why teams capable of doing so still run lower-class WH systems. I think one pilot claimed availability, but every good crew like that has a good probe pilot, and there was a nice juicy C4 exit from this system. they did not even realize it was a Class 3...

Anyways, props to bringing a lot of firepower (3 Drakes + Hurricane + Salvager), which should make clearing sites go faster, but if it is that much easier, I say go for the more challenging systems and reap the higher reward. Otherwise, it just seems like brainless ratting. I got tired of Class 2's and move to Class 3's for this reason.

Side note: Interesting to observe that although my POS setup cost around 150M ISK, because I have made close to 10 Billion ISK with the investment, I had no real concerns about losing the POS if a crew wanted to take it down. In the brief smack talk, one pilot threatened to "bring in bombers" to take down the POS, and I replied "Feel free"... Kind of strange to care less if 150M ISK goes poof - but the same rule should apply to POS as ships - if you cannot afford to lose it, don't risk it...

Shout out to Zero-G: GL and happy sleeper hunting...

New Class 3 Wormhole...

OK, time to start working Class 3's. Although I was looking for a Non-"Border" system, an exit from my current Class 2 WH eventually opened to an extremely large (128 AU Wide at outermost planet orbit), densely populated system of 36 sites. The site has a static Class 3 and Class 2 exit, and an occasional Low-Sec exit. Here is a quick screenshot and the site list:


  • 1x Gravimetric - Unexceptional Frontier Deposit
  • 1x Ladar - Barren Perimeter Reservoir
  • 1x Ladar - Bountiful Frontier Reservoir
  • 1x Ladar - Minor Perimeter Reservoir
  • 1x Ladar - Ordinary Perimeter Reservoir
  • 2x Ladar - Token Perimeter Reservoir
  • 2x Magnometric - Forgotten Frontier Quarantine Outpost
  • 2x Magnometric - Forgotten Frontier Recursive Outpost
  • 1x Radar - Unsecured Frontier Receiver
  • 12x Fortification Frontier Stronghold
  • 14x Outpost Frontier Stronghold
  • 4x Solar Cell
  • 4x The Oruze Construct
Time to get to work...

Friday, July 17, 2009

Drones and Missiles in W-space

I have been reading forum posts lately that refer to the fact that many feel drones are nothing more than proverbial cannon fodder in W-Space. I disagree, at least for Class 2 W-Space.

I previously posted my Ship buildouts for Class 2 W-Space. As you can see, I use a growingly-classic Repper/Droneboat Dominix paired with my Alt's typical Omni-Passive Drake.

I completely agree with many posts that you should not bother wasting your scourge fury missiles on the Emergent/Frigate sleepers. Keep your Missile Launchers idle -vs- Emergent Frigs - that is work for your drones! Light Drones to be specific. Once I switched to using Light drones, my drone consumption rate went to almost nothing in Class 2's.

Here is the basic protocol:
  1. Jump-in, fleeted with my Drake Alt.
  2. Unleash the 10x Light drones (5x from the Drake and 5x from the Domi) to clear frigates - these 10 Light T2 Drones lay literal waste to all Emergent sleepers in a matter of seconds.
  3. Successively primary the Awakened (BC) or Sleeper (BS) with the Scourge Fury barrage, backed by additional DPS from the 10x Light T2 Drones. Awakened BC's go down in less than 30 seconds, Sleeper BS in about 90 seconds.
  4. Opportunistic Salvage as we go, but get out as soon as cleared and return with the salvage/analyzer/codebreaker boat.
  5. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Why the Heavy T2 Drones in your buildouts? When I can, I bookmark a spot very close to the Sleeper BS for warp-in and launch 5x Heavy T2 drones from the Domi instead of the T2 Light drones to expedite the death of the Sleeper. Combined with the 5x Light Drones and Furys from the Drake, it makes for fast Sleeper BS wreckage. However, I only use these slow ("kill me, please") T2 Heavy Drones if (a) I have cleared all Emergent Frigates and most or all of the Awakened BattleCruisers and (b) I am within 20km of the Sleeper BS. Otherwise, true to reports, those heavy drones get ganked like popcorn.

