Miner/Explorer

Industry Gameplay Center Mining & Extraction
1

so I know that it is not effective and is not what people would choose, but is there a good ship that can be used for both Exploration and Mining.

These are the two things I like in eve. I am not really caring about maximum efficiency or making tons of ISK.

What I want to do is get into a single good ship, that I can travel around in. at the end of each game session I will pull into a station set it as my new home station and the next time I log on I am off.

I want to travel through wormholes and explore data site, dodge or fight Rats and Gankers, sometimes win sometimes lose but in the end just buy the ship again from the Fitting menu pick it up and fly again.

Covert Cloak so I can stealth around would be nice. I will be carrying any reconfigures I need for whatever strikes my fancy in the ship with me as I go. so if I am out hacking and come across a gas site, I can pull into a station and refit real quick to go huff some gas for a bit.

which, ship would you all choose. Currently I am leaning towards the Stratios and the Loki, but if something is better let me know.

I posted this here because though those two ships can hack and cloak, can they mine?

I guess I don’t need bonuses to actually mine so there is that, but is something better?

Thank you,
Red

2

the prospect and endurance are probably your best bet

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3

Most ships can explore with the right equipment, but only few ships can mine long enough for it to be worth your time.

You’ll need a ship with an ore bay.

The Stratios and Loki may be able to explore well, but mining with them is useless with their small cargohold.

Better options for hybrid exploration + mining are the mining frigates: Venture, Prospect and Endurance.

While these ships have no bonuses for hacking, they’ll do well when you find gas clouds while scanning. Fit gas scoops!

Alternatively don’t try to do both things at once in one ship. Have one ship for scanning and hacking that bookmarks the clouds you come across, like a Loki, Buzzard, Helios or that Loki with scan bonuses, then later you can swap to your gas cloud harvesting Venture or Prospect.

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4

I currently have a cheetah, a probe, and a prospect as well as others. So, I get it use the right ship for the job.

but the job I want to do is travel and not have to constantly go to capsule and fly back to wherever I was to get the other ships.

I really like the Prospect and use that a lot currently, maybe that is the way I will go.

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5

Possibly Gnosis

Plenty of mids and lows for your data/relic analysers and mining laser upgrades.

Missiles for the fruity times,

900m³ cargo is on the larger size for it’s class and there are enough lows to expand it.

Can fit a sister’s expanded probe launcher for both types of probes and this configuration doesn’t sacrifice a missile hardpoint (but you will if you also want a mining laser) - the probes also get a bonus off this hull.

Has drone capabilities with bonus.

You’d be hard pressed to find anything close for this usecase tbf.

Sample Fit:

5 x HAM II
1 x Miner II
1 x Sister’s Expanded Probe Launcher

1 x 50mn Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrobe
1 x Medium Micro Jump Drive
1 x Data Analyser II
1 x Relic Analyser II

1 x Mining Laser Upgrade II
3 x Expanded Cargohold II
1 x IFFA Compact Damage Control
1 x Co-Processor II

2 x Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
1 x Low Friction Nozzle Joints II

1000021230
10000212301920×1982 480 KB

Sample fit assumes a certain size of cargo hold but that can be tweaked with, maybe you need more DPS or more mining laser yield - mobile depot in your cargohold and a selection of options is your friend here.

The fit also assumes the skills to fit it, it’s somewhat CPU intensive hence the rigs, personally I’d want a mix of nozzles and hyperspacial velocity optimisers in there.

It’s not a standard usecase, so you’ll have to do some joggery pokery, but it’s certainly interesting.

Good luck!

Quick edit: If you’re not married to the mining, I’m doing all of the above (sans mining) in a Tengu, which I’m unsure if you’ve looked at but I prefer it over the Loki.

6

To suggest an alternative approach, have you considered splitting the two activities and moving between them with jump clones?

For example, you could have a mining ship that either stays near a base with good ore/gas/ice opportunities, or moves around to follow the resources. And you could also have an exploration ship that goes wherever you want to wander. When you want to switch between the two, you pull into a station or structure and clone jump to the other.

If you train Infomorph Synchronizing to V, you’ll reduce the clone jump cooldown to 19hrs. While not exactly convenient, it will let you do mining one day and exploration the next if you want.

