A more permanent home...

Alright. It feels like it's been awhile since I updated you all on what's been going on. So here it goes...

So where I left you off was when I had escaped out of W-space. I also told you how AWESOME the Tengu is. And it's only been getting better...

So anyways, I have partnered up with a former corp mate. We have decided to run W-space together which will be very different in and of itself for me. So our first night running sites (we just ran sites in a C3 that spawned close to our base), we didn't really end up running many sites. hehe. We did pvp though... Bob in his Tengu, Ant in her domi, and my (now) corpy in his tengu. We were running sites and all of a sudden, a harbinger appears at our WH back to hi sec. Followed by a Raven. At that point bob was in the salvage boat about to warp to the sites to salvage the wrecks. They shot at him!

Well we couldn't stand for that. And feeling EXTREMELY cocky in our shiny new Tengus we decided to show them up. So I jump back through the WH and make a bee line to the station to get my Tengu while corpy and Ant warp to the WH to engage. Apparently these pilots have no appreciation for a Tengu tank...or dps. We decided to primary the harby. So one domi + tengu = harby kill mail. One domi + 2x Tengu = faster kill mail. Yeah, my sleeper war now includes casualties of the human variety. The Raven warped off with it's tail between its legs.

Feeling victorious we logged for the night.

A few nights later, my corpy made a great find. A C3 from lo sec leading to a C2. It turns out that the C2 had a static C3. Exactly what we've been looking for. One problem...it's inhabited. drats.....

So my corpy links their corp after finding their pos and I strike up a conversation with one of their diplomatic contacts. I had been looking for a hole like this for awhile and I did NOT just want to move on because it was inhabited.

The convo started out pretty tense but we soon got past the this-is-w-space-and-i-have-to-assume-that-you-want-to-kill-me formalities. After awhile I simply asked if he and his corp would be willing to share the WH with us. And to my complete enjoyment, they accepted!

Not only does this WH have a static C3, but it also has a static hi sec exit. When considering this before I really didn't want to have that in the WH I inhabited. But since I have learned WH management (thanks Stack All!) it actually seems more like a great asset to have. The security of always having a hi sec exit means I will never have to worry about fuel or making sales runs. I think this is gonna work out just fine...

So I brought in the Medium POS setup that I had ready in the orca. Within about 2 hours it was all ready to go.

Today was the first day that we really made use of our friendly relations with our WH neighbors, to the benefit of all involved. I logged on before anyone else in the WH and checked out the new C3. Nothing doing. No sites to run. Oh well. So I closed it. Next WH. Same thing. Oh well. Closed it. By the time the new WH had opened up there were about 4 other pilots online from our WH coop. Turns out this WH had about 7 sites to run. So we ran them.

Boy did we run them. We had no less than 3 tengus, one domi, and one raven. The sleepers fell like flies. And it all took less than an hour. Not too bad. I'll report in soon about how much we ended up making...

The first run with the Tengu

Just thought I'd drop a quick post about how the first WH experience went with the tengu. I spent awhile today scanning down systems and WH's looking for the perfect one for me to inhabit. Didn't find it. I did find an unoccupied C3 with lots of combat sites though. Perfect time to test the new Tengu.

Man....it is such an upgrade over the Drake. I don't even have the subsystem skills where I want them to be yet and it is leagues above the drake. There are two main differences. The tank: I don't have to ever worry about the Tengu taking dmg. The ROF: the Tengu just spits missiles out like a big leaguer spittin' sunflower seeds. It made a very big difference when it came to completion time on sites. Definately glad I made the jump to t3.

So in my little WH raid I only ran about 5 or 6 sites. Ran the loot to my favorite trading hub for a total of 248 million isk. Made back a chunk of the Tengu already. Another two runs like that and it'll be just about paid off....

The big move

Well, I finally did it. I moved out into my own hole. Props and thanks to the members of Stack All for their hospitality. We will certainly run into each other again.