This selective use of the Heavy T2 drones really comes into play in those cases where you have cleared all of the Emergent Frigs, most/all of the Awakened BC's and have spawned multiple Sleeper BS... I still occasionally have to withdraw a Light drone when there are many emergent frigs buzzing about, but it is rare. My initial purchase of 50 Hornet II's nearly a month ago is now down to 38 left. That's only 12 lost in something like 100+ Class 2 site battles.

I suppose the bottom line here is that, IMHO, Light T2 Drones rarely get popped and can add substantial DPS. I have heard, however, that even light drones are problematic in Class 4 and 5 WSpace. Looking forward to trying in Class 3's next week...

Thursday, July 16, 2009

6 Hours in two nights == 770M ISK

772,605,857 ISK

That was the Jita Yield on the WH Salvage I cleared from this most recent Class 2 WH. Not bad. Neurovisual Input Matrix (NIM), Sleeper Data Library and Melted Nanoribbons alone accounted for 629M ISK. NIM's are going for a premium recently, as can be seen in the below price history graph:



I actually sold my NIMs one system from Jita, in Ikuchi, for 7.6M each, a slight premium over Jita prices.

I am still hoarding my datacores and decryptors for later considerations.

I still realize I am leaving Billions of potential ISK behind as I skip (Mongolian style) to successive WH's, but alas, I am not a miner...

It was extremely quiet in this class 2 "Border" WH, in spite of the Static exit respawns to High-Sec. This particular sell-off was based on an exit 9 jumps from Jita that happened to spawn literally as I had completed the last WH site, since it was not there before I cleared the last 2 sites.

Trying to locate a non-border Class 3 and up the game a bit. Very tempting to join forces with some of the pilots encouraging an alliance and even camp a Class 4, but still putting off that decision for a few more days.

Eve POS Planning Tool

I had a great eve chat with a pilot following this blog last night and it dawned on me that I neglected another important tool. Turns out we use the same POS Planner, which is now linked on the sidebar of the blog.

This is a great tool for planning your POS deployments. Whether you are building out a defensive masterpiece or simply want a quick calculation on POS fuel, there is no better tool out there...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

New Class 2 Wormhole Home

OK, after what seems like a LOT of wormhole scanning only to find nearly every WH occupied, I finally happened upon a nice Class 2, dense with sites.

Turns out it was only 2 jumps from my staging system, so lucked out there.

My only scare was on my second trip back to the entrance (while the POS was already onlining), where there was a Tengu sitting! Was not sure if he had exited the WH or had just warped-in, but as soon as I showed up he warped out. Of course, I hustled in to check my POS, but it was shielded and nobody was in the system, so I continued, but kept a close eye on scans in case he was returning. After all of the searching, I had a complete gold-rush feeling on staking my claim to the system, so the on next trip, instead of ammo and more fuel, I grabbed my ships. Turned out to be quiet thus far... We will see if it stays that way.

A quick recap of the system:

3x Perimeter Checkpoint
4x Perimeter Hangar
1x Sleeper Data Sanctuary
4x Ruins of Enclave Cohort 27
1x Magnometric - Forgotten Perimeter Gateway
2x Gravimetric - Isolated core Deposit
1x Ladar - Minor Perimeter Reservoir
1x Radar - Unsecured Perimeter Comms Relay
2x Radar - Unsecured Perimeter Transponder Farm
2x Wormhole Exit to HighSec
1x Wormhole Exit to Class 3 WH

Time for bed... But time to harvest tomorrow!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Personal Theory on WH "Sub-Classes"

I have scanned probably 100 WH's in Low-Sec and close to 80 in HighSec. In that time, it has held true thus far that most WH's I have seen that link to Low-Sec continue to link to Low-Sec as their exits/entrances respawn, resulting in dramatically lower "visitor" traffic within the WH as compared to High-Sec entrance/exits.

The point here is not the obvious one of "High-Sec WH's get more traffic", but rather that it seems like WH's tend to respawn their exits to their own class of Known Space, rather than recycling those exits/entrances equally between Low/High-Sec. Sort of like a "Class 2-Low" and "Class 2-High" sub-classing. So IMHO, a Class 2 found from Low-Sec will likely continue to mostly respawn exits to Low-Sec rather than High-Sec, and vice-versa, even though Class 2's entrances can occur in High and/or Low-Sec equally.

