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....

It's gonna be a new approach

So let me start this post by telling you how I wrapped up my adventures in my last WH. As you know, I had a small POS with no defenses as my only POS in the hole. Only a little protection, but only a little risk. When I logged on this morning I had two DED mails. The first telling me that someone had taken some pot shots at my POS. The second, that my POS's shields had gone below %50. Great....I warp in on a reinforced small POS.

Fortunately, I followed the cardinal rule of POS managment. Make sure to have plenty of strontium in the tower! Unfortunately, I found that while the POS is reinforced, you are unable to access anything in your corp hangar. It was at this point that I found out just how awesome it was that I always log off with my valuable sleeper salvage in my cargo hold. I was able to access the ship maintenance bay so I decided to make a break for it.

Yes, I made the extremely difficult decision to leave my small POS behind.

Along with all of the modules I had in the corp hangar, I'm estimating that I have abandoned about 120 million isk in w-space. That's a lot of isk. Not an easy decision. But, that's what they say about W-space, it's only a matter of time before you lose stuff in there. I'm happy that I made almost a billion isk with this one :)

Escaping the WH turned out to be an adventure in and of itself. I entered and scanned down the adjoining static C4. From there I moved into another WH and scanned it down. And another. And another. I couldn't believe my terrible luck. I went at least 4-5 WH's deep and didn't find an exit to hi sec or lo sec anywhere along the way. And I was VERY thorough. I actually reached a dead end where the only WH's left to go through were about to collapse due to time and I was not about to risk leaving my ships in W-space.

Next option...close the WH. As some of my readers will know, I've been on the wrong side of a closing WH before. Not fun. But a capsuleer's gotta do what a capsuleer's gotta do. So I bring out the domi and begin collapsing the WH. To finish it off I close it off with two jumps with the orca. A risk, I know, but I really really wanted out of that WH.

The next WH opens up. I scan it down and find........a Hi sec exit!! Very close to Jita at that. Perfect escape. So about 45 min later I have everything out of the WH not attached to the POS and I bid a sad farewell to Antioch...it served me well...

Needless to say, I wanted back in W-space, and quick. But before I just jumped in, I decided to take the next step in escalating my w-space effectiveness. Thanks to the 482 million isk I made from the loot I carried out with me, I was able to buy.....

Can you guess?

Yeah...it's a Tengu.

(awesome name pending)

So I'm gonna consider this an escalation of the Boblakov vs. sleeper war. It's gonna be good.

So, what it looks like now is I'm gonna be looking for a C2 or C3 that has a static C3. This would seem to be the best option at this point for making the most isk. Especially since I am having a friend join me for this next stint in w-space. He will also be bringing a Tengu. We'll see how a gang with two Tengus and a Domi does vs. how I did with one drake and a domi.

If I find the WH described above I believe that I will set up the med POS. A WH like that has the potential to be a much more permanent home. Wish me luck in my search...

That was quick!

So last night I pulled out of my WH with the intention of shorter stints in W-space. Probably taking in only a small tower so that I could remain very mobile and move when I found a greener pasture.

I log on today and find a WH 3 jumps from my staging system leading to a C2. Not very many sites but I find a C3 WH leading from it. Jackpot.

This C3 has over 20 sleeper sites and about 15 sigs. I haven't even taken the time to scan them all down yet. Even more interesting, there's two abandoned medium towers. One still has guns anchored to it. The other one is alone. Both from different corps and different alliances.

So I decided to setup the small POS and bring in the orca with the medium POS setup in its hold. I'm here to stay for a bit.

I would love to hear from you, what can I do to profit from the abandoned towers? That's at least 400 million isk floating in my WH.

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.

Some great WH action

So today I log in to find my gracious WH hosts just about ready to hit the adjoining static C3 for a day of pillaging sleeper strongholds. They had someone scanning down sites while the rest got ready. I was invited. For the next 2 hours or so we ran through about a dozen (maybe a little less) frontier sites. This C3 must not have been farmed for awhile cuz we got the hang of the Frontier Stronghold sites and kept running them. Each time becoming more familiar with the spawns and such than before.

