Wormhole Tracking Software, API Keys and You

The goal of this post is to highlight what I know to be an issue. I feel the more information available and eyes on the issue, the sooner it may get fixed. I've also made a video on the topic, for those who 'en't got no time fer read'in'.

TLDR: Wormhole tracking software may or may not be totally exposed, lets try and tighten it down a bit. 

Wormhole Tracking Software (WTS)

I've commented multiple times on using WTS such as Siggy as my preferred method of tracking wormhole travel and recording signature IDs. The ability to quickly share information between corp members is an invaluable tool that every serious wormholer I know relies on.

Before WTS, everyone just used a shared google doc that highlighted entrances, exists, time found, mass status and if the wormhole was filled with baddies who wanted you dead.

Now, we have multiple to choose from. I'm going to show a hole in one of them. Isogen 5 up to the time of my leaving them, were using "Siggy" as their preferred WTS.  I hope to god they've stopped.

The problem:

The overall issue is a complex one that has many effecting parts. The primary one, EVE is at its heart is a diabolical test of space sociopaths to do ISK damages on others. One defense of that main goal is the invention of an API key.

API keys are a clever way for one pilot to give limited access to their accounts to another pilot. How much  money they have, who they send that money to, how many spaceships they've killed, who's spaceships they've killed, really really good information that can be verified, reviewed and confirmed. You're API key is your history, its your account and its everything it needs to be for someone (not you) to confirm all the information you've said is in fact, true.

Now WTS use API keys on a very limited scale. The software does a simple check of who you are, what corp you are in and with your permission, where you are. This is how they work. Super handy!!

Where in the ever changing string of wormhole connections are you, in relation to where you hang your hat, or in this case, where others hang their hats. This is the issue.

Let me walk you through an application process in most wormhole corps.

Corp #1 -- Lets call them HK (Heavenly Knobs, NOT Hard Knocks, seriously not Hard Knocks)

Applicant: Hi I want to join your wormhole corp.

Recruiter: Sure, send me your API so we can see how much of a spy you are.

Applicant: Ok here it is.  123UU0u0J)(**&080JFIJIEU)(*U)JEOJFJjIJFIEJNHNENB

Recruiter: (after reviewing and storing the API Key) Hmm, seems you're more of a space spy than we thought. Go ahead and get fucked.

Applicant: No problem, never liked you anyway

The process so far is a normal one, some people just aren't right for all corps, it happens. The applicant still wanting to get those dank Wspace kills simply moves to the next corp in the kill board list.

Corp #2 -- Lets call them I5 (Interesting 5 Guys, NOT Isogen5, Seriously)

Applicant: Hi, I want to join your wormhole corp.

Recruiter: Sure, send me your API so we can see how much of a spy you are.

Applicant: Ok here it is.  123UU0u0J)(**&080JFIJIEU)(*U)JEOJFJjIJFIEJNHNENB

The same API key that was sent to Corp #2, because lets be real here, who wants to make a new identical selection API key, each time you send it to a different recruiter. Its the same selections right? Same information... whats the big deal? Its just an account viewing method right, whats the harm?

Well with that API key, Corp #1 can go to  https://siggy.borkedlabs.com/ and log in to siggy with a different email address and the applicants API KEY, and see every single bit of information you/the corp have put on Siggy. They key here is the fact that Corp #2 is using Siggy as their paid WTS.

But thats crazy! There must be some sort of security preventing that right?!

According to this picture, the creator of siggy simply asks you nicely "Please do not use API keys that do not belong to you ". Sure, let me not violate my EVE space honor.  

Whats also interesting is I'm fairly sure it works with most other WTS out there. (someone other than me please test and respond). I'll be talking about this issue on the next DTP (downthepipe-wh.com), I would love to have you on the show.

Another fun thing you can do with API's, if that API is something other than just the normal verification API, its as something as dangerous as a "FULL API" those people can use that API to read your in game mails, out of game. Using an API checker to read your corp mails. Corp mails that may or may not contain other peoples API's that are sent to you during your long history in this game.  
What can we do?! The answer is "Not much'.

 Here are some suggestions to limit your exposure. All of them are totally unreasonable, and won't address the overall problem, but its all I got at this point.

 1. Remove every API key you have in the corp using a WTS.  Go to this link and delete/reconfigure every API key you have. This in all honesty should be done every 3 to 6 months in this game. Just make it a habit. Remember you might not give a shit about your travels in a chain, others in your corp you are exposing, may care.   --- If you have a spi already or soon to be in your corp, this won't make a lick of difference because they simply won't delete their APIs.

Worse, even if you ask to verify their API's are deleted, if they are a spi, they'll simply make a new one and send it to Heavenly Knobs, who may or may not have kept every single API key ever sent to them, inside both HK and PL (Panda Legacy, not Pandemic Legion, seriously) they are both totally different corps that don't share kill mails/members or anything. Then devious fellow with said API,  randomly inserted into Siggy. The life of that API key/person moving from one corp to another, spreading an security hole, like bad case of bleeding genital warts. 

2. Stop using Siggy. Siggy so far is the only one I've tested, but being able to access my chain outside of the game, while I'm logged into the game, without my knowledge its happening seems like a totally fked up system.  -- Again, if you have a spi already, simply switching to another WTS, won't do shit for you. The spi will simply give access to your information no matter what.

