EVE General Discussion

The fundamental concept is fine. Procurer hull = defence / Retriever hull = capacity / Covetor hull = yield.

What you are talking about is a complete rework of the concept. I wouldn't complain if they did, although I don't agree that is necessary and is a waste of development resources which could be better spent elsewhere. It is obvious the procurer hull offers great advantage for minimal drawback, although this can be tweaked by buffing the other two.

I remember the very first barge rework and CCP incorrectly claimed that all players would favour yield and capacity over anything else, this assumption is where the mistake lies, and is why the procurer is more popular as the value of it's strength was vastly underestimated by CCP.

That.

I would propose that if rats are a problem you kill them with something else first then come back. The respawn timers on them are like an hour or some such.

Or you get them to put a hard cap on strip miners per ship ala links, and then they can have additional high slots also.
There is a lot that can be done using existing proven tech CCP already have introduced. You don't even have to work out how to have cargo extenders affect the ore hold (Which is a wider reaching thing than just barges). You just make sure the base cargo is large enough that cargo extenders make a difference to it. (Becomes much easier if cargo extenders had a stacking penalty like everything else that adds a percentage modifier does also, but that one is a larger change)

Covvie needs maxed out skill wise 2 cycles of ore in the ore hold. Ret and Covvie need 3 mids with enough CPU/PG to fit Em ward amp, invul and MSE. Hulk needs more CPU/PG to fit a tank without it being super expensive. Other T2 miners are great. Proc can have a buff to ore hold to skiff 15K m3 but this isnt a huge deal to me tbh.

Mining lasers go to turret slots like Miner I and IIs and proc and ret/skiff and mack get one utility high. Ammo holds for ALL barges and exhumers with increased amounts up to 1K m3 for crystals. Cargo stays the same and nothing else hold wise needs changes but the proc.


Regarding the tank fitting, then change the tank base EHP to align with that basic tank module layout.

Give each barge an onboard 10km survey scanner with covvie and hulks getting a range bonus equal to the range bonus of the laser range bonus. Everything else stays at 10kms as if your in fleet with boosts you already get a range bonus but if your solo your range is base 10kms anyway for ice and 15km for ore so it means youd have a trade off there at least. Add the survey scanner to the mining frigates as well.

You could give a slight buff to drone damage of the other barges too but its not horrible imo. Too much and its a bit bland. Its more a solo issue as as soon as you have 2 or 3 barges your good to go and more is overkill for even null spawns. If you buff the tanks of the T1s enough to what I said previously the dps isnt as much an issue except for some of the bigger lower true sec spawns even solo.

And thats just off the top of my head.

Both are overpowered in terms of tank and yield.


Active tank them. I did say give the hulk 7 lows and the cpu and powergrid to actually fit things.


No that just results in more imbalance. You don't fix an overpowered ship by buffing everything else to match it.

Yeah max yield ships should always have trouble tanking, even just rats.
Orbiting the ore/ice close and fast can cut incoming dps.
Last Procurer i nearly lost was to a Pilgrim that decloaked when the rest of the fleet docked, rats spawned and saved me.
Solo Procurer is tough and cheap, pretty good for solo miner.
Still, the Proc/Tank, Ret/Cargo, Cov/ Yield should be the template, power creep would be stupid.

why only 1 mid Slot? Make them fighting ships with the additional ability to mine. Why does a ratting ship (aka money making tool) have the ability to fight while the mining barges haven't? If you are tackeld you are dead.

On the likes of the hulk and mach the only thing you are likely to fit are a prop mod and a survey scanner. This would mean having to choose between the two.

The skiff and proc I would give a few mids, the drone damage bonus and the ability to tackle targets makes them perfect mining escorts.

Problem with the skiff is that its get a tank on par with a scorpion battleship with no tank fitted and mines only 6.1 units/sec less than the hulk (20 vs 26) plus gets actual fitting room unlike the other barges.