Greed is a powerful motivator

So much for an extended hiatus. I realise now my burn out was self inflicted. Stalking prey in Night Fever involves a lot of waiting, and I mean a lot. Usually I'd just camp a HiSec hole and check D-Scan from time to time whilst watching a movie but quite often you can go days at a time without seeing a soul. This was even more pronounced in the C3 than the C2 as HiSec connections were much more infrequent and therefore transient traffic was almost exclusively limited to canny W-Space dwellers, less likely to fall for my wiles. Considering my want to do Sleeper sites is at an all time low the system became little more than a PI farm for me.

So a change is in order. My choices are limited because I'm a W-Space elitist. I hate NullSec with a white hot passion so I'm ruling that out. LowSec I've done before in limited style but the boredom game and the ever present local chat still grinds my gears. I've had some generous offers from AU TZ W-Space corps, some really good diggers that I have great respect for, but they live on the C5 Super Highway and that's pretty unappealing for me, too. I want somewhere I can live and fight 'micro gang' style where there aren't cynos or boosting alts, just good pure, fun fights and surprise buttsecks.

On the other hand, I have an ISK flow to maintain and with Wetware Mainframes now making over 2.2 million ISK a pop, that's something I just can't ignore. I don't need the ISK, no... but... I just wants it.

Having moved out of the C3 Red Giant I'm going to find my PI toons a cosy little C1 they can bake Wetwares in. My two combat characters I'm undecided on at this point, but HiSec/LowSec Wormhole diving with a friend or two seems likely at this stage. Where that may lead I can only speculate, but at least it's a start and it'll give me something to bore you about.

Uh, yeah. Thanks Gollum.

The Last Hurrah!

In keeping with taking a break from Eve, I had significant assets to move out of the C3 Wormhole that has been my home. It was uneventful, all ships and assets moved out without even a hint of interdiction, so I scooped my tower and warped for the HiSec for what I thought would be the last time.

Habitually smashing the D-Scan button as W-Space types do, I notice three Ventures have suddenly appeared in system. They can only be at either the Gas or Ore sites in system so I set my alt character about finding them whilst I jump out to HiSec with my tower. My quarry are soon located tucking into some Arkonor, conveniently bunched together so they can group mine into a cargo container. You know where this is heading, right?

I re-ship into Night Fever, praise Bob for his final gift and make my way back to the Wormhole from HiSec. Despite being on D-Scan from the entry, they do not react when the Proteus jumps in, continuing to be the hard working industrious types, undeterred by imminent danger. I warp in at 10km's from their can, align to a celestial and hold my cloak until all three are in range of Bob's Divine Pulse.

All three Ventures and their pods are dispatched on the first cycle, and I leave the scene of the sacrifice with a broad smile. Praise be to Bob!

Finding my Mojo

Eve has lost its appeal for me of late. My time logged in has been minimal and my desire to upkeep my PI network is well and truly dead. I'm space rich enough to keep my two accounts training for a couple of years so I think I'll stay subbed and train those shitty long skills no one likes training, but for the most part, I'm on an extended hiatus until I find my mojo for Eve once again. It's not the first time it's happened and it probably won't be the last, but it's safe to say this will be my last entry for some time.

If anyone wants to buy some POCOs in a C3 Red Giant with a HiSec static, Eve Mail Bex at Boundless Exploration and I'll gain you an entry and give you a fair price.

Thanks for sharing in my misadventures, I'll see you guys on the flip side.

o7

Bex.

That Cloaky Bastard!

It seems baiting out the Disco Proteus is the fashionable thing to do lately. I'm not logging in all that much, but when I do it's invariably a fucking trap. Which brings me to this morning.

I log in to check my connections only to find just the static HiSec open and no activity in system. It's morning so I'm not on for long, I update siggy and decide I'll clear the Frostline site before shuffling off to work. Well, I land in the Frostline site and suddenly there's an Astero on D-Scan. Too late now, he's no doubt spotted me, I may as well keep smart bombing these rats and if he's dumb enough to warp in for tackle he'll get instantly vapourized. He doesn't warp in though, stays on D-Scan and I locate him with an alt at a Data site before long.

I finish the Frostline site and re-ship into Night Fever and set myself at a perch off the Data site. This explorer has a history, although it's a bit of a mixed bag and there's really no conclusions I can draw from it. The fact he didn't get scared off by a Rokh on D-Scan has me suspicious however, could I really be getting baited again?

I decided to try a drive by. The can he's working on has no debris nearby so I can warp in at 10 km's, align to a moon and if a tackler de-cloaks I'll be gone before his cloaking delay is up. So I align, get with 8km's, uncloak and spam F1 to F5, hoping for explosions but expecting something more. Sure enough, a Proteus uncloaks and I immediately hit warp, making my escape from yet another trap. I've really got to stop writing about this shit!

The funny part was the antagonist in this instance was ggnoreTT, aka Cloaky Bastard. If you're not a reader of his blog, do yourself a favour. He gets into some funny W-Space shenanigans.

Turns out I was pretty damn lucky and was saved not by being aligned but by Cloaky Bastard's impatience. His Astero bait was tanked specifically to resist my Proteus and tackle it until his Proteus could get back up tackle. Apparently the only salvo I loosed didn't even make it to the armour whereas in the past two cycles have vapourized every Astero I've encountered in the Red Giant system.

I got lucky, and now my watch list is a few pilots heavier. ;)

The Price of Infamy

In my time writing this blog I've never made a secret of my location, my tactics or even my time zone. I'm an open book in that regard because I've always felt more security equals less content. I know there are others out there who don't see it that way and I can appreciate their viewpoint, indeed their position is probably vindicated by what transpired this evening, but it won't change how I go about it. I'd rather suffer a loss than stare into blank space, after all.