For awhile we had 2 drakes (one was Boblakov), a Tempest, and Antioch's Domi. Hope I'm not leaving anyone out. Didn't take us very long to run through sites. The Domi would shield rep the drakes and tempest as necessary while the tempest would rep the Domi when she needed help...which was relatively often. After awhile the Tempest pilot had to go so we changed our group a bit and ended up with 3 drakes and the Domi. Lotta tank in our fleet :)

What's better than 2 Drakes and a Domi?

3 Drakes and a Domi :)

So I had to leave to grab some dinner with the family before everyone was back in the home hole so I'll get my share of the loot tomorrow. Will definately report on the profits then. Was a good day of sleeper blasting and flying with a great gang. Another shout out to the pilots of Stack All!

An interesting oppurtunity

So I logged once more today after the encouraging sales run I made earlier to run some more sleeper sites. I had run another two sites when I had my first visitor. Had a good conversation with 'I Noob' about WH living and hope to stay in contact with him as he attempts to work with WH's in the future.

Not long after, while I was sitting in my pos, a heron appears 150 km or so out, then quickly cloaks up. I was able to open the pilot info before she disappeared so I convoed her. Turns out that she was part of a C4 WH corp. Their system had opened up a WH to mine. After a few minutes talking about our situations, I showed her the way to my lo sec exit WH and she offered me the chance to move into their C4 WH with them until I could find the proper C2 WH I was looking for.

As I had just finished the last of the sleeper sites, I jumped at the oppurtunity. So as two of my chars stayed behind to start packing up my POS I decided to run out the little bit of loot I had acquired from the two sites I had done. Surprise surprise, I sold it off for a lot more than I had thought I would. Another 84 million isk. The cost of my tower has been completely covered at this point. Who knew that running 4 sleeper sites in one day would cover the vast majority of my initial investment...

So an hour or so later I had successfully ferried my small pos setup along with my 5 ships into the adjoining C4 WH. My main goal while here is to find a vacant C2 WH that I can occupy for awhile. Shout out to the Stack All corporation! Thanks for the non-hostile arrangement! Should be an adventure...

And on a quick note, I grabbed the necessary skill book and module so that now my Domi pilot has two large shield transporting mods fitted to assist Bob in the Drake. Makes a difference and helps make sure that I don't have to warp out now from C3 sites.

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...

Searching for the First WH

So today was really the first day that I focused on finding my first WH. Man...I scanned...a lot. I scanned down 15-20 systems, some lo sec and some hi sec, and found WH's in almost every system. I think I'll keep better track of the exact numbers next time. Every WH I found was either taken, or not what I was looking for. Right now, I'm looking for a c2 WH that is vacant. I really don't even care if it has a ton of sites. I just want to get in there and set up my pos and test out the logisitics. A few sleeper sites would never hurt...

In the recent past, while gaining interest in WH's, I scanned down and took down a few sleeper sites. The amazing amount of isk I made in a little amount of time was what really caught my interest. I had mainly roamed a few c2's so I know that I can clear those sites. Well, at least the ones I have tried. And I did those with Boblakov in the Drake solo. Having Antiochian along in the Domi will surely make things go quicker.

So I scanned down 15-20 systems in my cov ops, scanning down 15-20 WH's. Each time I saw that 'Unknown' scan type come up I kept thinking, "this is definately gonna be the one." But I never did. Ran into a lot of occupied WH's. A lot more than I thought I would. The only empty ones I found were c3's. I did come across what I believe to be a rare find however, a WH in hi sec leading to a c5. It was STOCKED. There were so many sites in there, and no structures or ships showed up in my scans. Too bad that's well above my pay grade. I tried to sell the location to ppl in my various chat channels but nobody was interested :P

So after a long session of scanning, and finding WH's, then finding I couldn't use them, I decided to call it quits on the rollercoaster of scanning emotion for the day. But tomorrow is a new day...