EVE Online Wormholes

...And pushed out of Tenerifis

2011-09-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

As the focus of the Russian forces began to focus more on Detorid and then into Tenerifis, it became apparent that our Alliance would never be able to field a defense fleet capable of defending our Sov in Tenerifis. Most of the CTA's I participated in were with Imperial 0rder (IO), which later disbanded, eliminating the last bit of fun in the Region.

As such, the Alliance evac'd out to LowSec. Based on this and some other internal issues, the lion share of the active player corps have left the SI. alliance, and many have left SI Radio (EDGAR) altogether.

I have been roaming around LowSec and WSpace (and combinations of both) - a kind of wanderlust. Rolling the dice so to speak on where I land.

I definitely want to maintain a presence in Nullsec, but do not want to play Sov games for the time being. So, most of my wanderings have been in NPC Null. I lived in Great Wildlands with the Corp just before we moved to Tenerifis and I enjoyed it - never a shortage of target to shoot, so I may stick around NPC Null for a bit before I make any big corp jumps.

I have been considering joining some corp-mates that went to BSC Legion in Deklein, but no final decision on that yet...

I think the whole "DRF can control any/all of Null" aspect of the current EVE environment took more wind out of my sails than I initially considered. I have found myself not logging in for days or a week or more, and then only for a few minutes.

We will see where this goes...

Safe Flying

Pushed out of Detorid

2011-07-05T19:33:00.001-07:00

Well, we did not have to wait too long to see if there was going to be a real challenge to opportunistically capturing Sov in Detorid.

United Pod Service, RED.Legion, Waterboard and more have decided to purge Detorid. So, after all of that grinding to clear and take Sov, we just as quickly gave it up.

"We didn't want that space anyways" Lolol.

Of course we did, but the SOB-led coalition never really organized in a materially-effective manner, which made the process of kicking SOB out relatively easy (SOB did not even show up to defend critical strategic assets!?!?), which made the rest of Detorid fall like a proverbial house of cards.

Not sure what to make of SOB's efforts in Detorid. It looked at first like they were put in place to organize, parcel-out and defend Detorid, but things were so rushed that there was no real C&C put in place from the start, which made defending against large fleets nearly impossible. Imperial Order did a pretty good job of stepping into the SOB vacuum and trying to save Detorid, but I personally think that by the time IO really got involved, the momentum had already decided the fate of Detorid.

Learned a ton, including the need to quickly establish clear communications for joint CTA efforts and that in hindsight, a gradual expansion into Detorid may have been wiser, but it was sure fun.

It will be interesting to see just how far DRF and associates will push, and to what extent the coalition will do to either hold in Tenerifis or to push back into Detorid.

Regardless, it has been interesting and certainly more eventful than ever. I do pine for the days when things are more stable and we can do non-sov "good fights" rather than large fleet battles.

Fly Safe!?

Continued growth and expansion

2011-06-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since my last post about the war in Tenerifis to purge White Noise and being awarded the Tenerifis G3IP-E constellation for CTA participation and additional warfare.

As it turned out, the campaign pushed into Detorid, primarily with us, IO, SOB and EON waging battles deep into Detorid and maintaining a strong line at the border area between Tenerifis and Detorid. To be transparent, it was not like we had a ton of resistance, but we continued to put up good numbers and soon cleared sov on nearly all of the key systems and stations.

-A- placed SOB in charge of newly-captured Detorid, who then quickly awarded our alliance 5 constellations. As it stands currently, our alliance holds sov in PR-ACX, T875-C, MZ-PA2, 1RG-GU, and HOV-VI. We immediately shared with EON, giving them HOV and renting T875 to a very capable Alliance - TFA.

Just about the time where we began to grow weary of constant sov-bashing (akin to watching paint dry - Cyno to target system, shoot structure, lather-rinse-repeat), we finally started seeing signs of what we suspected would occur - challenges to certain systems and an increase in fun hostile encounters. There is some classic ping-pong sov action in the SOB-held south-eastern portions of Detorid, with plenty of CTAs to go kill SBUs, etc.

As we work together more, the Detorid coalition is beginning to function properly and it looks now that, short of DRF deciding to do something more than burn a few cornfields, the Detorid coalition + -A- will hold the region.

I hope things get back to "good fights" - everyone grows weary of structure bashing after a while. Looking forward to flying more with TFA and EON as the saga in Detorid continues to unfold.

Best laughs of the month: Taking Sov on the 3-LJW3 station system, getting hot-dropped and losing some internet spaceships, then naming the station "Hot-Drop O'Clock", after the timely line from the EVE Video series "Clear Skies".

Elbow room

2011-05-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Thought I would post an update on our NullSec efforts.

I would continue to consider our deployment to Tenerifis a great success, both monetarily and from an experience perspective. Also, we have grown tremendously. As of this post, we stand at an astounding 459 members, most of it coming from Rule of Five (plank-holder corporation in the alliance) and the welcome addition of BSC Legion.

Obviously, with this kind of alliance growth, comes the need for expansion into additional systems. As such, an opportunity arose in Tenerifis when -A- decided to push White Noise completely out of the region. Previously, WN owned mostly ratter and botting systems on the "Eastern" (Dotlan View) half of the region, basically everything from DZ6, east. This was also some our primary hunting grounds, with many juicy kills in DZ6 and up the pipe towards (and into) Detorid.

We knew from prior experience that to expand your sovereignty-holding space, you need to prove yourself by assisting in the CTA's (Call-to-Action operations) and even taking The Initiative (pun intended, see history of Tenerifis) to attack in advance of the main CTAs. So, we set out as an alliance to participate in as many Tenerifis/Detorid/Catch operations as possible. We had some good times and good kills in the process, and were very pleased with the alliance participation level. Nice to have large contingents of Capital and Supercapital pilots on-board the alliance now.

I think one of the best ops we took on was the cleansing of BW-WJ2, including their extremely well defended Jump Bridge POS and then their iHub and remaining system installations, all of which was completed solely by the alliance.

As a result of participating in the Tenerifis campaign, the alliance was awarded the G3IP-E constellation. With the recent anomaly nerf, these systems are not exactly the most prized systems in Tenerifis, but they will provide (with the direction of our experienced Moon-Goo techs) a considerable level of passive monthly alliance income. You can see our Tenerifis systems in this view of Dotlan (S1. Alliance).

No hard decisions yet on what (if any) iHub upgrades will go there, but certainly more room to scan for Wormholes and Signatures. Also, we will now have 3 rich ice mining systems to tap in addition to our premium mining systems. I am guessing we will upgrade one or more of those systems and rent out to one or more Industry corps looking to join the NullSec party! If interested, send Star Defender an Eve-Mail - guaranteed all the best ABC mining you will ever need...

My personal Eve Time has suffered from RL complications lately, so I am not online for extended durations lately, but I am still soaking up NullSec. Cannot imaging living in HighSec again...

Looong Blog Hiatus

2011-02-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

Wow, has it really been 6 months since my last post?

With the move to NullSec and thus the end of my wormhole days came the end of my frequent postings and musings about WSpace, but I continue to learn something new every day in NullSec.

The obvious question is obvious: Do I continue to post about what I am learning in NullSec in a blog created specifically to capture WSpace experiences?

After some thought, the answer is no. I would rather keep this blog for capturing future Wormhole-Fu as a part of my corporation's practices on accessing and draining high-end C5/C6 WSpace from our NullSec base of operations. However, with our recent relocation to Tenerifis, our WSpace Ops are on pause until we get fully settled. The WSpace fleet is ready to go, awaiting the dust to proverbially settle.

If I had not said this before, here it is: I love NullSec. The resources are rich (depending of course WHERE you are in NullSec), there is always PvP available, and you have no limitations on trying new things.

List of new things I have been doing in NullSec:

Moon Goo Harvesting
Extensive PI (most of nullsec PI resources are on par with WSpace)
Heavy Interdictor (Onyx) Piloting
ECM (Blackbird) Piloting
Bomber Piloting
All-things Sovereignty - e.g Defensive systems (like cyno jamming), iHub Upgrades, Station Upgrades
Diplomacy - e.g. establishing Blue/NAP/NSP/Supplier relationships with local and regional corps/alliances
Logistics (the Carrier/Jump Freighter kind, not the PvP kind)
Fattening my Wallet again
Growing Star Defender's toon to be an effective PvP pilot

Check out last night's tasty 1.3 Billion ISK Cynabal kill.

I will continue posting here about direct Wspace experiences (and indirect regarding small fleet best practices) once we resume our WSpace "Incursions"...

Until then...Fly Safe!

Roam Scouting - Part 1 (Initial Assessments)

2010-08-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

I am still a n00b PvP'er. Let's get that straight up front. But, in the interest of sharing learnings to date, here are some observations about being an effective scout when you are a part of small (or large) roaming gang out looking for a fight in NullSec.

If you are a lead scout, your FC (Fleet Commander) is going to have a plan to move you along an ever-advancing tide that is your gang. Your role can mostly be summarized by the following responsibilities:

Initial Assessment: Report hostile counts and ship types as soon as possible upon entering into the "next" system.
Risk Assessment: Evaluate pilot traffic in a system containing hostiles to ascertain whether there is a hostile fleet enroute to intercept or otherwise compromise your own fleet
Target Acquisition: Locate possible targets of opportunity and create a warp-in point for fleet action, when applicable

In this first post, I am going to focus on the initial assessment.

This basically consists of a combination of evaluating local and using DScan to identify probable ship types.

The Local part is easy. If you are NBSI (Not blue shoot it) then you take a quick count of all pilots that are neutral or worse and quickly report the count to your FC.

In parallel, you are performing a Dscan at 360 degrees with max range to get a first look at ship types in-system and reporting them to the FC. In larger systems (e.g. systems where distance between your location and the farthest celestials is greater than 14AU), this may mean flying to other parts of the system to effectively canvas the system with DScan.

