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 Crucibles Of Change
So in a few moments, the universe as we know it will collapse in on itself in a cataclysmic cacophony of conniptions that we will come to call Crucible. There are changes enough for everyone, including everything from lowly munitions all the way up to galaxy spanning goodies. There are new modules/equipment as well as new ships to put them on. There are old types of equipment with new abilities and properties as well as new paint on old ships.
Perhaps more than with other releases I have been keeping an eye on this update. Regular daily Singularity updates and visits have become a part of my routine as much as my morning coffee. Perusing the differences of the new equipments, ships and visuals has become something of a habit. By-and-large, there is little in the changes that will effect my day-to-day routine significantly [with the exception of corporate bookmarks - which still seem only half of a solution]. There is a bit of internal struggle that coincides with all of this change, mostly centered around the question of, “Why do I care so much?” Bear with my introspective, belly-button browsing as I consider how all of this is affecting me so deeply.
In a bit of confession and disclosure, I have toyed with the notion of hanging up my pilot’s license and settling down into a long stasis. Over the last year has seen some interesting flak and change happen in the universe and not all of them have been useful or happy. There were times and days where I could not be arsed to haul my pod into a ship to do much of anything, let alone fly around, shoot, scan, salvage, explore…. So in the midst of all this malaise, comes a rather expected update to the universe with rather unexpected feelings attached to it.
Where there was apathy before, suddenly there is attention. Where before I felt like giving up, I am tending to feel things going up. I look forward to sliding into my ships and launching forth to interact with the others around me. If nothing else, at least there is in Crucible the concern for quality that derides my contempt and compels my attention. I am ready for change. The world is again before me on a plate of stars waiting to be devoured with the utensils of ships and shots.
I would like to leave you all with a quick Wordle of the patch notes mentioned above. I was singularly impressed with the results and how much it reflects the essence of change.
On Making More Mining
There is a certain need felt by many profession miners to be able to get more ore from their rock collections than the next guy. The thought of not having the very best possible set-up for ore extraction is nearly unbearable and they will risk gang and gank for a maximum yield mining boat. I have known more than a few pilots who have fit their ships to mine more ore in a cycle than they can hold at one time in their cargohold. And yet, there is still more ore to be had, more cubic meters of matter to collect. To scramble some popular culture, let’s see how deep the rabbit can mine.
The hardwirings for a miner are much more limited and are likely to see the pilot either leaving slots empty or putting semi-unrelated things in her head. The main hardwiring is the slot 10 ‘Highwall’ HX-series of mining yield improvements. Given that mining is done over time [for some pilots, any time mining is mind-numbing, stupor inducing, interminable hours/days/weeks/month/years], even the 1% boost can be significant. If you are an ice miner, then you will fill slot 10 with a ‘Yeti’ BX-series hardwire which reduces ice miner cycle time. There is an additional implant for slot 10, the ‘Highwall’ HY-series which reduce the CPU need for mining upgrades, but this is more easily accomplished with the CPU implant ‘Gypsy’ KMB-series which keeps slot 10 open for either mining or ice implant upgrades. Using the KMB-series of implants will also be beneficial while flying other ships.
As mentioned in other posts, the capacitor implants, namely the ‘Squire’ CC2/4/8 and the ‘Squire’ CR2/4/8, for increased capacitor and faster capacitor recharge will benefit the miner just as much as the PVP and PVE pilots as well as being just as useful for jumping in other ships and maintaining capacitor while flying.
The last hardwiring implant for a miner to consider is the slot 10, Mining Foreman Mindlink. This is an advanced hardwiring [requiring Cybernetics V] that improves the effect of the pilot as a mining booster on his or her fleet. This is almost essential for a corporate mining leader and the cost quickly recovered by an Orca pilot who is boosting a fleet of Hulks. For a Rorqual pilot, it should be a minimum requirement as it creates a set of insane yield boosts for the rest of the miners.
