Science & Industry

Warning! Wall of Text Ahead!!

There seems to be a huge uproar over the constant ganking of Hulks that we, as "carebears" have had to face. I see post after post after post on the forums with claims of unfairness, of broken mechanics, or calling for buffs to exhumers so they'd supposedly be less susceptible to being ganked.

This guide to mining safely in highsec makes several assumptions:

1) If you're one of the carebears who have made any of the aforementioned posts or replied in favor or in support of any such posts, you should immediately head out and purchase at least a +1 intelligence implant, thereby doubling your base intelligence. Critical thinking is, well, critical, to any successful endeavor in EVE, and mining safely in highsec is no exception.

2) Hulks do not need any boosts to make them tougher or more gank proof. As they sit now they are almost 99% immune to ganking, as is any ship, when fitted for maximum yield and even with no tank (i.e., empty midslots, though why anyone would do so is beyond me).

3) Changes in the playstyle of others (i.e., Hulkageddon) requires a player to adapt their tactics in order to create a valid counter, rather than crying out for changes to ships or mechanics to level the playing field.

4) That EVE is a PVP-centric game featuring non-consensual PVP that can and will occur at any time, any place, and that that non-consensual PVP by definition is not intended to be remotely fair or balanced between the participants. And that the best way to insure your safety is through your own efforts; that personal choices are far more important to your survival than ship stats and skill points.

With those assumptions in mind...

So who am I? I'm a year old alt who's been carebearing up a storm for nearly half a decade in EVE, focusing primarily on mining and manufacturing. Because what I'm about to state -- that in (probably) thousands of accumulated hours mining in Hulks across multiple accounts I've never once lost a Hulk to anything, let alone another player -- I've chosen to post this guide on an unaffiliated alt. Such a comment in these environs is just challenging anyone and everyone to take a shot at you.

Which leads to our first lesson: don't attract undue attention to yourself. If you scream and whine on the EVE Online forums about how terrible it is for miners these days, you're just begging for someone to put you on their watch list, do an agent locate, and pay you a visit. What could possibly be more entertaining than extracting tears from a pilot who's already ranting and raving like a madman about how unfair the game is to him? I strongly encourage gankers to do just this thing.

As an high sec industrialist, the majority of my raw materials these days comes from mission pockets. They have for a long time, predating Hulkageddon really catching on to the degree it has today. I've been mission mining for about four of the five years I've been playing. I took it up initially for reasons far different from matters of safety. It was the lure of rare ores available in some missions that first enticed me to mission mine (Arkanor in highsec, anyone). This isn't the case anymore, as CCP removed pretty much all but low end ores a few expansions ago, and rightfully so (it's highsec after all!). Even after those rare ore bits were removed, I continued to mission mine, for a couple different reasons.

Mostly because you can mision mine semi-AFK easier than you can in a belt. The rocks you find in mission dungeons tend to be sizeable, meaning less cycle management. They haven't been picked over by other miners. You don't have to worry about belt management concerns. I would rather put a single Hulk to work on one chunk of Omber with 70,000 plus units than get those 70,000 plus units from dozens of 2-3k unit rocks in some picked over belt. A lot less effort required to manage multiple hulks. This applies to most (but not all) rocks you'll find in a mission pocket.


I generally run a four account mining operation. One absolutely maxed skilled Orca pilot and three Hulks fitted for maximum yield, including 5% Highwall implants for each and one of the three sporting a set of ORE implants.

The Hulks themselves are a mish mash of fittings, based on pilot skills, though all have two things in common: a pair of t2 mining upgrades in the lows, and rigged with low friction nozzle joints to reduce align time to just under 14 seconds. I do fit a basic tank in the midslots, though I hardly ever bother to even turn on anything. The Orca, for reasons which I'll cover in a minute is a variation of my Battle Orca Hero Fit. Lows are t2 reinforced bulkheads and t2 damage control, with a warp scrambler, two webbers and cap booster in the mids (cap booster replaced by survey scanner if I want to take the time to efficiently manage my mining cycles). For the highs, a tractor beam and two mining ganglinks (range and yield) replace the Battle Orca's three medium energy neuts, with a flight of Warrior II's and a flight of EC-600 EW drones for the drone bay.

How my fleet is arranged is just as important as the ships themselves. The Orca pilot acts as Wing Commander, while the pilot with the ORE implants acts as squad commander. I run the Orca and the SC windows on the same monitor, the Orca pilot full screened with the SC pilot slightly smaller so that I can see the Orca's overview at all times. Useful, since my Orca is, in addition to providing maximum fleet boosts, always sitting one acceleration gate out from where my Hulks are working, acting as my early warning. If I see a ship show up on the Orca's overview, it's a matter of a second or two for the SC to squad warp his squad to a safespot bookmark (never to station).

*continued in next post*

Very well-written posts, and definitely some good advice in there.

I started mission mining a few days ago myself to see how it'd work out, and I'm converted. Even lowballing it on quick clear level 3 missions it's about 100-150 million per mission belt worth of minerals on average. I did have to get use to my hauler making a 70-100km burn to the belt from the acceleration gate on some of them, but since dropping cans isn't the risk it is in belts, it's hardly an issue. All in all it's become my new way to mine, and a very profitable one too.

**** burning to the cans. I just warp a Noctis in to tractor the cans close to the warp-in (It's in-system anyway), and maybe fit tractors to the haulers.

Um, where's this "huge uproar"?? All I've seen latest is a pronouncement from the disgraced lawyer, Goonie alts, and chest thumpers over this...

Serious, who but the gankers and their silly supporters are saying anything? Miners really don't give a crap, I honestly think they're starting to learn how to do it correctly (no, don't use fail bots in ice belts as your examples), and, quite frankly, the only ones whining (besides the usual noted above) are the newbies that learn quickly how this game works. And when it comes to gate ganking, that has fallen off MASSIVELY since the Boomerang fixes in my part of space.

So I ask again, just where is the "huge uproar"? And don't post foolish goonie alt BS.

Edit: oh, and no, I didn't read the wall of text beyond the first sentence. You discredited your own post with that foolish sentence.

Mining public belts works fine--if you stay out of high traffic areas. If you insist on mining in newb school systems or within 10 jumps of Jita, yes, you're going to have problems. Most of Amarr space, however, is nearly deserted. I have mined for years, always in highsec, usually have jet cans hanging around for hours, and only get can flipped once every 6 months or so. No one has EVER tried to gank my hulk. Avoiding the crowd also has the advantage of making it far easier to find higher value asteroids.

Good stuff in there. +1

Not bad, just please for the love of all that is holy, stop calling them dungeons. We aren't in fantasy MMO world.

/rant off

Some deadspace pocket related messages you get on your chat refer to "dungeon". So he is right and you are wrong.