As I have said, I just do not understand why a multiboxer would fly more than one Orca, but happy to be proved wrong - I wonder whether we again come back to the question of people assuming that if they are seeing multiple Orcas in an area where there seems to be at least some multiboxing going on, that all the Orcas are part of said multiboxing.
Put another way - if I am on an ice field, solo mining in competition with a multiboxed fleet of an Orca and exhumers, and someone else rocks up, might they mistake me for being part of the multiboxed fleet?
I take your point about trying to be more imaginative, but your specific suggestions still mean that I can no longer fly my Orca solo for mining; I am sorry, but I have never mined in a fleet, and do not want to be forced by CCP into doing something I do not want to do. I already pay a price by being much less competitive because I do not fleet up, but am happier for it.
I cannot speak to the Rorqual, as I have absolute ignorance there, but this is the only point where I take real exception to your post - the Orca is not oppressive to the mining meta. I think you may have meant oppressive to the lazy, entitled end of the ganking meta…
They understandably wanted to give command ship pilots something to do while on-grid other than watch their boost timer tick down. They went with mining drone management, but took the reckless/easy path of just making the things uberminers, instead of proving some additional support role for the mining foreman to perform. We all saw how that turned out, and it is time for the ecosystem team to step in and do the job properly.
There is no “design pillar” that says command ships must be able to mine independently. It’s perfectly fine if that active management the command ship pilot is doing is tied more closely to the fleet’s activity and yield. In fact, it preferable as that is the main role of this ship. Such a change would not make it an “alt only” ship, just a ship that does a much better job as a support ship than a direct mining ship.
Again, this is my issue. Defining the problem of the Orca. We go from AFK mining on one side and multiboxing on the other.
If CCP has issues with the multiboxing abilities of the Orca, then they should show the same level of concern with multiboxing abilities of gankers. I bet that a 30 man multiboxing mining fleet (I am not nearly at that level) mining veld in HS has a lower impact on the economy than a 30 man gank fleet taking out freighters running between Amarr and Jita.
No they didn’t.
The Orca is not an ubber miner.
This is just a myth that keeps getting peddled around.
Yeah, there kinda is, I mean ok, CCP made that design pillar so they can remove it, it’s not some universal rule, but it does exist.
And it is important on the player satisfaction side, where it lets the player directly view their work. Abstracting it into 'Oh you get to give a bonus to ‘other’ people does impact on this and impacts on those people who currently will do things like fly an Orca in a belt mining and give out free boosts in public fleets.
Okay and I don’t understand why you’d even fly an Orca for mining unless you’re doing it AFK (whatever you want to call it) and making dinner, taking a shower, doing HW etc while you make effortless ISK.
And I mean it’s not really hard to figure out when I jumped into a nearby system and I see B0NE1, B0NE2, B0NE3 etc, all in the same corp, all in Orcas AFK in belts and at moons. There are similarly named characters (B0NEE1) in a completely different corp in another constellation…
The idea that AFK Orca mining is a “myth” is either gaslighting or just ignorance.
Or indeed the low “actions per minute” of the ganker scout sitting on an HS gate for hours on end, scanning as and when he/she can be bothered, at minimal risk to themselves.
I take a minor exception to part of this. If we take command ships in general, I remember back in the day using the nighthawk, vulture, and astarte as combat only ships, no boosting. Why can those ships have an independent role but the orca cannot?
The sheer sense of entitlement you must operate from if that’s the case; thinking the game should be a certain way and not another way to accommodate you.
I did not say “Because I like it”. I set out why the Orca allowed a solo miner to be functional, but not overly competitive.
Now, before you post again, may I invite you to stop and just consider the degree of entitlement you are exhibiting in assuming that it is your views and opinions, and no one else’s, that should be accommodated? I believe the expression you are looking to describe your attitude is “thinking the game should be a certain way to accommodate me”.
Regardless of the “problem” of AFK or multiboxing mining, there can be changes to the ship which do no impact its use as a solo miner or even as a fleet miner.
If they change the drop off bay to something “reasonably” sized, an active miner could still mine at the same rate as today and have to manually transfer ore at regular intervals.
If multiboxing is the issue, the APM is increased which reduces the fleet size you can effectively control.
If AFK mining is the issue, the reduced idle time reduces the AFK periods.
And everyone, short of AFK Miners and excessive multiboxers, should be happy.
Actually, removing drones from the Orca (like I suggested) would not be accommodating to me. As it stands, it’s like having 3 extra Ventures in my fleet. It would reduce my yield, but I’m willing to take that small hit for the health of the game.
Moving ore between bays every 30 seconds sounds so engaging.
Not if you use a free program like EVE-O Preview and set your windows up the right way.
Yet you wanted to make people press buttons to make drones mine every 30 seconds as a solution…
Yeah, at this point it’s clear you are just a hypocrite
