An evening for Sleeper profit
9th February 2011 – 5.01 pmToday's scanning finds me a new ladar signature and a new wormhole. I resolve them both, but jump through only one. There must be more than a single planet and its moons in this class 3 w-space system, so I bookmark the wormhole, launch scanning probes, and warp away to explore. A blanket scan of the system with combat scanning probes, set to their maximum range, sees a ship somewhere in the system. I soon find the Crane transport ship unpiloted and snuggled inside the shields of a tower. With no local activity and fifteen anomalies dotted around Fin thinks that this system 'sounds like a runner'.
Fin refits both of our Tengu strategic cruisers with heavy missile launchers. The shorter-ranged heavy assault launchers are swapped out because of the black hole in this class 3 system, reducing missile ranges and making the HAMs less appealing. In the meantime, I reload and launch core scanning probes and start sifting through the ten signatures present, spotting two wormholes pretty quickly. One wormhole is a K162 from null-sec k-space, the other the system's static exit leading out to low-sec. Neither are particularly interesting at the moment. Fin jumps in to the C3 in her Tengu and I slingshot her in to an anomaly whilst I complete my scan.
Five ladar, two gravimetric, and one magnetometric site resolved and I am jumping home to board my own Tengu, returning to the C3 to join Fin. I have to jiggle my fitting slightly, swapping a ballistic control system for an extra overdrive module to reduce my CPU needs, vowing to complete my training in the Tengu electronic subsystem at the earliest opportunity. I don't quite have the firepower of Fin's Tengu but I am having a super time zipping around at 1,135 m/s, the black hole also adding to ship velocity. And, turning up late to the first anomaly, I ask whether the Preserver is the trigger, not wanting to bring another wave of ships in early. 'Yeah', replies Fin, 'its destruction ends the last wave early'. Oh right, never mind.
We're motoring through these anomalies, clearing four of them of Sleepers with no troubles and barely a pause. I think it's worth trying the magnetometric site, to see what extra loot we could get from the additional Sleepers and what we can plunder from the artefacts scattered around. It's a little disappointing to encounter only the one Sleeper battleship in the magnetometric site, until a fourth wave of Sleepers turns up with two more. And we get those extra ships early, only expecting the usual three waves we get in anomalies. Two waves at once isn't a problem, though, and we take care to pop the repping Preservers first, to save us any wasted effort.
It's time to analyse the artefacts. Fin remains in the magnetometric site to keep it 'alive', the artefacts acting as part of the structure, unlike the wrecks, and prone to despawning once all Sleeper and capsuleer ships leave. I jump home and commission an analyser boat, not having needed one since moving in to our C4 pulsar home. I refit one of the stolen ships, modifying a salvaging Cormorant to be fit for basic analysing, and head back to the class 3 system. I warp to Fin's Tengu, now thoughfully positioned near one of the artefacts, and start collecting, as Fin returns home to get her Noctis salvager and sweep up the rest of the profit in to its hull.
Most of the artefacts I recover are wrecked, although a few are only malfunctioning. It's a long way from finding intact artefacts in class 5 w-space systems, but still worth collecting. With all the artefacts recovered I swap to my own Noctis and help Fin with the salvaging, both of us ripping through the wrecks with wonderful efficiency. We bring home all the loot safely, ending up with a fairly decent haul. The loot and salvage adds up to a little under two hundred million iskies, although I don't know the going rate for the artefacts. All this time the C3 remains quiet, so all that's left to do is get some sleep.
6 Responses to “An evening for Sleeper profit”
Given my [our] own predilection for popping Nocti, I have to admit a certain level of apprehension when taking a Noctis out for salvage ops. I have tried to do the best I can at keeping it a functional ship while maintaining its best chance at staying alive.
Without severely gimping its ability to do its job, I can survive three direct bombs and some change. The real survival though is based in situational awareness as it is unlikely to survive any given combat situation.
I must say I like your blog and the way you write. From what I read, PvE life in EVE can be pretty much more interesting than the solo-dual Level 4s I do now. Grats for that! :)
I'm a rather new capsuleer myself (a few months) and I wonder how long it would take for me and a likewise buddy of mine do be able to duplicate your adventures?
PS: By the way, it would be interesting (as incentive) to read about your most worthy (isk/loot-wise) experience in the sleeper sites?
