Sometimes the circumstances just talk to you. Point you in a specific direction. Telling you; this is what you should do, what are you waiting for? Or at least so it feels.
I could not decide exactly what to do with the C4 system I found. I wanted to move stuff in there, but did not know what. Just log an Orca and a Vargur in there? Scan out the system and when it was empty and silent, log them on, quickly setup a small, temporary POS for changing ships and do some plexing? It was tempting to try and do some ninja PVE, but at the same time I had never tried a Vargur for soloing C4s. Without a permanent POS I could not take more ships with me than I could fit into a Orca and/or log off with. It was a cool idea, but maybe I was trying to bite over more then I could chew? For instance, unless I wanted to do hole-closing with a 2B ISK Vargur I had to find another solution for that.
I still like the idea of not having more ships than you could just pack together and log off with if anything happened. You can take more risks and you are much more mobile if you can move all your stuff in one go. When I was living in a C4/C4 doing plexing with two rattlers, I did not have pilots for both the rattlers and the Orca (one rattler-pilot also had to fly the Orca), therefore I had to anchor a SMA if I did not want to leave ships floating.
Anyway, today I changed my plans. I was scanning out the static C2, as usual. My hosts where hanging afk in their POS, as usual. In the static C2 I found another C4, which turned out to be as full of combat-sites as it was empty of inhabitants. It also had a static C2 (easy access to HS) and it was a Red Giant which gives a good boost to smartbombs. Normally you don't care about that effect, but my Vargur happens to be equipped with a smart-bomb to take care of frigs so I could actually get some use out of it.
Now, the whole idea of living extremely light is to be able to move quickly and capitalize on opportunities like this, is it not? Should I therefore just move into this new system instead? Would that be a better place to try out my Vargur? It would take getting my ships out of Beta and getting a replacement long term scout since I was not ready to leave Beta just yet. I also had to fire up the old Orca I had in Amarr and get that into the new system (Gamma?) to setup a POS and that could take some time depending on how far away from Amarr I currently was.
When I checked out the HS in the C2 I ended up in Sarum Prime, that's one single jump from where I had my scout and the Orca! It could not be a better chance, all the planets sort of aligned up for me to just jump over into the new, red giant C4.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Friday, February 7, 2014
The kings of afk POS-spinning
I have found them! The ones that essentially manages to not do anything, but still be online most of the time. I'm talking about the guys in Beta, the C4 I'm decided to covertly "move into" and try to use as it's my own.
I have now stayed in their system for a few days (long enough for my cleaning up crappy sigs is starting to show, now there's just four sigs to scan down instead of 20) and I have not seen this guys do anything of the normal stuff people do. I saw them haul something in/out once, but that's it. The ubiquitous Tengu they have piloted and floating at the POS normally do not move an inch. He log in and out of the same position.
They don't plex, they don't mine or suck gas (at least I have not seen any of that). It's also clear that they don't do PI. They don't even own the POCOs. This is a 100% industrial endeavour, it might be just one dude. Makes me wonder how many pilots they have in here. I have only seen three so far.
I wonder what they/he would do if I started to run the sites while they/he was on? My original plan was to just run them during their off-time, but since they hardly have any such time, I might need to reconsider...
I have now stayed in their system for a few days (long enough for my cleaning up crappy sigs is starting to show, now there's just four sigs to scan down instead of 20) and I have not seen this guys do anything of the normal stuff people do. I saw them haul something in/out once, but that's it. The ubiquitous Tengu they have piloted and floating at the POS normally do not move an inch. He log in and out of the same position.
They don't plex, they don't mine or suck gas (at least I have not seen any of that). It's also clear that they don't do PI. They don't even own the POCOs. This is a 100% industrial endeavour, it might be just one dude. Makes me wonder how many pilots they have in here. I have only seen three so far.
I wonder what they/he would do if I started to run the sites while they/he was on? My original plan was to just run them during their off-time, but since they hardly have any such time, I might need to reconsider...
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Mega vs. Proteus + friends
After putting together my first Astero and heading into a C2 just a few jumps from Jita I got a fight with a Proteus. Well not in the Astero and not really like I had thought, but it was still a fun fight.
