It’s impossible to fit a tank on a Covetor or Hulk for ice mining in null.
I can fit a tank on the Procurer, which is not bonused for ice mining, and can’t fit even 1 ice drone. (Maybe add smaller ice drones, that mine less?)
I would fit a battleship with ice lasers (it has better CPU and powergrid), but the game won’t let me. This is a step in the wrong direction, I thought there would be no such restrictions in EVE. If a battleship is better for ice mining, then the ice mining barges are broken.
Some will say - play with a group. This - while everybody who has a Rorqual, also has 2-3 alts, and is multiboxing and has no need for assistance, which is essentialy pay to win.
The game is designed to force players get more accounts and multibox to be able to really play the game when you get to bigger and bigger ships. It’s a bad design, and will not keep more players playing in the long term.
I don’t know when I will login, and what I will do when I log in. Maybe I want to mine ice in null, with a ship bonused for mining ice. Would you drop what you are doing to come guard me from rats, because I can’t tank them? It would get boring pretty fast.
The Procuror has a bonus to Ice Harvester cycle duration as any other Barge. And it can fit Ice Harvesting Drones like any other Barge can do, although not use, that’s true.
Only the Covetor/Hulk has a bonus of yield compared to the 2 other types of barge, between a procurer or retriever it’s the same.
T1 barges can only have a somewhat good tank with the procurer or none with the 2 others, you need to go Skiff or maybe Mackinaw if you want to be in Null, these T2 exhumers do not only exist for a slightly better yield, but for more drones and fitting capabilities too.
As for restricting ice and strip miners to some ships only, it’s to force people to fly mining ships for these jobs so they cannot be tanky, have mining abilities and too much dps with it.
HAve you seen a Skiff or Procuror in action? The drone hold and bandwidth on those is much better used for combat drones than mining drones, that’s for sure.
I’ve been in them in nullsec even, you need to sacrifice at least 2 slots to have drones good enough to make a difference in PVP (navigation computer and targeting range for the ship). I meant that compared to a Dominix, letting this ship with strip miners, its drone bonus and the tank you can put on it would be a problem next to the barges.
Of course, it’s not a Dominix, that is true. But even without DDA and DNC, the sheer number of drones from a mining fleet with 10+ exhumers or barges is a huge asset for defending yourself. And in high sec it is nice for whoring on gankers.
Then a Skiff or Proc is the perfect ship for him. My Skiff has 100k passive EHP (not full tank fitted) and 130 DPS with Hammerheads (without DDA). No BS fitted for mining can get that.
Personally, I have a Higgs Anchor rig fitted so that I can stay aligned to a structure or bookmark all the time at warp speed without getting out of range of the rock quickly. If something appears on grid that you cannot kill or tank, you can immediately warp away.
Yup, in null alone OP is gonna be stuck with either a Procurer but will have trouble with the bigger waves of NPCs, Skiff will do fine, Mackinaw can work but a mobile depot is needed for refits.
The Ice mining drones are more a cherry on the top for a mining barge than a tool really needed, plus it takes a lot of space in the drone bay.
A ice drone is 50 Mb of bandwith, you could only deploy 2 of them with a dominix, so about 15 m3/s with rigs.
EDIT : I discovered something funny, a Vexor Navy Issue, with its bonus to mining drone yield and with T2 ice drones, will have a better yield for ice with 2 ice harvester drones and 2 t1 rigs than a procurer equiped with 2 ice harvester II (ice strip miner) and 2 ice harvesting upgrades II in the low. You need to have 4 cargo expander II in the low slots of the vexor navy issue to hold just one block of ice though. And for the SKiff, the Vexor navy issue is about 1 m3/s less than a skiff with 2 T2 upgrades in the low without the ice rig, for about 180M less in hull price.
[Vexor Navy Issue, carpal trololol]
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Damage Control II
1600mm Steel Plates II
Drone Navigation Computer II
Drone Navigation Computer II
50MN Microwarpdrive II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Medium Drone Mining Augmentor II
Medium Drone Mining Augmentor II
Medium Drone Mining Augmentor I
Ice Harvesting Drone II x2
Optimal Range Script x1
hmm same yield as a dominix with same rigs. I guess the mining yield does not reduce the ice cycle period.
in that case, praxis is way better, more cargo cargo 4 000 m³ easily and fit 3 nav (±2* drone speed)
example of fit
[Praxis, *Simulated Praxis]
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Damage Control II
Drone Navigation Computer II
Drone Navigation Computer II
Drone Navigation Computer II
500MN Microwarpdrive II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Large Cap Battery II
Large Drone Mining Augmentor II
Large Drone Mining Augmentor II
Large Drone Mining Augmentor I
Ice Harvesting Drone II x4
Go ninja- endurance is a beast. Frigate sized with the same sized ore hold to a skiff. Similar cycle times as well. 47-50s per brick. Also much faster align times and cloaking fun.