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 Being Plugged In
[caption id="attachment_971" align="alignright" width="149" caption="Plug It In, Plug It In"]  [/caption]
There are within EVE a plethora of ways to get better and be better than the next pilot. Fitting your ship, pilot ability, skill training and finally implants. Like the Glade® Plug-ins of Terran myth, these cool little doodads work their magic by being inserted into sockets in your brain and having some larger effect on the world around you. Unlike the Glade®’s they can be more than just a fresh scent. They can increase your ability to squeeze things on your ship, improve your cap-life, add time to your tank, and even speed up the rate at which you acquire new skills. They are the magic beans being sold by the side of road. They are quite simply, rigs for your brain. In much the same way you might spend extra money to rig your ship for a performance increase, you can ‘rig’ your melon with implants for an increase in something [often just ego, ask Krull].
They can generally be divided into two broad divisions and several sub-categories. First there are the attribute implants that increase your Intelligence [Einstein never had it so good], Memory [Where did I park my Onyx?], Perception [I see dead people], Willpower [OBEY!] and Charisma [Leadership skill training?]. The second division is the broad range of enhancement implants that improve how skills work, how modules function, how damage is calculated and applied even how effective the drugs you might be taking are on you performance. Each of these two broad divisions can be further subdivided into categories:
- Attribute Implants:
- Specific Attribute [Int/Mem/Per/Wil/Cha]
- Limited
- Limited Beta
- Basic
- Standard
- Improved
- Pirate
- Hardwirings
- Armor
- Drones
- Electronics
- Engineering
- Gunnery
- Industry
- Leadership
- Missile
- Navigation
- Science
- Shields
There are a myriad different ways to fit these into your head, just as there are millions of possible ship configurations. Hopefully over the next couple of posts I will examine some different combinations that can serve particular needs. If you a particular set you like to use or rely on, post a comment and I will see about getting it put into the mix.
On Moving Slowly And Taking Notes
[caption id="attachment_813" align="alignright" width="309" caption="Sisters of the Guardian"]  [/caption]
We managed to scan out our static and a connecting class 5 wormhole with some nice gas and anomalies. The static was a class two, which no doubt affected the desirability of said wormhole. After some random dithering and discussion, we decided we had sufficient fleet strength and numbers to check out some of the combat opportunities. It helped to sway us that the system contained a Cataclysmic Variable spacial anomaly that works heavily in favour of our chose remote repair strategy. In fact, it means that the large remote armor repair modules mounted on our Guardian logistics ships are 85% more effective!
The Vital Core Reservoir is known to have a couple of Sleepless Keeper battleship sized drones in it and we haven’t faced this particular kind before. Our initial plan of attack involves a fleet of Mr.’s Maelstrom, Scorpion, Dominix and Rook, and finally the Sisters of the Guardian2 for the first encounter. Since the person who scanned down the site had warped to it previously, the enemy was right at hand and waiting to be studied and evaluated. The Guardians quickly set up their logistics lock while Mr.’s Scorpion and Rook began to jam the two battleship class ships. Someone somewhere was writing all this down and making notes about comparable lock times, ECM resistance levels and initial alpha strikes from the ships. Once the initial observations were made, first one and then both battleships were allowed to regain locks and incoming damage assessment began. We were pleasantly surprised with our results and proceeded to just pummel the poor ships after gaining our data.
After gathering some basic intelligence reports from this Ladar, we opted to do the same with a combat site. The results were similarly enlightening and led to some nice discussions about the prospects of future class 5 wormhole colonisation. One of the things we noticed was the slight change from a higher alpha strike to a more sustained DPS. Whereas when we moved from a class 3 to the first class 4 site was the noticeable increase in the first wave of incoming damage. This was probably due in part to our slightly lower skills, unknown expectations and difficult fleet composition. The intervening months have taught us a great deal about how to operate together more efficiently. We were later joined by our Ms. Abaddon pilot and Mr. Frigate Ganking Harbinger. The increased DPS mitigated some of the ECM needs, so Mr. Rook flew off to expedite the salvage operation.
While not an overall cake walk [buy ticket, listen to music, note number, pick up cake] it was certainly an enjoyable exploration of a possible future direction. Little Mr. Harbi took one in the chin as without an explosive armor hardner, even the 8 combined, staggered, drone-assisted, Cataclysmic Variable boosted remote repairs from the Sisters of G2 could help survive the incoming damage. He ping-ponged in and out of structure [full armor, then 95% structure, full armor, 80% structure, full armor, then still lower structure, full armor, 25% structure, full armor, 5% structure] until finally entertaining us with a nice puff of atmospherics and some light. It helped that it was a highly profitable evening with the combat portion of the exploration hovering around 1 billion in revenue for a couple hours work and research.
