User talk:Stormymtn iii
Mobile Depot (MD) & Mobile Tractor Units (MTU) - essentials for your cargo hold!
Both of these are great for PVE missions when there is any possibility of ratting (NPC enemy ships.) On the Epic Arc (SOE) missions that have rat packs I have been hauling in 1-2 million isk just from salvage. The MTU pulls in all of the wrecks and containers within 125 km of it and will empty contents of cans and wrecks into its cargo bay. The mobile depot is relatively inexpensive, especially if you compare costs of repairing your own ship versus station repairs. The MTU can also salvage pulverized asteriods and blown up inhabitation modules. They are also great for PVP encounters - goodies get stuffed in your mobile depot and your MTU cleans up the battlefield while you focus on the fighting.
The MTU costs around 6mil in Solitude, 6.1 in Jita, 6.2-6.6 in most highsec regions but there are areas like Heimatar that are going for 15mil so consulting eve-central.com is highly recommended. It does take up 100 cubic meters of space in your cargo hold so ships with small holds will take some planning or prioritization on what to haul out on missions. As soon as I warp into the room or warp bubble I deploy the MTU and BOOKMARK it immediately. That way, as I am obliterating rats, the MTU is steadily tractor beaming them to it. Once the room or bubble is cleared of enemies, I can boogie over to it and do the remaining salvaging in one convienent location (within 2,500 m of the MTU). If you do not have the skills trained yet for salvage drones, you can use the Salvager I in a high power utility slot. For ships that do not have drone bays you will need to use either Salvager I or II (if you also have a mobile depot you could have several of them available.) You can have multiple MTUs with you for multi-room missions, deploy one per room so they are cleaning up behind you.
The mobile depot needs 50 cubic meters of cargo hold space, and deployed it can hold 3,000 cubic meters and can be deployed for up to 30 days! Restrictions for deployment: 250m from you, 6k from other mobile depots, 40km from control towers, and 50km from stargates and stations. One of the advertised uses for it, is to stuff valuables in it if you get targeted, but it takes one minute for it to deploy and be accessible so if you get jumped within the restricted areas you will have to dock, jump to or near a celesial or safe spot then deploy it and transfer your goodies to it there. The advantages and low cost (around 1-2 mil isk) of it make it a must have item in your hold. You can carry armor reppers, shield boosters and rechargers, various types and kinds of ammo or lenses, hull reppers, different turrets or missile launchers, salvagers or drones, and whatever valuable cargo you have with you.
If the room or bubble you are doing a mission in has less than 150km from entry point to action area then you have to slowboat back to your deployed depot which could be fatal if you can't outrun the rats to get to it. There are several ways to deal with that situation-here are a few quick and easy ones:
1. After you accept the mission and exit the station - warp to 100km of one of your or corporate bookmarks and deploy your mobile depot (BOOKMARK IT!!!) and put your stuff in it after the one minute deploy time finishes. Now you can warp to the jump gate or warp bubble for the mission. If you start taking too much damage, you can warp to 0 on your bookmarked depot and repair the damage then warp back to the mission. If the ammo, lens, charges, and/or drones are not being effective, pop out to your depot and swap them out. If you consult eve-survival.org prior to accepting the mission, you will know what flavor of rats you will be facing and can make adjustments in station.
2. Multi-room missions (jump gates to each one) - typically, you will find that you cannot warp from within one room to a location within a different room directly. Option 1 above works great in this situation too. Bookmark each jump gate (I put the room number in the description or title so I know which room to warp back to). All of the trade hubs and faction school stations have advertising depots or secure anchored cans sitting just outside the restricted deployment zone so you can jump near one of them and deploy your mobile depot there. An advantage of this area is that everyone is so used to seeing hordes of them sitting there no one will pay attention to yours. Just make sure you pick it back up within 30 days. Now you jump to the room and run your mission and have your depot accessible to you from every room.
3. Personally, I deploy the mobile depot and MTU next to each other. If the ship I am using at that moment doesn't have a drone bay, I will have 2-4 salvagers stuffed in the depot. Once the room or bubble is cleared I go to the depot and swap out high power slot mounts and salvage out the wrecks. If you forget to empty the cargo bays of the MTU and MD before scooping them to your cargo hold you will see a little puff of smoke and a container appear. Open the container and loot the goodies to your hold! The container then self-destructs. Adapt strategies to fit your preferences.
Cheers!
