Alpha ships don’t deserve compression.
The module doesn’t have to work for alphas. But honestly, I’m not a fan of the alpha/omega system; we can talk about why another time.
It’s an Alpha capable ship. A T1 starting ship. It by no means deserves compression.
1 Like
The module could require an Omega subscription to use, though I find this two-tier system a bit off-putting.
If we’re doing silly suggestions, I’d like a doomsday device to fit on my Venture.
2 Likes
And I want an invulnerability core for my Venture.
Ore compression shouldn’t be optimized specifically for multiboxing—ideally, any pilot who fits the appropriate module should be able to perform it on their own ship.
Then you completely invalidate Orcas and Rorqualls. And it’s been said many times: Piloting a Command ship is boring. VERY boring. Drone mining sucks because you sacrifice your entire shield tank to make it viable. If you look at Zkillboard, you’ll see that every (or at the very least nearly every) High Sec Orca that’s been destroyed was not shield tanked. It’s got a 2 billion ISK price tag just for the hull itself. It needs to be protected.
So if you want to end mullti-boxing, give Orcas strip miners. Otherwise, someone will simply make an alt to pilot a Hulk to fly alongside and receive Fleet Buffs. The problem isn’t multi-boxing. It’s the fact that flying an Orca is boring. It takes a VERY long time to skill up to an Orca and fly it efficiently. The fit is also pretty skill intensive. You can’t just do it in a couple of weeks. It takes a long time to get to where I am. I didn’t do all of that for nothing. That’s why I made an alt for the Orca.
Putting compressors on every single mining ship would demand a huge refund in skill points for me. And for the Rorqual pilots? Even more so!
Mining command ships already provide strong bonuses for mining fleets — the Orca, for example, can give multiple boosts simultaneously. It also offers other useful features such as a fleet hangar and group compression, which means individual miners don’t all need to train or fit compression modules. There’s even a similar mechanic already in place where, if the command ship has the mining chipset, miners don’t need one themselves (as far as I know).
Anyway, that’s slightly beside the main point.
Here’s how the proposed module could be implemented:
- Slot: Mid slot, with a capacitor drawback similar to an MWD
- Skills required: Mining V, Mining Upgrades V
There are opportunity costs to fitting that module, since it would mean giving up another option in the mid slot. Additionally, gankers often target solo miners carrying large amounts of compressed ore, so it’s something worth keeping in mind. I thought you might have already considered these factors, but I wanted to highlight them just in case.
We all know the boosts are not that impressive. Range and yield only. Compression is all anyone cares about. If you’re a Skiff, the shield boost is nice, but then Skiff pilots honestly don’t care about yield.
No. the intensive skill training required for a good Orca Pilot is not worth the privilege of sitting idle for hours on end just so some stupid minor can mine faster. Go get your own Orca for that. You can multibox if you want those boosts because I’m not giving them to you.
Without compression, an Orca isn’t worth it. I’d still demand a skill refund.
And no- the skills required for compression are way higher than that.
Shipboard Compression Technology V
Industrial Reconfiguration I
Advanced Mass Production I
Mass Production V
Industry III
That’s what I skilled up for mine.
I’m open to improving the Orca, though it may take some time to determine the best approach. However, I don’t believe that players having invested skill points into the Orca for compression is a strong reason to prevent solo miners from accessing the feature. They would still need to train level 5 skills and give up a mid slot to use it, so Orca pilots would continue to have a meaningful advantage—especially with planned buffs to make the Orca more capable than ever.
Everyone skills up an Orca for compression. Everyone gets tired of running back and forth to unload.
And there is no meaningful advantage in what you propose. Orcas have a much higher skill requirement than your proposal and the Orca has to lose a High Slot in order to offer compression. In addition, the Orca itself doesn’t even need compression. They can hold massive amounts of ore just through their colossal cargo capacity. Without compression, an Orca would have to unload every couple of hours. So the Orca is there to provide compression to everyone else.
You do not need to multibox to get access to ore compression.
Simple ‘cooperation’ by fleeting up with another player in a Porpoise or Orca already enables you to compress if they siege up and brought the right equipment.
In-space compression is meant to further encourage cooperative mining and to reward taking the extra risk of sieging your support ship and commit to the grid to help the mining fleet.
Those two reasons are why CCP added compression to industrial command ships.
By demanding this bonus for any solo mining ship as well you therefore remove the reasons CCP added in-space compression to the game.
It’s a dumb and selfish suggestion.
2 Likes
I’m not a fan of overcomplicating things. I think the compression module should simply be available as an option for everyone.
Players who enjoy min-maxing by grouping up still will, especially if more mining modules are introduced in the future—for example, a Mining Guidance System that increases mining range.
If anyone is familiar with nuclear reactor mechanics in games, there’s often a concept where having multiple reactors provides an additional synergy bonus — meaning the total output becomes greater than the sum of each individual unit. I think a similar approach could work well as a buff for the Orca.
For example, the Orca could gain increased efficiency when linked with barges, up to a maximum of five.
- Orca + 1 Barge → +5% yield for linked ships
- Orca + 2 Barges → +10% yield
…and so on.
This kind of linking mechanic would encourage fleet cooperation and make the Orca more rewarding to use.
That’s what fleet boost modules are for…
1 Like
Apparently, fleet boost modules alone may not justify the high SP cost of an Orca.
It has boosts, compression, ship maintenance bay, fleet hangar, and a gigantic ore bay, what more do you want? Of course it has a high SP requirement…
1 Like
The proposal is to make compression available beyond just Orca/Porpoise/Rorqual. The concern raised was that this might make their skill requirements feel too high, even considering the strong fleet boosts they provide. A potential solution would be to introduce a ‘super critical’ mining bonus when paired with, for example, up to five mining ships and an Orca. This bonus would be applied in addition to the fleet boosts it already offers.
There is already a mining boost that increases range.