3. Without having a CCP protected log, each player could access, to know exactly how, when and which API key was used. Players have little to no control of an API key, the second its given to a 2nd party.

This is like that little evaluation you do with a stranger at a bar. How many and what kind of D's has this person handled... and how many D's have those people handled. (Off topic PSA: use protection every time, no matter what, seriously)

I'm sorry I don't have all the answers, when I do, I'll share them, but right now WTS with API key verification seems to be totally exposed, please enjoy sharing your chain with the world.

C13 Backpacking Operation Reader Update

I keep getting these mails from people who either thank me for the C13 backpacking idea or want to comment on how they have improved it.

I'm cool with both! I really enjoy hearing from people that I inspired them to play the game more and enjoy themselves. This game is too good to not try new things.

During an interview with some people for ISO5 (I wasn't interviewing, I was just there to listen and say funny things once in a while.) a guy said that he had a member in his corp who lived entirely in a C13 after reading my post. Not a backpacking trip, but legit living in it long term because of what I wrote in the past.

Well, I got another mail from someone, so I thought I would share it with everyone. Enjoy!


"Hi, Continuing here the reading of your past adventures. I cannot post comments on your blog at work and my iphone bugs... so this is only FYI but you can feel free to share the intel.

About the C13 backpacking operation…

I did the quite the same with 2 toons : a wolf (nos, AB, scram just in case…, gyros and ancillary armor rep, dps rigs, depot, mtu) and a thrasher (salvage tackle for rigs, prototype cloak, all the rest was salvagers and co-pro /cargo expanders, maybe a prop offline when I need to travel/jump). The wolf did the refit/scanning.

Once everything was scanned down, I used to activate all gas sites and ore sites. I warped to a site, locked the very few sleepers, dropped the mtu even if they were very close, killed them, scooped mtu and loot, moved to next site. This is VERY quick and I could run the site by the time the enemies found were I was.

I took precautions to warp through a safe before moving to the next site (in case a covops was watching me), then warped to a site on the other side of the system so the combat probes were scanning a wrong place. To put it in a nutshell, I made it difficult for the hunters and ran the gas/ore sites so fast that I saw they destroyer land on me only twice (but I already entered warp^^). I ran ALL gas/ore sites with them chasing me. And you know there are tons of them. This was helping me actually because it was difficult for them to find the signature I was in with the 5-15° angle Dscan.
 
The troll part is that while I was blitz-running sites with the wolf, I was also blitz-salvaging them in a random order with the thrasher. The mtu had regrouped the wrecks so this was just warping at 0, locking max 5 targets (gas and ore sites have few sleepers) and spread salvagers. By the time I aligned my safe, the wrecks had disappeared and I was warping out.They tried to catch both my wolf and my thrasher without success. But the frig aligns fast and the thrasher aligns as soon as it lands so keeping Dscan close range was ok even with dictors. That was kinda sport though to multibox with only one screen. And I’d rather do it with a mate than alone.

To secure my loot, I just kept it in the thrasher while afk or logged out (so nobody had clues someone was living here) and just dropped it in a non aligned safe while I was running sites. And every 50 min or so, I scooped it up and jettisoned it again so that the can did not despawn !

The only thing I feared was :-          a bomber decloaking close to my thrasher to tackle it (but why would you bring a bomber in a C13 ?...)-          a dictor cloacked close to one of my unsalvaged wrecks, waiting for my thrasherThis did not happen. I only regret later I did not bait the confessor hunting me in an ordinary gas site reservoir, the one with the 5 sentries. I know my wolf can speed tank them. The confessor can probably too. But if he doesn’t know the trick and is not fast at burning for a decent transversal when he lands, he might have had a funny welcome surprise. xD 

Btw, I soloed vital core gas sites with the wolf. Sweat, thrill, isk and pride ! The difficulty was to go from one BS to another with the AB without being capped out and sometimes the BS was far the one from the others. No cap meant no AB, so no speed tank so… possible minmatar wreck on Dscan.

Why the wolf ? because I focused my main on minmatar ships and I cannot fly svipul. But also because guns do not use cap and sleeper neut. In my opinion, the resist profile of the missiles fitted vengeance sounds to be the best frig to use : you speed tank your armor resist holes and save lows for dps.

Finally, the data site that blew your confessor is a DED (Ghost) site. You can only hack 2 cans before gtfo, no matter how fast you are with hacking. I’m damn fast and I lost a few cheetahs trying 3 cans… Tanking this site is hard work : a frig cannot, I’m not even sure a stratios can. If you want to hack the 4 cans, you need a mate hacking while you hack. Make sure you decloak at the same time because this triggers a timer for the explosion and incoming super-rats. --Tecka"

ECM too Stronk

 Our story begins with a gank attempt that failed.

Someone was flying a tornado around in a C2 and doing frostline sites.
We saw on at a few different points during the gank attempt there was a stratios in system and a proteus.  Thinking the tornado was bait, of course we were going to bite it. We did our best to beat the tornado to the high sec connection with a HIC before he warped, but he was watching Dscan and warped before the bubble went up. O well, not every cast gets a fish, we moved on.

Shortly after....

Someone reported in that a person named Riozuil was shouting something in local about "ISO gen 5..... come out to playyyyyy"

Not wanting to disappoint, I opened a convo.

