A convenience Drake
15th September 2009 – 5.04 pmI've been back in k-space for a while now, after the trouble of the insider theft from our w-space hangar. Although high-sec is safer and there is plenty to keep me occupied there isn't the same sense of camaraderie as being in a small fleet destroying Sleeper sites. The greater challenges of w-space are balanced by the need for a fleet, whereas if no one else is around in high-sec I can still progress with various activities. Being able to enter and exit our w-space systems freely becomes quite useful, therefore.
The main trouble with transitioning between w-space and k-space is that the wormholes, by their nature, connect to random systems. Being spat out of w-space thirty jumps from anywhere personally meaningful in the galaxy leads to a time-consuming journey, made slower when piloting a combat ship. The same is true when at a mission base and wanting to warp to the newly opened wormhole many jumps away.
Whilst the concentration of Lai Dai agents in Lonetrek is quite handy for increasing standings without needing to move base once a week, the systems seem to be in the middle of nowhere as far as wormhole access is concerned. This isn't helped with a chain of systems in one direction heading to null-sec and getting out of Lonetrek in the other direction requiring some astronomically long warps between stargates.
When of late I get the urge to return for some Sleeper carnage my autopilot needs to guide me through more than two dozen systems before I can join the action. And because I know that if I get in to w-space I may end up sitting at the tower hoping for pilots to wake up I generally end up running missions for Lai Dai instead of enduring the journey to the wormhole, waiting instead for another one to spawn in a closer, more convenient system.
If only the Drake weren't so slow between stargates, I could easily make the trips on auto-pilot whilst AFK drumming in Guitar Hero. The Crane would zip between systems but, as I have proved by read-across, would be useless in a Sleeper fight. But there is a solution, one that is provided to me by a wonderful corporation colleague. After losing my previous Drake, Lightness of Being, to Sleepers, I am given a gift of a researched Drake BPC. In case of further losses I can churn out several more Drakes in defiance. What I can also do is build a second battlecruiser and drop it off in a more convenient location.
The plan is to have a Drake at my mission base and one at the corporation headquarters. I can zip across space in my Crane to whichever of the pair of locations happens to be more convenient for the current entrance to our w-space system, piloting the Drake for only the last few hops, cutting travel time down significantly. I can then return to my Crane when I exit and continue k-space operations as normal. Genius! I'm going to make it so.
4 Responses to “A convenience Drake”
Why not simply keep a drake at your POS and commute between wspace and kspace in your probing ship (mine is a helios) or a shuttle?
I was about to ask why not just keep the one drake at the mission spot and one in the wormhole. You can then use your Crane [which we all love to fly] to get back and forth [not to mention it's ideal for helping with the logistics of bringing in more ammo or fuel] between Lonetrek and everywhere else.
But then I noticed that Mauvian had done the same thing for me and that I need not comment at all. And so, I just typed all this out to entertain and see my name in print once again. I am so the glory hound, eh?
You definitely should and I"m surprised it wasn't Riyu that suggested that, and why not just keep a drake in the hangar are we that full? Any how hope to blast sleepers with you soon, although I think we might move soon
Where was all this genius thinking a couple of days ago? Not in my head, certainly.
It's time to implement plan B.