In systems where there are no Player-owned-stations (POS), this is much easier, as the only ships flying about are occupied and active. In cases with one or more POS's, you can run into a situation where more ships appear in Dscan than there are in Local, as there are ships left unpiloted within the warm confines of the POS bubble that still appear in DScan. Obviously, cloaked hostiles are not shown in DScan either, so the quick, initial assessment is either a confident: "4 Hostiles: 2 Vaga, a Muni and Caracal" or soft: "4 Hostiles: shiptypes unknown, possible targets on dscan include..."

If you have more time (edging upon target acquisition here), you can quickly identify POS locations, warp to 100km and identify unoccupied ships and mentally remove them from the DScan tally.

Typically, immediately upon entering a new system and while getting to a safe location (or cloaking), I will do a max DScan and give an initial report on total (Local) hostiles count and probable shiptypes, then quickly perform a directed DScan (30 degree or less) at the gates within the system to quickly see if there are any ships at the gates, which typically sounds something like: "4 Hostiles, probable 2x Vaga, Muni, Caracal" then about 10-15 seconds later: "2 Vaga on xxx gate, 1 on yyy gate".

The initial assessment needs to be fast and as accurate as possible - remember the FC is going to make fast decisions on fleet movement based on your reports - it could be the difference between a good kill or a substantial fleet loss if you get it wrong...

I will post about risk assessment in the next post.

Fly Safe (or not...)

SIR Recruiting opens in September

2010-08-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

Whether you have spent months or years in NullSec or are thinking about trying out Null for the first time, there is a good opportunity to join a fun crew in the heart of Providence when our recruitment re-opens in September.

An early Corp post is here, but I wanted to mention a few personal observations about life in H-K. First off, I will refer back to my post on one of my toons finally getting started in PvP - I have the taste for it now, and let me tell you, it sticks. All I ever seem to want to do now is set up a camp or participate in a roam or protect the H-K pocket against hostiles.

Now that I have been to NullSec, it is actually hard to see myself ever returning to Concord space. I really enjoyed past years in LowSec and profited greatly from WSpace, but getting involved in NullSec was one of the best moves I have made.

I have a vested interest in growing our US Timezone membership (I am west coast/Seattle), so if you have any questions or have an interest, feel free to EveMail or convo LightTraveler or Star Defender.

T3 and Logistics-capable pilots are likely going to get a preferred look, based on the fact that the bulk of the corp ISK will be made in Class 4+ Wormhole daytrips, so if you are growing weary of WSpace colonization but enjoy the rewards of WSpace, you will enjoy taking down REAL sleepers in these higher-class sleeper territories...

However, that may not be a critical requirement - final details on recruitment and minimum skills will unfold when we officially open recruitment.

My favorite new ship - Blackbird. Scripted to permajam from 120km, I am loving this ship. It is arguably the ugliest damn ship in Eve, but it continues to be effective in camps and saving my bacon.

Fly Safe (or not...)

Summer in EVE

2010-08-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

This time last year I was just renewing my excitement and activity level in EVE and was just a couple of months into WSpace. I had just found out that the Apocrypha release was everything I had hoped for, and more. I was posting to the blog almost daily, and was raking in the ISK and enjoying T3 production along with building up from a small POS to a Large, well-defended POS.

What a difference a year makes!

Like may, the time in Wspace, specifically the daily need to check on everything, led to a need to take a break from WSpace, which also allowed me to reflect on why I grew tired of the demands of WSpace, which soon became a trend and ultimately planted the seed for my move to Provi.

This summer, although I have been pretty happy in Provi and with my new corpmates, I have found that my EVE time has dropped precipitously. Based on what I can see from fellow corpies and other corps, this is fairly common in the summer.

The problem is that it is a sort of compounding function. For those times where I am amped up about getting online, I login only to find that there is nothing happening - no roams/camps/fleets of any kind, at least in my (US) timezone. Same goes for a lot of other pilots in other corps, at least generally speaking. I am guessing the larger corps and alliances maintain momentum all through the summer.

However, skill training continues and I am quickly draining my skill queue lists for various efforts, from PvP to Cap-ship training. Both my main and alt toons are nearing the 35M SP level, and the compliment of ships I can now fly is growing exponentially.

There was a good post by my fellow corp member Agatir on Provi, so no need to replicate.

My favorite activity of late is to use my near-perfect skilled EWAR jamming setup in small fleets - I really enjoy these outings and enjoy massive range, especially with range scripts. That, and continuing to act as forward or rear scout on roams. In between these (for now, rare) corp ops, I am running Sansha anoms, typically Havens and Sanctums.

Fly Safe! (or not...)

LightTraveler grows fangs

2010-07-14T16:23:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I have posted, particularly because I felt like I did not have anything new or informative to share.

However, as several blog followers and also corp-mates have mentioned recently: "What do you mean you have nothing to share? What about your new NullSec and PvP experiences?".

Well, although it may certainly not be informative, it would nonetheless be a chronicle of my experience in nullsec/Providence. So, here is a quick update on all-things Provi (while trying hard not to give up any sensitive info).

As most know by now, I have joined up with my long-time WSpace friends and allies over at SI Radio Corp/Planet Risk. We are located in Providence, specifically in the H-K4WA constellation. We have a unique relationship there with NOIR., and reside in the pocket with the LSS Alliance.

We are a large enough corp to essentially field a squad 24/7, which allows us to defend the pocket and make regional roams around Provi. For a NullSec n00b like me, that has meant diving head-first into PvP, an area where I am untested.

My first experience in Provi was simply to get settled in and get everything I felt I needed/wanted down in Provi relocated from HighSec. The first lesson learned, as in real life, don't overpack. If you are going to join a Nullsec corp that provides ships and fittings for Ops, then you probably do NOT need to bring every ship in your personal arsenal. I simply brought down a CovOps, a Drake, and Domi, and a Viator. I also constructed one of my Tengu kits once I got down there. My biggest mistake was bringing a good portion of my invention and production goods - we already have ample industrialists in the corp, and essentially anything you need, you corp mail the request to have it baked.

Once I got settled, the first thing I did was make 3 safespots in every system in the HK pocket, the "pipeline" to Mista, and the surrounding Provi systems.

Next, I simply began running local anom's in the pocket, as we were trying to max out our military index. Plenty of ISK in NullSec to be made on running NPC sites, especially when you get your system index up to max and you can run top-end, respawning sites over...and over...and over, etc. We also get wormhole spawns, which are quickly capitalized upon and squeezed for max possible ISK extraction ;-P

I was in the pocket maybe for a week when I felt the pull of PvP. Every time a neutral enter the pocket, the local Intel channels lit up and small squads were formed to nail the intruder(s). It was obvious that most of the regional veterans had a well-practiced protocol, with pre-assigned roles, ships, etc.

I really wanted to participate, but thought I could add little value. That is until I realized I could immediately join as a scout. With all of my covert ops skills and practiced hand at dodging gatecamps and cloak-warp trickery, I began asking to join SI Radio and NOIR. roams as a scout. I quickly began learning the vernacular and protocol of joining fleets and stepping into a role. I participated more and more as the pilot that gets sent several systems ahead of the roam to report back intel to the fleet. It was an easy fit to be the slippery pilot that can avoid getting killed while scanning down potential targets and reporting back to the fleet.

However, reporting intel successfully also means that you are also not getting in on the battles (and of course killmails). I would occasionally be in a position to watch the battles unfold, but with no offensive or defensive capabilities, I could not get in directly on the action. Thus began my PvP skill training crash course. My main and Alt began a new skill training regiment. One for tackling skills, the other as an EWAR master.

Roll forward 2 months and I have now participated in more than 2 dozen roams and ops, and have been able to continue to add value as a scout, but I have begun introducing my favorite ship of the moment - the trusty Rifter, in some of the more recent ops. I have even managed to collect a perfect record of 7 Kills, 0 Losses! I attribute the perfect score to PURE LUCK as and/or simply not being important or expensive enough to bother targeting. Lolz.

But LightTraveler has been officially blooded, and he likes it...immensely. I get it now. I can now at least understand all of those pilots that flame the industrialists for not embracing Eve for what they see as the only thing to do in Eve: Kill, attack, pillage. It is certainly a rush, getting that lock, webbing and warp scrambling the target, even catching the pod and sending the pilot to his next clone. I still think that Eve is more than just PvP, but now that I have (finally) tasted that aspect of Eve, I can certainly say I have been missing out on a lot of fun. Until now...

Shout out to my corp-mates for helping LT grow fangs and taste the blood of the enemy...

Fly Safe?!?!

PI: KSpace versus WSpace Planet Yields

2010-07-01T09:53:00.001-07:00

I have surveyed more than 300 planets in HighSec and LowSec to date, and have recently been surveying the WSpace's that have been spawning out of the Provi area.

Although there are some obvious increases in resource yields when you dive deeper into LowSec, the increase is nothing when compared to the increase in resource yields you see in most WH systems.

For the more abundant resources, there is certainly no lack of supply in LowSec or WSpace. So talking specifically about the rarest resources (Felsic Magma, Reactive Gas, and Autotrophs), of the last 10 or so WH systems I have surveyed, at least 6 of them have seen amazing yields for these rare resources. I have begun measuring resource availability on a rough percentage scale when viewing Planet Mode in the scan tab, where you are looking at the horizontal resource bars. Most High and LowSec Lava planets, for example, show Felsic Magma in the 0-20% range. The last 4 WSpace lava planets I have surveyed have consistently had in excess of 60%. We actually had a Class 3 Wspace open this week that had every planet, including 2 temperate and 2 Lava. This system had Felsic, Reactive, and Autotrophs over 75%.

If not for the fact that the C3 system had only a single static to NullSec, it would have been the most ideal PI system I have seen to date.

