Now back in High Sec, both characters had left some minor assets across 4 stations in Esoteria, you never know when they will be useful or you end up on that side of the fence.
Started by scanning down any anomalies, and found several data and relic sites. ran all of these really easily, no real challenge, very little rewards, and some rude people that would turn up half way through and hack the cans you were not at..... Only the safety saved one imicus, and me from concord... Not good.
So I bounced around trying all the combat anomalies I could find... Some you would get to and find some one else already there, and the ones where I was there first, people were always turning up. Most warped away, but some hung around. I had no idea why they would want to until the next day, when, at the end of a Refuge, a serpentis commander turned up. Now I was using drones and running around picking up any loot and salvaging, 5 Hobgoblin II's were plenty good enough for them all. Next thing I knew, a yellow wreck on scan and the Omen was powering in towards it.
He had spotted it, locked it and shot it before my drones could get there.
Happy bunny I was not.
Now I knew why at least some hang around. let someone else do the site, and just shoot the most valuable ship on the field and saunter in to collect the loot. This specimen was in an NPC corp and probably never leaves High Sec. I spent 10 minutes raging and trying to work out an effective way to annoy this person. Short of getting several friends in catalysts and ganking him, I could not think of one.
I have his name, occasionally a locator agent will find him. Maybe, one day when I can organise it, there will be a messy death, followed by several more via Concord.... You know who you are.
This way of life lasted a few days, during which this was as exciting as it got. Then Marmite declared War! Again.
In my lunch break one day I sat and looked at Dotlan, and picked out several areas where I thought that I could go and camp for a week or two.
Loaded up blue print copies, assorted modules for mining and ratting into the Proteus and set off to have a look.
Now my criteria was simple. I was looking for a High Sec Island of at least 10 systems, isolated from the main high sec by at least 2 or three low sec systems. A bonus would also be a relatively simple access to Null sec space. I was working on the premise that Marmite and the scum that steal missions and anomalies would not want to risk their shiny ships in Low sec.
I started looking in Gallente space, and looked at Placid and Solitude as two areas the fit the bill well. Placid has a high sec Island of 10 systems surrounded mainly by faction warfare and a gate into Syndicate only 3 jumps away. Solitude has an 18 system island, much deeper into Low Sec. And to be honest 36 jumps instead of 12.
So Placid was the target. And From the map, I picked Osmallanais as the initial point, being 2 jumps away from 8 of the 9 remaining High Sec systems.
The trip there was largely routine, Low sec travel in a half decent ship is straight forward. Jump a gate, click jump on the destination gate and hit the cloak. Warp, rinse and repeat. Anything fast enough to lock you in the second before the cloak kicks in is usually too small to survive gate guns, and most Low Sec gate camps I met (2) seemed to be a couple of destroyers and the odd cruiser. They will probably also pause unless they have serious back up, as a combat fit Proteus could probably tank them until they died. Not that every Proteus is always optimally combat fit of course. Shoot one and see.....
The first High Sec system I hit in Placid was empty, and Huge... 172 AU between gates. Well not quiet empty. I counted 18 combat anomalies and a Ghost Site.
Great I thought, I will run the ghost site as soon as I refit. 2 jumps later arrived at the target station and unloaded and refit for Ghost sites, which basically means removing the scram and web and putting in an analyser and a cargo scanner. This system also had a Ghost Site and about twenty assorted combat ones.
Went straight out to the Ghost Site, High Sec ones are just the same set up as Null, 4 cans, you arrive in the middle. Locked all 4 and cargo scanned. First one had a Low grade Ascendancy Beta BPC. Brilliant! Powered towards and hacked it and opened the can.
Two of the remaining three also had an Alpha and a Delta BPC...
Powered to the closest, hacked and opened the can. Brilliant I thought, on to the third, and did the same.
Then I looked at my cargo hold.... Nothing.
I had not pressed the loot all button.
Quickly grabbed the last one, and powered back. Only 3 k to go when the rats blew the cans. I sat and took the damage and cursed. 2 BPC's. Gone. Repped up the armour, and calculated out the damage. Looks like the explosion did about 8,000 damage and the rats a further 3-4000 before resists kicked in. Enough to kill my shield and put me to 87% armour. Not bad at all.
Toured the 10 high sec systems and found and ran a total of 6 Ghost Sites. Actually ended up with 5 BPC's of implants and lots of Villiard Wheels and Research Tools.
Life will be good here, thinking that tomorrow I would buy the minerals for a PVE ship or just buy one.
Nearly all the people on at the same time as me looked to have a mining ship out. Hence the combat anomalies cluttering the place up.
Welcome To Placid.....
The Blog name is now a bit misleading. At this point I was intending to set up camp here as a high sec refuge from War Declarations and an Island of relaxation from Null Sec. I am hoping that Back-Water gets stronger, the directors and main players start playing Eve again and we go back to Null. I have still to do a ratting mission there....
John
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
Trolling Around
As time goes on Esoteria seems like an increasingly dodgy place to reside.
Darkness dropped Sov across 80+ systems, outside Esoteria these were nearly all taken straight away by Nulli or Northern Coalition or similar. In Esoteria, all but one ended up in friendly hands with Nulli getting and keeping one system. A couple of medium sized fights happened on some others, John spent two hours one evening flipping a station with a C0VEN gang, my 0.5% damage(aprox) was obviously crucial...
Yes, went back to roam the space lanes once more, different dynamic though, most of my friends that were on either were coming online as I was logging off or had been on for hours and occupied. So my play was nearly all solo exploration of data, relic sites and ducking into wormholes. That and avoiding 10-20 ship roams that seem to roll in and out of our sov space and surrounding areas.
A few key things then happened, My Corp lost a large number of members, nearly all to real life issues, and organised assaults on Legio structures started happening. Now these tended to happen in my off hours when I was collecting much needed beauty sleep. First the Jump Bridge was taken out, which effectively stopped mining, and then the odd POS or two was attacked.
