Where I've been recently

It has been six months since Kirith Kodachi instigated a wide-scale stalking campaign. When I participate and post a map of my most visited systems in New Eden it is not long since joining my current corporation. With only a short stint in a PvP corporation and plenty of mission running with the Caldari Navy before that, my map is rather mundane. At least with my new corporation I begin travelling to and from different regions to make use of private laboratories, ferret-infestated or otherwise.

But a lot has changed since then. A few intrepid members of the corporation want to explore the newly uncovered mysteries of w-space. With a tingle of excitement, and plenty of anxiety and apprehension, I volunteer my pod too. Although w-space sits outside of the known regions of New Eden, and thus does not register on the galactic map, the arbitrary nature of the appearance of wormholes leads me to venture through many new systems. I spend time travelling through high-sec in order to enter w-space, as well as when finding my way back to base upon exiting w-space. Every now and again, there is even a brief excursion to or from a wormhole through low-sec, normally one or two hops.

There are other factors that make my map glow somewhat brighter now. Buying the Crane transport ship makes me brave low-sec more often. I perhaps trust the Crane a little too much, but it also shows me how unpopulated many low-sec systems can be. Getting involved in Tech II invention sees me work for different NPC corporation agents to build personal standings with them, as well as travelling the breadth of high-sec to visit R&D agents occasionally. My updated galactic slug trail is understandably broader and brighter, even if I still have no idea what factors influence the colours.

What disappoints me about the new image is the lack of presence in null-sec. On one occasion, the engineers pop out of a wormhole in to a null-sec system to fight some rats. And on a second occasion, I am kindly guided through a convoluted route from k-space back to the corporation tower in w-space, taking in three w-space systems, taking a brief detour through a null-sec system. In neither case does my presence register on the galactic map.

I wonder what it takes to get a system registered as having been visited. My instinct is that my own ship's navigational computer stores and aggregates this data, but if that were the case my appearances in null-sec would show. As I both enter and exit each null-sec system using a wormhole, it thus strikes me as entirely feasible that stargates are the mechanism for registering and recording capsuleers' movements between systems. And if that is the case, there must be some central computer tracking everyone's movements in the galaxy, which raises some obvious questions about who controls the database and what their motives are for storing all this information centrally.

It would be interesting to find out if moving between systems using cynosaural gates powered by capital ships also leaves no trace of a capsuleer's movements. If not, there is a conspiracy afoot. It is almost impossible to navigate without using stargates, yet someone is using them in a different way, to track every ship that passes through. I am beginning to think I am safer hiding out in w-space.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eve online, low-sec, maps, meme, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space