Bottom Line: it clearly looks to me like WSpace is the best location for PI. You do not even need a POS. Drop in a scanning Alt and a Hauler Alt, either one skilled for PI, and you can configure your resource chains for maintenance every 2-3 days.

Fly Safe!

Final EVE Planetary Interaction Products

2010-05-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Some good posts on the eve (pun intended) of the Tyrannis release regarding How-To's, Video demonstrations, etc., but I thought I would re-post what I thought was the most important information: The final list of products that can be made with PI (reference and adapted from Eve University Wiki on PI):

POS Fuels

Not actually manufactured, but an intermediate planetary product. Usable immediately as POS fuel

Coolant
Enriched Uranium
Mechanical Parts
Oxygen
Robotics

T2 parts

Most T2 manufacturing uses a PI good. Mainly P2 and P3.

Construction Blocks
Consumer Electronics
Transmitter
Guidance Systems
Robotics
Miniature Electronics
Super Conductor

Miscellaneous

Created with Blueprint and PI products

Nanite Repair Paste

Sovereignty Structures

Created with Blueprints and P4 products.

Infrastructure Hub
Sovereignty Blockade Unit
Territorial Claim Unit

Starbase Structures

Created with Blueprints and P4 products.

Assembly Array
Control Towers
Corporate Hangar Array
Cynosural Generator Array
Cynosural System Jammer
Electronic Warfare Batteries
Energy Neutralizing Array
Hybrid Turret Batteries
Jump Bridges
Laser Turret Batteries
Missile Batteries
Mobile Laboratory
Moon Harvesting Array
Projectile Turret Batteries
Reactors
Refining Arrays
Shield Hardening Arrays
Ship Maintenance Arrays
Silos
System Scanning Arrays

Settling in (in Provi)

2010-05-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, my WSpace posts have dried up lately. That is primarily due to the fact that I have been helping the corp prepare for WSpace operations out of our new base in Providence. Although we have not begun running full fleet ops yet, I have managed to be opportunistic to regional Class 3 WH's popping up from time to time and "day tripping" in to run a few sites.

My big surprise the other day running a Class 3 with a corpmate was the relatively normal Melted Nano drop rate but the extremely high "Blue Salvage" (e.g. NPC Buy Order salvage) - it amounted to 3x the total yield from T3 sleeper salvage. I had not heard of changes in drop rates, so I will chalk it up to pure chance for now.

For those interested, this is my first foray into a "large" (50+) member corp. This is also my first venture into being based out of Null-sec. As such, learning about regional Intelligence channels, joining roams, avoiding roaming hostile gangs, etc. has quickly become commonplace, and I am enjoying it immensely. Getting used to communicating on Vent is also new, and has spurred some funny exchanges with Mrs. Star Defender.

Wormhole Ops starting soon(tm)...

Fly Safe

EVE Parodies, by Luminus Aardokay of SI Radio

2010-05-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

OK, I do not often get the chance on this blog to post about truly gut-busting, hilarious examples of how creative and ingenious some pilots can be. So it is with great pleasure to provide, for your guaranteed amusement, the link to the following EVE Parodies. My favorite is the one posted today, entitled:

"Bye CVA"

Link to post: [Oh my Pod] Parody songs that will make your pod crack

Fly Safe!

Yep, consolidating sucks

2010-04-26T14:01:00.000-07:00

I think I have found one particular EVE function that I dislike even more than mining - consolidating.

How I keep ending up with various ships and fittings and ammo and loot all over the various reaches of EVE is intriguing. Although random exits from WSpace is obvious, I typically make sure I complete my run(s) to market or quickly grab an exit in the next day or two to "clean up". But still, I have various crap in hangars at no less that 40 stations!

I would love to clear up my Assets view - there must be some skill to be learned to be able to remotely issue "Trash It" to countless stations???

I managed to hand over my most recent WSpace to a reader (Free!) and that turned out to be good karma, as they also bought the entirety of my Large POS package (Over 1B ISK, including fuel). This saved them some ISK (I charged less than NPC/Jita) and saved me a bunch of time transporting to Jita for sale. Best of luck to the new owners of my WSpace kit...

That being said, I am all set for my move to Provi, including transferring my EXPLI and GSTN corps to alts and dropping roles in advance of joining my new brethren.

Fly Safe!

All packed up

2010-04-23T01:09:00.000-07:00

I was able to dismantle the large POS deployment tonight and managed to hit a nice HighSec exit to The Forge region via my adjoining system. Everything was nicely uneventful and everything is at a HighSec base, 4 jumps from Jita.

Plan is to sell off all of the POS gear, including the Refineries, Hangars, Arrays, all defenses, and even the Hybrid Reactions gear. I will not be needing any of that in Provi (for now at least). Quite a bit of POS gear I have managed to collect over the last year.

Many people have asked and yes, I will still be running WSpace sites and posting to this blog about future WSpace experiences, albeit mostly C5 and C6 now and with the SI Radio team out of NullSec in a true "Mongolian" (aka Raiding Party) format.

Looking forward to getting set up - more soon...

Fly Safe

Semi-final CCP quote on PI Outputs

2010-04-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Quoting from the discussion thread on the latest PI update from CCP:

CCP Soundwave: "The end rewards will come off the NPC market. Basically you'll be able to build POS structures, sov structures, POS fuel (the NPC seeded parts), T2 components (the NPC seeded parts again), station components and nanite repair paste. Might be forgetting something, but that's it I think."

I think the most surprising element here is Station Components, POS Structures and Sovereignty Structures. We already had a good indication in Nanite paste, POS Fuel and T2 Components - very pleased to see that there are more substantive structures that can be built from PI.

Shout out to Planet Risk and their Season Finale Podcast - looking forward to roaming together in Provi! If you are a WSpace dweller and have not heard about what happened to Planet Risk, you need to read and listen... Especially the piece on how the Orca got bounced from the POS and establishing an exit plan.

QP and Lum - loved the NOIR commercial BTW Lolz.

Fly Safe!

Moving to NullSec

2010-04-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

As soon as I get a good exit I am going to dismantle my Wspace POS and restage myself in NullSec.

With Dominion's Nullsec upgrades dictating rental agreements in NullSec constellations and with the upcoming Tyrannis release, and with my long-time desire to check out NullSec, I found myself thinking more about Ratting, Plexing, W-Space, and Industry from the deep reaches of Eve.

So, I am all set to sublet from a not-so-secret new sovereignty holder in nullsec that is renting a constellation. I will provide more details soon, but my biggest fear in this move is getting set up out there and then finding 500 other renters squabbling over the constellation resources ;-)

My main goal is to work with other renters and the owning alliance to procure upgrades for ratting and plexing and take a break from WSpace again. I will continue to opportunistically search for the next ideal WSpace, albeit from NullSec.

Will be interesting to see what kind of WH's spawn from NullSec - although I have heard the majority are C5+, I am eager to see if the constellation-WH model is really true and whether less-accessed C2-C4 WH's are accessible from NullSec.

Otherwise, I will be setting up shop "somewhere in Providence" and maybe starting making some use of my BPO library...

Fly Safe!

What do you do while mining?

2010-04-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

I have not been loading grid on my statics for the past 3 days and true to form, there had not been a single jump in my Wspace for that entire time. That has allowed me to mine Arkanor in peace.

As you may have read throughout this blog, I am not a miner.

Regardless, I did train up for the occasional lack of anything else to do in WSpace and got my Covetor and T2 mining crystal skills maxed. So, I spent some idle time mining Arkanor. It wasn't that bad...as long as I was doing a few other things like inventory on my BPO collection, chatting with other pilots, and reviewing the latest updates on Sisi regarding PI.

I guess that is what full-time miners do to pass the time while your mining lasers are cycling?

Please comment on what you do while mining (and keep it PG please).

I also managed to get some WSpace chores done this morning.

A rare inbound K162 opened this morning that was nicely located near my K-Space base of operations, so I got both of my max cargo Itty V's running laps and got nearly 30,000 Arkanor plus about 750M ISK worth of loot out of my WSpace to the local station. Next time I am in KSpace I will either sell the Arkanor directly or get it to my base with 100% refine and sell the minerals.

Feels good to have all of that safely into a highsec station.

I also took the opportunity to refuel, so I am again back up to 30+ days of POS fuel.

Last night the adjoining system was unoccupied and Dotlan showed narry a single jump in 48 hours. There were 14 Sigs and over 20 sleeper sites, so I scanned down and ran the radar and mag sites before I had to logoff for the night. Hate leaving so many riches behind (exit closed overnight), but I still managed to get a pile of MNRs, datacores, and various wrecked parts.

So believe it or not, there are STILL some unoccupied C2's out there! For the record, that empty C2 system had a single static to LowSec.

Fly Safe!

Neighboring Loot and Deep Safe Nerf confirmed

2010-04-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

After quickly replacing my trusty Domi, it was back to business. I had some nice spawns in adjoining systems via my static, including some juicy radar and mag sites.

I have had a nice run of derelict talocan ships from which the hull's are derived over the past week or so - Managed to salvage 11 of these, which breaks my record for even a packed system.

Dotlan showed I had some light traffic in my system while I was at work, but it looks like they only partially worked a Sleeper Data Sanctuary site, as the left the last 2 Sleeper BS's for me to finish up.

Plenty of Grav sites are newly spawned in my system, so if things get really scarce, I can always mine ABC's.

I was late in noticing what most of you likely already saw officially reported by CCP on the Deep Safe Nerf that will coincide with the Taranis release. I had posted previously on the Sisi observations that surmised as much. So get your ships out of those 1000AU safe spots!

I saw some good counter-posts regarding what the heck cap ships and titans will do - I think Mule captures my sentiment.

Fly Safe!

EVE and Taxes do not mix

2010-04-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Expensive night, and learned another EVE lesson...Do not try to finish your taxes while your system contains hostiles.