In Low-Sec, nearly every Class 2 WH I found was empty - literally had my pick of the proverbial litter. But in HighSec (0.5-0.8 systems), nearly EVERY WH I have found is populated...

Maybe "Low-Sec" Class 2 systems don't like to hang with their High-Sec cousins, except on special holidays... Snobs.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Class 2 POS Setup overkill? Or something else...

Somebody's Class 2 Permahome?

I ran across this setup in a Class 2 system today - J114346:
  • 1x Amarr Control Tower
  • 1x Minmatar Control Tower Medium
  • 1x Corporate Hanger Array
  • 2x Ship Maintenance Array
  • 1x Medium Intensive Refining Array
  • 1x Ammunition Assembly Array
  • 1x Polymer Reactor Array
  • 1x Hybrid Polymer Silo
  • 2x Biochemical Silo
  • 1x Explosion Dampening Array
  • 2x Warp Disruption Battery
  • 1x Stasis Webification Battery
  • 6x Small Artillery Battery
  • 4x Medium Pulse Battery
  • 4x Medium Beam Laser Battery
  • 8x Medium Artillery Battery
  • 2x Large Pulse Laser Battery
  • 2x Large Beam Laser Battery
  • 1x Ballistic Deflection Array
My first thought: "Wow, what tremendous overkill for a Class 2 WH". My second thought - "What a safe place to perform all of your reactions". I am guessing this POS complex is not really here for simply working the Class 2 site, and am only guessing here that the complex has been uprooted from normal space as a nice little space-version of the moonshine site... I probed down a few of the ships there - the corp will remain nameless, but they had:
  • Ferox
  • Moa
  • Cerberus (parked at POS)
  • Orca
Probably had more stored in the Ship Maintenance Array. Curiously, they never reacted to my obvious combat scanner probes; I warped-to one to get the corp info. If I were a small band of pirates, it would have been a good opportunity - wonder why they were not watching scans...?

So, too much setup required to simply be a base for Class 2 WH Gas Cloud harvesting and refining, so I am left with the question as to why, with the penalties on refining yield from POS refineries, would you want to do this? So asketh the non-mining pilot...

Back from RL Adventures

OK, time to get back to EVE. I had been heavy on some RL (Real Life) travel and work-related stuff, but as this is my outlet for forgetting about the day-to-day, time to get back to it!

After re-supplying in the local and surrounding systems, I have everything I need to move back into WH space. I posted previously on my sell-off in advance of taking a few days break from EVE.

The exit I took from my last WH Home placed me deep in border territory between high-sec and low-sec, and after scouting around a bit, I am in a great, central area for jumping into the next good looking WH.

Prices for Datacores are still bottomed-out, but the rest of the standard sleeper salvage, for the most part, is holding steady. The highly prized Neurovisual Input Matrix is actually yielding considerable higher than last week. Hopefully we are beginning to see an increase in T3 production.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Eve Wormhole Field Trip Checklist

This seems like an obvious post topic that I have overlooked. Keep in mind that I run WH space with 2 pilots, my main (LightTraveler) and my Alt (Star Defender) and I maintain a POS with a hangar array for storing ammo, loot, and extra fittings and a ship maintenance array for storing the extra ships and switching out fittings as needed.

Here is what I take to my WH trips:

POS:
  • Caldari Control Tower Small
  • Corporate Hangar Array
  • Ship Maintenance Array
  • Enough POS Fuel for 10 to 14 days
  • Enough Strontium for 12 hours
Ships:
  • 2x Transport Ships with Cargo Expanders (basically for hauling the POS gear in/out, not used while clearing WH)
  • 1x Primary scanning Ship (I use a Helios)
  • 1x Omni-tanked, Dual armor rep Dominix with T2 Light Drones - good drone DPS and cannot touch the tank (Setup Below)
  • 1x Omni-passive-tanked Drake with 7x (Scourge Fury) Missile launchers (Setup Below)
  • Cormorant Salvage boat (Packed with Tractors and Salvager II's and a MWD, fitted for Analyzer or Codebreakers when applicable)
Fittings: [Dominix, Current WH Domi]
  • Large Armor Repairer II
  • Large Armor Repairer II
  • Armor Explosive Hardener II
  • Armor Kinetic Hardener II
  • Armor EM Hardener II
  • Armor Thermic Hardener II
  • Damage Control II

