CCP what is the counter balance for this got ore?
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My, that’s a target rich environment. If only there some big guns, or something, that could be used to shoot at these things.
Two fun facts:
- Orcas don’t actually do any mining.
- Mining drones die to smartbombs easily.
Orcas mine almost as much as a barge with their drones AFK and, unless they are using faction drones, there is no way you can win the ISK war smartbombing them in highsec. Even if you could, you would be spending multiple hours waiting out criminal timers in stations while the multiboxer just deploys another set of cheap drones with almost no noticible dexrease in their mining efficiency.
Similarly, after the massive buffs to the Orca last year, they are not possible to gank anywhere near break even without a Burn Jita sized fleet of gankers. So unless they are in a player corp and you can wardec them (which they won’t be) there is nothing you can do other than try to bump them away from the belt. With so many though you won’t have a noticeable effect on the operation through.
Maybe the new self-motivated NPC pirates will serve as a check on this behaviour. But otherwise years of buffs to highsec safety and industrial ships have pretty much killed highsec and turned it into multiboxed Skiff and Orca Online.
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You cannot use smartbombs in high sec anyways.
Yes you can. Just need to live a little and turn your safety to red.
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I thought that they could not actually be used in high, like supers cannot enter high sec, nor bombs be used regardless of the safety button.
Nah, they work:
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Smartbombs
People even gank with them on Jita gates and the like.
You probably shouldn’t use them though in highsec unless you are planning to be CONCORDed anyway though. Someone can just sneak up on you in a cloaked ship and you will inadvertently lose your ship to CONCORD and take the security status hit.
well, you learn something new everyday.
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True of bombs (which also can’t be used in lowsec), but not smart bombs.
They are very different things. One is launched, the other is a highslot module.
Doesn’t need to be ISK efficient in terms of kills and losses.
Deny them of any income and they’ll soon leave.
I have the same issue in one of my systems. I tell people that orcas are stripping whole systems “nuh huh they mine to slow” this pic is proof that it happens and all those barges are probably mining drone rigged, the tank would have to be scanned, but you would need like 10-15 cats at the very least, other wise “oh get a mach and bump them” cancer. all of them.
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I doubt it. I count 26 Orcas in that screen shot. Even if you bump or smart bomb the drones of a few of them, they won’t even notice the drop in their income while you are wasting your game time doing something that will require your full attention at no profit. And they are just setting near-invulnerable Orcas to AFK mine for a couple hours without a single click and going out to cut the lawn or catch a movie.
There is no viable strategy to hurt that multi-boxer, at least for anyone without a couple dozen gankers to do their bidding. I’m actually surprised I don’t see more multi-boxed AFK Orca fleets given how safe and how low effort it is. You do see the odd Orca unattended solo mining with drones, but I guess the real afficiandos are too busy multi-boxing Rorquals and/or Hulks in nullsec to bother with highsec belts and Orcas.
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Mining drones don’t switch targets automatically. Orcas require as much babysitting while mining as many other mining ships do.
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Really? Thanks for the info. I was thinking of even getting into the business myself.
It’s still a pretty low APM activity but clearly not as low as I thought.
You really do learn something new everyday.
Bumpers unite! We have to rid the land of this pest!
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Not really. With their huge ore hold it takes about 3 hours to fill with ice. My boosted skiffs are full after a few minutes. Hulks even faster. The orca is now the ultimate highsec afk mining ship.
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Actually I know the guy who does that. And i am very happy about it because before the orca buff he always used skiffs and back then he was way more efficient and faster at eating the ice belts in that system.
And about a years ago or so he stopped leaving that system at all, so that the other ice systems around lasts longer without him.
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the real question is, where is that orca blob located at?
if that’s in hisec, my guess is a lot of 1400mm tornados and suicide gank em.
if in low, some focus-scripted hictors with the nado fleet. you’re also probably not going to lose those nados. make sure you bring some logi cruisers too.
if in null, non-scripted hictors or dictors with the nado fleet.
… or taloses instead of nados.
if you’re a major nulsec alliance you could also drop some supers on those things. makes them die a lot faster.
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