[ 2016.01.06 20:55:35 ] Riozuil > hai
[ 2016.01.06 20:55:50 ] Longinius Spear > Someone was talking in local that you wanted to fight
[ 2016.01.06 20:55:59 ] Longinius Spear > is this still true?
[ 2016.01.06 20:56:09 ] Riozuil > Sitting 13km off the highsec in my mega
[ 2016.01.06 20:56:25 ] Longinius Spear > yea, thats not going to work for us
[ 2016.01.06 20:56:54 ] Longinius Spear > any chance you could be some place else?
[ 2016.01.06 20:56:55 ] Riozuil > Alright girly man.
[ 2016.01.06 20:57:15 ] Riozuil > No because I want to get my pod out, and last time you bubbled the exit for my alt
[ 2016.01.06 20:57:41 ] Longinius Spear > Well, we can agree no pods?
[ 2016.01.06 20:58:21 ] Riozuil > No offense I dont trust you. You can check my backup easily by putting someone in highsec
[ 2016.01.06 20:58:33 ] Riozuil > We have 4 characters and 2 players
[ 2016.01.06 20:58:38 ] Longinius Spear > I take it you don't know us, or me for that matter
[ 2016.01.06 20:58:53 ] Riozuil > plus at this point you guys probably have logi which makes me fighing pointless anyway =P
[ 2016.01.06 20:59:11 ] Longinius Spear > This is me.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ddR7W4LmR8
[ 2016.01.06 20:59:52 ] Longinius Spear > I don't break my word, i'm respectful and I like explosions.
[ 2016.01.06 21:02:03 ] Longinius Spear > we don't have logi, but we do outnumber you
[ 2016.01.06 21:02:39 ] Riozuil > What fight would you want to have then?
[ 2016.01.06 21:02:41 ] Riozuil > and where
[ 2016.01.06 21:03:16 ] Longinius Spear > since no fight could truely be fair, what would you consider engaging? T1? less than 5?
[ 2016.01.06 21:03:26 ] Longinius Spear > battleship 1v1 :)
[ 2016.01.06 21:03:35 ] Longinius Spear > I'm down for anything
[ 2016.01.06 21:06:14 ] Riozuil > I'd fight up to 5 cruisers without logi
[ 2016.01.06 21:06:40 ] Riozuil > or bs 1v1
[ 2016.01.06 21:07:21 ] Longinius Spear > 5 cruisers no logi lets do this :)
[ 2016.01.06 21:07:41 ] Riozuil > and no bubbles on the hs lol
[ 2016.01.06 21:07:57 ] Riozuil > I may not have an expensive pod, but its a pain in the ass getting out of amarr when I'm -4.0
[ 2016.01.06 21:08:18 ] Longinius Spear > if you get poded, i'll replace it personally
[ 2016.01.06 21:08:54 ] Riozuil > mmk sounds good. My alt may or may not make an appearance as well, good?
[ 2016.01.06 21:09:11 ] Longinius Spear > we're bring 5 cruisers now
[ 2016.01.06 21:09:46 ] Riozuil > and is this including my buddy and his alt? or are they out? Up to you
[ 2016.01.06 21:10:36 ] Riozuil > We have no logi or cancer falcons on any toons
[ 2016.01.06 21:11:01 ] Longinius Spear > cancer falcons lol
[ 2016.01.06 21:11:07 ] Riozuil > =P
[ 2016.01.06 21:12:46 ] Riozuil > So other characters yes or no?
[ 2016.01.06 21:13:00 ] Riozuil > Just so we dont have my buddy join midfight and get everyone pissed lol
[ 2016.01.06 21:13:46 ] Longinius Spear > 5 cruisers is what we are bringing. lets dance :)
[ 2016.01.06 21:14:05 ] Riozuil > Meet you at the sun yo
[ 2016.01.06 21:14:13 ] Longinius Spear > but the glare haha ..
[ 2016.01.06 21:14:19 ] Riozuil > Crybaby


We quickly formed up 5 cruisers and went out to fight some people.

His mega that he brought to the sun.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/51200546/ 

Assuming his friends Huginn that also went to die?

https://zkillboard.com/kill/51200512/

 Right as the mega dropped, this landed on grid with us and we warped off. This screen shot was taken from the next wormhole in the chain.

Confessors not wanting to deal with our kitting ships took off. GG.

Shortly after I get this mail.

--------------------------------
Just Wanted to Say.
From: Riozuil
Sent: 2016.01.06 21:25
To: Longinius Spear, 

Next time you organize an "Honorable" fight leave out the Cancer ECM.

Fly a little more Dangerous,
Rio

--------------------------------
Re: Just Wanted to Say.
From: Longinius Spear
Sent: 2016.01.06 22:03
To: Riozuil, 

My apologies,

As my recollection stands, I asked, "What would you engage, no pods.?" You said 5 cruisers. You didn't say t1,t2,t3 or NO ECM. We could have showed up in 4 neut legions and a Jamgu under that. That guy flying the blackbird is our new bro and that was the only ship he could bring. It fit well into our fleet so we said what the heck.

We also didn't know if it was a trap or not, hence the kite'ee fleet. Our fears were realized when the 9 confessors and Dictor gang landed on us. We know it wasn't you, but nothing is certain in wspace.

I understand that ECM is a force multiplier, even in the hands of a newbro, again, we never said fair(which can't really be done imo), we said 5 cruisers, no pods.

Things you could have done differently.

