W-space glossary

ABC ore
Arkonor, bistot, and crokite ores. Ores are graded in value according to their initial letter, with ABC ores being more valuable than, for example, veldspar or scordite. When mining in a gravimetric site, it is more profitable to gather ABC ore first.

Archaeology
A skill needed to gain access to the artefacts found in relic sites. Used with relic analyser modules.

Artefact
Found in relic sites, an artefact needs the archaeology skill and a relic analyser module for them to be opened. Provides materials used in Tech III production.

Bloot
A contraction of 'blue loot'. The loot recovered from the wrecks of Sleepers has a blue colour on its graphics, allowing us to distinguish it from other loot. Bloot is separate from any salvage recovered from the wrecks.

BM
A bookmark, used to mark a specific point in space. Bookmarks are used for quick navigating to wormholes, sites, and the corporation tower, as well as for safe spots within systems and for locating hostile (or benign) targets. Copying bookmarks is currently a fiddly process. The bookmarks need to be moved from the BM can to a ship's hold, then moved to an appropriate folder in the 'people and places' interface. The bookmarks then need to be copied back to the ship's hold (to copy, hold down shift whilst dragging), which must be done only 4 or 5 bookmarks at a time because of limitations with the system. The bookmarks can then be returned from the ship's hold to the BM can. Note that bookmarks of wormholes need to be made actually at the wormhole's location and not from the scanning interface, as the scanning interface does not provide as accurate a location for the bookmark and can result in warping-in to the wormhole too far away to jump instantly. Bookmarks for sites, on the other hand, must be made through the scanning interface, to prevent the site's despawn timer being activated by being visited.

BM can
A container floating at the corporation's tower that holds current bookmarks of interest. If any bookmark is found to be out-of-date (i.e. the site or wormhole is no longer present) it is courteous to delete the bookmark (move it to a ship's hold, move it from the hold to the 'people and places' interface, delete it from the 'people and places' interface), and any new bookmarks for sites of interest must be copied to the BM can at the earliest convenient time, generally immediately on the return to the tower.

BM label
On creation, a bookmark is best labelled to contain relevant information, such as 'wh sgi c4->c2 out', which indicates a wormhole with the signature sgi leading from a C4 to a C2 that is heading away from the home system. The signature is useful information for later scanners to identify quickly, or to ignore and concentrate on other signatures. The class of wormhole the system leads to is useful but not mandatory. The direction of travel is important, indicating whether the wormhole heads towards or away from the home system, or is a direct connection with home, as well as showing if the wormhole leads to empire space (exit HS/LS/NS, or exit high-sec/low-sec/null-sec). The direction gives a good bearing for making a shopping trip to empire space or a sprint home away from danger. Sites must also be labelled similarly, with an initial letter indicating the type of site (G for gas, R for relics, D for data), the signature of the site, then the name of the site as scanned down. Clear labelling of bookmarks is vital for survival in w-space. Random Average's bookmark naming convention elaborates and expands on this naming convention.

Buffer
The innate hit-points available to a ship with no repping. A buffer is used on ships with high damage resistances or when the conflict is expected to be brief. Buffers do not use as much capacitor energy as active tanks, but cannot be replenished in emergencies.

C1-C6
W-space systems can be classed according to their level of danger, with six known levels. Class 1 wormholes pose the least danger, with minimal Sleeper presence, and class 6 wormholes pose the greatest danger, with maximum Sleeper resistance. Wormholes leading in to class 1 to 3 systems are shown as leading in to 'unknown space', class 4 and 5 systems leading in to 'dangerous unknown space', and class 6 systems are 'deadly unknown space'. The different classes of systems can be recognised by the background colour of space. The wormholes connecting each class of system allow different sizes of ship through, and it is important to note that wormholes leading in to class 1 systems will not allow battleships through, and no wormholes are big enough to allow capital ships to pass. Also note that whilst the relative danger posed by the class of w-space system refers to the Sleeper presence, it can also be used as an indicator of the threat of any capsuleer inhabitants. Capsuleers who have made a home in and can survive a higher class system are much more likely to pose a more significant threat than those dipping their toes in to w-space in a class 1 system (although some skilled corporations use the lower class systems to set-up multiple cheap towers to run reactions, so the class of system should not be the only measure of threat).

