Drones and a tank do a lot: they are enough to deter smaller predators. Without drones and tank you could and would get killed by a single player in a single frigate.
Because of the drones and tank of your mining barge you don’t get bothered by a single interceptor roaming around in space whenever they see you, they need more firepower to take you on.
People like to maximize their chances. They attack when they know when they win, which is when the group is large enough to kill your ship before you are able to do much with your drones.
That doesn’t mean drones are useless, it just means that the most dangerous situations for you are those where you are outgunned, outnumbered or both.
While a well-fit mining barge will deter smaller predators, there are a couple of things you can do against the larger predators:
- run before they catch you
- bait them with firepower they do not expect
Keeping an eye on your surroundings and running away when you see danger is your best bet, but as you say you want to be able to do more.
Have you thought about playing as bait?
It doesn’t take much: whenever you know a hostile roaming group is looking for kills in the area you can work together with your allies.
For example, fit for maximum tank, be in standing fleet, ask around to see if you have enough people to take on the enemy group and let your allies hide in a nearby structure while you continue ‘mining’ in a max tank fit, preferably with some warp disruptors. They arrive, you call your allies and suddenly the predators see much more firepower than they expected, some cannot warp away due to your warp disruptors and die.
Or even better bait, let an interdictor and someone with a covert ops cyno cloak right next to you while the rest of the covops ships wait in another system for the enemy to take the bait.
The roaming group sees a miner and two names in local that are unaccounted for. They might smell bait, but if they take it they find themselves in the middle of a bubble with a much bigger enemy fleet around them.
The best part is if you do this more often people will be able to tell from your killboard that you bait fights.
People may even stop trying to attack you because of that when they can see you often bait. Imagine how nice it is to be mining and being left alone because people assume you would kill them if they tried?
Mining ships can fight back, you just have to think outside of your barge.