As you may have guessed, one of my readers stumbled across my place of worship this evening. Full credit goes to the pilot, he recognised the system and set himself to do what he's done several times before - snare himself a smart bombing Tech III Cruiser.

As is my custom, I logged in after downtime to update siggy and check my connections. I was only half way through the task when I noticed a Magnate on D-Scan with core scanner probes out. Now, being on a heightened level of alert about such explorers because of another one trying to bait me out, I viewed the character cautiously as he was quite young, had no history to speak of and... something just didn't feel quite right. Moreover, I had unknown signatures in system that I did not know and wouldn't know before engaging the pilot, so it may very well be bait. I sat at a perch of my POS in Night Fever considering my next move. The lack of intelligence sealed the deal for me. I wouldn't ignore the intrusion, but I certainly won't commit my most murderous of weapons to such a feeble task. An Astero loss to a bait Magnate I could countenance, but the Proteus I could not.

Sitting at a perch on the Relic site in my Astero, the Magnate soon landed and made his way to a can. I made my approach, uncloaked and tackled the explorer, only to have a scram returned and "wwwwww" appearing in local. I was immediately pleased with my earlier choice. A Stratios soon uncloaked and did what Stratios' do, neuting my capacitor, adding back up tackle and sending his drones after me. With cap injection and overheated repairs I managed to tank long enough to at least kill the bait, eventually succumbing to the larger version of myself.

My aggressor was a good sport, but I suppose it's easy to be magnanimous in victory, and was gracious enough to commend me for not letting Night Fever fall victim as several had before. As he tells me he visits my blog, I feel I must share this with him...

Just kidding, of course. Well played good sir; may we meet again. Now I have to go fit out another Astero and that genuinely annoys me, consider this inconvenience the salty tears of a bitter vet. I can never seem to get a connection close to my HiSec home base but at least I've got plenty of Sister's Probe Launchers lying about. ;)

The Hunter?

With a few days off over the New Year period I've found the time to spend some time in the service of Bob, once again. Fortuitously, Bob has seen fit to give his humble disciple numerous connections to known and unknown regions and several lucrative Relic sites have been scattered around my home system to tempt any would be explorers into making their ritualistic blood offerings to the almighty one, whether they like it or not.

Amusingly, Captain Obvious paid me a visit today, again trying to bait out my Disco Proteus with a new character with no history and flying nothing more than a Magnate. If you're reading this, let me give you some advice. Try harder. As per his standard modus operandi, he completed a Data site and logged off with still more sites to be hacked, removing any doubt I may have had about his authenticity. Time to make a new alt, my friend.

Moving on, a K162 connection from LowSec had shown no traffic and whilst pottering about in the LowSec system I notice a Buzzard jump in and start probing. The name was instantly familiar to me and whilst I didn't bother to go through the sacrificial archives, I'm fairly certain he had made an offering to Bob in the past; history may be about to repeat itself.

A few minutes passed and sure enough, fire from the LowSec connection sees our friend in the Buzzard jump in, drop probes and go about his business. I was already at a perch on one of the Relic sites and predictably he landed in the site and moved towards the goodies. I liberated his vessel and fleshy husk, sending his conciousness back to HiSec whilst reciting the prayer. Scooping the loot, I cursed the loot fairy and went back to POS to get my clean up Catalyst. Just as I was about to warp back however, there was fire from a K162 C4 connection. It was well off D-Scan so I jumped back into Night Fever and waited.

My new visitor has no doubt seen the Buzzard wreck on D-Scan and the probes he left behind will linger for an hour yet, so I'm not expecting much right away. He scans the system quickly with his Anathema and jumps home, presumably to re-ship. I take this opportunity to salvage the Buzzard wreck and get back into position again just as he re-enters system in an Astero. It would seem the probes on D-Scan have alerted him to an opportunity to gank an explorer, or so he thinks.

After about forty minutes he's had enough of waiting around. The probes are still on scan but he's run out of patience and warps into the site I'm perched at to start hacking. Asteros are the reason I moved into this Red Giant system. Sometimes they'd get away from me without the buff to smart bombs but here they always explode, and this one was no different. Although you have to wonder what was with the pod...

Happy New Year!

Who needs a Skiff?

Hulkageddon died with the buff to Mining Barges and Exhumers, but the likes of CODE have managed to keep the Darwinian circle of life going, continuing to be the bane of untanked miners everywhere. Lucky for CODE, there seems to be an endless supply of seals to be clubbed, but the Ice belts probably won't give them much joy now, all because of this little frigate, the Endurance.

If you've got the skills for a Prospect, you've got the skills for this little gem. Intended to be the Wormholers best friend, allowing Wormhole residents to harvest ice from Shattered Wormhole systems, it turns out this little frigate is also as good as a Skiff or Mackinaw, indeed arguably better, at harvesting ice in known space too. The Hulk will remain the king however, but it's survivability is so poor that it's only the foolhardy that still use it.

I'm not one for crunching numbers hard, whether that's apathy or intellect I'll let you ponder, so I thought I'd just compare its performance to my usual Boosting Orca/Skiff arrangement. Without boosts, it takes the Endurance just under a minute to harvest one block of ice but with boosts, it's down to 36 seconds! That's only 5 seconds longer than the Skiff. Take into account my Expedition Frigate skills are at 4 and my Capital Industrial skill is at 4 and it can only get better. Add to that the 15K m3 ore hold, same as the Skiff, and it's mobility orbiting an ice block at 1K m/s, it's just as ungankable as the Skiff. Moreover, the training time and overall investment is much, much lower than the Skiff, giving newbros a way into ice mining very early in their EVE careers.

I really only mine ice when I need fuel, but the addition of this ship will be good for industrialists everywhere. It does beg the question though, do Exhumers need to be looked at again?