Moving between w-space systems is hard
7th February 2011 – 5.19 pmI'm alone in this class 4 w-space system, I may as well scan and look in our neighbouring C3 for activity. Or home, for a new gravimetric site first. The rocks are bookmarked, adding a new pin to my system map, and I continue scanning to find our home system's static wormhole. Jumping in to the class 3 system reveals activity, of sorts. A tower is visible on my directional scanner, as is a Purifier. But the stealth bomber disappears from d-scan a moment later, suggesting activity on behalf of the pilot. Now moved away from the wormhole and cloaked, I check my notes to see I have been here before.
My last visit to this system was only a month ago but already the tower has changed locations, or my notes are inaccurate, and I have to find it again. Towers are easy to find, this one being no exception, and I update my notes. No ships or pilots are at the tower, and I am left to wonder if I indirectly saw the Purifier as it jumped out of the system, or if the pilot logged off. Either reason results in the ship disappearing from d-scan, and I think I am better served by assuming there remains a stealth bomber somewhere in the constellation today. But until I have somewhere else to explore our two ships won't even have the opportunity to cross paths, so I launch probes and begin to scan.
Only one anomaly is in the system, along with thirteen other signatures. Sifting through the results finds a wormhole soon enough, an outbound connection to a class 4 w-space system. That's nifty, and perhaps the Purifier has seen activity and gone roaming there. I ought to complete at least a rudimentary scan in this C3 before I move on, though. A second wormhole is the system's static connection, naturally leading out to low-sec empire space, and is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. A third wormhole is interesting, until I warp to it to see a K162 from null-sec k-space that is also EOL. It's time to explore that C4.
Nothing shows on d-scan, and I bookmark the wormhole and move away to cloak and explore. I've been in this system before, too, some six months ago. A bit of warping around shows it remains unoccupied, there being no sign of life beyond some discarded containers. Scanning reveals six anomalies and eight signatures, one of the signatures being a static connection to another C4. Glorious leader Fin has turned up and is catching up behind me, following the trail of signature identifiers that I'm leaving behind, as I search for activity and perhaps a Purifier. But this class 4 system with a static wormhole to a C4 has me interested. Our C4/C3 is within our means and convenient for getting to k-space—as long as it's low-sec—but doesn't offer as much opportunity for exploration as our old C4/C4 did, neither does the profit from a C3 match that from a C4. Perhaps we could move here.
The search for our current system was relatively fruitless. We found plenty of wormholes when scanning our way in from empire space, but they mostly led us in a tight circle back to empire space and there were few opportunties to enter dangerous w-space. Indeed, it was another branch of our corporation who scanned their way out of their C5 home who found the C4 system we now call home, eventually scanning an exit to empire space for us to come in from the other direction. And now we have a C4/C4 connected almost directly to us. The opportunity perhaps should not be overlooked.
But moving is difficult, and time-consuming. Defences need to be unanchored and taken off-line, as do arrays and the tower itself. Ships need to be moved, along with all our spare fittings, fuel, ammunition, and loot. The mass of the wormholes connecting the system will probably be stressed to the point of collapse before we get half our assets through, meaning we'll need to move the other half out to empire space and bring them in another day, when a new exit presents itself. And scanning from a C4/C4 will make exits harder to find—good for exploration, inconvenient for reaching k-space. Thinking about all of this makes me dizzy, particularly thinking about doing it all at such short notice.
Moving w-space systems is not really an activity that can be thoroughly planned. It may be possible to get somewhat prepared to transfer assets, but the random daily connections makes finding a suitable system an unlikely prospect most days, and it is almost a law that a good system will appear when half your corporation is unavailable. We could possibly move in to this tempting C4/C4, even with little preparation, but I am not mentally prepared. Perhaps it would be beneficial to move in to such a system that offers more opportunity to explore and hunt, but I haven't given it enough thought and I am actually quite satisfied with where we are. I'd rather not jeopardise our situation for one not considered adequately.
Besides, this class 4 w-space system has seventy moons, I'm not sure I'd be able to pick a suitable place to anchor our tower. Of course, we'd move a temporary tower across to an arbitrary location, as a staging point to allow us to move assets whilst stripping our primary tower, but as I appear to be talking myself out of moving systems it's as good an excuse as any. At least finding the system gives us a chance to think about our current situation and decide that it is good, as well as offering a chance to consider a move at some point in the future. But, for now, after lots of scouting of the C4, thinking of how to move, procrastinating about whether we want to or not, and with still no sign of the Purifier, we head home to get some sleep in our cosy C4/C3 pulsar system.
5 Responses to “Moving between w-space systems is hard”
Hmm. Interesting. Multiple systems connecting to each other and making connections. I wonder how difficult it would be to find another given system. I suppose it would just come down to the sheer odds, given a static connection to a given class level of system. You would have the exact same chance of opening a given system every time you scan down the static.
Wonder how hard it would be for two colonies from the same alliance to meet up...
Oh, and cat.... bag.... ===> Out
The odds are astronomical. It will never happen.
It has happened to us, but rarely. Perhaps once every couple months. Most recently, our system connected to a friend's C2, whose low exit was New Eden. So we took pictures of the gate and left crudely-named containers anchored in his system.
So if you wanted to move an order of magnitude beyond 'astronomical,' what would you end up with? Galactinomical?
Universomical?
Quantinomical? [my favorite]
Nevermind - go back to your regular scheduled musings and postings. Just ignore my random explosive brane leakage.
Wouldn't quantonomical actually be small?