Databank
Found in data sites, a databank needs the hacking skill and a data analyser module for it to be opened. Provides materials used in Tech III production.

Data site
One of the types of site that can be scanned down with scanning probes. Data sites contain databanks of Sleeper information that can be opened using a data analyser module, which requires the hacking skill to fit and use, providing materials used for Tech III production. Data sites have a heavy Sleeper presence. Secondary waves of Sleepers may need to be spawned by hacking in to a database.

Deserted Talocan hull (frigate, cruiser, battleship)
A specific form of salvage, only occasionally found in the more challenging sites. When salvaged, a deserted Talocan hull can provide a hull used in the production of a Tech III strategic cruiser.

ECM
Electronic countermeasures, or 'jamming'. ECM systems can disrupt a target's targeting mechanisms, preventing it from locking on to other ships. Without a locked target, many ships can perform no function. ECM is useful in preventing Sleepers or enemy ships from firing on friendly ships, as well as disrupting remote repping between hostile ships.

EOL
End-of-lifetime, a term attached to wormholes that only have a short period of time left before they collapse naturally. This period of time is 2 to 3 hours from the time the wormhole enters its EOL stage. It can be risky to pass through an EOL wormhole without knowing when it became EOL or for an extended period.

EWAR
Electronic warfare, an overarching term for the use of ECM.

Fleet
A group of ships collected together as a unit. Being part of a fleet allows use of the watch list, enables other fleet members to warp directly to each other's positions, and can grant shield, armour, agility, targeting range, and mining yield bonuses based on various leadership skills.

Gas site
One of the types of site that can be scanned down with scanning probes. Gas sites contain gas that can be harvested and used for various reactions, which can then be used in manufacturing or sold for profit. A minimal Sleeper presence will warp in when shortly after the site is initially visited.

Hacking
A skill needed to gain access to databanks found in data sites. Used with data analyser modules.

Hangar
A general storage unit used to hold modules for ship fittings, ore gathered from mining, loot recovered from operations, and other items. Access is provided to allow convenient replacement of modules, the dropping off of loot, or for general storage, but trust is important and it is expected that the more specific items, like rigs and skill books, are not taken without consent of the owners.

Jump
As a ship jumps through a stargate, so does one jump through a wormhole, both resulting in a change of system. Although ships are ostensibly 'sucked through' wormholes the term 'jump' is still used, for its brevity and familiarity.

K162
Wormholes have two ends. One end is the 'static' side of the wormhole and has a specific designation that shows what sort of system it leads to. The other end of a static wormhole, however, always has the K162 designation. A K162 wormhole doesn't reveal any information about the system on the other side of it, only that the wormhole is leading inwards to the current system.

Neut
A form of electronic warfare employed by Sleepers. An abbreviation of energy neutraliser, a neut drains a target ship's capacitor. If the neut is strong enough, it can overcome the target's regeneration rate and fully drain the target's capacitor, making it a serious threat.

Nos
A form of electronic warfare employed by Sleepers. An abbreviation of Nosferatu, an energy vampire, the Sleepers effect is more accurately energy neutralisation, or 'neut'. A Nos module not only neutralises the target's capacitor but also transfers the energy to the ship running the Nos. However, the Nos will only transfer energy between ships if the target's capacitor level is higher than the source of the Nos. This means that a Nos will never fully drain a target's capacitor, unlike neuts.

On the verge of collapse
A wormhole in this state is critically unstable, owing to the mass of ships having passed through it. It won't take much more pushing to convince the wormhole to collapse. Don't jump through one of these unless you're prepared not to jump back again, because you probably won't be able to.

Ore site
A type of cosmic anomaly that can be found without needing scanning probes. Ore sites contain asteroids to be mined for ores that be sold for profit, or refined in to minerals and used in manufacturing. A minimal Sleeper presence will warp in shortly after the site is initially visited.

Perch
In order to stalk other pilots efficiently, it is often required to be able to warp to their ship quickly wherever the target may be in a site. To achieve this, a perch can be made that is over 150 km from all structures and wrecks within the site being monitored. Any distance less than 150 km and you won't be able to initiate warp. Significantly further and you will be off-grid from the site and lose sight of the target.

