Nothing like practical application to burn learning facts into the 'ol noggin.
Living in Wormhole Space, Wormholes 101, Wormhole Fundamentals To name a few are all good resources. There is so much information, so much good information that wading through it all is a task and a half so I decided to jump in literally.
I've had some experience with WH space but never lived there. I've read blogs and articles about life there etc. It made sense to me to start this off with the more general learn stuff objective and find my way to Thera at some stage. I decided to not over think this little venture and skipped reading a lot of content.
My alts skills in the scanning department are not stellar but I think they at least cover the basics.
The ship I chose was one he had the most skills in. The Buzzard like his skills covered most bases. The basic fit I chose for it was nothing special either, I simply downgraded some items, added a T1 1MN MWD, warp core stab, MAU and replaced an expanded launcher with a core version and added in some SOE Probes.
Next up was to insure this little minnow as I fully expect to get killed. I was surprised that there was not a bigger payout for the max level.
After considering the ships fit, the skills my alt had and the options on the market for changing that fit I made one final change.
I swapped out a small Grav for an Algorithm Bank. T1's of course.
Next up on the non existent list was to park up my main and hop onto a "clean" clone that would take the plunge.
So I had a clone and a ship, I decided to undock and "do this thing".
The system I was in, in hi-sec of course, had two cosmic signatures, one combat and one WH, how fortuitous. Best a place to start as any....
I do like that each type of WH now has its own aura/colour.
So I entered the system and started to stick my nose about.
Yes I bookmarked the entrance point on the other side so I could jump back without scanning it down again. Very important.
I made a safe point or two and launched my probes to start scanning. D scan was a problem as my filter settings were not optimal even when I thought they were.
The system was occupied but didnt' seem to see any active members. I did see that all the planets had customs offices and that they were owned by a rather famous pvp áss kicking alliance. I wasn't going to be doing anything uncloaked.
I had two choices, I could scan down another WH and see what I jumped into from there or I could warp to my entrance bookmark and get back to hi-sec.
It felt risky at a safe to uncloak and reload probes never mind anything else in system. Data and Relic sites would need an SOE ship for covert/combat capabilities to a point. I'd learnt that at least. That's a large isk gamble (to me) I will not be taking just yet.
I chose to scan out another WH and move on. I uncloaked and launched probes, warping and recloaking as I went. I warped cloaked a few times to be random and scanned down a new WH to jump into. I repeated the probe collection routine, cloaked and warped etc and did the final warp to the WH entrance. Good thing I decided to land a little off the WH as there were "others" gathered there.
Unluckily I was uncloaked while distracted looking up detailsof the people and ships on the overview, I couldn't read fast enough, I warped to my entrance bookmark asap and activated my cloak.
Tail firmly between my legs I was back in Hi-Sec.
At this point I was glad to have peeked into it but had done more on previous jaunts with less experience.
My Main in a Drake running some sites in another persons active wormwhole is a whole other story.
While back in the hi-sec system I saw that there was a site I could loot and ran it with 20k loot, hardly the payday I could get in null or WH space but it was all about the little victories at the moment.
As I hacked my way through that site I remembered a WH system mapping site, Siggy, this made me recall another site that I had to search for but was inactive. A few more clicks later I came across THE site I remembered seeing before that would save me randomly and forever scouting a way to Thera: https://www.eve-scout.com/.
So using it's information I had an entrance from a Hi-sec system 15 jumps form me that would lead me directly into Thera. It felt almost like cheating!
There is such mix of community/tools/apps/sites that make the game better, but I think that without researching even a bit you loose out on the enhancements the metagame brings. There is just so much of it(current and legacy).
So I travelled and made my way to the system that was listed as having the WH to Thera, scanned it down and with the info from the website knew if was the correct one.
And Jumped through.
I expected the system to be camped and swarming with pvpers in a Star Wars Mos Eisley kind of way. It wasn't.
Dotlan seems to have been blocked on showing kills/details for the system. But zkill gets the pvp kill data. I wasnt' worried about the pvp of getting podded. I wanted to see the system for myself to say that I was there if nothing else. And I did, Checking out each station (not that there is any real variety).
I did not see one person on the undock or near any station. I didn't see much on Dscan except for some mobile depot's and can's in space.
It felt very very empty.
zkill shows activity but I can't help but thing that if the SOE/interbus or some other neutral/all faction corp was given a policing contract the system would be used as a new Jita for WH players/corps/alliances. I'm sure CCP is Thera-crafting its strategy on this system and policing it is the last thing on their mind. Maybe I missed the high noon or maybe only certain time zones are active in it.
I like that the system is so big. I actually feels as a solar system should be. Expansive.
CCP should think about a change in the gravity of all star systems to enlarge the current systems to be bigger. A consequence of the recent star explosion perhaps. A way of altering the systems of Eve into the Eve solar systems 2.0. That may be too much tinfoil hat thinking.
After warping up and down the system and looking at the sites (literally) I warped back to the bookmark entrance and jumped back to hi-sec.
Mission accomplished.
Only the more general WH discovery to go. I think I'll be doing that with another character who I'll get to join a proper WH corp and see how that works out.
I've yet to fly my Main alt back to his HQ and refit his Buzzard and clone jump to get more training in. Or maybe I'll take another run or two in a WH.... Time will tell.
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