To cap off the night, a couple of ran back and harvested the 300 million isk gas cloud as there are some friends who would like those polymers. Good deeds and all.
On Finding and Using a Common Reference Point
While working in space has its perks and for the most part is a wonderful experience, we are in part hampered by the interface built into our ships. I firmly place any and all blame on the Jovians as part of their desire to maintain a position of aloof superiority over us by seeding small technological wonders attached to inane and sometimes incomplete user interfaces. I could probably wax eloquent over multiple examples, but would only be “preaching to the choir” as it were. None of the pilots I fly with or talk to would recommend the user interface we use on a regular basis for any purpose other than masochism.
Having written all of that, we are flying around in a multi-dimensional space with the only real point of reference being a false horizon given to us by the tactical overlay. Flying around planets, suns, moons, et cetra are all inconsistent measures of location and often difficult to describe in a place where concepts like UP, DOWN, STARBOARD, PORT, AFT, BOW are rendered meaningless in light of both the interface and third-dimensional travel. [As an aside for those who might have flown a spaceship in a "twitch" type of environment, a barrel-roll really loses it's meaning without a horizon, but that doesn't negate it's usefulness.] So how can you organise yourself and others [especially fleet commanders] to use a common point of reference without everything going down the drain in confusion over directions and terms.
REALITY – You can’t. There will always be someone to misunderstand any given command. “Warp to 30km and hold,” will invariably be understood as, “Get to the gate and jump. Jump! JUMP!” by aforementioned schmuck. In another life, we had a fleet-mate who always turned up oriented 180˚ degrees vertical to the rest of the group. Ultimately it didn’t matter as she would at least be facing the right direction. The best we can do is develop a consistent point of reference and be insistent that people reference it for direction. Anything else will largely just be lucky, random happenstance.
Something reminded me the other day of how we were taught to find reference points in fleet operations while giving a new corp-mate the grand tour. Dazed and confused by the overwhelming flood of information coming at him upon joining our little patch of home, he queried, “How do you all know where you are going?” Admittedly he was referring to finding and keeping track of the ever shifting network of wormholes, but it was a good reminder about getting oriented and one that I had completely forgotten in moving into a wormhole. The point of this is to get everyone a common frame of reference that they can use to describe position and interpret directions.
[caption id="attachment_754" align="alignright" width="230" caption="Finding North"]  [/caption]
The method is fairly easy and refers to an arbitrary direction that we will call, Norbert. To find Norbert and get oriented to Norbert, you simply full up the otherwise useless system map [via the F11 key unless you've remapped it somehow]. In the lower right hand corner will be a map of your current system complete with relative planetary orbits and the star in the centre. Somewhere on this little map will be a red circle that represents your current position. extending outward from this circle is what can best be described as two overlapping, semi-transparent triangles. These indicate the current horizontal “field-of-view” of your camera drones. The direction your ship is facing is irrelevant as is your vertical declination above or below the plane of the tactical overlay horizon. Remember Norton? It is this field-of-view that we use to define Norbert. Norbert is arbitrarily defined as the top of the little system map. Everything else can now be defined relative to Norbert. You warp to a wormhole at 10 o’clock knowing that your cloaked stealth bomber buddy is 30km 6 o’clock. Stealth Edit. 
On Waking Up After Being Deprived Of Your Pod
Ouch. Blinding pain. My ship … is, why can’t I feel my ship. And … um … I can’t … seem to focus … on the present. Station … docked? Sleepy … groggy … slow.
Not unlike post-election interviews with the runner-up, waking up after a binge, stepping in it in the park or waking up in a new clone, the process of recovery is sometimes short and sweet and more often filled with emotion, pain and suffering. How you handle losing it all speaks more volumes about you than the epitaphs shouted in comms, kill board statistics or isks spent on your last ride. From an early age people need to learn some important EVE life lessons.