I was getting a bit of traffic through my HighSec static and after chasing off a prober, decided to start closing it. NOTE: I use my Rokh and Domi to close WH's. They are the two largest mass ships I have.

Well, I got the WH to critical, but just as my Rokh comes back into WSpace, a HAC and Raven lock and bubble me. OK, I think I can maybe work this - I get my Alt Domi to warp in and take a shot at this now 2-on-2.

But...First problem - my Rokh is still fitted for Mining. Yes, mining. Before I was skilled up for Covetor, I mined in WSpace with my Rokh. As anyone can read in Halada's Mining Guides, Rokh is a good option if you cannot fly a mining barge. So, once my Domi warps in, I deploy ECM drones.

Second problem - another Raven and HAC uncloak. OK, now I am in trouble. I am bubbled, webbed, and cannot seem to lock the HAC. In short, Main and Alt podded back to Kspace.

So, I lost my Domi and my Rokh. That Rokh I have had for nearly 2 years and I only keep around for WH closing, since I am flying a Covetor now for Mining. So although costly, it was cost incurred ages ago and do not really count it. The Domi is just a pain to refit. Well under 100M to replace, including fittings.

I expect the losses from time to time, but when you get caught with proverbial pants down, you just want to kick yourself.

Regardless, this system has made me a cool billion ISK, so no real loss, but I get miffed when I have to spend an hour refitting.

Worst thing I did? I told the intruder earlier that he better exit the system because I was closing the hole. Just enough info for him to exit, go get a small fleet together and return for an easy catch coming into/out of the hole.

Thus, I am done being the Wspace nice guy - no more quaint warnings or free passes. Instant aggression from now on.

Luckily I always maintain current exit/entrance bookmarks and even if that fails, I always have a scanning alt in-system.

Flying now to get my main back in while I replace the Domi.

(edit - was actually a HIC and two Ravens - chalk it up to fog of battle. Also, back in system with Main and Alt - in-system scan alts are a good thing...)

Fly Safe (and smart)

System Cleared, Hitting Adjoining WSpace

2010-04-05T09:30:00.001-07:00

Did not take long to clear all the sleeper and ladar sites. For the first time in WSpace I broke out my new Covetor, fitted with T2 Crystals. After the initial 5 minutes of "OK, I am actually mining Arkanor in WSpace", I remembered why I never really liked mining. So after about 10K of Arkanor and some Crokite for Hybrid Reactions, I decided to check out the adjoining system.

The adjoining system was (surprisingly) vacant. There were 7 sleeper sites and a ton of ladar and grav, but no Radar sites. I cleared the sleeper sites and decided enough for the night.

Although I have had a few jump-throughs in terms of system traffic, I have not really had any true hostile traffic to date. I also managed to jump out through my static HighSec and get some additional Mechanical Parts - either I left some in my hangar in the staging base or overlooked the fact that I was short (5 days left) - so the thing I can see I like already with a system with a static HighSec is truly enjoying the benefits of ready access to materials. Most of my WSpace homes have been "deep" C2/C3 and this is my first hole with a static to HighSec. A scant 10 minutes and I was back with the missing fuel and some other misc. items.

So, in terms of loot value I am somewhere around 750M for this system, but I will be keeping the MNR's, etc for T3 production. I will likely run the other/NPC loot to market tonight.

I should continue to mention the process of wormhole exit management, which is a good part of the reason I have maintained a quiet environment here in this system.

Fly Safe!

Back in W-Space

2010-04-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well, when luck simply hot-drops an unoccupied, Anomaly-rich C2 a mere 1 High-Sec jump from your base of operations, and you happen to have your entire POS fitting (including a month of fuel) staged and ready to go for such circumstances, it makes it comparatively easy to pull the trigger and move in 250,000m3 worth of POS gear and get it all setup.

So, I now find myself in a nice little C2 with 2 static exits to HighSec and another C2.

The WH entrance was a HighSec R943. A lookup on the dotlan wspace system traffic page for the system J# showed a scant 4 jumps in the last 24 hours and one sleeper killed. With all of the sites here, I consider that to likely be a newer pilot day-tripping it.

There is evidence of prior inhabitants in what looks like the remains of a small POS - there are a handful of small, damaged guns from a 1-pilot corp, but no POS. Looks like someone got knocked out. With no ship kills on dotlan and based on the number of spawned sites, whatever happened must not have happened recently.

With a static HighSec, I am fitting my full Large Hardened POS configuration. I expect visitors, even with good exit management.

It will take a few days of active effort to clear the sites. There are also 3 Grav sites and a Ladar site. One thing that does stand out are two of the Grav sites, which are "Uncommon Core Deposit" sites - these are typically found in higher-class wspace systems and are rich in high-end ABCs.

Might be a short stay, or long...we will see. Time will tell.

Fly Safe!

Planetary Interaction for Wspace (POS Fuels!)

2010-03-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

A little more information leaking out from pilots grinding on Sisi since the latest patch there. In my last post, I only had a chance to look at the new graphics. After reading up on some posts, I thought I would share the information that was of most interest to me (typically) as a WSpace resident.

If the production chains on Sisi remain stable to Tyrannis, I am pretty excited to see that the NPC-supplied fuels (e.g. some of the key POS fuel elements) are included in PI:

Coolant
Enriched Uranium
Mechanical Parts
Oxygen

Kudos to SYXGeek for grinding through all production paths and compiling this list of materials that can be produced in the current PI build on Sisi.

Now if only there were Ice Belts in Wspace...

Fly Safe

Updated Planetary Interaction

2010-03-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

Looks like a new build was deployed to Sisi, and with it came some updates to PI, including...

New graphics for planet-type-specific Command Centers:

...and planet-specific extractors:

...Processors:

...and Storage Facilities:

(The new launcher is the same as the cube-shaped extractor above for now)

Looks like surveying for resources and most of the functionality previously there in the last build in terms of creating a supply chain is broken, but I dig the new graphics... Call me easy to please.

Fly Safe!

Struggling to get back into EVE

2010-03-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share some introspection...

My experience with EVE has now spanned several years, and in that time I have seen my weekly play time vary substantially, peaking at some ridiculous levels back in January, where I would estimate I was playing as much as 35 hours per week. That led to RL impact and a complete burn-out.

Following a brief hiatus, I resumed with some T3 production, including deployment of a HighSec POS and billions of ISK in transaction volume. I basically ended up flooding the subsystem market for a brief period and actually influenced a downward price trend in some specific subsystems. As such, I halted my T3 production and took down the HighSec POS.

Since then, I have dabbled in evaluating the upcoming Tyrannis release on Sisi and have been keeping up with the blogosphere readings, but simply cannot get any kind of focus on EVE. I put a few hours into roaming my old LowSec plexing stomping grounds, but that territory is now rife with Faction Warfare fleets and effectively unsafe for plexing. I keep logging in, scan and visit a few regional W-spaces, deciding I don't really feel like doing anything specific, and logging off.

I was even going to join friends out at Planet Risk, but got side-tracked with some RL events. That is the most likely prospect for near-future.

I loved the recent post by Letrange RE: EVE being like Hotel California - "you can check out, but you can never leave" - very apt.

My senses tell me there will be some trigger-event that will get me back into EVE... Wonder what it will be. Completion of some critical skills (almost have carriers completed), Tyrannis release, or stumbling upon a pristine and packed W-Space? Time will tell...

Fly Safe!

Poseidon Deep Safes to be nerfed?

2010-03-18T12:35:00.001-07:00

It appears that a fix is in the works to potentially fix a number of exploits relating to logoff, and although the Poseidon method of creating an ultra-deep safe is not specifically targeted, it nonetheless appears that ultra-deep safes will no longer be feasible.

Make those 1,000 AU deep safe spots while you can...

Fly Safe!

Seattle EVE Meet

2010-03-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

After reading Letrange's recent post on their semi-regular meet, I am proposing a Seattle Meet - I know of at least 5 players here locally and would be fun to jabber over a few beers and some stick about EVE.

Thinking April 3rd at Belltown Billiards - any interest out there fellow Emerald City pilots?

edit: Just discovered the channel "TheSound" - all Washington State pilots.

Fly Safe.

Planetary Interaction - Deposits and Link Capacities

2010-03-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

OK, I am back from NYC and see that there has been a lot of new information regarding Sisi testing of the new Planetary Command Center (PCC) and the related production line elements for Planetary Interaction (PI) in the upcoming Tyrannis release.

In the last post on PCC's, I linked the EVE University video, which looks at a simple production line. After reading the Sisi test forum on PI, it seems that, like any RL production chain, you will have to deal with supply chain management. Resources are harvested at different rates depending on the deposit from which you are extracting (e.g. each deposit extracts a specific amount at a specific cycle time, which varies for each deposit) and the route amount specified when connecting a route between an extractor and a Storage Facility or Processor dictates utilization rate of the route.

Each selectable Deposit factors into a specific m3/hour. In many cases, the Deposit yield rate is less than the default Link limit of 10,000 m3/hour. However, richer deposits can exceed that rate and you will get an error when attempting to establish a new route between the "rich deposit" extractor and your Storage Facility or Processor:

In these cases, you have two options: you can either reduce the Quantity specified when you establish the route OR you can upgrade the link to allow for a greater capacity.

The default level has a Logistical Capacity to 10,000 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level I ("Local") increases the Logistical Capacity to 15,000 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level II ("Basic") increases the Logistical Capacity to 22,500 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level III ("Standard") increases the Logistical Capacity to 33,750 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level IV ("Improved") increases the Logistical Capacity to 50,625 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level V ("Fast") increases the Logistical Capacity to 75,937 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level VI ("Expedited") increases the Logistical Capacity to 113,906 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level VII ("Express") increases the Logistical Capacity to 170,859 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level VIII ("Advanced") increases the Logistical Capacity to 256,289 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level IX ("State of the Art") increases the Logistical Capacity to 384,433 m3 per hour.
The Link Upgrade to Level X ("Experimental") increases the Logistical Capacity to 576,650 m3 per hour.

