All Low Sec and Null Sec

Since most of the jump capable ships have very limited presence in High Sec, in the first part of the analysis only Low Sec and Null Sec systems were considered as valid jumps origins. I have focused on 6 specific ranges, namely:

• 4 ly – basic range of Black Ops – most probably common range for stealth bomber hot-drops.
• 4.5 ly – maximum range of Black Ops.
• 7.875 ly – maximum range of Titans (and Titan based hot drops), near common range for Super Carriers.
• 10 ly – common range for Dreadnoughts, Supercarriers and Jump Freighters (JDC IV).
• 13 ly – common range for Carriers.
• 14.625 – maximum possible range – Carriers at JDC V.

The results are divided into categories. First category is System with most jump targets in range. The winners for this category are:

For System with least jump targets in range – which also means that there are least systems from where someone could drop on you.

For System with most Null Sec jump targets in range.

For System with most Low Sec jump targets in range.

For System with most jump targets with station or outpost in range.

For Best entry system, that is system with connection to empire High Sec and most targets in range – useful for moving stuff into/out of Null Sec.

Low Sec and Null Sec with Station or Outpost

Second part of the analysis limits valid jump origin systems to ones that have station or outpost.

System with most jump targets in range

System with least jump targets in range

System with most Null Sec jump targets in range

System with most Low Sec jump targets in range

System with most jump targets with station or outpost in range

Best entry system

High Sec Only

Last part is dedicated to jumps originating from High Sec. This limits ships classes to Jump Freighters and Black Ops and influences possible jump ranges. Some categories are also left out. Here are the results:

System with most jump targets in range

System with most Null Sec jump targets in range

System with most Low Sec jump targets in range

System with most jump targets with station or outpost in range

Full results of this analysis are available on Google Documents. Feel free to explore it and sea what are the most interesting systems in the region you occupy.

Stay tuned for next episodes
Archentar Symonia

Covert Doom

Imagine you are a commander of black ops fleet. You have a black ops battleship, few stealth bombers, recon ships and maybe even strategic cruisers with CovOps subsystem. Your goal is to make someone’s day miserable (and I don’t mean people in your fleet). The question is, what system would be the best staging point for your operations. Your jump range is either 4 or 4.5 light years, and depending on that, it is either NSI-MW with 110 targets or 6UT-1K with 131 targets. Too bad there are no outpost in those systems. Alternative for that is YM-SRU or NBW-GD (97 targets) or YM-SRU (127). Well, it is still not much of a use if you are not in the owning alliance. Let’s say you’d rather operate from the safety of Low Sec, which offers some nice systems like Uphallant or Iges (68 targets) or Ausmaert (80). From High Sec Slays is not bad option as well, with 64 targets at 4 ly and 73 at 4.5 ly. But if you insist on using bombs, then you should probably switch Uphallant and Iges to Barleguet as it offers more juicy Null Sec targets – 39. But let’s reverse the situation: you really hate being hot dropped by stealthy ships while ratting. In that case FMH-OV is for you, as there are only 3 systems in range.

I Win Button

Now we’ll escalate a bit. Imagine you have titans, supercarriers and support fleet and you search for best place from which you could deploy your “I Win” button with 7.875 ly range. The best would be 2V-ZHM with 370 potential targets or Vestouve and Espigoure with 189 targets if you prefer Low Sec. Safest place to be against such force is R97-CI or SWBV-2 (only 23 systems in range) or simply High Sec.

Logistics

But let us leave this nasty violence and take a look at logistics. Let’s assume that our logistics boat is jump freighter with 10 ly jump range. Probably the best jump base for it would be Doza system. It is in High Sec and offers whole 268 (but if you are truly hardcore pilot with JDC V, go to Tolle or Manarq for 335 systems in range). Of course the problem is that you cannot jump back to High Sec base. Oulley comes to the rescue. It might not be peaceful but it has a station, is in Low Sec and has 268 systems in 10 ly range.

Long range

Last story will be about ships with the longest jump range – Carriers. Those beauties can reach systems 14.625 ly away (and 13 ly with JDC at IV, which is still better than anything else out there). Given that and the fact they can carry rigged ships, they are also used for logistics, especially when moving stuff from High Sec to Null Sec. For that purpose, I’ll recommend Iges system, again. It offers 524 target systems at maximum carrier range. Its 13 ly counterpart is Adirain with 432 targets. But if you do not care for High Sec connection and you just want to be in the system with overall most jump targets just go to AAM-1A and enjoy shuffling through 705 jump possibilities.

