Experiment Successful and Surprise!

So there's a day left on the fuel in my Class 2 Amarr Small Control tower. Yesterday I cashed in everything I had earned so far......and made 251 mil! 50 million into the profit margin! Woohoo!

Today I came up with another 100 mil or so in more loot, so no complaints about this hole atm. I'm calling this experiment successful.

We had two surprises in our wormholes happen yesterday. First was the ambush and subsequent destruction of Nick's Damnation, the first ship we've lost since we began our wormhole endeavor.

Nick noticed three Buzzards scanning in our hole, scanned down the wormhole they came from, and headed over in the Damnation to see about getting it to critical. On his flight there, he saw a Legion on his directional, and as soon as he landed, he tried to get back to the POS. No dice, and 13 ships uncloaked and smashed him. Apparently they had actually been lying in wait for him, and the scanners were bait? It was a strange situation. They had Prototype cloak fitted Harbingers for heaven's sake.

That's an awful lot of trouble to go through to just get a Damnation kill, but they didn't do any of ours sites, and the hole closed with no further encounters. Nick picked up a Sacrilege to replace the Damnation, so he'll work with that for now.

The second interesting set of texts I received from Nick while at work begain like this.

Nick: There's an Orca in the high sec hole(meaning the high sec static hole)
Me: WHAT? How? How did it get there???
Nick:Don't know, I have to get combat scanners to find it.
Me: Is there a POS set up?
Nick:No new POSes in system.

As I completely wracked my brain to figure out where he came from, Nick texted "There's a corpse next to it, the Orca is named "Dead Cat: Needs Home".

Yeah, that sounds like he was stuck. He probably missed us being logged in by a couple hours, even half an hour.

On my way out of work, it hit me how I thought he was there. My hypothesis was that he belonged to the corp that we had bought the wormhole form, but he hadn't been logged in since we had bought it, and he had been forgotten. Because there's no way to fly an Orca into a Class 1 wormhole, it had to have been built there.

So we pulled our new found Orca into our POS, and today the frozen corpse logged on.

Upon being asked if he had lost a dead cat, he explained what had happened.

Turns out he had been with a group of people that had found an abandoned POS in the wormhole we now inhabit. In this POS was an Orca that this group of friends had asked him to come fly out of the wormhole. Well, those of us that live in wormholes know there's no way out. So this guy logged out six months ago, thinking he'd get back to this character holding onto this wealth. He logs in six months later, can't find a way out, and decides to call it time to head to the next clone.

And we got a free Orca out of the deal!

Only in Eve would you find a crazy story like this.

Forgotten Heathen Out.

Fluctuating Coolant and Class 2s No One Wants

Well, had a really busy week around the house, so alot less Eve playing.

Got back in and found the price of coolant has dropped significantly, so the whole coolant run is mostly over. We're continuing to produce for whatever we can get for it.

we had a Class 2 WH entrance open up the other day and lo and behold, it was empty! I and Nick headed in and scanned it all down, and found a SECOND unoccupied Class 2 wormhole. The first WH had a static high sec, and the second one had a static low sec and class 2. The second one also had 18 combat sites. So I decided to try an experiment.

I spent 200 mil on ships and a small POS, ship maint, and corp array. I bought a Harbinger, salvage dessie, and a hauler.

I didn't want to risk too much, so I brought along a week worth of fuel to see if I could recoup my investment in that time on the combat sites. So far I've been a bit frustrated by how random the salvage actually is, since melted nanos are about the only thing worth any actual money anymore.

I'm Salvaging 5, using Salvager IIs, with three small salvage tackle rigs. I've killed 30+ ships in one site, gotten 2 nanos. I know it shouldn't be really super easy, but these sites are also kicking my ass alot of times. I'm going with an Omni tanked, 70s in every resist, dual armor repped, focused medium beams Harbinger. It's what I'm trained for, so it's what I use. But after reading for better fits, it seems I really already have the best wormhole harby fit.

I don't understand the disparity that Eve allows in alot of the racial ship differences. A armor tanked Harbinger cannot touch the resilience of a shield tanked Drake to solo wormholes. It's along the same lines as the Iteron V can carry as much as a T2 Impel.

Oh well, still having fun in wormholes.

Frustrations and Profit!

Well, we managed to finally get a decent low sec hole open that we could escape with our loot. After the nanoribbons, zydrine, megacyte, and all the other sleeper stuff, we netted over 800 mil! This brought us back up to our starting total, so we've paid off our investment! Everything from here on out is profit!

This is all well and good, but our second wormhole has slowed the spawn rate severely. Coupled with people having jumped to a number of my grav sigs for probably no good reason other than to be assholes and make them despawn, we're left with yet another wormhole short on signatures.

We've kept a decent watch over our high sec static wormhole, and I was excited to find 12 combat sites! I told Nick about it, and checked DOTlan, and no jumps or NPC kills. Fast forward two days, and 12 hours ago someone cleared every single one of them, including a Radar site.

