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Mining drones and skills
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Jaxx McCoy
#1 - 2011-09-13 08:20:25 UTC
I've been flying a Hulk for quite a while, but I have only recently started using mining drones; I'm not too familiar with them.

A few questions:

My understanding is that T2 mining drones are better than harvester drones because of speed, even though harvesters pull in more m3 per cycle. Is this correct?

Do drone support skills such as "drone durability" and "drone navigation" improve the stats of mining drones as well as combat? When I pull up "show info" on my own drones, I dont get stats updated taking skills into account like I do on weapons etc.

Is it worth it to rig mining vessels (specifically Hulk) with mining drone rigs, if I'm not really concerned with more cargo space?

-Thanks!
Joe Forum
#2 - 2011-09-13 08:56:38 UTC
General consensus is that T2 drones are just too horribly expensive to lose, T1 are preferred.

The key skill to boost your drones is http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Drone_Interfacing (after of course Mining Drone Operation).
Steven Fonulique
SF Incorporated
#3 - 2011-09-13 09:19:38 UTC
I think it's harvester mining drones that fall into the too horribly expensive to lose category.

To answer your question T2 will generally yeild more ore when you aren't sitting right on top of the asteroid compared to harvester drones.

I noticed recently that doing show info on my combat drones in my drone bay would show their stats updated based on my skills while doing show info while they were in space under my control would not. I assume this would apply to mining drones too.
0chse Horn
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#4 - 2011-09-13 11:33:58 UTC  |  Edited by: 0chse Horn
Joe Forum wrote:
General consensus is that T2 drones are just too horribly expensive to lose, T1 are preferred.

The key skill to boost your drones is http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Drone_Interfacing (after of course Mining Drone Operation).


This is not the general consesus and the second thing you tell him is just a BIG FAIL referring to Mining Drones I.

1) If you loose Mining Drones II you are doing something completely wrong!

2) If you recommend Mining Drones I, then it's not correct to tell him, that Mining Drones Operations has priority! You only need level 1 at the first stage, but afterwards skill Interfacing up to 3/4, than MDO to L3/4 and then again Interfacing. Interfacing is more important as it will not only give you with 1 level the same boost like 4 levels of MDO and it will increase the damage output of your combat drones dramatically!
My Postman
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#5 - 2011-09-13 11:56:41 UTC
About mining drones:

As long as you are not afk ALWAYS use mining drones II. When afk don´t use mining drones at all, as you will notice that belt rats like to aggress your drones first, some times, and when afk you will lose them.

Mining drones II - Harvester Drones:

As long as your ship is not PEFRFECTLY placed within unloading range of drones (which is sometimes near to impossible to do) mining drones II will do much better than harvester drones. The flight times of the fat buggers is so slow, that in 85/100 your mining drone II will outmine a harvester drone.

When mining in low/null where you have to gtfo quick, mining drone I can assist your lazors, as they are cheep when you have to leave them behind.
Tikera Tissant
#6 - 2011-09-13 12:48:31 UTC
Some math to explain this regarding actual skills:

Mining drones operations - drones interfacing - tech drones = m3 / min - isk / min:
(based on 5 drones out, isk based on what you mine)

operations 1 - interfacing 5 - drones I = 157 m3/m - 15K/h
operations 5 - interfacing 5 - drones II = 312 m3/m - 29k/h
operations 5 - interfacing 0 - drones I = 93 m3/m - 9K/h
operations 5 - interfacing 0 - drones II = 156 m3/m - 14k/h


So as you can see, if you plan to use drones I, best go first to drones interfacing 5.
Whether T2 drones are worth it or not, they are. But if you are in a hostile environment, or going afk, they can be targeted by others (or rats), and you will lose them.

Harvester drones are super rare, and aren't worth the cost at all. They will never return the huge investment in getting them compared to T2 drones.

And regarding supplemental skills:

Drones navigation does nothing to mining drones, as they do not use MWD like combat drones.
Drones durability is nice, but they have low EHP to begin with, so they will not survive a rat or two trying to kill them for very long.

And about drones rigs:

This is by far not worth it. It will reduce your CPU by 10%.
This means that you will most likely not be able to put two MLUs on your hulk, which can increase your main strip miners by 10% (if using T2), which is a whole lot of m3 / min compared to the drones just moving a bit faster.


Anyway I hope this helps.
I suggest to get drones 5 and interfacing 5 if you still have a few skills to level up, or other things in mind.
If not, get to operations first, interfacing second, or get 3 in both, and than operations 5 for T2.

Good luck.
Jaxx McCoy
#7 - 2011-09-13 13:11:20 UTC
Thanks for the quick replies everyone.

Dang I really thought drone navigation would help. Oh well, I know what skills to be training for now! Smile
Usurpine
Imperial Shipment
Amarr Empire
#8 - 2011-09-13 13:25:22 UTC  |  Edited by: Usurpine
I wouldnt use mining drones at all instead you better put hammerhead II in it so you can kill some rats.
Dont forget to pull in those drones always after you have done killing the rats.
If you go in a group with more hulks you dont even need good expensive tank fittings on those hulks, because dead reats dont hurt.

This is of course if you mine in better environment. In empire you can do both, a set of small drones plus a set of mining drones, just imho its a lot of clicking not really worth doing it, better get an other account with a hulk.
If you are doing more then dualboxing (some people have several accounts all mining at the same time) you will not want to take care of every toons mining drones, for sure.
Nevryn Takis
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#9 - 2011-09-13 16:06:02 UTC
In hisec carrying 2 T2 combat drones is generally more than sufficient to deal with any belt rats... Add a light armour maintainance drone just in case and you can fly 3 mining drones continueously without problems(unless you're afk a lot).
Dorian Wylde
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#10 - 2011-09-13 20:57:12 UTC
Steven Fonulique wrote:
I think it's harvester mining drones that fall into the too horribly expensive to lose category.



This. Harvesters are great when you're right next to a rock, because travel time becomes instant so speed becomes irrelevant. The only problem is, if you look away from the screen for 2 minutes and rats spawn, you could be out a ridiculous amount of money.