15/05/11 08:39 AM
| Arkonor | 285 |
| Bistot | 217 |
| Mercoxit | 192 |
| Crokite | 187 |
| Hedbergite | 171 |
| Hemorphite | 168 |
| Jaspet | 152 |
| Dark Ochre | 147 |
| Pyroxeres | 118 |
| Kernite | 106 |
| Veldspar | 99 |
| Scordite | 93 |
| Gneiss | 90 |
| Plagioclase | 88 |
| Spodumain | 82 |
| Omber | 81 |
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On Publishing Other Colony Thoughts
Someone put together some diagrams for the previous set of posts about how the author generally went about setting up her colonies on planets for Planetary Interaction. In the course of putting the posts together, it was decided that they did not really fit into the general information that was being collecting and thus they were lost on the cutting room floor so-to-speak. Due to some clamouring from a back seat pilot, the editor is posting these with little or no guarantees as to their applicability or relevance. The reader is allowed to determine whether the images are useful or not.
[caption id="attachment_1117" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The Goal"]  [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1119" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Submit, Survey & Submit"]  [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1120" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="BIF's for Spacing"]  [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1121" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Import-Export Business"]  [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1122" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Rounding It All Out"]  [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1116" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The Missing Links"]  [/caption]
Thus the sites are set-up following a basic methodology of extractor->spaceport->basic industry->linkages.
On Getting Lost Without Losing Your Way
Recently I managed to end up on the wrong side of a wormhole. Many of you read about Penny’s side of the story and search to find a safe passage for me back into the wormhole system we call home. In a multi-part series she recounts how over several days it was necessary to scan, scan and scan again. For those of you who might have missed it:
 Well, the reality is that I often end up on the wrong side and often without it being the end of the world. It is a regular occurrence to see “20:33:35 Notify As you pass through the wormhole you realize that it collapses behind you.Have you become trapped?” in my logs. I was going to get a picture to illustrate, but sadly my fingers have not been cooperating quickly enough to generate the screen shot as I jump through the last time. New image of what you see when you close the hole now included.
As residents of a class 4 system with a static class 3 wormhole, it takes 2,000,000,000 Kilogrammes to close the hole and force a new static wormhole to spawn. For the sake of protecting my zero key and facilitate a slightly faster representation, I will be abbreviating that number as 2,000M(illion). It is also relevant in that ship masses are all larger than 1,000,000 Kilogrammes [shuttles and pods excluded]. Thus as we scan, haul, hunt and pew in and around our various wormhole connections, it is often essential to maintain fairly accurate accounting with regard to both the type and number of ships we have pushed through the holes.
Frigates tend to hover around 1M Kilogrammes, destroyers are about 1.5M, cruisers are about 11-13M, battlecruisers are 13-15M, battleships are around 100M and an Orca is 250M. To these values are then added afterburner [AB] or micro warp drive [MWD] effects if they are active on the ship when jumping. 1MN AB/MWD adds 0.5M Kilogrammes, 10MN AB/MWD adds 5M and the 100MN AB/MWD adds 50M Kilogrammes. There are a few anomalous ships in this schema like the Caldari black-ops battleship Widow which tips the scales at a massive [for a battleship] 150M Kilogrammes. Together these ships can form quite a variety of mass combinations to push though and close a wormhole with ships arriving on the same side at the same time as planned.
Thus for our situation, a typical closure [which we refer to in-house as "rolling the hole"] will look something like:
| Beginning WH Mass |
Ship Transit |
Direction |
Mass Used |
Remaining WH Mass |
| 2,000M |
Orca with AB/MWD |
Outbound |
300M |
1,700M |
| 1,700M |
Orca with AB/MWD |
Inbound |
300M |
1,400M |
| 1,400M |
Orca with AB/MWD |
Outbound |
300M |
1,100M |
| 1,100M |
Orca with AB/MWD |
Inbound |
300M |
800M [WH should indicate change] |
| 800M |
Orca with AB/MWD |
Outbound |
300M |
500M |
| 500M |
BS with AB/MWD |
Outbound |
150M |
350M |
| 350M |
BS with AB/MWD |
Inbound |
150M |
200M [WH should indicate critical] |
| 200M |
Orca with AB/MWD |
Inbound |
300M |
-100M [WH should collapse] |
There is one final issue to consider – the fundamentally unstable nature of wormholes. They can vary by as much as ±200M Kilogrammes which is slightly less than an Orca, 2 battleships, 10 AB/MWD cruisers… et cetra. This also means that if the hole is on the light side [closer to 1,800M Kilogrammes] then you will likely find yourself sitting in a fairly expensive ship in a system that is not quite friendly. Thanks to a good deal we brokered with Mr. Murphy, this most often happens under perfect conditions when the system I end up is:
- Full of Hostiles
- Null-Security Static Exit
- Approximately 5 minutes before they all come online
- Smaller than 14 AU across in diameter
These perfect storm conditions are surprisingly easy to come across and account for a surprising number of incidents for getting trapped outside of the system I call Home.