  • Cap Recharger II
  • Cap Recharger II
  • Cap Recharger II
  • Cap Recharger II
  • Target Painter II

  • Prototype Cloaking Device I (just in case...)
  • Salvager II (Salvage as we go...)
  • Salvager II (Salvage as we go...)
  • Small Tractor Beam I (Salvage as we go...)
  • Drone Link Augmentor I
  • Large Shield Transporter I (Supporting the Drake when he is multi BS Primary)

  • Auxiliary Nano Pump I
  • Auxiliary Nano Pump I
  • Auxiliary Nano Pump I
  • 15x Hornet II (-vs- Emergent/Frigates)
  • 10x Wasp II (-vs- Awakened/BC and Sleepless/BS)
Assuming I am the primary, when I am running both Armor Repairers and not remote shield repping:
  • Effective HP: 60,307
  • Shield Defence Efficiency: 729
  • Capacitor Lasts 2m 19s. Cap Stable when 1 Large Armor Repair Off.
I have only had to activate both armor repairers twice since I began doing Class 2's, and both times it was because I neglected to activate my hardeners at warp-in (oops).

[Current WH Drake]
  • Ballistic Control System II
  • Ballistic Control System II
  • Shield Power Relay II
  • Shield Power Relay II
  • Kinetic Deflection Amplifier II
  • Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
  • Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
  • Explosion Dampening Amplifier II
  • Large Shield Extender II
  • Large Shield Extender II
  • Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
  • Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
  • Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
  • Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
  • Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
  • Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
  • Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
  • Small Tractor Beam I (I like to group the wrecks for easier salvage later)
  • Core Defence Field Purger I
  • Core Defence Field Purger I
  • Core Defence Field Purger I
  • 5x Hornet II
  • Effective HP: 51,758
  • Shield Defence Efficiency: 325
  • Total DPS: 413 (Volley: 2555)
NOTE: The Domi also target paints, giving a slight boost to missile DPS

Extra Stuff

Here is what I stock the Hangar with, at a minimum:
  • Large Remote Armor Repair System II
  • Large Armor Repairer II
  • Large Remote Hull Repair System II
  • Large Hull Repairer II
  • 2x Analyzer
  • 2x Codebreaker
  • 50x Hornet II
  • 12,000x Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
  • 300x Core Scanner Probe
  • 200x Combat Scanner Probe
  • 2x Core Probe Launcher

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Sold my POS?!?!

After clearing most of the latest WH I was occupying, and after scoping out all of the routes to other regional "deep"sites and finding none to my liking, I decided to take a break for a few days on the WH front.

Ironically, just as I was planning my POS tear-down and transport to a good high-sec exit, a small crew began working the remains of sites (mostly perimeter checkpoint) I had taken a pass on clearing. I scanned down their ships and convo'd them about whether or not they were interested in a great deal on a POS in this WH. Complete with Hangar and Ship Maintenance Arrays plus 10 days of POS Fuel, I estimated total value at just shy of 200M. Feeling very happy with the day's 780M ISK sell-off of loot in and around the Minmatar hub earlier that session, I issued a generous offer: 120M ISK for the whole lot.

They pondered for 60 seconds and agreed. As they ran out to procure a transport ship and stock up on ammo/supplies, I transported my remaining good and ships out to the local high-sec exit and offlined and un-anchored the arrays. The deal was simply 50% up front, then transfer the rest after the POS was unanchored. The timing worked out pretty good - after the initial 60M ISK transfer to me, I had just begun the un-anchor on the POS just as they were returning from their shopping spree. I left them to guard the POS as it completed the un-anchor and logged off. Later that night I logged in to find the second payment and they were happily enjoying their now POS home...

Selling your WH Salvage wisely

I just wanted to post some observations about getting the best value out of your hard work in WH Space. To mitigate risk while I am offline, as good exits become available, I regularly load up the salvage and datacores into my covops and sell the goods on the local markets. By "good exits" I mean low or high-sec exits that are within 10 jumps of a regional market hub. I use the covops because (a) cargo capacity is not an issue, since WH salvage and datacores are very "light", (b) it can run through gatecamps with ease with cloaking and MWD, and (c) it is a very fast ship.