Using this approach, you won’t have to handicap yourself by using a single ship not well-suited for all the tasks you’re looking to perform.

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7

I was not wedded to the loki, I was just playing minmatar at this time so was looking at their Tech 3. I guess any of the tech threes would be OK as they all can be reconfigured as I want.

I also know that fitting it all into one ship is most likely impossible, so I was going to carry the various builds in the cargo hold as I traveled to a new area. stash them in a Station and then go out for the activity I felt like at the time. most of the time it will travel in the Explorer setting so I can scan and such and then when I wish to mine a bit I would refit and go out mining. with the slots on a tech 3 being able to be swapped, my mind went to the tech 3. I could even carry some combat rigs as well then to do some fighting if I feel like it.

I am a nomad at heart and travel a lot on my motorcycle camping all over and its just me my wife and my bike. I kind of wanted something like that with eve. going from system to system.

I did think of jump clones but then I do need to move the clones and i am a bit tied to where cloning stations are. it also means that I would not be able to mine in one area as that is with one of my jump clones or the other, or I would have to have two identical set ups and then we get back into the spending time back tracing to bring the second ship.

Another thought I had was to build some sort of a porpoise or Orca to carry everything with me and then unpack the ship I needed for the activity I wanted but if it gets too expensive then a loss could end my journey. it is what was stopping me with the Stratigios and making me think real hard if I want to be in a tech three.

I will look at the gnosis as it has a probe bonus and that is good. They make a lot of ships that could potentially do combat and mine or combat and explore. I just wish we had a explore and mine ship. not as good as the specialized builds but somewhat good.

8

I’m not 100% what you’re saying here, but I would clarify one point, which is that you can leave a jump clone in any station when jumping to a different clone. The station where you initiate or land the jump does not need a cloning facility (that’s only needed to create a clone in the first place). Also, if you have multiple clones in the same station, you can jump between them at any time (no cooldown).

The Porpoise doesn’t have a maintenance bay and the fleet hanger is only 5k. As to the Orca, I have for years used Orcas as suitcases, keeping most of my assets and much of my smaller ships inside, and using them to move quickly from place to place. I have multiple Orcas staged in different regions for this very purpose. It’s a decent strategy, with some significant drawbacks:

  1. They are expensive (2b I think? + mods).
  2. They are slow to move.
  3. They are gank targets.

You can use a webber alt to speed up the moves. You can also fit an Orca for cloak+MWD, but you’ll want to train Thermodynamics V because it requires overheating your 500MN MWD to make it work. Range between repairs will still be limited because you’ll take heat damage regardless.

A different option for a suitcase might be a DST. If you train Transport Ships to V, it will increase your fleet hangar to 62,500m3. That’s big enough to hold an assembled Venture and a covops/explo frigate (Astero, Buzzard, etc.). Using cloak+MWD is reliable with a DST, no overheating required.

EDIT to add: even at the default 50,000m3, you can fit a Venture and either an Astero or Buzzard. But training to get 62,500m3 will give you room for packaged ships or some assembled GSCs to organize your stuff. Plus, the DSTs have a 5,000m3 cargo hold as well.

9

I didn’t know that about the cloning stations only needed to create the clones. that does make it a bit better.

What I was trying to say about jump clones was that if I have one clone with my exploration ship at dodixie, and the other with my mining ship at Jita and I see something interesting at Jita that I want to explore I won’t have my exploration ship with me to do so. I would have to jump clone to it and then make several jumps to get to the interesting thing I wanted to explore.

Yes the jump clones make it easier to jump all over the systems but they are usually better for when you have several set ups and want to jump between them.

When I pack up from Jita and move to the next area I still have two ships I have to move even if I keep the jump clones together, it still becomes twice as many jumps to keep both ships at the same place. for example if I am at Jita and go 20 jumps away I would then need to jump back to the other ship and have it travel 20 jumps as well to keep the group together. so I have them with me when I want to use them.

it is much better than not having jump clones for sure.

Suitcasing just seems the better option if I end up with multiple ships and I will keep both your jump clone idea and suitcase idea in mind if I don’t just end up in a single tech 3 ship, gnosis, or Stratigos.

in the end I am not really caring if it has great stats. Maybe what I need to focus on is number of slots so I can have various fits, and Cargo capacity so that it can carry the fits to my next base camp.

