I think it would be awesome, helpful and (logical?) for all the mining barges/exumers and industrial command ships to be able to launch more than 5 drones, I would imagine up to 10 drones. If that sounds to greedy, in my opinion it would not be to greedy to give such power for industrial command ships from Porpoise to Rorqual.
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“Been there, done that” - CCP probably
The “Age of the Rorqual” was a thing because it was the most effective mining vessel for a very long time. CCP reverted that against much moaning and complaining from large parts of null.
I doubt they want to go back to that status.
I may not understand how effective but its the top of the tech tree industrial command ship. I would certently imagine it being very effective mining vessel. How else would it be. Then why spend billions purchasing the ship , spending even more to fit all of it for what. It is effective but its slow and theirfore vulnerable even having tons of hp. Even in such case giving the ability to control 5 more drones would not make it so much more powerful but rather more enjoyable to play with? Im not a very experienced eve player but thats how I see it. And as of now (im not crying or anything) having nobody to play with I take up porpoise solo mining (soon even Orca) and it is frustrating to have only 5 drones to mine with.
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I’m not an industrialist nor miner. But from what I understand, Porpoise, Orca, and Rorqual are supposed to be support ships for dedicated mining vessels. Hence the ability to fit command bursts.
If you now allow them to double their mining yield from drones, you may tip that balance again and make Barges and Expedition Frigates second-class vessels once more.
ya what Nora said . The industrial command is not meant to be a mining ship . it is meant to be a fleet booster , to boost the ships that actually do the mining.
If yoiu are heading into mining and you are using a porpoise with the plans of getting into an orca to mine with , you are doing it wrong to be blunt . if you are looking for something to afk with ya they will work out fine . But if you are looking for actual numbers when mining , then i suggest looking into the barges/exhumers themselves as the amount you will mine will be mind boggling compared to what the 5 drones will do.
Here’s a brief history lesson on Rorquals and why this is A Bad Idea™.
Long ago, the Rorqual was useless on grid, so they sat in a POS giving out system wide mining links.
Then CCP changed off grid boosting and came up with the Excavator mining drones and gave us the Rorqual Rework!. One rorq was the equivalent of, iirc, seven max skill Hulks. But with massive tank, decent offense, a jump drive and an invulnerability module.
LocustFleets with enough Rorquals to blot out the sun constantly rolled Collosal Ore Anomalies across null space. Mindblowing amounts of ore was sucked up, compressed and stockpiled.
CCP saw it and swung the nerf bat.
Rorqs were still the kings of mining. The only need for barges was for Mercoxit. The LocustFleets, safe under alliance supercap umbrellas continued on their merry way. Tales of Collosal anoms being cracked in half an hour from the sheer number of rorqs on grid abounded.
CCP looked at this and again swung the nerf bat. Anoms took time to respawn.
And still the locusts munched their way through the ore.
And again the nerf bat swung. The amount of compressed ore sitting in stockpiles in the game was actually ridiculous. Enough to build multiple Titan fleets and all their associated capital and subcap support fleets.
And while some Rorquals were being killed, they were few and far between. Usually only the inexperienced or those who took one risk too many. Most Rorquals were safely operating under the aforementioned supercap umbrellas of the major null blocks. Killing a LocustFleet, or at least taking out a few Rorqs required a sizeable Dread Bomb.
To try and eat into some of the bulging stockpiles, we went through the Scarcity phase of the game.
Now, rorqs provide excellent mining boosts, on grid compression and the ability to haul ridiculous amounts of ore around. They also mine a decent amount in their own right. Nothing like the amounts of the past, but that was quite rightly viewed as Too Much™.
So yeah, what you suggest sounds reasonable. And in many ways, it is a reasonable idea. However the reality of the situation makes such a change highly improbable and also highly undesirable.
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The other miners at least asked for something “active” to get more ore. This is total nonsense. for multiple reasons.
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Players want more. They always want more. Add this to the 2024 drone update. In order to not break PVP balance, which isnt really balanced in the first place but whatever, you can add a new industrial drone skill. It allows to control 2 industrial drones per skill level. and then just check that most ships intended for industrial/mining actually have the drone bays etc. to run 10 mining drones. Just do it. No more arguing.
The game does not need more Drone-based AFK-options to do whatever. That includes mining.
- “awesome” is a purely personal opinion and not an argument.
- “helpful” is debatable, helpful for who? The miner? I don’t think it would be helpful for the game at all, because even more Ore/Ice would be grinded afk with Drones by mass-multiboxers. And I do care more for the health of the game’s economy than for the profits of some players.
- “logical” - why would it be logical? A Dominix Navy Issue is a top-tier Gallente Drone Combat Ship, it also can only launch 5 drones at most. Why should an Exhumer be able to launch more than the most sophisticated Gallente Drone Boat?
Command ships are designed to support others, not to perform exceptionally well on their own.
Summary: No. Bad Idea. At all.
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Says who?
If barges got a role bonus to amount of drones that can be controlled, for example +5 that would be cool.
And the guy who thinks this leads to more afk is kinda dumb, because more mining drones means you mine faster which means less afk
Nope!
We are NOT going back to the dark days of mining.
The Orca SUPPORTS the barges/frigates who do the bulk of mining. ANYTHING that makes the Orca and other command ships mine more is going back to the dark days of entire Orca fleets afk mining.
If you want to mine ore go buy a hulk.
There is a long history of how we got here @Mephiztopheleze did a great job at listing it. Took a long time to get to this ideal situation we have and should have had from day 1.
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What dark days of mining? You are just the typical forum troll who has some kind of grudge against miners
You Sir, have no clue about afk drone-mining and the immense effects it has on the game’s economy.
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Okay then please inelighten me
my first question would be how long would it take to afk mine for an orca i mean before you are even? and also how much time does it take to train to fly an orca? i think people have earned the right to afk mine in them?
but if you go with my suggestion of giving mining barge a role bonus to amount of drones they can have out, then suddenly the barges will become the preferrred afk miner and things are going to look more reasonable (less orcas in the belts?). because obviously ppl are using orcas at the moment for lack of a better alternative
I might be missing something, because i dont have the skills, but when i do an orca fit in the simulator it shows i do 245 m3 per minute with mining drone II’s. If i mined veldspar thats 21K ISK per minute or ~1.3M ISK per hour as far as i can tell.
To put this in comparison i believe most people make 60 million an hour in FW by “afk plexing”
In my opinon @Syzygium is giving off an ignorant vibe that is all to common in EVE online, namely that if mining is made better, or miners are given new toys then the game will stop working. But literally the worst thing that can happen is mineral prices drop. What is so bad about that?
Given an Orca is a 1b plus investment, you’ll have to do a LOT of veldspar to be isk positive.
Orcas are boosting ships. They’re best used in a fleet to speed up all the barges and exhumers extraction by over 30%.
They truly are not intended as a solo, afk mining platform.
Feel free to solo, afk mine in hisec, but don’t be surprised when a squad of gank Talos lands on you.
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