They Came, They Saw, They lost their Noctis

Its been a long time since I've posted and a lot has happened.

I've learned null sec statics make for really sucky logistics, been "evicted" from a wormhole for the first time (staging POS for a move), learned the "joy" of Sov Warfare in 0.0 (an IHUB has how many HP?), gained a lot of small fleet roam experience, and invested a lot of time into learning the ins and outs of PI.

The one area I have "grown" the most is in a willingness to get into situations that might not always have a favorable outcome for me (not to be confused with a Death Wish, but more a Death Apathy).

So in my shiny new wormhole, complete with a crap ton of anomalies (since it had not been "worked" in awhile), I logged on to find 2 T3's, and 2 BC's running sites.  Well, in the past I would have let them go and have their fun, done my resetting of PI extraction units and logged off.  As long as people left my POS alone, I never really cared too much.  I even threw a probe and scanned down the K162 to see it was a "dangerous" route in.

But then they had to bring in a Noctis.  That is too juicy of a target to not try to at least take a pot shot at.  So to the POS I flew and swapped out the scanner for a SB.  Now being in my own "home" here helped.  I had several well positioned spots to use d-scan and quickly was able to determine they were leaving the Noctis alone in sites to salvage.  In the first site I found the Noctis, he was almost done and it was too late to setup a bombing run.  But the next site I caught him just starting to salvage as I warped in at 100km.

So I bookmarked a wreck right next to the target, warped to the closest planet and back at 30km.  Got lucky  on the warp in to not get too close to a wreck, and was able to sneak into 25km away.

Uncloak, fire bomb, target Noctis, overheat point, orbit 20km, hit the torps, wait for target lock, bomb explodes, half armor, volley 1, bye bye rest of armor, second volley and bye bye Noctis.

Forget the Pod, lock the wreck, crap here comes the Calvary, warp off.  Pray the melted nanos died a glorious death in the wreckage.

Warp to a safe, warp back to the site at 100km and watch them orbit the wreck farther and farther out with drones.

Check killmail, and yes the melted nanos didn't drop.  Bye bye 150M in loot (probably closer to 200M at the time of the kill) and a nights work for at least 5 people.

While not my first kill, it does represent the first for the corp that once served as a carebear in w-space corp, that used to run and hide in a POS and would never risk pissing off "dangerous" people.  But having now been in a "dangerous" corp or two, lived in null, and seen the other side of eve, I am more then willing to risk a 20M loss to win a Noctis kill.

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=13771475

On the opposite side, I am amazed that a corp experienced in W-space would not 1) Guard the Noctis, or 2) Monitor my POS.  Especially since I had announced my presence with probes, and changed ships at my POS.  They should easily have seen me reship into a Bomber and at the very least sent one of the 4 combat ships to protect the Noctis.  Having the Noctis aligned would have saved it also.  It was sitting still, and easy prey. Overall, they probably had not encountered great resistance in a C1 before, or thought so little of the possible occupants, that they got lazy.  Again the 200M loss probably represents a drop in the bucket to what they make, but its still is 200M.

So if you come to visit my wormhole, please fly lazy.  I like Noctis kills.

Fly Safe everywhere else,
Mick Flaherty

PI, Depletion, and WH life

Personally, PI is what got me back into W-Space life, and PI is the overriding factor keeping me there now. I think that is also the reason that I have seen a resurgence in the number of people living in w-space.  High End Gas Mining, and C5/C6 Sleeper Sites still represent the top of the line Isk generation in W-space, but PI is the backbone of providing the Isk to justify a semi-permanent presence.

So along comes the new depletion, the planets I am making "mining" for my coolant on probably had 5-6 people on them each pulling material.  The planets got significantly poorer in a matter of weeks, yet prices have not risen.  So either people had a backlog, or more people are doing it with the new "ease" of PI (yes, I can not get through 5 toons with login and everything in about 15 minutes on nights I don't need to move materials).

So will the depletion lead to a similar exodus of w-space as the falling ABC mineral prices did?  Will people just spread out more and we will see more systems being run by smaller groups?  Or will people just scale back in the holes they are in and make less per person?

Personally, I moved my merry band of PI toons to a new hole and am happily back to only 2-3 toons on each planet and reaping the hot spots all myself.

Time will tell how the new depletion and PI will work, but for now, I think that w-space remains the best place to operate for PI and the less people doing PI in the hole the better.

Fly Safe,
Mick

My New Hero

So right now, almost all my W-Space toons are in my new C3 with a Null Static, setting up my PI refuge.  So I was not around to witness this story.