I also think that since I am wandering that it may need to be able to wonder into a WH and be able to data site or mine in there. This is why I was trying to look at Covert ops cloaking ships cause I really like tooling around while cloaked so I can watch thing happen and not have to be a part of them. seeing a fight going on I may stop and watch the action for a while before warping off. but I don’t want to join in unless I am jumped in. this is Eve after all and getting jumped will happen.

I will keep the DST in mind though, this week I am planning on doing some sample fits to checks some of these ideas out.

10

Can you put a Venture in a frigate escape bay?

11

Your elaboration makes the intent clearer. I was coming at it from a different perspective, which is not necessarily mining and exploring in the same place (hence, no need to move the ships together). I was thinking along the lines of discreet activities, geographically dispersed, etc.

12

According to EVE University, you can.

13

OK, so I know this may sound weird at first and it is just an initial thought, but what about the Nestor?

While it is traveling to my new system, it has the scanning abilities to look for things that interest me. It can carry drones and is a battleship for some light combat. The Nestor can also hack so there is that. It has an frigate escape bay that can hold a venture and 5,000 m3 Ship maintenance bay that can possibly hold another ship. not sure if I can make that bay bigger or not cause I don’t know what ship will fit in a 5,000 m3 bay.

Looks like I can also eject the frigate while in space to do stuff in the frigate and as long as I target the BS then no one can board it while I am in the frigate. so put a Vulture in their and then jet back into the BS if there is trouble brewing.

14

5000m3 is the size of a shuttle or two repackaged frigates. You’re not going to be able to fit a useful ready-to-go ship in that.

At best you could bring a packaged frigate along and use a nearby NPC station to switch between the two.

The frigate escape bay can be fun to swap between ships, but then you run a big risk when you leave the battleship in space to be stolen by anyone who sees it. Also I suspect you cannot fit the Venture back in the battleship while it has ore in the hold.

15

if you keep the BS targeted by the frigate it can’t be stolen, unless the thing targeting it dies, which obviously is the trick. I plan on putting out a venture in highsec and mining while keeping the BS tagged and then jump back in the BS when done. will have to jetcan the ORE and use an MTU to hover it up so it can be then picked up by the BS.

found out the problem with the 5k m3 bay is that packaged ships can’t be put in there I guess only fully assembled ones, so not sure if it is something a ship can dock to and transfer items to or not. if so maybe I can store stuff in there for my refits. :person_shrugging:

my current thought is I build it like a battle ship with the Analyzers so it is the explorer ship and can run the sites with its bonuses. cloak and micro warp drive to keep it somewhat safe when traveling around. let it deal with belt RATs if I have it there, otherwise dock it at station and just take out the venture to mine stuff.

The maintenance bay should hold modules in it so the venture can have refits for Gas, Ice or Ore. or I have enough other cargo space to package a prospect and bring that with me and then use the Frigate bay for another ship like an Astero and still have all the 5k m3 fittings storage on the Nestor as well.

The thing I worry about is gankers for the most part and just need to figure out how to deal with them, but to be fair I have to deal with that in my prospect all the time so just keep a good head on my shoulders and so on. The BS should be able to tank for a a bit and hopefully with its bonuses to Drones, massive drone bays, its own weaponry, and armor resistance bonuses it will survive the attempt.

if not, oh well, welcome to Eve you are now out 4bil and the attackers got a very nice payday. lol

16

:face_with_monocle:

The Venture has a 5,000m3 ore hold. The Nestor has an 875m3 cargo hold, and an MTU is 100m3 (assuming you plan to scoop it when done). You can’t re-dock the Venture with ore in the hold, so at most, you’ll fit 775m3 of ore in the Nestor.

If you go with this approach, you lose both the ore capacity and the covops cloak.

17

Correction, if you keep the BS targeted it cannot be entered.

Someone else may come and also target your BS. They cannot enter, but you also cannot enter your BS anymore.

And then it’s a matter of ‘who has the most patience’ while you both wait for hours until the one with the most patience gets the battleship. If they don’t bring a friend to shoot or ECM your frigate first.

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18

Nefarious. I love it.

19

Hand On The Car contest evolved.

20

That is a great point and one I didn’t think of.