Considering I have only found two Deposits that exceed the default, but only needed a Link upgrade to Level I, I can surmise that eventually the scanning interface will allow you to identify "monstrous" deposits worthy of significant upgrades to your links.

Below is a simple production line that produces Aluminum Nitrade, which would be considered a supply chain element (as a required input to Create Aluminum Nitrade Paste, and ultimately combined with other lines to generate Nanite Repair Paste, see below). The top-most Storage Facility stores the Aluminum Nitrade, which would later be connected as an input source to another Chemical plant to generate Nitrade Paste:

(Aluminum Nitrade Production Line)

To put it all in context, the full production line for Nanite Repair Paste (a necessary NullSec resource), with the above supply-chain identified in red, can be seen below:

Why is all of this in a Wormhole Blog and why am I blogging about it? Because PI is going to also function in W-Space, where I can effectively oversee production on multiple planets and use exit management to manage traffic through my enterprise!

edit: Please note that even CCP has stated that everything we are seeing on Sisi in terms of what is extracted, built and launched is just for example flows and that the final products produced from PI will likely be different, so don't go selling off your Nanite Repair Paste operation.

Fly Safe!

Planetary Command Center

2010-03-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

Been reading the rare bits of information regarding the plans for planetary interaction with the upcoming summer release of Tyrannis and thought I would see what they put up on Sisi (aka Singularity), the test server.

First thing I noticed was a new highest-order market category for "Planetary Infrastructure", which has a single item, the "Planetary Command Center" (herein referred to as the PCC). I headed off a few jumps to pick up a few and see what I could sleuth out.

It seems you do not actually deploy this PCC like a POS, as there is no "deploy for corp" option. Instead, I figured out that you warp-to a planet, right-click it, and there is a menu option for "View in Planet Mode" - hmmm, that is new...try it.

OK, now we are in Planet Mode.

I can see a list of things on the left and a filter placeholder. Nothing actionable except for "Satellite Status", which toggles a Scanning box, which is currently non-functional. Assumption is that you can ultimately position the box over a specific area of the planet, scan, and get a readout on the available resources for that planetary region...

Closed the scanner.

Looks like there is a right-click context menu over the planet, which includes Build... options:

So I choose the PCC and sure enough, one goes from my cargo bay to the planet. PCC Deployed! I click on the PCC "Chevron" and a new window appears - I review the mouse-over hints for the different actions: Links, Storage, Decommission, {Build Structure}, and Launch. Clicking the Build Structure button gives us a list of extractors and processors to build, identical to the above "Build..." context menu:

Since the satellite scan is not functional, I consider the fact that this is a temperate planet, with both water and land, so I choose a Water Distillation Plant and "Build", and click over nearby Ocean - a new chevron appears - I click it and I get a new popup to replace the PCC window and it has options for Links and Products. I click Products and..."No Products Present".

OK, try all of the extractors...FAIL.

(To be continued...Flying to NYC)

edit: Actually got to my hotel tonight in NYC and had a chance to read a few blog posts, including CK's post that has a link to an EVE University video on the remaining steps.

The Mighty Dreadnoughts

2010-03-01T13:37:00.000-08:00

With my pilot training for T3 (Tengu and Proteus) to Level 5 completed, I began to consider what is next for Star Defender, my Caldari main toon. I have longer-term visions (too early to call them "plans") for Class 6 (waves at Quiv) and NullSec.

As a Caldari, he is max-skilled at all-things related to missile and shields, and I have all sentry and drone skills to max. I also have Caldari BS to max as well as a host of supporting skills relating to optimizing CPU and Power for fittings. At just over 25M skill points, I have a lot of ground covered.

That left a major fork in the proverbial road for either going "small" (Frigate/HAC PvP training) or for going big (Dread). I am edging towards going big. I have never been a big fan of carriers, but I REALLY like the looks of the Amarr Revelation.

Most of my reading to date has seen the Revelation highly recommended for a number of reasons, but to me I think it ultimately comes down to what ship I like the most, minus what ships simply do not make sense. With my max skilled drone and sentry skills, however, and with a similarly max-skilled Gallente toon (LightTraveler), the Moros is also appealing.

Although Caldari-trained, I think I am talking myself out of the Phoenix - so many comments and writings (even from current Phoenix pilots) that said if they could do it all over again they would never choose the Phoenix, although it's tank rocks.

Looking for some feedback here. I have plenty of time to make a decision, with the non-racial (e.g. common skills) to get out of the way first.

Love this video by the way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPeb547pis0

Fly Safe!

The Expanded EVE Online Blog Pack

2010-03-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

CK has expanded the BlogPack!

I continue to see new, great blogs being written, many of which I have been adding to my blogroll list, but it looks like most of them also made it into the EVE Blog Pack, which I think serves as a great resource for exploring the wealth of writing in this community.

Be sure to check out some of the new additions - some great In and Out of Character blogs out there...

CrazyKinux's Musing: The New, Improved and Expanded EVE Online Blog Pack

And thank you to those of you that continue to find my humble writings interesting enough to follow and comment!

Fly Safe!

W-Space Colonization Longevity

2010-02-28T22:21:00.000-08:00

After talking with more than a dozen pilots that have been in W-space for 3 months or more, it is interesting to see a trend developing, whereby more than half of them are either out of W-space already or plan to exit W-space within the next 2 weeks.

Most cite the fact that their previously juicy recurring static exits are simply populated and farmed out, which means they find themselves going for days (or in some cases weeks) without much to do, having farmed out their local system.

The others simply fall into my own line of experience, where the constant commitment to maintaining the W-space POS, even with a good small team, becomes a little too demanding of their time and they find themselves in need of scaling back.

Regardless, it can certainly be said that W-Space remains lucrative, if not demanding. And, choice of system is by far the most important element of longer-term colonization.

Also noteworthy is that the bulk of this feedback is coming from C1 - C3 dwellers. The handful of C4 - C6 dwellers I know are quite happy and content with their operations, which I attribute to (a) larger corp presence with less demands on time, e.g. sharing the load and (b) less populated adjoining statics, which means a good consistent supply of sites.

Anyone else have some thoughts?

(edit: Additions below based on comments):

It appears that a key driver for many that are primarily mining as their key source of income have the added downside of the mineral price issues, with typically high-end ores yielding less than low-end ores. Mining always was a tough way to earn a buck...

A great post by Kename Fin at Our EVE, and I have added this blog to the list - glad you posted Kename, nice blog! (And I saw your Dark Star reference - one of my long-time cult favorites. Can you say "Bomb, this is Lt. Doolittle. You are *not* to detonate in the bomb bay. I repeat, you are NOT to detonate in the bomb bay!")

And here Minuit adds some reflection on Time Demands in WH Space. Good post!

Fly Safe!

Star Defender's WTB List

2010-02-26T18:27:00.001-08:00

OK, per the recent post, I will be maintaining this page to identify what I need in terms of production inventory, in case there are fellow pilots out there looking to earn a slightly better yield than Jita prices at more convenient drop points.

Updated: February 28, 2010

WTB:

0 Melted Nanoribbons (minimum contract 30)
0 Carbon-86 Epoxy Resin (minimum contract 100)
0 Scandium Metallofullerene (minimum contract 100)

All stocked for the moment. Next update expected March 2nd.

Eve-Mail me @ Star Defender to contract.

Fly Safe

I want your Melted Nanoribbons

2010-02-26T18:10:00.000-08:00

OK, In less than 24 hours I have burned through my stock of 400 MNRs.

That means that I am ready to extend the offer I previously convo'd to many of my fellow W-Space dwellers that I am prepared to offer a premium over daily Jita prices for materials, such as MNR's.

Why? Well, I hate waiting for (and managing) market buy orders to fill and think that there is a mutually-beneficial solution here for trusted partners. I get to maintain an inventory with direct suppliers and the suppliers get two things: (1) a premium over standing buy orders in Jita and (2) option to drop the loot at convenient (to both of us) system locations, meaning not necessarily the growingly treacherous Jita run.

For example, as I type, the current standing Jita buy order for MNR's is 5,110,408. If you contacted me for an MNR offload today, I would offer 5,300,000. I will probably settle on a fixed premium over Jita buy orders somewhere between 3-5%. If your current exit is 20 jumps from Jita, we will mutually agree upon a good system for you to put up a personal contract for the loot.

Obviously this does not apply to those of you with the patience and cashflow to post Sell Orders at higher yields, but in my experience it was never worth it to invest the time in constant market order manipulation to eek out an extra 2% margin and as a result I would always take the quick and easy market sell.

As my other stocks diminish, I will maintain this page that will specifically identify what I need, when, and how much.

Hope you are all having a good time in W-Space and may your spawns be frequent and lucrative!

Fly Safe!

T3 Production Resumes! (In High-Sec)

2010-02-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

Huh?

OK, I am back in the proverbial saddle!

The interesting angle here is that I am continuing with T3 production, but NOT in W-space. I have setup a Large hardened POS in HighSec for Reverse Engineering, Component and Subsystem construction.

Why?

Well because it is easier to run my productions from a HighSec POS than a C1 W-Space first off, and with my only real concern being an expensive (on their part) war-dec, I would not lose all that much if it were to fall - I will only be maintaining the bare essentials in the POS, and with my standings and skills with a nearby faction starbase, I do not even have to move my BPOs into the POS for any other Research or Manufacturing.

Comparatively, if I was managing my complete T3 production chain in W-space, literally everything is at risk and W-space POS maintenance is a hassle. That is, of course if you have sufficient standings to put up a HighSec POS, which based on my prior missioning was not a problem.

I will continue to make trips into W-Space, including the occasional Medium POS deployment if I stumble upon a packed system and want to camp there for a while, but essentially my experience has netted a decision to no longer maintain a persistent POS home in W-space.