A couple of corps then started to leave Legio, and we (Black Water) seemed to only be able to field 3-4 pilots, and these at different times. Not good.
I decided to follow the herd and bug out altogether from Null and back to high. I knew that real life would limit my play anyway for 2-3 weeks, and was not keen to wake up in a lost station. So hunted out a worm hole, stuck 4 expanded cargo holds on my proteus, filled up with anything small and expensive and hopped back to high sec.
Effectively, over the Easter Period, I set some long skill trains and went on holiday, thinking it may all turn around when I would get back.
On my return, much worse, the alliance channel greeted me with the big red words...
EVACUATE SOV
On top of this 3 of the 5 people still active in the corp left, 1 to Legio main corp, another to Faction Warfare and the third to a high sec manufacturing corp. I took a long look at where I was, what I would like to do and how I would like to play.
Very bitty I am afraid, as I write this about a week behind, and being on Holiday further complicated matters.
Darkness dropped Sov across 80+ systems, outside Esoteria these were nearly all taken straight away by Nulli or Northern Coalition or similar. In Esoteria, all but one ended up in friendly hands with Nulli getting and keeping one system. A couple of medium sized fights happened on some others, John spent two hours one evening flipping a station with a C0VEN gang, my 0.5% damage(aprox) was obviously crucial...
Yes, went back to roam the space lanes once more, different dynamic though, most of my friends that were on either were coming online as I was logging off or had been on for hours and occupied. So my play was nearly all solo exploration of data, relic sites and ducking into wormholes. That and avoiding 10-20 ship roams that seem to roll in and out of our sov space and surrounding areas.
A few key things then happened, My Corp lost a large number of members, nearly all to real life issues, and organised assaults on Legio structures started happening. Now these tended to happen in my off hours when I was collecting much needed beauty sleep. First the Jump Bridge was taken out, which effectively stopped mining, and then the odd POS or two was attacked.
A couple of corps then started to leave Legio, and we (Black Water) seemed to only be able to field 3-4 pilots, and these at different times. Not good.
I decided to follow the herd and bug out altogether from Null and back to high. I knew that real life would limit my play anyway for 2-3 weeks, and was not keen to wake up in a lost station. So hunted out a worm hole, stuck 4 expanded cargo holds on my proteus, filled up with anything small and expensive and hopped back to high sec.
Effectively, over the Easter Period, I set some long skill trains and went on holiday, thinking it may all turn around when I would get back.
On my return, much worse, the alliance channel greeted me with the big red words...
EVACUATE SOV
On top of this 3 of the 5 people still active in the corp left, 1 to Legio main corp, another to Faction Warfare and the third to a high sec manufacturing corp. I took a long look at where I was, what I would like to do and how I would like to play.
Very bitty I am afraid, as I write this about a week behind, and being on Holiday further complicated matters.
Friday, May 9, 2014
New Proteus
In a pod, in high and wondering what to do.
I had a few days off due to visiting relatives (who do not play eve) and so had put some thought in. I was only 4 jumps from Dodixie, and thus less than 10 from our high sec office.
Quick trip to Dodixie bought me another Proteus hull and then I dithered a bit about the fittings. At the end of the day I ended up slightly different from before, but not much.
Went to the High sec office to sort out all the junk that I had stashed there, and did a quick run in an Iteron V to Dodixie to sell loads. Now I was not thinking, and my Iteron V is so well fitted (5 expanded Cargo II) that I am stupid. No mids, no high and no rigs = Target. As I said, not thinking and stuck about 700 million worth of assorted junk in the hold.
Now, I am not completely STUPID, and sat at the controls rather than auto pilot all the way.
Even so I remember being a tiny bit nervous jumping into Botane and seeing 3 wrecks and 6 assorted ships on the gate. Luckily they could not have been paying attention and I reached Dodixie dock intact. Sold it all for slightly less than the book value, which is ok.
As I said before, I play for fun, I pay subscription, I have no need to make more ISK than I need to fund a ship replacement.This is quiet refreshing, as if I wish to do something that makes zero ISK for a week, then its no pressure.
Now Iterons, and any other industrials,
IT IS REALLY REALLY STUPID
to have no tank.... It is even worse to fill up with high value stuff and have no tank. The only thing I could have done worse, apart from an advert saying "Gank Me" in every system would have been to auto pilot.
I have seen elsewhere that a freighter should not have more than 1 billion in its hold to make ganking not profitable.
I have no idea on industrials (comments anyone), but as they can be killed by a decent Catalyst or two then they should not contain too much.
I have now fitted lots of shields, a warp core stab(you never know) and a pop gun in the turret slot. I have also made a mental note to not carry more than 100 million a trip.
You have to be realistic, however, and the next time I need it, I will have left it elsewhere and use a rubbish fit epithal as I cannot be bothered to get it.
The CEO logged in just before I left for the night, suggesting that I may want to move anything of value from Esoteria. Nothing had been said publicly, but was told that we would not be there long.
Ok I thought, there was a wormhole that went from our sov space to 5 jumps away. (The benefits of intel channels). I knew both end systems but had no book marks.
So nipped over and tracked it down, a C2 that appeared empty and unloved. Stuck all the bookmarks in Corp and took two industrials out of Null, all the BPC's and invention stuff, expensive spare modules and PI anyway.
I left a few big items, and stuck all the low level PI on the market, fitted out 3 cruisers and a destroyer as a stay behind and took the Proteus back.
Several other corp members began logging in and I passed on the info about the hole and they began using it to get their PVE dommi's out.
Every time I get PI sorted we seem to move......
The next few days I stuck a few BPO's into research, sorted all the stuff out in my hanger and did exactly 2 high sec missions. Level 2 ones, as that's where I was with the home mining station.
Hangers.
Personal hangers in a station, are to my neat little mind an utter nightmare.
I do a bit of everything. Some mining, some manufacturing, PVE, Exploration, Invention, Research, and very badly PVP.
As such I have bits of everything laying around.