Now that I have sold off 2 Billion worth of WH goods, here are some market observations. Some, but not all of these are always true for market goods in general:
  • Check market prices before "Sell this item". The price you can get for an item in the current or closest (convenient) station may be much lower than you can yield if you simply jumped a few systems farther into the sector. Market prices will show you the regional prices across many systems - use this to determine where the best cluster of buy orders have been registered.
  • Market Hubs do not always garner the best prices. Although this is well-known from a supply/demand proximity perspective, this behavior occurs on a micro-scale with WH Goods. I have found that few "buyers" have place volume buy orders in border regions - most of the volume buy orders are occurring at or within 3-5 jumps from market hubs.
  • Not all salvage will garner the best price in the same system. In my last sell-off, only specific items were selling at a premium. In the case of Sleeper Data Library units, I found a station 4 jumps from the Minmatar hub I was in that had no less than 4 buyers with buy orders 2.5X what the market hub was yielding. No-brainer: Sell what I could at good or premium prices at the hub, then take the effort to make a dozen or so extra jumps to sell off the rest in surrounding systems. For Sleeper Data Library's, I yielded 240M ISK by selling in a system 4 jumps away rather than the 150M I was going to yield at the market hub.
  • Sit on the loot and wait for a better exit if the nearest exit hub is yielding considerably lower than other recently-visited hubs. Jita recently tanked on prices for many items - rather than sell off my stockpile there, I waited 2 days for an exit nearer the Amarr hub, which earned me 3X what I otherwise would have yielded in Jita.
  • Don't hesitate to sell off your stockpile periodically. As I mentioned above, I do not like the idea of continually stockpiling what amounts to hundreds or millions (if not billions) of ISK worth of items in my POS. If I am offline and a smart team wants to take down my Small Caldari POS, then they could. I prefer to regularly (roughly every 2 days, or when there is a good exit hub) sell off items that are garnering high value in the local exit hub, but I will retain items that happen to be lower-yield to sell at the next exit hub that opens.
  • When logging off, transfer the loot into your cargo. As mentioned before, loot does not take up much cargo room - I can store thousands of salvage items in my Domi cargo bay. I make a regular practice of loading all of my loot into my cargo bay when I logoff for the night, just in the event someone goes after my POS when I am offline. This obviously does not apply to gas/roid mining efforts, but for salvage, radar, and mag site loot, take it with you on logout...
You worked hard for that loot - a little extra effort can pay huge dividends.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Follow your own advice.

LOL.

Even if days go by and not a single ship comes into your system, don't become complacent and let someone slip under your scans. I did not follow my own advice tonight.

A clever scanner in a covops managed to quickly scan down my position and retract his probes in between my system scans. He returned with a Cerberus. Blink! He arrives and warp scrambles my Domi. Immediately thinking the rest of the fleet is about to pounce, I warp out my Drake. A mistake as it turns out - he was solo. To make things worse, My Domi was literally at 10% capacitor from burning my MWD to harvest wrecks. Either extremely lucky, timely, or just plain skilled, he caught my Domi at the worst possible time. I waited a few minutes to see if I could maintain armor repping with a single repper, but I had to keep hitting my second repper while he was raining Terror Rage Assault missiles. The problem was that since I was pretty much out of cap, it was a short time before I was going into structure. If I had full Cap, my Domi drones + Drake Scourge Fury + T2 drones may have done the trick or he would have run out of ammo before my armor succumbed, but alas, the poor Domi was doomed!

I had a good chat with him (excerpts below) - hats off to Unzer of Mobile Alchohol Processing Units (MAPU) - might check out his corp some time.