 Oddly enough, the most recent exclusion event happened as a result of properties unknown and unknowable with regard to wormholes. I took a picture of the situation as it manages to baffle me to this day. I returned to this bookmarked [former] wormhole and it remained just like this for several hours. As Penny mentioned, one of the highlights is the fact that I trapped some tourists from high-security inside the wormhole and got a cool picture of an apparent illusion or apparition. It is logically impossible to prove an absolute negative. But one thing I can state absolutely, there was no way back the way I came. Oddly enough there never was a message about the wormhole closing behind me.
In retrospect, the whole situation reminded me of a quote that will probably live in infamy for those poor pilots living in the USA during the reign of Bush the Younger. His senior hounds-of-war-master issued the following statement about not really knowing if things were true or not:
“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” –D. Rumsfeld
So in the end, I guess we will never know if we know or not.
On what wormholes can tell you without your asking
There is more to navigating w-space than simply scanning for wormholes. Knowing the designations of the wormholes and what they mean can help with expectations and reduce confusion or misunderstandings. First, it must be understood that there are two ‘ends’ to a wormhole, the ‘entrance’ and the ‘exit’. There are no specific restrictions on movements through a wormhole dependent on it being the entrance or exit, but knowing what side you have found gives information in itself.
If you are looking at the exit of a wormhole you will always see the designation ‘K162′, with no exceptions. That is the only designation ever given to an exit. The entrance of a wormhole has a designation made up in the similar way of having a letter and three numbers, but unlike the exit each specific designation essentially determines where the wormhole leads. For example, seeing an X877 signature in a class 4 w-space system will tell you that the wormhole leads to another class 4 w-space system. On the other side, of course, will be a K162.
The second snippet of information needed to be understood is that an entrance wormhole can either be ‘static’ or random. The meaning of ‘static’ in the sense of a wormhole simply means that a particular type of wormhole will always be present within the system. It won’t remain in the same position, just that once the previous wormhole collapses the new one will be have the same designation. A random wormhole is an anomalous signature that has a chance of spawning anywhere but, once collapsed, will not automatically return. Understanding the static types and, by inference, the random types of wormhole designations will therefore let you imply more information about connections within any specific system.
Whilst it is possible to determine the class of w-space system from the colours seeping through the wormhole this is not the information I wish to impart today. I am more interested in the implications of finding certain designations of wormholes, and the importance in recognising the designations.
Let’s look at what we can tell about a system by the wormholes you visit.
- If you find an entrance wormhole that leads to further w-space you can be sure of finding at least one more wormhole in the system beyond.
- You are jumping through an outbound wormhole that leads to a system that must contain at least its own static wormhole, so you there is definitely another wormhole to find.
- If you find an entrance wormhole that is not a static designation you can be sure of finding at least one more wormhole in the current system.
- Each w-space system has one static wormhole, and class 2 w-space has two, so finding a wormhole that isn’t the static wormhole always leaves the static wormhole to be found.
- If you find an exit wormhole in w-space you can be sure of finding at least one more wormhole in the current system.
- The exit wormhole cannot be the static wormhole of the current system, which must be an entrance, so the static wormhole is still to be found.
- If you find an exit wormhole that leads to w-space there is no guarantee that further wormholes will be found in the system beyond.
- The entrance to the wormhole has been opened in another system, but you need to jump through the wormhole and see the designation of the entrance before you can determine further exploration possibilities.
- If you jump through a K162 to see a static designation on the other side you are not guaranteed to find any further wormholes.