The only thing I cannot do from my HighSec POS in terms of T3 production is the Hybrid Reactions. However, I reacted enough materials whilst in W-space to last about 10 years - the only market runs I need now are for the Carbon-86 and C3-FTM Acid elements, which I never reacted previously because those source gases do no occur in C3 or less W-space.

So, the story continues, albeit not consisting solely of W-Space!

Fly Safe!

Red Frog Freight Service

2010-02-06T16:06:00.000-08:00

I had heard of Red Frog Freight Service nearly a year ago from another pilot that was using the service for POS refueling and consolidation of their corp hangars. So, since I had recently pulled out of Wspace and my entire POS portfolio was (albeit in a single location) far away from my desired base of operations, I decided to look up Red Frog and get a better idea of how it worked and what the freight services would cost.

Much to my surprise, it was dirt-cheap and nearly instantaneous. I had more than 3 Billion ISK worth of POS fittings, ships, fuel, supplies, and loot that I wanted to relocate 26 jumps to my "permanent" base in Lonetrek.

With a max m3 of 860,000 m3 per contract and a max collateral of 1B ISK, this actually worked out perfectly divided into 3 separate contracts. The process was pretty simple - divide up the ships and cargo to no more than 860,000 m3 per batch and then create a courier contract for each batch.

I had a couple of "comfort" questions I posted to their channel in terms of how the process worked, but within 36 hours, all 3 contracts were completed and the total cost to move this immense amount of equipment was....wait for it...less than 29M ISK. Yes, for under 30M ISK, I saved myself roughly 47 52-jump round-trip efforts in max-rigged Iteron V. That spells more than 2,400 total jumps that I did not have to grind, nor sweat out the prospect of HighSec ganking considering the cargo value.

To say that I found this service invaluable would be a gross understatement. I actually ended up tipping the three pilots that completed the contracts an additional 10M ISK per pilot just because I though the value was so high and the cost was so low.

As I mentioned above, they also offer HighSec POS Refueling contracts - something I will be considering heavily in the coming weeks.

Hats-off to Red Frog Freight Service, their great service, and impeccable results (success rate at 99.9%).

Fly Safe!♦

More love bestowed on my Viator

2010-02-01T21:28:00.001-08:00

OK, so the last station to clear out was in Dal, which is a LowSec system next door to the border system of Anamake - a notoriously rough place to be in an industrial...

With some heavy tonnage worth of goods (all sorts of POS fittings, most each in excess of 4,000m3), this was not a job for the Helios. However, my base was nearly 16 jumps away, and I did not want to run 11 full round-trips. So, I devised a plan whereby I parked my two Itty 5's in HighSec just outside of the border to LowSec, then sent my Viator in for the relatively short 4 trips each way to essentially ferry out the expensive goods.

So, although there were camps in both Anamake and Dal, I made 11 round trips, through both camps coming and going each trip, and got all of the goods out to HighSec. Once there, I simply loaded it all up in the Itty's and the main and alt transported it all back to my staging system.

FYI - I had scouted the 2 gate camps and was relatively confident that they were not fitting smart bombs, which essentially allowed me to go ahead and proceed with the Viator plan.

Like I said in an earlier post - I am beginning to enjoy my Viator - all the benefits of a Covops, but with an actual cargohold.

Fly Safe!

Google Analytics Stats

2010-02-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

Wensley at Rifter Drifter recently posted his Google Stats, which drove me to check my stats for the first time in over a year! Very interesting to see your traffic distribution, sources of traffic, etc. As such, here is a quick recap and at the bottom, my thoughts...

January GA Stats:

General:

49,486 Views on 21,247 Unique Visitors
40.82% new visitors in January
Avg Time on site is 2:51

Geo:

40% US
11% UK
9% Canada
6% Germany
5% Aussies
2.7% Netherlands
2% each for Sweden, Denmark, France, Poland
...then 77 other countries under 1%
Iceland (CCP!) at 0.33%

Traffic Sources:

65% Search Engines - Nearly all Google, where are Yahoo! (.03%) and Bing! (0%)?
Top keywords were all about "eve wormhole" and close variants combined at 17% of searches, the rest being names of sleeper sites
19% Direct Traffic
16% Referring Sites - Facebook (6%), scrapheap-challenge.com (2.65%), crazykinux (1.96%), Mynxee/lifeinlowsec.blogspot.com (1%), long list of others at under 1%.

Consolidation

2010-02-01T09:39:00.001-08:00

Similar to the last time I stepped out of WSpace for a short stint, it provides an opportunity to go round-up salvage and other materials that were dropped off at K-space exit points over the course of the last several months.

Typically, these drops take place because I have always maintained the belief that you should never store billions of ISK worth of loot in your W-space POS. In cases where there was not a convenient path to market or simply did not have the time, I had about a dozen locations that needed to be consolidated.

So, I spent some time over the weekend while reading up on global news to fly my Viator and Itty 5 around EVE to get everything back to my new staging base. Mission accomplished - amazing to see what you end up stockpiling. I have over 300 Melted Nano's and datacores in the thousands. Plenty of goods for reverse engineering and T3 production.

I had also amassed an amazing amount of W-space gases that there was frankly no need to react into component materials - I have enough component materials to last to the next ice age and will likely be selling off my hybrid reactions setup. That leaves a LOT of C-70/72/60/84 gas that I will likely take directly to market.

I have been enjoying the reports from the D-GTMI front - I especially enjoyed Manasi's posts and pictures.

Fly Safe!

What I am NOT doing

2010-01-29T13:54:00.000-08:00

Well, even with just my first 12 hours in 3 months outside of W-space, I can attest to what a difference POS maintenance in W-Space represents in term of EVE commitments.

As such, here is a list of things that I will not be doing daily:

Logging in from work 3-4 times per day to check on T3 jobs, starting new reactions, component jobs and subsystem jobs, and making sure there are no recent POS attacks.
Logging in nightly for 3+ hours to scan any new exits, clear any new spawns, and evaluate adjoining exits for safety/closure.
Constantly monitoring fuel reserves for rare HighSec refueling opportunities
Not stressing over whether or not I cleared all possible sleeper sites before another pilot does

All of this ties into my recent post on the demands of W-Space colonization - a "must-read" IMHO.

Fly Safe!

Exiting W-Space

2010-01-28T14:23:00.001-08:00

A rare and convenient HighSec exit opened yesterday and I had logged on just in time to get about 75% of the transport effort completed before downtime for the Dominion patch.

I had a handful of subsystem assembly jobs remaining anyways, so today I logged in from work and spent the 90 seconds needed to kick those off. Once I get a chance to login tonight I will be taking down the remaining POS structures and evaluate the best LowSec exit to take everything out. Hopefully another nice HighSec exit opens, but it had been close to a month prior to this recent HighSec exit...

So, although I found some great neighbors in a really nice C2 with the right static exits, I need to take a short break from W-space. I will continue my T3 production in the near future, and will likely just spend some intermittent time on getting my Caldari toon's Gallente standings back up to avoid future mishaps. I will likely leave the scanning alt in-system just in case I have a hard time finding a good home in the future.

Not a true hiatus from Eve, just turning down the volume to catch my proverbial breath.

Fly Safe!

Blockade Runner Transports == WIN

2010-01-24T21:43:00.000-08:00

So after my previous thrashing while attempting to transport some goods out of Jita, I took the friendly advice given by some readers here and picked up a blockade runner Viator, fitted for CovOps cloaking.

With these transports, you can choose a type that provide bonuses towards hitpoints (HP) and Warp Strength (ex: Occator) or to fitting a Covops (Viator). Since I am max skilled already for CovOps ability, I went for the Viator.

Although the Occator-style blockade runner transport is meant to increase armor and warp strength for staying power in HighSec (i.e. to outlast the ganker), after seeing the ships being used in the latest gankfests (Uedama, Perimeter, etc.), I am not really all that sure that the improved armor tank would last long enough.

With the Covert Ops Cloaking Device, which allows you to warp while cloaked, you are essentially getting Helios-like gatecamp busting in a Transport.

My trip to market today saw huge gank-camps in the usual keyhole system of Uedama and the main entrypoints to Jita (Urlen, Perimeter). But I was able to skirt past the gankers. I did have to shake a follower by pausing briefly in Haatomo 100km off a station, otherwise the trip was nicely uneventful.

Back to completing some T3 subsystem manufacturing and then likely pulling out of WSpace for a short stint.

Fly Safe!

New Neighbors

2010-01-22T19:59:00.000-08:00

In a case of intriguing coincidence - last night I happened to be chatting with Mick online and we were discussing the 7 untouched Grav Sites in my system. We agreed that I should warp-to-cancel on all of them to trigger a faster respawn cycle.

Just as I was wrapping up with Mick and prepping to do so, I get a convo request from a Mining corp in an adjoining C2. They were salivating over all the tonnage of untouched Frontier Grav sites and were asking if a peaceful mining corp could join me in the system. After a little deliberation, I agreed (much to the chagrin of some nameless others who thought otherwise ;-P).

Risky, but as always I look at how to expand horizons in this game. Although there was a perfect gank opportunity, I actually looked forward to getting a neighbor and watched dscan and combat probed for any traffic while they moved in. A pretty efficient move I must say, and they had their POS, Orca, Hulks, Covetors, and all the rest of their ships all stowed away in just under 3 hours.

I volunteer when available to clear the token sleeper presence when they take on the next grav site, just so they do not have to swap out ships. I actually got a kick out of fleeting up tonight just to warp out to their operation to see what a large mining fleet looks like - have never seen one "live".

Talk about 'Roid PWNAGE! Below are some pics (corp and names anonymous by request) - and one funny comment from the crew once I told them to smile and look nice for the camera: "Dohh! You should have let us bring out the Hulks!" - they were even nice enough to pose the Orca on the field for a quick screenshot as well.