[03:21:16] Unzer > hey
[03:21:22] LightTraveler > Hey - nice hit
[03:21:29] Unzer > nice fight
[03:21:33] Unzer > i almost ran
[03:21:40] LightTraveler > Funny - I had been scanning regularly - slipped under my watch ;-)
[03:21:47] Unzer > but i realised i had fury missile and overloaded
[03:21:55] LightTraveler > Well, I forgot my ECM Drones - stupid
[03:21:57] Unzer > i was avoiding dropping probes
[03:22:07] Unzer > i got you at the last min with my cov ops
[03:22:10] LightTraveler > I will mention you on my blog
[03:22:22] Unzer > i probed the drake in second and scooped as quickly as possible
[03:22:28] Unzer > then got my cerb
[03:22:38] LightTraveler > nods - nice hit
[03:23:07] LightTraveler > You are the first real hit I have had in a week
[03:23:26] Unzer > if you are in the t3 business my alliance is recruiting
[03:23:32] Unzer > we manuf t3 stuff
[03:23:33] LightTraveler > lol - I was asleep at the wheel, and you snuck in
[03:24:24] Unzer > we have a little project going where we give share for loot and sell the finished product
[03:24:27] Unzer > much more lucrative

Turns out that I did not follow a second piece of my own advice, which is to be dilligent about keeping track of the WH Exit respawns. I later found out that a second High-Sec exit had opened and all of a sudden, half the sector (well OK, 4 different pilots) was trafficking my WH... After 10 days and only seeing one pilot, it was actually interesting to finally witness some much-referenced hostiles.

If I had kept my exits up to date I may have been even more careful.

Well, at least I was insured. Replacement cost, with fittings == 91M ISK + Max Insurance put me just over 109M, so with the insurance payoff the net loss was only 50M ISK. While I was out in HighSec replacing my Domi, on my first trip I went ahead and sold off some more loot from clearing the WH sites yesterday/today, totaling 240M ISK of loot, so definitely in the green for the POS Win/Loss record ;-)

Next to consider: More Class 2's or move to Class 3's (or join up with any one of a dozen corps that have sent an invite).

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Perimeter Hangar

Spawn 1
  • 3x Awakened Patroller (Spawn)
  • 2x Emergent Watchman
Spawn 2
  • 1x - Sleepless Watchman
  • 2x Awakened Escort (Spawn)
Spawn 3
  • 1x Sleepless Escort
  • 2x Awakened Escort

Perimeter Checkpoint

Spawn 1
  • 3x Awakened Patroller (Spawn)
  • 2x Emergent Patroller
  • 2x Sirius Sentry Tower
Spawn 2
  • 2x Awakened Patroller (Spawn)
  • 2x Awakened Escort
Spawn 3
  • 3x Emergent Patroller
  • 1X Sleepless Patroller

Magnometric - Forgotten Perimeter Habitation Coils

Spawn 1
  • 2x Emergent Patroller
  • 2x Emergent Escort (Spawn)
  • 3x Awakened Patroller
Spawn 2
  • 4x Awakened Patroller (Spawn)
  • 4x Emergent Escort
Spawn 3
  • 1x Sleepless Patroller (Spawn)
  • 4x Emergent Escort
  • 4x Emergent Patroller
Spawn 4
  • 2x Awakened Escort
  • 4x Awaked Patroller
  • 1x Sleepless Watchman

Ruins of Enclave Cohort 27

Spawn 1
  • 6x Emergent Patroller (Spawn)
  • 1x Sleepless Patroller
Spawn 2
  • 5x Awakened Patroller (Spawn)
  • 1x Emergent Watchman
Spawn 3
  • 1x Sleepless Escort
Shout out to narrat Caeli - had a good chat while he popped into this WH as I returning from a sell-off in Jita of the goods I have cleared thus far in this packed Class 2 WH. I sold off 398M ISK last night and have since cleared 5 more sites - being a holiday, my time has been opportunistic, short stints.

Sleeper Data Sanctuary

Spawn 1
  • 3x Sirius Sentry
  • 2x Awakened Escort (Spawn)
  • 3x Emergent Patroller
Spawn 2
  • 1x Sleepless Escort (Spawn)
  • 4x Emergent Escort
Spawn 3
  • 1x Sleepless Outguard (Hits HARD)
The best strategy here is to Covops in and bookmark a spot within close range of the sentries and then return with the big, short range DPS. Knock out the sentries first and this is a cakewalk. However, the Outguard hits hard, so be prepared to remote rep.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Radar Craziness - Unsecured Perimeter Comms Relay

OK, so I had previously posted the spawns for this Radar site, which has traditionally always been to most lucrative Radar site in Class 2 WH's, but post-patch (Apocrophya v1.3.1), the datacore yield has increased substantially. See below.

