Science & Industry

So the headline figures are that the Mackinaw now mines 25% more than a Skiff, and the Hulk mines 40% more than a Skiff.

Still not enough to make the Mackinaw worthwhile; it doesn't have the tank to survive solo against either NullSec rats or HighSec gankers, and in any fleet situation the Hulk will out-mine it.

It might make the Retriever worthwhile, as it's cheap enough not to matter when it gets ganked.

And for ice harvesting, max-cycle-time-fitted (but: unrigged, since you probably need some CPU rigs to even fit the Ice Harvester Upgrade II's), all skills to V, and no boosts or :

A) m³ per cycle:

All:        1000m³/c  »  1000m³/c    (unchanged)

B) ice harvesters per ship

Procurer:   1         »  2           (+50%)
Retriever:  2         »  2           (unchanged)
Covetor:    3         »  2           (-33%)
Skiff:      1         »  2           (+50%)
Mackinaw:   2         »  2           (unchanged)
Hulk:       3         »  2           (-33%)

C) seconds per cycle

Procurer:    55.90s/c »  111.79s/c   (+100% time = -50% m³/s)
Retriever:  101.73s/c »   81.39s/c   (-20% time = +25% m³/s)
Covetor:    124.22s/c »   76.30s/c   (-38.575% time = +62.8% m³/s)
Skiff:       45.78s/c »   91.56s/c   (+100% time = -50% m³/s)
Mackinaw:    91.56s/c »   73.25s/c   (-20% time = +25% m³/s)
Hulk:       105.58s/c »   64.85s/c   (-35.575% time = +62.8% m³/s)

F) m³ per second (= A*B/C)

Procurer:   17.89m³/s »  17.89m³/s   (unchanged)
Retriever:  19.66m³/s »  24.57m³/s   (+25%)
Covetor:    24.15m³/s »  26.21m³/s   (+8.53%)
Skiff:      21.84m³/s »  21.84m³/s   (unchanged)
Mackinaw:   21.84m³/s »  27.30m³/s   (+25%)
Hulk:       28.41m³/s »  30.84m³/s   (+8.53%)

I just compared my yield on my skiff and Traqulity and Sisi ore mining and got exactly the same yield with T1 strip miners, well 1m3 extra and the time taken was the same too. As I am not going to change from the Skiff that is all that matters to me.

Skiff:      21.86m³/s »  21.86m³/s   (unchanged)

Entirely consistent with my findings.

All low-slots were accounted for (and fitted with Mining Laser Upgrade II's / Ice Harvester Upgrade II's), including the 3 low slots Mackinaws already have, and the 3 low slots that Covetors and Hulks are getting. The Procurer is the only one left with only 2 low slots.

That's a sizeable increase in Retriever/mack yield with no hold increase, going to make them a bit worse in the solo miner arena.

Thanks for doing the math. The change seem modest and straightforward. The Procurer/Skiff for low risk/low reward, Mackinaw and Hulk at an equal risk level, but the Hulk offering a yield bonus if you want to make the effort with jetcans or hauling ore.

Still too many unknowns on the Rorqual/new command ship to make up my mind.

Scenario one would be Mackinaws supported by the new command ship (dumping ore in a POS or future mining array), and scenario two would be hulks supported by a Rorqual (dumping ore in the Rorqual). A lot depending on how much bonus yield CCP will give for the latter scenario. But if the situation is safe enough for a Rorqual, why not train all miners up to a Rorqual.

Waiting for the relevant devblog....

That last part has been my question, if the Rorqual gets huge yield with drones, why not just run Rorquals? Huge tank, lots of dps for defense, spider tank the fleet, and possibly daisy chain invulnerability field.

Q: What purpose does the Mackinaw serve? The hulk pulls in more, so it's better in a fleet!
A: Yes and no. The hulk is better as long as you can empty all of your own hulk's ore holds without any hulk stopping their miners. A Hulk's cargohold fills up every ~150 seconds. So if you can empty one every 10 seconds, you can run 12-15 Hulks yourself. If you have more than 15 mining chars, you have to use Mackinaws.

The Mackinaw is the ship for the guys that want more than 2 minutes between emptying the cargoholds.

It's still useless though; not tanky enough for solo, doesn't mine as much as a Hulk in fleets.