Bottom Line - actually good to see the yield being generated out of the Gravs - if you read this blog you are familiar with my typical banter on how much ISK is being left on the proverbial table...

As always, Fly Safe!

EVE Grids and WH Exit management

2010-01-18T22:32:00.000-08:00

A couple of pilots and I have been comparing notes on static exits that have not been "loaded" or "have not loaded their grid". Essentially what this means is, knowing I have 2 static exits, I scan the location of the exits, bookmark them, but do not warp-to the exit (not even warp and stop).

What we have collectively seen is that these exits do not abide by their otherwise-mandated lifespan (i.e. Max Stable Time). For example, my static LowSec Exit, an A239, should have a max lifetime of 24 hours. However, the A239 static exit has persisted in the same scanning location for nearly 3 days now, having not warped-to the location and by doing so loading the grid.

It appears that the exit timer does not really start until/unless you load the grid for that particular exit. It will eventually respawn elsewhere in your w-space, seemingly according to standard respawn conventions of 4-6 days.

This in itself does not really mean that much, but when you combine this fact with the circumstantial evidence that, by not loading the exit WH grid, the corresponding K162 it would otherwise be opening to another system is not actually occurring, then it becomes relevant. If there are no K162's and you have not loaded grid for the statics, then essentially it seems your W-space is marooned. Nothing keeping incoming K162's from forming, but if true, you need not worry about constantly closing that nasty nullsec static exit as long as you never load it's grid.

For example, using the dotlan maps to monitor my system traffic, I have identified that if no incoming K162's form AND if I never load the grids for the 2 static exits, I never get outside pilot traffic. I have only been accessing my static C2 lately and I close the exit once I am done working the adjoining system. In many days I can account for all of the dotlan jumps in my w-space based on my own jumps.

Continuing to gather data, but if true, it could simplify WH exit management.

Fly Safe!

BREAKING NEWS: All Jita Scams attributed to Spectre3353!

2010-01-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

Breaking news from EVE Online - the recent departure of Spectre3353 has been tied to the recent absence of literally all Jita scams! CCP sources who have recently posted about the complete drop in Jita scam activity have tied the recent trend to the recent decision by Spectre3353 to cease engaging in Jita scams (and EVE in general, for now...).

"What are all of the petition researchers going to do now?", questioned a CCP source that desired anonymity. He continues - "With the current volume drop of petitions stemming from this extreme drop-off in Jita scamming, we may have to literally sack some employees."

Although Spectre could not be reached for comment, he was rumored to be rolling in vast piles of ISK he recently acquired in Jita scams.

What the long-term impact of Jita local and CCP petition workers will be is currently unknown. All this pilot can say is "Hey, could you throw some of that ill-gotten ISK my way"...

NOTE: The entirety of this post is PURE FICTION and intended only to reference Spectre's recent departure contest and to wish him all the best in his GL and RL endeavors. I for one expect to see him back in action in under 3 months... ;-P

Fly Safe!

No emoragequit...

2010-01-17T20:10:00.000-08:00

I think I need to clarify something from the prior post - nowhere in the post was an emoragequit, and I laughed it off in local. I had already mentioned I was taking a break, which was prior to the gank. With the ISK in my wallet, 300M is not a real hit, just bitching about the lost effort.

Quick update - Already cleared Radar/Mag 9 sleeper sites in the adjoining system today - I may park a scanner alt there, as it appears to have C3, C5 and HighSec statics, which is extremely rare - either that or one of those exits is one of those equally rare Non-K162, Non-recurring exits. Regardless, there was an abandoned Small POS there with arrays anchored - if it is still unoccupied I will likely check it out soon. There are still over 30 regular sleeper sites remaining, so this system has not really seen recent action.

Other than running the 9 sites, today was really just spent checking into Eve every few hours to cycle through the next Refine batch. I wanted to refine all my ores before I transport out of here.

Fly Safe!

HighSec Ganked

2010-01-16T22:50:00.000-08:00

Yep, I saw all the signs - ship trailing for 8 jumps, lots of concord presence on the way to Jita, etc., a lock at the Jita station exit (likely a cargo scan?), but I still just stubbornly continued jumping systems enroute back to my W-space. Even with more than 20 Concord ships present at the Uedema gate from Ikao, all it took for my comparatively paper thin Iteron was a single gank ship (he popped within 5 seconds of me by Concord of course) and then watch as three others afterburner to my wreck - ganked and looted in less than 30 seconds. Efficient.

A first for me, after 2 years of Eve - and I actually had a VERY expensive cargo for T3 production, with over 300M ISK worth of production materials ganked plus the replacement cost of a max rigged Itty 5 (another 20M, plus the hassle...).

One post to local from me: "Lol, nice gank"

I try to convince myself it is just a game...and it is, but that is some serious effort down the drain. No crocodile tears, just a , , and even more reason to take a break.

Fly Safe!

Evaluating W-Space System Traffic

2010-01-16T19:22:00.000-08:00

I have begin using the DOTLAN maps site for some time now, but only recently became aware that these maps and system data had been extended to cover W-space systems as well. The syntax is simply:

http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/{systemid}

example: http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/J114055

I have found them to be invaluable in terms of assessing traffic to my own system when I have not been online and for evaluating adjoining systems to determine the resident's (if any) activity and timezone(s).

For example, if you look at a typical system (this happens to be my most recent adjoining system), you can see that although there is some recent jump activity (2 of the jumps were me), there has been very little sleeper site action.

This site happened to have a ton of sleeper sites and a VERY well defended and established POS with dual active hybrid reactions systems running. So obviously an incumbent, but one that does not necessarily seem interested in the sleeper sites, or at least not in the last few days.

With this information, I can determine with some level of confidence when the residents will be online/in-system and provide me a safer time-line for me to clear some sites while they are offline. It also provides a good indication of how "trafficked" the system is and may influence your decision on whether or not to close the WH to the system.

This system, for example, had a high jump count, so I assumed that it may have a HighSec exit - which it did.

Good to use all tools available!

Fly Safe!

The demands of W-Space Colonization

2010-01-14T12:49:00.000-08:00

I have seemingly reached a point in my W-Space experience where I can honestly say I need a break. After clearing this latest system and stockpiling an amazing amount of T3 materials, I am ready to leave W-space for a while.

The key issue here is that W-space life requires a nearly constant vigil on the POS and the W-space system. I suppose that goes for anyone maintaining an active POS, but in W-space, it is combined with a "use it or lose it" race to capitalize on all of the available resources before someone else does.

As a result, I found my EVE online time skyrocket recently from a relatively (in my terms) stable and reasonable 4-6 hours per week to an incredible 20-30 hours per week, mostly in the late night hours, but has also intruded into RL impact. This is simply not sustainable. Back when I was running LowSec exploration sites (ad before that, missioning), I could go for days without logging in and simply log time when convenient. Recently, I have felt chained to my W-space operation - not optimal.

So, I will be tearing down my W-space operation as soon as I can get a good exit and focus for a while on T3 production and continue to complete my max skills for mining (an area where I continue to leave a ton of ISK behind in the form of W-space Grav sites).

I will not be selling off the POS and fittings - I will return to W-space soon enough - just a needed break from the constant W-space POS vigil...

Fly Safe!

System Cleared

2010-01-14T12:36:00.001-08:00

Last night I finished the last of the sleeper sites and I must say, it was a chore. With nearly 60 sites originally, only a half-dozen were cleared by visitors when I was offline - this meant a LOT of grinding and a lot of valuable loot.

Enough so that I now stashed more than 250 Melted Nano's (and enough hybrid polymers to seemingly last years) stashed away in concord space for future T3 production. More on that in another post.

So for now, other than the 7 Grav sites that are literally untouched other than the roids I harvest to support hybrid reactions, my system is clear and further efforts will again focus on hitting the adjoining systems.

Funny story - as I was going back and running salvage (I typically clear 3-5 sites and then return with my Cormorant salvager for REALLY fast salvaging), I arrive at one site and see a Zephyr sitting there. My first thought - BAIT! So, I align to my base and target the Zephyr to see what happens - absolutely nothing... Obviously, said Zephyr pilot is AFK. A quick check of the pilot info shows that he is a member of a big Russian alliance, so I decide to cap me a Zephyr - I BM his location and return with a Drake that, unlike my Cormorant, actually has firepower.

For some reason, though, my Warp landed me 25km off target (yes, tackle FAIL), so I lock anyways and race with AB active to get into tackle range, firing missiles as I went. Apparently the first missile or two awoke the groggy pilot and he escaped with 50% structure. He had come in through a HighSec K162, which was quickly put into Verge of Collapse.

Also, a great string of Reverse Engineering successes to report on the actual BPCs I wanted! Always a bonus when you actually get desired T3 BPCs...

Fly Safe!

Reverse Engineering Success Probability

2010-01-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

I have had a lot of pilots ask about T3 production and variable costs involved. One of the first things about T3 production that people often overlook is the fact that only some subsystems are profitable for production (e.g. the materials cost is greater than the market value), and that the subsystems you can manufacture are dictated by the (randomized) outcome of your Reverse Engineering (RE) attempts.

Each applicable Relic has three types: Wrecked, Malfunctioning, and Intact. These three types are used to establish a "base probability" in the calculation on success rate (i.e. the percentage of attempts resulting in a subsystem BPC) and a predetermined production run count:

Wrecked relics have a base probability of 20% and a run count of 3.
Malfunctioning relics have a base probability of 30% and a run count of 10.
Intact relics have a base probability of 40% and a run count of 20.

The RE success probability is a factor of the base rate and your applicable skill levels in RE and associated datacores. Relics each have their own respective skill requirements, specific to the datacores required for RE. The higher the skill levels in the base Reverse Engineering and required data core skills, the higher the success probability.