1. Mobile Depot with an ECCM swap, you were sitting uselessly on grid for a VERY long time. At least it would have pulled the dps off you while we tried to encap it. If it did get up, bam, blackbird dealt with.

2. Fit ECCM on a solo mega. Did you honestly think no one would play with it, or did you think your strong feelings about ECM would protect you?

3. Learned from your engagement and not cryed.

I'm sad you had a negative ISK interaction with us, but at least I hope you learned something.

-- Spear
 

Re: Just Wanted to Say.
From: Riozuil
Sent: 2016.01.06 22:07
To: Longinius Spear, 

I had no problems with T2's or T3's. I would have RATHER fought 4 neut legions. At least there is a counter to that. Even if I had ECCM its the dumbest mechanic ever and can Jam regardless of strength. Just sucks that you put yourself forward as a trustworthy guy and then bring an organized gank fleet to a fight. I had no illusions I would make it out of that fight alive, I was hoping to take one with me and have some lolz. Not being able to fight back is SOOOO much fun. Have fun making wormhole space less fun for everyone. I or my corp certainly wont be fighting you again.

Have fun,
Rio.

Wormhole/scanning/intel gathering Basics 101 Video Series 1 - 3

Hello readers.

I'm sorry its been so long since my last post, I've been busy with a real life move and just haven't felt inspired to blog much lately. Doing my best to un-funk myself.


I did want to make a video series that can be linked to people who don't know anything about wormholes or wormhole intel gathering.

Here is that link.

Video 1 is the very basics of scanning using the new probe overview

Video 2 is the wormhole basics

Video 3 is intel gathering for the paranoid :)

Short update, but watch the videos if you're bored and feel you can learn something.

There will more 

Review of EVE Vegas 2015

My somewhat harsh review of the EVE Vegas 2015 Experience.


Personal History:

This is my 2nd EVE Vegas. I attended 2013 at the Rio Resort. Side note: I attend 5 to 6 conventions each year, on one nerdy topic or another. Its kind of my thing.

I go to so many, they seem to blend together. I think I'm semi qualified to provide a quality review, just because of how many I attend. Using the other conventions as a baseline, here's my review.

High points

 Swag for sale:  I like that they had T-shirts, mugs, models, pins, stickers, you name it for sale. The prices were fairly reasonable too. I bought a couple shirts, one of them a really nice polo for $20. During EVE Vegas 2013, there wasn't hardly anything for sale, maybe some keyboards/head sets but that was about it. Great to be able to pick up some swag and not get raked across coals doing it.

The hotel to convention layout: I go to many conventions that have the venue across the street from the hotel, or in the case of the EVE Vegas 2013  Rio, a fucking mile walk through the casino from your room to the convention site. This year, you walk 40 feet from your room, get on the elevator hang a left and you're there. You don't have a bunch of bull shit walking if you want drop off your jacket in your room or something.

The hotel shopping: Lets be real, its Vegas, and stuff just costs more because of it. $10 for 4 cookies just comes with the town. The good thing about this particular hotel was how easy it was to get to a verity of different food outlets, stores, both fast food and fine dining. This worked for me because my wife wanted a nice night out with me, away from all the nerd-gasiuming. We  had all you can eat sushi on Friday and a nice $100 meal at a semi fine dinning restaurant.

The exclusive party: Meeting everyone in a relaxed party-ish venue was fucking awesome. Watching Mittens make the same D-bag duck face, from selfie to selfie is something that you can truly appreciate and has a way of being magical. Top shelf booze; that if the bartender is properly motivated, (slipped him a 5) will give you a double no ice bourbon.  Cheers!.

The EVE sing along with Guard was great, he is by far my most favorite Dev. Guard doesn't know shit about advanced EVE game play, but god damn it if he isn't friendlier than a wet dog.  o7 Love you Guard!

Low points:


The hotel: The Planet Hollywood simply doesn't give a shit. This imo is the best way to describe my logging experience.

My wife and I stayed in our room from Friday to Monday. The bathtub was never cleaned by housekeeping. Now we aren't filthy people, but when you notice on Monday the long black hairs in the tub and neither of you have long black hair, either the maids been bathing in there, or the shit just didn't get clean.  My wife commented on the contact lens she found floating in the tub, and the shave ring around, when she was about to shave her legs. :P

The bed was fucking hard! I've had softer beds in Mexico that were essentially a cement block build into the floor with foam on top. I made the unfortunate mistake of diving onto the bed right after my flight. RIP my shoulder. I woke up about 4 times each night with pain. Nothing like wanting to not sleep in during a vacation.

Then we went to the pool.

How much work is it to pick up beer cans from around the pool? Wet towels, beer cans, trash and just grossness all around the pool. I'm not sure why there were wet towels, but the pool wasn't close to heated, its mid October!  Thats common for some places in Nevada, they assume that every day will be warm because its the desert. I get it. This doesn't excuse the 'warm tub' I should call it a "hot tub" but I think you can't call it that anymore if its colder than your body temperature. Since the pool was ice cold, the warm tub wasn't close to hot, all the pool goers who wanted to get wet in some way simply crowed into a single 500 gallon pool. The hot tub was forming bubbles on the top from all the people grease, piss and whatever else may have oozed off of the several hundred people who used it.

If a hotel can't bother picking up 10 beer cans from around the pool, you sure as shit could assume that the hot tub water NEVER gets changed. They can't be bothered to even check if the heat is on, I honestly think I was just sitting for 30 minutes in bubbling piss.