Fly safe!
You're right, Fin, situational awareness will more likely save you than a hardened Noctis. Bear in mind that it is always possible for a new wormhole to appear outside of d-scan range, a stealth bomber to creep in, resolve the anomaly using passive systems, and stalk us without any chance of being seen.
Fitting an MWD on the Noctis may help, so that maybe you can burn away from any attacks at full pelt and out of point range so you can warp to safety. This is particularly helpful against the fools who only fit reheats to their SBs. Even so, the Noctis isn't terribly agile and if the attacker sees where you go and follows you may not be able to turn around quickly enough to escape.
Gimping the fit of a Noctis would seem to be antithetical to its survival. We have seen some bizarre fits that haven't helped, and it's probably best to let the Noctis do its job and salvage with extreme efficiency, relying on being vulnerable for as short a period as possible.
We just have to do our best at being vigilant and cautious, and accept our fate when the time comes. Don't forget to open a conversation channel with your assailant and tell him 'jerk', as often happens with us. I think that's capsuleer code for 'good fight', or something.
Thanks, Mis'tral.
The loot from each Sleeper site is identical, for sites with the same name, the only variation coming from the number of melted nanoribbons that turn up in the salvage. This differs, of course, for recovering hacking/analysing loot from the specialist radar and magnetometric sites. In both cases, the higher the class of w-space you fight in the better quality loot you'll get. Conversely, the higher-class w-space sites demand greater fleets for survival, and the overall profit brought home is shared amongst more pilots. It tends to be more profitable in the end, though, unless your battleships keep exploding.
I can't remember the most profitable time I've had against Sleepers. Separate of salvage, the loot returned grows linearly with the number of sites completed, so my biggest haul would be when I've dedicated the most time to a Sleeper operation.
And don't forget that you need to get the loot out to an NPC in empire space before the ISK can be realised, as there are no bounties on Sleepers. Any activity is dangerous in w-space, including hauling, and it is possible to have hundreds of millions of ISK in Sleeper loot be destroyed in transit, your wallet seeing none of it.
Those are the risks, though. I entered w-space with a sense of camaraderie for my corporation and the promise of greater profits to be found, and have stayed out here for the PvP. I'm not in it for the iskies as such, but only probably because I have enough at the moment. Other capsuleers are in w-space for the higher-grade ores to be mined, the reactions that can only be done outside of empire space, or the resource-rich planets. There is much appeal to offset the greater risk.
As for how long it would take for new pilots to settle in w-space, I don't really know. It is actually quite difficult to see how far I've come. The easiest option would be to join a corporation based in w-space and learn from them, as the initial requirements to be active in w-space are probably not too high, but it is possible to go it alone and learn on the fly.
If you want a taste of w-space I would suggest, as a rough guide, to get a decently tanked battlecruiser to take against the Sleepers, and to have at least rudimentary scanning skills. Scan some wormholes from high-sec, try a few class 1 or 2 system anomalies, and get a feel for Sleepers and being in null-sec space with no local channel and having to rely entirely on your directional scanner.
Try not to get upset if you are jumped and ganked, either in Sleeper combat or when salvaging, remember to say hi if I'm the one shooting you, and always keep enough capital to replace anything that is lost. If you like the environment it is time to find a corporation, or a suitable system that you can claim by anchoring a tower in, which will need configuring, defences, and regular injections of fuel.
As for actually duplicating my adventures, you need to become reclusively anti-social, be able to fit a Manticore, and have a sufficiently suppressed respect for life to patiently hunt and pod miners and salvagers.
This is probably a bit vague, and certainly glosses over lots of details that are important, but I hope it is a suitable answer to your question.
He-he,
I'll keep that in mind. :)
In the meantime, I'll most probably be a regular reader on your blog.
Keep it up - it's great!
Penny exaggerates a bit with "you need to be reclusively anti-social, be able to fit a Manticore, and have suffienciently suppressed respect for life to patiently hunt and pod miners and salvagers." as she is neither reclusive nor anti-social and we have been well known at times for NOT being able to fit a Manticore. As for the respect for life, it is as depressed as we are and we often feel remorse for popping the same people multiple times when our systems connect and they still have not learned to check their dscan when they are busy. Just a little.