Well, it’s not quite bliss, but dang close now that I’m getting the hang of the Orca.  After spending my life savings in ISK to get the ship Thursday night, I’ve already earned back over 200M ISK, without really trying.  A couple more serious mining sessions, and I should have my $450M investment returned, and then some.  And, if I remember right, I should have my second mining pilot (third account) in his Hulk sometime over the long weekend. So that should render yet another significant boost to my mining capabilities. 

Some things I noted with the new Orca:

1. It usually takes 3-4 return trips to a station to mine out an entire belt of Veld, Scord, and Kernite. So with the ultra slow maneuvering of the Orca, going between systems is semi-painful, but not so bad if it’s a very rich belt.
2. It will hold at least 3 cruisers in it’s ship maintenance bay fairly easily
3. The Corp. bay is odd, it won’t “auto-complete” a fill if the amount going into it is more than it can handle – the other bays (cargo & ore) will say something like, “not everything will fit, but would you like to put in as much as possible?”  Not so with the Corp. bay, you have to fiddle around if you want max. load in that bay.
4. Ships can’t “dock” in your maintenance bay. If you want to put ships in there, the pilots have to eject, and then the Orca can “scoop” the ship in. I think the cargo bays for such “scooped” ships also need to be empty, except for ammo – so no sneaking in more ore this way…    
5. Other pilots in your fleet can use the (re)fitting options avail. from the maint. bay without being “scooped.” You need to set this option as it’s not a default.

Anything I’ve missed?  I tested the cruiser load in the maintenance bay ‘cuz I needed to move some ships from one station to another, and this way I was able to do it in one fell swoop.  Very handy!

Of course now with all this mining going on, I’m starting to get an itch for ratting/missioning again, so it’s going to be interesting trying to maintain focus.  Plus, Champions Online goes live tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll be goofing around over there for a while as well. 

Tonight I’ll probably be working on my month end roll-up as well.  I hope your weekend was amazing, and that your work-week is smooth – Enjoy!