Spawn 1
  • 3x Awakened Patroller
  • 2x Awakened Watchman (Spawn)
Spawn 2
  • 1x Sleepless Patroller (Spawn)
  • 2x Emergent Watchman
Spawn 3
  • 1x Sleepless Escort (Spawn)
  • 1x Sleepless Watchman

8x Ejected Sleeper Databank:
  • 32x Datacore Electronic Subsystems Engineering
  • 16x Datacore Engineering Subsystems Engineering
  • 25x Datacore Defensive Subsystems Engineering
  • 9x R.A.M. Hybrid Technology
  • 9x Amarr Hybrid Tech Decryptor
  • 7x Caldari Hybrid Tech Decryptor
  • 1x Minmatar Hybrid Tech Decryptor
Obviously, the types of datacores and decryptors will vary, but clearly the yield has increased close to 400%, which again is likely why the market rates have plummeted.

NOTE: Occasionally, this site's first spawn will include a Sleepless Outguard, which is a tough hombre! It coincides with the presence of a Derelict Talocan ship, which will sometimes yield a BPC or a Wrecked Hull Section == WIN. Here is an example:



Back to the July 4th weekend Sleeper BBQ...

Magnometric - Forgotten Perimeter Gateway

NOTE: Mileage may vary

Spawn 1
  • 1x Awakened Watchman (Spawn)
  • 4x Awakened Patroller
Spawn 2
  • 1x Sleepless Patroller (Spawn)
  • 2x Emergent Watchman
Spawn 3
  • 1x Sleepless Watchman
  • 1x Sleepless Patroller
  • 4x Emergent Patroller
Salvage:
  • 2x Cartesian Temporal Coordinator
  • 1x Central System Controller
  • 66x Electromechanical Hull Sheeting
  • 4x Emergent Combat Analyzer
  • 1x Emergent Combat Intelligence
  • 1x Fused Nanomechanical Engines
  • 4x Heuristic Self Assemblers
  • 4x Melted Nanoribbons
  • 42x Modified Fluid Router
  • 18x Neural Network Analyzer
  • 2x Neurovisual Input Matrix
  • 16x Powdered C-540
  • 31x Sleeper Data Library
8x Lost Sleeper Artifact:
  • 1x Wrecked Armor Nanobot
  • 3x Wrecked Electromechanical Component
  • 3x Wrecked Thruster Sections
  • 1x Wrecked Weapon Subroutines

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Radar - Unsecured Perimeter Transponder Farm

NOTE: Mileage may vary

Spawn 1
  • 1x Emergent Patroller
  • 2x Emergent Escort (Spawn)
  • 3x Awakened Patroller
Spawn 2
  • 4x Awakened Patroller (Spawn)
  • 1x Awakened Watchman
  • 2x Emergent Escort
Spawn 3
  • 1x Sleepless Patroller
  • 4x Emergent Escort (Spawn)
  • 4x Emergent Patroller
Spawn 4
  • 4x Emergent Escort
  • 5x Awakened Patroller
  • 3x Awakened Escort
Salvage:
  • 1x Cartesian Temporal Coordinator
  • 112x Electromechanical Hull Sheeting
  • 2x Fused Nanomechanical Engines
  • 2x Heuristic Self Assemblers
  • 5x Melted Nanoribbons
  • 51x Modified Fluid Router
  • 36x Neural Network Analyzer
  • 14x Neurovisual Input Matrix
  • 33x Powdered C-540
  • 2x Resonance Calibration Matrix
  • 39x Sleeper Data Library
5x Ejected Sleeper Databank:
  • 2x Amarr Hybrid Tech Decryptor
  • 1x Gallente Hybrid Tech Decryptor
  • 2x Minmatar Hybrid Tech Decryptor
  • 3x Datacore Electronic Subsystems Engineering
  • 14x Datacore Offensive Subsystems Engineering

The EVE Wormhole Mongolian BBQ

Theme for the day: I am your density
(OK, that dates me - who get's the line?)


