K162 spawn mechanics

Every now and then people ask how K162 spawn mechanics works and every time there is misinformation in the answers.

So here is a flowchart describing how it currently works. This mechanics is in place since Hyperion expansion.

Feel free to reference this post whenever someone asks how K162 spawn mechanics works.

Sources:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=4908046#post4908046
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=4911115#post4911115

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so, purely because i think this is interesting, i want to point out 1 rarely known fact. It changes nothing mechanically, and isn’t worth changing anything over.

The K162 actually spawns instantly, it exists the moment the signature is generated on your side. The cosmic signature, is exactly like you describe, and so the K162 is theoretically impossible to find, but it is there, just unscannable. A lot of people believe that the server hasnt decided where you are connected to until you jump through and spawnt hat K162, but the server actually connects the two systems right away, no one knows it yet :smiley:

I love your flowchart though, im pretty sure this question gets asked weekly >_>

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I don’t think this is correct based on the only known dev notes addressing the spawning mechanics (which Duo Roman linked to above).

Specifically: “K162 wormholes and signatures are spawned in an invisible state when someone initiated warp to the other side of the connection.”

That suggests that the invisible state that you describe isn’t created until someone warps to it. Until then, the K162 doesn’t exist even though the entry side does.

Of course, as you note, this is an entirely academic discussion since it doesn’t change anything we can see or observe.

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Would it be possible for a drifter battleship to warp to the K162 even if no one has warped to the originating side of the WH yet?

If it can, then what @NoobMan said in EVE Online Forums may happen to any wormhole, not only the ones “spawned”.

@CCP_Fozzie stated that if no one warps to the origin, the mechanics would not be changing in Hyperion. If the previous mechanics was that the K162 spawned but was invisible, this mechanics still may be in place today.

Perhaps. But Fozzie’s statement certainly suggests that the K162 isn’t even spawned before warp is initiated to the far side. Unless he was using sloppy language, I don’t know how else it could be interpreted. That would require a third state that I don’t think has ever been mentioned - created but not yet spawned in an invisible state.

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yes, i have done exactly that. I couldnt figure out WTF the drifters were, combat probed them and they were on a K162 that had no cosmic signature.

AFAIK this has been fixed, my bug report on it was closed several months ago.

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But how could you know if someone warped to the origin on the other side or not?

The drifter may be hanging on the wormhole where the signature was invisible, after someone warped to the other side but before the 15hours timer.

because there was no signature. I was on grid with a wormhole, with no corresponding cosmic sig. I jumped over, and jumped back, and the sig spawned

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Yes, but you don’t know what happened on the other side of that wormhole before you got there. For example, somebody could have warped to the other side but not jumped through, which then spawns the K162 in an invisible state. The drifter then warps to the K162 and you warp to the drifter and find the K162 while it’s still in an invisible state. Then by jumping through and back again, it causes the K162 to become visible and generate a signature. Fozzie’s dev notes suggest that if somebody hadn’t warped to the far side, then the K162 would never have been spawned in the first place and the drifter wouldn’t have had anything to warp to.

However, it does confirm that a K162 in an invisible state can be seen and interacted with normally. What makes it “invisible” is simply the lack of a signature.

So according to this flowchart, one can achieve total home safety by simple rolling their static wormholes and then never jumping through the fresh statics?

Never warping to it.
However there are many more wandering wormholes now. Also, someone rolling their static can connect to your system just as you activate your siege module :smiling_imp:
Today people krabbing stop it when their new static reaches 15hours, making it more dificult to those rolling connection to find content :slight_smile:

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You shouldn’t even initiate warp to the static. If you roll all of the wandering wormholes in your system, then roll your statics and monitor for any incoming signatures, you should be as safe as you can get for up to 9 hours. Of course you can never go 9 hours without getting a new wandering wormhole - which is why you have to watch for new signatures.

However, one of the most common things that still get people into trouble is when somebody else in your wormhole scans down your static and jumps through (like a wandering explorer who logged off in your system that you didn’t know was there). Unless you see his probes out, you’ll get no warning that your static has been compromised.

Why only 9 hours? If no one warped there is no timer at all.

This is not correct either, you may get more time without a wandering wormhole.

I say “as safe as you can get” in case somebody else in your wormhole also scans down the static and warps to it without your knowledge. You can still be safe after 9 hours, but marginally less safe since you can never have perfect information about who is doing what in your hole. Maximum safety is achieved during those 9 hours. Of course if you have perfect hole control and perfect information at all times, then there’s no difference, but I don’t think that’s common.

On the second point, I probably shouldn’t have used a definitive. I should re-word that to say that “you rarely go 9 hours without getting a new wandering wormhole or K162.” I don’t recall ever having gone that long without a new wormhole connection forming, but it’s theoretically possible.

This highlights why it’s important to fully understand the spawning rules. Because it’s virtually impossible to offer general safety guidelines that are both succinct and technically accurate as well. Every guideline has multiple caveats that apply.

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Well this is all interesting to read. Any updates or changes since these posts or latest updates changing wh mechanics?

No, at least not any documented change.

Thank you very much for this info, i’ve heard trough years (5 years in wh space) many info about it, many legends and your source is very clear about it.

So thank you :heart::slight_smile::heart:

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So how accurate is this info after the new wandering WHs in c5/c6 space since the last patch? I get the impression that the K162 mechanics are different now, as I’m seeing a lot of K162 (mostly from the new wanderings) without any evidence of people opening it (and I’ve gotten pretty good at backtracking K162 chains into my home to find people to shoot.)
I play at fairly early EUtz times, and I’d be surprised if there’s masses of explorers in this timezone, all sneaky enough that I don’t notice them scanning in my chain.

So… to get some definite data on this:

  • Has anyone recently rolled a new static and jumped it, only to find the other side has already scanned it out? (in this case: you’re either very slow, someone has seeded your home and jumped the hole before you, or the K162 spawned before you jumped it)
  • Has anyone found (by combat probes) a drifter on an unspawned K162? (yes, they do this… the WH won’t show on your sig list but there will be a K162 when you warp to the drifter. Once you jump through (and back?) the sig apears.) If you see this, it would mean things are working as usual and a K162 stays invisible until jumped.
  • Has anyone scanned a long chain and looped back into their own wormhole and seen the K162 pop up on the sig list on an alt in their home (either before or after jumping…)? Yes, this one requires incredible luck…

More connections means you will find more K162 so no surprise there.
There is no documented changes yet so it probably is the same mechanics.

I found dozens of c6 k162 connections 1-2 hours after the DT with the patch that implemented the WH changes. This is mid-day in EUtz and early morning UStz on a weekday, so it seem extremely unlikely to me that a lot of c6 corps suddenly decided to go scan mad and open up their homes in such a short time period.

Since then, however, things have quieted down by a LOT, and today I was just able to combat scan down a drifter on an “invisible” K162 which wasn’t showing in the sig list yet, so now things clearly are still working as of old.

I suspect that when CCP added the new wanderings, they were added with both ends open… after 24h or so, when those wormholes closed, things returned to normal.