I like a little order, and to this end bought a Station Vault BPO, and made lots of 10 run copies. Its one of those small number of BPO's that does not benefit from ME research. The materials do not seem to be reduced by anything.
Once built, you cannot move them unless you have a freighter, and then only when packaged. So be sure.
Once activated they have a capacity of 10 million m3 and can be named.
I tend to deploy a few at any station that I am going to operate from.
For me they tend to have the following names and contain what it says on the tin
Ammo
BP's
Meta 4 Modules
PI
Drones
Invention
Salvage
Tech 2
Minerals, Raw Ore, sub meta 4 modules and oddities tend to go in the main hanger. This is because you cannot refine, reprocess or use ore from a container. Admittedly you cannot use a BP or any Salvage from here either, but as I have lots of BP's and want them out of the way when looking for something. If I need to manufacture I move the BP and any salvage required to the main hanger.
I normally create the remaining two Vaults and sell on the market. If I buy all the minerals, a 10 run usually costs about 1.5 million to make, and the containers sell for between 100k and 5 million depending on location. High Sec seems to be about 4-500 k each on average, but as its awkward to transport then you can ask a million each and make a profit if you do not want a quick sale.
John
I had a few days off due to visiting relatives (who do not play eve) and so had put some thought in. I was only 4 jumps from Dodixie, and thus less than 10 from our high sec office.
Quick trip to Dodixie bought me another Proteus hull and then I dithered a bit about the fittings. At the end of the day I ended up slightly different from before, but not much.
Went to the High sec office to sort out all the junk that I had stashed there, and did a quick run in an Iteron V to Dodixie to sell loads. Now I was not thinking, and my Iteron V is so well fitted (5 expanded Cargo II) that I am stupid. No mids, no high and no rigs = Target. As I said, not thinking and stuck about 700 million worth of assorted junk in the hold.
Now, I am not completely STUPID, and sat at the controls rather than auto pilot all the way.
Even so I remember being a tiny bit nervous jumping into Botane and seeing 3 wrecks and 6 assorted ships on the gate. Luckily they could not have been paying attention and I reached Dodixie dock intact. Sold it all for slightly less than the book value, which is ok.
As I said before, I play for fun, I pay subscription, I have no need to make more ISK than I need to fund a ship replacement.This is quiet refreshing, as if I wish to do something that makes zero ISK for a week, then its no pressure.
Now Iterons, and any other industrials,
IT IS REALLY REALLY STUPID
to have no tank.... It is even worse to fill up with high value stuff and have no tank. The only thing I could have done worse, apart from an advert saying "Gank Me" in every system would have been to auto pilot.
I have seen elsewhere that a freighter should not have more than 1 billion in its hold to make ganking not profitable.
I have no idea on industrials (comments anyone), but as they can be killed by a decent Catalyst or two then they should not contain too much.
I have now fitted lots of shields, a warp core stab(you never know) and a pop gun in the turret slot. I have also made a mental note to not carry more than 100 million a trip.
You have to be realistic, however, and the next time I need it, I will have left it elsewhere and use a rubbish fit epithal as I cannot be bothered to get it.
The CEO logged in just before I left for the night, suggesting that I may want to move anything of value from Esoteria. Nothing had been said publicly, but was told that we would not be there long.
Ok I thought, there was a wormhole that went from our sov space to 5 jumps away. (The benefits of intel channels). I knew both end systems but had no book marks.
So nipped over and tracked it down, a C2 that appeared empty and unloved. Stuck all the bookmarks in Corp and took two industrials out of Null, all the BPC's and invention stuff, expensive spare modules and PI anyway.
I left a few big items, and stuck all the low level PI on the market, fitted out 3 cruisers and a destroyer as a stay behind and took the Proteus back.
Several other corp members began logging in and I passed on the info about the hole and they began using it to get their PVE dommi's out.
Every time I get PI sorted we seem to move......
The next few days I stuck a few BPO's into research, sorted all the stuff out in my hanger and did exactly 2 high sec missions. Level 2 ones, as that's where I was with the home mining station.
Hangers.
Personal hangers in a station, are to my neat little mind an utter nightmare.
I do a bit of everything. Some mining, some manufacturing, PVE, Exploration, Invention, Research, and very badly PVP.
As such I have bits of everything laying around.
I like a little order, and to this end bought a Station Vault BPO, and made lots of 10 run copies. Its one of those small number of BPO's that does not benefit from ME research. The materials do not seem to be reduced by anything.
Once built, you cannot move them unless you have a freighter, and then only when packaged. So be sure.
Once activated they have a capacity of 10 million m3 and can be named.
I tend to deploy a few at any station that I am going to operate from.
For me they tend to have the following names and contain what it says on the tin
Ammo
BP's
Meta 4 Modules
PI
Drones
Invention
Salvage
Tech 2
Minerals, Raw Ore, sub meta 4 modules and oddities tend to go in the main hanger. This is because you cannot refine, reprocess or use ore from a container. Admittedly you cannot use a BP or any Salvage from here either, but as I have lots of BP's and want them out of the way when looking for something. If I need to manufacture I move the BP and any salvage required to the main hanger.
I normally create the remaining two Vaults and sell on the market. If I buy all the minerals, a 10 run usually costs about 1.5 million to make, and the containers sell for between 100k and 5 million depending on location. High Sec seems to be about 4-500 k each on average, but as its awkward to transport then you can ask a million each and make a profit if you do not want a quick sale.
John
Caught in a Hole
Simple boredom, and the need for a high sec shopping trip lead me to go wormhole hunting. The first two holes that I found were nice and empty but dead ends, Active towers in each but no ships or signs of activity.
Then I found a nice C3 that had a C2 static. The C3 also had two visiting holes, one in deep low sec and one up to Cloud Ring in the north.
Again no sign of activity in the C3, 14 different sigs on scan, with 5 active towers suggested a certain lazyness on the part of the inhabitants. Anyway with the others checked I warped to the C2 static and went through.
