Pioneering in W-Space: Part 1

This is a re-post of my blog from the EVE University forums to catch you up with what I've been doing.

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I still remember the first time I scanned down a wormhole. I mentioned in the E-UNI chat that I had found a wormhole and one member suggested that I go jump through and see what happens. Looking back now I think that there might have been some people standing by waiting for the tears to flow as I got blapped by the local residents. Luckily, I didn't get blapped and I was able to explore aroud a bit before heading back to k-space. My first trip into w-space was definitely exhilirating and opened up a new path for me to explore.

Since that first time jumping into a wormhole, I have grown increasingly interested in w-space. After doing lots of reading on the wiki page and various blogs about w-space (these are very useful!), I got the idea into my head that I wanted to find a C1 to settle down in and start making a little bit of ISK with Planetary Interaction. Of course, there were a few problems with this idea. Where was I going to find an unoccupied C1? Once I found one, how was I going to occupy it? I don't have the ISK to anchor a POS and keep it fueled, plus I don't know what the return will be like on my planets. Nonetheless, I was stubborn and continued scanning down wormholes trying to find a perfect new home.

You might be asking, why a C1? I decided on a C1 for a few reasons. First, I read that C1s tend to be less frequented than the popular C2s, which have more opportunities for running sites. Second, C1 entrances have a weight restriction that precludes certain ships from entering (this makes taking down a POS in a C1 more annoying but not impossible to do). Finally, my lack of combat skills means that my primary activity would be PI and as all wormholes from C1-C6 are -1.0 true sec, the planets in a C1 can have as many resources as a C6. However, as it turned out, finding a C1 would be a big challenge.

I scanned down many wormholes in many different areas (near Aldrat, near the AMC, and near Solitude) looking for C1s. As it turned out, I found many C2s and some C3s but very few C1s. The C1s I did find were occupied with very recent activity on the killboards. However, I took every new wormhole I found as a learning experience. From the blogs I read, I discovered that you can d-scan to uncover the location of POSs that show up on a general max 360 scan. The next time I popped into a C2, I decided to practice this and find the local POS. I spotted one on d-scan and proceeded to align myself to one of the nearby planets. I narrowed my d-scan angle and sure enough, the POS was still showing up. I warped to the moon and low and behold I had found the (active) POS, shields up and all. There was some luck here in that there were only a few moons on this planet. This was a nice lesson though, if I were to set up a POS, choosing a planet with many moons would make it more irritating for someone else to scan down my POS. However, anyone with the patience could scan each moon until they found it anyway.

A few days ago I got lucky and scanned down a C1 with a HS static that has had no recent activity and appeared to be unoccupied. I warped in and D-scan showed that there was a POS nearby. I quickly scanned it down and found that it was not abandoned (shields were still up), with three unpiloted ships sitting there. I also noted that were were only two planets in this wormhole, limiting my PI options. Finally, the (one person) corp that owned the POS also owned the POCOs for the planets, and they had set a 100% tax rate. Stubborn as I am, I decided that I could live without using the POCOs and use this C1 as a training ground for living in a wormhole. With the entrance bookmarked, I realized that I had less than 24 hours to get my WH PI alt ready to hop into this wormhole.

I decided on using an alt for this adventure because PI is relatively low-maintenance and between refreshing my extractors and bringing my output to k-space to sell, I'd have nothing to do otherwise. Plus, my main had just set himself up at Solitude and I wanted to continue having fun and learning and experiencing new things. However, I had to decide what the best course of option was for my alt who wouldn't have the benefit of a POS in w-space. One of my Solitude campus mates suggested I take in a cloaked Epithal with warp stabs and a scanner probe. I thought this would be a good idea so I trained up the skills on my alt and ran around buying the necessary components to get the ship ready. I also bought a mobile depot since an Epithal can't hold a command center without 4 expanded cargoholds and I wanted those warp stabs for my trips into k-space at a later time. Also, it would be nice to have a "home" at a hidden location in my C1.

Two trips later I had everything I needed in the wormhole and prepared to settle down. I placed my command center and set up a small P0 -> P1 operation to get started. As the P1s start completing (they're already moving pretty fast with the high extraction rate thanks to the large amount of P0 available on the planet), I'll start practicing trips into k-space to sell my products. Tonight my 24h cycle will be done and I'll have some P1 to sell! That'll be another adventure all together.