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Getting Unknown Known – Experiences of settlement in unknown space

Published on 27. Jun, 2009 ... written by M4g3ll4n, Tags: Articles

With Apocrypha a fully new part of space was added to the eve universe. Pilots are now able to discover new depth of space – known as wormhole space (w-space). As the name implies it is reached via wormholes, which can be found all around New Eden. Besides all the facts and details you can read in patch notes there were many discussions about settlement in such systems. In this article I want to report some experiences we made in our wormhole venture, where we tried to settle down in the unknown.

Settlement
Directly after the patch we were looking for a system that seemed to fit for our corporation. Wormhole systems can be classified into different classes, from 1-6, where class 1 is the easiest and class 6 is the hardest. To start with we decided that a level 3 system would work in the beginning. When the first explorers entered the system we found a lot of anomalies and signatures of all kinds. As moon mining is not possible in unknown space, a moon was just randomly picked and our shiny medium tower was deployed there. Our first step was to bring some more covert ops pilots into the system, which would always be there to scan the actual wormholes and ensure that we did not lose the system. For our second move we brought in combat pilots to take care of the sleepers (the new NPC race in wormhole space). We started clearing the sites and after some initial trouble we developed a set-up as well as tactics to deal with the Sleepers. Players can easily find tactics and set-ups on the official EVE forum. Basically with good teamplay they can be beaten easily.

The first weeks
A daily task in the first few weeks was to scan the system to find all of the wormholes and signatures. This enabled pilots to move to empire space to get new ships and supplies. Besides some visits by other explorers, we also encountered groups of pirates looking for a kill. But by staying vigilant and continuously looking at the directional scanner and by keeping a scout on the wormholes we ensured quick intel which created safety for the pilots.

Another observation was that the number of anomalies and signatures seemed to
decrease. At the end it consolidated at about 3 signatures and one anomaly, where the signatures were mostly ladar or gravimetric and therefore mining sites. On the EVE-O forums there are a lot of threads talking about this phenomena. My explanation is a more mathematical rather then a “CCP has implemented this maliciously” one. Non-finished sites despawn after about 72 hours while finished sites respawn directly after they are done. Further sites are not necessarily respawning in the same system. That’s why they are gathering in systems with low or even no activity. On a point of view based out of one fixed active system it seems that the number of sites in this system is decreasing, while others are constantly filled. Which is correct (in numbers), but definitely not a result of CCPs implementation and only a side effect of POSes in system. The statistical distribution coupled with the timers leads to the effect that signatures gather in “unused” systems. Further combat sites are done fast while mining sites are often left. That gives the feeling that there exist many more mining sites than combat sites. We experienced that we constantly get new combat sites and anomalies in our system, but not five a day, instead only one or two new signatures per day.

Going deeper into unknown
After we got settled in the class 3 system and logistics were working, the explorers desire to get deeper into the unknown space and discover new untouched systems got stronger. We decided to equip a deep exploration gang with another tower and supplies for some days. Soon we found a class 4 system and decided to stay there. Early on the difference between both systems were obvious. The first system had always direct connection to known space, whereas the class 4 system had only a indirect connection. The overhead for scanning all the way to known space to move supplies and ships in was immense. Further, the same experience with number of signatures was made as in the other system we occupied. Of course, the sites were a lot harder and provided ambitious content but due to the fact of the logistical issues it was not worth it. The connections to New Eden were spread all over the place (for example, exits leaded to Delve, Providence, Metropolis, Great Wildlands or Geminate) and varied from 0.0 to empire space. That’s why we decided to take a step back, keep the class 3 system and just send deep space exploration gangs into deeper unknown space to take care of those systems.

Summary
So the main question remains: “Does it work and pay out having a POS in wormhole space?”. My answer is yes, but not for all corporations and all kinds of unknown systems. Settling in a class 3 system works for medium sized corporation,while large corporations will soon get bored as the number of sites is too small to have constant action. Further PvP capabilities are definitely needed if you want to be able to secure your system, as you will get visitors. Settling in systems deeper into wormhole space with no direct access to known space is pretty hard but doable. We decided not to do so, as logistical overhead kept too many members busy and left not enough time extensively farming the system. All in all the new content provides a lot of options for corporations not participating in sovereignty warfare.

Tags: Apocrypha, Sleepers, Unknown, Wormhole