EVE General Discussion

No really think about it what is the Orca for agian?

I used to have an orca then i quit eve for awhile and came back after the new exhumer changes. I have had a lot of trouble since then with the realization that my Orca, once the pride of my 4 account mining fleet was now kind of useless. After some time now i am thinking about selling my Orca because i need the money for more useful assets.

Am i missing something about the Orcas usefulness?

From my point of view the Orca was usefull because of its large cargo hold. The large orca hold was of course useful because the barges had comparatively very small holds, making it more profitable to have an orca to load your ore into then flying back to station ever few cycles. Now however some of the barges (retriever,mackinaw) have enormous holds well over 25km3. So I found i really didnt need the orca to haul stuff anymore.


Lets review the strong points of the Orca and discover that they are not so strong

1) the orca can hold mining ships
--------->am i the only one that finds this ability less then useful? more of a luxury then a necessity? I never find my self using the orca for its ability to hold mining ships. I get that its nice to have this ability if you want to mine in a system thats a few jumps away or with no station in it, but then i would argue most people dont like risking their orca in null sec by flying it around through multiple gates. Also its easy to get in a null sec corp with a good mining system with a station in the same system or one system away making the orcas ability to hold ships kinda pointless or un necessary.

2)The orca can refit mining barges
-------->yes this is usefull the orca can put more mining lasers on your ships. This is more useful in high sec then null sec i would argue though because null sec roids have huge amounts of ore in them so you can fit your ships for the type of ore you are going to mine and be good to go for hours... Again this is nice but more of a luxery then a necessity or in other words not a reason to fly the ship.

3) The orca has a huge hold that allows you to mine without having to stop and warp to station all the time.
------->this is true but now with the new changes you dont really need to warp to station all the time do you? i mean the retriever and mackinaw ore holds are insanely large now. I even find myself using retrievers and mackinaws as a mini orca!!! I mine with cheaper coveters and then jet can from them to retrievers and mackinaws because their holds are so large.

4)Oh lets not forget the mining bonuses!!!
-------->Ah yes the Orcas mining bonuses many of you might be thinking this is the main reason anyone flys an Orca not the hold. Or its a combination of the hold and the mining bonuses. But lets not be too quick to praise the mining bonuses and end the discussion here...lets consult the math and see what exactly do you get for these bonuses.

-------------->Harvester Capacitor Efficiency: cuts down on cap use for your mining lasers/harvesters
I really dont care about this bonus my lasers always have enough energy for their next cycle so......yea whatever

--------------->Laser Optimization: cuts down on your cycle time for mining lasers/harvesters
Freaking nice!!! yea this is what its all about!!!

-------------->Mining Laser Field Enhancement: increases the range of your lasers/harvesters
yea..... i guess this nice but i find warp fleet to 0 works just as well..............but i guess i can see the use in high sec where roids pop every cycle or other cycle but its just not the case in null.


Conclusion!

THE YIELD!!!
The Orca is a ship that could be mining!!! Yes if you think about it the orca does boost the mining yeild of other ships but it doesn't mine!! so whats the deal? well the deal is you need a perfectly trained orca ((Industrial Command Ship 5, Mining Director 5, Warfare Link Specialist 5, Mind link Implant) would have roughly a 25% bonus to each activated mining link. So an Orca needs to be boosting at least 4 other miners to be worthwhile in terms of mining yield.))

THE HOLD!!
the cargo space isn’t enough to support 4 or more hulks mining a belt. Even if you fit it for max storage, it holds about 180,000 m3 of ore (remember, the ship bay only holds ships) between the cargo hold, ore hold, and corp hangar. That’s about 6 and a half full cans worth of ore. Not bad, but a large mining op will fill up 6 cans quickly. And if the Orca has to warp back to a station to keep dumping ore, that negates the link bonuses, as they deactivate in warp. Losing a range bonus halfway through a strip miner cycle can waste a lot of ore if the roid drops out of range. Not to mention that the inertia and warp speed modifiers, while faster than a freighter, will still make your hulk feel like a frigate in comparison, so constantly moving the ship isn’t a real option. A dedicated hauler is still required.

The way i see it
So there you have it kiddies!! With the new changes of the barges to hold way more ore if you are not flying at least 5 accounts (1 orca and 4 miners) then you are wasting your time and money on the orca. AND MORE IMPORTANTLY YOU ARE WASTING MINING YIELD!!!! DUH WHA?

So all in all i say to the orca R.I.P my friend you served me well but now its time to put you to pasture as you are old and outdated. Because when your a billionaire and your wife is 40 years old its time to trade her in for a 20 year old because you can.....

Orca is amazing, learn to play.

HEY LOOK GUYS MY FIRST TROLL!! SOMEONE TAKE A PICTURE

the poster provides neither knowledge nor understanding so we profit nothing from this useless troll.....but hey where would be without idiots to hold us intelligent people up on their shoulders?

seriously do you people even read the OP before you write your ground braking revelations and post them?

yes it is true the mining bonus is good addition to a big mining fleet.....or to put more precisely 4 OR MORE HULKS AS I ALREADY STATED IN MY OP so for those miners with LESS THEN 5 ACCOUNTS (like i said already also) IT IS USELESS

So you're extremely angry because a ship designed for big mining fleets is not good for small mining fleets? I see. Carry on. This should be fun.

1) the orca can hold ANY ship.
2) the orca can refit ANY ship.
3) yes because a 35k mackinaw's ore bay is comparable to a near 200k cargo capacity of an orca. right?
4) let's just ignore that the maths even though you said you'd consult it. after 2 ships an orca is better than an extra miner, that's a laugahbly small fleet size for an orca to become a "requirement" rather than a luxury.
if we're looking at individual links, the range link means you need close to 0 movement in a high sec belt, when warping to a beacon at 0 removing the need for bookmarks at all.
good job completely ignoring the shield harmonising link.

if you'd actually look at the ship, and think, you'd see that it's outrageously useful for a myriad of situations.

also your math is horrible, try again. anything typed under the "the yield" is terrible.

in short; if you were actually correct about anything in your post, people may take you seriously instead of laughing at you.

what you say would be true if your math wasnt false after 2 ships an cora is better than an extra miner? nope try agian

Yield of a hulk with 3 strips and 2 MLU 2s, all 5s - 1436

Yield of the same hulk, max orca boosted - 2441

1436 * 3 = 4308
2441 * 2 = 4882

4882 > 4308.

In conclusion:

-A boosting orca is better than a third Hulk.
-You're bad at this game.
-You're bad at math.

pwned :)

yoru numbers are way wrong 1436 on a hulk is totaly wrong your just making ur self sound good but ur full of ****