If you have some other ideas for usage examples I will gladly search for best systems for them and disclose the results to our readers (or keep them secret for modest sum of ISK ).

Jump drive is available only for select classes of ships and allows for near instant transfer between systems without usage of stargates or wormholes. Of course, it has several limitations like fuel consumption, restricted range and the fact that it is impossible to jump into High Sec systems. On the other hand, jump drive travel can be much faster (and safer) than by conventional means.

Maximum allowed range for a jump depends on two factors: ship type and level of Jump Drive Calibration skill. Possible ranges are summarized in following table:

As you can see, it ranges from 3.5 light years to 14.625 (some cells are blank since Black Ops and Jump Freighters have Jump Drive Calibration as prerequisite).

In 64 regions of EVE Gate Network there are total 3989 jump accessible systems.No one who read Episode 2 should be surprised that Stain has most of them (132). On the other hand, Everyshore has only 9 – which is not strange for High Sec region.

In Episode 1 I have introduced radius and diameter from graph theory. In case of jump distances, we can calculate something similar, radius as maximum jump distance required to reach all systems in region from best possible source and diameter as maximum jump distance between any two systems in region. Given those definitions, Everyshore comes as one with smallest diameter (4.89 ly) and radius (2.93 with center system in Elarel). Opposite to that is Deklein with diameter of 21.84 ly and radius of 12.34 (center in RO0-AF).

But the center can be defined differently, for example as system with smallest average jump distance to any other jump accessible system in region. The extreme examples of those are Muetralle – on average only 1.67 ly from any other jump accessible system in Verge Vendor and in case of Miyeli for Domain with the value is 6.5 ly.

Some might disagree, saying that only a system with a station or outpost can be truly called a center one. Given that condition, we get Groothese in Everyshore (with maximum distance of 2.99 ly), KCDX-7 in Tenerifis (with maximum distance of 12.78 ly), Melmaniel in Verge Vendor (average distance of 1.68 ly) and DZ6-I5 in Tenerifis (average distance of 6.66 ly).

That is all for this episode but it does not exhaust the topic. In the next episode, I will review some jump drive usage scenarios and propose best systems for them.

Jump safe
Archentar Symonia

Celestial count

In New Eden gate network one extreme is New Eden system itself, with one planet and one stargate and nothing else (apart from EVE gate, that is). On the other side we have:

• Tash-Murkon Prime and Aghesi as systems with most stargates - 8
• Nonni as system with most stations - 22
• Horkkisen as system with most planets - 18
• N8D9-Z as system with most moons - 120
• Jarkkolen as system with most asteroid belts - 50

Security

True security of solar system is floating point value ranging from 1 to -1. If we order solar systems descending by this parameter we will have following 18 systems tied first, with true security of exactly 1. Note that many other solar systems have 1.0 security rating, but this is the effect of rounding to first decimal place and their true security is actually lower than 1. Here is the list of those 18 systems:

• Domain – Amarr, Chaven, Sarum Prime
• Essence – Duripant, Luminaire
• The Forge – Kisogo, New Caldari
• Genesis – Yulai
• Heimatar – Ammold, Hulm, Pator
• Kor-Azor – Sehmy
• Lonetrek – Amsen, Todaki
• Metropolis – Ryddinjorn
• Sinq Laison – Bourynes
• Tash-Murkon – Emrayur
• Verge Vendor – Cistuvaert

High Sec system with lowest true security is Pemene (0,450192). Next one in the line is Neziel – Low Sec solar system with highest security (0,449944). The lowest security for Low Sec system is 0,029147 -  Hophib. Then, we have quite a few Jove Null Sec systems, starting with 16-31U at -0.000000971, until we get to first player accessible system BMU-V1 (-0,000519), which to my surprise is nowhere near Null Sec border. End of line is occupied with 39 systems that have -1 true security:

