Thursday, May 15, 2014

Camping

In Eve, this is the practice of waiting at either a gate or a station for ships to turn up and then trying to turn them into scrap. You get gate camps, station camps and in Null space, bubble camps. I have in the last year been on both sides of each one. If you are prepared, alert and thinking there is no reason why both sides cannot claim success part of the time.
Now that is a daft statement you may think.

Interceptors fitted for speed are an absolute nightmare to catch. they can hit warp in a second if fit even averagely, and in Null are immune to the bubbles. Since the Rubicon patch they are without doubt the way to travel in Null space, especially if running in or out of Null where lots of camps occur. However, I have seen them caught by specialist tackle. Usually a frigate or interceptor themselves with mid slots given over to sensor boosters and a single point. This can keep them still long enough for slower locking members to lock them and hit their paper thin hulls with some damage. On the other side however if you hold the gate cloak for a time, then warp to a celestial that is best aligned with you there is a very low chance of being locked.

Cloaky ships, also when flown well can initiate warp somewhere and then cloak. Its only when flown badly, especially by me, or when facing an insta locker that the opposition will get these. Or its on autopilot or been de-cloaked by drones or canisters ejected for this purpose. In Null space there are often bubbles set up, best ones are outside Dscan range of gates, that will have discarded drones or cargo canisters littering the direct route through the bubble. The idea is that the cloaky ship is both stopped and de-cloaked at the same time. Then the attackers have their wicked way and wait for the next, as the wreck is another cloak hazard. I have been caught this way in a Helios in a large system, initiated warp and thought I had 30 seconds so looked at a different screen and then was dead....
These traps can be countered by bouncing off a random Celestial in system. It adds to travel time, but when there are others in system is much safer.

In Low Sec there is another complication. Gate/Station Guns. If you attack within range (140K of the gate/station I believe), a target that is not at war with you or a flashy red pirate, then you will get shot. I have been told but cannot confirm that they will have you for about 360 DPS (Damage Per Second). This means that most frigates, destroyers and cruisers will soon be scrap metal. The Tech 2 variants of the frigates and destroyers will also have a difficult time. So in Low sec gate camps are often bigger ships. Even these cannot hang around for long as the damage does mount up.

Outside Eve, the term in has several meanings, depending on audience....

So, John went shopping for some T2 weapons. Only place in Placid that seemed to stock them was Oulley, a 0.3 system 2 jumps from high sec. Looking at system kills, there seemed to be a very high number of both ship and pod kills in the last 24 hours. All done by a small number of individuals belonging to The Harlequins. Looked to be a low sec pirate corp with a huge kill board. I flipped a coin, the other option was to trace round to the south east and back into Verge Vendor to look at the market, but that was 7 Low jumps, and therefore time consuming.

I took the proteus, it was that or a tech 1 meta 0 fitted caracal, and jumped to Aubenall. I could see several Faction Warfare sites on the scanner and 6 people in system. I admit I did not think and warped straight to the gate. Hanging around on this side were three ships, I clocked a Griffon, but did not see the other two before I jumped. I had the destination set to the station that I wanted, but became aware of 6 to 7 ships in the gate vicinity, and I was taking damage! All before the gate cloak dropped. I immediately hit dock at station. 6-7 people on a gate is a bad place to fight with no back up, and I assumed the three on the other side would join in.
Getting to the station I saw several outside and then a couple of red flashy targets land on grid with me from gate. Luckily I docked quickly. Hmmm. Looking at the screen shot I took at the gate and comparing it to peoples kill mails, it looked like I was hit by a Rokh that was using smart bombs. Interesting.
Now I did not think you could be hit while holding gate cloak, and that was interesting, but I assume that as smart bombs do area damage and there is no need to lock the target then this is fair...
I have no idea if taking damage uncloaks you. I assume that it should, after all something is within 2k of you to inflict the damage.
Good tactical choice   He later died to others, but this was the fit

Rokh

High Slots
Large 'Vehemence' Shockwave Charge
Large 'Vehemence' Shockwave Charge
Large 'Vehemence' Shockwave Charge
Large 'Vehemence' Shockwave Charge
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I

Mid Slots
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction 
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I  
Large Micro Jump Drive 

Low Slots
Warp Core Stabiliser I
Warp Core Stabiliser I 
Warp Core Stabiliser I
Warp Core Stabiliser I
Warp Core Stabiliser I 