From the hole a quick Dscan showed me an active tower and little else, but several planets were out of range. So bookmarked the hole and cloaked up and warped to the outer planet. Here found a tower and two ships, a Hawk and a Brutix. Were they on line? I narrowed down the location on Dscan and warped in at 50 for a look.
Both ships had pilots and both were in the pos shield. Fair enough I thought, maybe I should leave, but the hole (J111740) had a High and C3 static... So went and created a deep space safe, out of range of all but 1 planets(with no tower). Only 3 sigs not scanned, and I came through one, so I thought that I would quickly get the other 2, and 50-50 chance of the high sec hole.
Took less than a minute to get both pinpointed, so sucked the probes back in and warped to the nearest. Turned out it was the C3. So warped to the other at 20km. On landing I could see the Hawk in a tight fast orbit of the hole...
The Residents obviously spotted my exit hole (or my probes)and assumed there was at least one person in with them. Not good, so I warped to a planet 10 AU from my way back and hit narrow Dscan, A Brutix and a Legion... Even worse. So I created a new safe in Dscan of both and settled down to wait...
After my recent stay in a hole waiting to get home I honestly just wanted to leave, and try elsewhere. It was also gone midnight my time and I had to work the next day. After 10 mins noticed that the Hawk was going back and forth between the two and the Legion and Brutix had gone. Well from D scan anyway.
So I thought, well before they roll the hole I will get out, and waited until the Hawk was not on Dscan and warped to the C3 and home...
Or so I thought. Unluckily on landing on the other side, found the Hawk less than 1500 meters away... Not good what was worse however was 2 Legions and a Proteus sitting there....
Ok, I was 6k out from the hole, so had two choices, burn for the hole and go back or try and initiate warp and cloak really fast...
I chose the latter, and thought that I was home free, as I was just entering warp a scram came on from the hawk, and hit reality once more. I was not fast enough on the cloak either. Such is life. Kicked a couple of Hobgoblins and 3 EC300's out and set on the Hawk to give him something to think about and opened fire as well.
Started taking solid hits from the Proteus and cap was just running out, the Legions were neuting really well.
The Hawk was doing a really good job of killing my drones and speed tanking the blasters, but cap was my issue, very quickly the Legions were taking their toll. Right I thought jump back and try and shake them off.
I should also mention here that the webs from everyone had killed my speed to a massive 32 m/s so the slog back to the gate was painful, and I was in about half armour when I hit the gate.
My intent must have been obvious though as when I landed the Hawk was up and ready, and a couple of Proteus and a Tengu and the Brutix were waiting.
Again not fast enough to warp and cloak and the Hawk got the scram. He also got the rest of my hobgoblins for distraction, while I locked up one of the Proteus and started firing.
With the Brutix, Tengu and 2 Proteus shooting me the end was indeed nigh. So picked a planet to align to, said well done in Local and spammed the warp button. Pod escaped to the planet, and I immediately aligned and warped to the high sec hole... The Hawk pilot was on the ball and just landing at the same time as me, and starting to lock as I jumped though.
Kill mail link below.
My Dead Proteus
In high as planned, without ship which was not.
Learnings.
1. If they know you are there, be patient.
2. Assume that they may be waiting on the other side of the gate/hole. Not something I actually thought of, and my panicked response on the other side, I think helped me get caught.
3. Assault frigates are very hard to kill.
4. And quick to lock, quick enough that I assume some sort of sensor booster was involved.
5. Neuts, at least I do not have an active tank, but weapons, scram and webs still need cap. This is a real pain.
6. Not everyone on one side of the hole (Legions) jumped back to be with me at the end. I assume that they were polarised.
7. Should not have bothered probing once I saw the combat ships, should have just left. Would not in hindsight have been a good route back either.
8. Try and take one with you! Again in hindsight the Brutix (unless the Protei were really crap fit) was the weak point, and I should have hit him and kept hitting him until I died. Should have been able to at least killed his ship.
Good fight though. I was far from bored and gave me something to think about for days.
Then I found a nice C3 that had a C2 static. The C3 also had two visiting holes, one in deep low sec and one up to Cloud Ring in the north.
Again no sign of activity in the C3, 14 different sigs on scan, with 5 active towers suggested a certain lazyness on the part of the inhabitants. Anyway with the others checked I warped to the C2 static and went through.
From the hole a quick Dscan showed me an active tower and little else, but several planets were out of range. So bookmarked the hole and cloaked up and warped to the outer planet. Here found a tower and two ships, a Hawk and a Brutix. Were they on line? I narrowed down the location on Dscan and warped in at 50 for a look.
Both ships had pilots and both were in the pos shield. Fair enough I thought, maybe I should leave, but the hole (J111740) had a High and C3 static... So went and created a deep space safe, out of range of all but 1 planets(with no tower). Only 3 sigs not scanned, and I came through one, so I thought that I would quickly get the other 2, and 50-50 chance of the high sec hole.
Took less than a minute to get both pinpointed, so sucked the probes back in and warped to the nearest. Turned out it was the C3. So warped to the other at 20km. On landing I could see the Hawk in a tight fast orbit of the hole...
The Residents obviously spotted my exit hole (or my probes)and assumed there was at least one person in with them. Not good, so I warped to a planet 10 AU from my way back and hit narrow Dscan, A Brutix and a Legion... Even worse. So I created a new safe in Dscan of both and settled down to wait...
After my recent stay in a hole waiting to get home I honestly just wanted to leave, and try elsewhere. It was also gone midnight my time and I had to work the next day. After 10 mins noticed that the Hawk was going back and forth between the two and the Legion and Brutix had gone. Well from D scan anyway.
So I thought, well before they roll the hole I will get out, and waited until the Hawk was not on Dscan and warped to the C3 and home...
Or so I thought. Unluckily on landing on the other side, found the Hawk less than 1500 meters away... Not good what was worse however was 2 Legions and a Proteus sitting there....
