EVE General Discussion

... could save you some ISK!

A wormhole popped up in a system I run through and I was testing out my mostly free little Magnate. I haven't had issues with it before, I've run some data sites, it has a cloak and it was insured so I said "What the heck... off we go!" (I wonder how often that phrase leads to doom vs. riches, interesting study there!)

So, bounce into a -1.0 numbered wormhole (J######) and a quick D-scan shows nobody active, so hit full thrust, pop the probes, change direction run for a bit then cloak. While cruising and scanning down sites, I run across a relic site. Now, the no need to probe combat sites are all "Outpost" or something or other, no relation to what I scan down with the probes which are "Forgotten" sites. I'd never heard of those so I set up a quick safe point in the system, warp to 100 to the safe point then warp to the relic site (never know if I'm being shadowed by a covert ops bomber or something! Paranoid but apparently not paranoid enough.)

So, hit the site within 30km figuring that would give me enough distance to run if something is there... which it was, 2 frigate sized "Awakened Defenders" and 2 destroyer sized ones. I dropped less that 10km from the frigates... oops. I'm in the process of selecting my safe point to warp out to when they nail me, I have 2 warp stabs on the Magnate and they still got point on me, it didn't matter though, the destroyers had 2 missile volleys in space and the poor little Magnate didn't survive the first full salvo from all 4 units... ouch.

The smart new player here would have done some research after getting their pod out of there and found out what these 'forgotten' thingy's are and how dangerous they are. Being a STUPID new player, I just grabbed my exploration cruiser (A non-cloaky Vexor with 2 flights of T1 combat drones). I was smart enough to realize I could lose the ship here and maxxed out the insurance on it before taking off.

Well, picking up where my frigate left off, only warping in out at 100km, I was able to pick off the destroyers and was working on the last frigate when the second... then third spawn hit. I glance away from my Overview to check my stats, I'm fine, no shield but I'm armor tanked and they really haven't scratched me. I look at my drone display... "Hey, where'd my first flight of drones go? Hmmm, launch second flight, there's no way they can be killed THAT fast..." wrong! By now, I have about 10-12 badguys on the scope I just looked at again and went "Hmmm, time to leave..."only problem is that one frigate I was trying to kill has a little bit of life left on it, caught me and pointed me hard. I'm going nowhere fast.

The rest was a horror fest. My tank couldn't keep up with a bunch of frigates, a few destroyers and a couple of cruisers tossed into the mix. I was laughing and crying at the same time... Pandora had clearly opened up the box and it was filled with Sleepers! Ugh... moron.

So, gathered up my tears while my poor capsule headed to the safe spot... then home. Didn't like that Vexor build much anyway (trying to make myself feel better... didn't work BTW). The insurance payment helped defray some of the loss, but still best loot I've ever taken home... experience. Not doing that again!

Think I won't toodle around wormholes like that in anything less than a BATTLESHIP... ugh...

Lesson to all... DO YOUR HOMEWORK and don't throw a good ship after a bad loss.... ugh...

Now to go get more ISK for a new cruiser... (sigh)

(If you don't like the 'tales from the newbie experience' kinds of posts, let me know, I'll stop)

Keep this open

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17cNu8hxqJKqkkPnhDlIuJY-IT6ps7kTNCd3BEz0Bvqs/pubhtml#

And watch for the triggers. And fitting/using some ewar yourself can help with the drone issue. Sleepers like to eat drones.

Also a general fact about WHs with the sleeper-guarded data/relic sites. The cans in the sites themselves are relatively worthless. It's the loot and salvage from their guards that are worth the real ISK, so generally I wouldn't bother with them unless you have a solid plan to not only loot, but salvage everything you kill as well.

I greatly appreciate the advice. My only EWAR on the Vexor was protection... ECCM, but I did notice my little SD600 held fire from one of the cruisers until I died. I had an E300 out there for a while but they ate that thing in seconds. I guess relying on drone offensive EW isn't a good thing either. I realize the SD600 is an annoyance drone, but it was a tough little bugger.

Does bring up the point that I wish the EW drones had a 'hit and run' mode. Once they have an initial target jammed, they could move on to the next closest and jam them while the jam on the other one cycles, then it just becomes a 'new' target for the next target check cycle.

Oh well, in hindsight consolation, I did kill a few of them before I went down.

You guys are awesome, thanks again for the help. I need some regular combat site runs to get my overconfidence up again...

Really enjoyed this

Good to hear stories of this sort

Oh, hadn't thought of using EWAR in that technique... hmmm. Thanks for the tip, and I'll give it a try on a much stronger ship when I feel brave enough to go sleeper waking again!

In hindsight them targeting my drones may have actually made me think my ship was soaking up damage better than it was so in a way, the AI got me because even against that second wave, I thought I was doing well... or so I thought... LOL!

Kind of reminds me of when I first started doing WH exploration. I got extremely lucky at first, finding a hole with plenty of pirate relic sites and was raking in the loot. I had no idea that there was a difference between pirate "nullsec" sites and sleeper sites. It was shear luck that I kept hitting pirate sites.

Eventually of course I hit a sleeper site and was popped before I could even warp off. Took me 2 more herons before I got smart and went online to read all about the differences.

It sounds like your ship lasted as well as mine did the first time I tried a wormhole site. 3 hits and I was gone. I'm glad you found it challenging. Research is your best friend though. Good luck and keep trying!

If you didn't already know this, in low class wormholes (C3 and below) you can find relic and data sites that are the same as the ones you'll find exploring in k-space. They all have pirate faction names and no Sleeper NPCs. These you can run in your explorer easily!

I'm using the Class terms as was used by the link previously provided. If that's improper terminology, please point me at the right source. The WH didn't say what class it was, it was 'unknown' and full of sleepers, no normal. The link called it a Class 3 and it was correct as to the site names and types.

IMO you learned the fun way.

I had a rifter get one-shotted by a sleeper from over 70 KM out. Still remember that. It was fun.

If I wanted to do homework I would go back to school.