this....


sell the rorqal back as fast as you can, its worthless for you

As accurate as the first two responses are (and they are, I'm afraid), I figure maybe I'll try to offer something vaguely constructive.

This is not going to end well.

Rorquals are designed to support mining operations in sov null and really only do two things: compress ore for easy transport and provide gang link bonuses. They do not fit weapons and they do not fit miners. They fit gang links and an industrial core. Possibly capital tractor beams as well, but in general they're never going to even be in a belt.

By design, they are more or less defenseless without support. Quite frankly, they usually hide at a POS providing links and compressing ore. If you've been caught in the open then the Rorqual is going down anyhow.

Why not high sec? Because one of the things they do (compress ore) isn't at all needed in high. The other thing they do (provide links) they do too well to do so without any risk whatsoever. Having Rorquals in high sec would make low ends utterly worthless, and there's nothing anyone could do to take one down. Suicide gank? Umm, no. Too much EHP. War dec? Forget it; they'd all be in NPC corps.

Anyhow. If you insist on talking down this trail of tears, at least do some reading on what capital ships can and can't do and the roles they play. The information is out there. I suggest you spend the next 80 (probably more if you haven't considered the industrial core yet) days getting familiar with it.

i could probably add some witty remark, but im guessing you wont find it useful.

the orca is not a mining ship, is a mining support ship for large mining ops, that are deep in friendly SoV space and can call in a fleet to help out if they get stealth bombers on them. they hardly if ever leave the confort of POS shields and their main task is to compress minerals.

sell it back ASAP.

I guess I'm confused as to what I should look at for mining ships then. I've been looking at capacity and high power slots.

You want a mining ship?

Easy. Train for a Hulk and a Mackinaw, T2 strip miners, and their various T2 crystals. That's it. End of story.

1) Why is the ship not allowed in high sec space? It's just a mining ship, and I shouldn't have to be forced out in the wilds where all the pirates are waiting to lunge at me. Can't they make it so you can get in if any fitted weapons are offline? Doesn't everyone have a right to protection? I might be missing something here.

2) How hard is it to find a good corporation? How does deep space fleet mining work?

3) Should I be planning to fit this thing with strip miners or weapons? Seems like I'm going to be quite the target.

But I want to join a corp with it.

What is the difference between an Exhumer and a Mining Barge? They are under different categories in the market. I'll buy a few of these ships.

Exhumers are the T2 variants of mining barges. Basically each Exhumer is better at everything in it's role than the T1 counterpart. They also take longer to train.

Edit: Desperately need a buff in typing skills *sigh*

-10/10

Why not high sec? Because one of the things they do (compress ore) isn't at all needed in high. The other thing they do (provide links) they do too well to do so without any risk whatsoever. Having Rorquals in high sec would make low ends utterly worthless, and there's nothing anyone could do to take one down. Suicide gank? Umm, no. Too much EHP. War dec? Forget it; they'd all be in NPC corps.

Send me 100 mil and I'll solve all your mining problems.