SI Radio Member Report: Agatir Solenth – 2101.07.03

Greetings my fellow corp men, women, & blog readers!!!

***Disclaimer*** This guide represents the way I go about scouting out Wormholes.  The loss of any ship while attempting what is discussed below will be your own damn fault.  It also assumes you know the basic mechanics of exploration scanning. (Exploration Guide & Exploration Tutorial)

Ok so you want to put your exploration skills to the test?  There will be few things that you will need before you decide to venture into wormhole (WH) space.  The first will be the skills, second is the hardware, third situational awareness, and finally how to use all three to your advantage.  Lacking in anyone of these can only lead to the loss of another ship, and end up with an immediate clone jump back to your chosen station.  Depending on whether you are simply scanning (exploring) the wormhole or hunting (pvp) greatly affects how you need to go about the task.  I will explain in each section as to the difference, but stressing more of the aspects of hunting.

First the skills:

Astrometrics – Allows one additional probe in space per level.  At level one you will have the ability to use four scanner probes, at level five you will have the ability to field eight.  There is a lot of debate on how many probes that are needed to efficiently probe a signature down.  I have found that there is very little need to have more than 5 probes on field in either role of hunting or scanning.  While scanning a lot of folks feel that a five probe setup (1 central probe with 4 probes forming a box around it) helps to quickly identify the type of signature.  I have found that a simple 4 probe box setup to be the quickest way to get probes out AND scanning.  After launching the first probe the Expanded Probe Launcher has a reload time of 2 seconds and the Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher is 1.5 seconds.  This means that it will take you just over 4.5 to 6 seconds to attempt your first scan.  During this time you are visible on grid, and possibly have your ship identified on the Directional Scanner.  If you are only scanning a wormhole this is not a factor, but if you are hunting you would like to limit the amount of information the target has and limit the amount of time he has to react.  In other words the more probes you put out, the more time you are visible on the Directional Scanner.

Astrometric Acquisition – 10% reduction in scan probe scan time per level.  The faster your probes can finish the scan the better!  The ultimate goal is to scan down a ship with one maybe two scans.

Astrometric Pinpointing – Reduces maximum scan deviation by 10% per level.  The reduction of the scan’s deviation reduces the error in the signal’s position.  This limits how far that small dot that represents your target’s position will move between scans, and allows for you to quickly shrink down your box of probes and their AU radius around the target.  This can reduce the amount of attempts it takes to scan a target down, as you won’t have to back out to a larger AU radius because your dot just turned back into a large red ball.

Astrometric Rangefinding – 10% increase to scan probe strength per level.

If you want to hunt with probes all of these skills are vital (level 4+).  Additionally when you get them high enough with the appropriate equipment you will find that you can scan down 99% all wormhole signatures without ever having to launch a single core probe, and if your target is hiding in one of those sites, you’ll probes will find the ship.  ***Clarification*** This does not take into account if the ship is setup to avoid probes.

Cloaking III – Allows the use of the Improved Cloaking Device II.

Second the Hardware:

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II – For hunting this is the only cloak to have.  If you can’t warp while cloaked, you will find it hard to get to your target before they are gone.  For scanning any cloak will do.  Want to scan with no cloak?  Safe spots and aligning is all I got for you.

Expanded Probe Launcher I (Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher) – Required to use Combat Scanner Probes Rate of Fire 2.0secs (Sister Variant Rate of Fire 1.5secs & 5% Scan Strength Bonus)

Combat Scanner Probe I (Sisters Combat Scanner Probe) – Required to scan down ships Base Sensor Strength 20pts (Sisters Variant Base Sensor Strength 22pts)

Ships – The classifications of ships that can fit a Covert Ops Cloaking Device are:  Covert Ops, Recon, and Strategic Cruisers fit with the Covert Reconfiguration Subsystem.  IMHO the only choices for this role are the Covert Ops Frigate or the T3 Strategic Cruiser fit with the Covert Reconfiguration & Emergent Locus Analyzer Subsystems. (My links are Amarrian examples, as that is what I fly)  The frigate is the best choice if you are scouting for a gang.  If, you want to hunt solo, then the Strategic Cruiser is the only way to go.  I like to think of my current setup as an Anathema with teeth…  really large teeth!

Implants

Of all the equipment needed for scanning these are the least critical, however if you are one of those people that want to have the absolute best… then start saving now.  You will be looking at well over a billion to plug these things into your head.  Additionally there may be other implants that may serve your play style a lot better and a lot cheaper.  This is what I am working towards for my wormhole scanning/scouting clone.  It won’t be used to go on the random Providence pvp roams.  This implant setup represents the “officer faction fit” for scanners!  Dare to be bold pilot!