Last night I log in and private chat one of the guys I still communicate with from the C4 corp, and to say the least he is hot. Like steaming mad, punch a wall and spit in another soccer team's fan's face hot (well thats what all us US people think you crazy soccer fans do anyway).  Finally I get him to calm down a bit and start to get the story.

Appears that our corp has successfully ambushed a couple of BS running sites in our static C3 and killed and podded one of them.  So on logs my friend for a quick check of whats going on and they are screaming for help closing the hole before the C3 corp figures out what hit them.  He is ensured the hole is not critical and can support 2 Orca runs (those of us familiar with 2B mass holes and the shear fatness of an Orca can immediately grasp the fallacy in this statement).  So without a refit for probe scanner, or cloak, or anything that could help survive in a hostile C3, off my friend goes to the hole.  Now we all know what happened, because if he passed twice and closed the hole there would be no story to tell.

So one emo-rage log off, some confusion on WTF happened, calls for a petition cause the WH mass must have been bugged, some diplomatic overtures for help meet by a resounding "pound sand" and the end result was one Orca piloted by an implant rich toon, stuck in a hostile C3 with no cloak, no probe launcher, and no BM to the static low sec that had never been scanned out.  Needless to say the thought of losing 750M in ship and implants was not appealing.  I suggested trying to negotiate in local, but really that was fools hope.  The only hope I saw was a passer through seeing a jet can and helping.  But my friend had another plan.

I left to go watch a movie with the SO and came back to find a much calmer and while happy does not describe the mood, at least relieved friend. My friend's Orca and pilot were back in High Sec and safe.  He had managed this in a way I would have probably never thought of.  Locator Agents.

He had spammed all the active toons online for the corp in the C3 that he could find.  From there had found a few of them clustered in a section of low sec.  He proceeded to send a covert ops scanner to that area, found a number of wormholes, including a C1 with over 25 anoms, before successfully finding his little lost ship.

I was amazed in such a short time (2 hours) he was able to accomplish this rescue.  And for that he is my new hero.  Great job dude.  But next time fit a probe launcher and cloak to that Orca.

Tell Me What You See

Well after long last I have returned to W-space.  First in a C5 with C3 static.  That didn't last long.  Next in a C4 with a C3 static.  Lasted a little longer, but the new PI depletion and a few too many people making coolant on too few planets, and I was ready to find a new home for at least my merry band of PI toons.

So in looking for a HS route out of the C4, I came across a nice C3 with static null and a very nice mix of planets (minus one lava or plasma that would have made it near perfect).  So I moved in, set up a medium POS and managed to get a month of fuel and 9 ECM batteries onlined.  I figured that would deter most people.

So I monitored Dotlan today and this is what I saw.

Jumps Last 48h

NPC Kills Last 48h

Ship Kills Last 48h

POD Kills Last 48h

At first I thought for sure someone had decided to get about 20 of his best null sec friends and decided to pop my POS for fun.  Well I logged in once home and found nothing on d-scan, and the POS in perfect order.

So tell me, what do you see happened in my new system today?

Mick

A Short Vacation

It is Summer and the time has come to train a few long skills and take a vacation.

Now for "work" I still take my laptop so I am able to tell a short tale.

As we try to do every few years, we headed the 600 miles to the ocean and the beach.  Now I am not as, shall we say .... thin, as i used to be.

So the second day I am down at the beach and the surf is pretty pounding as there is a storm offshore really kicking up the waves.  So as i grew tired of fighting the waves and saw my kids hard at work building stuff in the sand I decided to join them.

So I stumbled ashore and flopped down next to my kids and started to claw at the sand in an effort to help them gather some sand for their walls and structures.

Now let me tell you it was a pretty hot day.  Had to be pushing 95F and the sun was really beating down hard.  I really started to sweat and considered returning to the sea, but just then a group of people came along and started to pour water over me.  I didn't recall this level of service in reading the timeshares website, but it was appreciated.  So I continued to dig up sand for my kids.

Now along came another group and started really soaking me with some hoses.  Seemed a bit extreme.  I looked around too and didn't see any others receiving this special treatment.

I did get worried when they started to try to tie ropes to my legs and a boat showed up.  At this point I got up and started to ask a few questions.  Needless to say the people gathered where a bit shocked at my sudden mobility, and I was a bit embarrased when I saw they were all from the local marine biology college's marine rescue program.

Guess maybe it really is time to consider that diet when this vacation is over.

Mick

Back in W-Space ... Finally

Well, it took longer then I expected.

And it was for a totally different reason then I expected.

