I enter C3, and warp to the wormhole. A quick info check on it indicates it has not gone EOL or anything in the hour plus since I first scanned it down. So I activate it and transit into C2b. Into the new system, and I dscan. Nothing alarming. A tower but no ships. I look up the system on staticmapper: it's another C2 with highsec static and C3 static, just like C2a. So there is a highsec to find. There are also several other signatures.
I bookmark the wormhole I am at, then warp to an outer planet to launch probes. Nothing out here on dscan, so I launch and throw the probes out of the system. Then I head in to find towers. This takes a while, and though I see no ships, I do see some probes on scan. Not mine, which nobody can see. Hmm.
I warp back to the C2->C3 wormhole, just in case the ship that fired them is going to find it and transit. Maybe I can jump a scout. I wait a while. And indeed, just as I am getting bored I see a Nemesis at the hole, and it transits. Hmm. If it comes back in real soon, I can jump it and maybe lock it if I am lucky and the pilot is weak. Should I uncloak and get ready? Well, uncloaking would expose me, but I see nobody on dscan. Let me check again. Whoa. More probes on dscan. OK, I am not uncloaking.
The probes are not out long, before I see a Buzzard at the wormhole, and it jumps. Hmm. Perhaps they are coincidental. There is a highsec connection to find. I wait a few minutes, but the Buzzard does not return. Eventually, I bring my probes in and I scan.
Now I am scanning stuff down. There are just five sigs, all of them separated easily by planets except two together. One is easily ignored as my entrance wormhole. A gas site. I find the expected highsec static, and bookmark the C2 side. But I do not fly out yet; I am still probing. Next I scan a radar site. The last sig is... scan scan scan.. a wormhole... warping... a K162. From... get info... dangerous unknown space. So it is a C4 or C5. I look at it: looks to be a C5.
Well, if it was C4 I would definitely go straight in, to activate all the sites. But C5s... not as nice a proposition. This is probably where those scouts came from. So... go in or not? I almost leave and call it a night. Almost! But then I chide myself for my cowardice and go for it. Whoomp, crackle.
I am on the other side, and uh oh. I see four or five unfriendlies: Proteus, Proteus, Legion, Devoter (what's that? Dunno, probably tackle). They mean business. OK, I have to think fast. Obviously they are hunting me. If I head back through the wormhole I will be polarized, and they will follow. Better for me to try to evade them here and get off this side into their system. If I succeed, then maybe I can run for it later, after I let me polarization wear off. If I fail, then I have not lost anything at least. I go through the wormhole and am no worse off than if I just leave now.
OK, heartrate up, and I make my break for it. I am just inside the cloaking limit (2000m), so I head outward and fire my afterburner. I get past 2000m and cloak. Whew. And I try to turn so as to not be where I was. But these guys are good. Two of them have headed right where I was at a good speed, and they are getting too close. 4000... 3000... crap, they are going to decloak me. So I head for the wormhole. Going to have to try again on the far side. They decloak me, and people are locking me. In just a few seconds of fire, they get about 1/3 of my shields before I can jump. And the Proteuses are nossing. They know what they are doing. But I escape into the C2.
On the other side I am not surprised to see another Loki waiting. And the others will be transiting right behind me, so I think speed is important. My range to the wormhole is about as low as it ever goes, about 1100m. Things look very bad for me. I break for it as soon as I can. But I cannot get cloaked before I am locked.
OK, I am officially going to die.
I have not aggressed anyone, and I see no gain in doing so. There are just too many of them, and this ship's DPS is weak, and they know what they are doing. My 100MN is ramping up, so I can go fast, but I cannot see that it will save me. I can, however, try to save my own skillpoints by ejecting. And I am hoping that it will catch them off guard and I can save my pod. So, I eject and try to warp to a celestial. But either I screw it up, or maybe they had a bubble up by that time. Not sure. In any case, I do not warp. Then I try again, but it is too late. I am scrambled. That's the endgame. I have just time to type out "Nice trap" into local before they pod me. Gf guys. I am out 400m, and a 70m pod, and back at Jita.
 |
| Taste the pain |
God, I hate this game sometimes. It's a love kind of hate, though. It gives my earlier gank, it takes my Tengu. Sadly, I set to work buying back all the stuff I just lost. New implants. New Tengu. That's a week of work. I hope they enjoy my Tengu except... they don't. Three minutes after they podded me, they killed it. That's strange. I guess they are so rich from running escalations that they don't care about picking up a 400m ship and would prefer it for their killboard.
Lessons learned: first, pay attention to scouts seen more. I saw the one guy, and should have had his corporation. And the fact that there were two also should have been a red flag. Second, be more wary of C5s, and work on that C4/C5 distinction more. Finally, my tactics in the C5 were not good. I should have tried to warp off the second I had successfully cloaked. If I had, I think I would have succeeded. Then I would still be cut off in their system, but I would be alive. I could maybe find a different exit, or lacking that, at least not been polarized when I ran for it.
A Devoter is a heavy interdictor. The HIC is unique in that it can fit a module that creates its own warp bubble around the ship, hence why your pod was trapped so easily.
ReplyDeleteSorry about your Tengu. But sometimes a Buzzard is just a Buzzard. And the class of a w-space system is only a vague indication of the threat it holds. Some C2 systems are deadlier than some C6s. It's mostly pyschological.
I know what HICs are -- we (try to) use them, though I don't know that we have actually done so successfully. I expect them in wspace, and am surprised if they are not there in any gang larger than about three. But I am still not at the point of being able to identify by name all two hundred plus hulls in EVE. I think I do know what all the ship classes are, at least. (Though how a supercap is better than a cap, I don't know.)
ReplyDeleteAs for the threat levels, I agree that it can vary a lot but there are certainly trends. My impressions are as follows. Because of the potential for tower-killing via capitals, as well as the need for fairly large gangs for the local PVE, C5 and C6 can only really be lived in by large groups and their PVP skills are well-honed against each other, and by hunting. (And also they are rich, which does not hurt.) C2 is probably second most dangerous level, because they have multiple connections and why would they want that except to hunt? Then C3 and C4, both places which are more farmer oriented. Finally C1 is the lowest, because it does not interconnect richly with the rest of wspace.
The features that matter here are these: ability to move capitals (and thus threaten towers). Systems with multiple statics. Systems which connect to systems with multiple statics. Higher levels of wspace. Desirability of system for money-making.
bro turn your shader quality up to medium and penny's list of wh colors will make sense.
ReplyDelete