• Branch – D4R-H7, QYZM-W, Y-1918
• Cache – 8-VC6H, K85Y-6
• Catch – 4-07MU
• Cobalt Edge – 1M7-RK, B-U299, HB-5L3, M-VACR
• Deklein – UJY-HE
• Delve – 3-DMQT
• Esoteria – C-PEWN
• Feythabolis – D4-2XN
• Fountain – PXF-RF, Y-2ANO
• Geminate – 9P4O-F
• Great Wildlands – V-IH6B
• The Kalevala Expanse – 1S-SU1, S-LHPJ
• Oasa – IAMJ-Q, P-ZWKH
• Omist – 7L9-ZC
• Outer Passage – P-T9VC
• Paragon Soul – G-M4GK, ZDYA-G
• Period Basis – MVUO-F
• Perrigen Falls – MTO2-2, VWES-Y
• Querious – B-7DFU
• The Spire – M-NP5O, OSW-0P, ZWM-BB
• Tenal – 2-3Q2G, 3-QYVE, OE-4HB
• Tenerifis – JV1V-O
• UUA-F4 – RU-97T
• Venal – WLF-D3

Distances

Other area for extremes is in distances between celestials within solar system.  For example, 3-JCJT I is planet that is the closest to its sun, orbiting at mere 0.16 AU (Astronomical Unit-  about 149,597,870.7 kilometers) while the furthest is J101248 VIII, at 142.29 AU. The closest stargate is Stargate (XKH-6O) in W-6GBI (0.19 AU). On the other hand, 9-266Q can probably be called “FC’s nightmare”. Firstly, Stargate (BV-1JG) orbits at 156,52 AU from the sun and, secondly, the distance between Stargate (BV-1JG) and Stargate (H-PA29) is283.34 AU. With good safe spots, you could hide whole cap fleet there and support fleets would be landing in combat zones with capacitor seriously drained. Maybe it is good that the area is controlled by Guristas. For completeness, here is stargate pair that is least apart, Stargate (9R4-EJ) and Stargate (Y-1W01) in E-BWUU. The distance between them is mere 378,7 km. One sniper fleet sitting in the middle can act as two gatecamps. Two closest celestials (planets, moons, asteroid belts, stations or stargates) are two stations in Crielere:Crielere I – Ishukone Corporation Research Center and Crielere I – Duvolle Laboratories Research Center. If you want to know why, read this article.

Now time for some distances between solar systems. Two most distant solar systems are MVUO-F and M-VACR. There are 108.5 ly (light-year – about 63,241.1 AU) between their suns. On the other hand, Ignoitton and Carrou are separated by mere 7110 AU (which should not be a big deal for CovOps’ warp drive, if it could only lock the target correctly). Stargates that link Ignoitton with Carrou are even closer - 7054 AU. And last but not least – the longest stargate link is between HD-JVQ and MTO2-2. It spans 36.4 ly.

That is it for this episode. If you have ideas for New Eden Topology episode theme or just a topological question, feel free to post it as a comment or send me an EVE-mail.

Stay tuned for next episodes.

Archentar Symonia

What is region in EVE? Basically, it is a set of solar systems. They might be connected with stargates, as in New Eden gate network, or not, as in wormhole space systems. There are only few ways how regions affect the actual game play, for example:

• Market is limited to region.
• NPC empires tend to have their borders aligned to region borders.
• All belt pirates within the region have are of the same faction.

Most of us rarely notices the fact that we crossed region border. Nevertheless, this artificial division gives an opportunity to find out how they differ among each other.

Let’s start from the simplest properties – the size. The smallest of all 64 regions accessible in New Eden gate network is Fade, with 27 solar systems and 33 internal connections. It is 7 times smaller than the biggest player around: Domain – 192 systems and 266 internal connections. As you can see, the span here is quite large.

As a measure of gate network density, we can use an average number gates in system within given region. I have counted only the gates that do not lead to other regions. Given this definition of density, we get minimum in Impass (2.16) and maximum in Everyshore (3.26). If we focus on gates leading to other regions for a change, we will see that Impass, Stain and Omist have only three connections to other regions and Sinq Laison 30 (yes, that much). But this counts each stargate pair as distinct connection. If we count how many regions are connected, the results are:

• Omist
  • Feythabolis,
  • Tenerifis,
• Solitude
  • Aridia,
  • Syndicate,
• Paragon Soul
  • Esoteria,
  • Period Basis.

And the knot of New Eden – Sinq Laison, that has connections to 9 other regions (The Bleak Lands, The Citadel, Domain, Everyshore, Essence, The Forge, Genesis, Heimatar, Metropolis).

In part I we have discussed two graph properties: diameter and radius. We can calculate them for each region, treating it as separate graph. I made a small exception to this. Since shortcuts through other regions are part of the game, I have decided to include them in the calculations. So what are our extremes?