But I am back in W-space, with most of my toons.

Yes my two main toons are still bumping around Provi, killing the crap out of Sansha and Sleepers when available.  They are still taking baby steps into PVP also.  Overall I am happy with where they were at.

My two indy/trading toons meanwhile were sitting around collecting dust and training for things that might make them slightly more useful.  I was just about ready to bite the bullet and setup a high sec POS to start invention again (though I dreaded the time sink a high sec POS was and the time sink invention was) to justify these two toons.

Then my C4 discovery. 

So now I have 4 new sub-toons (my term for the 2 extra toons on each account) that are able to fly a cloaky bestower, probe ridiculously bad, and run 5 planets with Advanced Command Centers (total training time with 2 remaps and 100% bonus was about 5-6 days).  So now I have a Large POS setup, Defenses installed (I am sick of 2m30s to anchor and 2m30s to online messages), the hole bottomed out (thanks to warp cancels) and 4 toons ready to use Advanced Command Centers tonight. 

So once again, I am living the dream of no local, living in a POS, managing WH exits, as well as worrying about the logistics of w-space refueling and market runs. 

Still on the to-do list is getting my drake capable PVE toon into the hole to clear smaller ladar and grav sites when they spawn.  As well as having at least one toon capable of putting up a fight.

So with renewed interest in W-Space and its PI impact, I look forward to a much different blog scope in the next few weeks to a month. 

It is my hope to discuss my total setup in the next few days.

Fly Safe,
Mick

The Pull of PI

Well, I kinda laughed at the initial idea of Planetary Interaction.

It looked kinda, well, stupid.  Seemed like Farmville meets Eve.  A bunch of clicking, moving stuff, and limited rewards.  Yet another thing for people to do that don't want to learn PVP.  Another dream of passive income that would end up taking way to much time to justify the end result (gee, I can save $14 a month by spending 30 hours a month messing with this passive income stream).

So I did not mess with it on Sisi, I did not rush to train the skills, and I didn't even start paying attention till it was out a few weeks and I started to get word of some serious potential profits.

So I started to scan around in High Sec to see what I could find.  Short answer was nothing good.  No "hot spots" for sure.

For those of you who have followed this blog for awhile will remember, I left scanning alts in at least 3 different WH's.  So I decided to log them on and see what planet mixes they had.  The two C2 were both a no go as one was occupied and the other had a bunch of Barren, Gas, and 1 Oceanic.

However, the C4 was a very pleasant find.  First it had a C2 static so I am never far from a Empire route. Next it had 3 Temperate, 2 Lava and a Gas.  All of the three types with "unique" resources.  Even better, they all had 80%+ "hot spots" for those resources.

For those of you not yet fluid in PI, there are 15 "Planetary Resources" and 3 of them can only be found on a single planet type.  These are Reactive Gases on Gas Planets, Felsic Magma on Lava  Planets, and Autotrophs on Temperate Planets.

Now the engineer in me kicked in and I started to look at what I could make.  Then the Salesman in me started to look at what I could make.  Then the PVP'r in me started to think about what i could get blown up with all the Isk I was going to make.

Here is what I have found.  The three resources I will be swimming in (could hurt swimming in Magma) combine to make 3 P2 Level Products. These are RG+FM= Silicate Glass, RM+AUTO= Polyramids, and FM+AUTO=Microfiber Shielding.

Now, looking further, those 3 P2 products represent half of the P2 products needed for BOTH Broadcast Nodes and Self Harmonizing Power Cores.

A plan was evident.

So off went the initial toon into the C4 to play with PI.  Unfortunately, he forgot a cloak.  Guess what?  PI takes a lot of time "messing" with stuff and in non Empire areas, a cloak is invaluable.

Fortunately,  I got a few days of playing and transferring stuff around, before Alpha Dog ended my fun.

So at this point I have 4 planets setup, 2 scanning toons left in the hole, and 4 more scanning/PI toons training.

The goal now is to get a POS into the C4, along with the 4 scanning/PI toons and start to harvest and process as much of the Broadcast Node and SHPC parts I can inside the hole.

From there, I plan to setup my trader toon near Jita on enough planets to finish off the BN's and SHPC's.

As I work to setup my planets, I will try to get some pictures on my basic setups and thoughts on PI.  The overall goal of the setups is to try to balance the time between transfers of materials between planets. The goal is once a week.  That way the daily activity will be setting extractors, and once a week I will need to spend a few hours shuttling products between planets and toons.

At the end of August I promise to report if my projections of Isk are anywhere close to what I actually make.

Fly Safe,
Mick