Am looking into cloaking at least one of mining barge’s and want to know several things of what is possible whilst cloaked and what is not… Basically can I use drones whilst cloaked and/or mine astroids … Particularly relevant in low sectors .04 and below … Advice would be welcomed
Doubt it. Can’t lock anything while cloaked, and I’ll doubt your drones would mine. And even if they did, they would decloak you when returning to dump your ore.
I suspect the question boils down to:
Can I mine in my barge while safely cloaked?
The answer is: No.
You can’t target anything while cloaked, so can’t use weapons or miners and can’t instruct drones to mine a rock.
Also, if you cloak while you have drones deployed then you will lose connection to the drones and they stop operation.
In the case of a barge you would be sacrificing a high slot to the cloak, so halving the mining amount (one strip miner rather than two). Also, since you can only fit basic cloaks rather than the Covert Cloak, you can not warp cloaked and can only move very slowly.
Then when you uncloak you will have a long period before your targeting systems come back online.
Barge mining in low-sec or null can be done, but it needs a fleet with a mix of combat and logistics support to help and protect the cows from the wolves.
Have a look at the Exploration Frigates, such as the Prospect, if you want a cloaky mining ship for mining in more entertaining, and profitable areas.
Ninja mining (slipping into hostile areas and mining on the sly) is fun, but because you’ve still got to get the materials out it isn’t hugely profitable and requires you to pay attention to what is happening around you.
But it does make the heart beat a little faster.
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Cloaked you basically can only watch and slowboat, not touch anything, and hope nothing comes closer than 2km.
While cloaked:
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You can not control drones
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You can not have any other modules active.
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With the exception of covert-ops cloaks, you can not warp.
So, you can not cloak your miner and then mine, that would be super OP as you will be invulnerable unless someone knows where you are and can decloak you.
So, yeah, if you want rewards…take risk.
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Thanks for the useful insight to this question… Seems I am suited to the stealth nature as it is, so I may take on the challenges not straight away I need to improve a good few skills as yet but again thanks to each of you…
Also anything within 2000m of you will decloak you (only exception being probes) that includes drones
Critrically “That includes your own drones”…
Soooooo… here’s the thing:
As a newbie, cloaking might be a bit too far out of your reach (for now at least).
HOWEVER, this does not mean one cannot be “stealthy.”
The trick lies in being “mobile” and “slippery.”
What does this mean?
When one is “mobile” it means one can…
- warp quickly within a short period of time (less than 5 seconds).
- move around at sub-warp speeds at a decent pace (we are talking 1000 m/sec or better).
That second point is optional, but very handy when dealing with NPCs.
The first one is non-negotiable unless you are part of a larger group that can provide combat support to each other (hint: Procurers fit for combat).
So if you want to mine, it will be in your interest to look at the Venture and its variants.
Fit for speed and… well… being as “slippery” as possible.
Which actually brings me to the next set of points: Being "slippery. The trick with this one lies with “player skills.”
- Be hyper-vigilant and use the Directional Scanner.
- Don’t sit in any one location for too long.
- Move far away from any point that you warp in from.
- Orbit stuff to make yourself harder to shoot.
- Make bookmarks all over the system so you can warp back and forth, throwing off would-be hunters.
- Be mindful and picky about which systems you want to mine in. Some places are more risky than others.
- The list goes on!
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With a regular cloak, the only things you can do while cloaked are:
- scan (not hack, and you need to decloak to launch probes, then cloak again)
- look at stuff on grid
- move around on grid very slowly (10% or 25% of your max velocity, depending on the cloak used)
With a covert ops cloak (only a few ships can fit these) you can do the above, and also warp around. This makes covert ops ships quite good at scouting hostile fleets, providing warp-ins on enemy ships, looking at citadels, etc… without being spotted.
In Lowsec, there’s another trick: As long as you are alone in local chat, only rats can be a problem. So search for a kind of remote and calm system and keep local chat always open.
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