Ok, I was 6k out from the hole, so had two choices, burn for the hole and go back or try and initiate warp and cloak really fast...
I chose the latter, and thought that I was home free, as I was just entering warp a scram came on from the hawk, and hit reality once more. I was not fast enough on the cloak either. Such is life. Kicked a couple of Hobgoblins and 3 EC300's out and set on the Hawk to give him something to think about and opened fire as well.
Started taking solid hits from the Proteus and cap was just running out, the Legions were neuting really well.
The Hawk was doing a really good job of killing my drones and speed tanking the blasters, but cap was my issue, very quickly the Legions were taking their toll. Right I thought jump back and try and shake them off.
I should also mention here that the webs from everyone had killed my speed to a massive 32 m/s so the slog back to the gate was painful, and I was in about half armour when I hit the gate.
My intent must have been obvious though as when I landed the Hawk was up and ready, and a couple of Proteus and a Tengu and the Brutix were waiting.
Again not fast enough to warp and cloak and the Hawk got the scram. He also got the rest of my hobgoblins for distraction, while I locked up one of the Proteus and started firing.
With the Brutix, Tengu and 2 Proteus shooting me the end was indeed nigh. So picked a planet to align to, said well done in Local and spammed the warp button. Pod escaped to the planet, and I immediately aligned and warped to the high sec hole... The Hawk pilot was on the ball and just landing at the same time as me, and starting to lock as I jumped though.
Kill mail link below.
My Dead Proteus
In high as planned, without ship which was not.
Learnings.
1. If they know you are there, be patient.
2. Assume that they may be waiting on the other side of the gate/hole. Not something I actually thought of, and my panicked response on the other side, I think helped me get caught.
3. Assault frigates are very hard to kill.
4. And quick to lock, quick enough that I assume some sort of sensor booster was involved.
5. Neuts, at least I do not have an active tank, but weapons, scram and webs still need cap. This is a real pain.
6. Not everyone on one side of the hole (Legions) jumped back to be with me at the end. I assume that they were polarised.
7. Should not have bothered probing once I saw the combat ships, should have just left. Would not in hindsight have been a good route back either.
8. Try and take one with you! Again in hindsight the Brutix (unless the Protei were really crap fit) was the weak point, and I should have hit him and kept hitting him until I died. Should have been able to at least killed his ship.
Good fight though. I was far from bored and gave me something to think about for days.
Back at Last
The long trek home started.
Fed up waiting for a connection near home I hopped out into the edge of Cache. 65 Jumps home. Not bad I thought, take it over three nights and have a look at systems on the way.
The first night covered 20 systems through Insmother and Detroid. I was having a good look around.
very few players in any of the systems that I passed through. The only point of interest I found was a powered down tower with an SMA. Dscanned it down fairly easily and parked up 20 km away. Before opening fire, checked whose tower it was. The system was owned by Norther Coalition, it was however a Goonwaffe tower. Pale Blue.
I asked one of the Alliance exec's if I could kill it anyway, but was told no. Shame.
Next day, the first system I jumped into had a Probe(Rookie Ship) and 3 tractor units on Dscan. No one in system... dropped combats and found and killed all three tractor units and the empty ship quite easily. If I had more cargo space, there was some items I would have taken as they are hard to come by in the home systems.
Then commenced a trip into Feythabolis. Lots more reds here, but obviously not worried by me, people happy ratting in carriers, and the odd Dominix fleet in semi afk pve combat.
As I neared Esoteria the reds became more common, but no gate camps, and ran the rest of the way home without incident.
Real Life has prevented me writing this blog and limited my game play, but should be on track again now.
The next few short posts will catch up the highlights
Fed up waiting for a connection near home I hopped out into the edge of Cache. 65 Jumps home. Not bad I thought, take it over three nights and have a look at systems on the way.
The first night covered 20 systems through Insmother and Detroid. I was having a good look around.
very few players in any of the systems that I passed through. The only point of interest I found was a powered down tower with an SMA. Dscanned it down fairly easily and parked up 20 km away. Before opening fire, checked whose tower it was. The system was owned by Norther Coalition, it was however a Goonwaffe tower. Pale Blue.
I asked one of the Alliance exec's if I could kill it anyway, but was told no. Shame.
Next day, the first system I jumped into had a Probe(Rookie Ship) and 3 tractor units on Dscan. No one in system... dropped combats and found and killed all three tractor units and the empty ship quite easily. If I had more cargo space, there was some items I would have taken as they are hard to come by in the home systems.
Then commenced a trip into Feythabolis. Lots more reds here, but obviously not worried by me, people happy ratting in carriers, and the odd Dominix fleet in semi afk pve combat.
As I neared Esoteria the reds became more common, but no gate camps, and ran the rest of the way home without incident.
Real Life has prevented me writing this blog and limited my game play, but should be on track again now.
The next few short posts will catch up the highlights
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
First Wormhole kill - Not deserved though
Still hanging around my deserted C3 waiting for the static to end up near enough to be reasonable. Last night I was watching a Kronos and a Paladin breeze through all the sites, following their Noctis, they came from a C5 connection.
2 things interested me in this, could I get the Noctis and how paranoid were they? That was the wierd bit, they would stay on field with the Noctis, which was good practice, and gave me no chance. The second was what they would do when I dropped probes. I started with core probes as new wrecks started appearing, and over a minute later new wrecks were still appearing... were they watching Dscan?
A few minutes later I had the sigs that I wanted, only probing above 26% if it was a wormhole. So I thought that I would scare them. Knowing from Dscan which combat anomolie that they were in I dropped combat probes and centered on it at 0.5 AU. Immediate 100% hit.
Warped to them at 100km, but crucially left the combat probes sitting there, 5 mins later with the Noctis on grid as well, they were still around, then they warped to the next combat anomaly.... and started creating new wrecks....
They were either
1. Not watching Dscan and oblivious and stupid.
2. Very confident that they had the backup to fight off what may drop on them...
To be honest, probably the later.
