Ladar, Ladar, Ladar

This morning I scanned out everything the DSP found, and for some reason didn't record any of it. When I realized this, I scanned it all out again. And then? Server restart.

Server comes back up -- all new signal names! Start all over again!

One thing that helped me immensely with the 3rd round was wormnav. I highly recommend it for anyone doing exploration in wormholes.

I spent hours today mining c50s and c72s in a Ferox, filling the corp hangar in the Orca to about half full. The original idea was to do the mining in a well-tanked Ferox so I wouldn't have to clear the sites, but lately I've been keeping the alt in the Orca about 2200-2400 meters from the gas miner, so it can decloak, the miner empties his cargo right into the Orca, then it recloaks again. Very handy. But, it means I have to clear out the sites, so a tanked BC for mining is pointless.

Since this is the case, the next time a highsec hole pops up I'll be jumping the Ferox out to replace it with a Moa. I put together a Moa fitting with 5 T2 harvesters and a 1km3 cargo hold:

[Moa, gasser]

Gas Cloud Harvester II

Gas Cloud Harvester II

Gas Cloud Harvester II

Gas Cloud Harvester II

Gas Cloud Harvester II

Improved Cloaking Device II

10MN Afterburner I

[Empty Med slot]

[Empty Med slot]

[Empty Med slot]

Expanded Cargohold II

Expanded Cargohold II

Expanded Cargohold II

Warp Core Stabilizer I

Medium Cargohold Optimization I

Medium Cargohold Optimization I

Medium Cargohold Optimization I

It'll mine just as well as the Ferox, hold more in its cargo, warp out faster, and take up far less room in the maint array in the Orca. It's also cheaper to lose.

I haven't been completely clearing out the Ladar sites yet, because I don't finish Gas Cloud Harvesting V until early Friday morning.... At that point I'll be mining more than twice as fast as I am now, which will make emptying the sites so they'll despawn go much faster.

Howdy, Neighbor...

After a week or so of having the hole to myself, I logged on today to find a Mammoth on dscan. So I immediately warped to all of the Customs Offices, but he was safe in the POS. I haven't dropped any probes yet, so he most likely thinks he's alone.

After a half hour or so of watching him float the Mammoth in the pos, he switched to a Tengu and warped off to start scanning. I'm alone in a Tengu as well, so engaging him right now would probably be a bad idea, and I'd have to drop probes, which I'd rather not do -- I want him to think he's alone out here.

It's kinda fun to stalk someone like this, I just wish I could bring more DPS to bear. I think I may train up a spare-slot alt to pilot the orca, so I can have my combat toons ready to roll at moments like this. I don't even have a warp scram on my Tengu, so engaging him would be pointless right now.

But, at least I finally have safe bookmarks for monitoring his POS and contact alerts for when he logs in. And I also now know that I'm not with a loner alt corp like my own, he's in a 41-member corp, which is also in a 10-corp alliance. This could get interesting.


Now I really need to get some bombers in here for my alts....

Moving in...

I found a nice, quiet C2 with no traffic other than myself for the past 2 weeks. There's one offline tower here, a few cans, and pure silence. It'll be hard to not get lazy with the dscans, but knowing how much isk I have in here, I'll hopefully remember to be careful.

I currently have my main in a Tengu, and an alt in an Orca. Having to fuel a POS in highsec drives me batshit, so my one attempt at living out of a POS in a wormhole (last winter) ended badly, to put it mildly. Over Christmas last year I didn't log in for a few days, then when I finally did I saw I had lots of fuel notifications, and the thing would be offlining within two hours. By the time I found an exit, got a hauler into a station to buy fuel and was two jumps out, the insurance evemails had already started pouring in. It was literally a matter of minutes between when the shield went down and when the ship maint arrays started popping. A coupla billion isk disappeared, and so I took a good 6-9 month break.

The Orca, though, that's the bomb. Fitting, corp hangars, and a ship maint array all in one ship that never needs fuel. Unfortunately the alt can't ever leave it, as it would just be floating in space, totally scannable. I have a plan for how to deal with this, but I haven't enacted it yet.

Tonight I found a highsec exit, so I made an overdue shopping run. I picked up some gang links for the orca alt, who finishes the skills for them tomorrow night. Shield links for when I'm running combat sites, and a mining laser optimization for mining gas. Lots of spare probes, and I also kitted out a Ferox for gas mining. I haven't had the chance to test the tank against sleepers yet, as I'm just going to finish this entry and pass out for the night.

This hole doesn't have a static exit, but it seems that highsec exits pop up once or twice a week, so as long as I've got enough supplies (no pos fuel!), I can wait for a new exit to open up. Next time one pops up I'll jump out and fit up a bomber, it's the only remaining thing I need.

So I'm all settled in, got all my gear, and can't wait for tomorrow night, when the isk-making will hopefully begin in earnest.