SO.....my new home. It is a class 3. When I entered it had 3 WH's besides the one I came in. One led to a Class 1 WH, one to a class 5, and one to lo sec. It will be interesting to see which exits are static. Kinda hoping the class 5 isn't.

I was able to offline, unanchor and reinstall everything into my new home in about an hour. Not too bad. I almost had a heart attack while I was anchoring the tower as a Buzzard appeared on my scans. I warped my cov ops around to the different WH's trying to find which one he had come through but never had a visual. He appeared and disappeared from my scans so I now assume that he was just going between the lo sec WH and the c1 or c5.

After I had the POS online and all of my ships moved in, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Made it. I was finally able to relish the glory of my situation. There are about 15-20 sleeper sites which are more than enough to cover the cost of my upcoming venture. I will explain more on that in the next post.

I was also able to run my salvage from the 4 sleeper sites from last night out through the lo sec entrance. I sold it for a total of 173 million isk. Not bad for 1.5 hours of solo C3 work.

So begins the adventures in my own WH!

A quiet night, because you can't hear the sleepers scream

So today I actually found that I didn't have anything else I needed to do in Eve. I checked out the day's new C3 exit. Turns out that it had a few residents with a large POS. The only exit was to a lo sec system. So no new home for Boblakov. Oh well. I checked the system on DOTLAN maps and found that the residents had not been on in over a day and that nobody had been clearing NPC's for more than a day as well. I decided it was a perfect time to get back to sleepering. The fuel won't pay for itself...

I ran 4 sites, all the same. In total, it took only about 1.5 hours. I had Boblakov in the Drake, and Antiochian in the Domi. I really had no problems at all and no visitors bothered me.

If the isk I made from the previous C3 sites remains fairly constant, then I probably made about 160 mil. Pretty good for 1.5 hours! I'll post the actual amount when I have a chance to make it back to k-space.

Just a quick update

So I have now been in this C4 WH with my very generous hosts (Stack All) for about a week. I have only really run sites with them once, while having a few other adventures tossed in as well. In short, I'm itching to get into my own WH. Nothing against my current hosts but I feel that everything I do while I'm here I have to do very carefully as I don't want to mess anything up for them.

I suppose I just can't wait to be in a spot where all my mistakes are my own and affect no one but me. Live to learn I suppose. This time spent here has not been fruitless however. My time in this C4 has gained me invaluable experience on WH management due to the tagging along on ops with Stack All. Closing WH's. Learning more, first-hand, about static WH management. All valuable things which I will certainly benefit from in the future.

Right now, as I have the urge to move on, I will really be looking for the first relatively-suitable hole I can find. I made a run out to Jita through a lo sec exit (popped out only 5 jumps away!) and stocked up on fuel (now I have two weeks worth), modules I've found I need, and some skill books leading to more modules I've learned I need.

So I feel I'm ready to hit the open road. This WH I'm in has a static C3 exit so I'll be looking at the next few that pop up and a) move into that WH b) move into an adjoining C2 or C3 from that WH. I have had a little while to consider this next move over the last week and I have a few ideas rattling around in my head. I will be flushing them out over the next few days and will certainly post about it as I do.

P.S. I promised in a previous post that I would report on my earnings from the sleeper campaign I ran with Stack All. I netted 76 mill isk. Not as much isk/hr as I make running sites by myself but not too bad either. Also more fun running with cool capsuleers!

An unexpected adventure

A new day, and a new set of WH adventures. I logged on expecting to do something similar to what we did yesterday. How WH's love to mess with well-intentioned plans...

SOOO, we start by checking the static C3 WH and find it to be farmed out and occupied. So we start the process of closing it. Successful WH collapse. Next WH. Farmed and occupied. *sigh*

While our one WH closer begins the process of closing this one, the rest of the pilots have to head off. So now it's just me, watching, cloaked in my cov ops, as the mega jumps in and out. It goes critical, so he switches to the Brutix fit for finishing the WH off. Unfortunately, this WH enjoys eating Brutixes. It closed behind him.

