Couldn’t you fit eight miners to a catalyst and get so much more mining power? You could use a jetcan or a mobile depot for storage. Destroyers don’t have bonuses to mining, but having 4x more lasers would cancel that effect, wouldn’t it? To me it seems like a way more profitable option than using a venture or something of that type.
P.S. it’s always fun warping into an asteroid belt in a catalyst and scaring the ■■■■ out of anyone mining there, but actually just locking on to an asteroid and starting to mine.
Generally because their cargo hold is very small, and thus you spend more time warping back and forth than you would with a Venture, or similar. Additionally the bonuses on the Venture will out-mine most ships, you can use the Fitting Window to test both options and see your yields.
No, it doesn’t work that way. There is only one ship for an Alpha that can out-mine a Venture and that is the Praxis, at 300 times the cost of a Venture. As far as jetcan mining goes, anyone that wants to can steal every last bit of ore from your can at any time, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it because you have nothing but mining lasers fitted and no drones…
If you are inclined to do some (other), mining unless it changed and I’m not up to speed you could use the Arbitrator with it’s drone bonus and turrets, and the ability to still fit missiles (if I remember correctly), and you use an alt to load ore into you can mine faster than a venture, but cost wise it’s better to get into an expedition mining ship.
Back in the day, destroyers were often used to mine with.
8 mining lasers, cap booster, mining upgrade in the low slot with remaining slots filled with cargo expanders.
Mining in a destroyer might be slow but reduces the chances of getting ganked.
Now mining in a Battleship, 4 slots mining rest weapons + drones, fast lock times, high shield or armor plus a webber and scrambler for pod servicing, now thats how you mine.
Point the first: Good luck fitting 8 mining lasers on a catalyst. I just threw one together in pyfa and unless you’re dropping 3b on estamel co-processors you’re not even able to use them all.
Point the second: The Venture gets a 100% role bonus to mining lasers, and a 5% per mining frigate level bonus in addition. These bonuses multiply together as well, so the 2 lasers on a venture is basically 5 at max skills.
For reference, a max skills venture with t2 miners will mine 8.52m3/s, while the cursed officer fit Catalyst does technically mine 10.4m3/s. You’ll have to stagger your lasers and remove ore like every 30 seconds to avoid losing the slim margin of yield you have over a venture, and you’ll have to spend 3b on officer mods, but it’s technically possible. Of course, if you have 3B to spend on purps, you’re probably better off just getting a hulk.