Posted - 2009.03.19 17:51:00 - [1]

 

so last night i finally went into a wormhole. it was from a .5 system down molden heath way.

i got in with a cheetah and scanned around a bit, found a grav site full off jaspet and hedgerberdite or whatever you call it. it was listed as an "unexceptional frontier deposit". i remember reading that frontier was supposed be the easiest, and it was guarded by 5 sleeper drones, and i wondered if i could kill them.

while i was scanning around, some poor guy was lost in a pod in local after having lost his ship to a tower in a permiter site. i did not feel safe fleeting with him, but finally i relented and let him warp to me at the WH exit, but his client crashed when he got the fleet invite so he didn't make it.

i decided to try the sleeper drones, for which i would need my drake (i should have brought a cerb instead, probably). so i bring my alt in a cheetah into the hole, then leave with my mains cheetah to get the drake. i come back in the drake and i think for sure these sleeper drones are going to wtfbbq me, but i ended up killing them absurdly easily (although they ate all 5 of my Warrior II's :()

i head back to the WH exit, considering going to fetch a hulk to get at some of the ores. on my way, this poor lad is back in local asking for help out. i decide to help him. i get back to the WH exit... IT'S GONE. bummer. i tell the lost pod pilot the exit has closed, but i did not tell him i had a prober still in system (alt) in case he was tricking/hunting.

so now i'm sweating a bit as i have no way to hide my drake, and my alt has low probing skills. i log off the drake pilot and start probing.

THERE WERE SO MANY SITES IN THIS WH, i couldn't find a WH. i found OVER 9000 grav sites, ladar, mag, camps, ambushes, etc... but no wormholes. this went on for almost 90 minutes.

scan, pinpoint, scan, pinpoint, for a very long time. i was getting pretty annoyed, as this doesn't seem fun to me. but i'm not the type to give up, so i just keep plugging away, site after site after site.

finally i find an exit. to 0.3 space up in black rise (near Tama). i log the drake on and bring him to the exit, then jump the cheetah through. the 0.3 space is empty and the gate to tama is clear.

i now offer the lost pod a jump out. check this out... HE REFUSES because it's 27 jumps to the system he jumped in from. are you kidding me?

so i jump the drake out, and both the drake and the alt made it through the two .3's into high sec with no issues. as i set the autopilot for 27 jumps home, this lost pod guy convos each of the two chars, presumably wanting me to come back and give him the exit he turned down. i felt bad doing it, but i ignored both because i didn't want to go back in the hole.

at the end of the day, it was fun - especially the rush i felt engaging the sleepers who i was sure would wtfbbq me but were pansies, - but the effort to get out was frustrating as hell. grav, ladar, mag, over and over... argh.

i don't see much way to make much profit solo in one of these. you can't bring enough ships to do kill sleepers and mine or whatever by yourself, and even if you bring mates the chances are high the hole will close before all get in or out, leaving super long trips back home in which you are not making any money and can be exposed to low sec risks. i'm just not really clear how this is supposed to work for your average casual player. i don't think it does.

i sure hope that poor lost pod found a way home eventually.

that is my wormhole story. i'm unlikely to go into one again for awhile, until i can figure out a way for it to be a more profitable venture.