- The system’s static connection is the only guaranteed wormhole in the system, and you’ve found it indirectly by jumping through the K162.
- Check the system for occupation. If there is none, there could be another K162 to find, as a capsuleer must have entered the system to activate the static wormhole you jumped through. Even this is not a guarantee, though, as the wormhole may already be collapsed.
- If you jump through a K162 in to w-space to see a random designation on the other side you can be sure of finding at least one more wormhole.
- The w-space system you have entered has a random wormhole, which still leaves the static wormhole to be found.
All of the above information can be discerned without having to launch scanning probes, which can save time and help maintain covert operations. And it should be seen that being able to determine static and random wormhole designations is useful when exploring w-space. There are plenty to memorise, but in practice only a few are necessary. Certain connections between w-space systems will be seen time and again, particularly if you settle in w-space, and will become obvious given a little time. Others can be determined by scrutinising the information panel, most notably those heading out to k-space. And wormholes to and from deadly class 6 w-space are unmistakable.
On Using The Noctis [or not]
In a recent discussion with Penny [thank you for helping to keep Our Eve stocked and readable], the subject of the Noctis was brought up. Penny and I [and the boys too] have popped a couple Noctises [Nocti? Noctae? Noctices?] in wormholes since ORE began shipping the blueprints for manufacture and have seen a few different fits. This has raised several questions about the usage of and consequently the fitting for a Noctis. In view of my own usage, the Noctis – I would have to say that the answer to the first question is a resounding, “Maybe” and the second question has an even more amorphous answer.
On the one hand, a pilot could try and fit his salvage ship to survive. Plates and resists for protection and rigs to round out its ability to tank. This seems like a fairly tenuous position as the ship is quite fragile and will not be able to mount a very effective escape with such a high armor burden. The other option might be to generate as much speed as possible though it will be impossible to outrun all but the most inexperienced pilots.
Still a third option might be to use a cloak in a high slot to help “hide” for a moment to possibly confuse and confound a potential attacker. This can work for some ships, but the Noctis is still a big target that will be hard to miss when it does uncloak. Another problem with the cloak is the amount of time it adds to the job that the ship is supposed to be performing. Every decloak will engender a delay in targeting and the fitting of the cloak will increase the amount of time necessary to target the wrecks themselves. This can be mitigated to some extent by the application of Sensor Boosters and Signal Amplifiers. This is akin to ships fitting Ancillary Current Router rigs on Caldari ships so that anything “proper” will fit.
Penny is of the opinion that the best way to protect a Noctis is to let it do its job as quickly as possible. The less time that it spends in open space, the less time its pilot will spend updating his clone. This is true to a large extent and I believe that the fitting is only a small part of it. I would suggest that with the added bonuses to salvagers [and especially if you fit Salvage Tackle] that the onus for efficiency will fall on the tractors. Thus in general, a five-three split of tractors and salvagers will likely serve you better. This should hold true for high-sec as well as wormhole clean-up. I would suggest against a cloak as it is going to decrease the speed at which you get the wrecks locked and consequently the speed at which to process the trash floating around in space.
For the mids slots I would lean toward a microwarp drive for its ability to burn toward a gate or wormhole. It is going to make little or no difference in salvation of the ship should sneaky seeds of Satan show up to snatch your scow from you. It will however potentially get you to your destination in a more timely manner. A Sensor Booster [SeBo] is going to help get the wrecks locked more quickly and generally enable you to spend more time frantically mashing F1-F8 to clean the mess that was left floating behind. The other alternative is a Capacitor Recharger but will largely be a matter of choice.
Finally in the low slots do we come to the bones of contention. Cargo, Speed, Armor – which direction should you head? From the beginning I would suggest against a plate. It will do more harm that good to try and slap on a plate that eats up your powergrid, offers only limited improvement in tank and slows down your ability to turn, accelerate and go fast. Resists are a great option and will generally help bolster your tank so that your fleet-mates can arrive on grid in time to see you explode save you. I would avoid the expanded cargoholds unless you are working in High Security Space and you need the 3-4k m3 to store the level 4 mission loot you are collecting. Speed then is a great option to help you get close to the wrecks that are just outside your 68-80km tractor range or align when local/dscan spikes.
Your rigs are likely to just be Salvage Tackle and possibly a Low Friction Nozzlejoint or CCC if you have poor cap skills.
