In for a penny...

It seems the transients that have been lurking in my C1 PI Farm have called it a day since losing their POCO and defence fleet. It's been several days since there's been any sign of the Falcon that would occasionally uncloak to combat probe the system and considering how frequently he'd been probing up until this point, I'd say it's a fair assumption. The lack of a watch list leaves a fair degree of uncertainty of course, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

With the system seemingly secure some of my new Corpmates in Low-Class have expressed an interest in putting their PI farmers in system too. I've got fourteen planets to extract from, there's plenty to go around, so it's probably high time I bit the bullet and put up an Astrahus Citadel.

I thought I had it all figured out, anchor it about five minutes before downtime and no one would have the opportunity to interrupt it the following day but CCP, in their ultimate wisdom, have apparently closed that little loophole so a more conventional approach was needed. I began the anchoring process in US TZ Prime Time, when the glut of my new Corp mates would be online and also coinciding with a free Sunday morning for me or anyone else in the AU TZ. Moreover, I closed my only connection [to HiSec] and left it scanned but unspawned whilst I cleared every site from system bar the ore sites. I did this to discourage any would be explorers from poking around too much and stumbling upon my still anchoring station. It's not unheard of to go without transient connections for a few days at a time, with any luck a defence fleet would be entirely redundant.

Now, I've had loads of experience with setting up POS towers. I've assembled and destroyed all manner of set ups, had a highly memorable siege against La Division Bleu's large tower when they had at least three characters manning their weapons and even killed three Revelations, an Archon and a Bhaalgorn with a small tower in one memorable assault in LowSec, but these structures are utterly foreign to me. Fortunately, I was ably assisted by Kalseth with a fitting that was promised to be the Citadel version of a Dickstar. In the event of an assault on my Citadel it was unlikely that I'd have a character immediately available with the required fighter skills, so the prospect of a station that was going to be an utter nuisance to reinforce was an appealing one. In case you're curious, it looks something like this. ==>

Fighters are up to you. I'll probably load mine up with a mixture of Templars and Firbolgs but only because I've got quite a lot of them lying about.

For the purpose, it's quite ideal. I can set standings so that my out of corporation characters and friends  have secure access, it's significantly more formiddable than a small or medium tower, dramatically more defendable and, considering I really have no use for a market, refining or a clone bay, costs me nothing to run. Considering I'm such a tight wad that I used to mine my own ice for fuel, that's a significant ISK and time saver. Not to mention the amount of nanite paste I'll save...

Epistaxis is now in business and other than the outrageously long anchoring time, I can confidently say I'm very pleased with the result. Well played, CCP. This is a big step forward in player owned star bases.

The Struggle for J105837

I've been quiet for a couple of weeks but not through lack of activity. The C1 PI Farm that my alts occupy has a pesky Customs Office located at planet one that I need gone. Trouble is, the owners like it just where it is and have kept a scan alt in system despite leaving the system unoccupied for quite some time. I found this out the hard way when I left some Combat Recons to grind away at it whilst I was AFK. They scanned their way in and halted my little party in its tracks.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I conclude a more dedicated effort is required. As such, I get some friends together and we reinforce the POCO in short order with a kitchen sink fleet. No effort is made to interrupt us but I suspect that we were operating well outside of their normal time zone. Accordingly, the timer for the destruction would be 6am. Great. I have a fat chance of getting my AU bros out of bed that early so I logged in alone in a bomber and pecked away at it to see what sort of response I would get. For a while nothing happened and then a Proteus appeared on D-Scan. I cloaked and moved off of my position to see him land close to me moments later. So clearly he had a scout. 

By this time I had joined No Vacancies and managed to get a few of their guys together to have another crack. They have an active US TZ contingent so even if there was a bad timer for me, it was likely it would work for everyone else. Again, the reinforcement went smoothly enough and this time I was rewarded with a 4am timer. Yay! Undeterred, I left my new corporation mates all the details and the promise of a good fight and looked forward to logging in to see some kill board activity. Alas, nothing transpired. I'm told only one of my corporation members logged in and, coupled with a demonstrable lack of activity from fellow corporation members in general, decided No Vacancies, who clearly have vacancies, was no place for me.

