Ships & Modules

I really like the idea of drone boat, im slowly training my skills for that. IN the meantime i would like to do some exploration coupled with mining.

Can you please offer some advice what ship between the sizez of frigate and battlecruiser, can get me decent mining returns and some ability to defend myself?

I read about mining vexxor - then i read when venture (but thats a frigate....) appeared, mining vexxor drone boat started to be a bad idea (why)?

Im not actively going for pvp, but id like something that can mine, defend from pve npces, and allow me to run when some mean ppl want to do bad stuff to me ;-(

Relatively cheap also ;-)

Yep Venture.

Okay I'm guessing you're talking in lowsec?

The key is the "run" part rather than fight because you will die in PVP with a mining ship unless it's just set up for bait with lots of friends nearby.

You could fit two warp core stabilizers and hope a fleet doesn't drop in on you. If you watch local you should be good. Also ECM drones can help break tackle but it's still iffy. A Venture is nice because it has two warp core stabilizers built in but it won't hold up long to NPC damage.

This man makes sense

a mining barge will never be able to outgun a combat ship, neither will a combat ship outmine a barge, using ships not for their purpose wont get you anywhere.

Closest you are getting to a mining ship that can defend itself is either a carrier or a rorquel doing drone mining. Either are going to require low sec or lower and are going to attract gank gangs that will kill the 2 bil + ship. You can fit a full bank of mining lasers on a bc with 7 turrets but if you do you will have no firepower for defense. your best bet would be a large group of Hulks with all of them running 5 warrior 2 if you have 8 hulks most gankers will think twice about being engaged by 40 drones if they do not have smart bombs on them.

if it mines it will be easily destroyed

I agree 100%... low sec Kronos miner. What can POSSIBLY go wrong?

Its not about having an escort. Nobody's going to 'escort' a miner and sit around while he shoots rocks. Why not, you ask? Because a combat ship can make better isk than your miner can by running combat anoms in null-sec (40-100M per hour depending on the ship). Therefore, it would not be economical for you to 'pay for protection'. Also, any such 'protection' would likey fail to kill a ganker before they killed your miner - said protection would likely also be ganked.

If you're looking to mine outside of highsec, join a nullsec corp. In that way you will have many friendlies around, and intel channels (as well as local chat) to warn of incoming trouble. If you mine in lowsec you - *will* - die. Mining in lowsec has never had a favorable risk/reward ratio.

If you're worried about highsec ganks, fit a damage control II and mine in .7+ to discourage most solo-gankers. An armor-tanked procurer would survive in .5 well enough.

How many Ventures can you get together? In sufficient numbers a Venture fleet is a force to be reckoned with. The warp core strength bonus and the ability to field a flight of light drones is pretty handy.