As I write this I am hearing and seeing a lot of negative commentary to the discussion of ship fitting in general and industrial ships in particular. Not everyone understands why they are told to fit a ship certain ways, and many more will believe whatever it is they want about ship fitting in denial of and with disregard for any suggested fittings. For those of you looking to shoot the Noctis, the best advice is just get in and apply alpha as it will go down very quickly. For those of you trying to survive, your best bet is to keep your eyes open and stay out of harms way.
On Deciding What To Do With The Coloured Balls In Space
A recent post by Letrange has twinged my industrial nerves and I was motivated to actually put words to thoughts about Planetary Interaction. I have had my own opinion swing back and forth a number of times on the subject as I give weight to various facets of the whole operation. On the one hand there is the raw price breakdown where P3 > P2 > P1 but balanced by the fact it is so very, very easy to just dump P1 [or even P2] on the market without worrying about colony setup/mainenance/balance.
The P1-chain is a pure set and forget production line with only a basic industry facility. It does not take much work and can easily be exported, scooped and marketed.
A quick and dirty look at P2 gives us a slightly more complicated chain for about 8% increase in isk. Again not bad if the markets hold and the post-production transport/sales are easy.
The P3-chain is another 8-9% increase in revenue but with a much higher investment and management cost. So far, I have been able to generate more than 10% in excess of the necessary P2 reagents for producing P3. This negates the increased revenue from the P3 by sheer volume of P2 [and even P1] produced.
For anything greater P4 and even tower/array building [tower prices on the rise], it takes a significantly larger time investment that I have not been able to integrate.
So in the end, I build some P3 [Robotics] to use for fuel because it is easier than importing to the wormhole, but much prefer to just produce P1 or P2 for market sales. Getting it to the market can be a bit annoying from deep in w-space, but is not something that must be sold quickly to maintain the operation.
On making the best use of a bomber
Fying around w-space on my own or in a pair, the stealth bomber makes for an excellent ambushing ship. And, being Caldari, my stealth bomber of choice is the Manticore. Because of the types of ship that are needed to engage Sleepers, I am generally restricted to ambushing miners and salvagers in the Manticore, which affects how the ship is fitted. My current fit is as follows:
| High slot |
Mid slot |
Low slot |
| 1 × cov-ops cloak |
1 × afterburner |
2 × ballistic control system |
| 1 × bomb launcher |
1 × warp disruptor |
|
| 3 × siege launcher |
1 × sensor booster |
|
|
1 × target painter |
|
| Rig |
None |
The high slots should be obvious, they’re for the pew. The choice of afterburner instead of MWD in the mid is because I am generally cloaked and cannot use an active propulsion module, and don’t want the sig radius bloom or need the speed to keep up with my target. Maybe the extra speed could help me escape when necessary, but the ship is so fragile it may not really matter. The target painter is to make the bombs and torpedoes hit harder against the non-battleship targets. And the sebo, loaded with a scan resolution script, is to help me catch pods. The BCS in the lows give my torpedoes more punch.
The fitting is situational, the one above being mostly for solo runs against salvagers and miners. A second Manticore in the same bombing run needn’t have the point or sebo, and can be adapted to complement the first. A good second fitting, which Fin uses, has remote sensor dampers, which can be used against combat ships to prevent reciprocal locking, either to stop the target from shooting back or damping a combat ship that is guarding the target. A damper can also be used to break a lock and shake off a point, to help you escape.
Most of the modules are Tech II, except for the siege launchers and target painter. The meta 4 target painter, the PWNAGE, is as effective as its Tech II equivalent but requires less CPU, helping the fit. Tech II siege launchers, even with advanced weapon upgrades V, simply don’t fit. At least, not with two BCS in the lows, which is the topic of debate amongst Fin and myself at the moment.
