I have now considered all your advice and comments to date. This is a summary, together with possible responses, just FYI. Thank you for your collective help. Any errors / lack of understanding remaining are obviously mine.
Q1. Is 4500 sec regen time for orca shields a problem ?
A. No. Orca tank is predominantly buffer-based; by definition = no regen. Adding passive shield tank would give minimal advantage but adding active shield tank would be useful.
Q2. What then would be best fitting options for an AFK mining orca (other than just not doing it) ?
A1. Start with separate travel & mining orcas (ie different rigs). [Anderson Geten]
A2. Have separate AFK & active mining orcas (ie different mods). [Wanda Fayne]
A3. Drop cap mod and add both hull tank and active shield tank to all active orcas. [Erethond]
Possible responses to above, noting these range from “standard fit”, via moderately blingy, to blingy fit.
TRAVEL. Swap out existing mining rig and cap mod for prop options. Swap out all passive resists for active hardeners: EM / thermal / kinetic. Gives 3.5 AU warp, 10 sec align, 332k EHP.
AFK. Build new orca with 3 x drone rigs (2 X II and 1 x I). Increase shield buffer with 2 x large shield extenders plus 3 x resists (EM, kinetic, thermal). Operate with 4 x mining drone II + 1 x combat drone II. [Rocket Hellfire; Dyver Phycad]. Gives 40 sec align, 295k EHP, 16.8 m3/sec mining.
ACTIVE. Swap out AFK mids. Fit MWD & 4 x hardeners (adaptive / EM / kinetic / thermal). Operate 5 x augmented mining drones. Gives 10 sec align, 332k EHP, 23.5 m3/sec mining. (NB. Dropping MWD for fifth hardener bumps EHP to 368k).
Options 1 & 3 are pre-paid for (simply because I sold 1.8 billion of mixed minerals / ore / ice over this weekend) so I will probably do. For reference, 0.5 moon mining now provides all ores found in low sec (plus higher versions of all ores found in hi sec too). Using cubic bistot as example, it was selling this weekend @ 4118 isk/unit. Even using the blingy option of number 3, this orca would pay for itself on bistot after 60 hours total on-belt mining. By contrast, the much slower AFK orca would give a full hold in maximum 3 hours, so … as a “lifestyle” / game play option, it is just not that great an option vs the risk (including new NPCs) vs available tank. Now I know.
Well…I got bored reading through the thread so I apologize if this was covered…Shield skills, there are a whole bunch that help your issues. Ones to reduce the cap use of active shield modules and ones that increase resists.
Also I hope you’re ready for more attention while you’re afk…you basically told anyone visiting this thread that you have an expensive easy to gank ship that tends to be full of expensive ore and you aren’t even at the helm. Wouldn’t be surprised if CODE comes looking for some taxes…
There is essentially no difference between an AFK fit and an active one, except in which drones you deploy. Just don’t deploy augmented drones when AFK, using mining drones IIs instead is the right thing to do, but you can use 5 of them. If you are AFK, you should still be in the same room and you will need to check periodically on EVE any ways, since asteroids deplete. When you hear the warning that you are under attack, or when you come check and notice rats, just recall one mining drone and then launch one light drone. Wait for the fight to be over, recall the light drone and send the mining drone out again. You can get a mining fit MUCH higher than 332k EHP. I get 378k EHP, 435k with heat on this fit, which still mines very well:
Orca tanky miner
[Orca, Orca fit]
Reinforced Bulkheads II
Damage Control II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermal Dissipation Field II
500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Shield Command Burst II, Shield Harmonizing Charge
Shield Command Burst II, Shield Extension Charge
Mining Foreman Burst II
[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]
Large Drone Mining Augmentor II
Large Drone Mining Augmentor II
Large Drone Mining Augmentor I
You can add what you want in the leftover high slots: Tractor beam, auto-targeting systems (+3 targets is neat to keep extra rocks targeted for when your drones need a new one, auto-targeting rats is also convenient), cloaking device. For travelling, it is essentially the same, except swap field extender rigs to boost shield EHP (514k/614k with heat) without gimping your ability to carry things like bulkheads would. Traveling will be tedious regardless of if you warp at 2 or 3.5 AUs, but it will be a lot more painful if you get ganked. So to me maximizing EHP is much more important than warp speed. But unless you are set on two orcas (or want to swap rigs often), I would use the fit above for everything.
That is because we are coming at this from very different philosophies. When I say AFK, I mean AFK … not in the same building, never mind the same room. As for asteroid depletion, 110,000 m3 rocks are not uncommon in moon ore belts. That gives comfortable two hour slot to go do something. In principle.
The other difference in philosophy for AFK is that resists would preserve cap. Yes, you have convinced me there is no practical reason not to run active hardeners instead. It is just I do not like that - visceral rather than logical. For the same reason, one combat drone / four mining drones is to avoid running permanently depleted shields after NPC attack. Again, no practical reason not to, I just don’t like it. In principle.
What I modelled was the exact same fit as yours (except highs) to get 332k.
Excellent! Did not know you could do that.
This is where I could change to one of your philosophies: this being tank vs warp. I will think about that one.
Ironically, this is where I started - trying to fit orca to do both mining and travel. The weight of opinion and experience (including yours) has persuaded me it would be better to have two. (Either that, or go back even further and dust off my unused freighter alt and use orca for mining only.)
Alright, then I would still use my fit, but I might swap a mining drone for a combat one as you suggested. Otherwise, nothing to change. As long as the fit is cap stable (without running the mwd since you are hugging a rock afk for 2 hours), you will be able to keep the hardeners running. But you already agreed with that so whatever. As for the high slots, they help a fair amount tank-wise without replacing anything useful. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want them.
You need tank when mining or traveling. Warp speed isn’t much needed. You don’t need so much tank that you can’t fit mining rigs instead of shield ones. Unless you afk auto-pilot travel as well? Then for that, your exposure is just too high that I don’t think there can be enough tank to save you, especially if you haul valuables.
I do fine with only one orca fit as above. It carries a lot, mines well and tanks well enough for my use. Having two seems unnecessary but whatever floats your spaceship. You obviously have a different playstyle and are willing to risk more than I am.