Unable to get a reinforcement timer to suit but determined to remove this customs office I thought to engage some Mercenaries for the job. Most that I spoke with either couldn't be arsed or didn't do wormholes, until I spoke to Low-Class.

Low-Class were very accommodating, inviting me onto their TS3 for a briefing. Their rates were spectacularly good seemingly more concerned with getting a good fight than they were in ISK. So plans were laid and we were soon working on the POCO for a third time. As per fucking usual it was a shit timer, this time at 2:30am, absolutely no chance I'd be there for that, but Low-Class were more than happy to proceed.

Judging by the kill reports a good fight was had. Half a billion in ISK was lost by my Mercs but they inflicted over 1.2 Billion in losses upon the enemy. More importantly, the POCO was finally destroyed too. I'll reimburse the losses to my hired help, it's well worth it for the service provided, but something tells me this isn't over yet. Even this morning, as I erected a new POCO on the planet, I spotted combat probes from their scan alt. I think they were expecting me to drop it at 0. ;)

Curse the lack of Curse!

Having a NullSec static is a new experience for me, as a Wormholer. I mean, sure you get transients and those delightful Q003 connections, but with a static you come across new and interesting things more often.

I had only just logged in and got on comms when I heard someone call out the presence of a Tengu on our NullSec static in our home system. I expected he was a cloaky prober that would just jump and warp away when someone tried to tackle him so didn't make a move immediately but it soon became clear the Tengu was there for a fight. We were disorganised and unprepared but #YOLO so a few pilots tumbled through the Wormhole into NullSec to continue the chase. Obligingly, the Tengu didn't try to escape, instead pointing and firing on a fleet mate until he was forced to withdraw, and then my late arriving Cerberus until I was forced to withdraw. My 700+ DPS Cerberus had put him into very low shield but I was very suspicious he was bait tanking me to get me off the connection, so I played it cautious until reinforcements arrived. I've tangled with enough bait tanked Tengus to know my buffer tanked Cerberus can't hope to crack it without help.

Help soon arrived but it was light on eWar. The speculation was that it was a dual ancillary shield booster fit and that eventually he would run out of charges and die. Well, the speculation was wrong and when a Gila joined the Tengu we soon lost a Sabre and a Cerberus. The Gila was driven off and soon replaced by a Dominix which was quickly primaried whilst maintaining tackle on the uber tanked Tengu. With the neuting Dominix gone attention was once again focused on the Tengu until the Dominix pilot returned in his Gila. Once again, DPS was focused on the new arrival and he was dispatched before he could cause any headaches and, once again, we refocused on the Tengu. Try as we might, his tank just would not break. Heavily webbed down, scrammed and being bombarded with all kinds of damage types he just kept on boosting.

Finally someone brought the neuts, our Bhaalgorn landing on field and sealing the Tengus fate. The kill mail does make for some interesting reading...

As interesting as the fit is, the pod mail deserves a lot of the credit. We know he had skirmish links so I'm going to assume there were Siege links in system too, combined with the High Grade Crystal set and a pretty shiney Deadspace fit, it would certainly account for the damage he sustained.

The whole engagement dragged on for about 45 minutes with the Tengu tanking almost half a million hit points of damage before finally succumbing. Despite being very slow to get neuts on the field it was a pretty ISK positive engagement however, costing us about 350 Million ISK for about 3.5 Billion in kills, not to mention the important lesson that comes from not having a neuting ship in your gang. Always bring a Curse people. Always.

Space Presents!

