The other day I was posting over on TAGN’s blog about how cool a particular mining implant was for mining foremen and fleet mining ops. I hinted that when I’m mining multi-box that I use my foreman in a command ship (currently a Hurricane, working towards a Claymore), my miner is in a Hulk, and that I have a dedicated hauler (currently piloting a Mammoth). Of course this brought all kinds of jeers from the peanut gallery that if you’re going to multi-box mine, you should be flying all Hulks. Which if all you’re doing is self-indulgent ISK hoarding, an entire Hulk fleet probably is the best set up. But if you want to bring something to a corporation, I’ve always thought diversification is a better bet, and a whole lot less boring.
So yeah, I’ve got three ‘toons that I fleet mine with, and only one is piloting a Hulk. But I’m also a whole lot less bored and a whole lot more secure playing this way. I don’t have to worry about can flippers, and I can keep toting ore back to the station (which is never in the same system I’m mining in, since I never mine systems that have stations), and my miner happily fills jetcans in the interim. Marko boosts the fleet and provide military support/deterrent. Oro lazily mines the ‘roids away, and Nab transports the ore back to base. In a way I see it all as a nice balanced dance. I don’t really care that I could be losing out on a ton of ISK, that’s not why I’m playing the game. Sure it’s one of the goals, but just one. I’d rather enjoy myself and have different things to do than to be min/max’ing a single, boring activity. But that’s just me…
Hope y’all are having a wonderful week! Enjoy!
🙂 I have no idea what you are talking about, since I’ve never played the game. But for some reason this is still an immensely entertaining post. Not sure why.
I’m with you. Right now I two box mine, but it is usually just a Hulk and a hauler, which I am sure is inefficient. But even in our little corp we can field four hulks and a covetor to clean up lucrative mission asteroid fields. That is when the implant (once I train for it) will come into its own.
For less than about 4 chars, doing anythign but all Hulks is inefficent. 4 gets marginal, one in an Orca or BC/Command ship running Foreman links might make up for the 4’th Hulk. 5+, One in Orca rest in Hulks is THE most efficient way to go.
The “feed the Orca” option is also a ton more secure than any Jetcan operation will be – Hulks drop the ore straight into the Orca’s Corp Hold, and they just hang on to it for the 3-5 mins when the Orca has to go unload (Orca pilot transfers the load in the Corp Hold to the cargo and ore holds as you go, for extended time between empties).
Eventually, you might get tot he point it’s more efficient to dedicate a hauler instead of using the orca itself to haul – but that’s a LOT further along than 4 characters.