Originally by: Katier

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Edited by: Katier on 11/10/2007 21:17:44
Edited by: Katier on 11/10/2007 21:17:26
FWIW I wouldn't go the cruiser route at all.

All that cruiser training is a waste of time because your training skills which have nothing to do with mining.

Minmater can fly a mining barge in about 1 day.

The procurer whilst much maligned actually works fine down to 0.7. (Med shield extender then expanders in lows, single drone for defence).

The Retriever is actually harder to setup to tank as it's CPU sucks, you WILL need electronics skills to get anything out of it ( but that's true of cruisers used in mining too usually ) and it isn't as easy to passive tank as the Proc.. but it has much better mining capacity.

Takes around a week for the same noob Minmater - and all the training for it benefits mining except electronics and drone skills - I'd reccomend getting it so you can fly 3 drones, then load the barge with 2 meds and a small drone.

Net result is in around a week-10 days your flying a respectible mining barge that can just about mine in 0.6 space ( if you can get your electronics to passive tank it you can probably mine down ot 0.5 ).



Incedently this is the route I took on an alt character recently to give me a mining alt.

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Originally by: Katier

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Originally by: Acoco Osiris

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Hm. And mining FRIGATES can out-mine Procurers, and 7-turret battlecruisers/battleships can out-mine Retrievers? And with Drones V and a few levels of Drone Interfacing, you probably don't even need a tank to slap down 0.5 rats before they break your shields.

Short version: you mistake why we hate the Procurer and to some degree the Retriever (though the Retriever is a good short-training option for those who want to go semi-AFK). They have lower mining yields than many combat-type ships, and have low fitting room-a conventional shield tank means no room for a survey scanner, etc.

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all the quotes I've seen pointed to tank problems not mining yield problems and in fact a quick maths calculation makes me disagree with you.

Ignoring bonuses ( which will pretty much cancel each other out OR benefit the barge ) the following is true :-

3xXECL - 2.35/s
1xStrip 1 - 3/s

So NO frigate can outmine a Procurer and has no chance against a Retiever ( this is based on the above basic maths ) - I intend to work out a test in game but can't see how a mining frigate can outdo a barge, ESPECIALLY as most mining frigates ( all? ) used two lasers ( so nearer 1.5/s ).

Similarly a cruiser, which for the sake of training time is probably comparable to a Retriver would need to be able to equip about 8 lasers to match.

Plus if you've gone the barge route your likely to have better refining skills etc.

That said I accept that they are gimped vessels, however still IMO the best option. Just wish they had more CPU.

With 3 drones (or 5) a retriever could probably just about cope with 0.5 (especially if you can shoe-horn a med extender in). I run 2 mediums atm and can't cope.

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Originally by: Katier

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Oh and who in their right mind would use a 130million Isk ship for mining?

Plus the expense of the skills etc.

Waste of isk and a BIG hit on profits.

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Originally by: Katier

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Originally by: Acoco Osiris

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EDIT: And also, I am NOT seeing that mythical "secondary skill" needed for the Retriever other than Barges III. You need Science IV and Mining IV to train Astrogeology IV, and you also need Industry V to train for barges, and those are the only secondaries on the Retriever/Procurer.

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Procurer uses Astro III

Retriever uses Astro IV which at low skill points as at least a couple of days training.

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