In the contest for smallest diameter we have a draw. Both, Fade and Molden Heath scored 11. On the opposite, we have Stain with diameter of 42. I guess Sanshas like long travels. Because radius is related to diameter, it is no surprise that Fade has smallest radius (6) and Stain biggest radius (21). On the other hand, Molden Heath was replaced with Essence as the one to draw with Fade. In case of most well behaved graphs, radius is exactly half of diameter. Cloud Ring is definitely not well-behaved in that matter, as it has diameter of 12 and radius of 9. The reason behind that is the circular structure of the region (it is called Ring for a reason).

And now something for corporations interested in having a central base of operations for a specific region. Well, not now. You will have to wait for a bit. First, I will mention some interesting cases of regional centers. In the mean center category, the system that is on average the closest to any other system in the region is… Sosala (2.97 jumps), representing the lovely region of The Bleak Lands. And on the other hand… Stain… again… 37S-KO – 11.22 jumps. In case of radial center, we have some draws. As mentioned above, two regions have a radius of 6: Fade and Essence. For those regions, there are following radial centers: O1Y-ED, VRH-H7, O-CNPR and Villore. For Stain, there are only two: PSJ-10 and GDEW-0. One more region is characteristic in terms of radial centers. It is Molden Heath and it has total of 10 radial centers: Aedald, Bosena, Ennur, Heild, Horaka, Meildolf, Muttokon, Oddelulf, Orien, Teonusude. Quite a few for a region with 38 systems total. This anomaly has similar roots as the one for Cloud Ring – circular structure.

This covers all regional statistics for this episode. If you managed to get so far, here is a little gift – a spreadsheet with all those metrics for all regions in New Eden gate network. You can use it to find out what is the best location for your regional logistical centre.

Stay tuned for next episodes.
Archentar Symonia

Part I – Living on a graph

From mathematical point of view, EVE universe can be described as an undirected graph, where solar systems are vertices and stargate connections are edges. There are:

• 2498 solar systems in wormhole space,
• 3524 Null Sec solar systems (but only 3294 accessible to capsuleers – 230 are under Jove control),
• 695 Low Sec solar systems,
• 1212 High Sec solar systems.

This gives 7929 systems in total. If we rule out W-space systems with their ever changing conections and Jove space, we are left with 5201 solar systems and 6894 stargate pairs - EVE gate network.

Each graph can be described by various properties. One of them is diameter. It is the length of the longest shortest path, that is if you count shortest paths between all systems, then the length of longest of them is called diameter. In EVE, diameter has value of 99. There are 3 solar system pairs that are so far apart:

• 373Z-7 – SVB-RE
• 373Z-7 – BU-IU
• 373Z-7 – 3KNA-N

Other graph property, somewhat related to diameter, is radius. In contrast to circle radius, it does not have to be exactly half of diameter (but it is never lower than half). Radius is the length of the shortest longest shortest path. Ok, I understand that this description sounds weird (or even insane) but let’s try to work it out. So, “shortest path” is pretty obvious. For each pair of solar systems we find a “shortest path”. For each solar system, we look for the longest “shortest path” – the path to solar system that is most far away. Once we have all those “longest shortest paths” we take the shortest of them and its length is our radius. The radius for EVE network is 56. The system with the shortest longest shortest path is Lansez – let’s call it radial center of EVE. You can go to any other accessible solar system with 56 or less jumps.

There is also another way of determining a center of EVE. We can check which system has the lowest average distance to the rest. Let’s call it mean center of EVE. In this category, the winner is Kaaputenen with average of 26.3 jumps.

But some EVE players will never leave CONCORD protection, so for them, EVE gate network is limited to High Sec gate network. This subgraph consists of 1106 solar systems and 1597 stargate pairs (I’m not counting isolated High Sec pockets). Here are our metrics for such graph:

• Diameter: 51
• Diameter routes:
  • Jorus – Bashyam
  • Jorus – Chamemi
  • Jorus – Balanaz
• Radius: 27
• Radial center: Algogille
• Mean center: Kaaputenen again (12.5 jumps)

This concludes the first part of my topology ramblings. In the next part I will cover metrics for various EVE regions. Stay tuned.

Edit: as per Arch’s comments below, edited the above text to display the correct information

P.S. This blog series was inspired by  Make Some ISK, Expand Our Knoweldge post on My Loot, Your Tears blog.