Slot 1 Low-Grade Virtue Alpha

Slot 2 Low Grade Virtue Beta

Slot 3 Low-Grade Virtue Gamma

Slot 4 Low-Grade Virtue Delta

Slot 5 Low-Grade Virtue Epsilon

Slot 6 Low-Grade Virtue Omega or Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPF-2 (to be honest there is no choice the Omega improves the entire Virtue set)

Slot 7 Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPG-2

Slot 8 Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPH-2

Situational Awareness

Let’s face it… you just didn’t enter wormhole space to look around at the pretty stars.  You are out looking for a fight.  Either you are looking to reap the lucrative loot of Sleeper sites or you are out hunting for other pod pilots.  So it is safe to say if you encounter Sleepers or other pod pilots you are going to get shot.  The Sleepers won’t give up their spoils without a fight, and the other pilots are there for the same reason you are.  So you are either the hunter or you are the prey.  Which of the two you are, will be determined upon your skills to choose the time and location of the fight.  Sun Tzu said it best, “Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”  This is the essence of wormhole hunting.  When you operate in wormhole space the more you know of your surroundings the more secure you will be.  To this end you have many ways to get that information; the directional scanner, the overview, combat scanner probes, visual identification, and webpage applications.

Visual – Getting on grid with target is just the first step.  Once there you’ll need to gauge the best approach and best time to launch your assault.  Most attacks will be launched in wormhole sites.  When you land on grid you’ll be able to see the terrain.  Often you will land way outside of targeting and warp disruption/scrambling range.  You will need to navigate in, avoiding Sleepers, wrecks, asteroids, and debris.  (***Advisory*** How well you are able to see these things will be directly related to how you have your overview and overview brackets are setup.) It also is the way you’ll identify what classification of wormhole you are about to enter, and how much time you’ll have until the wormhole collapses.  A wormhole at the end of life or critical on mass is less likely to be the entrance point for other pod pilots.  A worm affected by mass, but not critical yet is a sign of traffic and possible targets.

Directional Scanner – The directional scanner is one of the primary ways to identify ships in wormhole space.  The “absence” of local keeps characters from appearing in the chat box unless they type in local.  To catch a ship may require the spamming of the scan button (every three seconds).  This can often produce the appearance of a ship with a cloak as it launches probes, enters or exits wormhole space, or accidently gets too close to object in space.  More importantly the directional scanner is a quick way to see what is in system.  Everything within 14AU will appear on scan.  This will be one of the primary ways of seeing probes in space.  The greatest reason to use the directional scanner is that it is passive in nature.  A cloaked ship can jump from celestial object to celestial object scanning, and be able to get a good idea of whether or not there are any available targets, player owned structures, etc.  In essence you can know what is in system without ever making your own presence know.  The appearance of sleepers wrecks usually means targets are in system.

Overview – The overview and its tabs are one of the most complex and frustrating things to learn to setup.  Just as missions running and pvp require their specific setups so too does wormhole exploration.  The most useful use of the overview is to assist you in your approach to a target.  You will need to see ALL the objects in space.  Getting to within 2,500km of any object will only result in you de-cloaking.  This can make for a cluttered overview, so I suggest that you setup one overview tab as an approach tab, and another for the actual fighting.  You should know that each tab has overview and a bracket profile setting associated with it.  The overview profile sets what icons you will see in the overview window.  The bracket profile determines what you see in space.  I prefer to have those things which I can collide with in the brackets profile, and players’ ships and drones in both profiles.  With the addition of Planetary Interaction you will now find custom offices on planets that are being harvested.  Be sure to add them to an overview.  Nothing better says… “Wormhole occupied!”

Combat Scanner Probes and the System Scanner Tab – Having discovered a possible target in space, that cannot be found using the Directional Scanner, it is now time to move on to the System Scanner tab and possibly drop some combat probes.  But before you go launching probes which can be seen by the target’s Directional Scanner, you may be able to find them in a Cosmic Anomaly.  By clicking the same button that causes probes to conduct their scan, so too can you use the ship’s sensors to do the same.  The scan will take 30 seconds, and will only find the Cosmic Anomalies within 4 AU of a planet (so you will not find any Cosmic Signatures or ships).  So it is possible to identify all Cosmic Anomalies in a system without launching a single probe, by jumping from planet to planet.  Used in conjunction with the Directional Scanner tab is nice way to totally surprise an unaware target.  If the ship is not in an Anomaly then you will have to drop combat scanner probes to find the target.  An additional advantage of combat scanner probes is that they can be used to scan down most signatures, and not just ships.  With my current skill levels I have no need to use any other set of probes to hunt in a wormhole.

Webpage Applications – There are few different websites out there that can be used to collect intelligence regarding the activity in a wormhole.  One in particular Wormhole Explorer works pretty well.  By using such sites you can see how many jumps have occurred into the system, and approximately how long ago ships, sleepers, etc have been killed.  So in one quick step you can tell how much activity has occurred in the current wormhole and what hours the inhabitants like to operate.

Now that you know what you’ll need…  in Part Two, I’ll go into how to go about using all these things to catch some targets.

Fly Safe… Stay Profitable…

Next Report: Agatir’s Guide to Wormhole Hunting… err I mean Scouting (Part 2)