The formula for RE success probability is:

success rate = base rate x [1 + reverse engineering skill level x 0.01] x [1 + (datacore 1 skill level + datacore 2 skill level) x 0.1]

As you can see, the skill level for Reverse Engineering is dramatically less important than the datacore skills. As such, I advise minimal required training on RE and max skilll levels on your datacore skills.

Here is a GoogleDoc link you can use to save locally to calculate your success probability.

As an example, if you skilled RE to 3 and both datacore skills to 3, then your success probabilities would be:

Wrecked: 32.96%
Malfunctioning: 49.44%
Intact: 65.92%

Taking the extra time to get just those datacore skills to 5 (leaving RE at 3) would be:

Wrecked: 41.2%
Malfunctioning: 61.8%
Intact: 82.4%

The actual RE job itself, if successful, will randomly produce any one of the four subsystems for that particular relic, which means you first cross your proverbial fingers that the RE job is successful, then again cross them that the desired BPC has resulted. I cannot count how many times I have cursed a successful RE job that provided me with a useless BPC!

FYI - Here is a great reference page for EVE Formulas

Safe Flying!

Quiet Night...

2010-01-11T22:41:00.000-08:00

In contrast to the last few sessions online, I was able to login tonight and simply confirm that there were no K162's, the system was vacant of hostiles, and I could just grind out the sleeper sites while running some T3 component manufacturing.

Cleared 22 sites tonight for a total of 96 Melted Nano's - pretty good yield on the market, but these are going towards T3...

Just about time to start bringing the subsytems to market - pretty excited about that, although I am keeping some select subsystems for my own...

Fly Safe!

Marooned in NullSec

2010-01-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

Well, in attempting to close a new K162 from NullSec, I managed to overestimate the remaining mass and got my Star Defender toon marooned all the way into deep, deep nullsec. F76-8Q to be exact.

Yes, in between my location and home was the largest battleground in Eve.

So, I chart a course around all of the heavy action and 43 jumps later, 39 of those in NullSec, I managed to squeak by 3 gatecamps that I can only say I survived because I was "going in the wrong direction" - all the gatecamps were on the destination side of my warps, not the entrypoints.

So, although I was in a Caldari Navy Raven (yes, I was going for BS mass on closing the exit and yes I was dumb enough to risk a 4ooM fit CNR for WH busting, I can hear it already...), I managed a few quick aligns to various stellar bodies and maintain a step ahead of some pursuers, and got lucky enough to make it back to HighSec. Whew!

Seeing that I had brought my trusty old CNR missioning ship out of the dust bin on a whim, I decided this was a great opportunity to park it back in friendly territory, then flew the rest of my way back to my current LowSec exit (another 42 jumps) in a shuttle.

Basically a wasted night of fying all over New Eden, but managed to get a very expensive ship back to safety and learned another lesson on W-space exit management.

Fly Safe!

The grass is greener...

2010-01-08T06:29:00.000-08:00

Today's C2 exit brought a surprise in the form of a packed system - so much here in fact (~60 sites) that I decided to move my entire base of operations into this adjoining system:

The move was long and complicated - long gone is the "Mongolian lifestyle" of hopping systems with my trusty little Small POS, Corp Hangar and Ship Maintenance Array. No, this was a 6-hour ordeal, even with twin, max-rigged Iteron 5's. With a month of fuel, all the defenses, the silos and other components for hybrid reactions, and subsystem construction, we are talking serious transport and logistics.

Turns out that this new system also contains static C2 and LowSec, so I lucked out and ended up in a new system and the same recurring exits. This system does not enjoy the shield regen bonuses my previous system had, however, which was noticeable when it came to clearing radar sites - I had to remote rep my Drake briefly for the first time in ages.

Ironically, just about the time I had finished up the move and was anchoring defenses, some visitors started coming through a new exit in my "old' system. I quickly acted to close the WH, but I could only get it to "Verge of collapse" as I did not know the remaining mass and did not want to risk leaving a ship on the other side.

Later, I found that a pilot had jumped through that critical WH (assuming it closed behind him/her) in a Helios and for some reason ran out of (or gasp! did not have) probes! I discovered the abandoned T2 Helios sitting right at the closed WH location - it also had heavy armor and structure damage, so not exactly sure what happened, but I now have a spare, fully fitted Helios... BTW - I love having the Ship Maintenance Array and the Corp Hangar. I simply swapped fittings on my alt for remote armor and remote hull repair and in less than 2 minutes I had a good-as-new second Helios.

All quiet now and I have cleared the 2 Radar and 8 of the sleeper sites. Will continue to clear while conditions are optimal (e.g. no visitors). Lots of sites to clear!

Fly Safe!

Podded!

2010-01-04T23:03:00.001-08:00

We break from our regularly scheduled W-Space post to bring you an update on LightTraveler, who was last seen traveling to his old-old base of operations in Hykanima to clear out some old BPO Copy Jobs that were restricting his Reverse Engineering capacity here in W-Space.

En-route to said system, he reported passing through the oft-camped Onnamon-Kinakka gateway to LowSec. These were, after all, his LowSec stomping grounds for close to a year immediately prior to the Great W-Space Migration. Never a problem with his trusty CovOps, he had no problem jumping through and Warp-Cloaking to avoid the substantial gatecamp presence.

After logging that he successfully cleared the BPO Jobs in Hykanima , he decided to clean up some year-old fittings, selling some locally and then dropping the rest into cargo, including some old skill books that had long since been trained - he planned on dropping by Jita to put them on market on the return route to the new LowSec exit that opened in Lonetrek. He was last seen in Kinakka evaluating the longer route around the camped gate or to cloak through. Seeing that he had done so dozens of time previously, he was cleared to proceed and attempted the jump.

However, a cascading failure of internal warp and cloaking system malfunctions led to the demise of LightTraveler's long-lived Helios and his pod. His last report was from his Clone base in Isinokka, where he was showering before taking a shuttle to his new Helios. His return to the new LowSec exit is imminent.

(OOC) Classic EVE - before I even exited warp I was podded. How I could have been locked, shot, ship destroyed, pod-locked, and then podded before I even exited warp is beyond me, but I tally it up to game mechanics and lag at the heavily camped gate. I convo'd one of the campers and wished him best of luck with the loot drop - probably 20-30M in fittings and skill books. Not so much as a ripple in the wallet to replace and refit the Helios - I even took the opportunity to go get a Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher this time, which was on the Xmas List! Side note: I considered briefly attempting to move some of my 1o0+ BPO's and countless BPCs collected at that station, but without a construction or T2 production plan, decided they were fine where they were... Good thing, although I would have never attempted a gatecamp party-crash with BPOs..

Fly Safe(r)!

Hey there, Nice W-Space Setup

2010-01-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

I toured the newly adjoining C2 this evening (just prior to my outing into K-Space that got me podded), and came upon a Russian corp POS. They were taking down a Ladar Site and not exactly being watchful (I toured the POS and Ship Scanned their Ladar ship at work and warped to 100km to convo).

I used the babelfish site within the In-Game Browser (IGB) to converse in broken Russian about how nicely laid out their POS setup looked, but too much of a language barrier. I closed the WH (well, on verge actually) and got on with my eventual podding.

Here is a good look at their layout (2x Hybrid Reaction sets, Subsystem Assembly, Large Assembly Array, multiple Corp Hangars and a Ship Maintenance Array, plus good defensive setup-not shown for their benefit, all METICULOUSLY anchored):

Upon returning LightTraveler to W-Space, now that the slots are opened up (I have max 4 jobs limit and 2 were consumed by a long-since completed BPO copy in K-Space) I resumed Reverse Engineering (RE) jobs.

Fly Safe! *(And curse lag)*

System traffic and reverse engineering

2010-01-01T19:31:00.001-08:00

After nearly 4 weeks of mostly just my two static exits, this evening the new year welcomed a total of 6 Exits!

In addition to the static LowSec and C2, I had 4 K162's: a nearly expired (timer) C2, a new C2 (abandoned small POS, decent amount of sites and sigs), a new N766 C5 (Unoccupied but recently farmed), and a nearly expired (timer) HighSec exit. By the next morning all but my static exits remained.

Also, my favorite wormhole info lookup site, eWormhole, is Gone! Looks like not enough donations to keep it afloat. I have updated the link to a different wormhole info source.

Based on other comments, I cleared all but 2 of my sleeper sites. Many pilots have suggested that retaining one or more anomalies may affect the respawn rate. I think the idea is bunk, but willing to give it a shot. The system certainly respawned much faster while I was on vacation. At least double the respawn rate as compared to when I am clearing the system daily...

Even with all of the K162's, I have yet to have any aggression against the POS. Let's hope that streak continues!

Finally had a chance to complete my Reverse Engineering spreadhseets and supply them with actual yield ratios. The findings were thus: The way to go is Intact Relics, although this approach is going to require a significant up-front investment, since intact relics are the domain of higher class W-space.

So, I have a stack of BPCs for the subsystems I want to build and all of the required elements, just waiting for a few skills to finish up.

Happy New year everyone, and Fly Safe!

Working the newly stocked system

2009-12-31T00:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

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:

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)
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!

2009-12-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

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"

2009-12-22T22:49:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-12-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-19T01:32:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-18T12:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-18T12:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-15T23:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-15T22:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-14T22:50:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T17:52:00.001-08:00

(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

2009-12-07T20:45:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-07T14:09:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-12-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-01T16:32:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

Warning - long post.

My daily W-space ritual:

Refresh all signatures
Bring all exits to verge of collapse (unless I need one to use for a run to market)
Begin clearing sites, Mag, and Radar.
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...

2009-11-29T23:28:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-28T23:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-18T13:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-17T19:52:00.001-08:00

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)

2009-11-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-14T20:32:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-11T09:24:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-11T01:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T22:22:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T08:58:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T00:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-31T18:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-22T20:15:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T11:15:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

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!