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

Things have been pretty quiet down in Providence.  It would seem that we are in the typical slump of summer.  It is time when everyone finds it much more enjoyable to be out in the sun, with friends and family, instead of flying internet space ships.  Damn you all that have real lives! How dare you…

Needless to say that hasn’t stopped a few of us in SI Radio to go out and have some fun.  We moved out to 0.0 to give PvP a shot, and that is exactly what we have attempted to do.  Null sec means small gang roams, gate camps, and pew pew pew.  To that end someone has to take the reigns and lead their fellow pilots to… a great blob of death… err I mean… victory!  So I decided I’d give this FCing thing a shot.  How hard can it be?

Ok it is a bit harder than it looks, or sounds… but it is good fun if you enjoy working under pressure.  I have conducted two little roams recently, and decided I’d share their results and lessons learned.  I consider my roam record to be 0-1-1.  I am positive that I will not be teaching anyone with any fleet experience anything new.  However, if you are trying to improve on your noob status, then please learn from my mistakes.

First, if you are going to FC learn the common terminology used by most pilots.  I have a bad habit of saying “jump to gate” instead of “warp to gate,” or vice versa.  This can confuse folks, and can get half your fleet to advance beyond a gate or keep them from jumping to the other side when you need them to.  There are terms that people will expect to hear.  To make things up as you go only creates more confusion, and causes a need for more detailed explanations.  Lots of talking reduces your efficiency to move your fleet and to get them on target as quickly as possible.  Additionally when you tell someone to “warp to” be aware if you want them to warp to 0m or to their optimal ranges for a fight.  You don’t want your E-War or Logistic ships landing in the middle of a gang setup for short range gank.  Luckily I haven’t done that yet, but I have been the victim of it.

Second, if you are going to run a small gang you need some kind of scout.  Preferably they should be flying something small and fast, or small and cloaky.  IMHO you can’t have too many scouts.  However when you have a scout, you must be sure to keep track of their location.  You shouldn’t have to continually ask, “where are you scout?”  If you don’t know, then they aren’t going to be able to use the information they pass.  I like to tell them what gate I want them on or to head to.  I make it clear if I want them ON it or just have EYES on it.  Then it is up to the scout to fly his ship as he feels best, to keep himself alive.  Additionally instruct your scouts what information you want them to pass.  I recently learned why most FC’s don’t want to hear scouts report blue activity or presence in system.  On our last little roam my scout jumped in and reported 23 in system, blue and neutral.  Now I want to clarify what I believed I HEARD! In my mind I saw 22 blues and a single neutral in system.  Guess what…  yep you guessed it was almost totally the opposite.  I didn’t get a full count, because as soon as I saw my local window fill with faces with no blue boxes next to their faces I was giving orders to the group to quickly warp to and jump on contact to our next gate.  There were only three of us, and I wasn’t going to stick around long enough to see what they were flying.  Mistake number two… jumping into a system you don’t have eyes on. (I should have retreated back through the gate we came from)  So we entered another system full of more neutrals, and warped to the next gate…  Oh did I mention they were camping that gate, and it wasn’t a small gang.  It was a full  group of gank fit BCs with Interdictor and Interceptor support.  Up went the bubble.  As we held cloak for a bit, I was asked do we fight or run for gate.  We had a Thorax, Hurricane, Curse(me), and Anathema(me).  I ordered a run for the gate, as I was on the edge of the bubble I was gonna attempt the “cloak and pray tactic.”  I had debated taking my Pilgrim instead of the Curse.  Had I done that, I probably would have survived.  The Thorax was first to break cloak and was almost immediately tackled.  Estar knowing he was going down, immediately responded by launching drones and targeting a Sabre.  This allowed him to take out the Sabre.  I broke cloak only to immediately cycle the MWD to get out of the bubble and cloak up along the way.  This brought the attention of most of the others.  This allowed our Hurricane make it back to the gate, get out, and make best speed home.  As you can tell by this killmail, their efforts to de-cloak me were successful.  Lesson learned… Have your scouts report neutrals and reds and their numbers ONLY!  …and take a Recon that can warp cloaked.

Third, try not to be a scout or dual box when FCing.  There is just too much going on.  You can’t afford to split your attention with small tasks, when your job is to maintain the big picture.  I almost lost the Anathema with that Curse doing just that.  It was our rear scout, and had de-cloaked near the gate.

Fourth, trust your pilots to fly their ships.  Don’t micromanage them.  Don’t be afraid to let them know of your expectations or to give them advice (if you have a clue).  If they mess up, the worst thing that will happen is that you lose a ship from your fleet, and hopefully they learn something along the way.  This is PvP you are going to lose ships… haven’t you learned that yet?