The surprise 100 dollar logging charge AFTER the trip. So Vegas and I mean most of Vegas thinks its such a privilege to go there, each hotel charges you an additional charge after the fact of 30 dollars a night. Because? Well because they can. We thought, that must be illegal, but turns out that its simply added to each visit in the fine print.


The EVE Vegas Convention as a whole: 


Now, when I go to a convention, I want content. This is why I flew there after all. I want guest speakers, I want "How to's", I want signings, I want a jam packed 12 hour schedule of content.  People paid a lot of money to fly and stay at your convention. Give them content!

This is what I got.

On Sat and Sunday, the speakers/whatever didn't start till 11am. Now I get that I might be hung over, sleeping in, whatever. But seriously, you have the presentation rooms for the entire weekend, how hard would it have been to simply start stuff off at 8am, or hell 9 am.

They also did this super retarded thing with schedule and overlapped content. Like at one point on Sunday, I had to make a choice between 3 different things going on in 3 different rooms. Would it have been so hard to simply open the doors early and spread those things out from 9am, instead of starting all 3 at 11am?  

 Giving a person like myself who wanted to see all 3 things a chance?

This wasn't just for one time slot, there was double, triple booking of time slots through out the 11 to 4 presentation windows. Seriously? How hard would it have been to start at 8 and end at 8. Triple the player presentations, throw massive amounts of content at me. Player presentations are essentially free, give me more!

Not only that, but 25 minutes to talk about something that I have done for 5 years is a bit hard. I could have talked about wormhole hunting for a week straight, let me come in super early like 7AM and give a serious chat about wormhole hunting, with Q & A. I mean, its not like they paid for the rooms by the hour, who cares if no body shows up, at least if someone wanted to see it or be a part of it, it could have happened. Instead the room stayed empty and people twittled their thumbs in the hallway for 2 hours before 11am.   Here's my presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ddR7W4LmR8

I paid thousands of dollars to fly across the country and stay in a hotel, for 5 hours of me wishing I could dopplegang myself across 3 different rooms. I spend the remainder of the time wondering what to do, other than the reasons I actually came there. Who made the call that the each day should only be 5 hours long? That is god damn retarded.

The Devs: 

The dev Q & A's were lame too, if you wanted to ask a question, you had to hold your hand up for 10 minutes, for a dev to play "Do I like that guys face enough to call on him". Not only that but most weren't mic'ed up, so it was just us trying our hardest to listen to them say "Sorry I don't do that" or "your question is NDA".

The over all attitude of the Devs I talked to, seemed like they were just "tasked" to be there. Jet lag or whatever, aside from Falcon and Guard, they looked like they didn't want to be there, like it was just J.O.B. I've had the pleasure of meeting the devs in San Francisco and EVE Vegas 2013, this was a different vibe, way more defensive, less approachable, more snarky... Its had to describe, but the spirit just wasn't there.

The absence of live streaming this year, what the actual fuck?

Sure the hotel charges an arm and a leg for streaming, but who negotiated that contract for the venue to not include it in the price? Did you simply not think of it? It doesn't need to be a whole production, The Mittani dot com proved that with their live steam. You shouldn't have needed to rely on fan sites to pick up the slack for poor planing.

Will I go again?: 

Nope. Overall the cost for me and my wife was about $3,000 after all was said and done. A quick google search and I could have bought her and I a all expense paid trip to Mexico for a week.

Come next Oct, lets get some EVE dudes to chill on a beach in Cancun for 4 more days, for half the cost.

 See you all in EVE Cancun 2016 boys!

My C5 PVE RR Rattlesnake Setup

Based on my blog hits, the majority of my hits are focused on my PVE content. Which I think is strange, but meh, whatever. I guess bears read more.

I wanted to make a quick post on my C5 RR Rattlesnake set up. I've had a few questions about it in corp so if I could simply link this blog to them, it would give them all the info they needed.

The goal of this setup and I'm not going to say its the "Best Setup" is to do C5 sites and clear C5/C6 gas sites. I'm keeping it cheap and effective because I triple box this set up from time to time. I can't have a lot of random things happening while it do I, because that makes it harder. If you have a "Better Setup" please post a link to your blog in the comments and we can measure ePeen. :p

Why rattlesnakes?

The price of Rattlesnakes has dropped recently to 325m each, which IMHO is crazy for a faction battleship. I'm going to break the fit down to total price.

 [Rattlesnake, Rattlesnake] -- 325m

Lows:
Capacitor Power Relay II - 400k
Capacitor Power Relay II - 400k
Capacitor Power Relay II - 400k
Co-Processor II - 816k
Drone Damage Amplifier II - 950k
Drone Damage Amplifier II - 950k



Mids:
 Gistum C-Type Explosive Deflection Amplifier - 1.3m
Cap Recharger II - 396k
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II - 1.71m
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II - 1.71m
Pithum C-Type Thermic Dissipation Amplifier - 1.49m
Pithum C-Type Kinetic Deflection Amplifier - 2m
Pithum C-Type EM Ward Amplifier - 16.8m

Highs:
Drone Link Augmentor II - 950k
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II - 891k
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II - 891k
Large Remote Shield Booster II - 2.1m
Large Remote Shield Booster II - 2.1m
Large Remote Shield Booster II - 2.1m

Large Egress Port Maximizer II - 43.7m
Large Egress Port Maximizer II - 43.7m
Large Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I - 471k


Berserker I x3 - 135k
Warden I x2 - 324k
Gecko x1 - 94.7m

Total Cost: 544m.x3 with a total 3 character/ship investment of: 1.632 billion

 Now that may look like a lot out the door, but if you compare it to some of the solo marauders out there that are doing C5 sites, this is less. I know there are even cheaper ways of doing them, but this is the cheapest setup I have personally discovered.