Drone Bay 

Hornet EC-300 10   


Now this seems to do 1200 EM and 1200 Explosive damage per cycle out to 5K from the ship.  Per Cycle. For good skilks thats about 7.5 seconds
Perfect for killing capsules, frigates, destroyers and industrials. I admit, I sort of want one, and the warp core stabilisers, have no real downside as you have no need to lock a target. Its also, apart from the hull (230 million) very cheap at less than 10 million to fit.
There was a fair bit of raging against this chap in local, but to be honest its a very good fit for one thing and one thing only. I bought the stuff that I needed and then sat and thought. there never seemed to be less than 17 in local, most belonging to the same alliance, and a fair few docked up with me. The risks seemed to outweigh the benefits of undocking at that time. I had no idea if this station was a kick out station or not, had no safe spots or insta undock book marks, and no intel on where in the system the undocked were. Sitting on station or on gate... There was no easy way so thought it a good idea to log out and went to mine with Oliver while tidying up the house.

So I had just run a gate camp, that probably would have killed me in a frigate, bomber or interceptor, and had ended the day station camped. Such is life. 

Logged back in two hours later to find only a few in system, so ran back to high and went to bed.

Why not fight.
Well...
1. Against 6-7 unknowns that include battleships and battle cruisers, 1 ship, even a Proteus will die.
2. I had 80 million of stuff in the hold, and did not want to come back here shopping.
3. Only had a passive tank, something that I was rectifying soon. I like active armour repair at least...
4. To be honest did not feel like it, due to real life factors I could not guarantee I would not be called away from the pc for a few minutes at any time. Fatal if in combat. In these times I normally haul, shop, mine or do a bit of exploration where I can cloak up.



Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Searching

Now as in house buying, as in relocating in Eve... Location, Location, Location

Looking at the cluster that I am sitting in, there two areas, a single entrance cluster of 6 systems to the east with 4 single station systems, all refineries, no factories or research, and the 4 systems on the west side that have the low sec connections and the only two systems with factories and research facilities. All the East side stations also belong to one corp, so getting standings would be good.


Now this all stands to change on 3rd June. The Eastern section, currently a back water with a handful of miners, and the odd mission runner, will be able to build and research. This will end the quite life out here, sometimes as empty as the average null system. All the industrialists looking for low priced slots will move in, the miners will either find it easier to move their product or shift out to better systems.
Algasienan and Vivanier seem to actually have product to sell, although not very much of anything. To get a good choice you have to go 2-3 jumps through low sec in either direction at a minimum.

First things first, I noticed that Osmallanais is two jumps from all but one of the high sec systems and buy orders with a range of two would not enter low sec. A few buy orders for  high end minerals went up here, while I did another tour of the high space.

No Ghost Sites today, but took my time creating safe spots in all systems, trying to get one in Dscan range of as much as possible and one out of range of as much as possible. Looking at dscan a lot, I also ended up dropping combat probes in every system. Its amazing how many miners dock up in an 0.7 system when they see combat probes.
I was after Drones. I came over light on drones and there were not many on the market so I thought that I would steal a few. Scooping drones does not pick up any sort of timer, so there is no determent to it. I had to stash them in some systems as I ran out of hold space, but from 9 systems I picked up
13 Garde II
1 Bouncer I
9 Hobgoblin II
4 Warrior II
1 Acolyte II
2 Hammerhead I
7 Hobgoblin I

So if you are reading this and left drones out in Placid High Sec, odds are that they are now mine.

I then went to Vivanier and bought a Procurer and a Dominix. Strange mix but I wanted to build stuff for my own use and also kill rats.
I ferried both to Algasienan, where I had decided to dump my stuff. An ideal location would have been Osmallanais as it is central and a brilliant location. Only having one station and no factory slots however was the killer. I fitted both ships out with the parts that I had bought with me, and went to mine while I did a lot of looking at Dotlan.

I was after two things, a good PI location and a pattern of low sec kills and high traffic systems.

I was able to get 4 procurer loads of mining while doing this. One of Dense Veldspar, one of Massive Scordite, one of Rich Plagaise and the last of Golden Omber. all plentiful in the bets. Almost no rats either.

Now Oliver is the miner and refiner, having nearly perfect skills in both, but John is semi skilled having a misspent first year skilling up in whatever looked good at the time. my refine percentage was 93% average, not brilliant, but good enough for when you are building for yourself and not profit.

Put in a manufacturing order for a Caracal, some rapid light missile launchers and ammo, both light missiles and hybrid medium. Why pay over the odds when you can make it for very little....



Tuesday, May 13, 2014

New Home - Maybe

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


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.

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






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.


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