Fifth, have fun.  It is just a game.  If you cannot have fun in your failures as well as your success, then you are taking things way too serious!!!

BTW – Feel free to respond with any tips, or links to good posts or FC guides!

Fly Safe… Stay Profitable…

Agatir

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)  Any reference to a noob is merely tongue in cheek reference to the author’s own repeated mistakes.

So now that you have some of the basics of wormhole scouting… how do you put it all together?

Step One – Find a Wormhole

Warp to it cloaked, and bookmark it using the wormhole (right-click in overview, Bookmark Location) and not a spot in space, this insures a warp to 0m bookmark that lands inside the jump range of the wormhole.  When you warp to the wormhole, land far enough away that you will not become uncloaked.  It is not uncommon to land on a wormhole and find a ship sitting idle beside it.  Just like a gate in Null or Low Sec you have to consider what is on the other side?  You also must take into account what kind of space are you currently in?  High sec allows the benefits of chasing someone in and offering an easy escape route if things go south.  This easy escape route can also be used by a potential target.  Pilots new to exploration often like to hug the wormhole like a safety blanket.  Upon entry into a wormhole a ship will be generally within distance to immediately jump back out of the wormhole. (***Warning*** Jumping through a wormhole begins a 4 minute timer.  During that timer you will only be able to jump through that wormhole once more, and will be unable to jump again until it expires.) There will sometimes be a small window of opportunity that may allow you to bump (MWD or AB) into a target to shove them off the wormhole.  This usually occurs when they uncloak immediately having driven off the wormhole or they are too busy looking at the system map while scanning.

I used this exact tactic by following an Orca pilot into wormhole space.  The bump did two things.  It kept him from aligning out, and got him out of jump range.  This allowed me time to get a target lock and point him.  By making continues runs to the wormhole then back into him I kept him out of jump range of the wormhole, and I pounded away at his shields and armor (I told you my T3 “Anathema” has teeth).  Lucky for the pilot I was in a generous mood and stopped at structure, and let him go (think of it as a form of catch and release).  As he departed, I mentioned that I wouldn’t mind if he could tip me for being kind?  The happy pilot, now safely back in High Sec, tipped me 100 million ISK.  He was very relieved not to have to explain to his corp how he lost their Orca loaded with POS fuel.  If you get the same chance, you could be looking at a 500 million ISK ransom or more.  If the pirate ransom thing interests you, I’d suggest you check out some of the pirate blogs on Crazy Kinukz blog pack.

If there are no targets sitting on the entrance to the wormhole, check the wormhole’s status and signature (you may want to do this prior to chasing a target into a wormhole).  Things to consider; what kind of space does it enter into, are there any signs of traffic (i.e. has its mass has been effected), what are the mass limitations of the wormhole?  You don’t want to have your battleship gang show up, if the wormhole will only allows BCs and smaller.  You can determine all of this information by reading the information from the wormhole (right-click Show Info).  Using a wormhole web application you can check enter in the wormholes signature number.  This will tell you the mass limitations that can enter at one time (size of ship) and the maximum allowable mass that may pass through the wormhole. (***Warning & Advisory*** You will never know the exact amount of mass that has passed through a wormhole, unless you are certain you are the first person to pass through it, and keep eyes on it.  A wormhole will collapse when the total mass that has passed through it has reached or has surpassed its limit.  Having armored plates increases your ships mass.  Taking such modules offline prior to passing through them will reduce the impact of your ships mass on the wormhole.  A MWD increases your ships signature radius, and may prevent your ship from going through a smaller wormhole when it is active.) If you are hunting mass isn’t as much of a concern, but if you are scouting it is vital information.  The key word in all the descriptions is “critical.” If you see this word it either means that the wormhole’s life span or total mass has fallen below 25% of its starting limits.  The wormhole is relatively fresh if you see in the wormhole’s description, “This wormhole is beginning to decay, and probably won’t last another day.  This wormhole has not yet had its stability significantly disrupted by ships passing through it.”

