An Unexpected Sleeper

Two days ago my corp ran a C4 data site in my system.  It was the easier one, Unsecured Frontier Trinary Hub.  We killed all the ships and salvaged, then just left it.  Nobody cared to crack the cans, which for these sites is very tedious (the hardest level of minigame), and the loot is very poor.

Today I logged on, and there were 3 sigs.  One is always our static.  The other two I had to figure out.  I noticed a newish bookmark of a gas site, so between that and the data site, I figured we were nicely zipped up.  However, you have to check these things.  One way to check if a site is still around is to probe it down.  But there's a faster way.  You warp to it.  If it is still there, it pops up its site description box, and you know it is still there.  Note that you don't have to actually fly to it to find out.  You just initiate a warp to it.  Then you find out, and can cancel the warp.

Tonight, however, I decided not to cancel the warp to the Unsecured Frontier Trinary Hub, because I had already checked the gas site (still there), and I figured that since my system was nicely zipped up, I would have a go at the cans in the Hub.  So I warp on over, and -- surprise -- there was a sleeper battleship!  Just one, which is weird.

Of course I had to kill it, so I grabbed a battleship and did it in.  No nanoribbons.   Still, 7.5m in blue loot is well worth it for a few minutes of PVE.

Not so tough without all your friends, eh?

I have experimented with respawn mechanics before, trying to see if there are any C4 sites that could be milked.  Generally, not.  Well, this is one that can be slightly milked.  Run it, kill everything.  Don't crack any cans.  Now just leave it, and each day you get a nice new sleeper battleship.  If you are keen to crack the cans, leave them until the 3rd downtime has passed.

UPDATE: ignore that last para.  Jayne visited the site this morning: no new battleship.  He points out the "Site Escalation Wave" has a battleship.  And also, there is that one can sitting away from the others, which you can see in the screenshot.  That's the Talocan cruiser.  Now the funny thing here is we have warped in to the site at least twice (fleet, then salvager) without triggering the escalation wave.  How does one trigger it?  Please comment if you know.