Mara Rinn
   |
Posted - 2011.02.10 08:32:00 -
[1]
What I am about to tell you is conjecture, since nobody except perhaps one or two developers actually knows how wormholes work. But this is the best explanation I've found to date, so here goes.
At some point in time, a wormhole exists only as a "cosmic signature" in the EVE database. That is, the EVE server is aware of the possibility of the wormhole, it doesn't actually know the wormhole exists. Both ends are probe-able cosmic signatures with appropriate types: e.g. a R943 in some hisec system with its matching N110 in the class 2 unknown system. Neither end exists in the simulator as an actual object.
Until someone probes these signatures down and initates warp to the signature, the object doesn't actually exist in the "sol simulator" (i.e.: on-grid or in-space). When one end is warped to, that end becomes an object in the sol simulator, with the other end becoming a K162 which now exists on its own grid in the unknown system, ready for the arrival of the capuleer's ship when it enters the probed-down side of the hole.
This is the same mechanic used for mission deadspace pockets - the mission-runner has a bookmark which points to nothing, and the deadspace pocket is only spawned when the mission-runner warps to their mission. You can confirm this mission deadpsace behaviour by accepting a mission just before downtime, warping your fleet to it, and leaving your fleetmates on-grid over downtime while you warp back to station. When your fleetmates log in, they'll arrive on an empty grid. When you initiate warp to the mission again, the grid will be spawned around your fleetmates, with hilarious consequences.
To continue my example from above: if I was in the class 2 system and probed down the N110, at the moment that I initiate warp the sol simulator will spawn the destination grid, then spawn a concrete N110 object to place on that grid. At the same time, the remote end (in this case, some random hisec system's sol simulator) will spawn a grid with a K162 wormhole.
So that's the w-space to k-space situation. What about the w-space to w-space situation?
Imagine we have two class 2 systems. At some point the "cosmic signatures database" is initialised with two D382 objects - one in the C2 system you're occupying, one in the destination C2 system for someone else to probe down. Now say you in system A probe down the D382, and someone in system B probes down their D382, but they initiate warp while you're still telling your friends about the new signature. By the time you initiate warp to your "D382" signature, the grid has already been created with a K162 wormhole in it.
So K162 is only ever the "other end" of a wormhole where someone has warped to their end, and represents the fact that someone else observed that wormhole before you.
Note: this has all been conjecture. It is not known whether the K162 is spawned when the signature is probed to 100%, when warp is initiated to one end, or when someone actually transits the wormhole. The most likely scenario (based on the information I have garnered second-hand) is that the K162 is created at the "other end" when the explorer warps to "this end".
This is supported by the observation that we can probe down a signature to 100% and it will stay at that signal strength for most of the day, and we will not have any visitors. If we warp to it, it is guaranteed that some hisec person will pop through within the next couple of hours, and they will have probed down the (much easier to find) K162 at their end.
Much of what I have explained here has been posted in various forms on this forum. Hopefully it helps you understand why K162s sometimes go to w-space systems too :)
--
[Aussie players: join ANZAC channel] |