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EVE Online: Be Like Columbus - Wormhole Exploration
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com EVE Online Correspondent Kevin Schram writes this look at wormholes and wormhole exploration introduced with the Apocrypha expansion to CCP's sandbox MMO.
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EVE, as you know, is a game about space. Exploration is a big part of space, at least, in real life. And for a game about space, EVE didn't have a whole lot of exploration up until March 09. Sure, there was the thrill a new player got when discovering a new system with a cool nebula 'background' or the thrill a miner got when he found a new system filled with thick asteroids. But, in terms of actual Christoper Columbus-style 'real' exploration, there wasn't much. The game even featured “exploration frigates” and “exploration sites,” but these exploration sites were little more than missions that you got by probing them out instead of going to a mission agent.
However, EVE went a bit more Christoper Columbus in March 09 with the release of Apocrypha, the expansion that added wormhole exploration. Like the exploration sites previously featured in the game, you find wormholes by using scan probes. Unlike the sites, wormholes lead to completely uncharted systems that aren't colonized by NPC empires, or player alliances. Despite what you may have heard, there is a lot of fun to be had in wormholes and, because EVE is all about the internet spaceship bucks, believe it or not there’s money to be had as well. There are a lot of false ideas out on the internet about wormholes in EVE, and let's clear some of them up:
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Myth 1 - Very true, finding WH's is quite easy actually, and once you are in one, you get good at finding them all the time. Mad probing skills are recommend and of course, practice, practice practice. Nothing more daunting than scanning a new hole for the first time and finding 30 anomolies you need to scan down, especially if you're looking for an exit WH.
Myth 2 - While the sleepers won't be waiting for you on the inside of a WH, sometimes you'll find players camping the entrance, esp in a Lv1-3 WH entrance from Empire.
We routinely bubble the entrances to the holes we work and if we see you on scan (and we scan every 5-10 seconds) we'll take you out if you show even the slightest hostility. (combat probes are considered a hostile act btw)
As for sleepers, same thing, Levels 1-3, not too hard, and many sites can be solo'd. Levels 4-6, not so much and a well tanked group is a great things. BTW, some really good ship fittings to train up for are Apocs, Domis, Guardians, Damnations and pretty much anything else that armor tanks well. Stay clear of Caldari ships, although an armor tanked Scorp is invaluable in level 5's, 6's to break the target locks.
Myth 3 - There is a lot of money to be made in WH's. True, I'm playing very casually, I run with a group of 4 or 5 other pilots and we clear level 4 sites. I made 1 billion ISK in my first 2 weeks, and players who regularly work level 6's make upwards of 2B ISK a week from what I'm told.
You can also lose a lot of ISK too, either from tackling a whole thats a bit too tough, to being attacked and killed by hole raiders who come to disrupt your activies (a really big risk in level 1-3 holes btw)
Myth 4 - Hasn't happened to me yet, but only a matter of time. Do yourself a favor, make sure every character you take into WH space can scan and make sure someone in the fleet has access to a scanning ship. You'll thank me later.
So far, I've learned a lot about WH's during my first month inside, and of course, still much more to learn.
But for those who think EVE doesn't have interesting PVE I recommend you give wormhole living a try, it might suprise you.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Answers to all of this is :
Planning, planning, planning, planning.
Finding wormholes is quite easy, insane skills aren't required if you are properly equipped. Getting a covops and probes will be enough. With skills at 4, I can scan anything without the covops bonus.
Best when scanning is not to play too much with reducing two range levels at once, that's the way to loose a signature.
Anomalies are not much of an issue, you just drop a probe, and all will be probed down already, do it on max radius and you'll be free to ignore them all and focus on the real sigs.
Sleepers can be annoying, we usually use a mix of cruisers, BC, HAS and CS, each one has its role, a simple caracal with light missiles can save the day shooting the scrambling frigates. The sleepers BS can hurt a lot until you're too close, I really like dropping on them with a short range command ship. Beware the tank of the astarte is as often... Weak against the sleepers.
Have two or more probing ships, if they are also combat ships, do not engage them all in a fight at the same time. It's also good to have a cloak capable ship. Having a covops with the probes, hacking and salvaging makes a full time job, don't think it will be boring.
For the money to be made, it's only relatively to what ships you'll invest, and loose. Remember it's 0.0, you can always be probed, bubbled and wiped out without any concord holy revenge... Always have several people in the group scanning for hostiles. We usually leave when we see several people, reinforcements are never far away.
Regarding getting stuck in wormholes, your last man out should always be your scanner, he is the man that guarantees your survival. Should the wormhole collapse your scanner can always get whoever is still with him to kspace (although it might be on the other side of the galaxy..).