After a somewhat eventful evening of scouting our chain and catching out a Skiff, Venture, Hyena, Astero and a Heron, I was heading back to our Astrahus when I noticed a POS that had a forcefield up only minutes earlier, now did not. I resolved it's location just to make sure it wasn't a fly swatter set up and was pleased to see it anchored about 300,000 km's from their Astrahus Citadel with no pilots visible. So we formed up and joked about the Archon that would inevitably drop from the Ship Maintenance Array and moved into position. The SMA went pop soon enough and the rest of the structures around it, including a Capital Ship Assembly Array followed suit. And guess what? An Archon dropped. :S

Sadly, it was completely unfit. Even worse, we were in a Class 4 Wormhole with no way of getting it out. The only logical solution was to self destruct the ship and collect the insurance and pretty soon I had a 519 million ISK insurance credit in my wallet. Beats the shit out of ratting, hey? To sweeten the deal, a heap of capital components worth several hundred million ISK dropped from the Capital Assembly Array and a steady flow of Deep Space Transports got all the goodies home just in case we are taken with the urge to build Capitals of our own.

Would've been nice to siege out their Citadel with it, but hey, half a billion ISK is half a billion ISK.

How to Svipul

Tonight we had a welcome connection come in from a Class 2 wormhole which gave us great access to a market hub and, as usually happens, we were quick to start exploiting it. I thought it best to keep one set of eyes on the only POS in system as I know when people start using my system as a thoroughfare, I like to ruin their day. Just as I was returning to system I notice a flurry of activity with 4 pilots logging in at the POS. Three of them were corporation members, one, oddly enough was from another corporation and had a standing of -10.0, not something you see a lot of in W-Space.

We continued exploiting their system for its connection for a while whilst we formed up for a NullSec roam and really just as the roam was beginning, the -10.0 pilot reshipped to a Svipul and began anchoring a bubble on our connection. As I watched him with my cloaked alt I redirected the roam to come and deal with this pesky Svipul and initial tackle went smoothly enough. Our interceptors were able to maintain point consistently without taking significant damage whilst the DPS landed to try and finish off the Svipul. The only problem however, was the Svipul maintaining in excess of 2,400 meters per second even whilst scrammed. As such, our DPS ships were unable to land adequate damage before he'd scoot out of range and repair his shields. Over and over we'd break contact, warp to an interceptor, start applying DPS, only for him to sail out of range after only two or three volleys. Clearly some significant webbing was going to be needed.

Frustrated by our inability to slow his progress and with the Svipul now a good couple of thousand kilometres from where he started, I returned to our home and reshipped into an Artillery fit Huginn. With its high alpha damage and webs stretching to over 50 kilometres it should seal the fate of the Speed Racer Svipul. Soon enough I was landing on grid and with both webs applied my second volley dispatched the ship with a satisfying crack. It's now you want to see the kill mail and find out how this damn thing maintained such speed and tank under constant pressure from several vessels. The simple answer is that the Svipul is still broken, but judge for yourself.

Without links you're looking at around 1,500 meters per second in defensive mode. With links you can only maintain 2,400 meters per second with overheat and he was travelling at that speed for a considerable time so he was almost certainly in propulsion mode. That accounts for the 2,400 meters per second and overheated with links, it goes up to 3,400 meters per second. To add insult to injury, not only was he rocking an over sized propulsion modification, but also an over sized shield booster. All of that and just the one fitting modification required, the sort not uncommon on many frigates and destroyers without anything even approaching the sort of speed, tank and damage of the Svipul. So, presumably without links, this Svipul could not only tank our combined incoming DPS comfortably, but out run all but our most dedicated Interceptors.

Which is why I think this ship is still in need of attention. I'll admit when it was new I abused its power too, but this is a pretty stark example of how it's not been hit quite hard enough with the nerf bat. The fact he was able to maintain what he was doing without off grid links shows how over powered it is currently. Off grid links are apparently going, but that still won't address this glaring problem, albeit one seen more in LowSec space than Wormholes, I'm tipping.

A Gift from Bob

Since returning to EVE I've been flattered by many "welcome back!" comments both privately and publicly. It reminds me that it's the community of EVE that is the driving force, the glue that holds the game together and, friend or foe, those relationships are what makes the game. There is one relationship which naturally trumps those however, and that is my personal relationship with Bob.

Bob has been very good to me over the years, especially when I was in His service, delivering His holy electro-magnetic cleanse to those who would trespass upon His domain without paying the appropriate respect. Since my return I have seen His favour in small ways but I have also felt His wrath. Today, it pleases me to announce they I am in His good graces once more.