In this C2 there were some dudes active, I was just seconds away from getting one of their Mastodons at a POCO (I did not decloak tho) and there were two or three afk/active in ships at the POS. I scanned down the system while waiting for something to happen. Their high-sec static was EOL and half mass and they had a incoming lowsec and a C3. There was a Domi hanging piloted, but inactive at the POS. Some other dude was jumping into different ships at a SMA. Eager to test out my little cloaky gank-frig, I was waiting for something that was light or industrial enough for me to attack it to leave the safety of the POS.
When something at last did leave the POS, it was not something light neither industrial, it was a Phobos, a heavy interdictor. He warped to the high-sec and bubbled up. Hmm.. they (he?) had probably seen me and my probes on scan and wanted to try and catch me on my way out. Maybe they thought some of their neighbours were using the exit to haul stuff out. It was close to Jita after all.
Now, I could not do much about the Phobos from the inside, but I could get my alt there in something bigger to play with it. With just half mass I was unlikely to close the WH, but I could at least force him to jump out. Not like I had something better to do. But while Tashi was doing the 10 jumps or so in a pretty heavy tanked Mega, I watched the Phobos get tired, and warp back to the POS. Darn it.
Eventually the Phobos got changed into a Proteus and when I jumped the Mega in the Proteus had just jumped out. Not the best timing. After contemplating what to do with the Mega in their system for a bit I jumped back out to high-sec. And there was the Proteus. By now, the hole was critical and when the Proteus disappeared (I did not see if he jumped back in, or if he cloaked) I took a chance and jumped the Mega heavy back in. That closed the WH and I had now either trapped the Proteus on the outside or he had jumped in before me and I could get a fight. It was the latter, the Proteus de-cloaked and we went at it.
We traded armour for a good while and it looked like I was going to come out on top. The Mega was tripple-plated and the Protues was scrammed and webbed so I did good damage. Obviously this guy might have a lot of friends in here, but I had only seen two other toons active, a covops and the Dominix. I was waiting for the Domi to come and save the Proteus, and I got quite surprised when a Vagabond warped in. Apparently the Vaga was not the only one that got the call for help, because when the Proteus was getting dangerously close to structure, the Domi and two guardians joined in. A Proteus, Vaga, Dominix and two guardians might be a bit too much to take on, and the very definition of a lost cause for my poor Megathron. I had to watch it pop and use a C3 - LS exit to get my pod out.
Even if I did not get to try my Astro out, at least I got a fight. There was just to few of me to win it :)
In this C2 there were some dudes active, I was just seconds away from getting one of their Mastodons at a POCO (I did not decloak tho) and there were two or three afk/active in ships at the POS. I scanned down the system while waiting for something to happen. Their high-sec static was EOL and half mass and they had a incoming lowsec and a C3. There was a Domi hanging piloted, but inactive at the POS. Some other dude was jumping into different ships at a SMA. Eager to test out my little cloaky gank-frig, I was waiting for something that was light or industrial enough for me to attack it to leave the safety of the POS.
When something at last did leave the POS, it was not something light neither industrial, it was a Phobos, a heavy interdictor. He warped to the high-sec and bubbled up. Hmm.. they (he?) had probably seen me and my probes on scan and wanted to try and catch me on my way out. Maybe they thought some of their neighbours were using the exit to haul stuff out. It was close to Jita after all.
Now, I could not do much about the Phobos from the inside, but I could get my alt there in something bigger to play with it. With just half mass I was unlikely to close the WH, but I could at least force him to jump out. Not like I had something better to do. But while Tashi was doing the 10 jumps or so in a pretty heavy tanked Mega, I watched the Phobos get tired, and warp back to the POS. Darn it.
Eventually the Phobos got changed into a Proteus and when I jumped the Mega in the Proteus had just jumped out. Not the best timing. After contemplating what to do with the Mega in their system for a bit I jumped back out to high-sec. And there was the Proteus. By now, the hole was critical and when the Proteus disappeared (I did not see if he jumped back in, or if he cloaked) I took a chance and jumped the Mega heavy back in. That closed the WH and I had now either trapped the Proteus on the outside or he had jumped in before me and I could get a fight. It was the latter, the Proteus de-cloaked and we went at it.
We traded armour for a good while and it looked like I was going to come out on top. The Mega was tripple-plated and the Protues was scrammed and webbed so I did good damage. Obviously this guy might have a lot of friends in here, but I had only seen two other toons active, a covops and the Dominix. I was waiting for the Domi to come and save the Proteus, and I got quite surprised when a Vagabond warped in. Apparently the Vaga was not the only one that got the call for help, because when the Proteus was getting dangerously close to structure, the Domi and two guardians joined in. A Proteus, Vaga, Dominix and two guardians might be a bit too much to take on, and the very definition of a lost cause for my poor Megathron. I had to watch it pop and use a C3 - LS exit to get my pod out.