If you are in a ship that is a scout, you need to insure your gang has the bookmark to the wormhole.  One of the most frustrating things that can happen… You finally find some targets, but because you didn’t pass on your bookmarks to your gang you have to de-cloak and jump out to get them.  Only to return to find that your targets spotted you on their Directional Scanner while you made one of those jumps, and now they are safely sitting in a POS force field.  I recommend that your gang always have the bookmarks up to the wormhole you are working in.  For you fleet types… operate as a +1 scout in wormhole space.  This +1 recommendation only applies if you are actively scanning wormholes.  If the routes have already been scanned down, bookmarks should already be available to the fleet, and you can scout farther ahead.  Having a corporation storage can for wormhole bookmarks is a MUST for wormhole operations. (***Reminder*** Be sure your corp mates know how to take & make copies of bookmarks from a can.  BTW you can only copy or move 5 at a time!)

Step Two – Jump In

There are a few things you need to do immediately after jumping in.  They need not be done in a specific order, but all should be done before your initial jump in cloak is gone.  Bookmark your entry wormhole (your People/Places tab should have already been open noob!) Don’t worry about the name you can change that later, when you’re safe.  Look to see what is on or around your wormhole?   Scan the system using the Directional Scanner (it should have been open too… gawd you noob!)  Insure you don’t have “Use Current Overview Settings” checked.  Yes this will show everything in system such as moons and planets.  You want to know if all the planets in the system are within range of your location.  If they are, you will know immediately if there are any player owned structures or uncloaked ships in space (Assume there may be some cloaked).  If there are planets missing from the scan then you know you must make additional warps to get them scanned.  This is what I like to call, “passive eyes on” the entire system.  I do this prior to launching probes.  Finally, begin to burn away (MWD/AB) from the wormhole, and activate your cloak.

Step Three – Get Passive Eyes on the Wormhole

Check to see if any custom offices are present.  If, on your initial directional scan, you have not observed all the planets in system, then warp around the system cloaked until you have.  Be sure your directional scanner is set to maximum distance of 2,147,483,647km (or simply fill the Directional Scanner Range box with all 9s and it will default to the farthest range).  All signatures spawn within 4 AU of a planet.  Any potential targets should be within Directional Scanner distance of a planet.  The Directional Scanner should be used on the entire system, before you attempt to determine the location of any targets currently in system.  Why?  Because situational awareness is critical!  In known space (k-space), a pilot has local to determine how many other pilots are in system.  In wormhole space (w-space) you do not.  The last thing you want to do is engage a target only to have 5 of his buddies land on top of you.  It is not unusual for a group of ships doing multiple sites at once, particularly in class 1&2 wormholes.

A check of the entire system, with the Directional Scanner, will also help you determine if there are any POS’s in system, and if it is online (the Directional Scanner will show a force field present if it is).  By locating all POS’s you can do several things.  First, by clicking on the POS you can see which corporation is present, and by checking their information tab you can see its member strength.  Second you can determine the most likely location your targets will run to when you engage them, or in that rare case that they are able to determine you are in their wormhole.  If they don’t run back to the POS, odds are that they ran back to the wormhole that they entered from.  With miners, the POS will be the location where their hauler, Orca, or Rorqal will most likely be.  Solo miners will have to jump back to swap into a hauling ship, otherwise the hauler pilot will be sitting idle inside the force field.  The POS is also the likely location for any AFK pilots as well.  By putting eyes on the POS and bookmarking it, you will be able determine this type of information.  In the case of miners, I will often watch to see how they are collecting their ore.  If you are working in a gang with access to your own hauling ship, you can time this pick up run, then walk away with a killmail and a full can of Arkonor or Bistot as well.

If no ships are observed on the passive scan of the wormhole, then it is time to probe out all the Cosmic Signatures for another wormhole to hunt in.  You should also be using the Directional Scanner.  You can get one to two directional scans while you wait for your probes’ results.  Be vigilant of your surroundings at all times! (Unable to scan down wormholes with combat scanner probes?  Skill up noob!)

Combat ships with wrecks or mining ships with cans are what you are hoping to see on the Directional Scanner.  It is now time to go find your prey.  To this end the directional scanner is still your friend.  By reducing the angle of the scan and the scan range we can determine which planet our target is closest to.  (***Tip*** You can use the F-11 Key to Open the Map Browser.  Four displays will appear.  The solar system display will show your location in the system and the angle your Directional Scanner will be scanning.) Be sure to use a pvp tab in your overview and check the “Use Current Overview Settings” box in the Directional Scanner window. (***Reminder*** All signatures will be within 4 AU of a celestial object.)

