EvE-Scout Rescue 2019: Year in Review

Overview

A little over a year ago Thrice Hapus (now Signal Cartel’s CEO) handed the keys to the EvE-Scout Rescue Director’s office to me. Much has happened since then but I have to say the passion and work the members of the ESR team never ceases to amaze me. Many outside of Signal Cartel may not realize how many players and how much effort has gone into our rescue program.

This year was our biggest year yet as we grew our cache numbers to a peak of 2412 systems, 92.7% of Anoikis back in October. The new sharable bookmarks appear to be increasing tending and we’re climbing again, with 86% current coverage.

Arturon Megumi took the time to create a great visualization for us:

Over the course of the year we conducted 415 rescues (202 from rescue caches, 213 Search and Rescue) up from 351 (194 ESRC and 157 SAR) the year previous. Just before I became director we crossed the 500 rescue mark and are now closing in on 1000. Everything comes down to these, Rescues are what the EvE-Scout Rescue Division is all about!

Team

The ESR team consists of two main groups of pilots, our ESR Coordinators and our 911 Operators. When you make a rescue request through our site the call goes out to team of 911 Operators who work to find the best solution for your situation. We currently have over 30 operators active.

The ESR Coordinators are an experienced group of rescue pilots who aid the operators and respond directly when we locate search and rescue systems. Over the course of the year the coordinator team has grown to eight pilots. I believe strongly that while my name is on the door the coordinator team exemplifies the aphorism: “Build a team so strong no one knows who the leader is.” They are all exceptional and most of my job is just keeping the paperwork in order and handing out medals. 

Also exceptional is our co-pilot Allison and her creator A Dead Parrot. The rescue program would not have the success it has had without his amazing work. Allison lets our pilots know where rescue caches are, when they need to be tended, when they locate a rescue system, and much, much more. She even has a radio built in!

You can see our entire rescue team on the EvE-Scout Rescue site.

I’d also like to thank all our devs this year working on the tools that make this program possible: In particular A Dead Parrot, Thrice Hapus, Klensor, Orsel Solette, and Sky Diamond who have put up with our many requests for changes and fixes. Thanks for all your great work!

Shareable Bookmarks

A big change for our rescue operations was the introduction of sharable bookmarks. In the past there have been a number of attempts to share rescue cache bookmarks but the old voucher system was too limiting for it ever to be practical. When I first saw the proposed new bookmark system I knew it would mean big changes for our operations. In mid November, when the changes became available for testing, myself and some coordinators started testing the system and figuring out how it worked. In late November, before the changes rolled out, I posted a proposal for discussion in our forums based on what we had discovered.  There was a lot of discussion following and working from that discussion we rolled out a formal system for sharing our cache bookmarks amongst our cache tenders and to stranded pilots. Since then we’ve continued to refine and improve the system. Tending and rescuing are now faster and easier than ever.

2019 STATS!

Rescue Caches

  • Actions this period: 49672
  • Sowed: 10865
  • Tended: 38541

Pilots Rescued: 415

  • Accessed cache: 202
  • Found by Search and Rescue pilots: 213

Signal Cartel Pilots

  • Maintaining Caches: 418
  • Participated in rescues: 164

Oldest Rescue Cache

  • Sown on April 19th, 2018
  • 626 days
  • Tended 56 times by 39 pilots.

Highest Cache Count

  • 2412 (92.7%) on October 28th, 2019

Most Active Day

– October 6th, 2019 (251 tends and 45 sown by 37 pilots, five 911 calls and one rescue)

Total Caches in Anoikis Right Now (Jan 4th 2020)

  • 2298 of 2603 (88.3%)

Looking forward to another great year!

Naglfar Rescue in J121649

It had been a busy day and Bob provided me with the just the right distraction to take my mind off it. I was relaxing and reading a few things when at 0024:

Allison notifying the EvE Scout Rescue Coordinators that a system has been located.

Chaim Achasse and I were both available although I was conveniently placed in Zoohen, two jumps from Heorah, the beginning of the chain in. I headed out and seven minutes after Aldar Roanaok located the system I was there with Chaim hot on my heels. With three of us in we started checking routes. Chaim and Aldar both had some things to look after so I contacted the pilot and started scanning.