Huge bummer at a time where we're looking for stuff to do. Oh well. We're trying to get some PI going to make sure we're only buying ice products, espicially since the price of coolant just went through the roof! It's selling for 20k or more most places! See if I can't get in on this inflation.

Forgotten Heathen Out.

Profit, but no exit.

Well, I've had alot of peace and quiet lately since I read about a theory concerning your wormhole exits. That theory is that if you don't warp to them, they won't actually open to the outside. Of course, this doesn't take two things into account. One, that people can open entrances on their own by scanning. And two, you can't know which WH is your static, and which is a wormhole with tech 2 cruisers spilling out of it.

But, I've bookmarked a single wormhole for the past five days, and it's stayed right where it started, and it's the only one, so I know it's my static low sec WH.

I went ahead and warped to it yesterday, hoping to have a few jumps to some trade hub, since I'm sitting on a growing pile of 600 mil worth of minerals. No dice, over 30 jumps to any trade hub. So I ran Retrievers through it til it went critical. No one has come through since.

One thing to note that is in favor of the "warp to" theory, when I did warp to the hole, it was still "will not last another day", which is what this static starts at. So it seems that WHs only start their life cycles when someone warps onto the grid with them. Five days of watching it on a scanner almost prove this. I'll be keeping track of the next one I leave alone.

So more mining. I was always so engrossed with the more profitable ABC ores(Arkonor, Bistot, Crokite) that I didn't notice that the high sec ores are severely under-represented. To the point that building battleships, as is our goal, is almost impossible. Veldspar roids are only in the 200k, at most, and far apart. I've got 350k zydrine, but only 5 mil in trit. Enough for one BS, and some of that was trucked in.

So I'm wasting time mining out the high sec ores, really. I've decided my time is better spent getting the more expensive ores, and buying and hauling the other materials I need, although having only a static low sec restricts my hauling to our blockade runners, or scouting. Which, as my previous Impel loss points out, is not fool proof.

Oh well, good with bad in wormholes.

Forgotten Heathen Out.

Nudists Move In

Well, today was a good and bad day for us in the wormhole.

I had a great start on mining today, finishing ABCs on one field and starting on the rest since I'm going to be manufacturing Battleships, even more so now.

I almost filled the corp array and had to online the second one I put up, but I was rudely interrupted by some Sisters scanner probes on my directional. I packed up and headed to the POS to see what was going on.

So, I started scanning and trying to chat with the newcomers in local, but to no avail. All my talking was ignored as they blissfully scanned. I ended up scanning down our new Low sec static, and found a stealth bomber at it. So I guessed that they had been looking for an exit. So they must be from another wormhole. I scanned it down, and found a Loki, a Cormorant, and a Manticore.

Hmm, two stealth bombers, not exactly what you use to run sites or make a run into empire.....my hunches proved right when I jumped into their system to find more ships waiting, with a mobile warp disruptor. It really is time for us to pick some of those up...

I jumped back into our wormhole and they attempted to lock me, but I cloaked first. They then proceeded to run almost all of our combat sites....

Luckily, Nick did half of them last night, netting us 44 melted nanoribbons which I had already been to Jita to sell, leaving the corp wallet back up near half a bil. Woot. But I digress.

There ended up being seven active ships and two stealth bombers guarding our exits, which left my only travel to cloakers.

I managed to get a Retriever in under their noses as they did the combat sites, and ran down their mass allowance a little, but it was 500 mil, which is a tough job for a lone retriever, and they chased Nyslia off anyway, but I was warp stabbed.

I decided to head to Jita to do some more shopping for a more PvP appropriate ship, coming back with a Retribution, and finding a massive battleship fleet PLUS a carrier guarding the gate into our low sec system. I waited patiently, which they were not, and when I saw them jumping on the cloaker, I undocked and flew through right under their noses as they jumped the wrong way.

Heading back in, the stealth bomber there decided he didn't want any of the Retribution, and I logged off at the POS for awhile.

Upon returning an hour or so later, I found no one but my corp in the hole, so I quickly reconned the other side of the hole and found it quiet. I brought the Retriever back and quickly jumped it through a couple times, and it was already at "Has had", and jumped my battlecruiser as well. An Osprey arrived and jumped through, saw what he was chasing, and headed back home. One more jump in the Retriever and the hole went critical....and an enemy jumped in behind me! I was praying for the hole to close on him so I could pummel him to death for their insolence, but no dice. He jumped back through, and the hole sits at critical now.

I'm feeling like I broke even today with the ore and salvage haul, but then with these jackasses poaching in our wormhole.No one has any honor in Eve, and I need to get used to it. I didn't lose any ships today, and that's a good day.

Forgotten Heathen Out.

Much Ado About Scanners

Well, I was all nice and happy mining away on rich roids yesterday when five Sisters probes popped onto my Directional. So got everyone safe to the POS, got out my combat ships and both of us scanned with combat probes...and got nothing. He was in a cloaked Buzzard. We finally managed to catch sight of him and Nick correctly concluded he was German and said "Guten tag" in local.

