Ships & Modules

Currently everyone in my ice belt is using a procurer/skiff to mine ice, but I'm having a hard time grasping why since the skiff/procurer can only use a single ice harvester.

Is a skiff/procurer better for ice mining?

Any details? Couldn't find a post.

Procurers have enough cargo space to hold a good bit of ore letting them run AFK or minimally attended for a good period of time while also packing upwards of 60-80k EHP depending on the fit. Retrievers can go even longer without the player paying attention, and with the extra low slot they might be able to mine more in total, but the lower buffer on them means that flying large groups of them, even with their buff, is weaker against suicide assaults than procurers/skiffs are.

Covetors and hulks will, of course, mine more ice, though it's only something like 7.5% more ice when comparing max yield hulks to mackinaws, but they go fewer cycles before needing attention and have the smallest buffers of all the ships meaning that they require the most attention to keep mining safely.

/shrugs. It boils down to practicallity. Procurers and skiffs are simply the most practical ships for mining ice in a quasi-AFK state.

The base yield for all barges is all the same as the Procurer and Retriever get yield bonuses to match the Covetor's base yield (before skills and MLUs).

The Retriever/Mackinaw can fit one more IHU for Ice Harvesting, as it has an extra low slot. However, to do so it has to sacrifice almost all tank. It can also stay AFK longer.

The Procurer can fit 2 IHUs and still have a nice tank. But you can only stay AFK for 15-18 minutes at a time.