I opened a channel to the pilot and I confirmed they were in a dreadnought so we needed Very Large holes all the way out. C5 rescues rarely give a known space exit without having to work for it and that doubles when it’s a capital ship. While I scanned I chatted with the pilot and he asked if we could bring some supplies in since he had a mobile depot. I contacted Angel Lafisques and they went to work figuring out how to get 1000m3+ of gear through a frigate hole as we needed a capital sized MicroWarpdrive. That would give us the option to roll holes if we couldn’t find a reasonable route easily.

While Angel worked his way out of the wormhole he was in and headed for Jita I continued to scan. By 0249 I decided Bob was messing with us. I had scanned down a large tree of connections and the only exits we had for a capital were five jumps out, eol, AND mass critical. On top of that they both apparently had Goons on the other side. They likely had moved a fleet through or were moving supplies for their war.

Igaze’s Tripwire Mapping

In the meantime Angel had bought the supplies in a Sunesis that she fitted for cargo. While she was on the way to our high sec entrance it collapsed so I had to find another entrance for her. Fortunately got another high sec and by 0342 or so Angel was transferring an MWD, cloak, probes, probe launcher, and fireworks to our pilot. She then headed out again to swap the Sunesis for a Pacifier. It as getting late at this point and we had no routes so decided to call it until the next day.

Credit: Angel Lafisques

The next day our pilot wasn’t available however we kept scanning and maintaining known space routes for our pilots. Aldar had been rolled out the night before so I went about finding a route for him. Diving down a long chain I reached known space, and headed back. I immediately noted the route had been destabilized and started moving fast. One system away I miss-clicked and ended up going back one system. Waiting for the polarization timer to expire I watched two luxury yachts collapse the hole. Now I was rolled out.

That night Angel got to work and found us another route in. I brought both my main and my friend, Thera Gaze, back just to be sure. It’s very nerve wracking on a big SAR to be down to two pilots in system. As Angel also brought a friend we were up to five, plus we left a note for Aldar about the current route. Our pilot was not available so we called it a night.

Friday dawned and Chaim had time to dive into scanning and at 1639 EVE he found a VL route of three jumps and out to null sec. Our pilot wanted to bring a cyno friend to the target system so we provided the info and waited for the friend to make it over. That worked out well as it meant everything came together right when I had time.

We formed a fleet and Chaim headed for the first system in the route to make sure it was clear. Things were clear in the start system so our pilot logged in and warped to me. A few minutes later he was on the hole, Naglfar’s are sloooooow. We splashed through and I warped on to the next wormhole while Chaim checked the next system.

Credit: Igaze

Some long warps and we had him into null sec. As he had found he didn’t have any fuel to jump I quickly made an unaligned safe for him and he warped to me and parked. I wished him well and headed back for the safety of Anoikis.

Credit: Igaze

The Tender (a poem)


Felippe en Distel

Our Signaleers are pilots of many talents and some, while wiling away the hours deep in Anoikis, turn to verse. Felippe en Distel is one such Signaleer who has captured the life of the rescue cache tender:

The Tender

She drops a bookmark, warping off
the entrance hole; though she would scoff
at evermore returning there:
to retend caches lent her care?
No, onward she will surely go
To scan and map, to tend and sow,
And drive on into systems deep,
Forgetting food and drink and sleep.

To seek this cache, she bounces thrice,
Through planet’s sash of rock and ice,
And there and back again she’ll go,
’til canister on grid shall show.
That beacon (casting pilots’ fears
of losing probes and, stranded here,
be forced to self-destruct their pod,
their evening’s ratting gone to sod,
away) be now in sight, so near
To our intrepid Signaleer!

A warp, a check of d-scan quick,
A copy/paste of password, click,
Reveal a set of probes (expected),
Launcher mod; the goods inspected,
something’s missing… yes, a hug!
She taps her hold and drops a jug
of spirits into wanting can,
‘fore dropping her own probes to scan.

Red to green, her sigs progress,
with sharper signal, probe size less.
And noting wormhole type and class
of system, in this final pass,
She settles on an exit hole,
And splashes, reigniting soul
When Allison’s kind words implore
To tend again, to sow once more.

  • Fellipe en Distel

Rescue from J153449: Double Your Fun!

Check one more and then to bed! I was in J113950 and was doing a last quick check for SAR systems in the wormholes I had scanned down. There was one left, a C5, and the moment I went through I saw the mark in my display saying I’d landed in a SAR system, J153449 to be exact, and the pilot reported it was a capital ship. The hour was late and if I’d had any easy routes to k-space I might have emailed the pilot saying we’d found their system and I’d be back in the morning but I had no routes to k-space other than some unexplored null holes a few jumps away. I put the word out and started scanning to see what I could find to bring in backup.