This got a reaction from the prober, who convoed him,(he wouldn't talk in local, he said later, as I had tried to speak to him in English). Nick used Google translator and got that he was from a wormhole next door, so we hurridly scanned down his WH exit. It ended up being a Class 4 with a Carrier and active pilots. This did not look good.

The pilot kept claiming he was "practicing" on probing out all our sites, as we could see the probes moving about on our directional but there was nothing we could do about it. Sure you are buddy. If he chose to warp to every sig and make all our sigs pop, we could see no option.

So I told him to tell him we were going to close his WH and he ought to get back into it. We dragged our Ishtar and Damnation to the hole and sat on it, while I drove a Retriever, a Myrmidon and a Harbinger through it til it went critical.

He never came back after that. So I guess that option worked.

So how does everyone else deal with rampant scanners that might screw you out of all your sigs?

*breathes deep* Ahhhhh!

Smell that? Yep, that's the smell of sweet Arkonor. I have two Hulks and a Covetor currently mining out an Unexceptional Frontier Deposit, and boy does it feel great! Looks like our operation is back on track.

Managed to also get the Large Ship Array in and got some BPCs for a bunch of battleships that I'll get to work on as soon as these minerals roll in!

And I'm hitting SCAN religiously :)

Forgotten Heathen Out.

2nd POS, 2nd Wormhole!

Well, forget that isolated core crap. We moved into a new Class 1 with a Cataclysmic Variable and Low Sec static.

We got lucky and the exit was in Otou, one jump from Hek. So we pounced! Our new Amarr Large Control Tower is set up and we're rolling!

Nick has requested battleships to spawn the rare Talocan ships, as he got one last night, so I'm jumping back to get the Large Ship Assembly Array before our exit pops! It's a race.

We've kept the other POS up as it's got weeks worth of fuel in it, see if it respawns enough sigs to make heading back there for awhile worth it. Might be able to make this a regular switch. Only time will tell.

More as it happens.


Forgotten Heathen Out.

Isolated Core Deposit Take Two

So, after doing some testing, it looks like a Class 1 Isolated Core Deposit hits for 500 damage. And that the damage is EM based.

So, I rigged my Covetor with two medium CCCs, a Small Armor Repairer, and a Cap Recharger II. I'm fairly inexperienced with the Covetor, as a sensible miner I bypassed it and went straight to the Hulk. Now, unwilling to strand a hulk in a Class 1 atm, I'm stuck with the Covetor.

So.....the cap on the Covetor.....is useless. You can't even run three Modulated Strip Miner IIs. Wtf. I can perma run the Small armor repper fine, but the three strip miners wastes the cap.

And fitting the retriever out to tank is pretty pointless. Taking off both cargo expanders, which you need to not overfill your hold every time your lasers cycle, you can't sustain cap at all, even with some CCC rigs.

I guess I'll screw around with EFT, I must admit I'm not very good at coming up with fits, but it looks like I may not get to mine this, my only site atm.

Isolated Core Deposits....

So we left a Ladar site, didn't warp to it, because people say it's best to leave at least one site so your wormhole doesn't go completely dry and will spawn more sites easier. Well, turns out someone must have come into our hole and warped to it, cause it's gone.

And in it's place spawned a grav site....except it's an Isolated Core Deposit that damages ships. It's reported it hits for 1000 dmg. I'm about to go see in a cruiser how much it is in a Class 1......I'm crossing my fingers that the reported 1k damage is for a higher class wormhole, cause no way my Retrievers, or maybe even my Covetors can tank that.

Will report.

Wormhole Space.....Or Lack Thereof

Well, we've been in this wormhole for about a week now....and there's nothing to do. We have a wormhole high sec exit and a Ladar site we're leaving. That's it. Everyday we get a couple combat sites, but we're in a Class 1, so they're extremely easy. I've just been plugging away at PI and POS fuel, and scanning and hoping for another grav site.

I've come to the conclusion that either this wormhole was cleared out before the seller sold it to me, or his client cleared it out before he left. Oh well. It had ten sites when we got here, but that includes wormhole exits.

So while scanning out a low sec exit we had the other day, we happened upon another wormhole. It's a Class 1 with Cataclysmic Variable. Upon entering, I ascertained there is no POS inside, and it has over 20 combat sites, NINE grav sites, and numerous others. So, what we're planning is to leave this POS in our POS fuel producing hole and start up another large POS in the other. So far it looks like all it has is a static low sec, but I did see a high sec one day, so we'll just have to make sure we use our high sec spots well.

Took down the Large Ship array and the Refining array and shuttled a bunch of gear out from a wh that was six jumps from my base in Yuzier.

Hopefully this new wormhole will be more interesting. We've recovered about 300 mil of our 1 bil investment so far. We'll be sinking a further 200 mil or so into another large POS. It certainly hasn't turned into a money fountain like it used to be for people, but I'm optimistic.

Forgotten Heathen Out.