Watching wildlife in class 3 anomalies

Fin's out and about, exploring w-space and destabilising wormholes. An return Orca passage hauling ore out to empire space and bringing fuel back in takes its toll on our static connection, the industrial command ship massive enough to make a dent by itself. And with a fleet now active in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system—two Drake battlecruisers, a Harbinger battlecruiser, and Tengu strategic cruiser all shooting Sleepers—our best option for adventure where we won't die needlessly is to collapse the wormhole completely and start again.

The Orca combines with my Widow black ops ship to break the wormhole, pushing it to collapse without too much inconvenience, and we are back to scanning the home system. It's not long before the new static wormhole is resolved, and I jump through to explore another C3. One planet and two moons are the only celestial objects visible on my directional scanner, along with a tower but no ships. Finding the tower is straightforward, necessarily at one of the two moons, and I make a bookmark to its location that avoids the warp bubble that initially snares me.

Exploring the C3 reveals no activity, and scanning finds a healthy eighteen anomalies. I'm happy to ignore looking for the wormhole here and shoot Sleepers instead, to bolster our wallets a little more after buying a second strategic cruiser, and I bookmark the anomalies and return home. Fin and I launch our Tengu strategic cruisers, fit for Sleeper combat, and jump in to the C3 to start our cull of the indigenous w-space population. I think it's a good idea to clear the anomalies within d-scan range of the local tower first, which will gives us advance warning of any pilots waking up, so we start with those three.

The first few anomalies pass with little fuss and no sign of the occupants appearing, so we move on to those further towards the inner system. I have noticed that a certain anomaly in C3 systems has three battleships, which are the most profitable for loot, and no neutralising ships, allowing for a less fiddly engagement as we can keep our shield boosters permanently active. I note the name of these anomalies for future sorties as I warp our squad of two towards the few that remain in this system. And it's in the next anomaly where I notice an asteroid that looks like a turtle. And there's one that looks like a bunny! This is a grand evening out.

Two more anomalies are cleared, to make five in total, before we decide to collect our loot. Despite the risk, we both bring a Noctis salvager each in to the system for greater efficiency. It is interesting that the more profitable anomalies also seem to be quicker to loot and salvage, with the ships appearing and getting popped closer together, and there being fewer of them overall. And we get a good haul, bringing home a quarter of a billion ISK of loot and salvage in total.

To end the evening we have a quick test of my new Legion, using Fin's Tengu as a simulated opponent. It seems rather imprudent to pit strategic cruiser against strategic cruiser, considering the exorbitant cost and risk of skill point loss should anything go wrong, but it seems rather more imprudent to send the ship in to battle without any kind of field test. And it's good that we have the duel. The current fitting definitely needs some tweaking in order to make it as capable as is required, which will no doubt involve compromises. I just need to work out what needs to stay, what replacement fittings will help, and what I can improve with skill training. I imagine we'll be having another duel soon to note the changes.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: drake, eve online, harbinger, legion, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow