2 months of wormhole space operations

Well after two months of wormhole space operations, I think it's time to write down some random thoughts.

Probing system
- This is a vast improvement over the previous system, as much as it simpler on the manufacturing side, player skill in usage is much higher and there is a much higher through put of modules and core probes since they end up on a lot more ships.
- There are still some issues with it. When they introduced hit ID's they broke the dual point results.
- We really really need probes as an overview setting (they are there on the d-scanner but not available as an overview setting item.

Wormholes
- Interesting differences between the ranges and jump mechanics of gates and wormholes make their tactical environments very different. One really wants to make sling bubbles on the w-space side but they are rather easy to defeat. bubbles on the holes themselves are easy to defeat. Coolest looking wormhole representations anywhere.

Lack of ice and moon minerals
- Impediment to wormhole colonization. I understand why they did it, but with the survival advantage of large POS's in wormhole space the attraction is going to be there. The logistics although travel tedious are not insurmountable. Deep colonies are going to need their pilots to wean themselves of their attachment to T2 if they want staying power or have really competent logistics officers.

Radar, Mag
- The ability of codebreakers and analyzers to work in the face of sleeper presence (unlike the high sec sites) make these rather easier to crack than they should be. Most competant fleets will still go for the ships anyways since the isk from the blue loot is on the same order as level 3-4 missions (depending on dificulty and fleet size).

Combat sites
- Easy to find, while still full of sleepers make for "interesting" battle sites.
- Now that the T3 salvage market is stabilizing, the main profit is from the blue loot.

Ladar
- Nothing special - kill the spawn, bring gas harvesters. Keep an eye out for scan probes

Grav sites
- Drooooooooool
- Pottentialy the most profitable sites in wormhole space
- The absolute biggest reason to colonize wormhole space.
- Only problem with them is the lack of respawn rate and randomness of their apearance.

Sleepers
- Much better AI than the normal rats - get this in the normal rats post haste.
- Portable bounty makes for an interesting concept - you need to get to high sec to get the reward.
- Salvage supply is stabilizing and the trends have apeared.
- Neurovisual Input Matrix is the isk maker salvage wise.
- These suckers can hit. Hard.
- The AI still has trouble with some tactics though, it is possible to draw the small fry out of range of the larger sleepers thereby making them easier to pick off.
- Once you have a site type dialed in they can be handled quite easily.

PvP
- Oh yes
- Interesting cross between small gang warfare and 0.0 tactics
- Makes for better training of carebears for PvP than faction warfare does.
- Allows for a much wider range of PvP possibilities than low sec normaly does.

Overall this has been a great addition to EVE. The new systems provide for a wide variety of experiences to pilots of all facets of EVE. It is particularely valueable for high sec residence as it provides much needed high reward level for the risks encured without the blobling of 0.0.

As much as CCP has stated they didn't want to see colonization, it was inevitable once the they populated the 0.0 ores in wormhole space. However the border systems and shallow systems are getting rather crowded. I can forsee small wormhole wars erupting over choice systems sometimes within the next few months. Overall this should make things rather interesting.

Some new concepts to fly by:
- If you can use a exploration probes, all ships you fly into wormhole space should be at least ecquiped with a core probe launcher. Always. (except possibly barges due to the massive reduction in capability incured and then you should either - operate in a system with a POS
- If you log off in a POS, always log off in a ship with at minimum a core probe launcher.

For the rest, most of the 0.0 sayings apply to wormhole space.

As we've been observing wormhole and wormhole system behaviour I've come to notice a few things:
All systems have AT LEAST 1 guaranteed exit (hereafter refered to as an exit wormhole). This wormhole will always be of the same class. This provides for predictable behaviour in wormhole connections. Not necessarely to specific systems but at lest to the TYPE of system that wormhole system will always connect to. Some systems can have more than one exit wormhole.

Systems that have only known space exits are "Shallow" wormhole systems (I'm coining the phrase if no one else has already used it). Systems that have only exits to wormhole space are "Deep" wormhole systems. Systems that have more than one exit, at least one of which is known space and at least one of which is wormhole space are "Border" systems.

These are the only 'static' wormholes. All wormhole systems will also get occasional random wormholes. This allows deep systems to connect up to known space, and shallow systems to occasionaly connect up to deeper systems. However these random wormholes can never be counted on. It can take a few days of observations to determine what pattern of system a wormhole system realy is. What looks initialy to be a border system may turn out to be a deep system after extended observation for example. This can cause some rather amusing situations.

Armed with this knowledge, go forth and explore young capsuleer, the universe awaits.