 
Break down of how it works:

 I run 3 of these ships on a triple box set up. Its a combination of passive tanked and active tanked. Remember the nuet pressure is very intense on some C5 sites and specifically at Instrumental/Vital Core gas sites.

The three rattles warp into a site and instantly target each other. Each rattle sends its Large Remote Cap transmitter to the other 2 Rattle snakes. The Large Egress Port Maximizer II is the key to making this work. It effectively reduces the cost of transferring cap, creating a surplus transfer amount to the other rattles. So much of a surplus that, both targeted rattles can run all their Invulns and 2 Large Remote Shield Boosters, under sleeper nuet pressure.

You can run 3 Remote Shield boosters with good skills for about 5 minutes, but not under direct nuet pressure.

The DPS comes from the single Gecko. You could do this entire setup with 2 Berserker IIs if you want, its about the same DPS as a single gecko, but the gecko moves faster, has better tracking and overall does more dps in the log run.

What I like about this set up is its very "hands free" if that makes sense, all you really need to do while triple boxing this set up is move a few remote reps from the sleeper primaried rattles and make sure your geckos are targeting the same thing. If they aren't, you could screw up the triggers, and the site will take longer because of sleeper remote repairing.


ISK per Hour: 

This question always gets asked by people over and over again. I'm guessing because in Kspace its all about the ticks. Well in Wspace, our payouts are some what random, and sometimes you can't simply just grind out some anoms, when ever you wish. There are threats all around you, and the time to bust out the rattles just isn't perfect.

Instead of giving you an ISK per hour, I'll give you an estimated pay out based on the activity. I hope that's sufficient.

Instrumental Core Gas site - 4 Sleeper battleships: The direct sleeper pay out is between 70m and 80m in blue loot and sleeper salvage. It takes about 5 minutes to clear. Total Gas value if you huffed it all and lived.  400m in C320 - 38m in C540 Gas. -

Total: 510m

Vital Core Gas Site - 4 Sleeper battleships, 4 sleeper frigs: Believe it or not this is one of the harder sites to do, the DPS and nuet pressure right off, is VERY high. You have been warned. The direct sleeper pay out is 90m to 110m in blue loot and sleeper salvage. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes to clear with this fleet. Total gas value if you huffed it all and lived. 450m in C540 - 33m in C320 Gas -

Total: 580m

C5 Core Garrison -  This site takes between 45 to 50 minutes to complete. This is multiple waves of sleepers and its recommended you scout the anom first to bookmark a sleeper structure. You don't want to warp to this site at 0, because of the Sleeper sentry drones. They are really far from you, and why make it harder? Just book mark a sleeper structure near the Sleeper sentry guns and warp in at 10k. -- Total pay out in blue loot is 235m. + Sleeper salvage, normally around 60m.

Total: 295m

C5 Core Stronghold -  This site takes around 45 to 50 minutes to complete. This is my favorite anom. Main reason, the triggers don't scram you after the 1st set. So you can kill every single scam ship, without triggering the reinforcement wave. Why is this important? Well because of pilots like me! If your scrammed by sleepers, I can bring my bring my scout/murder fleet to you and there isn't much you can do about it without losing a single rattle. When doing the site, again, get a warp in first so you aren't sending your geckos far and wide to kill sentry guns. Total pay out in blue loot is about 240m with about 60m in sleeper salvage.

Total: 300m 


I'm not going to go through ALL the sites, but you get a fairly good understanding of how many sites you need to do, in order to recover your investment. About 3 gas sites, and about 5 anoms. After that, its pure profit, (minus your time of course).

Tips to keep you alive: 

There are people like me in the universe and I love me some player ship explosions. This is how you avoid me killing you.

1. Always scan out every single connection to your bear hole. At least know what you're connected to, the less connections the better. Peek your head into each one and see who lives there. Do a quick "Info" from the POCOs. Find out who the owners are, and search their kill boards for PVP activity. Use www.evewho.com for a quick reference. Lots of PVP activity, don't bear. They could be simply logged off, off Dscan, or will eventually log in at the worst possible time and murder you.

2. Once you have peeked your head in and checked out your neighbors, remove all sigs from your scanning overview. Leave that overview up while you are doing a site. The second you see a new sig in system, scoop your drones and get the fuck off grid. A new sig in system should scare the piss out of you. Someone like me, might have just rolled into you, and I can find you and your fleet quicker than you can say, "Damn that was fast".

3. Each ship you have should have on it a mobile Depot, Core probe launcher, Core probes, cloak, Target spectrum breaker, ECM x4 multi and a Large Micro Jump Drive.  Now each of these items will be used at different times for different situations, but for the most part, the most important thing to remember if you are jumped is to keep a level head.  Be calm, be direct and keep your cool.