I have the meta 4 launchers and considered the extra rate-of-fire of the T2 launchers to be less desirable than the boost to damage the extra BCS gives. This was purely based on assumption, though. Fin ran some numbers, meta 4 launchers against T2, with no BCS, one BCS, and two BCS, the latter option only available to the meta 4 launchers because of the tight fitting restriction. It turns out that T2 launchers with one BCS would give a minor, albeit real, increase in DPS over the meta 4 launchers with two BCS. I think that surprised us both.
| Low slots |
Meta 4 launchers
faction ammo |
Tech 2 launchers
faction ammo |
T2 launchers
T2 Rage ammo |
| — |
338.8 DPS |
368.4 DPS |
498 DPS |
| 1 × ballistic control system |
416.4 DPS |
462.7 DPS |
515.5 DPS |
| 2 × ballistic control system |
498 DPS |
— |
— |
Of course, I tried to justify my position, but not merely out of pride. My first argument that flying a fully T2 ship would be too expensive is rather silly when my alternative is to fit meta 4 items, which generally tend to be more expensive than their higher-tech equivalents. However, my other argument concerns how much use we get out of the launchers in the first place. There are few times when our bombers are engaged in a sustained attack on a target, and if we are then time is not really a concern. Normally, we only have the opportunity to fire one or two volleys of torpedoes, if any at all, before needing to warp away or cloak.
If we only get to launch a single volley of torpedoes then damage-per-second is not a useful metric. What we need to know is the alpha strike, the single volley damage of the launchers. And as the T2 launchers don’t add to the damage directly, just the rate-of-fire, the volley damage should be higher with a second BCS, which can only be fitted with the meta 4 launchers. If we only get one shot, we need to make sure it counts. But after spending so long training AWU V and advanced torpedo specialisation to get the snazzy T2 launchers fitted there must be some advantage to fitting them, and the advantage is that the extra damage of T2 missiles, only usable in T2 launchers, offsets the missing BCS.
Naturally, T2 ammo is expensive, but over the average life of one of my Manticores in w-space it will probably work out cheaper to fit T2 than meta 4. So it seems like the best option is to fit T2 launchers and sacrifice a BCS. The damage will still be equivalent, or better, as will the cost, whilst freeing up a low slot. Unless a mid slot fitting is reduced to a T1 module, the spare low slot will need to have a co-processor fitted. But making the switch allows for the low slot to be used for a nanofibre modification, to improve agility for fleeing, or an overdrive to increase cloaked velocity, both options appealing to the covert ambusher.
But there is another option, which Fin cleverly realises. Keeping the co-processor in the low slot allows for rigs to be fitted, covering the penalty of higher CPU requirements for the launchers. Specifically, warhead calefaction catalyst rigs can be fitted, which are effectively each a direct replacement for a BCS, at least for the damage bonus. With two rigs and a single BCS in the low slot, the Manticore has the equivalent of three BCS fitted, all with the added benefit of T2 missiles. As Fin calculates, ‘for maximum alpha, an SB pilot could fit two rigs pushing its alpha another 700 damage higher to outpace the Meta 4 setup by 793! The total is about 5255 [with all skills at V], which is almost like hitting them with another 2/3rds of a bomb!’ A test firing with the new configuration confirms this, the only relevant skill I’m missing being warhead upgrades V. So my new fitting is:
| High slot |
Mid slot |
Low slot |
| 1 × cov-ops cloak |
1 × afterburner II |
1 × ballistic control system II |
| 1 × bomb launcher |
1 × warp disruptor II |
1 × co-processor II |
| 3 × siege launcher II |
1 × sensor booster II |
|
|
1 × target painter II |
|
| Rig |
2 × warhead calefaction catalyst |
And that packs one hell of a punch.
On how to make your escape easier
So there I am shooting a couple of Hulks, but with only a single point fitted to my Manticore. I have a Tengu about to breathe down my neck, so I am not expecting to destroy both exhumers, but I am still trying to put the fear of Penny in them. I do this by cycling my disruptor between the two ships, exploiting the peculiarities of warp engines. When a ship is trying to enter warp but is prevented from doing so the engines will return to their previous mode of operation. What I am relying on is that the pilots went from being stationary to trying to enter warp directly, which when disrupted will cause the ship to ‘stall’.
Cycling the point between the two ships is a risky tactic, as it theoretically shouldn’t work. Either pilot should recognise when the engines are being disrupted and when they are not, and align manually to their escape route, engaging warp drive as soon as the point drops. But the stalling problem is compounded by another quirk, in that the escape route in w-space will often be your tower (or a wormhole, which suffers the same way), and warping to a bookmark is controlled by a context menu. Having to navigate the menu is rather more involved than rapidly punching the warp button on the overview.