The following is general guide for AU distances:

1 AU = 149,597,870km (150,000,000)

2 AU = 299,195,740km (300,000,000)

3 AU = 448,793,610km (450,000,000)

4 AU = 598,391,481km (600,000,000)

5 AU = 747,989,351km (750,000,000)

6 AU = 897,587,221km (900,000,000)

7 AU = 1,047,185,092km (1,050,000,000)

8 AU = 1,346,380,832km (1,350,000,000)

14 AU = 2,147,483,647km (2,150,000,000) *Max Directional Scanner Range

If the target is a combat ship with wrecks we can still passively attempt to locate the ship using the System Scanner by conducting a sensor scan without probes (this will take 30 seconds per attempt).  All Cosmic Anomalies within 4 AU of your ship will appear.  We can then warp to each anomaly to see if our target is present.  If the target is not in an Anomaly or if it is a mining ship then we can be relatively certain our target is in a Cosmic Signature and we will need to use combat scanner probes to locate our target. (***Advisory*** Do not attempt to use core probes for this function.  Using Scanner Core Probes may result in multiple Cosmic Signature hits, and does not look for ships.  We want to find the ship not the signatures!)

Step Four – Probe Out Your Target

Before you drop probes attempt to use your Directional Scanner to determine what direction and range from the planet the target is.  Having a direction will tell you where to move your group of probes to scan.  When it is time to uncloak and drop your probes, the best location would be off of a planet outside of Directional Scan range from your target.  This will help you remain hidden. For smaller systems a location closets your target will make for short warp times to the target.  From there you can move your probes to the general location of your target.  Because you have a general idea of your target’s location you can start your scan at .5 to 4 AU range.  With luck you can have a 100% signal strength hit on your target with one maybe two scans.  Once you have 100% signal, bookmark the location and warp to the target at range.  Remember there could be a lot of debris you will have to negotiate to get to the target.  Additionally, once you have a 100% hit either recall your probes or move them to conduct a scan outside of your target’s Directional Scanner range.  If you are lucky, the target might have been lazy on his Directional Scans, and has not seen your probes during your probing attempts.  Once you have eyes on your target, I have three things that should dictate your actions:

Be bold… Be Brief… Be Gone!!!

One last tip before I go.  It is not uncommon to land 150km or more from your target.  It may not be possible to slowly move across the site cloaked in time to engage your target. (The target may be finishing up salvaging the site’s wrecks, and only have one or two more remaining.)  You can right-click in the overview, and bookmark the wreck.  This will allow you to warp out, and then return to an optimal range of that last wreck your target is about to salvage. (***Disclaimer*** Not that I condone you wait until the last wreck is salvaged, to increase the possible loot drop from your target’s wreck.)

Fly Safe… Stay Profitable…

Next Report: To Be… or Not to Be… such is the way of pvp

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)

So…As i said, you might have heard it already from the podcast but back then it was a rumor. So now that it has been confirmed it is my honor and duty to inform miners in wormhole space that if you are depleting Gravimetric sites in W-space within the first day you trigger them then you FAIL!!!It seems that most of the gravimetric sites that are inside W-space have the unique ability to spawn an extra asteroid on their second day of existence. Yes New Eden you heard me right!

To explain it in details. For those of you who don’t know that already, W-space Gravimetric sites have almost all kinds of minerals, unlike what happens in normal space. That means lots of money since there is always Arkonor, Bistot, Crokite etc in those sites. Now the thing is that the signature will stay up for 3-4 days. But if you got a couple of exhumers or barges you are awesome and you can clear it within a day. But you shouldn’t…

It has been confirmed that leaving a couple of asteroids untouched will force the server to spawn a new asteroid of high quality Ore after the next downtime. I don’t think that any miner out there would mind having an extra fat Spodumain asteroid that holds 75.000 units (that showed up in one of our Unexceptional Frontier Deposit sites). Though you should remember that you should clear the whole site but you must leave an asteroid there. Not the whole rock, just a couple of units are enough. What we do is we leave 30.000 units of Veldspar or something of similar quality so we can spend the minimum time possible on it the day that our “present” form CCP arrives.

Other examples of extra asteroid spawns we have encountered are an extra Mercoxit with 45.000 units on it which spawned in a site called Exceptional Frontier Deposit. I cried that day…It was awesome… An Omber with 200.000 units in it, that was inside a Common Perimeter Deposit . We have also confirmed that the extra asteroid that spawn are random. So if you get an Exceptional Frontier Gravimetric don’t necessarily expect that you will get an extra huge Mercoxit.

Anyways, I hope that info was helpful and you guys put it in good use. GO GO MINERS!!!