When you warp to a site, you should drop for at lest 1 of the ships, your mobile tractor unit and mobile depot. The ship that dropped the depot will be refitting for ECM  and maybe your MJD the second you see a new sig appear. Depending on how much sleeper dps you have coming in, you may need to adjust how much of your tank you remove. Once you're done, again depending on how much sleeper scram you have going on, the other ship drops a mobile Depot and does the same. This should get you out of the site before someone like me comes and bubbles you.

Now if you just stick to Core Strongholds, you should be able to handle all scram stuff long before you need to GTFO. You could also clear all but 1 trigger scram ship, to increase the chance you will get a lucky ECM off on the single sleeper if you need to GTFO.

Now if they came through an older sig and you simply saw them land on grid with no warning. You're not toally fucked but you're not out of options. You're only hope at this point is to refit your main ship for a target spectrum breaker and Micro Jump Drive. Scoop your mobile depot, and the other ships drop theirs. If the gank ships are on the ball they will kill the depot before it onlines, but its a chance. Then its just a matter of seeing if you can time your MJD  with your target spectrum breaker. Fire up the MJD... wait for it to be almost done, and then hit the spectrum breaker. Insert praying along the way.

There are more things you can do if you live in the hole, like close all connections, don't crit them, because T3Ds will just come in and kill you just the same. But if you keep in mind that everything is an investment, and with most things in EVE with the danger of the activity, comes the 'fun'.

I hope you learned something from this, what to do, what not to do.. how to do it better.. Don't care.

The point is your in Wspace and Wspace is the place, Kspace is for chumps.


EDIT:

Some guys on Reddit gave me some tips to improve the set up.

Here are their suggestions

C5 Tinker Set up : https://o.smium.org/loadout/private/47574/524026893905690624

From ganker, to savior, to target, to hunter, to ally, to enemy..

Tonight I was reminded yet again why Wspace is the place.

We roll the hole and I drop my scout in first. A quick info look up on the POCO tells me that its Red Fires' hole. There are only a couple ships on D, nothing larger than an Omen Navy and we figure its POSed up. I drop probes, and begin the chain.

It goes quickly because I'm not alone. I find the first hole, call out in coms a scout in waiting jumps the hole. He calls out the next hole and another scout jumps that hole. We leap frog over each other each person finishing up the scan in one hole and a new person jumping into connection after connection.

Less than 15 minutes pass and our chain is more than 8 holes deep. This is fairly standard for us, we cover a lot of ground very quickly. Anything out of the ordinary we call out and plot its demise.

Tard (great name after I just said we were all adults... o well) calls out that he has a Sigil baiting sitting on a hole. We know its baiting because why else would a Sigil just sit there. Tard is a special pilot, he favors aggressiveness over calculated caution. In most cases it works for him, but in the case of a baiting target, not the best of choices.

The Sigil jumps into a C2 from the C4 and he follows it.

He springs the trap and the nearest ship to support him is my Gila 5 jumps away down the chain. 

Two bombers uncloak on the other side. Tard assumes the bombers are hunting the Sigil also, so he says on coms. "O look, bombers, I'm going to Save the hauler!!".  The same ship he himself was about to gank.  He locks up one of the bombers and kills it.

Nemesis:
https://zkillboard.com/kill/49321593/ 

The sigil locks up Tard. "Hows that for gratitude?" 

The people baiting, were obviously looking for more than just Tard to kill because I was able to make it 5 jumps before I landed on grid with a phobos, curse, domi and svipel. After some quick scambling tard and I manage to get out of the trap.

The remaining support coming to help us find that some of the R3d Fire guys are in the chain between the trap group and their home hole, so we have 2 fights going on at the same time.

Tard is calling out ships in the C4 with the trap group, another person is calling out targets in the Static C5 through the chain. We end up getting out fleet made up of mostly random shield kitchen sink spread out 5 jumps worth of wspace.

Tard on his one man mission, finds were the baiters live and starts calling about rattlesnake, raven, raven, nightmare.... more and more.. We all want to get there, but we have R3d Fire fighting us with 3 Navy Omens and some god damn Oracle in the chain to support him.

He manages to extract out of their hole, but not before we lose a strat.  (sad face) I guess the baiters, seeing that we were coming in force, decided to try and roll their hole connected to the C4. They trapped out a raven and rattlesnake doing it. lolz

We caught the rattle and his pod.

https://zkillboard.com/kill/49321892/  

 During all the confusion of killing the rattle snake, we still have Red Fire running around in the chain. They some how ended up killing a falcon I loaned to someone. https://zkillboard.com/kill/49321933/


We go back to shooting at Red fire and essentially have ships across 5 wormholes. Then, out of no where a random raven that was trapped out jumps into our fleet....https://zkillboard.com/kill/49322041/ and his pod

Then we are back to fighting with R3d Fire again and nail one of their Omen Navy Issues down https://zkillboard.com/kill/49322147/

Its back and forth through the chain, they are warping off, kiting, we have pilots all through chain, so do they.. its bananas. Good fights.

More kills

Omen Navy.  https://zkillboard.com/kill/49322349/

Maulus https://zkillboard.com/kill/49322304/

Oracle : https://zkillboard.com/kill/49322510/


We lost a few ourselves, it was back and forth non stop for at least an hour.  Till....

Someone said on coms that another group was camping one of the high secs entrances to the chain. Turns out R3d Fire had been fighting with them on the high sec trying to get their pilots back in we podded out. 

The people camping the high sec are using a devoter to prevent R3d Fire from getting back into their home, to get more ships and fight us.

Well, we simply can't have that.