Essentially, unless the pilots know exactly what’s happening and take care to align manually, their slow Hulks will never be able to get up to three-quarter speed in order to enter warp. Trying to enter warp directly and stalling the ship will reduce the Hulk’s velocity such that accelerating from zero takes longer than the cycle time of my warp disruption module. Of course, selecting a celestial object will open up the possibility of spamming the warp button, which is right next to ‘align’, another convenient button, but this is a risky move for the defender. The attacker could follow, and soft targets generally warp more slowly than pointy ships. As the defender still has to enter warp again once the celestial object has been reached, in order to get back home safely, all he has done is move the encounter.
Thinking further, using a celestial object to avoid using a bookmark to warp to could be effective if the celestial object is the moon where your tower is anchored. You still need to warp again once the moon is reached, the short distance to the tower, but anyone following will be at the mercy of the tower’s defences, making it a safer position to warp to. And you get to align easily and spam the warp button. At least, you could, if it were possible to add a single moon to the overview. Adding moons in general only makes the specific moon awkward to single out and clutters up the overview. But maybe you can add that single moon to the overview, just indirectly.
I’ve encountered a solution to adding the tower’s moon to the overview before, I just haven’t recognised it. Of course, it may not have been used as such a solution, but it occurs to me that anchoring a territorial claim unit to your moon creates a superior escape route. The TCU appears on the overview from anywhere in the system. It can be warped to, aligned to, and placed on the same grid as the tower. There will be no need to navigate relatively fiddly context menus to align or warp to a bookmark in a panic, and even though you won’t be inside the tower’s shields arriving at the TCU will provide covering fire from the active defences.
Maybe the TCUs I’ve so far encountered have nothing to do with providing a better escape route, and are anchored for completely different reasons. But it seems like a good idea to me to anchor one to provide a convenient point visible from anywhere in the system that can be accessed by standard navigation tools. The TCU may advertise the location of your tower, but that is far from a secret anyway. I’m wondering if a territorial claim unit may just save your clone.
On revisiting the scene of the crime
One of the features of the overhauled sovereignty system is system upgrades, allowing claimed systems to be modified to attract more anomalies and probably some other modifications. I don’t know, I live in w-space, where sovereignty cannot even be claimed, let alone the system upgraded. But it got me considering the possibility of an upgrade specific to w-space.
The genesis of my thoughts was the aftermath of assaulting a tower in w-space on Christmas Eve. It was a lovely present, to find an entirely undefended tower in w-space, but the strontium present in the fuel bay stopped Fin and I from doing any real damage. There was enough strontium for the tower to be in reinforced mode for forty hours, and our static wormhole only remains open for sixteen. Without wanting to remain isolated from our home system, and then making our way back via an exit to null-sec, all we could really do was turn around and leave the tower alone.
Such are tower assaults in w-space. I strongly suspect the occupants of this class 3 system rely on strontium to protect their tower from destruction, instead of weapon batteries for an active defence. Either the tower is put in to reinforced mode and the attackers go home, or the attackers remain in the system, severing their own link home, and risk waiting until reinforced mode ends. There is no guaranteed way back in to the same w-space system without leaving at least one scout there. Maybe there could be.
The wormholes in w-space are not entirely random. They are the product of Sleeper technology, opening links between systems, and maybe their randomness is actually a result of the ancient technology gone a bit haywire. Perhaps it is possible to harness this alien technology, much like is already done for strategic cruisers, to stabilise wormhole connections, at least a little.
The w-space upgrade I am thinking of is a celestial beacon. When installed, the beacon links one system to another, creating an anchor for the wormhole technology. When the current static wormhole collapses, the new one created will latch on to the beacon and open to the same system, allowing further journeys between the two systems.
The benefits should be obvious. A tower is no longer completely safe merely for having strontium, as a celestial beacon can be installed allowing a fleet to return after the reinforced mode ends. But there are other benefits. A rarely visited system, with dozens of anomalies or mining sites, can be plundered for profit over a greater period, instead of watching all the resources disappear with the current static wormhole. Or a connection to a system with a convenient exit to high-sec empire space can be utilised over several days, instead of trying to cram all the travel in to a few hours.
