Why did they ever change all the mining barges to be the same 2 laser slots? It just doesn’t feel right, is it to make the game easier for new players? If so I don’t understand the logic, since people are drawn to this game for the very reason that it’s complex, intricate, difficult…
With the old style the procurer had 1 mining laser, and that was great because the procurer was meant to be cheap and hardy for hostile environments, saving on mining crystals and easy to use for beginners, you had to stay active typically because your 1 laser would finish off a roid before the ore hold was full, but it didn’t take much to figure out how many cycles were left if you had a survey scanner, you could tell when it would finish.
The retriever was the more solo style miner with a massive ore hold, the 2 lasers allowed a smart miner to select a number of roids, scan them, and then “pre-cycle” the first roid down to a more even number of complete mining cycles, then put the second laser on it to finish it off at 4.9 cycles, instead of 4.1 cycles for example, the first laser then goes down the list of selected roids pre-cycling them down to near full cycles, making this a very efficient mining machine, as well as an afk miner, since you could predict when your cycles would be done next and go on to do other things in the meantime, like playing the market, with a bit of hull tanking, the retriever could even hold it’s own in some dire situations.
Then there was the covetor with 3 lasers and a small ore hold, low hp and a huge mining bonus, obviously meant to be a fleet miner of which only the most active and fast calculating miner could ever use to the best of it’s ability, applying the pre-cycle method.
It took me a long time to figure out the finer distinctions between these barges and use them to the best of their ability, there was a deep underlying intricacy to playing them, the covetor in particular was extremely challenging to maximize…something was lost when they all went to the 2 lasers setup, and something was gained making them all a bit easier and play more the same…but is this really what people want? (edited)
The 1 2 3 set up was an art department limitation that went back to when only the covetor was worth using and the other barges were just for if you didnt have the skill.
That particular change was made about 2 years ago. Isn’t it a bit late to bring that change up?
Is it ever too late to speak up about something you love?
But yes in this case. Completely unrelated who would you say is ISD Buldaths biggest rival?
Me, I’d say.
Interesting. Was kinda hoping you would say that. Is there a way to contact you without forum posting with an idea?
Walls of non-formatted text make bunnies cry. 
But yeah… most of the differences between barges are still there. Visually they have been homogenized to look more… “consistent” with each other.
The Procurer is still tanky as hell.
The Retriever still has the largest hold.
The Covetor still mines the most.
Feel free to drop me a mail and I’ll respond.
So then it is homogeneous going from the Venture Mining Frigate with its two mining lasers into the any of the barges or exhumers with two strip miners. Prior to 2012 - the Procurer was worthless with a single strip. Miners were advised to advance to the retriever - for double the mining power and cargohold it was a difference of some hours in training. Then skip the Covetor altogether, requiring Barge V, because the Hulk only needed Exhumer III.
The initial balance pass in 2012 shoe horned ship bonuses 200% and 150% so that 1 strip = 2 strip = 3 strip. To preserve the art work or retain some distinctive appearance - take your pick. Quickly it turned out that the Mack did everything; so another balance pass in 2016 added nerfs to the yield (-25%) of the 4 of the 6 lineup; since 50% of mining ships flown were Retr or Mack. The strip count was evened across the hulls, new artwork, an extra low for the some of the hulls. (it was offered to the Procurer, trading a mid - and this was declined. reason: trade secret).
They changed it so they can say ‘look we did something’
They probably did it to make it easier for miners to calculate the yield because most of them are bad at math. Hell some even doubt a mining permit for only 10mil ISK is a good investment, how silly is that?
It is rather small change, 1 strip miner here or there… Also art department had a bit easier task to do the models I think.
Paragraphes is what we want!
Wouldn’t want to waste the time of the art department on something as trivial as space ship models when there are still more opportunities for paint-by-the-number ship skins.
Didnt Proc have a 100% bonus to its one laser or something, making it effectively the same as having 2?
Also, you can just fit one if you want.
Indeed. They rebalanced the role bonuses so they mine pretty much the same as they did before.
The Retriever had two and it still has two so nothing has changed. The Procurer had one, now it has two that mine the same as that one. Ok, there is a slight increase in crystal cost, but if you want to mine as before just shoot the two lasers at the same rock. The only one that seems to have suffered is the three lasers on the Covetor, which can now only mine two rocks simultaneously as compared to three, but given the hold size, that seems a pretty marginal benefit, and it now has a reduction in crystal costs in compensation.
It was a minor (miner? 
) change for the barges and only done as I understand it to make the art department happier. The Covetor is still as challenging to micromanage, the Procurer as tough to explode, and the Retriever is as lazy as ever. This isn’t the biggest issue to parade around as a sign of dumbing down the game - there are much more egregious examples out there.
1st i think it was easy to balance that way
2nd
Procurer
best tank - secure mining - not that fast - no big ore hold
Covetor
best mining yield - fast mining - not tanky - no big ore hold
Retriever
huge ore hold - stay long time on the field - not tanky - not that high mining yield
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Mining_Barges
if you look at the bonuses of this barges you see the same direction so its easier to compare
if you look on the numbers its easy to figure out what to use at the place you are or in the situation you are
they are all really cheap - you get 10/20 BPCs near anywhere to build them yourself
they all use the same skills so you skill one and can use all
anyways … it changes long time ago as @ISD_Dorrim_Barstorlode wrote so i guess there is no real need in warm up this old story again
guess most people dont really miss the old mining barges
looks like atm some people have fun bring up really old stuff
JuuR
You have to understand the history of mining barges. In the old days of ship tiers it was really so that the one with 2 strip miners mined double the one with one, and the one with three mined three tikes as much. But with the ship tiericide they decided to give them roles, so even the ones with one or two moners had a reason, thats why they also gave them a 200% and 66% mining yield bonus, so the base was the same with all three of them, the main difference being their stats and bonuses. So at this point every barge mined about the same ammount (not taking skills into account) and only made it a bit confusing. Why was the one with one miner mine as much as the one with three? So when they redesigned the ships, they gave everyone two miners, and with that got rid of the 200% and 66% mining bonus
Bad idea. I like to be able to split targets in my Procurer. Roids are so small sometimes, that it is really helps.
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