I started a convo:

 [ 2015.09.29 00:40:54 ] Longinius Spear > Your pods want free passage back to your home?
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:07 ] lycoses22 > no our ships do but i know you wont let that happen
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:10 ] lycoses22 > right?
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:11 ] lycoses22 > orrrrr
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:24 ] lycoses22 > and are you guys gonna frag these retards on the high sec?
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:33 ] lycoses22 > caracle vexor devoter
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:34 ] Longinius Spear > we tried, they jumped out.. we baited with a drake
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:37 ] lycoses22 > cloaked lachesis
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:43 ] lycoses22 > ah
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:45 ] lycoses22 > rgr
[ 2015.09.29 00:41:57 ] Longinius Spear > we've left the c2.. we are headed back to our home
[ 2015.09.29 00:42:39 ] Longinius Spear > our fleet is chasing after your Dare Devil. Thanx for fighting btw.. its been a blast
[ 2015.09.29 00:42:59 ] lycoses22 > haha no worries we are always down to fight no matter what
[ 2015.09.29 00:43:05 ] lycoses22 > unless its t3's and guardian
[ 2015.09.29 00:43:11 ] lycoses22 > thats just unbreakable
[ 2015.09.29 00:43:15 ] Longinius Spear > Yea, we aren't shipping up, because we are having fun
[ 2015.09.29 00:43:16 ] lycoses22 > not fun
[ 2015.09.29 00:43:25 ] lycoses22 > good glad to hear :)
[ 2015.09.29 00:43:37 ] lycoses22 > so if we come back in ships.... will we be ok?
[ 2015.09.29 00:43:41 ] lycoses22 > or just pods?
[ 2015.09.29 00:44:07 ] Longinius Spear > well i can't guarantee your ships, but pods are free to pass. We don't have bubbles along the way, but we have random pilots all over the place so, i don't want to be responsible
[ 2015.09.29 00:44:16 ] lycoses22 > ok
[ 2015.09.29 00:45:39 ] lycoses22 > thank you btw
[ 2015.09.29 00:45:47 ] lycoses22 > hopefully we can provide some more content



[ 2015.09.29 00:45:48 ] Longinius Spear > Np, our fleet is totally back in our home
[ 2015.09.29 00:45:50 ] lycoses22 > if you want
[ 2015.09.29 00:47:21 ] Longinius Spear > we are just screwing around. Good fun.
[ 2015.09.29 00:48:12 ] lycoses22 > theyre back to camping lol
[ 2015.09.29 00:48:17 ] Longinius Spear > fkers..
[ 2015.09.29 00:48:19 ] lycoses22 > we'll try and fight em off :p
[ 2015.09.29 00:48:19 ] Longinius Spear > lol

We set Red Fire to blue, so we wouldn't accidentally kill them. :P


They must have headed back down the chain with more pilots to get the campers off the high sec. We headed down in like 10 confessors or some crazy shit. RAWR!

[ 2015.09.29 00:51:10 ] Longinius Spear > we got some guys to help clear that high sec for you
[ 2015.09.29 00:51:17 ] lycoses22 > ok
[ 2015.09.29 00:51:33 ] lycoses22 > thanks
[ 2015.09.29 00:53:16 ] lycoses22 > vni just jumped in
[ 2015.09.29 00:53:24 ] Longinius Spear > yea, we are on our way
[ 2015.09.29 00:57:02 ] lycoses22 > you have eyes on the hole?
[ 2015.09.29 00:57:10 ] Longinius Spear > The high sec? yep
[ 2015.09.29 00:57:15 ] lycoses22 > kk
[ 2015.09.29 00:58:39 ] lycoses22 > you guys are going to the wolf rayet c2 right?
[ 2015.09.29 00:58:45 ] Longinius Spear > yep.
[ 2015.09.29 00:58:54 ] lycoses22 > rgr
 [ 2015.09.29 00:59:19 ] Longinius Spear > we are trying to apha some stuff :)(
[ 2015.09.29 00:59:29 ] lycoses22 > i see that :p
[ 2015.09.29 01:00:59 ] Longinius Spear > got oen :)
[ 2015.09.29 01:01:50 ] lycoses22 > Kill: Voland Oramara (Vexor Navy Issue)
[ 2015.09.29 01:02:37 ] lycoses22 > gj :)
[ 2015.09.29 01:02:44 ] lycoses22 > the t3d's reck
[ 2015.09.29 01:05:14 ] lycoses22 > thanks for that :)
[ 2015.09.29 01:05:19 ] Longinius Spear > kk you straight?
[ 2015.09.29 01:05:24 ] lycoses22 > yea man
[ 2015.09.29 01:05:36 ] Longinius Spear > GL.. fight us if you like, if you dont no biggy
[ 2015.09.29 01:05:39 ] Longinius Spear > we aren't holding you to it
[ 2015.09.29 01:05:48 ] lycoses22 > rgr we will if we can :)

Killed a Hacate too https://zkillboard.com/kill/49323548/

We then removed R3d Fires blue status and went back to shooting at them.  Lol.

We went from ganking a hauler, to saving a hauler, to losing a fight, to winning a fight. We blued up the people we were fighting, for the soul reason to shoot at them more after they had a chance to reship/return and fight more.

Props to Red Fire because as I write up the crazy story, we are still at it. Shooting at them and them shooting at us... 


 I fucking love wspace people.