DMC’s right. It’s the wrong subforum and get your ass to sleep.
Anyway … when you’re getting caught in lowsec then you’re dead already. The odds of you surviving any encounter are extremely low. You’d be having more chances with a skiff.
With the ships inevitable demise in mind, the problem turns into something else.
Please note that I’m not trying to tell you how to play.
I’m trying to give you more options to consider.
I’ll expand on that. First though let’s consider the three possible scenarios. Please know that the likelihood of one of them happening increases over time, unless you go out of your way making sure you’re all alone, which turns this whole thread moot … so I’ll instead assume you’re not trying really hard to get out of the way of everyone. The below are ordered from least likely to most likely.
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Scenario A
You never encounter anyone. Using a proc/skiff thus costs you yield unnecessarily.
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Scenario B
You encounter a lone soldier in lowsec and manage to kill him.
Good job. You’re still low on yield, though.
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Scenario C
They catch your ship and no matter what you do, you explode anyway.
Consider that there is no way you’re not going to lose your ship. You mean well and you want to stand a fighting chance, but besides maybe killing a tackler or one other ship, you’re still going down to the fleet that’s coming for you.
Because of this, and because everyone’s using tankier mining ships too,
I’m always going full yield in covetors or Hulks, assuming I can fly them.
The benefits of this are, first and foremost, higher yield in every scenario. The second best benefit is that it actually makes you consider your situation properly and help you staying more alert. You’ll be spending time thinking about safety-optimizing your mining instead of spending time on something that will inevitaby end with your ship exploding.
I can assure you that it’s really easy staying safe while mining, even in lowsec,
as long as you follow a few basic rules.
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Prep your asteroid belt with bookmarks. Of course you’re not using the mining ship for this. Find a direct line going right through the belt, allowing your mining ship to reach every asteroid. Make two bookmarks, one on each end of the line, as far apart as you’re willing to put … in but at least off grid.
Using celestials can be helpful, because it might mislead people into believing you warped to a station/citadel, when you actually didn’t. Make sure both bookmarks are slightly above or below the asteroid belt, so you don’t bump into a roid.
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Fit your lowslots for max yield and your rigs for inertia. Two Nozzle joints and a Higgs will make sure you’re reaching warp-out-velocity quickly. The higgs rig has the additional effect that it slows your ship down enough so you can slowly move through the belt. It’s not as slow as a proper spider-webbed fleet (like we use), but it’s still far better than without.
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Have your bookmarks in a seperate window at the left or right bottom corner. There should be two bookmarks in it. The top bookmark should be the one you want to escape to while you’re mining in one direction. That means that, when your mining ship turns around, you have to change the order of the bookmarks. This window you place so that your target bookmark covers the corner of the screen, like this:
This allows you to just shove the mouse into the corner, instead of requiring you to hit the bookmark exactly. It’s a huge time saver, because just shoving it into a corner is always going to be faster, no matter what. Training this is really helpful. Never assume you can do things right just because they seem easy.
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Always play zoomed out, so you can see what’s going on around you.
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Fit WarpCoreStabs against cloakers. These are the only ships that can actually get you into trouble, because you might not see them decloaking. If fitting one is worth it for you, then you should do it. I wouldn’t.
With this, you’re safe except against the most notorious, or ships who don’t suffer from a locking penalty after cloaking. Against everyone else you can use this to warp out within a second, or two, depending on your training.
Can you imagine people saying I’m not a miner?