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No one knows what CCP think you should do for mining crystals as in numbers and what not, as they have not talked at all about crystals and the cargohold, they have not put out reasons why the crystals are supposed to be so large, and why the amounts need to limit what you can mine.

To think it is acceptable to me to have someone run around in a hauler handing out crystals is ludicrous, to think that the mining booster should shut down and run into the belt every time someone needs a new crystal is ludicrous. When I set up and start crunching rocks, I do not want to move an inch, other than go for more beers. The hulks stay in place till I am done mining, or run out of rocks in range to blast. I handle my ore logistics in a manner that suits me just fine.

This may be great for your play style, but not mine, and I am sure there are 50 other miners out there who will have 50 different play styles as well.

I have actually met miners in game that put a cargo container inside there hulk just so they can keep a full selection of crystals on hand, and keep the cargohold tidy at the same time.

Why should they no longer be able to carry the full selection that they have been using for years.

Crystals need to be reduced in size.

All these wonderful changes made to the mining barge, and at the same time they overlooked the mining crystals.

It will be interesting to see how much they actually listen to those that do these things day-in and day-out. If they botch this up by not listening to the player base, it'll be a nail in the coffin for many more as it'll just show the 'we know more than you do' attitude - again..

I am following this thread from the beginning and i be leave devs do to. I am a miner for almost 4 years now :) . I would like to share one concept about EVE which is kind of related to this topic of crystals too.

EVE is a sand box - we all know that, but the great thing about this game is the amount of chooses of how u can play it, and this is one of the main aspects of what i like about this game, we all play in this sand box but we all play it our way :) . I start to think that CCP does not realize why miners are making such a big deal about this particular problem. Its because this thing will directly impact the mining ability's and options they always had, which is suddenly for a know reason is removed. As if someone comes in to your sand box where u played always takes half of your toys and lets u, use a bucket and a shuffle and says "deal with it".

Dev's said "we don't want mining barges to be haulers", so the cargo holds got shrieked to a minimum as much as possible, nobody cared about it too much, cuz we got the ore holds, but as soon as miners realized that this will be a major limitation to the options they had before, this became a major problem.

Now the miners community came up whit the solution for this problem which is reducing the crystals size. And this way everybody wins. We still have our broad spectrum of options of how we want to mine and using these ships as haulers option is of the table too. So CCP enlighten us what is the problem? Cuz as up until now not a single dev deared to comment on this matter. So where is our promised improved communication with the player base?

Obviously if you want to mine everything in sight, you should be using tech I strip miners. You can also use tech 1 crystals in your tech II strip miners which take up less space then the tech II variant.

Specific ore and max yield or general all around rock cruncher. You have the pick. It really does seem like it's by design.

Maybe it's just my play style, but I never carry spare crystals on me. I can fill up several jet cans of the same ore before switching over to my hauler. If I need to change out crystals I do it at the station when I switch. This is part of the balance and sacrifice the most of the game follows when configuring your ship.

As someone who HAS mined a fair bit way back when, and will more then likely do some after these changes when I'm hammered or something, I REALLY can't seem to find any justification in your current demands "Hulk should be able to carry crystal for every ore type". Seriously? I was thinking you guys were having some good feedback here, but that statement, aswell as trying to say the hulk "works best in a fleet, but doesnt require a fleet" Makes me think you guys are just being selfish.

I want to carry every single hybrid round, with enough to last an entire roam. But I cant.

CCP Yitterbium DIRECTLY STATED the hulk IS DESIGNED TO WORK IN A FLEET, WITH SUPPORT. If you want to carry every damn crystal in the game, but refuse to use fleet support to do so, fly a god damn skiff.

The solution is EXTREMELY simple. If your dead set on using the hulk, pack it with whatever crystals it can use, and mine what you can. What about the rest of the ore? Oh, I don't know, how bout you communicate with the fleet that your with, and make sure you have all types covered?

And like it was stated earlier. This is a sandbox, you cant do "whatever you want" You can do things with the TOOLS CCP gives you, for a specific job.

Would you go rent an excavator to plant flowers in your garden? No, youd use something appropriate for what you want to do. What your wanting to do here, is plant sh-t in your garden, and the hulk is your excavator.

Present me with a VALID reason why a FLEET boat has to be able to carry every single ore crystal, even for the ones you wont encounter. Afraid a cluster of jaspet might hot drop you in .5 space?

Because asking somebody else to stop doing what they're doing to bring you more crystals isn't fun for anybody. Stopping doing what you're doing to get more crystals isn't fun.

Picking ammo for a roam isn't the same. You have down time, you aren't doing DPS 100% of the time. You have time for your ammo hauler to follow you around and meet up with you between fights. When you are mining, you are putting out DPS 100% of the time, you just don't get kill mail for roids.

Drox

Testing out the covetor - on SiSi was surprised I was able to fit T2 Strippers and t2 Upgrades and a small shield booster and cap stable.

Having some trials with the Procurer. Nice to have a tank and a good hold. with only using 1 crystal I can put plenty of spare crystals in the hold. If you want the ease of lots of crystals the Procurer and SKiff is the choice.

Though I wonder why The signature radius of the sig of the Skiff is 200, Mack is 250 and the Hulk is only 150. is this a type O?

It is interesting people are complaining about not enough room for the full spread of crystals on a Hulk. The Hulk is now to be a group dependent ship. A support ship with crystals fits within this them.

For the new Mack and Procurer though - why is CCP still placing a yield bonus on this ships based on Exhumers. It should be more diverse. By diverging away from yield the Hulk become more unique.

SKIFF
IE 5% Reduction of Sig radius or Speed for Skiff (ie instead of giving the Skiff a base 200 m/s speed, instead give it a base speed of 150 and a speed increase of 5% per level) So a higher skill in Exhumers gives it a stronger speed tank.

Mackinaw
ie The Machinaw is the lazy man's ship. and giving it a range bonus of 5% per level for strip mining laser range (Natural longer targeting may also be needed)

Dying is never fun in any game, but that isn't a balance or frustration issue, that's the point of the game.

All of the mining ships should be able to hold lots of mining crystals. There is no NEED to differentiate here. The ship engineers at ORE should have been smart enough to have done at least THAT much. In a good mining op, everybody is too busy doing their specific task to stop to screw around with dealing with crystals. Do you pick up extra ammo drops in the middle of a PvP skirmish or are you too busy fighting?

Do you really expect a hauler full of ammo to follow your roam around? If Yes, then I will accept a hauler passing out mining crystals in a mining op.

Fun = Subs and Subs = Profit.

Drox

I am on the opposite side of the fence.
On the rare occation I have a ship need to switch beyond the 9 crystals, 3 of 3 types of ore. often it 6 is he most ever needed. (for small group)

The hulk would book marks its location, warp to the boosting Orca or Rorqual to switch out then warp back. Or the hauling orca or Assistant hauling itty 5 would drop off the crystals for the hulk in need, allowing the hauler to be effective both directions from the belt.

I do have to admit I don't do solo mine with just 1 hulk, as I work in groups for the social aspect of it.
This may be why I am so opposite to those who "Need" to have 2 full sets of crystals.
I am personally seeing the Mack and the Retriever being ideal for those solo players