Missions & Complexes

ASs above currently i am roaming round hi-sec doing some exploration and have so far been quite lucky finding some decent 4/10's etc and a few 1 and 2/10's

my dilema is this :- i have a nice little 20 jump area i cover, say i go out in my astero i have found a 4/10 that is 12 jumps away from my base and other ships i need to re-ship so i travel the 12 jumps swap ships and travel back, on 2 occassions i have returned to see that someone else has started the plex.
so would i be better off putting my small group of ships into an orca and travelling round this way from system to system? i am a solo account with limited option's. i would be looking to carry astero, stratios,drake. Also if this is my only option how would you fit the orca for this kind of work.
any idea's or suggestion's appreciated.

thanks.

Many thanks for the info and how to use the ship.

Would that apply? Been a solo account with no alt would i be able to swap ships while undocked. I was merely thinking of system hopping with all my ships then docking in a station

I use my Orca in a similar fashion.

I load the Maintenance Bay with my Astero, Gila, Prospect and whatever else I feel like using, put my gear in containers in the fleet hanger and my loot goes in the main cargo hold. I put the 100mn MWD on the mid and a Sisters launcher in the highs to get a quick look to see if its worth docking up.

If it is worth docking up, then I do so and bring out the Astero and do my scanning. I will travel out a couple jumps in high sec and at least a dozen into low and null sec. The Orca stays happy and safe docked in a high sec station.

Oh no's !!! We are getting bleed-over from the GD thread, RP'ers coming to ruin our facts with fiction.

Switch the Reinforced Bulkheads in the low for a Reactor Control Unit, the rigs to Large Transverse Bulkheads I or II, and you're looking at about 310k/345k EHP before overheating (which isn't very effective anyway, most of your hp are in hull and the damage control can't be overheated).
I wouldn't suggest using Cargo extenders, as the combination of cargohold, corp and fleet hangar provide more than enough space and flexibility for high sec exploration. But the cloak, a salvager/tractor beam or a probe launcher in the highs could be quite useful.

I thought you could by ejecting the ship and then exiting the orca and boarding the new ship ... but never tried it, I cannot fly an Orca so probably got it wrong.

Either way the dock at station plan will work out better.

Please let me know what system you're going to do this in. I'll keep an eye on your Orca to make sure no one takes it

In fact i was one of the first to use the Orca/Scanning setup.

Yes, it does solve all transport and bay problems.

You can eject and change to other ship, let it drift bookmarked etc.... BUT

I wouldnt recommend that. There is a risk that someone might find it and take it away, though few of those doing it have the skills to fly an orca. Still the possibility exists and the loss is very expensive.

Instead i would take a second account, train it the orca and use the fleet combination of 2 toons. That was what i did when i started with exploration and scanning. But, correct, that was some years ago, when exploration in high-sec was still worth the effort, from my point of view it isnt like that anymore, or at least not proitable enough to feed this combination.

Still there is niche exisiting: I named it the locust technique.

Orca is not only Hauler, but a high-sec carrier:
- Change ships
- Fit ships
- Transport goods, loot and ships
- Tractor 80km and 5 salvage drones

means:
Have a scanning frig, combat frig, combat hac and a mining barque in the Orca, which is equipped to tractor and salvage, fly in fleet and have the correct skills.

There is few you cant do in highsec then. It means indepence as the Orca is a mobile station and carrier, command ship for mining. You dont need any station for months when you have ammo and all demanded equipment with you.

With tractor units and depots and a correct setup for a small POS in the fleet hangar of Orca you could even setup safe spots in low and nullsec with the correct faction, allthough only for very short time, to not become victim of POS-gankers. But i wouldnt startup with it, you should only do that when you are experienced with this fleet combination and know what to do where and how. Especially when you drop into drug and booster porduction this combination is very proitable, because the gas clouds are nastily spread and moons to set the production up are quite rare. This way you can do what you want, when you have the opportunity.

Hope this helped a bit. If interested, contact me ingame.

much simpler, I used to fly out my Orca to target zone, swap ships staying within "hot" swappable range in case anything nasty appears. meant i could mine away without any serious worries. few times i was threatened, I hot swapped.
After swapping, scoop your exhumer/explorerriggedfrig

of course this means sitting on top of your orca, and not going afk, eye on local, only possible in hi-sec.


advantages : a full orca ore hold while from solo mining with zero station trips
disadvantages : live paranoid

positively, I paid off my orca from doing mining trips with the hotswapping method in hi-sec, negatively, I was more bored than a brutor with only sebestior to talk too..