I am not a miner in eve but i have been on worm hole adventures with very low skills with a corp an we made do with a few of us bastar$ fitting ships so we could mine i personally mined with a ferox and a battle ship mined maybe a quarter as good as a mining barge if that looked cool mining but at the time i had very limited skills but eventually got into a mining barge fitting mining lazors on ships never designed to use them.
Many players have to make do until skills are built up
Orca t2 should be allowed to have both mining ships an armed ships in it bay this would enable a small corp to have the ability to both mine an fight in lower sec space! Without being a total sitting duck
The same for the new upwell ships yea they can fight some which is good but with a hanger bay it would give smaller corps a lot more options.
An yes there still going to get destroyed a lot by bigger forces or roving gangs or larger rat spawns
Make a t2 orca that can fit at least a small pos yes its a mini carrier yes it should be able to fight some but no not like a big carrier the whole ship would be a stepping stone to a carrier.
The ship should have room for four drake size ships an four mining barges. Giving a smaller corp the ability to put together a small wh operation under 4 billion isk or if not the orca then the upwell ship or even if you have to dock 2 upwell ships to make the operation work
Using the upwell ship would bring the cost way down
Naking the risk/reward even more feasible for smaller operations
Also love the concept of the upwell ships i think you put way to many restrictions on them for planetary use only! An only bonus for missiles upwell is a neutral build like mining ships right
The wepons should cover all factions an im caldari
An another thing rats in hi sec belts rats should reflect the sec your in the lower the sec the more powerful the rats what you currently have in 1 space is fine giving new players a taste of whats to come. But they should come more offten an by the time you get to .05 space the should represent at least lvl 3 mission rats an lvl 4 at 04 space an more offen in cluding roving tygaren rats that will attack after a 2 minute timer! By doing this gives players real training the deeper in eve they go fight or run giving mining support ships training in shield repping ship repair an bringing fighting ships to bare on targets not say the rats are so strong they overwhelmed an orca but are a real threat to mining barges asleep at the wheel at point 05 space a tream of three ship drones should be able to fend them off or miners can hire other players to defend the fleet or other corporations to potect the fleet in any sec by contract the mercenaries corp cannot attack the mining corp under contract any loss of protectees cuts into the mercenaries deposits an payouts
An even be fined for not engaging
All mercenaries should be hired thru a mercenaries agent who sets up the contract per hour who offers dead space fits an hi lp for mercenaries in good standings
Sorry for rambling on so long
Fun fact, unlike the Rorqual the ship maintenance bay of the Orca isnât restricted to mining ships only.
The Orca can already have armed hips in the bay!
Fun fact, the current Orca can already fit a small POS (2000 m3) in itâs regular cargohold (30k m3) or fleet hangar (40k m3). It can even fit 8 large POSses of 8k m3 each!
The infrastructure hold of the Upwell ships is much more flexible than the planetary goods hold of the Epithal.
The Infrastructure hold can hold many things from structures, deployables to fuel and refined ice products. And yes, planetary industry goods too.
Of all the specialized holds the infrastructure hold allows the biggest variety of items.
Youâre asking for a lot there. That is 4 times 250k m3 and 4 times 150k m3, or 1.6 million m3.
Thatâs huge for a semi-capital ship like the Orca. Even capital ships donât get that, they commonly have 1 million m3 ship maintenance bay volumes, while bigger is reserved to supercapital ships or dedicated hauler-only ships like the Bowhead.
The Orca has 400k which is plenty as platform for frigates, destroyers and a couple of barges. I could see a potential âT2 Orcaâ have 50% more at best, so 600k.
That said, I donât really see how a T2 Orca would improve the game. Is there a new unique role this specialized mining support ship could fill?
âI wants moarâ.
+2 more high slots, +4 turrets and some mining bonuses would be niceâŚ
Just give miners an omnipotent ship that canât be destroyed and rakes in a bil a day and get it over withâŚ
Give 'em an inch and theyâll take a mileâŚ
And next year theyâll do it again and ask for moar, yet again.
why stop at 1 bil a day? why not 2 bil a day, or 3⌠hell 1 tril a day
Maybe re-open Sisi and close Tranquility? Everything purchasable everwhere for 100 ISK, let the bloodshed begin! 
Isnât that a Rorqual?
I donât mine so I donât know. I use mining ships for other things that they were not designed to do but still perform well at.
Do tell - sounds interestingâŚ
Cloaked Orca to âcreativelyâ take a wh is just the start.
And who besides me flys a Noctis into a fight? Doesnât work anymore, but still good fun when it did! 
Into a fight, nopeâŚ
Years ago POSes was âdeprecatedâ and it looked like citadels are gonna replace it completely.
For some reason POSes are still there and it looks like people actively use it?
Does it mean CCP have finally managed to decrypt POS-code and now itâs no longer POS-code? 
You live a boring life if you canât think outside the box.
Out of the box is fine. I guess it all depends on what kind of activities you do. I tend to try and use the best tool(s) in my toolbox for the task at hand. Sometimes itâs an obvious choice/fit - sometimes itâs less conventional.