Oh boy… Abyssal Gila for comparison? Really? Okay, lets go down this road, but it won’t end as you think it will…
First: To make T4 Abyssals work reliably you need A LOT more skills than for mining Ore or Gas. Drones and all their Supportksills, 2 racial cruiser skills, Missile Skills, most Magic14. In total SP, even having an Exhumer on V including ALL Ore Skills to use T2 Crystals on T2 Modulated Strip miners is still less training time than the Basic Skillset for an T4 Abyssal Gila.
- We can conclude that the T4 Gila needs more SP to work effectively than the best available solo mining ship.
Second: these Povertilas are mostly used with implants (+3% for missiles, shield or cap skills based on the setup) to make the fit more reliable and minor mistakes less harshly punished. Adds like another 100M. You are easily ending up with 550M to run T4 reliably compared to 350M for a T2 fitted Exhumer which will do it’s job just fine without any effort or issues.
- We can conclude that the T4 Gila Setup does cost more to do it’s job reliably than the best available solo mining ship.
Third: You can lose your Abyssal Gila a LOT easier than you can lose your Exhumer. Disconnect? Hardware failure? Urgent RL interruption? Power Failure? Unless you can re-log instantly (which you often can’t), your Abyssal Ship is doomed. And it happens to a lot of people. In all those cases, your Exhumer simply warps off and logs out. On top of that come mistakes in decision-making which is required in the Abyss. Wrong Target Order on a nasty spawn, you can die. Wrong flight path and eating some WreckingShots, you can die. Missing a Speedcloud while close to the Border, you can die. Exhumers simply don’t need to make any decisions in the mining process that could endanger them. At worst they lose yield from not realizing the Cargo was full or the Roid empty, but they don’t die. Other players: Abysal Gilas are ganked in HS each and every day. The only reason why Exhumers might be ganked more is because Exhumer Pilots are simply afk a lot more while mining and thus are much easier targets. If a Solo-Miner actively pays attention to his ship and his surrounding, he can barely die to anything. Because he can simply warp off any time something uncomfortable happens. Like Gankers entering the local. The Abyssal ship is bound to it’s trace and if Gankers find it during the run, it’s 90% chance that it will die on exit.
- We can concluce: The risks for an Abyssal Gila are magnitudes higher than for an Exhumer if the pilot pays attention.
Fourth: A T4 Abyssal Gila requires constant attention. Unless you totally bling the ship to a degree it simply can’t die any more (then we are are talking about billions), you will need to chose your flight vector to avoid damage, you will need to select priority targets to shoot first (neutralizers, webbers), you need to get in range to the caches, open them, loot them, get the the next gate, try to avoid certain clouds/towers/border. Compare that to an Exhumer that barely requires a single click per minute.
- We can conclude: Running T4 Abyssals in a Gila requires A LOT more permanent attention and decisionmaking than mining in an Exhumer. Thats why people hardly multibox Gilas in different Traces, but easily multibox 20 Exhumers.
Fifth: A T4 Gila - even if run with almost max skills and 100% success rate - can return like 3-4 T4 sites per hour. Thats roughly 120M/hr. After the costs for the Filaments, lets say a bit over 100M/hr. So it needs like 5-6 hours to return it’s costs for the full setup. A Hulk with T2 Lasers and BII Crystals can make like 50m³/s without boosts. Thats 180.000m³ per hour. Assuming 0.80 reprocessing yield you can get 80M/h with Omber, 120m/hour with Gneiss and 160M/hour with Dark Ochre. Without Boost! Almost double that with boost+compression if you join a corp that can provide that. You will have your Exhumer paid in for in 3-4 hours. It gets even more profitable if we assume scooping high-class WH Gas (C320, C540).
Now you will say “yeah but not in highsec!!!”, but EVE isn’t just HighSec. You argued mining sucks for “Pilots not Multiboxing” but I have just proven that even a SINGLE ACCOUNT miner can make very good ISK with mining if he learns how to access the most valuable resources. The people in my Corp can mine Gneiss nearly all-day-long and with Orca-boost they make A LOT more ISK than a T4 Abyssal Gila, with just one account. Just learn how to cooperate, EVE isn’t a solo-game.
- We can conclude: Even one-account-mining gains can rival or even exceed T4 Abyssals if the player uses his options rightly.
So, given all of the facts above, that the Gila requires more skill, more investment, more constant attention and has a much higher chance to die during it’s job, it is completely justified that it makes more ISK/hour. There isn’t even the slightes doubt about that.
This one alone shows that you are probably pretty inexperienced and simply do not know what techniques a miner has available and how a good preparation for your mining ops looks like. You don’t need Umbrellas or any “defense”, you simply have to be active and watchful and do some preparation homework. Chances that anyone can tackle me while mining are pretty much zero because I know what to do. If you can’t do that and still are afraid of “Gankers” (lol), you simply still have a lot to learn. First thing: work together with other people, nobody needs multiple accounts for that. And if you - for whatever reasons - absolutely do not want that (your fault, totally), learn how to ninja-huff highclass WH gas. Can be done in a cheap Prospect and is also 99% safe you are neither stupid or afk.
- Final conclusion: There is no real problem that needs to be adressed. Options for huge profit increases are available for everyone, even the one-account-player. Get good at the game and make a fortune, even as non-multiboxer. My people are doing that every day. So can you. If you chose not to but complaining about the Veldspar-Money in Highsec, thats on you.