Looking around w-space
13th December 2011 – 5.58 pmI'm up and ready to take another poke around w-space. There's no one at home, which is a good start and lets me take my time to get settled, although I suppose it doesn't really matter how much time I take with only one undetermined signature. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to be greeted by a clear result from my directional scanner. Not entirely clear, I suppose, but a medium container amongst the planets and moons is hardly a sign of occupation or activity. I launch scanning probes and blanket the system, picking up three ships all looking like they are clustered together around a single planet. I imagine they are sitting in a tower there.
Warping across the system finds a tower and the ships, an Orca industrial command ship, Maelstrom battleship, and shuttle all unpiloted. No one is home. I bookmark the sole anomaly and start working through the ten signatures also revealed by my probes. I resolve a ladar site and a wormhole, leaving it unvisited as I search for more. I find more, but more gas harvesting sites when I really am only looking for wormholes. There is plenty of gas, as it turns out, with only the penultimate signature offering a change of pace by being rocks instead, before the final result being the second wormhole I was hoping for.
The first wormhole I resolved is the system's static exit to low-sec empire space, its super-stability a good indicator that I have only just activated it and that the locals have not been awake for at least a day. Or, I suppose, not wanting to leave the system for at least a day. I pop out to low-sec to get the exit system, which is in the Placid region, before jumping back to the C3 and seeing what other connection I have resolved. Sadly, it's just another link to low-sec, this one a K162. This wormhole comes in from Genesis, where I decide I may as well scan, seeing as I'm here now.
The anomalies in the low-sec system in Genesis are populated by dumb drones, although Blood Raiders are present in one. The three additional signatures turn out to be a radar site, an outbound wormhole to more class 3 w-space, and a K162 from class 1 w-space. I ignore a passing fleet that fills up the local channel briefly, or they ignore me, and jump in to the C1 as my first choice in trying to find squishy targets. Two Drake battlecruisers aren't exactly squishy, but I'm supposing they are nestled inside a tower seeing as there aren't any wrecks on d-scan. Finding the tower has me warping straight through a bubble trap, complete with canisters looking to decloak snared ships, but the integrity of my cloak remains. Neither Drake is piloted, so even if I had bumped in to a can I wouldn't have been noticed.
A blanket scan of the C1 reveals ten anomalies and eight signatures, but no other ships. Rather than look for another K162 heading back in to deeper w-space I recall my probes, return to low-sec, and warp across to explore already discovered C3b instead. Jumping in has nothing of interest on d-scan, and my notes point me towards an on-line but unoccupied tower that was here two months ago on my last visit to the system. My probes reveal a mere two anomalies but eighteen signatures, which is too many for me to care about sifting through at the moment, particularly with no guarantee of finding anything but a different route to k-space. Then again, I'm not slow at scanning and my options for exploration are limited. I start looking for wormholes.
The only wormhole I uncover is the C3's static exit to low-sec space, which is a bit of a shame. The wormhole leads out to the Domain region, which is conveniently closer to assets and market hubs than the other two exits, and is even only one hop from high-sec, but I have no current need to leave w-space. I jump back to C3b and head homewards, passing through low-sec and in to C3a. Our neighbouring system remains unsurprisingly quiet and I consider scanning the low-sec system on the other side of the static wormhole here. It doesn't hurt to take a look. The system in Placid has two additional signatures, one being a Serpentis outpost and the other a wormhole, which turns out to be a K162 from more class 3 w-space. The connection is unstable but not critical, which is enticing.
Trying to jump through the wormhole gives a disheartening result. The wormhole is stabilising and denies me passage, which means there are definitely no pilots in the system on the other side. Whatever activity pushed enough ships through the wormhole to mass-stress it happened hours ago, with no one returning since then. I don't even bother jumping my scouting boat through the wormhole now, as I know I won't find anything. Thus ends today's exploration, a few systems explored but no other pilots found. Returning through C3a has me bounce off the tower in the hopes that someone has woken up but there's still no one here. I warp across to our K162, jump home, and go back in to hiding. Maybe there will be more to find tomorrow.
5 Responses to “Looking around w-space”
I am definitely jealous of all the connections you find to k-space as I can't seem to buy a connection to lowsec or hisec at the moment.
Zandramus
Can I ask for a bit of advice on towers and drag bubbles?
If they have a drag bubble and it's outside their tower won't you die if decloaked to the tower guns?
I'm thinking it might be better to warp to the planet and D-scan the tower.
Using d-scan to monitor a tower is too passive, as it requires continuous updates to determine if a new pilot has appeared, particularly if your combat probes are elsewhere in the system. Sitting on the same grid as the tower has the overview dynamically update with new arrivals, as well as letting you see if and in what direction any current pilots leave. You can gain a lot of information watching a ship warp out.
As for drag bubbles, they can cause a problem, yes. However, many warp bubbles are just that: naked bubbles without canisters scattered around to decloak pilots. The worst that generally happens is that you get pulled to the edge of the bubble and you have to manoeuvre out, cloak intact. I've encountered one exquisite exception, where the anchoring position of the tower allowed a bubble to be placed that pulled any pilot warping on-grid through the tower. It was beautiful, and quite deadly.
For actual bubble traps, with cans to decloak ships, yes, you can get in to trouble. But tower defences take a while to lock on to ships, warp disruptors taking longer than guns too, I believe. As long as you are paying attention when warping to a tower you should be able to move away from any hazard and re-activate your cloak, or warp clear, before you are in any real danger. The worst that generally happens is that any pilots in the tower may briefly see your ship and be aware you are in their system. That is, if they themselves are paying attention.
A strategic cruiser with the interdiction nullifier subsystem doesn't have these problems, of course. I have to admit, though, it took me a while after switching to a Tengu for scanning to realise it was the subsystem saving me from the bubble traps, and not incompetence on behalf of whoever placed the bubbles. I can be slow of mind sometimes.
Connections come and go, Zandramus. You'll get lucky soon enough.
OK thanks very much. Really enjoying my occasional adventures in W-space.