Even if I did not get to try my Astro out, at least I got a fight. There was just to few of me to win it :)
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
The parasite is moving in
The system I'm checking out for potential my idea of leechy living looks good enough. The inhabitants are very inactive, I have hardly seen them doing anything when they are on, I still need a few days to get to know them proper. I called the first of my solo-systems for Alpha, so this will be named Beta.
It's a C4 (I wanted carebears), with a static C2 (good for solo shenanigans), it had a bunch of gas- and ore-sites (the inhabitants clearly don't care so much keeping it clean - which is a sign they are not that into scanning) as well as a bunch of combat sites (obviously they don't do sleepers either) and only one indy-tower setup (makes it much easier to keep track of what's going on).
So this might be a pretty nice system to "move into", and start basing out of, as if I actually lived there. Well, I will be living there but I obviously can't setup a permanent POS of my own as that might spook them into some kind of defence behaviour. The idea is to see just how much things I can do out of this system, without getting to much attention from my host. I'm going to be a well-behaved discreet leach, at least for starters.
Wherever I log my Orca, that's my home.
So what's on the todo-list?
Lets go to it!
It's a C4 (I wanted carebears), with a static C2 (good for solo shenanigans), it had a bunch of gas- and ore-sites (the inhabitants clearly don't care so much keeping it clean - which is a sign they are not that into scanning) as well as a bunch of combat sites (obviously they don't do sleepers either) and only one indy-tower setup (makes it much easier to keep track of what's going on).
So this might be a pretty nice system to "move into", and start basing out of, as if I actually lived there. Well, I will be living there but I obviously can't setup a permanent POS of my own as that might spook them into some kind of defence behaviour. The idea is to see just how much things I can do out of this system, without getting to much attention from my host. I'm going to be a well-behaved discreet leach, at least for starters.
Wherever I log my Orca, that's my home.
So what's on the todo-list?
- Get a backup/primary scout in there so I don't lose the system. Also this will enable me to use non-scanning ships more freely.
- Learn about my hosts. Get them on watch-lists, learn what they fly and how they do their business. Intel is king!
- Clean up the signature-mess! Even if they don't care, I do! It's going to be a lot of scanning, and I want to optimize it not having to go through a bunch of worthless gas and ore each time I look for the new static. Therefore, I should initiate all sites I want to get rid of.
- Do a few strategic bookmarks.
Lets go to it!
Monday, February 3, 2014
Parasitic living?
This new idea have taken root in my deranged brain. When looking for new ways to explore the unknown while being solo, I have started to think about how to base out of an inhabited system. Could you just move in, and use the system as your own?
Way back when wormholes was first discovered, and C2 systems started to get inhabited, some people grabbed a stealth bomber, selected a active system and started to mess with their operations, making it risky for the inhabitants in their own home. What good is closing your static HS if you already got the vermin snuggled up together with you?
A C2 with a static HS is an easy system to do this with, and since you only have one, or a few, ships that you need to do both scanning, sneaking and killing in, your targets are somewhat limited. But what if you, as a solo-player, tried to push this idea a bit further? Could you find a system, "move in" and use it as a base for simple, low-scale pvp? For pve? Could you even make enough ISK from it to cover any losses? When the inhabitants where not there, you could do their sleepers. When they where there but inactive, you could just ignore them and when they did something you could harass them as best you could. A pure win-win? or.. rather.. well.. you get the point.
It would really be a different approach, to say the least. No POS (at least no permanent one) means that you need to log in what you flew. And what you did not fly you needed to stuff into an Orca and use that as a true mobile home.
I might have found a system. It's a C4 with a static C2, one tower, quite big system, lot of sites, lots of gas/ore sites. Small corp. Looks industrial. Lots of crap on scan, a truly dirty system. Maybe they want some help doing the sites? :)
Way back when wormholes was first discovered, and C2 systems started to get inhabited, some people grabbed a stealth bomber, selected a active system and started to mess with their operations, making it risky for the inhabitants in their own home. What good is closing your static HS if you already got the vermin snuggled up together with you?
A C2 with a static HS is an easy system to do this with, and since you only have one, or a few, ships that you need to do both scanning, sneaking and killing in, your targets are somewhat limited. But what if you, as a solo-player, tried to push this idea a bit further? Could you find a system, "move in" and use it as a base for simple, low-scale pvp? For pve? Could you even make enough ISK from it to cover any losses? When the inhabitants where not there, you could do their sleepers. When they where there but inactive, you could just ignore them and when they did something you could harass them as best you could. A pure win-win? or.. rather.. well.. you get the point.
It would really be a different approach, to say the least. No POS (at least no permanent one) means that you need to log in what you flew. And what you did not fly you needed to stuff into an Orca and use that as a true mobile home.
I might have found a system. It's a C4 with a static C2, one tower, quite big system, lot of sites, lots of gas/ore sites. Small corp. Looks industrial. Lots of crap on scan, a truly dirty system. Maybe they want some help doing the sites? :)
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Back! (what's new for the solo w-explorer)
I'm back after half a year away from Eve. While I was away, Rubicon hit the Eve universe, which means I have a lot of interesting new stuff to learn, a lot of it is highly interesting for an old wormhole rat like myself.
So, what are your plans, you old w-space eremite? I hear you ask. Well, there's so much new stuff (new for me at least) and I want to explore as much of it as possible in a w-space setting. After thinking a bit about leaving w-space and doing something totally different (RnK recruiting?), I decided to meddle a bit more in the unknown.
What new stuff is there that could potentially be interesting for wormholes then? Here's my short and very personal list;
Could there be a way of downsizing what I did in Alpha (my first C4 solo) while testing all the new candy out? Could you even live in a system without a permanent POS? Why one would like to do that is beside the point. By now you should know that I'm clearly deranged and decide on my own goals and projects with little room for rationality in the equations.
Could you? Base out of a system without putting down a flag of "ownership" in the form of a POS? Do both diving and plexing from that system, maybe even if it was occupied? As a spice. How much fun and ISK could you get out of a system that you did not claim to be yours?
Consider;
So, what are your plans, you old w-space eremite? I hear you ask. Well, there's so much new stuff (new for me at least) and I want to explore as much of it as possible in a w-space setting. After thinking a bit about leaving w-space and doing something totally different (RnK recruiting?), I decided to meddle a bit more in the unknown.
What new stuff is there that could potentially be interesting for wormholes then? Here's my short and very personal list;
- The SOE ships (at least the Astro and Stratos) - looks interesting for solo cloaky hunting of all kind of industrial and PI ships. Just how many times have you not missed that pesky PI-hauler at a POCO just because your cruiser did not warp quick enough?
- The Mobile Depot - could potentially be a small revolution, in w-space it's set to be a game changer, I'm sure. Definitely for the ones that want to optimize the versatility of ships, and not just the performance.
- Marauders/Bastion - is this the time to dust of that old Golem? And I have always wanted to give the Vargur a serious chance for PVE in C4s, will they dethrone the Rattlesnake?
- Ishtar! - I have always loved that ship, now it looks like it's going through a revival. If you combine it with the mobile depot it just have to be EVEs most versatile ship.
- Eos - long forgotten, but with the changes to command-ships and boosting, is this the time of the newborn Gallente fleet command-ship?
Could there be a way of downsizing what I did in Alpha (my first C4 solo) while testing all the new candy out? Could you even live in a system without a permanent POS? Why one would like to do that is beside the point. By now you should know that I'm clearly deranged and decide on my own goals and projects with little room for rationality in the equations.
Could you? Base out of a system without putting down a flag of "ownership" in the form of a POS? Do both diving and plexing from that system, maybe even if it was occupied? As a spice. How much fun and ISK could you get out of a system that you did not claim to be yours?
Consider;
- With the Mobile Depot, all ships could be designed with multiple use in mind. With light living in hostile territory, versatility is the name of the game.
- My biggest problem with the Orca have always been to unlock this versatility. Short of bringing another Orca to refit on, changing from one role to another have involved putting up a SMA, and for that you need a POS. Did I say game-changer?
- Two Rattlers might be efficient ISK-making in shallow w-space, but it is a bit cumbersome to setup. And fly. Could you solo sites with just one ship, it would be great. Enter the bastion Marauder.
- If frigs can effectively hunt and kill light targets like scouts, miners and PI-folks (Astero) and interceptors now make for great travelling through bubbled and highly hostile territory - that packs a lot of functionality in very little meters cube. For anyone whose primary concern might be "can it fit into my Orca?" this might be a big deal.
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