User:Antei thantonne
Mining Doctrine: Low-Sec Mining ("Procs on Rocks")
Mining vessels are vulnerable to combat ships, and so Unistas sometimes hesitate to mine in low-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 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 an Orca-boosted Shared-Can op. The purpose of this page is to propose a fleet doctrine that provides maximum safety, and even the potential for PvP response to AMC targeted miners in low sec.
The doctrine boils down to a few simple rules:
Unistas should mine in Procurers or Skiffs.
| Procurer | Retriever | Covetor | Skiff | Mackinaw | Hulk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relative Mining Efficiency* | 81% | 88% | 100% | 97% | 106% | 122% |
| Effective Hit Points** | 60,000 | 14,000 | 11,000 | 67,000 | 30,000 | 23,000 |
| Price (isk)*** | 16,000,000 | 26,500,000 | 30,000,000 | 124,000,000 | 179,000,000 | 217,000,000 |
| Base Time to Warp (s) | 13.9 | 18.3 | 24.7 | 13.9 | 18.3 | 24.7 |
Updated for Kronos.
∗Relative to the Covetor (100%) assuming max skills and optimal fittings for mining. Your results may vary.
∗∗EFT calculation, using Tech I modules and intermediate fitting skills. Again, your results may vary.
∗∗∗Jita/Amarr best price as of 3/29/2014.
As the table above shows, the Procurer has better tank and time-to-warp than other barges, at a lower hull replacement cost. Given a choice, pirates and gankers will ignore Procurers in favor of targeting Retrievers or Covetors. Procurers can fit a Damage Control unit in a low slot, and shield hardeners in mids, and still have enough room for a Survey Scanner and Mining Laser Upgrade to help with mining. For example:
Strip Miner I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Survey Scanner I
F85 Peripheral Damage System I
Mining Laser Upgrade I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Hornet EC-300 x3
Hobgoblin I x1
Salvage Drone I x1
- I have fit this with T1 modules; upgrade to T2 wherever possible.
- The Mining Laser Upgrade and Survey Scanner can be replaced with other agility, shield or cap mods. However, the Survey Scanner will increase your mining yield significantly by avoiding excess cycle time, and additional low-slot defensive mods won't help that much.
- EC-300 drones are included to break the target lock on the opponents' initial tackler; these drones can be assigned to the control of whichever Procurer is being tackled. (They cannot be assigned to an OOC miner; this will tag that miner suspect.) If you don't have the skills to fly ECM drones, replace these with Hobgoblins.
- If you think you might like to "trap" an aggressor while the rest of the fleet re-ships into PvP response vessels, you might replace one of the Invulnerability Field modules with a Warp Disruptor or Scrambler, or both modules for scram and web.
If you don't have a Procurer at the time of the op, ask the Fleet Commander—the FC might have extras, or you might be able to contract one from the AMC ship hangar. The only downside of the Procurer is its relatively low mining yield. The Skiff is even tankier than the Procurer, and gets mining yield bonuses that make it about as efficient as a Covetor. Even though the replacement cost looks prohibitive, it is extremely difficult for a solo or small group of pirates to take down a Skiff.
Miners should mine in motion, aligned to pre-made warp-out bookmarks.
If you mine from a stand-still, as you would in high-sec, you will be vulnerable to being scrammed and webbed by aggressors before you can warp away. On the other hand, if your ship is aligned towards a warp-out point, and moving at least 75% of its maximum speed, you can warp out immediately at the first sign of trouble (If that's what you want. Procurers also make great bait for aggressors—more on that later). This means that constructing alignment bookmarks is an important part of mining in low sec. For low-sec fleets that Clutter Fonulique and Antei Thantonne host, we will supply you with a container of asteroid-belt and/or ore-anomaly bookmarks at the beginning of the op. The bookmarks have a particular naming format, modeled after Agony Unleashed's format, that looks like this:
Examples:
=V-1= WI Left
Planet V, asteroid belt 1; warp-in point on the left side of the belt, with "left" defined from the perspective of being inside the belt curvature.
=V-1= WO Left Back @1000km
Warpout point, 1000 km past the left-side warp-in point. Miners aligned to this point can warp out immediately.
[IX PTS] DOCK Above
Insta-dock bookmark at the top of the Pator Tech School station orbiting planet IX.
[IX PTS] IWO @800km
Insta-warp-out (or insta-undock) bookmark for Pator Tech School station.
#HHJ-1# WI Sunward
Warp-in point on the sunward side of a Hedbergite-Hemorphite-Jaspet ore anomaly. We may set up multiple sets of warp-in/warp-out pairs; this bookmark belongs to pair #1.
SAFE P1 2AU
Un-aligned safe spot. Closest celestial is planet I, 2 AU away.
Clutter or Antei will give each miner a Container full of mining bookmarks, and probably a belt/warp-out assignment, at the beginning of the op. Miners will then warp to the appropriate warp-in point, and then always Align To one of the two opposing warp-out points. These points are set up to maximize the distance between miners and the warp-in beacon that aggressors will typically use to reach the belt.
Orca and Hauler support should be provided by out-of-corp characters
Orcas and haulers are the most expensive, slowest ships in the fleet. They typically shouldn't be flown by Unistas, to ensure their safety during high-sec travel. In low-sec ops, the Orca should be posted within the docking range of a station if possible, or within 1 km of a gate leading to a high-sec system. Station and gate guns will deter aggressors, and no one should be able to take down an Orca before it docks at station.
Miners should control only one character, and be prepared to do opponent research on the fly
Pilots in low and null-sec and in wormhole space need to learn a lot more about other pilots flying in their system than high-sec miners typically do.
Unistas should have combat ships —including tackle, EWAR, and/or damage-dealers— in system
Many of our wartime opponents specialize in high-sec PvP using gate and station mechanics, minimizing their risk by always being able to jump away or dock up. Having WTs aggress us in an asteroid belt represents a unique opportunity for us to kill them, without them being able to play gate and station games.
To do this, Unista fleet members will need to have a few different ships at their disposal:
Fast tackle
Two Unista fleet members should keep fast-tackling frigates in the Ship Maintenance Bay of the Orca, so that they can swap ships without docking in station.