Such an upgrade is, of course, supremely powerful. After all, it essentially breaks the randomness of w-space, its defining nature. The way the beacon needs to be installed, and its fragility, hopefully will militate against most concerns of being too powerful. The beacon must be anchored to the K162 in other system, and after the old wormhole collapses any new wormhole will appear in the same position. It is also visible on the overview throughout the system, much like a territorial control unit, or stargate. Any capsuleer can warp to the beacon on a whim, without needing to scan for it. The beacon is also poorly armoured and cannot be repaired, making it an easy target for destruction.
The beacon may give an opportunity for return visits to the same w-space system, but it is far from guaranteed, and far from safe. Being able to see and warp to the beacon allows locals to destroy the beacon easily and keep their system safe. The attackers would need to defend their beacon heavily to ensure a further assault against any tower in the system, which may take too many resources compared to perhaps a simple bombing run or two needed by the defenders. The guarantee of a K162 being at the beacon would also make it a prime target for ambushers from other systems, adding some danger to planting one even in a system marked for profit or its exit.
The only issue that could be a real problem is abusing the beacon to allow greater numbers of ships to travel between systems. Rather than only being able to get a certain number of battleships in and out before the mass allowance is surpassed, a beacon would guarantee further passage between systems, essentially allowing as many ships as possible to enter and exit, a new wormhole being created each time the current one collapses. Perhaps this will be solved by the beacon only renewing wormholes that collapse during their end-of-life stage. Those wormholes that are intentionally collapsed by mass at any other time would also destroy the beacon. That would limit the number of ships that could transit every twelve to twenty hours.
I think a celestial beacon could be an interesting w-space upgrade. Allowing continued passage between systems that could otherwise not connect for months is useful occasionally, and the drawbacks of it being so visible and obvious should limit its appeal to be used relatively scarcely. There may be other drawbacks I haven’t considered that are the reason why there is no such Sleeper technology yet found, or perhaps it simply hasn’t been uncovered yet. Either way, it would be interesting to see if a celestial beacon would enhance w-space life, or ruin it.
On telling pilots to ‘get lost’ without so many words
Listening to corporation colleagues get themselves organised about who is in w-space and who is in empire space, and how to transition back again, gets me thinking. It should be surprisingly easy to trick a pilot in to getting isolated in w-space. Or, at least, to let a colleague know he is annoying you.
The only way to travel between w-space systems, and to get in and out of w-space in the first place, is to use wormholes. These need to be scanned initially but, once resolved, can be bookmarked and the bookmarks used for navigation. The bookmarks can also be shared and used independently, although I’m sure we’d all like a more robust system.
It should be difficult to get another pilot lost in w-space, because bookmarks for the current system show in green in the nav-comp, and there should be at least a pair of bookmarks per system for the way in and way out. But pilots can be trusting, and often take data at face value. Abusing this trust is the key to isolating pilots.
Let’s say a pilot wants to return to the home w-space system from empire space. You scan an exit, bookmark the wormholes, and contract the bookmarks to the pilot so that he can follow them in. Normally, he won’t be returning in a scanning boat, which is why the following method will work to isolate him in empty space.
Scan the exit normally, and make regular bookmarks; you’ll need them for yourself. Make a copy of the bookmarks and store them in a separate folder, as you won’t want to get the two sets confused. Now delete a couple of crucial bookmarks, such as a pair of wormholes in the same system. A pair of wormholes across different systems would be funnier, as long as they break the link in the right place.
The normal route should be complete:
home ↔ w-space ↔ w-space ↔ empire space
Keep this route for yourself.
A simple broken route deletes a pair of wormholes in the same system:
home ↔ w-space ×→ w-space ←× empire space
Or you can break the route across systems:
home ×→ w-space ↔ w-space ←× empire space
But don’t break the link in the wrong place:
home ←× w-space ↔ w-space ×→ empire space
The pilot won’t be able to get in to the system in the first place, but even if he does he will still be able to navigate out.
Missing bookmarks are quite obvious, though. Certainly, enough pilots have ventured in to systems without ensuring they have the wormhole back bookmarked, including myself, but any pilot paying attention will notice only one bookmark present in the system and realise that he needs two to navigate properly. So you need to make some fake bookmarks. It may be obvious, but it is important enough to have to state: the fake bookmark must be made in the same system as the authentic bookmark it is replacing. This will not only colour the bookmark green in the right system but make the pilot warp to it instead of the wormhole, as required.
