Apocrypha: Probing - Finally Wormhole Space

The latest Sisi patch came out and it finally seems that probing is working close to intended. So I logged in and worked on finally finding a wormhole and getting through to the other side.

Figure 1 - New graphics such as rotating probe grid. This Core Probe at maximum range detected four Cosmic Anomalies at 100% first try. Those types of easy exploration content will be easy to find and I approve of that mechanic.


Figure 2 - Warped to one for fun.


Figure 3 - The blue sphere for indicating a single probe hit has been changed to a redish-pink sphere. Good idea, it was easy to lose blue spheres when multiple probes were on the screen.


Figure 4 - Warping of the probes to get into position is a lot slower than previous revisions. I expect that Combat probes move faster. Most of my waiting was done when probes were warping and the wait time was measured in tens of seconds as opposed to minutes. I was using a technique where one uses 32AU ranged probes to get a red dot and then homing down to 0.25 AU probes for the final triangulation.


Figure 5 - I scanned a few systems looking for Cosmic Signatures, and when I did find one I narrowed it down to see it was an exploration site. On the upside, it took less than 10 minutes to find it. In fact, in the space of 45 minutes I scanned down this site and two wormholes in other systems.


Figure 6 - My first wormhole! Images don't convey the coolness factor of the graphics of the wormholes.


Figure 7 - The show info button allows us to see it has a name and can tell us it leads to high security space. What a letdown! I can go into safe space. PFFFT! However, in practical terms it might be an excellent way to smuggle goods into deep low sec avoiding dangerous gate camps and pirates. Notice there is no details on the mass limit and time until collapse, just general terms.


Figure 8 - Of course, I tried the wormhole out. Notice that in the original system the wormhole was red while the rest of the system was dark? And on the other side the system is red and the wormhole dark? The Wormhole shows the system colours when you look through. VERY COOL.


Figure 9 - I jumped back to low sec but forgot to take pictures so I moved to go back through the wormhole to high sec a second time and got this message. Essentially it is to prevent someone from easily collapsing a wormhole with multiple jumps. So you can only go through the wormhole the same direction once every 4 minutes or so, but you can jump back through the opposite direction right away.


Figure 10 - When jumping from high sec to low sec, you get a warning. Good for the unsuspecting noobs who stumble across one of there when learning exploration.


Figure 11 - I went looking for another wormhole in Anjedin, a very spread out system. The Core Probes at 32 AU could only cover parts of it at a time. This is where a Deep Space Probe with its 1024AU max range would come in really handy. Still, I tried with the Core probes and got lucky with a two-probe hit (i.e. the red circle).


Figure 12 - A second wormhole!


Figure 13 - "Unknown parts of space" translates to wormhole space! Get the Dominix ready, crew! We're going exploring!


Figure 14 - As soon as you pass through you know you are not in Kansas anymore. Local is in delayed mode, no asteroid belts (*sad face*) and lots of things labelled "Unknown".


Figure 15 - For now you can get the name of the solar system you are in by making a bookmark and viewing it in People & Places to see the Solar System column. Whether or not the devs remove that remains to be seen.


Next time we'll see what we can do in this new frontier.