Like most evenings, it is my habit to scan my connections and see what Bob has planned for me. With only one K162 connection to a Class 2 wormhole, I wasn't full of hope. Upon hitting D-Scan and seeing nothing but a Phoenix Dreadnaught in range, my mood instantly changed. I quickly had his position, about thirty kilometres from a Customs Office, delivering waves of Guristas Torpedoes upon it. I knew exactly what to do.

Having joined No Vacancies just 24 hours earlier I immediately hailed all that I could. My HiSec connection was critically end of life but the promise of a Dreadnaught kill is a great motivator. A rather ad-hoc fleet quickly coalesced and burned the almost twenty jumps to my HiSec entry. Unknown to me, whilst the fleet was coming together, the leadership of No Vacancies were bringing in some assistance to prop up our numbers.

With the fleet assembled we made our move. I provided initial warp in for the Sabre and quickly returned to my POS to re-ship into something more capable than an Astero. Light on neuting power, a shield Stratios was the best I could muster and on returning to the fleet the assault was well and truly underway.

The shield boosting of the Phoenix was handling the incoming damage comfortably. Our lack of neuting power meant this assault could drag on for quite a while until I heard of reinforcements arriving. It wasn't just anyone though. It was Wingspan. Is this a bad joke? Is Bob mocking me? How do I refrain from opening fire? Alas, there was no time to ponder, the extra damage output would be welcome and they were soon in fleet, delivering torpedoes to our stricken target. The Phoenix was now running dry on capacitor as the boosting was stopping and once it dipped into armour it was over quickly.

The Loot Fairy, as always, said "Fuck you, Bex", but I care not for her insolence. Bob was clearly pleased and the Phoenix pilot, now without a Dreadnaught, was also without his Slave pod. Wait, what? Yes, you read right, the shield tanked Dreadnaught pilot had a 700 million ISK Slave set in his head. Go figure.

There's Always a Catch...

With my alts all settled in the Class 1 PI Farm and the AFK Laserchesis dispatching all of the dead sticks in system there was only one structure left. The POCO on planet 1 was owned by the Nosferatu Security Foundation, a long standing Wormhole group and notably active PvP group. Obligingly, they had set the tax rate at 0% so it wasn't a matter of urgency to remove it, more of a case of "I'll get around to it one day". Today seemed like a good day; I had no incoming connections, my static HiSec was closed and I have the day off work. So I park the Laserchesis and a Curse on the POCO and set them to work. Meanwhile, I'm getting on with my day hoping they're not discovered.

The only problem, of course, is that Nosferatu are getting notifications that their structure is under attack. I'm punting on the fact that they don't have an alt of their own in system ready to scan their guys in to defend a POCO in a C1 system.

I lost the best. I return from the shower to see my Laserchesis explode and my Curse well tackled. I barely even had time to lock up a bomber, never mind bring some damage to bear, before it too was destroyed. Bubbled to all hell, the pods popped too and I found myself back in HiSec. Oh well.

Before long I was hailed by one of their senior members offering an arrangement to basically rent the system. I suppose bears might be tempted to take that offer, but I'm not. I'd much rather see a siege happen and bring a whole lot of content to my corner of New Eden. I can't honestly say how I'd fare but I have enough willing friends to at least make a fun fight of it.

But I knew there had to be a catch. You don't just stumble on a perfect PI farm unoccupied and with virtually no POCOs  without there being a catch. But that's OK, things could get very interesting, very soon.

EDIT: It's been bugging the hell out of me how I know of these guys and it finally came to me. They are the same cowards who used to reflexively collapse transient connections to their home system with nullified, cloaked Proteii [that's plural for Proteus, don't ya know?] the instant one spawned in order to avoid a fight. They are as high on the bravery table as the guys you used to find camping HiSec statics with interdictors and never moving off of it for fear of getting into a fight with something more dangerous than an exploration frigate. Suffice to say, I don't expect much to come of this, but if something does come of it, I'll have no shortage of volunteers willing to come to the fight.