So I withdrew the probes, hopped into the Null hole to see where it lead, which was in the far north east, with no targets 2 jumps in any direction, jumped back in and logged off...
Next day, new static, and one other hole, a C3. The new null connection was just as useless, in the heart of the Northern Coalition. The few reds in any of the systems seemed to be all in stations though, so went back to investigate the C3 hole.
This lead to a C3 Black Hole. Now these give interesting system effects, that I failed to take account of later.
I went through the usual routine, and checked for the locals. Only one tower, appeared dead, and bizarrely had its full armament of cruise missiles untouched.... Now in a system that give a -27% to missile velocity, and given the complete ineffectiveness of cruise missiles as POS armament, told me that if any locals were still around they probably would not be top of the game.
Many, many signatures in system though so made a safe, dropped probes and cloaked up.
Several gas, relic and data sites later I see normal core probes on dscan, so shot mine out system. A short bit of warping around later an Imicus is on scan...
I narrow the location down on Dscan , and recall my core probes and drop combat probes. Takes me 4 attempts as he seems to have moved in the mean time. So if he is watching Dscan then warning given. Now he appears to be in a Relic site, in a C3, in an Imicus, with drones out ....
Now my limited grasp of wormhole sites assumed he would be dead from the sleepers before I get there. So warped in at 20 km to see.
Very cluttered environment, and he appears to be hacking cans, so I attempt a manual approach to steer clear of cans.
Drop the cloak at 10 k hit lock, launch drones and micro warp. As soon as lock, I see a loot spew from the can, so scram and web and hit weapons. Then, I bounce straight off debris, I had forgotten to hit approach, and had hit orbit, giving me a non straight line path into debris at speed, and ended up 16 k away, blasters doing nothing and scram out of range. Drones started hitting and he warps out....Not good.
I pick up my drones cloak and bring the combats back in. On Dscan within 5AU...so combat scanned 4 AU centered on me, 50% hit, next pass nailed, warped to 10k.
He was at a safe spot... and watching, as soon as I dropped cloak he warped off. That's it I thought, he's off, so I recalled the combat, dropped core probes and cloaked up using his safe spot. As soon as I cloak up and Dscan I see a Gallante Frigate wreck, and his capsule lands back on grid with me...
Immediate thought was that hostiles had been lurking, went to de cloak, but he warps off to an anomaly I had not scanned yet. Realistically I am not going to uncloak and catch a pod anyway.
What killed him... I narrow his wreck down to the Relic site we had just left(and I had not bookmarked) so scanned it down.
This time, full of sleeper Frigates and a Sleeper battleship. And a frigate wreck. Ho hum I thought, and went back to my waiting hole and logged off for the night.
Now, I got the kill mail, IMICUS KILL doing about 20% of the damage.
This in my opinion is not deserved, because:-
1. Should have planned my approach better and approached rather than orbited in a cluttered environment.
2. Forgot/ignored the system effects, -27% to lock range and turret fall off and +55% to velocity and agility. These last two made the micro warp both unnecessary and bounced me out of combat range. My error and I kicked myself for it.
3. He was killed by sleepers after making the mistake of warping to a site rather than a random (but safe) celestial to avoid me. Not killed by me.
Learnings for me.
1. Pay attention to, and understand system effects
2. Make sure uncluttered approach.
3. Keep in scram range...
In general .
1. Watch Dscan. If you see combat probes, get safe.
2. Watch Dscan some more.
3. If no cloak, and up against combat probes, do not stop, keep bouncing off random celestial's until you can leave.
4. Do not warp back to an anomaly in scanning ship(or any ship with hostiles chasing you) unless cloaked.
5. If you are attacked in a safe spot, do not warp back to that safe spot in your pod, or anything else for that matter (unless you now have a fleet)...
6. Have fun
John
2 things interested me in this, could I get the Noctis and how paranoid were they? That was the wierd bit, they would stay on field with the Noctis, which was good practice, and gave me no chance. The second was what they would do when I dropped probes. I started with core probes as new wrecks started appearing, and over a minute later new wrecks were still appearing... were they watching Dscan?
A few minutes later I had the sigs that I wanted, only probing above 26% if it was a wormhole. So I thought that I would scare them. Knowing from Dscan which combat anomolie that they were in I dropped combat probes and centered on it at 0.5 AU. Immediate 100% hit.
Warped to them at 100km, but crucially left the combat probes sitting there, 5 mins later with the Noctis on grid as well, they were still around, then they warped to the next combat anomaly.... and started creating new wrecks....
They were either
1. Not watching Dscan and oblivious and stupid.
2. Very confident that they had the backup to fight off what may drop on them...
To be honest, probably the later.
So I withdrew the probes, hopped into the Null hole to see where it lead, which was in the far north east, with no targets 2 jumps in any direction, jumped back in and logged off...
Next day, new static, and one other hole, a C3. The new null connection was just as useless, in the heart of the Northern Coalition. The few reds in any of the systems seemed to be all in stations though, so went back to investigate the C3 hole.
This lead to a C3 Black Hole. Now these give interesting system effects, that I failed to take account of later.
I went through the usual routine, and checked for the locals. Only one tower, appeared dead, and bizarrely had its full armament of cruise missiles untouched.... Now in a system that give a -27% to missile velocity, and given the complete ineffectiveness of cruise missiles as POS armament, told me that if any locals were still around they probably would not be top of the game.
Many, many signatures in system though so made a safe, dropped probes and cloaked up.
Several gas, relic and data sites later I see normal core probes on dscan, so shot mine out system. A short bit of warping around later an Imicus is on scan...
I narrow the location down on Dscan , and recall my core probes and drop combat probes. Takes me 4 attempts as he seems to have moved in the mean time. So if he is watching Dscan then warning given. Now he appears to be in a Relic site, in a C3, in an Imicus, with drones out ....
Now my limited grasp of wormhole sites assumed he would be dead from the sleepers before I get there. So warped in at 20 km to see.
