If I fit what was suggested to you before - 3 bulkhead rigs, dcu & bulkhead in low, and (2 x adaptive, em & thermal plus large shield in mid), then add a shield command in high, all T2 - I get 544,000 ehp. It then takes me more than 50 secs to align and even with augmentor drones will only yield 19 m3/sec.
If I use 3 mining drone rigs instead, and replace the shield extender with a 500 mn cold gas MWD, then stats change to 362,000 ehp, align time is 12 secs and mining rate increases to 28 m3./sec. Plus, you can fly 5 x hammerhead II drones.
You decide if, and under what conditions, it is worth the cost, risk, and mining rate to solo mine in one.
This is good for AFK mining in hi-sec, while this is relatively bad to mine in low, -null or -WH space due to low mining yields. In null- and wh space itâs better to use to âBurstâ buff the mining fleets of cheap Covetors, because as soon your ships will get bubbled, theyâll be destroyed immediately.
As an AFK miner, itâs better to fit it as a Hull tank, which will grant under 400k EHP with 3 Rig slots for Large Drone Mining Augmentors and options to tune further the tanking abilities.
It depends on the direction that the mining ship is going, relative to the orca.
If you are flying a retriever, you can dock that ship in the fleet hold of the orca. But the retriever pilot will be ejected into space in a pod.
The retriever also has to be empty before you can dock ie not just minus the pilot. If you have ore in the hold or spare mining crystals in the cargohold, you cannot dock.
If you are in an orca and already carrying a retriever, a pod can approach and launch the retriever with that new pilot already inside it.
You can also launch the retriever empty, and then dock a pilot into it afterwards, but I do not know why you would do that.
i mine solo in my all the time, they can have a high EHP and requires a decent fleet of catalyst to gank like a freighter, how ever they are easy to bump
Fixed it for you. First of all, orca as as a command ship shouldnât be allowed to be all in one standalone miner but provide support and improve yeld of others.
Well, everyone can tune their Orcaâs fits based on system security status, fleet composition and other risks. If somebody will decide to gank your Orca, it will be ganked anyway (no matter she has 350k HP or 550k HP). It will require to organize a fleet for this purpose anyway. Just 5 characters more or less. A shield Orca is vulnerably to Neuts. Thatâs it.
Hi-sec vs null-sec. In hi-sec a miner will lose just one Orca to a suicide ganker fleet in the worst scenario. Itâs too easy to prevent it by intel. In null-sec is harder to prevent it by intel due to wh assault squads (which happens frequently). Interdictors will bubble and tackle all your multiboxer Orca fleet and there will not be any chance to save them as Rorquals have (x5 Orca ISK > x1 Rorqual ISK).
**Safety vs Greedy.**A full tanked Orca will mine around 15.5 m3/s ore, while that one fitted with x3 LDA I - 21 m3/s. Delta = 21 - 15.5 = 5.5 m3/s, per minute = 5.5 * 60 = 330 m3, per hour = 330 * 60 = 19800 m3, per 3 hours = 19800 * 3 = 59400 m3, per 5 hours = 19800 * 5 = 99000 m3 (Due to my observations, a multiboxer will mine from 3 to 5 hours, even more). Letâs check the minimal profit from it by mining only Veldspar. 1 Veldspar volume is 0.1 m3. Q1 = 59400 m3 / 0.1 m3 = 594000 units; Q2 = 99000 m3 / 0.1 m3 = 990000 units. Avg buying price per unit is 13 ISK.
Therefore, just by using the 3 LDA I, a miner can make addition (Q1 * 13 - Q2 * 13) * 7 => 54M ISK - 90M ISK per week just from one Orca. From 5 Orcas: 270M ISK - 450M ISK. From 10 Orcas: 540M ISK - 900M ISK. From 20 Orcas: 1.08B ISK - 1.8B ISK. How many Orcas per week a multiboxer can afford to lose? How many suicide gank fleets per week pirates can afford in the same location?
Another way to look at it is the classic risk vs reward.
If you fit 3 x drone rigs ( that is 2 X II + 1 x I ) and also fly augmented drones, the yield goes from 15.5 to 28 m3/sec. These rigs cost 248 M and the drones 256 M, based on the current cheapest Jita sale price.
At 504 M isk extra, no-one is going to mine veldspar with that fit. You would hit moon ore belts. However, a conservative choice for demonstration would be jaspet at 2 m3/ unit and 335 isk. It is not that much better than veldsar, but it is better. Mining for 3 hours/ day, the drones and rigs yield an extra 158 M isk per week. That means you can pay off the cost of the rigs and drones in 23 days.
Once paid-off, your orca will continue to yield 353 M isk per week in total ie not just the extra. That means you can afford to replace a complete orca each month, including the drones and rigs. Bottom line, if you lose less than one orca per month, you are making money. Thatâs the reward. And flying that extra 500 M in bling, with a loss of a third of your tank, is the risk.
