User:Antei thantonne/Shared-Can Mining in Wormhole Space
Mining vessels are vulnerable to combat ships, and so AMC miners sometimes hesitate to mine in lower-security space. To be sure, mining barges and exhumers are slow to warp, have less capacitor than other ships, have little room for weapons, and spend most of their time at asteroid and ice belts that potential aggressors can directly warp to. But this doesn't mean that it's unsafe to mine! Unistas can mine productively under threat, especially in a boosted Shared-Can op. The purpose of this page is to provide a fleet doctrine that provides maximum safety to AMC miners mining in wormhole ore anomalies and shattered-wormhole ice belts.
The doctrine boils down to a few simple rules:
Unistas should mine in Procurers.
The Procurer has better tank and time-to-warp than other barges, at a lower hull replacement cost. By mining in a Procurer, you are sacrificing 20-40% of the yield that you would get from a Covetor or Exhumer. Nevertheless, for null-sec ores and ice that are worth many times the value of high-sec ore, WH mining can still be more profitable than high-sec mining.
Procurers can fit a Damage Control unit in a low slot, and shield hardeners in mids, and still have enough room for other mid-slot modules and an Ice Harvesting Upgrade or Mining Laser Upgrade to help with mining. For example:
Shattered WH Ice Miner
Ice Harvester I
Ice Harvester I
Medium Shield Extender I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Stasis Webifier I
Warp Disruptor I
Damage Control I
Ice Harvester Upgrade I
Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Warrior I x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
- I have fit this with T1, meta 0 modules and drones; upgrade to meta 3/4 or T2 wherever possible, except for the rigs.
- EC-300 drones are included to break the target lock on the opponents' initial tackler. If you don't have the skills to fly ECM drones, replace these with salvage and/or light combat drones.
WH Ore Miner
Strip Miner I
Strip Miner I
Medium Shield Extender I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Stasis Webifier I
Warp Disruptor I
Damage Control I
Mining Laser Upgrade I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Warrior I x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
- Again, upgrade to meta 3/4 or T2 wherever possible, except for the rigs, and please don't fit meta 1-4 Mining Laser Upgrades (too expensive!). Upgrading to Modulated Strip Miner II will require Arkonor or Bistot Processing III to mine null-sec ore; if you don't have one of those skills, stick with the Strip Miner I.
Some additional notes:
- If the wormhole exit closes, you could end up trapped in the hole. As a result, you will want to carry a Mobile Depot, a Core Probe Launcher I, and 8 Core Scanner Probe I's in your cargo hold, so that you can re-fit in space to scan for a new exit. It is extremely unlikely that you will need to do this, but better safe than sorry.
- These fits have offensive modules (warp disruptor, or "point", and web) in mid slots, for a couple of reasons. The Procurer receives substantial bonuses to drone damage, and that makes the Procurer an effective attacker against frigate and destroyer opponents, as long as you can hold them in place. The fleet booster will be fit with a shield boosting module that will enhance shield resistances; additional resistance mods would be subject to stacking penalties. The FC may ask some miners to replace their points with warp scramblers ("scrams") for tactical flexibility. One or two miners might also fit a Survey Scanner in a mid slot, but having too many of these in the fleet is a waste of offensive potential.
Miners should mine at pre-made bookmarks, supplied by the FC.
Wormhole ice belts are gigantic, often 400 km or more across. Because Procurers are slow, it will be easiest for them to mine where you want them if the FC makes some bookmarks in advance. Before the op, just warp to the belt, bookmark every ice rock that you want your fleet to mine, and then distribute these bookmarks in advance. The FC should also make a couple of bookmarks for the placement of Mobile Tractor Units that will collect everyone's cans to a few central locations. When I FC wormhole ops, I usually supply miners with a container of bookmarks at the beginning of the op, including bookmarks for the wormhole entry and exit, any alternative exits, a couple of safe spots (usually including the booster's safe), all of the ice locations, and the tractor locations.
Miners will jet-can ore, just as they do in a high-sec shared-can op, but cans will be immediately tractored. Cans are vulnerable to attack in WH space, so they need to be scooped quickly. As a result, miners shouldn't worry about naming your cans.
Mining boosts should be provided by an ordinary battlecruiser.
Although Orcas are great for boosting AMC mining fleets in high-sec, they are too large to fit into many wormholes without collapsing the hole, and they are too expensive to lose in the risky environment of W-space. Instead, mining boosts can be supplied by an ordinary battecruiser fitted with boosting Link Modules. For example, Antei's alt Paul flies primarily Amarr, and so he boosts with a Prophecy:
Paul's WH Booster
Mining Foreman Link - Laser Optimization II
Mining Foreman Link - Mining Laser Field Enhancement II
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing II
Medium 'Vehemence' Shockwave Charge
Core Probe Launcher I
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Cap Recharger II
Command Processor I
Command Processor I
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Co-Processor II
Co-Processor II
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Warrior II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Core Scanner Probe I x8
I've fit this with the two mining links, a shield resistance link, tanking modules, drones (partly just because the Prophecy is bonused for them), and a smartbomb to counter interdictor bubbles (which can be destroyed by smartbombs). But I'm definitely open to suggestions that don't require any more CPU for different things I might do with this.
Even though the booster is fitted for mining and shield ("siege") support, the boosting pilot will also provide agility and other defensive boosts to fleeted miners according to skill in Skirmish Warfare, Armored Warfare and Siege Warfare.
In our WH mining ops, I usually post the booster at an off-grid safe spot that's as deep as I can make it. I have the booster aligned to the exit hole, so I can warp him out at the first sign of trouble.
Hauler support should be provided by Miasmos pilots.
Hauling in wormhole ops can't be provided by a freighter, like we use in high-sec shared-cans; a freighter would just make too inviting a target for wormhole residents. So we use the Miasmos instead:
WH Cloak-MWD Hauler
Core Probe Launcher I
Improved Cloaking Device II
Upgraded EM Ward Amplifier I
Upgraded Thermic Dissipation Amplifier I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
50MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Type-D Restrained Nanofiber Structure
Mark I Compact Power Diagnostic System
'Stoic' Core Equalizer I
'Stoic' Core Equalizer I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Core Scanner Probe I x8
- The Miasmos has very low HP, and will spend time in space picking up cans. As a result, out of all the ships involved in wormhole mining, the Miasmos is probably most vulnerable. I have fit the ship very cheaply, with the expectation that it might get shot down while harvesting cans. I recommend against using Tech II modules in the Miasmos.
There are a number of ways to fit the Miasmos. In this fit, I've followed three guiding principles:
- The Miasmos should be quick to pilot if aggressed. Shield-tanked ships often have active shield mods in mid- and high-slots. But if you are engaged at a wormhole, you will have a lot to think about very quickly, and activating defensive modules might not be your first priority. So, I've chosen passive shield modules here. (They also conserve capacitor, but you may be dead before you run out of cap anyway.)
- The fit should minimize signature radius as much as possible. Shield-tanked Miasmos fits often include a Medium Shield Extender, but this comes with a sig radius penalty that will make you easier to lock. So I've avoided a shield extender here.
- The Miasmos should be able to cloak at a WH safe spot, and do the MWD-cloak trick in a pinch.
The size of the Miasmos' ore hold depends a lot on the pilot's skills; a pilot with Gallente Industrial V will haul 30% more per trip than a pilot with Gallente Industrial II. And each Miasmos trip weakens the wormhole. So, if you volunteer to haul in a wormhole mining op, expect the FC to ask about your skills.
It is our intent to use the Archive:AMC Buyback Spreadsheet to process reimbursement for ice mining ops.