So it is settled - the nomadic, Mongolian WH style will be the strategy. Clean the system out, then move on to a neighboring system (rather than waiting for respawns). There are many posts that hint at observations where respawns may occur regionally within connected WH's, but it is conjecture at this point - all I know is that my neighboring Class 2 WH, albeit without bonus effects, is packed with sites.

Tonight I packed up my POS, Hangar, and Ship Maintenance array and moved camp to a neighboring Class 2 system. The move turned out to be a harrowing ordeal, as for the first time, just as I was offlining my POS and unanchoring it, a High-Sec exit spawned and in comes some Tech2 NightHawks. As I tapped the proverbial toes, I scanned one down and followed it all over the WH - since my POS was on the very outskirts of the solar system, and because they concentrated scans on the inner-most rings, my POS was packed up and I was out of there just in time - I raced to get it onlined in the neighboring Class 2, re-hitting scan all the while to see if they would follow. Nope - everything safely moved and I even lucked upon a High-Sec exit in my new home, which allowed me to quickly fetch POS fuel - I now have 3 weeks of fuel and enough ammo to last a loooong time. Good thing, because...

The new WH system is absolutely brimming with sites:
  • 16x Perimeter Hangar
  • 18x Perimeter Checkpoint
  • 8x Ruins of Enclave Cohort 27
  • 3x Sleeper Data Sanctuary
  • 5x Radar (2x Perimeter Comms Relay, 3x Perimeter Transponder Farm
  • 2x Magnometric (Forgotten Perimeter Gateway)
  • 3x Ladar (Sizeable Perimeter Reservoir)
  • 2x Grav (1x Common Perimeter Deposit, 1x Unexceptional Frontier Deposit)
  • 2x Static WH (1x Class 4, 1x LowSec)
Check out the screenshot of my new home after scanning all the sites:



I am an ace on probing, but it still took nearly an hour to get all 12 sites. Time to BBQ some Sleepers!!!

I am going to begin to start posting the spawn info on all of these sites.

Fly safe (or reckless) and enjoy the holiday weekend!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Mongolian WH Trek...


I picked up a funny term as it relates to WH space on the Eve Forums today - the "mongolian" lifestyle, as it relates to continually moving to a neighboring WH once you deplete your "home" system, rather than sitting around waiting for site respawns. Based on what I have heard/read/seen, call me a mongol...

Radar sites after the patch v1.3.1...

Well, it appears that EVE, true to it's release notes, has definitely upped the proverbial ante on Radar and Mag sites in terms of can contents. I had a respawn of a Radar site tonight (Unsecured Perimeter Transponder Farm) and I am now going to have to update the Spawn info I have collected - the 3rd and 4th spawns were much larger than before - I had to warp out twice! I was so frantically repping and clearing that I did not have time to record the new spawns info...

NOTE: If you have to warp out, be sure to return quickly - it has been stated that the sites will despawn quickly.

However, once cleared, the salvage was fantastic with a much larger number of shipwrecks. Also, the cans produced an amazing volume of datacores and some decryptors:

  • 6x Datacore Electronic Subsystems Engineering
  • 3x Datacore Engineering Subsystems Engineering
  • 19x Datacore Defensive Subsystems Engineering
  • 23x Datacore Offensive Subsystems Engineering
  • 14x Datacore Propulsion Subsystems Engineering

Literally, the value of these alone would have been in excess of 400M ISK last Monday. In fact, the total haul, with Monday's recorded prices, would have been a total take of 440M ISK. However, being the free-market economy eve is, the market rates plummeted today to less than 25% of the prior day's value for datacores. As such, I sold off the salvage, which had retained the values, and kept the datacores and decryptors for a future date.

See the graph below - this is consistent for all datacores. Down From 10M ISK at the beginning of the month to ~5M ISK earlier this week, down to 300K today!!!




Side note - I have been hauling all of the salvage and datacores (which are lightweight) in my covert ops ship on these runs to market - this has saved my arse with its gate-camp busting MWD and Cloak tricks. I dodged two camps (one bubbled) on my run in the most recent Low-sec exit in Khanid en-route to Amarr.

Between the exploration revenue and the WH activities, my personal balance is now over 5B ISK, plus the ~500M ISK I keep in the corp wallet. My goal is 10B ISK by August...