While I was still playing a few of us experimented with setting up a POS in wspace, is this still done? I imagine in lvl 4-6 holes it might be worth your trouble having a good base of operations, we stayed in one wspace system for several days until the hangars of the POS were full.
*Zerox sits back on his throne made of sleeper loot, he claims the crown of exploration for himself for he is the genius who invented the "Omega Blitz"*
My advice for explorers; When you enter any wormhole always bookmark the wormhole first, then use you directional scanner to check for any other players or POSs after which you can now launch combat probes to check for "hidden" players or POSs. Even if this may be seen as a hostile act to some it just ensures that you are definitely alone and you're not at risk as of that moment and there are people in there its better to leave than to try to make contact unless they are asking for help.
Another point is never talk in local chat EVER and never warp to anyone you don't know or trust let them warp to you and always be near the wormhole when you initiate that kind of interaction, makes for an easier escape if its an ambush.
This is not a game.
Yep, its pretty normal.
When wormholes came out I was excited and went to scanning them down with the new scanning system that I absolutly love.
Found my first hole and was hooked. Saddly though I had recently left the corp I was with as they had no intrest in worm holes and in my enthusiasm I joined a group of people I didnt know. Of course to join anyone you dont know in low sec is like putting loaded gun to your head with only one bullet taken out of a full chamber. At any rate it was good fun, just wish I had had the sense to wait till I found a corp with similar intrests first.
Asheron's Call, Champions Online, Dark Age of Camelot, EVE Online, EverQuest, Lineage 2, Star Wars Galaxies and World of Warcraft.Waiting for SWTOR
I may or may not be living in a wormhole myself at the moment. -cough-
The truth is, finding the right place can be difficult. I'd planned on holing up in a class 2 or 3 wormhole for a month or so to make ISK. I bought a faction tower, modules, fuel, ships, etc. Then I proceeded to scan for an unoccupied wormhole of said classes, and here's a pro-tip: there are none.
Yep, that's right - they're pretty much all occupied. It seems that half of EVE has the same idea, and many of them are smaller corps who don't have the numbers to run higher-end wormholes.
Why is this important? Well, there are only so many exploration and sleeper sites in any given wormhole, and they only respawn every so often. Moreover, as I understand it, if you put up a POS in one, the respawn rates start to decrease over time. As such, any given wormhole can only support so many players. It especially sucks for those of us who are active during U.S. Pacific and Mountain timezones (we don't do daylight savings in my state; it fluctuates from one to the other over the course of the year) since there's a very high probability of all of the good sleeper sites having been demolished by the time we get home from work. EDIT: I should also mention that wormholes are effectively 0.0, so having a non-friendly or neutral entity in the same wormhole as you is very...counterproductive...if you're trying to make ISK.
Anyway, I had been searching for an unoccupied wormhole for two weeks and was about to give up hope when, to my amazement, I actually found one. I immediately rushed to erect a POS and get my stuff moved in, and--for one weekend day--it was everything I thought I could be. Then I woke up on Monday morning, logged on to make sure my POS was still there prior to work, and found another tower in my system. Moreover, I had a couple golems, drakes, and sundry other ships on scan - more than my alt and I could take on seeing as how the alt only just started training combat skills.
I emoraged about this for about a day, then contacted some buddies to see if they wanted to help me take out the small Amarr tower, especially seeing as how these folks had a habit of leaving ships sitting unoccupied inside the POS shield and we could get free loot. Also, the people who installed the tower hadn't bothered to put up any guns.
In any case, the four of us reinforced the tower with no resistance or even any sign of our targets (timezone differences). We came back the next day to finish it off, and the POS owners started logging on while it was going into structure. We narrowly missed ganking an orca, and we did kill a lol-fit tengu (tech 3 ship) that had the misfortune of logging on 10km outside the POS shield. After the tower died, we grabbed the ships they didn't have time to pick up (hulk, skiff, moa, moa, badger mark II), and I figured they'd be gone for good and I could get back to happily building up ISK to support my PvP habit.
Imagine my surprise when I logged on the next day after work to find a medium tower, armed this time, from the same corp.
Just lovely.
Anyway, I've been killing them ever since on any occasion when I catch them online at the same time. I narrowly missed a golem the other day--though I did get one of their drakes--and this morning I killed three hulks and a badger before I left for work (and podded all four for good measure - dual boxing ftw). Still, I haven't made much ISK since arriving in this wormhole, and am now primarily using it as a tool to grief the guys who pissed in my kool-aid.
-Wrayeth
"Look, pa! I just contributed absolutely nothing to this thread!"