Creating safe spots will work for the fake wormhole bookmarks, or you can simply warp to a celestial object and bookmark the warp-in point. Sending your colleague to a celestial object makes him easier for any local activity to hunt, until he makes his own safe spot, which adds to the amusement. When you make the fake bookmarks you must label them to look authentic. Give the fake bookmark the wormhole designation, it’s signature reference, the class of system it leads to, and any other notation you normally use. You can simply copy the details from your correct bookmark. If it looks good, it is unlikely to be questioned.
Contract the bad bookmarks to your colleague, sit back, and watch corporation chat explode with confusion and pleas for help as the pilot warps to empty space in both directions, isolated in w-space with no recourse to scanning his way out. Ha ha ha, what a jape! The same method can also be used to poison a shared bookmark container. Replace a pair of wormholes with empty space fakely labelled, and watch the fleet warp out with no way home. Oh my, the larks that can be had! For added fun, and some level of plausible deniability, claim the the wormholes have unexpectedly collapsed.
This method isn’t flawless. A keen capsuleer can check the authenticity of each bookmark on every stage of his journey, by selecting the wormhole and seeing if ‘approach location’ appears for the wormhole he’s supposed to be sitting on, and not ‘warp to location’, or by creating his own set as he travels. But the idea is that many pilots trust the bookmark set implicitly, and do so whilst in ships that have no method to scan for wormholes. And the only guaranteed way out of a w-space system is to self-destruct and bio-mass your current clone.
On Reaching A Point Of Change
There are sadly, times when your world changes. While changes are fresh and often refreshing, the are also all about things being different and even the most positive of changes still carries with it a high level of stress. Take for instance some of the most stressful events available to humanity: slipping into your first pod; getting married; plugging in +5 implants; flying your first interceptor; having children; upgrading your medical clone. These are all positive events with great rewards attached to them. We learn, grow and become more than we were through them. And still they give us stress and often force us to re-evaluate our position.
This eustress as it were is a cumulative process in the body and pod pilots are not immune. It is a function of our terrestrial origins and comes ‘part and parcel’ with the biological fleshy sack of bones that we stuff into our pods. This is for the most part a good thing. However – like all stress it needs an outlet. Some people find their relief in mining, other from running missions for various corporations and still others from trying to stop other pilots from completing the first two.
[caption id="attachment_966" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="What We Saw From Outside"]  [/caption]
So to has been the move to a new home in a higher class wormhole. We came into the new home with isk in our eyes and the sun aft. There was great excitement, motivation, participation and preparation. The transition from a class 3 to a class 4 wormhole carried with it an added set of challenges that required adaptation, innovation and adjustments in how we perceived and pursued the profits around us. So too does the shift from a class 4 to a class 5. Here also is the need for adaptation, innovation and adjustment. The rewards are potentially much greater, but also the dangers. There is the ever-looming threat of better pilots with bigger toys coming to visit. The concentrations of enemies and the requirements to face them are both higher. If there is one other thing that remains constant in moving from class to class, it is the progression of difficulty.
[caption id="attachment_967" align="alignright" width="150" caption="What We See From Inside"]  [/caption]
As we have set up our operations and began to prepare for the future, several things have become apparent.
- Change generates a lot of excitement and activity that is not necessarily reflective of ongoing reality.
- Perceptions are based in reality but do not always reflect the whole picture.
- The progression of difficulty is not linear and iterations on a theme are less likely to be as effective.
- While loss can be a motivator and tool for education, it can also and often is disheartening.
- Losses are always painful. Even the small ones.
- Sometimes you can simply be unlucky. Other times it is sheer luck that makes things go great.
So in the end we are having to wrestle with our own perceptions and expectations of what we want out of the whole experience. We are each coming to terms with how we will cope and for some it means more changes. Some have decided that the best way to deal with it is to move on to something else. It is not unlike the earliest of starts when we learned how to die very well and what to watch out for. While we are no longer the idiots in the neighbourhood, we still have a lot of learning to do.
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[caption id="attachment_1120" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="BIF's for Spacing"]
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[caption id="attachment_1121" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Import-Export Business"]
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[caption id="attachment_1122" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Rounding It All Out"]
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[caption id="attachment_1116" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The Missing Links"]
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