What I am NOT doing

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

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

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

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

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!

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...

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!