Porpoise or Orca “Drone Module” to fit a Venture. and a corresponding module to fit in the command ship.
Another training queue
Another module to sell
Porpoise or Orca can mine only with mining drones. Their role is support to a mining group. But mining in one, there’s no ore for the Porpoise or Orca relatively speaking.
I thought, how about a Venture you need to fit, but the Mid-Slot has a Drone Module that only interfaces with Porpoise or Orca. Carried in the Fleet Hanger and can only operate 1 ship of this type.
Keep the 5 standard drones as well, these “Drone Module” modules are intended to add to, not take away.
The fleet mines as always but the Porpoise or Orca can gain ore a little bit faster than what currently amounts to a single strip miner per cycle.
So… you want to sit in your Porpoise or Orca, and deploy a Venture as an overgrown Mining Drone?
Umm, no. But what you could do is get a 2nd account, and use them to fly the Venture.
Mining Overseers aren’t supposed to be Mining, they’re supposed to be Overseeing. That’s why those ships don’t get anything more than Drones. They’re supposed to be providing boosts, and storing ore, and survey scanning, etc. And then the mining ships do the actual mining.
There was a time, not all that long ago, when mining command ships like the Orca and Rorqual could not mine. The simply hid behind a POS forcefield and boosted the entire solar system.
CCP changed the boosting mechanics to active gameplay - which was good, but it significantly altered the risk/reward balance for ships like the Orca and Rorqual -so they were given the ability to use mining drones.
I don’t believe CCP intended Orca and Rorqual to displace all other mining ships - which would be terrible design. For solo mining, the risk/reward balance should always favor a barge or exhumer. The command ships should only make sense if their boosting ability contributes to the overall yield of the fleet (and you can’t boost drones).
One thing I miss from the old system is the basic boost provided by the leadership skills. This allowed a small 2 or 3 ship fleet to enjoy a 10%-15% boost without needing a command ship.