It was right then that we realized that I hadn't given him the BM's for the sites in that WH. One of which was a WH leading to hi sec, and safety. When I had scanned it down, it was on the verge of collapse due to ships passing through it (probably the work of the local corp not wanting hi sec noobs running around).

Did I mention? The WH with our intrepid Brutix pilot in it was about 180 AU across. Try scanning the proverbial needle out of that huge haystack....in a Brutix. Not fun.

So he started scanning. And scanning. And scanning. Once he had gathered a bunch of the sigs, he was reading some of them outloud on Vent when I recognized one! Sure enough, it was the hi sec exit. And fortunately, the local corp had simply bottlenecked it, not bothering to collapse it all the way. VERY lucky.

While he was scanning down that system, I was scanning ours for the new static C3 to open up. And by the time he had found his way out, I had already found a new way in. It went something like Home C4 -> C3 -> Lo sec. It came out into a system that was gate camped on the gate leading into hi sec. But he lugged that Brutix the 30 or so jumps to the lo sec system (after buying and fitting 4 stabs) where I proceeded as scout to the WH entrance.

At the gate camp, he was targeted but escaped before being fully locked. They were so miffed at their own incompetence, they gave chase. At the next gate, they managed to jump through in time to lock and scram him. hehe. They must have been ticked to realize just how many stabs he must have had fitted.

Pirate scum 0 : WH adventurerers 1

All in all, it was not a very profitable day. But what makes WH's fun is not just how much isk you can make, or the number of sleepers you can kill (both thoroughly invigorating in their own right), but the adventures you can have - not found in k-space. At least, that's what this blogger is trying to experience. Note it: in one day, locked out of home WH, found exit from hostile WH, made it back to home WH through gate camps and lo sec entrances.

A new day, and a new set of WH adventures.


EDIT: Also had a good conversation with Star Defender (author of the great Eve Online Wormholes) about our mutual WH experiences. Great talking to you SD!

My first WH...

Alright, I finally found one. Although it's not exactly what I was originally aiming for. After 3 or 4 days of searching for WH's I eventually stumbled across a vacant C3 while crusing around lo sec. According to several sources that I read it would seem that the quieter WH's are often found in lo sec as those WH's will often spawn openings leading to lo sec. This means that you have FAR less traffic since the casual (noob :) ) WH traveler won't venture into lo sec to look for one.

So this WH was about 5 jumps deep into lo sec and the system had a lot of locals. So it was a hair-raising experience bringing my Itty V and other ships in. When I had made my way into the WH and begun setting up my POS, I realized that I had forgotten my salvage boat! So I had to make my way 12 jumps back to my staging area to go grab it. Not that bad but it sucks to realize, after you've come down off of your adrenaline high, that you gotta go BACK through hostile space.

But all said and done, I made it. Set up the small tower and then anchored and onlined the corp hangar and ship maintenance array. I'm all set!

Now, again, this wasn't the perfect system I was looking for. It is not chock full like I was hoping my first WH would be. But it is great to finally be in here laying waste to sleepers!

The sites upon my entry are:

• Fortification Stronhold
• Outpost Frontier Stronghold
• Solar Cell
• The Oruze Construct
• Ordinary Perimeter Deposit
• Unexceptional Frontier Deposit

Not a whole lot. But it is comforting to know that since I got in here, I have not seen hide nor hair of even one other pilot. The only evidence of previous occupancy is the lack of sites along with two leftover mobile warp disruptors.

I have run one site so far and it was definately more of a challenge than the sites I ran in C2 WH's. I had to warp out a few times and noticed that Antioch's Domi had a hard time keeping up with the dps as many of the enemies NOS'd her. Even Bob's drake had some difficulty maintaining his tank on the last wave of enemies. But, when it was all said and done, I was able to finish the site and made an estimated 18-20 mil in salvage and loot off of it. Not too bad. Definately a good experience as it shows me that I can survive out here in the C3 territory. I have enough fuel for about 10 days and I will certainly be able to clear the rest of the sites during that time. So I'll keep my ear to the ground and look for a favorable WH that might pop up in my system here leading to a C2 or another C3 with possible greener pastures...