Very cluttered environment, and he appears to be hacking cans, so I attempt a manual approach to steer clear of cans.
Drop the cloak at 10 k hit lock, launch drones and micro warp. As soon as lock, I see a loot spew from the can, so scram and web and hit weapons. Then, I bounce straight off debris, I had forgotten to hit approach, and had hit orbit, giving me a non straight line path into debris at speed, and ended up 16 k away, blasters doing nothing and scram out of range. Drones started hitting and he warps out....Not good.
I pick up my drones cloak and bring the combats back in. On Dscan within 5AU...so combat scanned 4 AU centered on me, 50% hit, next pass nailed, warped to 10k.
He was at a safe spot... and watching, as soon as I dropped cloak he warped off. That's it I thought, he's off, so I recalled the combat, dropped core probes and cloaked up using his safe spot. As soon as I cloak up and Dscan I see a Gallante Frigate wreck, and his capsule lands back on grid with me...
Immediate thought was that hostiles had been lurking, went to de cloak, but he warps off to an anomaly I had not scanned yet. Realistically I am not going to uncloak and catch a pod anyway.
What killed him... I narrow his wreck down to the Relic site we had just left(and I had not bookmarked) so scanned it down.
This time, full of sleeper Frigates and a Sleeper battleship. And a frigate wreck. Ho hum I thought, and went back to my waiting hole and logged off for the night.
Now, I got the kill mail, IMICUS KILL doing about 20% of the damage.
This in my opinion is not deserved, because:-
1. Should have planned my approach better and approached rather than orbited in a cluttered environment.
2. Forgot/ignored the system effects, -27% to lock range and turret fall off and +55% to velocity and agility. These last two made the micro warp both unnecessary and bounced me out of combat range. My error and I kicked myself for it.
3. He was killed by sleepers after making the mistake of warping to a site rather than a random (but safe) celestial to avoid me. Not killed by me.
Learnings for me.
1. Pay attention to, and understand system effects
2. Make sure uncluttered approach.
3. Keep in scram range...
In general .
1. Watch Dscan. If you see combat probes, get safe.
2. Watch Dscan some more.
3. If no cloak, and up against combat probes, do not stop, keep bouncing off random celestial's until you can leave.
4. Do not warp back to an anomaly in scanning ship(or any ship with hostiles chasing you) unless cloaked.
5. If you are attacked in a safe spot, do not warp back to that safe spot in your pod, or anything else for that matter (unless you now have a fleet)...
6. Have fun
John
Friday, March 28, 2014
Getting Back To Null
As a result of my recent podding I found myself back in High Sec looking for a ship to buy.
The choice was between a new Stratios which I liked a lot, and a Proteus, a ship I had heard a lot about, but never flown.
In the end cash was the decider. For the Hull, a Stratios was 300 Million, a Proteus 150 Million.
Proteus it was then. Then comes the complexity of fitting a Tech 3 ship. Subsystems became a dirty word last night as I spent 2 hours mapping out what each did. In a way, my hands were tied in a couple of areas. I wanted to fly a ship with a cloak and a probe launcher. Also thinking about it, Interdiction Nullification would also be very useful. So 3 of the 5 subsystems were chosen by how I wanted to fly.
The Defense subsystem was a bit of a toss up, resists or more armour. The resists option also gives a low and an utility high slot and the plate 2 low slots. Resists are very useful, but I could get the same effect by putting a decent armour module in the extra low, and did I need another utility high slot? No.
The engineering section was also easy once I had got this far, Gallente pilots after all, feel naked without drones.
So, hull and subsystems bought for just under 300 million, used the rest of my disposable cash on a Sisters launcher, covert ops cloak and tech 2 hybrids. The rest, I have to be honest, has for now been fitted with mainly meta 4 and the odd tech 2 module that I had in my high sec hanger. I really need to earn more isk to fit it better.
Still, I had a couple of tech 2 trimark armour rigs that I had made, and now has more HP than any other ship I have flown.
Filled up with ammunition, the hunt for a way back to Null was on.
Option 1. 35 jumps across high sec with an active war dec, then, to brave the chaos that is HEDGP, and then a further 45 ish jumps though very dodgy territory.
Option 2. Find a wormhole.
So wormholes it was then.
The system that I was in, had a C2 hole that was new and not mass stressed. I jumped in.
Found 1 POS with an Orca and a Helios, neither piloted, and had another Helios on D scan but no probes. Spent ten minutes making a safe and looking at all the moons.
Then real life crept in, had to go and pick up my daughter who was babysitting, left logged in and cloaked at a safe. When I arrived back home, I again, was side tracked by a tv series called Bluestone 42. Very British army humour, fictional but very close to real life. Well worth a look for anyone interested. Very, very strong language though, definitely not for children.
Back to Eve.
Now 2 Orcas and 2 Helios on Dscan. An Orca would be a brilliant christening of the proteus. But it was not to be as they were all at the POS.
I thought that I would not scan down the sig's but pop back to high for the night. Warped back to hole to find it gone.... Don't know for sure but I suspect that the Orca's collapsed it.
I suddenly had no interest in staying, and as it was a High and C3 static, thought that I would see where the new one went.
Found both quite quickly and the rest of the sig's were gas sites. Popped through the high hole to find it was a High Sec island system, nowhere near where I wanted to be. So back in and to the C3.
This looked more promising, as it was a Null Sec static and had no POS structures and all Interbus customs offices. All good indicators that the hole is deserted. Only two wormholes, the one I came through and the static.
On the off chance that I was home (I wish) I popped through to find myself in a system called T-0JWP in Detorid. 35 jumps from home. No one on line in system, but two mobile siphon units on Dscan.
2 minutes with Dcan isolated which planets they were at and as no one in system dropped combat probes at 0.5 AU at each planet and found them quickly.
Both moon mining POS units had heavy ECM defenses but no weapons. Both POS and Siphons belonged to Neutrals. One Siphoning Thulium and the other Promethium.