I found a route through to a C2 and figured that was a good bet as all my other paths went through c4-6’s and had few k-space possibilities and then mostly null sec. A C2 had a much better bet of a high or low sec connection. However J122638, while a c2, had only a NS static and C5 static (and I had come through that). I had seen a couple Astero’s headed through the way I came but they were no particular threat so I scanned on. I found my way to J131852 which had a nice HS static to Bawilan. Score! 

The word went out and Chaim Achasse was 12 jumps out and burned hard to get there while I retraced my path back to the SAR. Much to my surprise when I arrived at the hole in J122638 I found Devoter sitting on top of it. I quickly checked the info and sure enough it was mass critical. Still cloaked I warped to the hole and pounded the jump button, slipping past the roller and back. I warped to a safe then back to the hole to check on it and it was gone. I was alone in the system again with no routes for backup. I was also exhausted so I decided to call it a night. I had been in convo with the pilot so they knew I was there and we were working a route but that it might be a day or two so I headed for bed. He also added he had not one, but two capitals to extract.

Six hour of restless sleep dreaming of wormholes and scanning and I was back up hunting a route. My entrance was still stable so I backtracked through there and started scanning, ultimately finding a route through Etherium Reach. I headed back as I need to log off and get to work but while I was off Captain Crinkle made it in followed by Chaim and Scarsan Stripes. Backup was here and I could relax a bit. 

Throughout the next day we scanned down routes to take. With two capitals this could be interesting. We found some routes but our pilot wasn’t available and some of the systems were pretty active. Plus all the routes were at least two to three jumps to get to k-space. On the upside our locals appeared to be quiet.

Our likely exit was the system’s only static, a C6. That night it got rolled and opened up into a Hard Knocks farm system. More fun! I managed to get in touch with our pilot and determined the times he could be available. It was either going to be very late or very early for most of our crew although Captain Crinkle was well positioned time zone wise.

The next night Chaim, Scars, and I sat outside the static C6 waiting for it to collapse… which it decided to do over an hour late, so while we waited we watched @Johnny-Splunk ‘s stream as he bid farewell to the Raptor. Once it went it down we quickly scanned routes and found a few exits only a couple jumps out. Things were looking good. No response from our guy and I was running out of steam. Two long nights and some illness had taken their toll. I crashed and left things to the rest of the crew.

The rest of the rescue I got from Chaim afterwords, who apparently couldn’t sleep so was up:

The lost pilot made contact with the rescue team slightly before downtime. Chaim messaged to advise that he and Captain Crinkle be in contact after down time to effect the rescue. Once the server came back up, Chaim logged in, followed shortly after by Captain Crinkle and formed a fleet. After scanning the route, the lost pilot was contacted, and told that we were ready.

Once the pilot logged in, Chaim invited both of his pilots to the fleet and warped to them to drop off the exit route bookmarks incase of any issues with hole stability. With two capitals (a Naglfar and an Apostle) we were crossing our fingers we wouldn’t collapse any holes on the way. Captain Crinkle proceeded to scout the next system, and on the “all clear” Chaim fleet-warped himself and the lost pilots to the system exit.

Chaim held position while the pilot jumped through to ensure hole stability for the two capital ships. Once the pilots were through Chaim followed after and Captain Crinkle moved to scout the next system. Again on Captain Crinkle’s “all clear” Chaim fleet-warped the pilots to the next exit and held position while the capital ships went through, following after. This process was followed for one more system, where the pilot was told to warp to Captain Crinkle upon splashing through as he was sitting on the Low Sec exit hole. 

Captain Crinkle scouted the Low Sec system and it was anything but quiet! A titan had been lost there just a week before, which was making Crinkle very nervous about the whole endeavour. But we told our pilot this beforehand, and they agreed to take the risk. As Chaim described, the route until lowsec was as quiet as could be hoped. That all changed when we warped in, with 15 in Local and a dreadnought on dscan. Luckily Crinkle was able to pinpoint it’s position using narrow cone scanning before the rescuee ships arrived, and found a potential NPC station with a clear undock.

Well done to all involved! Captain Crinkle , Scarsan Stripes , Chaim Achasse , and, while he didn’t see any action, Angel Lafisques was there as further backup. We have rescued a few capitals over the last year and half but I believe the is the first double cap!