Ships & Modules

I'd just like more options, on the basis that more options=more fun. I'm not a miner, but I think it'd be fun for some of them to turn a Hulk into a flying, hard as nails brick and attempt to bait suicide gankers into smashing themselves against its tank in futility. By its description the Hulk is billed as the toughest mining vessel
"They are also far more resilient, better able to handle the dangers of deep space." But it doesn't really live up to that description at the moment, with that roughly 22k EHP ceiling.
Also I'm not an industrialist so I can't be sure, but I suspect most of the Hulk's price is tied to its status as a Tech 2 ship and whatever materials bottleneck that whole line is subject to.

Well, a couple things:

First, just half-assing it on EFT I can get over 31K on a Hulk, while still sporting 3x T2 Strips.
I'm sure I could get a bit more if I made an effort and used implants.

Second, gankers generally don't shoot Hulks blindly. Mackinaws, probably. Hulks, no. Even badly tanked hulks can easily have around 10K EHP. If your Hulk has been popped, it was likely scanned at some point.

Building a 'brick' Hulk will do one of two things:
you will be scanned and ignored and left to mine in a suboptimal manner.
you will be wrecked with overwhelming force.

Passive scanning is very important in damage type selection.
Sure, Phased Plasma generally works fine, but after blowing a miner, I notice that his subsequent Hulks tend to be sporting hardeners of one type or another - which usually just forces me to change damage types.

Usually the progression goes, RF PP > RF EMP > RF Fusion.
The new buff for Quake Ammo adds another tool to the mix, as gives a huge blast of Kinetic damage.
For extra special targets you can use Domination Fusion L, which gives you that little bit of extra oomph at 800K a round. (luckily you only need 6x in a Tempest)

Basic no-tank hulk fit is about 9000-9800 EHP (level V skills).

DC2 w/ shield extender rigs, 2 T2 invulns in the mids and T2 strips gets to about 22k EHP.

DC2, Reinforced Bulkhead, (2) small Azeo shield extenders (2) invuln2 and (2) shield extender rigs = 27.5k

(I am curious about the 31k fit - faction?)

DC2, PDU2, 2× T2 Invulns, 1× V-M15 (or another T2 with a CPU implant), SSE2, 2× CDFE.

When something nasty warps in, hit “overheat rack” on the midslots.

I TOTALLY agree. In fact, I think all T3 ships, like caps, should not be allowed into high-sec. That still leaves gankers their hi-sec gank ships, and lets those in low/null have shiny new toys for pew pew there.

Well I discounted the T2 shield Rigs as they're 80 million a pop. I'd imagine if a ganker saw those they'd be even more inclined to call some friends and attack for the tears factor alone :P Good point about overheating though, well worth it for miners to train for that cheap extra defence. So 30K, or enough to survive two volleys. Nice!

I get that realistically most smart gankers will scan first. But if a strongish tank was a bit more achievable, conservative miners could
-point and laugh at a hasty overconfident failganker, if one should make an attempt without doing enough research.
-deter solo gankers who can't be arsed rounding up a buddy when there's a bunch of untanked hulks the next system over.
Its the same principle as fitting a strong lock on your bicycle or front door of your house. Sure a determined robber could just brute force it, but he's more likely to rob your neighbour instead :P

On a less sarcastic note, there was a discussion a while back about doing pretty much that, but with some additions: slightly buff the mining capabilities of the Barges, and wtfomgzbuff the tank on Exhumers so they could withstand the harshness of low/nullsec space. The thinking was that, right now, Exhumers are balanced for some kind of in-between state that doesn't really exist: it has much higher tank than is really needed for highsec duty and much lower tank than what is needed for low/nullsec, and doesn't offer enough of an upgrade to make it worth the risk in areas where more money can be made.

So recalibrate them for dangerous-space-duty and make them a bonus for those who dare to go into business there, and increase the yield of the remaining highsec mining ships so the miners who won't leave don't get completely screwed (but at the same time, on the other hand, it means a reduced risk due to significantly lower costs and less desirability as targets).

The balancing act of pulling it off would be pretty ugly, but it's an interesting concept imo.

Yeah, that is more or less my point.

EHP is grand, but it doesn't move cargo from point A to point B.

If you aren't concerned about a gank, (ie hauling relatively low-value cargo like Tornados), you might as well minimize the number of trips you have to take and cargoexpand to the max. Profit oriented gankers aren't going to burn up 5-6 Tornados to scoop 3 of them from your burning wreckage. Gankage for lulz is all you would have to worry about.

If you are carrying high-value (ie billions in ISK) cargo, Tippia has it right - keep those EHP counts as high as possible, and keep the really shiny stuff in the corporate hangar.

(Incidentally, they need to fix this too - why the hell are Corporate (and other) hangars unscannable and do not drop loots?)
This needs to be fixed. A cargo scan should show EVERYthing, and all cargobays should have a chance to drop.

AFK Orca Haulers shouldn't have an easy-mode to free ISKies. They need to take a risk like everyone else. Scads of potential EHP is enough. Nerf unrealistic stealth Orca cargobays!!!

Why are people talking about tanking orcas? Are we going to be able to scan the stuff in the corp/ship hangar? Is the stuff in the corp/hangar going to start dropping?

just got back from sams club, bought some pumpkin pie, potatoes (for making ~mashed~ potatoes), some loose leaf earl grey, a nice turkey, and a bunch of other stuff

thanksgivin is going to be awesome