Planet goo
The raw or refined/combined materials extracted from planets. Normally sent to customs offices orbiting the planet for collection by industrialists.

POCO
A player-owned customs office. Interbus took over the customs offices for planetary interaction, introducing hefty taxes for their operation. At the same time, it became possible for capsuleers to manufacture and install their own customs offices, to reduce taxes on their own planet goo and collect taxes from other capsuleers using the customs offices.

Polarisation
A pilot can only pass through any particular wormhole twice within a short period of time before his ship becomes polarised. The polarisation effect prevents further jumps through the same wormhole until the effect dissipates, which takes five minutes in total from the first jump. Note that each jump through a wormhole starts the polarisation timer, but the pilot is not polarised until a second jump through the same wormhole is made. A polarised pilot can still jump through different wormholes, subject to further polarisation effects. I mention that a pilot is polarised and not the ship, because changing ships does not end the polarisation effect.

Primary
The current target, to be engaged by all fleet members unless given specific orders to do otherwise, whether it is a Sleeper or an enemy capsuleer, or even a rock floating in space. By concentrating fire on a single target the combined weaponry brought to bear can be considerably more effective than attacking multiple targets, particularly if any kind of rep is being used.

Rat
An NPC pirate. The name is either an abbreviation, a reference to the general rat-type mobs from other MMORPGs, or a combination of the two. The term 'rat' is used to distinguish NPCs from capsuleer pirates. Rats offer bounties, loot, and security status gains when killed.

Ratting
To roam systems looking for rats.

Relic site
One of the types of site that can be scanned down with scanning probes. Relic sites contain artefacts that can be analysed using a relic analyser module, which requires the archaeology skill to fit and use, providing materials used for Tech III production. Relic sites have a heavy Sleeper presence. Secondary waves of Sleepers may need to be spawned by analysing an artefact.

Rep
To repair, whether shields or armour. Repping uses on-board modules to regain armour or shield hit-points, allowing a ship to withstand more damage than normal. Compare with remote repping, and buffer.

RR, or remote repping
Remote repairing is similar to standard repping, but without a ship repairing itself. A ship fitted with an RR module uses that to repair other ships. RR has the benefit of being more flexible, by being able to repair more than just one ship, sequentially, at the sacrifice of not being able to repair itself. RR is vulnerable to ECM, is reliant on vigilant use of the watch list, and takes up targeting slots for friendly ships.

Salvaging
A skill needed to recover salvage materials from wrecks of destroyed ships. Used with salvager modules.

Scan down
Using scanning probes to resolve cosmic signatures until the strength of the signature becomes 100% is referred to as 'scanning down' the signature. Although anomalies can be found using any ship's on-board scanner, wormholes and all other sites need a ship fitted with a probe launcher and scanning probes.

Scram
A form of electronic warfare employed by Sleepers. An abbreviation of 'warp scramble' and its derivative phrasings, to be scrammed is to have your warp drives rendered inoperable. Technically, a warp scrambler is different from a warp disruptor, with a scram also cutting off any micro warp drive and micro jump drive fitted to a ship as a module, whereas a warp disruptor affects only the in-built warp drive, but it's just easier to refer to the effect as a 'scram'. Either way, not being able to warp away from a site can make the Sleepers' use of scrams a significant threat.

Ship array
A hangar where ships can be stored when not in use. More secure than leaving unpiloted ships in the tower's shields. Requires trust to be shared appropriately and, in general, ships must not be taken without the consent of the owner.

Site
A generic term for any w-space complex, of which there are currently four types: cosmic anomaly, gas, data, relic. Additionally, and cosmic anomaly can be either a combat site or an ore site. A site can be scanned down and bookmarked, but it doesn't become active until a ship visits the site. Once activated, the site will last for a set amount of time before it despawns, generally three days. It is best not to activate a site unless it will be cleared or utilised effectively before it despawns. Note that it is possible to visit sites in other corporations' w-space systems, to force those sites to disappear, out of spite.

