Player Features and Ideas Discussion

As title says, it's a shame Orcas can't hold gas in their ore holds. There should be an additional skill or a mod/rig that allows for the carrying of gases in its ore hold or just allow it in order to stimulate an in-game area neglected.

Gas harvesting is a profession. It's something players focus on. Allowing gas to be stored ni an Orca ore hold would make nomad fleets risk to reward more attractive in wormhole/low sec space for gas harvesters.

At the moment you can only carry a few sites worth in an Orca. This makes nomading into other wormholes unattractive. I believe if CCP were to allow the Orca ore hold to carry gases, more nomad fleets would venture into deep wh space for the possibility of "making it big".

Gas harvesting does need a bit of love. I'll support this just for that

I may be crazy, but I am pretty sure this is coming in Retribution when they introduce the new mining/gas frigate. IIRC, all ore holds will be able to hold gas.

To start off why not allow gas to be held in an ore bay? What was the purpose of limiting it in the first place? My argument for allowing gas to be held in an Orca is as follows:

If you're only planning to harvest C5 & C6 C320/C540 as a nomad it's not worth the effort because

(1) those sites are rare
(2) they aren't easy to clear
(3) you're more likely to get ganked

All these issues combined reduce the isk/day nomad concept dramatically. Also, once you're in a C5/C6 you can easily be stuck in deep space for a long time.

Gas havesting C28/C32 and some of the other gases (very select few c50/c72) in C3's and C4's is a great way to earn isk and have fun with a fair balance of risk to reward. If you could use the ore hold for gas then venturing deeper into space may be worth it, but without the Ore hold add'l capacity even the C3/C4 concept becomes tiresome as you probe your way thru space to now have to probe 30 some odd signatures then gas harvest for 2 hours and fill your Orca up and have to return to Empire to unload. The mass restrictions make it very frustrating when you can only make a total of 3-4 Orca round trips depending on the stability of the wormhole(s) entrances. Remember to get into a C4 you have to go through another wormhole, so exit stability becomes a real issue.

The way we fit our Orcas for nomad ops, we only have:

1 - Orca Bay = 52,470 M3
2 - Corporate Hangars = 40,000 M3

Total Cargo Space = 92,470 M3 *note proly less since we need to bring various mods/gear for reshipping when pvping

Per Unit Prices:
C540 = 77,000 isk - 10 m3/unit
C320 = 81,000 isk - 5 m3/unit
C32 = 21,000 isk - 5 m3/unit
C28 = 5,000 isk - 2 m3/unit

Orca Cost (fit) w/Implants = 1.9 Billion (t1 cargo rigs)
Per Day Cost for Crew:

1 Orca Pilot w/Boosts
4 Gas Harvesters (maxed skilled)
Total Crew Production = 800 m3/Minute
at current plex prices 600 mill per plex, the day rate for the crew is 100 million per day

Gas Production per Pilot = 200 m3/minute

Example 1 - this takes 1-3 days to find and about 2 hours to harvest w/ 4 man crew and boost, incl clearing site
Vital Core Reservoir
C540 = 6000 units x 10 = 60,000 m3 (462,000,000 isk)
C320 = 500 units x 5 = 2,500 m3 (40,500,000 isk)
Total... 62,500 m3 with total Income of 502,500,000 isk
*this is the BEST scenario and not typical in my experience b/c if somebody lives in the wormhole this is the first activity to be done.

Example 2 - this can take up to 12 hours, but has been done in 4-6 hours and about 45 minutes to harvest
Vast Frontier Reservoir
C32 = 5000 units x 5 m3 = 25,000 m3 (105,000,000isk)
C28 = 1000 units x 2 m3 = 2,000 m3 (5,000,000 isk)
Total... 27,000 m3 with total income of 110,000,000 isk

There are usually 1-2 of these sites maximum best scenario

To make up for the crew cost you can further harvest C50 and C72, which is fairly abundant in wh space. This is where you need the extra hold, you're already in the wh and you've probed out the sig, might as well fill up with some of the other gases, but then you realize you don't have the capacity to do more than 3 or so sites before having to head back to empire about 250-300 mill when full.

To summarize, gas harvesting should be more lucrative and the reward to risk can be enhanced by allowing Harvesting crews to use the Orca ore bay to hold gases, therefore supporting CCP's original intent for wormholes, that of a nomadic game style.

why should gas not be held in ore containers? because gas is more like water/air compared to or witch is like dust/dirt/rocks

thats how i see it

The whole seperate cargohold thing is very annoying and it doesent really make sense does it, i mean if you can store 100000 m3 worth of ore why cant you store 10000 m3 worth of gas or amunition? In my opinion seperate cargoholds, with restrictions on what items you can put in each is just as annoying as invisible walls

nice, thanks for the update