Needless to say it was 2 easy kills, and when I went to empty the moon goo, I really missed the cargo hold of the Stratios, I had packed mine with ammo so could not steal any.
I left the wrecks, the POS owners may come along in the next 2 hours and notice.
It was late so I jumped back into the hole, warped to a safe and logged off for the night.
Hopefully tomorrow the static will open nearer home, or possibly near to more targets.
Thoughts.
The Stratios has a large 550 m3 cargo hold compared with the Proteus 280 m3. The Stratios needs no ammo, as lasers and sentries need none. Nearly all the Proteus hold is full of ammunition. I could have made a big profit (50 Million) stealing the moon goo in the Stratios
Tech 2 ammo is expensive.
4 sentries put out slightly less Damage Per Second (DPS) than 4 Blasters with Void, but not a huge amount. Admittedly I have better drone skills than Gunnery at present. Once my gunnery skills are up it will change.
I can see the attraction of a nomadic life in wormholes. A bit.
The Proteus once subsystems are added, becomes a lot less versatile than the Stratios, but does its single function better.
I would appreciate any comments about content, style, readability, eve hints, outright abuse, whatever. It would be nice to know that if not on the right track, what do I need to fix.
I can be eve mailed in game at John Wheway or leave comments here.
Have fun
John
The choice was between a new Stratios which I liked a lot, and a Proteus, a ship I had heard a lot about, but never flown.
In the end cash was the decider. For the Hull, a Stratios was 300 Million, a Proteus 150 Million.
Proteus it was then. Then comes the complexity of fitting a Tech 3 ship. Subsystems became a dirty word last night as I spent 2 hours mapping out what each did. In a way, my hands were tied in a couple of areas. I wanted to fly a ship with a cloak and a probe launcher. Also thinking about it, Interdiction Nullification would also be very useful. So 3 of the 5 subsystems were chosen by how I wanted to fly.
The Defense subsystem was a bit of a toss up, resists or more armour. The resists option also gives a low and an utility high slot and the plate 2 low slots. Resists are very useful, but I could get the same effect by putting a decent armour module in the extra low, and did I need another utility high slot? No.
The engineering section was also easy once I had got this far, Gallente pilots after all, feel naked without drones.
So, hull and subsystems bought for just under 300 million, used the rest of my disposable cash on a Sisters launcher, covert ops cloak and tech 2 hybrids. The rest, I have to be honest, has for now been fitted with mainly meta 4 and the odd tech 2 module that I had in my high sec hanger. I really need to earn more isk to fit it better.
Still, I had a couple of tech 2 trimark armour rigs that I had made, and now has more HP than any other ship I have flown.
Filled up with ammunition, the hunt for a way back to Null was on.
Option 1. 35 jumps across high sec with an active war dec, then, to brave the chaos that is HEDGP, and then a further 45 ish jumps though very dodgy territory.
Option 2. Find a wormhole.
So wormholes it was then.
The system that I was in, had a C2 hole that was new and not mass stressed. I jumped in.
Found 1 POS with an Orca and a Helios, neither piloted, and had another Helios on D scan but no probes. Spent ten minutes making a safe and looking at all the moons.
Then real life crept in, had to go and pick up my daughter who was babysitting, left logged in and cloaked at a safe. When I arrived back home, I again, was side tracked by a tv series called Bluestone 42. Very British army humour, fictional but very close to real life. Well worth a look for anyone interested. Very, very strong language though, definitely not for children.
Back to Eve.
Now 2 Orcas and 2 Helios on Dscan. An Orca would be a brilliant christening of the proteus. But it was not to be as they were all at the POS.
I thought that I would not scan down the sig's but pop back to high for the night. Warped back to hole to find it gone.... Don't know for sure but I suspect that the Orca's collapsed it.
I suddenly had no interest in staying, and as it was a High and C3 static, thought that I would see where the new one went.
Found both quite quickly and the rest of the sig's were gas sites. Popped through the high hole to find it was a High Sec island system, nowhere near where I wanted to be. So back in and to the C3.
This looked more promising, as it was a Null Sec static and had no POS structures and all Interbus customs offices. All good indicators that the hole is deserted. Only two wormholes, the one I came through and the static.
On the off chance that I was home (I wish) I popped through to find myself in a system called T-0JWP in Detorid. 35 jumps from home. No one on line in system, but two mobile siphon units on Dscan.
2 minutes with Dcan isolated which planets they were at and as no one in system dropped combat probes at 0.5 AU at each planet and found them quickly.
Both moon mining POS units had heavy ECM defenses but no weapons. Both POS and Siphons belonged to Neutrals. One Siphoning Thulium and the other Promethium.
Needless to say it was 2 easy kills, and when I went to empty the moon goo, I really missed the cargo hold of the Stratios, I had packed mine with ammo so could not steal any.
I left the wrecks, the POS owners may come along in the next 2 hours and notice.
It was late so I jumped back into the hole, warped to a safe and logged off for the night.
Hopefully tomorrow the static will open nearer home, or possibly near to more targets.
Thoughts.
The Stratios has a large 550 m3 cargo hold compared with the Proteus 280 m3. The Stratios needs no ammo, as lasers and sentries need none. Nearly all the Proteus hold is full of ammunition. I could have made a big profit (50 Million) stealing the moon goo in the Stratios
Tech 2 ammo is expensive.
4 sentries put out slightly less Damage Per Second (DPS) than 4 Blasters with Void, but not a huge amount. Admittedly I have better drone skills than Gunnery at present. Once my gunnery skills are up it will change.
I can see the attraction of a nomadic life in wormholes. A bit.
The Proteus once subsystems are added, becomes a lot less versatile than the Stratios, but does its single function better.
I would appreciate any comments about content, style, readability, eve hints, outright abuse, whatever. It would be nice to know that if not on the right track, what do I need to fix.
I can be eve mailed in game at John Wheway or leave comments here.
Have fun
John
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