More low-sec hacking
28th December 2011 – 5.46 pmEarly reconnaissance worked out well for me the last time I did it, so having enough time to spare today I am out early again, scanning and scouting the w-space constellation. The home system looks clear, although three sites have spawned during my short absence from space. I resolve and bookmark a radar and magnetometric site each, and resolve and activate some rocks in a gravimetric site, before warping to today's static wormhole and jumping to our neighbouring class 3 system.
My directional scanner is clear of anything interesting, an off-line tower and a bubble showing signs only of previous capsuleer occupation. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan of the system has four anomalies and seven signatures but no ships, so when I find a tower on the outskirts of the system it's not surprising there's no one home. It's not particularly disappointing either, as this is a reconnaissance expedition after all. The signatures are the usual rocks and gas, there being few enough sites that I resolve and bookmark them all in case their positions will come in useful later, and I find only the one wormhole, an exit to low-sec empire space.
I jump through the wormhole to find myself in a system in the Molden Heath region with two other pilots. I notice a cynosural beacon in the system too, which probably accounts for one of the other pilots, if not both, so the system feels pretty safe. I launch probes and scan, revealing a few anomalies full of Angel rats, which I look to pop for some pocket money and a slight increase in my security status now that the two other pilots have left the system to leave me alone, but warping to the anomalies finds no rats. I have to entertain myself by scanning the seven signatures here instead.
Resolving a radar site in the low-sec system could be good for ISK, a second one even better. Dumb gas is dumb, as are rocks, but a third radar site is making me want to get my Drake battlecruiser in here to rake in some iskies. I have to remind myself I'm out to explore for the moment, and although the final signature in the low-sec system is of the 'unknown' type it resolves to a rogue drone infestation. And now that the w-space constellation has definitely terminated I can think about hacking the radar sites.
I return to w-space, note no change in the C3, and head home for my Drake. I make sure I have a codebreaker fitted and enough ammunition, and head back to low-sec. Two pilots once again share the system with me so I will need to be cautious, but unless the others are fitted with scanning probes I won't be found in the radar sites. One pilot leaves the system as I start popping rat ships, the other flies through d-scan range in a Jaguar assault ship before leaving too. I become more comfortable knowing there is no one looking for me, and revel in looting the cans in this site of some pretty substandard loot. How disappointing.
Moving on to the second radar site has the Jaguar pilot back in the system, d-scan having him bouncing around. He could quite possibly be actively looking for my Drake, hoping it is in an anomaly or asteroid belt, idly ratting. Oh, hello, he's inviting me in to a fleet. Maybe he wants a private chat, perhaps to say he's giving up trying to find me. Yeah, right. He can't find me and hopes I am distracted enough to automatically accept the invitation so that he can warp right on top of me, which being in a fleet allows. Thankfully I'm not that stupid. I decline the invitation and, shortly afterwards, the pilot leaves the system again.
The second radar site also has rather disappointing loot, making me wonder if my previous experience was a fluke. But I'm out here and in the right ship, I may as well move to the third and final radar site. I clear the rats without any hassle, no more pilots trying to hunt me, and easily double the value of loot retrieved from the previous two sites. I end up with a pretty good haul of datacores, encryptors, and a couple of skill books, giving me maybe forty to fifty million ISK in profit. It's not w-space iskies but pretty good for the effort and risk. Now it's time to go home, dump my loot, and get some food. I'll be back later to see if the neighbouring C3 wakes up.
3 Responses to “More low-sec hacking”
I am missing the wormhole life already, I miss the daily scanning and exploration and the excitement that no local brings. And most of all I miss all the isk I was making.
I must start planning a way back to w space.
Zandramus
Whenever I find a low-sec route, I scan the sigs, checking for a better route. Now twice it happened to me that scan down a (second) WH to 100% and when I warp to it, there is nothing there. Even when I return later, nothing - but the sig is still there. It never happened to me in any other circumstance. I don't know if this has to do with the spawning of the WH or something peculiar about low sec? Have you seen this yourself or am I smoking things?
I have had a few wormholes disappear on me between resolving and warping to them, and have been told that it could be a peculiarity of the mechanics that the signature remains once your probes pick it up, even if it despawns before visited. However, I have never returned to a system to check a second time, so haven't yet seen a persistent phantom signature.