1) It’s a ride. It does not have emotions. It doesn’t care if you are in, on, afk, logged, asleep at the pod, finger in your nose, smiling or frowning. It is quite oblivious to anything you care about. Pets, asteroids, spouses, corp-mates, local taxes, sovereignty fees – they are all irrelevant to the EVE Train.
2) It is independent. It goes where it will. You are able to affect its direction to some extent, but more than likely it is less Butterfly Effect and more akin to Clear Skies or Carebears Attack in the ability to affect the larger picture. You look out for you and yours and things go swimmingly.
3) You will die. You will lose a lot of ships if you are actually playing the game with any level of interaction. It doesn’t matter if you are in high security, low security, null security or wormhole space – you and your ship will soon be parted. Today’s Headlines: Death Coming. Tomorrow’s Forecast: Mostly ganky with an increasing chance of podding. The only unknowns are when, where and everything except how well you handle yourself.
This is not some HTFU rant about people who can’t hack the harsh, kill-or-be-killed world of New Eden. It’s a realistic gut check for pilots who think the worst thing that can happen is getting your current clone senselessly splattered on the nose-cone of a Terror Assault missile or perforated by Repulic EMP. It’s all senseless and it will continue to happen as long as there are people flying other ships. There is always someone bigger, faster, stronger, smarter, wealthier or prettier who is able to relieve you of your capacity to be in a ship.
I’m not saying don’t be upset about losing a ship. I cry over every last one. Most of them I built. I fit them, flew them, trained them, repaired them, crashed them. All of them I loved. My ships are my life and every last one of them is important to me, from the disposable frigates to the disposable battlecruisers. They surround me, they hold me, they give everything they have to me – could I give them less. And as for my pod – that rather frail hunk of metal filled with snot and keeping my clone from feeling the effects of strenuous accelerations and combat – it too serves its purpose and no more. I have bought several clones. I will buy several more. God willing, I will not forget to buy one when I die tomorrow.
So when an overwhelming force of pilots gank you, get up, get back in a ship and keep going. Or not. Either choice is valid. The people who shot you out of the sky won’t really care one way or the other. Ranting – not likely to get you much response. Wild and derogatory remarks – again not likely to help put implants back in your head. Best case scenario – ask if it was them in the reverse situation, what would they have done. They might offer useful suggestions. The worst case scenario is they might just laugh and say, “Die.” Either way, use it to get better at flying your spaceships.
To put this in more of a personal context – the Wormhole Engineers have been attacked, off and on, since they first started living in wormholes. Mining maulings, hauling hijacks, gratuitous ganks and overt overkills have been the norm and not the exception. We learned important lessons all along the way. We first learned how to hide better and then we learned how to run away better. We learned how to be better aware of the situation not just around us, but beyond our little corner of the world. We began to learn how to resist and tank and eventually even how to shoot back. We learned how to take ammunition from out tower and distribute it more effectively on the hulls of other pilots. We haven’t had a lot of kills and we’re still not afraid to back down. However; if we shoot you, it isn’t personal and we’re not out to bully the pilots we see around us.
One of the lessons we learned the hard way was there are no innocent people out here in the wormholes. Letting an unknown covops pilot buzz around in plain site is a sure way to buy a new clone and it is still worth getting an overwhelming force out to catch and pop them. Sending the pilot back to known space is the only way to assure they aren’t scouting for a larger party. The larger force may still be there, but they’ll have to survive with one less set of eyes. They may only be scanning for exits, but that’s what we were doing until we saw someone else’s probes.
On Going Backwards For A Bit
First, a Public Service Announcement from WHEN. Pro-Tip: Cloak, THEN scan. Recently while scanning, two of my corp-mates cornered a day-tripping scanner in a nearby class 1 wormhole and sent him home, express postage paid. Even in a Tech 1 frigate, fit a cloak if you are going to be scanning. Additionally keep your eyes peeled and on the d-scan. Your first sign of danger shouldn’t be the sound of ammunition pummelling into your hull!
The Wormhole Engineers have done a fabulous job of clearing out the anomalies and signatures in our home system. The standard mode of operations is:
- Scan out the static exit.
- See how deep the rabbit hole goes.
- Prioritise the resources located.
- Secure the area.
- Collect as much as feasible given personnel, skills and equipment.
Numbers one and two happen almost automatically now. It’s become an engrained response to the place we choose to live. Number 3 is somewhat amorphous and can change dynamically [It's the nature of priorities.]. Number 4 can be difficult as there are times when we can easily tell we are out-matched and our best course of action is closing the w’hole as quickly as possible. Sometimes number 4 involves shooting other ships, as was seen in the recent expedition into the nearby class 1. In addition to the uncloaked, and possibly AFK scanner, a salvage-Stabber was chased down and shown the door.
Second, a Public Service Announcement from WHEN. Pro-Tip: Don’t leave a salvager behind to clean up. Especially don’t leave a salvager behind to clean up when:
- A Corp-mate just got podded,
- the wormhole you came in through is end-of-life,
- The poor salvager doesn’t have a probe launcher fit,
- The straggler doesn’t have bookmarks for the other w’holes in the system.
Having done all this, we eschew the neighbouring class 4 system with its relative dearth of anomalies and sites to pursue the cheap candy covered thrills of the class 1 conveniently left behind by the previous, unfortunate visitors. A few minutes are spent debating the relative merits/demerits/benefits/challenges of flying various fleets to best capitalise on the class one in the most efficient manner. In the end, efficiency really becomes less of a concern when dealing with things that can be handled solo. We each hop into our preferred ships and head off to clean up the Sleeper detritus infecting said system.
With the static highsec exit left unscanned/warped, we are able to work in relative safety. Our motley crew ends up being a heavy missile Drake sporting siege warfare links, a heavy assault missile Drake equipped to both hack and analyse [2 magnetometric sites and 1 radar site present] and an Ishtar we half-jokingly refer to as the Salva-Tar for it’s ability to clean up the wrecks as we go along. After a few quick moments we realise that we are not only overkill for a class 1, we are way over tanked as a fleet and begin to split up. Salva-Tar goes back and grabs a specialised salvage boat,the HML drake goes on to the next site and hack Drake finished up on the cans. Joining the HML, the hack-Drake helps make short work of site two and the scenario is repeated for site three. All-in-all, the Drake really proved itself as a wonderful jack of all trades for cleaning up a class 1 wormhole.
In the end, the spoils were average for a class 1, and seemingly low in comparison to doing the same sites in our home class 4, but the evening was in reality a resounding success. We tracked down and killed two defenceless carebears, avoided reprisal, ran several combat sites that were quite beneath our level and left with all of the candy. It was good to feel confident, in control and powerful – if only for a moment. I know that soon we’ll be podded by bigger boys in badder boats and ganked by girls with guns.
On Getting To Know The Author
Somewhat in response to Freebooted‘s post about introductions, I came up with the following:
[caption id="attachment_678" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Vestigial Heritage"]  [/caption]
I’m an old Caldari pilot who has managed to fly a lot of ships, visit a lot of systems and learned some of the most spectacular ways to die. I believe in working very hard to be the best pilot that you can. To that end, I spend a lot of my skill points on getting my skills to level 5. This also means I don’t have a lot of skills. I love my Drake and I don’t mind trying to use it in a lot of different situations.
I am that bane of banes for MMOs, the carebears’ carebear. I like mining. I like manufacturing. I like killing rats and Sleepers, setting up towers, plugging different numbers in spreadsheets and seeing what comes out. I like flying with a group of friends more than I realised when I started and I miss them when they are gone. I used to mine Veldspar in high-sec before I started exploring and mining Kernite in exploration sites. I would run missions for extra ore when the macro-miners would strip out whole systems.
I have a whole lot of blueprints and end up using them on occasion. I have been in one fail cascade, one very successful corporation and have most recently started out again on my own with a new venture. We endeavour to focus on solely on wormholes and utilising them for fun and profit.
On Keeping and Disseminating Information
One of the things that I suggested in a previous post was a dedicated list of wormhole blogs. So without further commentary from yours truly, I present the WHole-Pack, a list of informative and experiential blogs about pilots living in wormholes. This list is also available via Google Reader.
This isn’t a static list nor exclusive. If you think your blog should be here [i.e. you post about wormholes], the let me know.
[wp-blogroll catid=386]
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