Sleeper
The indigenous population of w-space are a hitherto unknown race, dubbed 'Sleepers' because they were thought to be dormant before the network of wormholes connected w-space to empire space and stirred them to action. Sleepers are effectively the rats of w-space. They have a greater awareness of ship threat than the rats of empire space, and are much more likely to target multiple ships and drones. Sleepers have no shields, but make up for this deficiency with huge amounts of armour and optimal damage resistance regardless of the damage type. They also have remote-repair capabilities, and are known to web and warp scramble opponents. Sleepers have no bounties associated with them, so the only way to profit from them is to loot and salvage their wrecks and sell anything recovered.

Static wormhole
A wormhole is considered static by virtue of two properties. The first is that the wormhole always leads to the same class of system, whether it be a certain class of w-space or a certain security level of empire space (either high-sec, low-sec, or null-sec). The second is that the wormhole is always present in the w-space system. Note that 'static' does not mean the wormhole is always in the same position in space. Once a static wormhole collapses, either by reaching the end of its lifetime or by too much mass passing through, a new wormhole opens up at an arbitrary position in the same system. So a static wormhole means that a system will always have a wormhole present in it that leads to a certain class of system on the other side.

Tower
A control tower, anchored to a moon and providing a sanctuary to corporation, or allied pilots with the appropriate access code. Ships cannot be cloaked within the shields, but they also cannot be targeted or harmed. Towers also generally have defences that will open fire on any non-friendly targets, so caution must be taken when scouting hostile towers.

W-space
Wormhole space, or Anoikis if you are a friend of lore. Any system that is not connected to empire space by a stargate, and thus needs to be navigated by the use of wormholes, hence its name. Currently designated as 'unclaimable' for the basis of sovereignty. The security level of w-space is equivalent to 0.0, or null-sec, and is completely lawless.

Warp-in
In order to run sites more effectively, a supplementary bookmark can be made away from the deadspace beacon that marks the site itself. This supplementary bookmark is normally used to provide a more convenient initial point from where to engage the initial wave of Sleepers, and is where the fleet warps in to, hence the term.

Watch list
Any members of a fleet can be added to the watch list, by calling up the context menu on a fleet member and selecting the appropriate option. The watch list provides a single window where each added member of the fleet can be monitored for the state of its ship's shield, armour, and hull. When a member of the watch list is targeted for damage, the name will flash in red. Useful for monitoring the overall state of the fleet, and vital for keeping track of who to rep. Note that if a name on the watch list has no bars for shield, armour, and hull then that member of the fleet is not in the same location as you.

Web
A form of electronic warfare employed by Sleepers. An abbreviation of stasis webifier, a web significantly slows down a target ship. The web does not deactivate micro warp drive or afterburner modules, but the scale of the effect can still render those modules impotent. A webbed ship may not be able to mitigate as much incoming damage by using its speed. Moreover, in the worst case, a ship could be rendered useless if by being webbed it is unable to get in to weapon range to the webbing ships.

WH limit
Just as wormholes only last for a certain length of time, they also only allow a certain amount of mass to pass through them before collapsing. Careful note must be made of how much ship mass passes through a wormhole, to avoid accidental collapses. Ending up on the wrong side of a wormhole, separated from colleagues and a friendly tower, is inconvenient at best and can be terminal if in a ship not fitted with a probe launcher and scanning probes. The wormhole limit can be exploited to provoke an early collapse, which can be useful to provide a defence by denying hostile capsuleers entrance in to a system.

Wormhole
Often abbreviated as 'WH', a wormhole is a portal for travelling between w-space systems, and also for transitioning between empire space and w-space. Wormholes need to be scanned down and bookmarked in order to warp to them. Wormholes appear as an 'unknown' type of cosmic signature when scanned. A ship needs to be within 5 km of a wormhole to jump through. Two consecutive jumps through the same wormhole results in the ship's hull being polarised, preventing another jump through the same wormhole for a few minutes. A wormhole only lasts for a set period of time, generally 16 or 24 hours, or until a certain amount of mass has passed through it, after which it collapses and ceases to exist.

Wreck
A destroyed ship becomes a wreck, which can then be looted and salvaged. Wrecks only last in space for two hours before disintegrating in the vacuum. All of the profit from anomalies comes from Sleeper wrecks.