Player Features and Ideas Discussion

LOL .. I didn't mean to make anyone think that I don't know how to run a mining op.

In the case I exampled, I dumped to pre-placed enormous freight containers (250k m3 each). When enough were full, one of the hulk pilots left his Hulk duties for 2 cycles (not a big deal) to grab the freighter for a couple of loads back to the POS. Once that was done,

Personally, I find dropping ore to an Orca laborious -- in High-sec, maybe that's the way to do it. In Null & WH's, getting caught in a belt / grav site is a far bigger problem than worrying about whether or not you can dump your Ore to that new can / container / orca / rorqual - so having extra space for that 2nd strip cycle is a big deal.

I never implied unloading the hold was laborious. Dropping Ore is part of a miner's life. I believe the laboriousness of it comes into play whether or not the Orca / Rorqual is sitting still or actually hauling. So, do you have that extra ship on grid hauling, or replace it with another miner and pickup later. That is the FC's call.

With freight containers & jet cans, you open them and never move until you run out of in-range ore. If the Orca / Rorqual is actually hauling, then you are constantly reopening the fleet hangar everytime the hauler warps off & back. Annoying.

How one decides to setup and run their mining op is entirely up to them. Why not just use Ventures? Why not have 10 haulers and 1 miner? It's inefficient, but it is completely legit - and not the point of the OP.

Ultimately, it comes down to this:
1. The Skiff gets much less used now compared to before when it was the Merxoit specialist (tank is great though).
2. The Hulk can't even hold 2 maxed miner cycles. Pretty lame for a specialized ship.
3. The Mack has nominal yield loss over the hulk - and a massive 35k Ore hold on a smaller hull.

The tiericide was fine -- it just needs some fine tuning. Asking for enough Ore hold for 2 maxed cycles on the Covetor/Hulk is not much when the Mack has a 35k hold -- enough for up to 45 minutes of boosted mining.

It's unfortunate that you don't know me --- you would have never even thought of making such a statement. I'll leave it at that.

I respect that your "answer" is "nope" - though I disagree, so harden up and quit worrying about those that use these ships.

Not knowing your industrial involvement I can with certain (you can search the relevant posts) tell you that most of the people that know what's going on with them repeatedly said the Mack would take over, the Skiff would rarely be used and the Hulk's Ore hold needed to run with 2 cycles.

the intended roles of the barges was one for dangerous space, one for solo mining and one for fleet mining.

now the reason that the mack and rettie are used so much more than the others is not because of imbalance, but because the vast, vast, majority of miners are solo miners. so the mack suits the vast majority of players. this is pretty evident by most fleets being populated by hulks, and most loners using macks.

when i solo mine i use a mack because it is a lazier way to mine and it suits my purpose. but when i fleet up with others i use the hulk because thats exactly what its for. i dnt have any problems with the hulks ore hold during ops, the only difficulty over the mack i experience is that roids are chewed faster so i have to lock new ones more frequently, but it is no big deal.

the only issue with the new barges is that the skiff and procurer are lacking in use. but thats because its tank only delays the inevitable rather than really saves it. there could be a few ways to fix that, but thats not why were here is it? We're here for the hulk and because ppl want multi-boxing with hulks to be easier and would rather CCP give them everything they want rather than compromising by swapping out a hulk for a mack. Maybe that's not everyone's incentive to get behind this idea, but its the most common.

if ur having trouble mult-boxing, then swap a hulk for a mack, or learn to multi-box better.

i'd accept that the hulk having 'two lowest' stats is up for discussion. it may have been an over compensation by CCP because the hulk was the be all and end all of mining prior to the changes. if that really is the issue then we should be able to swap the tanks between the hulk and the mack and everyone be happy. however, i doubt this to be the case. edit- i've just re-read the thread and it seems quite a few ppl want to swap the tanks...my bad

i fear that hulk users will continue to be unhappy until CCP make it easier to use (more) multiple hulks at once. from the OP:



relaxed miners should not get max yield. they should use macks.
******* over caffeinated-crazy-mad-super-skilled multi-boxers with uber dexterity should get max yield. OR ppl who get together with their friends should get max yield.

browny points (or isk) for working hard and together yo.

or they could just balance the exhumers properly to begin with?

and we have medium mining drones, they're called harvester mining drones and they suck more than a cheap hooker.

Multiboxers would use macks simply because with enough alts, yield concerns go out the window.

Of course it's all those interactions with other player's which keep the MMOG's so interesting; and who are you calling anti-social? That would be everyone in my corp pretty much all multi-account holders.

I think the balance is just fine, personally.

Boosting the yield of the hulk slightly with a drone bonus and *real* medium mining drones that we can actually manufacture in quantity and that have a T2 variant rather than gimped pseudo-faction crap like the harvester drones would complete the balance rather nicely.

In my opinion, of course.

Nerf the Retriever and Mack (reduce ore cargo hold).