Science & Industry

Good overall summary.

I like the changes, generally.

Need to point out that your crystal sizes need adjusting:

T1 Crystals are 15 m3 each

T2 Cyrstals are 25 m3 each

Having used all the new barges (specifically exhumers) I can tell you that the Ore holds are nice, but really are a "kick the can down the road" solution to people using barges as haulers (one of the given reason for the Ore holds). Ore holds also add another unnecessary window to the whole UI that now needs to be open on screen.

Since others have noted this -- per the posted dev blog for those that care about max yield #'s --

Note that since the percentage numbers for a Rorqual boosting are basically the same, I've not listed those.

Orca Booster: This shows the yield with the Hulk as the baseline:

...................... Veld / hr ....... Merc / hr ...... Ice / hr
Hulk .............. 1,739,139 ...... 2,749 ............ 73
Covetor ........ 1,578,043 ...... 2,492 ............ 69
Mackinaw .... 1,505,059 ...... 2,377 ............ 68
Retriever ...... 1,433,390 ...... 2,264 ............ 64
Skiff .............. 1,380,788 ...... 2,185 ............ 61
Procurer ....... 1,315,038 ...... 2,078 ............ 58

........................ Yield % based on Hulk ....................... Yield % "worse" than Hulk
...................... Veld % ....... Merc % ....... Ice % .......... Veld ........... Merc ............ Ice
Hulk ............... 100.0% ...... 100.0% ....... 100.0% ........ 0.0% ......... 0.0% ........... 0.0%
Covetor ......... 90.7% ......... 90.7% ........ 94.5% .......... -9.3% ........ -9.3% ......... -5.5%
Mackinaw ..... 86.5% ......... 86.5% ......... 93.2% ......... -13.5% ...... -13.5% ........ -6.8%
Retriever ....... 82.4% ......... 82.4% ........ 87.7% .......... -17.6% ...... -17.6% ....... -12.3%
Skiff .............. 79.4% ......... 79.5% ......... 83.6% ......... -20.6% ....... -20.5% ....... -16.4%
Procurer ....... 75.6% ......... 75.6% .......... 79.5% ........ -24.4% ........ -24.4% ....... -20.5%

Given these percentage numbers, you can see that the Mack mines 13.5% LESS Ore/Merc than a Hulk. As has already been pointed out, that is a HUGE amount.

For you multi-boxers out there (and yes, I'm one):
Pros:

6 Macks (instead of 5), will gain you about 3.7% more yield

You don't have to have that hauler running for you

You have more than 1 cycle in your Ore hold for paying attention to local, d-scan, etc..

You can carry more T2 crystals :D

Cons:

You have to haul back to the POS / Station instead of that hauler

You have to watch your roid scanners individually now (they have crappy range for what you can target)

Summary:
> If you are a max-yield Hulk kind of person, fielding more Hulks is still the best way to go.
> If you don't want to pay as much attention to the screen, or don't use a dedicated hauler, use a Mack.
> If you need extra tank, use a Skiff - and still get more Ore hold than a Hulk.

If 1-2 accounts: Macks

If 3+ accounts or ops: Hulks/Orcas

Does anyone know if there is a plan to change the size of the ships to match the new storage capabilities?

You can't mine AFK in a Retriever or Mackinaw, but you can mine semi-AFK. I've done that for dozens of hours, with a single account, since the last expansion, and I'm sure many other players have done it for many hundreds of ours with multiple accounts each.

edit: To elaborate, the reason you can't mine AFK is that the roids pop too quickly. Very few asteroids in high-sec belts have ore for more than two of the +50% bonused Mackinaw stripper cycles.

Killing can flippers was so much fun in the past.
cpp got rid of that part of the game.
I miss it and the latest changes dont make the game richer.

Also the difference from retriever to hulk is way too small.

I dont like that "finetuning", this needs a fix.

Question ?

from everything i have been reading so far,

its better to be in 2/3 hulks and one orca instead of Macks and one orca

Yes or No ?

This. Use the right ship for the right job.

Several posts above, first on in this page as a matter of fact, has a good summary (quoted & #'s) of the various ships.